In this section, we publish letters submitted by AccessWorld readers on a range of topics. If you would like to submit a letter to the editor, you can do so by sending an email to the Editor, Aaron Preece, at apreece@afb.org, or by activating the "Comment on this article" link at the bottom of any article.
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Deborah Kendrick’s article, The Brailliant Bi 40X Braille Display from HumanWare, published in the July issue of Access World. I always enjoy the warm and personal way Ms. Kendrick writes her product reviews.
The Brailliant BI 20X and 40X products currently operate under the assumption that anything a person needs or wants to edit is going to be saved as a text file and thus, it should be readable by a person who is not necessarily a reader of braille. For those of us who have accumulated a large collection of braille files over the years, this can pose a problem. I myself have written notes using braille codes that are recognizable by me but nobody else. I did this because I wanted to shorten what I needed to enter, and I did not need or want other people other than me to be able to read what I wrote. If I took my collection of braille files and tried to edit some of them on the Brailliant BI 40X, the current version of the product will perform some form of translation against the changes I have made, and there is no guarantee that what I have written will read the same later when I open the file at a future date.
I have heard talk about a future version of the BI 20/40X firmware being updated with a BRF editor. I hope this is true and that HumanWare will release such an update soon. I also encourage HumanWare to provide an appendix or some other form of documentation for the geeks among us who would like to understand when and how the various braille translations take place.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on Deborah Kendrick’s most excellent article. My comments are a reflection of the Brailliant BI X firmware and not on Ms. Kendrick’s writing.☺
Sincerely yours,
Curtis Chong
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
This message is in reference to Bill Holton's July 2021 article, Vision Tech: New Research into Glaucoma.
What a fascinating article especially as glaucoma stole my residual vision and dramatically changed my life!
I still miss colors but try not to dwell on that lack. It is my understanding based on pronouncements by the blind powers that be that one is not supposed to regard blindness as more than a little nuisance, like having red hair or such. No big deal. I could wonder how many of them ever saw in the first place. I don’t begrudge them their echo-location, wish I had it actually, so don’t begrudge my wistfulness regarding beautiful colors.
It appears there are several avenues: Protrudin, citicoline, and astrocytes, that might be further explored and used separately or together to make a difference in the war on glaucoma. I wish all the researchers well. Bring it on.
