Seeing Through Technology



My cousin Peter Tighe of Austin, Texas, demonstrates some of the technology tools which he uses to get on the same page as people who can see. Peter was my first friend in life, 55 years ago when my parents and I lived in his home in Sudbury, Mass., while our new home was being built next door. He has been blind ever since I've known him. A software program named JAWS enables him to navigate his computer programs without seeing the screen, and a talking GPS handheld enables him to walk his neighborhood with new confidence. We've had a great time catching up with each other this evening, at his home and at a classic Tex-Mex restaurant named Chuy's.

Here is a podcast of our tech talk, about 13 minutes long:

Wednesday, March 08, 2006


Newest Member of the iPod Generation



Our homeowners association has a terrific web site, but when I came onto the Board in December very few owners had registered a username there. This meant the building manager could not take advantage of e-mail for sending information to us quickly and cheaply, and she would spend a half a day stuffing envelopes. So I hit on the idea of giving a way an iPod Nano to anyone who signed up on the web site. This brought the number of usernames from about 30 to 71, including the winner of the iPod, Tseghe Foote.

In this podcast for The Barclay Show, Tseghe says her son would love to get his hands on the Nano, but she's going to keep it for herself and hopes to play classical music on it. She also offered thoughts on moving from Ethiopia to Denver, and some unsolicited (I promise!) kind words about my donation of the iPod for the drawing.

Here's the interview, about eight minutes long:


Tuesday, March 07, 2006


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