SPEECHES BY BAPIN

Computers Open Many Doors for Deaf-Blind People
By Anindya (Bapin) Bhattacharyya
Workshop at the 1996 American Association of the Deaf-Blind (ADB) Convention
Tulsa, Oklahoma


Computer as a Tool for Independence

* HOW WILL A COMPUTER CHANGE MY LIFE? *
K.C. Spear has just explained to you all about how computers can change our lives. Let me move on and stress the importance of using a computer on a daily basis.

TeleBrailles or large print TTY's became available not too long ago. Soon thereafter we wanted more access to communicate with the general public. Relay services then came into existence. This technology revolution has significantly opened a new future for deaf-blind people to communicate more easily and quickly with a world that was once inaccessible to them. We're now very happy to be approaching the new world of independence.

I know of a deaf-blind individual who takes a TeleBraille to his doctor appointments because an interpreter is not always available. The TeleBraille has what you call "face-to-face" mode which allows you to communicate with another party. This deaf-blind person said that the doctor loved communicating directly with him, and on one occasion, they both ended up talking for two hours! Another deaf-blind person that I know also uses his TeleBraille to communicate with waiters at restaurants and co-workers at his job.

If we had thought of the Helen Kellerian time, many of us would be stuck relying on our own support service providers (SSP's) from day to night every day. Apparently, nowadays we can't take this idea anymore. Therefore, many of us depend on the assistance of TeleBrailles to call to make airline or taxi reservations. This enables us to travel around more freely. Equally important, we all may need TeleBrailles to dial 911 one day to save our lives!

I'm sure that many of you have bought computers with refreshable braille (electronically raised braille characters) displays to replace typewriters. Before, you were frustrated at not being able to read the errors you made on a typewriter. Now you're able to check for yourself via a refreshable braille display to correct your mistakes. Of course, a computer doesn't just replace a typewriter, but it does open many doors for us to become independent. Now let's examine the many features a computer can offer to deaf-blind individuals.

* WHAT SITUATIONS AM I FACED WITH THAT REQUIRES A COMPUTER? *

Can you attend school/college and be able to read/write without the assistance of a computer?

I go to college now. How do I get my books? In the past, I had to find an agency that would braille my textbooks, and I always had to pray that the books would be returned to me in time my classes began. This procedure was often inefficient and frustrating. Since professors tend not to use textbooks in their entirety, it is a big waste of time and money to have the entire book transcribed. Many times, this kind of service is unreliable in that they can never guarantee to send books back to me in time.

What I do nowadays to save time and frustration is to register for classes two to three months in advance. People from the disability support services (DSS) at my university or I contact professors to request syllabuses. These syllabuses are turned over to work study students at DSS to start working on transcribing the books. They do not have to complete all books before classes begin, they transcribe what is needed during the first part of a semester. As the semester proceeds, they keep up with the syllabuses and get everything to me on time.

DSS has a computer with a braille printer and an optical scanner. The scanner acts like a Xerox photocopier where it copies print materials and convert them into electronic form on a computer. The work study students can save a lot of time and work by letting the scanner take over most of their work, instead of typing word for word. After the texts have been digitalized, they only have to edit them in areas where words are mingled or misspelled. They then save the books into files on a disk and pass it along to me. I then load the files into MegaDots on my computer to translate into grade II braille. Just in a few seconds, I'm reading my books via my old VersaBraille (soon to have an Alva braille display)! Several times, however, I have been lucky and was able to get books on disk directly from publishers.

Another big advantage about computers is that instead of using the old timer's carbon papers for class notes and bringing them to DSS and waiting one to three days to get them back in braille, I now use a laptop computer to bring to each class. I get my notes on the same day because I use my VersaBraille to access the laptop computer and read the notes! It's even easier to type/read notes and pass along a copy to the note taker than have the people at DSS struggle in reading and figuring out handwritten notes!

Can you easily get a prestigious job without any knowledge about computers?

It has become a trend for every company to require their employees to use computers. Technology has surely enabled many opportunities for deaf-blind people to have high ranking jobs. For example, I worked for Lotus Corp several years ago as an assistant manager. I worked on Lotus 1-2-3 database program, and without a refreshable braille display, I couldn't have had that job! Even at many jobs where they don't require the use of computers directly, we still use computers to write reports and for interoffice communication.

Dr. Jeff Bohrman, President of American Association of the Deaf-Blind (AADB), is the director of the Ohio Deaf-Blind Outreach Program. Although his job is not computer related, he relies heavily on his TeleBraille and a computer with refreshable braille display for communication with the general public and for writing reports/memos. Otherwise, he'd need an SSP with him all the time like Helen Keller did!

Can you easily find someone to read print materials to you?

You rely on a sighted person to do everything for you--reading mail, helping you fill out forms, and making sure whatever letter you typed didn't have too many errors. Suppose you were alone and got a feeling that you might have made many errors, you have no choice but to decide either to go ahead and send the letter or restart typing a new one hoping there would be no errors. With the assistance of a computer and optical scanner, you can scan a letter. For example, I go to my mailbox daily. If a letter is either typed or computer-printed, I place it on my scanner. In about a couple of minutes, I'm reading the letter on my VersaBraille's display!

I have to fill out many forms such as surveys, registrations to conferences (i.e. AADB). If a party gives me a form for me to fill out, I ask them to provide it on disk for me to complete it by using a word processor on my computer. Many times when I want to read manuals on merchandise, the companies most of the time are able to provide the manuals on disk. Otherwise, I have access to my scanner to read these materials.

Let's imagine how your house is filled with many volumes of braille Bible, Dictionary, and encyclopedia. You wonder how you're ever going to be able to carry these items on trips. The solution is simple: I have all of these items bought on a palm-sized disk and inserted into my laptop computer for me to carry on trips!

Benefits of Using a Computer

* HOW IS A COMPUTER IMPORTANT FOR ME? *

There may be many reasons to make you decide that having a computer is not your top priority. It may be because you haven't understood fully about how a computer can do many tasks and be your slave. Or perhaps you want a computer, but money is a problem. Money problems aren't new in our lives. Whatever will cost, it will become worth our efforts to get something we really want to have. Apparently, these issues are stopping you from making a move to the computer world.

I use various types of software (programs to operate a computer) I buy from stores and place them on the computer's internal storage disk known as a hard drive. I use programs such as WordPerfect, PC Files (to organize addresses and phone numbers), recipe organizer, money manager, and some text games. PC Files is designed to allow me to quickly search for an address or a phone number by telling the computer a person's last name. When I write a long document using WordPerfect, and if I change my mind about a word, I can ask the computer to find the word and replace with another word. Or I even can move sentences/paragraphs around which would be impossible with a typewriter where you have to see the document to type the changes on a new set of papers.

Let me give you some basic and affordable ways to help you get started into a computer world. If you're concerned about money and no funds were available, there are inexpensive options available to you.

Many states these days have begun TTY distribution programs in which phone companies or state agencies serving persons with disabilities provide free TTY's to deaf people as well as TeleBrailles to deaf-blind people. By taking advantage of this, you have a free TeleBraille, a big deal since it will save you six thousand dollars. The TeleBraille is not used only as a TTY; its Braille Box is used to access a computer's screen. Steps to make this work are given in the next section below.

Information about the Computer Technology
* HOW DO DIFFERENT REFRESHABLE BRAILLE DISPLAYS WORK?*
About All Refreshable Braille Displays

I should give you some basics about how a refreshable braille display is designed to work with a computer. Contrasted to a computer's 24-line by 80-column screen, most refreshable braille displays are designed to allow you to read the screen on one line display with 20 to 80 cells (a cell for every character), depending on what braille display you use. In order for you to navigate around the screen, you press four directional buttons on the braille display that is similar to the arrow keys on the computer.

Although refreshable braille displays can work so smoothly with a computer, there are some limitations. Computers originally were operated under a special environment called Disk Operating Systems (DOS) where all programs are designed in the character-by-character manner. This was very compatible with all refreshable braille displays to have the ease to translate what's on the screen onto the braille displays. However, many computers these days have or are being switched to graphic- or picture-based operating system called Windows. The refreshable braille displays aren't yet sophisticated enough to work with Windows. Many companies are working on developing software to allow refreshable braille displays to have the ability to translate the icons or pictures in Windows into text mode. Although a few such programs have been released and used, they don't guarantee full access to all Windows-based programs. There will always be significant improvements needed in the software to carry information from the Windows onto the refreshable braille displays.

My Experiment with TeleBraille as a Screen Access Display

There are these refreshable braille displays such as Alva, PowerBraille, and some others that range from 3,000 to 13,000 thousand dollars. However, in my case I have done an experiment to use my TeleBraille's Braille Box to access an IBM compatible computer's screen. Both the computer and the Braille Box can be linked up with a serial cable along with a program called Gateway loaded on the computer. At the time I got Gateway it was free of charge, which saved me 500 dollars.

Although you can disconnect the Braille Box from the Supercom (top part of the TeleBraille) and connect it directly to a computer with a serial cable, I'd like to give you some basic information as to how you can use the unit as a TeleBraille as well as a screen access display without the need to change cables.

This is from my personal technical experience. I have done it and got this setup working very successfully. I bought a switch box with three serial ports (one is for input/output and the other two for A/B toggles) and two additional serial cables. I Hooked up cable no. 1 to the back of the Braille Box and the input/output port of the switch box. Then I put the Supercom's cable to port A of the switch box. Finally, I hooked up cable no. 2 to the back of my computer and to port B of the switch box. At this point I was ready to use the A/B switch box to toggle between the unit as a TeleBraille and the unit as a screen access display! If you'd like step-by-step instructions on these technical procedures, my contact information is located at the bottom of this paper.

ALVA Braille Terminals by Humanware, Inc. (800-722-3393)

ALVA Braille Terminals (ABTs) are known for their ease-of-use, power and long-term reliability. There are four models, two portable and two desktop versions. The first two models have 23 and 43 braille cells while the other two have 45 and 85. On an Alva braille display you can press a small dot above any braille cell to move the computer's cursor to the desired location inside whatever you're reading. This is opposed to using arrows to move the cursor column by column or line by line to the desired location. This technology makes editing and reading very easy and effective.

ABTs also have the capacity to allow you to read a computer's screen in grade II braille on the braille display. When you have the computer turned on, everything on the screen goes letter-by-letter and therefore will appear that way on the braille display. For faster reading and to save time, you can press a key on the braille display and convert everything into grade II braille without changing anything on the computer's screen.

PowerBraille by Telesensory Systems, Inc. (800-227-8418)

The PowerBraille family has three different models with 40, 65, and 80 cell displays. Of course, the smaller display is cheaper but excellent for use with a laptop computer where portability is a prime consideration. While 80 cells usually match DOS line formats perfectly, Windows can go as far as 100 characters on a single line, a 65-cell display is most preferable. Since the sizes of the 65 and 80 models of PowerBraille are the same, a user who owns a 65-cell PowerBraille can easily upgrade to 80 cells.

Like Alva, PowerBraille also allows you to toggle between letter-by-letter mode and grade II braille on the braille display. It has the cursor locator technology like Alva to allow you to edit and read easily and quickly.

Braille Lite by Blazie Engineering (410-893-9333)

The Braille Lite family has two different models, one with 18 cells and the other with 40. The only difference about this system is that it has a built-in voice synthesizer for blind users. The Braille Lite is extremely flexible in that you can decide whether you want simultaneous speech and braille output, or you can elect to turn off one or the other at anytime.

I use my 18-cell Braille Lite when traveling, mainly for taking notes into its built-in word processor. It has calculator and clock which can be very handy. Its compact size makes it quite easy to carry it around. The best part is that its battery can run for a maximum of thirty hours and only requires two hours of recharging. However, from my personal experience, its ability to access a computer's screen is still unsatisfactory. Yet I believe that the software to connect the unit to a computer could potentially be improved and be on the same level as Alva and PowerBraille. Braille Lite is also being used as a TTY unit with the assistance of a TTY/modem.

* HOW DO I CHOOSE THE BEST COMPUTER SETUP? *

Based on all the information on refreshable braille displays given above, you are encouraged to go to the technology exhibit here at the convention and experiment with different braille products. The vendors are excellent source to help you decide which braille product best suits your needs. Besides, there are more future braille displays underway in development. The latest braille product that I've heard of is the 4-line/40-cell Piezo braille display. It has just been completed and is expected to go into market any time now. Obtaining and reading brochures about different refreshable braille products is always a good idea.

Since most of the braille products listed above requires IBM compatible computers, you can buy a very good personal computer at any local or retail store. There are many choices as to what kind of a computer you want. It is difficult for me to determine what kind of a computer you would need. In my case, I have an old 386 computer with 700 megabytes of hard drive and 8 megabytes of memory. Today you can get a faster computer (maybe 50 times faster than my 386 computer). The basic price for a good computer would be 1500 dollars.

It is always wise to do research and find all the specifications to meet your needs. Of course, the more knowledgeable you are, the more comfortable you will feel working with a computer. Either way, it is well worth the trouble and effort to learn what the computer world has to offer you. Technology is always changing so we need to be prepared for latest updates and determine what would be the most suitable system for us.

* WHERE DO I GET MORE INFORMATION? *

I have given you all the information on why a computer would be a very important and beneficial tool for your independence, and you're well on your way to learning more about the current computer technology. I have provided all the necessary information about different refreshable braille products to help you understand your options on inexpensive versus expensive products. The technology exhibit can be a valuable source as to keep you informed about what is out there in today's market.

For information about different refreshable braille displays, I have given you a phone number to each company before explaining their product earlier in this paper. Otherwise, you're encouraged to collect information directly from vendors you will be visiting this week.

For information from me, I can be reached at:
Mr. Anindya Bhattacharyya
bapin@bapin.info


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