[Blindtlk] Introduction.

[Mary Mc Gee]

Hello, Fellow Federationists!  

            I'm new to this net, so I want to introduce myself and ask any
of you who wish to do so, to either post a response or email me, as I'd like
to take my desire to correspond into the twenty-first century.  

            I practice law in Des Moines, Iowa and have done so since 1992,
when I became licensed.  Prior to that, I worked for an insurance company
because I had to work for the money to pay for the law school without taking
loans.  Before that, I trained at the Iowa Orientation Center when Kenneth
Jernigan was Director there.  

            It might be interesting to note that, when I was in Orientation,
we had no computers-we had IBM Selectric typewriters.  At the insurance
company, I used one of those MagCard machines to do policy administration.
The Kurzweil Reader was only an experiment then.

            I had the segregated education of the Iowa Braille School for
ten years, then finished public school with no accommodation whatsoever.  

            As you can tell, I'm fairly "old".  Consequently, I wrote a
narrative for the Iowa History of Blindness project, which the Department is
currently doing.  Isn't the N.F.B. working on something similar?  

            Believe it or not, I don't own a cell phone!  Can you believe
it?  I just don't see the economic feasibility of it, since we have to keep
phones turned off in court, etc.  I guess I figure, if someone wants to find
me, they can leave a message on my regular phone and I'll return the call.  

            Since I have some vision, I never learned Braille at the Braille
School.  Sounds strange, doesn't it?  Anyway, I learned it at the
Orientation Center, but let it go over the years.  This winter, I'm
relearning it so I can actually read it fast.  

            I'm currently Chair of the Access Advisory Board of the City of
Des Moines.  The Board's function is to advise the Mayor, City Council, and
the public with respect to accessibility matters in City programs and
facilities.  Right now, we're working with the Art Center and I.D.B. to post
a tactile map at the entrance to a sculpture park so that blind people will
be able to get a full perspective of the park when they visit it.  

            There's one aspect of the art park that I haven't really figured
out yet.  We're not supposed to touch the art.  The excuse is that the oil
in human skin will damage the finish.  What?  This doesn't make sense to me
because I can testify that the birds touch the art and they leave deposits
behind that you'd think would be more damaging than skin oil.  Go figure!  

            The assistive tech I use includes a Freedom Scientific Topaz
CCTV, ZoomText with Speech, and some kind of genius device that lets me use
the Topaz screen as a monitor for two computers.  Michael Barber and Curtis
Chong know everything there is to know about this tech stuff, believe me!

            I live only a few blocks from the I.D.B., so I walk there to
check out and return library books.  

            As I said, I'd be interested in hearing from any of you.

Sincerely,

Mary L. McGee, Attorney

mmcatitude at gmail.com

mlmcgee at q.com

 

 

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