[MD-Sligo] FW: [tech-vi Announce List] Various Items For Those Interested in Assistive Technology Nostalgia

[terrypowers59 at gmail.com]

From: tech-vi at groups.io <tech-vi at groups.io> On Behalf Of David Goldfield
Sent: Sunday, September 25, 2022 2:28 AM
To: Tech-VI Announcement List <tech-vi at groups.io>
Subject: [tech-vi Announce List] Various Items For Those Interested in
Assistive Technology Nostalgia

 

>From the Tech-VI list owner: 

I can honestly say that I've had exposure to some form of blindness
assistive technology since the 1970s with devices such as the Speech Plus
talking calculator from Telesensory, the Kurzweil Reading Machine (Model 2)
and the Optacon. Some of us have similar memories. I also acknowledge that
many subscribers to this list may have started learning about assistive
technology more recently. Whether you started out with a DOS computer with
an Echo speech synthesizer or with JAWS 2018 I think there is something to
be said for learning about the history of assistive technology. Learning
about the earlier devices gives me a greater appreciation for how we got to
where we are today.

In episode 199 of the Mosen at Large podcast
<https://mosen.org/episode-199-meet-the-hable-one-and-david-andrews-remember
s-the-early-days-of-assistive-computer-technology/>  Jonathan Mosen
interviews David Andrews. David talks  about his memories of the early days
of blindness assistive technology, such as bulletin board systems carrying
Fidonet echoes, early DOS and Windows screen readers, etc. This podcast Is
sure to bring back many memories for some of you. For others it will give
you quite an education about the history of the a.t. field.

During the podcast Jonathan mentioned his memories of the newsletters from
Raised Dot Computing, a company  which was known for their Braille
translation software. He said that he wished that the newsletters could be
archived. I remembered finding them online several years ago and I did some
searching to see if I could locate them for him. I found them and since some
of you may have an interest in perusing the archive I'll share the link with
you, as well.

https://www.duxburysystems.org/downloads/library/news/ 

These newsletters contain articles by as well as references to individuals
who are legends in this industry, with David Holladay and Caryn Navy
certainly deserving a place on that list. These newsletters will reveal so
much about the devices and software in use during those times.

Also, many will remember Ed Potter's Playback magazine. Issues of Playback
are available on the Internet Archive from this link.

https://archive.org/details/playbackmagazine?sort=-date
<https://archive.org/details/playbackmagazine?sort=-date&page=2> &page=2

It is important for these and other archives to be made available in order
to preserve the history of this technology as well as the companies and
individuals who were behind it.

 

David Goldfield,

Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist

 <https://www.freedomscientific.com/Training/Certification> 

NVDA Certified Expert <https://certification.nvaccess.org/> 

 

Subscribe to the Tech-VI announcement list to receive news, events and
information regarding the blindness assistive technology field.

Email: tech-vi+subscribe at groups.io <mailto:tech-vi+subscribe at groups.io> 

www.DavidGoldfield.org <http://www.DavidGoldfield.org> 

 

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