Tom's Views

Friends,

I have no trouble requesting assistance from sighted partners. Why not? If they want to be with me, that’s part of the arrangement of the relationship. I bring certain gifts to the table for them as well as needs to  have satisfied by them, just as they bring for me.

If someone claims to love me, then they’d better back up that claim, by helping me get around if they’re able.

I dated several sighted women who balked at this however. Not even when I pumped over $100 of gas per month into their cars, did they embrace driving a few extra miles for me. My particular needs in order to feel happy and fulfilled in a relationship, demand that ladies who drive demonstrate a special sensitivity to my special needs as a vision-impaired person. If they quibble, complain, or exploit this implied power imbalance between us (if they deny me transportation in other words), then I tell them to get lost.

I oppose this notion that the blind should avoid asking their mates for help. They ought to ask for   more   help (not less), and actually get more help than they do. Too bad society at large has grown so self-centered, that sighted people feel imposed upon when the blind ask for assistance, and it’s too bad that the blind have been intimidated into not asking, because of all the rejection they get when they do. Just think: If not for all that rejection, there might be no need for organizations like the NFB (National Federation for the Blind) or the ACB (American Council for the Blind).

Tom Hesley

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The current version of HumanWare’s  Victor Reader Stream   portable player is great. But it has a couple shortcomings that surprised me.

For one, its USB port behaves as, and transfers data as slowly as a USB1.1 port, even though USB 2.0 has been the standard since around 2002. Also, USB 2.0 is hot-pluggable. That is, when you connect a USB 2.0 device to your computer when that device is already switched on, the computer should automatically recognize the device and add it to its list of drives accessible to Windows Explorer. But the Victor Reader requires that you connect it when it’s turned off only, then turn it on afterwards. This needlessly complicate the procedure and could have been eliminated if the Stream designers would have built in a fully-compliant USB 2.0 port.

The Victor Reader Stream also lacks an internal clock, so that the 3gp files it creates when you record a note are assigned no timestamp; the Access Time, Creation Time, and Modification Time fields are left blank. This makes it hard to keep track of when a file was created; a real handy feature this would be when you’re using the Victor Reader to record classes or to make entries in an audio journal like I do.

Another curious thing about Victor Reader is that it requires a separate adapter for charging; it cannot charge from the USB port like iPods do.  Perhaps the charge current is too high for USB cables to handle. 

The Victor Reader Stream is quite the accessible device for anyone needing it. But it does need improvement. Hopefully, the next version will fix these port and clock problems.

Tom Hesley