Dear AccessWorld Editor,
This message is in reference to Deborah Kendrick's August 2019 article, A Profile of Dr. Daniel Zingaro, Assistant Professor, University of Toronto.
Wow! This article blew my mind (Sorry for using 70s expressions!). I am one of that 30 percent—I paid a very high price for my success, but it was still very much worth the price.
I came from Cuba. Came to the US when I was 8 years old. I did not know a word of English, neither did my family. My parents never went to college and did not value an education. On top of that they could not deal with my blindness and encouraged me not to mention it publicly, including to my teachers. Talk about being raised to fail.
I think, however, that were it not for that immigrant experience, I never would have broken through with my blindness to make it into the IT professional world. This is because, as an immigrant, I witnessed my father, coming to this country penniless, persevering and not giving up until he established himself in the US. Three years after arriving in Minnesota penniless, he bought his family a house in the prosperous city of St. Louis Park.
I was the first in my family to graduate from college. When I started at the University of Minnesota, I had no idea what credits, a GPA, or prerequisites were. I learned all of that from fellow students. Were it not from watching my father persevere not give up, never would I have had the endurance needed to break through with my blindness.
At this point I am retired from programming, I've been to Europe more times than I can remember, and have a home with my lovely wife in Minnesota. I owe my father a big thanks, even though he could not deal with my blindness.
Thank you for writing the article. I hope it provides hope and determination to the 70 percent.
Mike Estomba
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
This message is in reference to Scott Davert’s June 2019 article, iHearit: a Review of MFi-Supported Hearing Aids From a VoiceOver User’s Perspective.
As a CI-user, encouraged by many promising articles about MFi and bimodal (CI one side, HA other side) I am now trying a GN Resound ENZO 3D 988. But I am very disappointed. The Resound Smart 3D app does not correctly work on iOS nor Android with VoiceOver/TalkBack and Resound support says they do not support VoiceOver/Talkback! Moreover the iOS > Accessibility > MFI Hearing Devices also does not work correctly for CI and HA (sliders and more). That is my poor experience with MFI and Resound.
Kind regards,
Chris Sauer
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
This message is in reference to Jamie Pauls' July 2019 article, The ActiView App from Empowered Entertainment Puts Audio Description In Your Pocket.
I read your article on the ActiView app and really enjoyed it. I also wrote a similar article for VisionAware some time ago and agree with your review. I wanted to share that I used the app in the movie theater when the movie Coco was out and I had a wonderful experience.
I waited until after the previews were over and synced the app with the movie right there in the theater. But then I realized that I selected the wrong audio description option. I quickly corrected myself and, like you said, I was able to adjust and not miss much in the movie. The app was able to sync with the movie immediately and keep going. I thought that was pretty amazing.
Ms. Empish Thomas
