January 28 – Sight, Sound, Touch and Technology

It is nearly the end of January and I am finally getting around to fulfilling my New Year’s resolution of the past three years. Yes, I am in the process of upgrading both my computer program and my computer. I won’t even tell you just how ancient are the ones I am using now, but suffice to say that my current program no longer supports all that I want it to do. My computer is old, but it was really the audio program that I use that needed the upgrade.

So, for these last couple of weeks, Lyle and I have been browsing technology. We both agree that a computer with Windows 10 and with sufficient memory to support the latest JAWS 18.0 program is the first essential. That part was relatively easy and the staff in the local Tantec store was extremely helpful. Tony looked up all the stats on the store computer, explaining about gigabites, RAM and memory components. For those of you who might not know, JAWS is an audible screen reading program designed by Freedom Scientific for people who are unable to see print on the screen. Perhaps one day in the future, I might write more about this program which has been so helpful to me.

The surprising part in our computer search and investigation came when Lyle and I were looking at keyboards and monitors. Lyle was quite keen to get a new and larger monitor while I was keen to get a keyboard similar in style to the one I am currently using. I like the feel of slightly raised and separated keys. They are so much easier to locate by touch.   I think that it was interesting in that Lyle and I each looked at these items from different perspectives. As a sighted person, the size of the monitor was very significant for Lyle.  As a visually impaired person, I was far more sensitive to the feel of the keyboard. While I think that the larger monitor might be helpful in seeing some images, I know that I still won’t be able to see and read the print on the screen. After much discussion of these two items, we now have a keyboard that fits my specifications and a new and larger monitor is on order.

Because we haven’t upgraded in such a long time, I know that there will be a fairly steep learning curve ahead of me. However, the first learning curve will come for Lyle when he reads instructions and sets up my new devices. I will let you know how it all goes. Sight, sound and touch – we have come a long way since the days of the old Remington typewriter.