[NFBMT] printer/scanner

[BRESLAUERS]

We have a room set up in our house like an office where we have a computer
desk with a computer, a phone, and a printer/scanner.  We had a reader once
in Great Falls but when she got married and moved away, we never found
another one.  It has been so helpful for us to have access to a
printer/scanner that we can use with OpenBook to read the mail on a daily
basis, and do our banking online.  I know everybody doesn't have this setup,
but it works well for us.  It keeps the paperwork down, lets us know what is
and isn't junk mail, and we can pay our bills or schedule them to be paid
when we want them to go out, and determine how much they get.  That way other
people and their schedules and editorial comments don't need to be involved.
Each of us knows exactly what we have at all times, since we keep a running
balance in Braille in a notebook.  We do this as a team.  I love it.  I
haven't had a lot of success with the KNFB reader yet, but that would be a
good option as well for scanning and reading the mail.  Our system works well
for us unless we receive something that is handwritten.  I know people who
keep an expense ledger in a Braille device or on a computer that can be read
with a Braille device.  I don't trust the computer any more since it has
crashed on me more than once and I can't afford to lose irreplaceable
information.  I also know people who keep notes in their Victor Stream or in
their head, or call the phone banking.  I don't go by the phone bank because
there are always things that haven't cleared yet.  You can't afford to make
mistakes and forget things, so it is hard to keep tabs on it if you only use
your memory.  Once, even though I was using the
write-it-down-in-a-Braille-notebook method, I forgot to deduct the mortgage
payment and wondered where all the extra money came from.  Oops, make that
twice.  I'd like to say I'll never do that again, but I think that's what I
said the first time.  I think it's really important for blind people to learn
home management and how to handle finances.  I would bet that most of us have
never had any training on it.  I didn't take any courses on it in school.  I
know my parents didn't give me much advice, but the advice they did give me I
fortunately heeded, and that was to write everything down in a notebook.
Maybe that was the only time I heeded their advice.  One thing about braille,
unless you have a fire or a flood, you're not likely to lose the information
like you would in a computer crash.

 

Joy Breslauer, President

National Federation of the Blind of Montana 

Web Site: http://www.nfbofmt.org <http://www.nfbofmt.org/> 

 

Live the life you want

 

The National Federation of the Blind is a community of members and friends
who believe in the hopes and dreams of the nation's blind. Every day we work
together to help blind people live the lives they want.