If this sounds like a rant or something like one I'm sorry

Posted by Wingman on 12/11/2011 at 11:12 PM

So my vi visited me one day and I asked about one of those OCR desk scanners like for example freedom scientific's the Sara because I just don't have a steady hand to take a photo that is clear enough for the zoom reader app and also it crashes if there is too much. Print on the page and trying to get a good photo during a test is very insufficient I finish last compared to someone reading it to me
My vi kept talking about those thinngs having trouble reading pages with a lot of pictures. Which even if they do have problems with pictures there's ways of getting around it I was asking for something that could read a worksheet just handed out in regular print
Then when they came back they said they will ask around and see what the school had and said they could put jaaws on the computer in the library and put some software on To transfer the info from the scanner to a word doc
Which is a lot more complicated then I had in mind.
I didn't give my full opinion to them but what I was thinking was that will do a lot of good Ill have to go out of my way just to get one freakin worksheet read aloud how the hek will that help I'd be no better off than I am now
And thats the g rated version
Any ideas on how I can improve my situation
Lindsay

There are currently 7 replies

Re:If this sounds like a rant or something like one I'm sorry

I had this same problem but it was to get a BrailleNote or a computer.

Re:If this sounds like a rant or something like one I'm sorry

I wish a braillenote was an option
Unfortunately my vi is set on not teaching me braille claiming I would never get fluent enough in it to use it
Luckily I'm taking Hadley class's and not listening to those notions
I've actually gotten quite fluent in grade 1 Braille my slate pal said its amazing how fast I've learned in such a short time i hope to be able to use a braillenote in college

Re:If this sounds like a rant or something like one I'm sorry

Why is your vi doing this to you. BTW, the Sara would be the perfect thing for you. You could have a place just for it. I have used it myself and could help you with it if you need it.

Re:If this sounds like a rant or something like one I'm sorry

What is the difference between Sara and Siri?

Re:If this sounds like a rant or something like one I'm sorry

With the Sara you place a paper or a book on it press scan and it will read it no matter the oriantation. So basically it's a text synthesizer it will also work with a Braille display and or a monitor

Siri is sort of a dictation software where based on what you tell it it will perform a task

Re: If this sounds like a rant or something like one I'm sorry

Wow, that's evil! Braille is important for any blind person. I think that your VI person thinggie thinks that braille is useless in this digital age. Braille displays are quite expensive, but there is research for low-cost, like $200 braille displays, but I wouldn't get my hopes up, cause most of this research is just left to rot, so I'm not sure anything will come of it. APH has a 1000-dollar braille display, called the refreshabraille. Handitech has a 900-dollar 12cell display, called the braille-pen, which I want quite badly, since I believe it has HID support which lets you plug in a dplay and it just works without having to install annoying drivers which don't work when the cpu account you're forced to use at school doesn't have admin privileges. anyways, I don't think many apps can do ocr quite well. I'd just ask the VI or the teacher to load the document of the worksheet onto a flashdrive or directly to your computer or something.

Re: If this sounds like a rant or something like one I'm sorry

Yeah that would be a good idea.