HI again Ardith,   
      
   On Wed 2011-Aug-24 23:52, Ardith Hinton (1:153/716) wrote to Richard Webb:   
      
   RW>  even if the daughter is reluctant the parents need to   
   RW>  push.  The rest of her life depends upon her developing   
   RW>  literacy tools,   
      
      
   AH>           That's my take on it....  :-)   
      
      
   My daughter is going through this right now, in fact I   
   thought about this conversation last week when she emailed   
   me, she's starting to cope with not having enough vision to   
   read anymore.  HEr uncle (mom's brother who is also blind)   
   got her set up with screen access using speech for her pc.   
   She'd thought she had braille down good enough, and did, for writing it, but   
   she used her eyes to read it.  NOw she's   
   having to adapt to that.   
      
      
   AH>           The more you can do for yourself, the less you're   
   AH> dependent on other people... who may or may not have a clue what's   
   AH> going on in your life... to do it for you.  You've captured my   
   AH> philosophy of education in a nutshell....  :-)    
      
   INdeed, I've often found my best teachers in life are those   
   who give  me tools I can use for myself.   
      
      
   RW>  YEs tools such as the handheld reader in a cell phone   
   RW>  developed by Ray Kurzweil and the NFB in partnership   
   RW>  are available,   
      
      
   AH>           All sorts of wonderful things are available nowadays...   
   AH> for a price! If you're under eighteen there are various charities   
   AH> who may help finance such things.  If you're no longer so cute &   
   AH> appealing you may find yourself on your own.  Either way, the   
   AH> ability to read Braille does give you more options.  :-)    
      
   INdeed it does, and keeping up with the technology does get   
   expensive.   
      
   RW>  but there's nothing like being able to use the blind   
   RW>  person's equivalent of a pencil to make notes or label   
   RW>  items that need labels, batteries not required!   
      
      
   AH>           Yes.  As I grow older I find myself developing more   
   AH> appreciation for what my ancestors did.  My parents were reducing,   
   AH> re-using, and recycling long before these terms were in fashion.    
   AH> I'm glad I acquired such down-home skills as making compost &   
   AH> cooking from scratch with minimal equipment.  And I'm glad things   
   AH> were built to last years ago because I don't enjoy shopping...   
   AH> unless I luck into situations where one person's trash may be   
   AH> another's treasure.  :-))    
      
   I'm much the same way.  We eat little that comes from a can   
   and none of the usual frozen dinner type things.  WE don't   
   garden as much as we should, I suppose we could occupy a bit of the backyard   
   here for gardening, but Kathy's not able   
   really, but I'm sure thinking about it if we're here next   
   spring.  I'm also thinking about finding a buddy that likes   
   to go deer hunting this fall, buying him a deer tag and   
   splitting the one he hunts for me with him.  I've got the   
   chest freezer, may as well put some meat in it this fall for us to eat .  I   
   don't have the tools to hunt myself   
   anymore, and no inclination to go tramping in the woods.   
      
   Since my braille embosser for the computer went down though   
   I've sure been suing that blind man's pencil a lot,   
   especially for things like these hurricanes where I need the current info   
   available for shifts on the air.  Getting my   
   braille shorthand down again, punching away while the   
   computer reads the data to me .   
      
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)