Phil.Scovell@f810.n104.z1.fidonet.org (Phil Scovell) (06/28/90)
Index Number: 8925
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
To those of you writing messages to Steve Gomes concerning his Braille
output device or answering his questions about Braille printers, Steve
will be out of town till at least Friday June 22. Blinktalk messages
are purged every seven days on my board and probably are about the same
on the other BlinkTalk BBS in Denver, so if you don't get any
answers from Steve, you might want to post them again later. Since
Steve won't be reading this, let me tell you a little more about him.
Steve is in his mid thirties and lives alone with George his guide dog.
He is a licensed massage therapist. Boy, none of those last two
words sound anything like what they should with my voice synthesizer,
haha. Steve is not only totally blind but seventy percent deaf as
well. He recently had an artificial ear implant which means his inner
ear was disabled and a special hearing aid was implanted. A small
metal plate was placed behind his ear under the skin and his external
hearing aid is placed there via a magnet. A small device looking much
like a walkman hangs from his belt and a wire runs up to the new
hearing aid. The artificially generated audio is electronically
transmitted to the small plate under the skin and sent down into his
ear. He had this operation done back in January and is just now
beginning to get used to the artificial sound. Although Steve has a
college degree and his real estate license, his massage practice is
about the only thing he feels he can do to make a living. His
business, or practice, has recently really begun to grow. This week
Colorado has a bike trip which thousands of people participate in by
riding their bicycles all over the state. Bicycling has gotten pretty
popular in Colorado in recent years. Steve has gone along on this trip
and will be setting up a portable massage table. Since hundreds of
people are involved in this sport, he should get lots of business from
it. He began using talking computers several years ago with an Apple
but now uses an XT with the echo synthesizer. Tandy Way flew all the
way out to Denver several years ago to help Steve get set up and Steve
owes a lot to Tandy for the help he has given him over the years.
Steve's hearing, however, isn't getting any better and because of the
possibility of total hearing loss some day, Steve recently got the
Braille output device. Recently Steve and I, along with my three kids
and some other sighted friends, went up in the mountains and camped out
for a couple of days at a lake. Steve is an excellent cook and his
grilled hambergers were wonderful. It is hard to imagine life without
good hearing. Steve couldn't hear the ducks quacking near us on the
water, he couldn't enjoy the morning birds which sang, nor the wind
blowing threw the tall Colorado pines all around us. I described all
the sounds to him but that's a poor substitute I guess. I trust you
won't think these comments too personal but I thought many would find
this information about how a totally blind and seventy percent deaf
person functions and makes a living. Again, if those of you don't get
answers to your messages to Steve, post them again. I know He would
like to hear from you.
Phil.
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