D Yuniskis wrote:

Michael A. Terrell wrote:
N_Cook wrote:
Michael A. Terrell wrote in message

Once again proving what an asshole you can be. I know a ham radio
operator who is completely blind. He can touch type and uses text to
speech software to use E-mail nd browse the web. Another ham taught him
to assemble a computer form scratch, and install the OS and application
software after his asshole boss made a comment about how F'ing useless
the blind ham was. The funny part was the blind ham assembled & set up
the computer faster that the friend's boss who owned the computer store.

I met him about 15 years ago when he had computer problems, and had
let Best Buy work on it since they were only a few miles away, and my
shop was over an hour away. They had installed two additional HD
controller cards along with the original, all set for the same base
address and IRQs. I pulled the new cards and found a minor problem,
then sent him on his way.

Its probably easier for blind contributors on Usenet than practically
anywhere else on the www because of all the bloated sites /frames / flash
mangling and obscuring whatever info is buried in there. Usenet having

Exactly. Note that there are some (voluntary) standards that
people can adopt to make "blind friendly" web pages, etc.
(e.g., "Bobby Approved"). However, it is painfully obvious that
most sites are geared towards the sighted.


I had a Bell's Palsy in my right eye in May of 2008. My left eye is
mostly for decoration, so I was almost blind for eight months, and could
only see what was visible out of the bottom left corner of my right eye,
and only when I could hold the lid open with my fingers. It was late
last year that I regained full control of that eye.

I write HTML in Wordpad to keep the pages compact and fast. I use the
bare minimum of code, both for the visually impaired, and those who have
to use older computers & browsers.


You will also discover -- should you ever try to use the
"disability features" in your Mac/PC -- how clumsy these
interfaces can be. Turn your monitor off and see just
how well *you* can adapt grin


Without text to voice and the ability to touch type, it's worthless.


started with test-only terminals and 400 baud or so modems.

Maybe 300 baud? (400 isn't a standard baud rate)

Are there stand alone DVMs with voiced output ?, pc scopes with descriptive
text ?

There are DVMs with a serial port.

Yes. But then you need a speech synthesizer that has a serial
port (DECTalk, DECTalk express, etc.). Or, nowadays, a speech
synthesizer running on your PC tethered to the DMM, etc.


Someone had written a simple 'serial to text' terminal program for
those type DVMs a few years ago.


I imagine there are electronic repairers with poor sight , but are there any
blind repairers?

I've known a couple who were legally blind. They could make out some

Note that there is a difference between "legally blind" and "blind".


I have been on the edge of legally blind all my life. I am not
allowed to drive without my glasses. My vision was below 20/200 &
20/400 when I entered the US Army in the '70s and has become worse over
the decades since.


Also, the cause of blindness and its relative onset in life play
a big factor. For example, those blind from birth adjust differently
than those losing their vision later in life from things like
diabetic retinopathy (e.g., learning Braille in your 60's may
just not be an option -- especially with the neurological
damage that accompanies a disease like diabetes).


I'm on Gabapentin for Diabetic Neuropathy.



things with special glasses, but they only worked with simple, tube

Decades ago, I worked on the Kurzweil Reading Machine (a device
that "reads books" to the visually impaired). At the time, it
was implemented with a minicomputer (i.e., the size of a
dishwasher) and a hand-built scanner (consumer scanners did
not exist back then). It was not uncommon for us to talk
a blind client through the process of disassembling the
minicomputer to the point where boards could be reseated
or swapped out. Nowadays, isn't that all *real* "factory
service personnel" do?? frown


Not at the factory. I troubleshot MC68340 based embedded controller
boards we built in house. I hand soldered 288 pin ICs under a stereo
microscope for several years. Then I was moved to our newest product, a
VME based telemetry receiver with several DSP & FIR filters per board.
You don't scrap new $8,000 boards if you can prevent it.


based equipment. Another tech I knew was handicapped. His arms were
severely twisted, and he couldn't hold his head upright. It leaned about
45 degrees to his right, so he would lean even further to his right to
repair tube radios & TVs. I wonder what happened to them? It's been
over 30 years since I've seen any of them.


Meat Plow is an angry little man with a huge chip on his shoulder.
He should stay on alt.usenet.kooks, where he came from.


--
Greed is the root of all eBay.