Nika here

Thanks ~SG~. That helped a lot already with some large pictures people have as signatures.

I was wondering how to disable smileys though because my screen reader doesn't recognize them. I think Hear Again mentioned something about getting : smiley : or : frown : instead of :) :( etc.
 
hi nika!

i responded to some of your posts in the "ad pet peeves" thread, but i thought i'd welcome you here as well.

i'm totally deafblind, but can hear with bilateral cochlear implants. i was born totally blind due to retinopathy of prematurity and was diagnosed with a mild hearing loss at age 3 although my former hearing aid audis think the loss may be congenital due to the fact that newborns weren't given hearing screenings during the late 60s/early 70s like they receive today.

when my loss reached the severe profound range, i started learning tactile sign (pidgin signed english, signed exact english and asl) and to my surprise, i didn't find it as difficult to learn as i thought. i did, however, struggle with the grammatical concepts of asl and still struggle to this day, but i'm working on it.

out of curiosity, what kind of computer equipment do you use? i use window-eyes, jaws, arkenstone reader and a braillenote 32 bt with gps.

again, welcome!

i look forward to reading more from you! <smile>
 
Nika said:
Thanks ~SG~. That helped a lot already with some large pictures people have as signatures.

I was wondering how to disable smileys though because my screen reader doesn't recognize them. I think Hear Again mentioned something about getting : smiley : or : frown : instead of :) :( etc.
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hi nika,

you can create smilies by writing words in brackets. for example, <confused> or <happy>. this is what i do for blind and deafblind members.

by the way, i responded to your question about how to disable smilies in the "ad pet peeves" thread just for your information.
 
Thanks for the warm welcomes Hear Again!

I use the screen reader that comes with Apple (VoiceOver). I don't have any expensive equipment yet because blindness round two is a recent thing for me. (I was sighted just this past summer.) By round 2 I mean because I was blind in the orphanage from malnutrition, then legally blind from better nutrition but medical neglect, and then sighted after surgery and intense vision therapy for a few years. And now I'm back to square one, haha. I don't really mind blindness. In a way it feels like coming back to home. Even when I was sighted I had a very hard time processing what I was seeing and responding to visual stimuli, etc.

I learned ASL during my sighted years. Picked it up in a year because I love languages. And Braille I picked up in a few days because at least to me it's very logical. The contractions are easy for me to remember, especially if I use them a lot.

I'm working on Tactile ASL now. It's pretty easy after regular ASL. It seems to me it's mostly about transferring non-manual information to the hands. Would you agree with that?

How useful is your hearing with CI's? Can you echolocate?

I can relate to your being compared to Helen Keller all the time. I'm a Jazz musician so I get the Ray Charles Comparison a lot.

Anyway, nice to meet you!
 
Nika said:
Thanks for the warm welcomes Hear Again!

I use the screen reader that comes with Apple (VoiceOver). I don't have any expensive equipment yet because blindness round two is a recent thing for me. (I was sighted just this past summer.) By round 2 I mean because I was blind in the orphanage from malnutrition, then legally blind from better nutrition but medical neglect, and then sighted after surgery and intense vision therapy for a few years. And now I'm back to square one, haha. I don't really mind blindness. In a way it feels like coming back to home. Even when I was sighted I had a very hard time processing what I was seeing and responding to visual stimuli, etc.

I learned ASL during my sighted years. Picked it up in a year because I love languages. And Braille I picked up in a few days because at least to me it's very logical. The contractions are easy for me to remember, especially if I use them a lot.

I'm working on Tactile ASL now. It's pretty easy after regular ASL. It seems to me it's mostly about transferring non-manual information to the hands. Would you agree with that?

How useful is your hearing with CI's? Can you echolocate?

I can relate to your being compared to Helen Keller all the time. I'm a Jazz musician so I get the Ray Charles Comparison a lot.

Anyway, nice to meet you!
Click to expand...

yes, i agree that tactile asl is about transferring visual information to the hands. one of the things i like about tactile sign is being able to easily substitute one sign for another when two signs are so closely identifiable tactually. signs can also be differentiated by using abbreviations which also makes communication so much easier.

as for my ci's, i'm able to hear quite well in quiet one-on-one environments, but have some difficulty hearing in background noise, from a distance or with people who have certain accents.

therefore, i still rely on many of the same communication methods i used pre-ci when background noise is an issue.

having said that, i'm *very* pleased with my ci's and couldn't be happier for the level of hearing they have given me.

i'm able to echolocate in environments that have high ceilings or strong echos, but not weak echos since i'm not able to hear them. (actually, i don't know if this has to do with the fact that i can't actually hear them or the fact that i haven't used echolocation is such a very long time. i've had severe-profound hearing loss for 10 years prior to receiving my ci's.) i hope to work with an o&m instructor at some point to improve my echolocation skills.

how about you? are you able to echolocate?
 
I thought echolocation was how everyone saw as a little kid. Then I realized most people use their eyes. I thought everyone was blind until my parents had me go Easter egg hunting and I couldn't find any eggs. <laugh> So I guess that pretty much answers the "am I able to echolocate" question.
 
Nika said:
I thought echolocation was how everyone saw as a little kid. Then I realized most people use their eyes. I thought everyone was blind until my parents had me go Easter egg hunting and I couldn't find any eggs. <laugh> So I guess that pretty much answers the "am I able to echolocate" question.
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LOL! i know what you mean about thinking everyone in the world is blind. i used to think the same thing until a classmate of mine in kindergarten placed his hands on the braille book i was reading and asked me what "all those little bumps" were. when i told my resource reacher about this, that's when she explained to me that sighted people read print while blind people read braille.
 
I am partly colorblind and that makes a few things extremely hard to follow at times. Especially if a perI son is by my eye that is colorblind, so I suppose you could call me deaf blind but I do see things still with that one good eye.

My eye dr explained that because my nerves were damaged in my ear and that because I have a disability; however, the nerve damage is also a bit in my right eye resulting in lighter/grayer colors. If I had to be color blind I would learn my colors via by shade differences. Oh well life is more than fundamentals mushed together.

due to the lighter/grayer colors, my dr says I am probably going to be color blind one day but she didnt say when and that kinda is a different thing for me.

Well enough said on my behalf and you know I know God will bless me no matter what he pitches at me. I am me and I am not the same as years ago. Heck since I joined AD I lost my hearing some and my nerves are going in my ear (yes I still have about 14/15% left).

:D
 
I can relate to the nerve thing. I actually have something with my nerves that makes my hearing too sensitive. Some frequencies and sound that exceeds a certain volume translates into physical pain down my neck and into my shoulders and arms. I've had it ever since my mom subjected me to electrotherapy. (Folks? Don't try it.)

Hahah I guess we're not just Deaf dating Blind...but Deaf-colorblind dating Blind-hypersensitive hearing. <laugh>

I love you!
 
Ahaha we would get the weirdest reactions. <grin> Thanks for introducing me to AD. I'm now officially an AD-addict.
 
Thanks everyone for all the warm welcomes. Must say it hasn't even been close to matched on any other sites I browse. <smile>
 
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