[Diabetes-talk] ScriptTalker, another discouraging development

Fri May 13 03:34:39 UTC 2011

Tamera:

When I lived alone, I paid a reader to come once or twice a week for an hour
or so and read mail, fill out documents etc. I had her read order numbers,
medication administration directions etc. Now that I am again married, I
have my sighted wife read that stuff. I also have an Optacon but unless
there's absolutely no one around, the sighted reader/amanuensis is the
faster way to go.

Perhaps the distinguishing factor is that I'm not hung up on information
being "personal"; I don't give a rat's posterior who knows what about my
prescriptions etc.; I have nothing to be ashamed of. But, in fact, were a
reader to disclose information I did not wish disclosed, I would immediately
fire him/her. I realize that reliance on readers is not in fashion anymore
but, frankly, it's still the most efficient way to go most of the time.

I'm not hung up on using an amanuensis to fill out my ballot, either. If we
start down the road of saying we can't trust readers, then we can't expect
to be able to be blind foreign service workers, blind lawyers or any number
of other professions that handle sensitive information in a sighted world.

Admittedly, one must be systematic about this sort of thing. But that's one
of the little annoyances of blindness.

Peace!

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
[mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Tamera
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2011 8:11 PM
To: Diabetes Talk for the Blind
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] ScriptTalker, another discouraging development

Mike,
 would you please share with us how you keep track of your prescriptions, 
the reorder number etc.?
 I do have a sighted husband but find I'd much prefer to take care of my own

meds myself.. reorder, reading  script, the pamphlet etc.
 I know certain readers do OK for pamphlets, but the roundness of script 
bottles makes it difficult to get a good read on that info.
 It would be great to know how you successfully do this?
 Thanks so much!
 Tamera

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Mike Freeman" <k7uij at panix.com>
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2011 6:26 PM
To: "'Diabetes Talk for the Blind'" <diabetes-talk at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [Diabetes-talk] ScriptTalker, another discouraging development

> Julie:
>
> I realize that many on this list will disagree with me. However, that 
> never
> stopped me, so ...
>
> I never quite fathomed why so many folks find this such a problem. In
> general, we, the blind, must learn to handle printed material in our daily
> lives. Why? Because the world is structured for the sighted. The sighted 
> use
> print. Therefore, in order to function satisfactorily in the real world, 
> we,
> the blind, must find a way to deal with print. This means finding a way to
> read documents such as our mail and legal documents that come our way. To 
> my
> way of thinking, this also means that we should find a way to get
> prescription information read to us and then find a way to mark the 
> bottles
> (as with your PenFriend) so that you can have the information at your
> fingertips.
>
> It doesn't surprise me that Envision America suddenly discovered that it 
> had
> to make money to survive and thus had to increase prices. I also don't 
> blame
> your pharmacist.
>
> There is this: if enough people find it impractical to return the 
> ScripTalk
> bottles, Envision America will not get many new orders and the product 
> will
> die no matter what.
>
> No one ever said blindness wasn't a nuisance.
>
> Mike Freeman
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org
> [mailto:diabetes-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Julie Kline
> Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2011 6:07 PM
> To: 'Diabetes Talk for the Blind'
> Subject: [Diabetes-talk] ScriptTalker, another discouraging development
>
> Good evening,
>
> I'd like to add my two cents to the topic of resolutions.  It's 
> discouraging
> that we have to deal with such a battle to get basic medical access taken
> care of.  There's a device that was being recommended by both consumer
> groups called the ScriptTalk prescription reader.  You had to use it at a
> participating pharmacy, but the nice thing about the machine was that you
> could read what was on your medication label independently and make sure 
> you
> were given the right medications at the right dosages.  There never was a
> local pharmacy in my area that participated in this program, but I did 
> find
> one here in New York state that did.  The arrangement worked out nicely 
> for
> a year or so and my medicines were mailed out.
>
> However, a couple of days ago, I learned that the company who makes the
> chips that the machine reads about tripled the costs for what pharmacies 
> pay
> to participate in this program.  My person I work with said that the 
> company
> chose to subsidize the machines for people who couldn't afford them, and 
> in
> doing the subsidy, the company decided to make up for the cost by charging
> the pharmacies more to participate in the program.  Now instead of 75 
> cents
> per chip, per bottle, the pharmacist now has to pay $3.75 per chip, per
> bottle.  My pharmacist talked to me about this and I was asked to ship my
> bottles back to him every few months so he could reuse the chips.  He said
> that was the only way he could afford to keep the program going, and even
> now he's considering dropping it.  In looking at this, I realized that I'd
> be paying a lot to ship the bottles back to him, not to mention the time
> involved in waiting for rides since there isn't a post office nor UPS 
> store
> on the way to anywhere for us.   I recognized I'd be spending more on
> shipping than my costs for what I'd pay at my local store (not to mention 
> my
> time), so now I'm forced to rely on a local pharmacy.  I have a pen friend
> system with the dots you can record information onto, but I just have to
> pray I'm given the right medicine in the right dose.  And I have to pray 
> too
> that the pharmacy will have the patience to read me that information month
> after month.  To tell the truth, it makes me nervous.  I have no way to
> check the bottles on my own now as we are both blind and have no available
> sighted assistance from friends or family.
>
> Not to bring anyone down, but I think if you are going to look at writing
> resolutions, this is another issue that really needs to be addressed.  At
> the least it's a discouraging development.  At most, for people who take
> high volumes of different medications, not knowing about dosages,
> interactions, or even mistaking which pill is what, could be life
> threatening.
>
> Julie
>
>
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