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. -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!104!810!Phil.Scovell Internet: Phil.Scovell@f810.n104.z1.fidonet.org