Adventures in Computer Training #2

Watch out world! It finally happened. My computer training has begun!!

It took three years to get to this point. I sat down in front of my new computer at the Cleveland Sight Center, ready and eager to begin. I touched my Focus 40 Blue braille display, as gently as a mother caresses her newborn baby's face. This is the device that makes text appear in braille

Oh... I love this braille display. Keep in mind that I'm used to a 32 cell display on my Braillenote. That means I can "see" 32 characters per line. My old Focus 80 was an absolute monster. I knew right away that it wouldn't work for me, but my original trainer made me keep it. The Focus 40 is sized just right.

We are starting slow, the way it should be. I learned a few navigation buttons on the braille display. Then we turned to the keyboard number pad. When turned on, it works like a calculator.

When off, the numbers become Jaws navigation keys. JAWS (Jobs Access With Speech) is the software that reads the screen and makes it accessible to people who are blind. Pressing those numbers with control gives you even more options for moving around a document.

I'm used to a telephone keypad. I'm having a hard time remember the number locations. It's been a long time since I used a calculator. But I did it. I moved around a sample Word document better than I ever did on my first computer.

I return tomorrow for my next session. I better do my homework now. I'm supposed to review the locations and commands for each number key.