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Approved-By:  Bill McGarry <wtm@SHELDEV.SHEL.ISC-BR.COM>
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Date:         Fri, 14 Aug 1992 16:04:22 EDT
Reply-To:     Bill McGarry <wtm@sheldev.shel.isc-br.com>
From:         Bill McGarry <wtm@sheldev.shel.isc-br.com>
Subject:      Handicap Digest # 2875
X-To:         LHCAP <l-hcap@VM1.NODAK.EDU>

                             THE HANDICAP DIGEST

                                 Issue # 2875

                          Thursday, August 13, 1992

Today's Topics:


                                ******

                           Blink Talk Digest # 686

                          Re: braille and spelling
                         Re: Slimware Window Bridge
                          Re: Braille N Speak Compl
                                   why bns
                             Accent Dictionary.
                          using readcom with speech
                                  Indexing
                                 JAWS Macros
                               Flipper and 486
                         Re: checkin out the colors


                                ******


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Subject: Re: braille and spelling
From: Gary.Petraccaro@f12.n2610.z1.fidonet.org (Gary Petraccaro)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:2610/12 - Post Road Inn, Greensburg PA


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

I can only think of one way around this braille problem: give
spelling tests in Grade 2, require answers in Grade 1.  As to your
larger point, though,I think I can address it.  People say I'm a
good braille user--I don't know myself as I've never gotten
reliable info on what a good braille reading rate might be.
Regardless of how well I read, however, I can't spell worth crap.
Ask my wife <grin>. Nothing made me look as good as a spelling
checker <grin>.

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Subject: Re: Slimware Window Bridge
From: Bill.Mcgarry@p0.f420.n141.z1.fidonet.org (Bill Mcgarry)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:141/420.0 - The Handicap News, Shelton CT


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

Hi David,

I talked to Synthavoice about a month ago to get some of their
demos to have on the BBS here.  When I asked about a demo of
the Window Bridge, I was told that there was no need for a demo
since blind people do not have Windows so why have a demo?

Great logic, huh?

Bill

--- Opus-CBCS 1.14
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Subject: Re: Braille N Speak Compl
From: Chuck.Hallenbeck@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Chuck Hallenbeck)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:129/89.0 - BlinkLink, Pittsburgh PA


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 KB> Just kidding you
 KB> about that braille printer. I'd say you might want to consider
 KB> the Juliet or BookMaker. I'm just a little worried that the dot
 KB> height adjustment won't be in the Juliet, but hope so.  I
 KB> should know a lot more about it when the manual comes out.
Hi, Keith.
Glad to know you are just kidding. The TED600 comes in at about $37,500
and I hear pretty bad things about it even at that price. Cindy and I
saw a demo of the Juliet today, and it does look interesting. It is
actually slower than the RB40 unless it is doing interpoint, and then it
matches it. The graphics are terrific. Our braille software used to
generate block letter shapes for a braille graphics mode so we could do
front covers of braille menus with the words "LUNCH" or "DINNER" for
everyone to read by sight and touch. We had a Perkie at the time which
had a graphics mode. Our V-TEK does not have a graphics mode, and Turbo
Braille grew up knowing only about the V-TEK. I may have to revive that
old feature once again. ... See ya. ... Chuck.

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Subject: why bns
From: Cindy.Hallenbeck@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (Cindy Hallenbeck)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:129/89.0 - BlinkLink, Pittsburgh PA


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

KB>  Quoting Chuck Hallenbeck to William Wilson 31 Jul 92 20:39:52

 CH>> Boy, that BNS is really being pushed to be something that it is not. I
 CH>> recently paid $1000 for a brand new notebook computer that weighs five
 CH>> pounds, has 640k, a 20M fixed disk, a 3.5 inch floppy, and runs DOS 5,
 CH>> the 4DOS shell, and I installed WordStar version 7 and a whole
 CH>> shipload of other neat stuff. How much do they want for the BNS 640
 CH>> nowadays that runs one external program?

 KB> Hello Chuck, I could be wrong, but I think it's about $1,300.00
 KB> or so.  Furthermore, Blazie wants $500.00 for an external 3.5
 KB> floppy drive.  Oh well, what can I say.  You know Chuck, I've
 KB> said on this echo before, and I'll say it again.  It isn't all
  KB>  for the price of that bNS, and taking in to account
 KB> how little it can actually do along with the notebooks out
 KB> there such as yours, why in the world does everyone and his
 KB> brother, and sister, for that matter, seem to have one?
Hi, Keith,

I know when I bought my BNS, it seemed to be the only thing of its kind
that was somewhat affordable and easy to haul around.  Besides, we
wanted to be able to support it with Provox (from Chuck's point of view)
but I mainly use it and I bought the upgrade because I could get it
cheaper (not the latest one, must check into that).  However, I am using
this little notebook that Chuck mentioned, and I can't for the life of
me see why it is necessary to continue to try to push that BNS to be
more than a notetaker when the regular computer market has such good
prices.  The only disadvantage to the little computer is a short battery
life and the need (in the case of this one anyway) to use an external
speaker, but it can do all of what my big computer can do for less
money.  I am sold!

Cindy Hallenbeck

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Subject: Accent Dictionary.
From: Steve.Richards@f101.n277.z1.fidonet.org (Steve Richards)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:277/101 - House Of Pancakes, Morgantown WV


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

In a message 07-30-92 (23:45) From: DAVID TANNER To: STEVE RICHARDS
DT>        I have had a little of time to work with the dictionary compiling th
DT>Normal file and sending it to my Accent SA.  Now that I read this message I
DT>see why things didn't work just right.  Is there any way to get a half way
DT>good size dictionary into the Accent S A?
DT>        D. T.

Unfortunately, no.  About 500 listings, depending on the length of the
words, is about what you can squeeze in.  Oops, I used "about" twice, I
see.  Well, it's been a long day.  The problem is that the Accent PC and
the SA, which is a PC in a stand-alone box, use an EPROM for the
dictionary memory, and the only way to get more space is to replace the
EPROM.  The 1200 and Mini allocate a block of RAM for it, and though one
loses a bit of computer memory they can hold larger dictionaries.  I'd
guess they could accommodate 2500 to 3000 listings when set to 32K.  I
once asked Wallace, Accent's creator, if he couldn't expand the PC and
SA's dictionaries by providing an EPROM with greater capacity.  He said
he could but didn't think he would.  According to him few people showed
an interest in the dictionary.  My estimate was a bit high, on
reflection.  Maybe 2400, but that's still a lot better than 500.  The
best I can suggest is this:  If you've got the stamina or interest, you
can make a couple different dictionaries for different applications and
download them as needed, preferably using a batch file to keep from
typing in the command every time.  Accent's message, "Custom dictionary
download completed" can be disabled, getting rid of that annoyance.
Some screen readers can perform this disabling function, but if yours
doesn't the "D" option from Accset's options menu will do so.  The
little auto-load program I've included with Accset can tailor Accent
from within a batch file, so if you create an Accset config file with,
say, the dictionary download message disabled you can put a command to
call the auto-load program in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and forget it.
Alas, that doesn't solve the problem of a small dictionary size, but
it's a little something.  Remember, though, that correcting a verb will
often correct its derivatives, so that does help conserve space.  Then
again, sometimes fixing a verb like wag will mess up a word like wager
or waging, which is a pain!  There are listings in NORMAL.ASC for that
very reason.  Well, if I can be of assistance in any way just give a
holler.
Steve R.

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Subject: using readcom with speech
From: Steve.Matzura@f203.n2603.z1.fidonet.org (Steve Matzura)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:2603/203 - The Shop Mail Only, Flushing NY


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 > What's wrong with htype.  It can be made from the command line to go
 > through the bios.  It works great, at least the latest upgrade does.

A-hah!  "at least the latest upgrade" tells it all.  LIST Has been
able to go through the BIOS for years!  And you can do
cut-and-pastes with LIST to external files that do not affect the
contents of the file being read, and it's got a hex mode, and it
color-highlights found text and can find forward and backward and
can be case-sensitive or -insensitive, and ... and ... I could go
on ...

 > It even has a bookmark so you can go back to where you left off from.

Now there is where LIST falls to the ground.  If it has such a
thing, I know about it not.

 Bad weather forecasts are more often right than good ones.

... Via FrontDoor 2.02/NC

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Subject: Indexing
From: Jeff.Belina@p91.f20.n3603.z1.fidonet.org (Jeff Belina)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:3603/20.91 - Mercury Opus NEC360, St Petersburg FL


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

Once upon a midnight weary...

28 Jul 92 23:21, David Tanner wrote to Gary Petraccaro:

 DT> you heard when you shut up the speech.  At present all the Accent
 DT> synthesizers include indexing, Dectalk Multivoice has indexing, Audaptor,
 DT> and the new Echo also have the feature.  So far as I know they are the

David, I thought you might be interested in the following, it is
accurate to my knowledge.  The Echo support of indexing is pretty
limited with the size of their buffer.  JAWS 2.2 doesn't yet
support indexing on the new Echo, but I'm sure that will change
before long. The JAWS for the Dectalk PC supports indexing.  Also,
we are working on indexing for the Braille 'N Speak, which I
believe is a new feature from Blaize.

Bfn,
Jeff Belina
Technical Support and Sysop of the Henter-Joyce Support BBS (1:3603/5297)
Henter-Joyce, Inc.

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Subject: JAWS Macros
From: Jeff.Belina@p91.f20.n3603.z1.fidonet.org (Jeff Belina)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:3603/20.91 - Mercury Opus NEC360, St Petersburg FL


Once upon a midnight weary...

31 Jul 92 22:37, Tandy Way wrote to Keith Bucher:

 TW> I am just about to buy jaws but I have some problems to work out
 TW> using  macros first.

JAWS comes with a beginning macro tape as part of the package, the
macros are actually pretty straight forward once you realize that
they are mostly just a replication of what you would do step by
step if you were doing the process by hand.  Also, there is a new
set of Macro tapes available in addition to the advanced macro
tapes, these new tapes are a comprehensive macro training session
including how to integrate frames with macros.

Good Luck,
Jeff Belina
Technical Support and Sysop of the Henter-Joyce Support BBS (1:3603/5297)
Henter-Joyce, Inc.

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Subject: Flipper and 486
From: Tandy.Way@f6.n377.z1.fidonet.org (Tandy Way)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:377/6 - T.A.B.B., Tampa Fl


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

thought you guys/gals might like to know that flipper 306 on my 486
will not change pitch with capitalization like it does on my 386. I
had to turn the "say caps" in spell mode on to tell the
difference.  I hope this is the worst problem I run in to. also I
had the double speaking problem when I used dos 5.0 ansi.sys and so
I dropped it out of the line completely but must dig out my 3.3 ms
dos disk and try the ansi.sys from there to see if the problem is
cured. boy I love this color screen all those pretty blues and
greens ect. (grin_ Tandy

... Does a radioactive cat have 18 half lives?
=== Via Silver Xpress V3.00B09

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Subject: Re: checkin out the colors
From: Chris.Bazzie@f101.n277.z1.fidonet.org (Chris Bazzie)
Organization: FidoNet node 1:277/101 - House Of Pancakes, Morgantown WV


[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

BK> You see, I knew you'd find something interesting to say on the

I couldn't help myself....(insert innocent expression here)

BK> subject.  Speaking of which, I was talking with a total the other day
BK> who has done Psychedelics and specifically asked him about the
BK> colors, and he told me that he didn't see any.  Ah, too bad.

Hmmmmm, that raises an interesting question, how does a perception
altering drug affect a blind persons perception?  It seems
(although I've never tried any of the hippy drugs myself) that most
people experience visual changes...would a blind person experience
auditory or tactile changes?

 Hmmmmm.

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                                ******

                  End of Issue # 2875 of the Handicap Digest

                                ******
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