> Barbara McNay wrote to James Bradley, "'Nother One" on
 > 07-02-05 17:14

 >>>  BM> There is a man who participated in ABLED before, who is
 >>>  BM> interested in doing so again, if he can figure out how.  He
 >>>  BM> is blind, has a screen reader, and infrequent help from a
 >>>  BM> knowledgeable sighted person.  I believe he has had to get
 >>>  BM> a new computer since ABLED's heyday, so he will likely have
 >>>  BM> to set up all over again.  He does have email.  Does
 >>>  BM> anybody have any ideas?

 >>> Gee... We had a blind diabetic participate locally,
 >>> but that too was
 >>> in fido's hay-day. If you turn up nothing, I *might*
 >>> be able to dig up
 >>> his number. (Talked over the phone twice.)

 >>  BM> Yes.  I believe we're talking about the same person.  He
 >>  BM> has moved to different digs, but his phone number is the
 >>  BM> same. May I give him your name and number? Email address?

 >> Somehow, I doubt it is the same guy. But stranger
 >> things have > happened.

 >> If you have "NETMAIL", or "MATRIX" access, we can

 >  BM> I have netmail, all right, and I received yours.  However,
 >  BM> I can't seem to route netmail out.

 > I think we can get all the expertise out here anyway.
 > You know, one
 > post to a local sysop, and he'll have to start feeding
 > the guy/gal
 > until he is wired up, right? Even if your fella does
 > log in via I-Net,
 > as long as there's a wealth of knowledge locally, that
 > will save us
 > oodles of typing time.

I'm sure it will, as I'm at least a couple of thousand miles away, I'd guess.

 >> posted your quest on an echo called BLUEWAVE for more
 >> voice synthesizer. My sysop *just* wired up an
 >> emailnetmail 'gateway' so I should have e-mail access there.

 >>> QUESTIONS:

 >>> I-net access or dial-up?
 >>> Voice playback, or Braille?


 >>> Mr. Brown, with a script and a modem, would call a
 >>> BBS, and used an
 >>> OLMR called Blue Wave, which allows any page of text
 >>> to be
 >>> synthesized into a robotic voice. (Male or Female!) It
 >>> was a tack-on program he used, and I KNOW I have a copy

 >>> He said it worked GREAT, and rarely mispronounced

 >>> If we know what kind of equipment he has, and where

 >>  BM> I've no idea what he has, except he does have I-net access.

 >> That will likely be the route to go. I would like to
 >> go further
 >> outside this echo though. I have never run TELNET
 >> other than locally,
 >> so unless you have experience there, we should maybe
 >> spill over to - I
 >> don't know - TECH, or ELECTRONICS?

 >>  BM> Let me know, or if you find his number, give him a call
 >>  BM> yourself.  I don't want to give out his info here, as I


 >>  BM> mail to bmcnay{at}bigfoot.com, and I will forward it.

 > I will try to contact you there from this board. It
 > might skip my mind
 > though, and it's pretty convoluted for me to use it,
 > but it'll give us
 > a direct route to communications.

You made it!

 >> LORD no! Why do you think my guy is called Mr. Brown?


 >  BM> Did, as I said.  I'll do some more looking and
 >  BM> experimenting to see why Irex won't pick it up.

 > Like I say, if we can find someone that is about to
 > run an errand in
 > his neighbourhood, we're done. If we can get the our
 > two guys to talk
 > together, we're done. Even if we forward this to
 > another echo we are
 > expanding our expertise.

 > He has little else to do, than what we are doing now,
 > plus his
 > input/output methods. He'll login, or point. I-net or
 > dialup. IExporer
 > (Don't ask me!) or text reader.... We have more
 > questions than we have
 > experts at this time, but this should give us a good
 > start.

 > I would have to cold call eleven numbers here to
 > contact
 > Mr. Brown, (His name is *actually* Brown!) should he
 > still be with us,
 > AND posted in the book. If your assistant can start
 > talking with us

Uhhh ... "my assistant"?

 > here, or in TECH, we've shortened the root immensely.
 > Can you get to
 > him, to set up 'his and her' accounts?

 > I'll just bet you can set up accounts for them
 > remotely, right? Just
 > inform them of their login names, and a generic simple
 > password,
 > streamline his input/output, and we're done. 

Ah, OK, doesn't your tongue hurt when you talk while it's stuck there in your cheek?

 > So, I can see a sysop near him being the best possible
 > route.
 > Next, if your guy, and my guy talk on-on-one.
 > If your guys' assistant can work a BBS in his area, or
 > one that
 > operates in I-net, we can start typing to her
 > directly.

 > Any other ideas?

No, local to him, and knowledgeable, seems to be most practical.

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