This is the fourth in a series of articles on the history of blindness assistive technology, as gathered from interviews with 25 of the giants who created that history. In the first and second articles (in the July and September 2006 issues of AccessWorld), I described the project and summarized the interviews. In the third article (in the November 2006 issue of AccessWorld), I began a tour of the history of modern blindness assistive technologies and included selected commentaries from the legends and pioneers whom I interviewed.
This is the third in a series of articles on the history of blindness assistive technology, gathered from interviews with 25 of the giants who created that history. In Parts 1 and 2 (in the July and September 2006 issues of AccessWorld), I described the conceptualization of the project, the methods I used to select the interviewees, and the nature of the oral history process. I then summarized the interviews that I had conducted for this project.
In Part 1 of this series, I described how, while listening to a luncheon speech by Harvey Lauer, I was inspired to conduct an oral history project to capture the memories of the giants in the blindness assistive technology field upon whose shoulders we stand today.
In August 2001, I attended "2001: A Technology Odyssey," a conference co-hosted by the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER) and the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). The conference was devoted to instructing professionals who work with people who are blind or have low vision to use the assistive technology they will eventually teach their students. Little did I know that the banquet luncheon would be professionally altering for me.