Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Optacon, model preference (self.Blind)
submitted by ifyoulovesatan
Hello,
I have a student that is getting an Optacon for use in a upperclassmen college chemistry lab setting. The person actually procuring the device said there are multiple models / options, although they are all of course used because the device is no longer manufactured. Anyway, my friend asked me if I was aware of any differences between the models and I am not finding much information out there. I offered to ask on reddit on their behalf and they took me up on that so here I am.
Does anyone here have experience with an Optacon and if so, do you have a preference for a specific model or reason to believe that one particular model will be more useful than another in this setting? Note that there are roughly 2 years worth of labs they will be going through, so there will be time to learn the device as we go through the terms.
Thanks in advance.
I have a student that is getting an Optacon for use in a upperclassmen college chemistry lab setting. The person actually procuring the device said there are multiple models / options, although they are all of course used because the device is no longer manufactured. Anyway, my friend asked me if I was aware of any differences between the models and I am not finding much information out there. I offered to ask on reddit on their behalf and they took me up on that so here I am.
Does anyone here have experience with an Optacon and if so, do you have a preference for a specific model or reason to believe that one particular model will be more useful than another in this setting? Note that there are roughly 2 years worth of labs they will be going through, so there will be time to learn the device as we go through the terms.
Thanks in advance.
KillerLag 1 points 1y ago
That is definitely an older device... from what I read, there were two main models. The first version came out in the 1971, which received a few upgrades before the newer (Optacon II) came out around 1985. But because of the lower resolution of the Optacon II, it wasn't as popular.
Out of curiosity, is there a specific reason he wants to use that device? With the device being discontinued in 1996, that would mean the newest device would still be almost 25 years old. That greatly increases the chance of the device breaking down, especially without replacement parts (although I have come across clients who still use tape records that are older than I am).
Out of curiosity, is there a specific reason he wants to use that device? With the device being discontinued in 1996, that would mean the newest device would still be almost 25 years old. That greatly increases the chance of the device breaking down, especially without replacement parts (although I have come across clients who still use tape records that are older than I am).
ifyoulovesatan [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Thanks for the input! He said he'd heard about it from an older friend who swore by it. I think what it offers in lab is the ability to read the printed outputs from various machines without the turnaround time from our schools disability access services department.
Basically a lot of experiments involve doing something, taking a reading on a device which prints a graph, and then proceeding with the experiment in a manner that depends on that graph. So the optacon is basically going to be used to read graphs in real time.
The other benefit would be reading images from displays on some of these devices. They oftentimes don't even have any way to print because the machine is old and not hooked up to our systems. We have a *lot* of antiquated equipment in our teaching labs. In fact many that do print just print onto that old type of paper that has the holes along the side, and so scanning and reprinting as a tactile graphic is pretty time consuming.
Another would be that organic chemistry in particular is very drawing heavy. If you ask a question of an instructor or teaching assistant, their answer will usually involve several drawings. And while we have a tactipad, and I have grown used to drawing on it and or using other tactile graphic devices / schemes, not all of the instructors or TAs are. So this way they can just draw on paper instead. He's had classroom assistants that just couldn't quite get the hang of the scale that things needs to be drawn at and other issues.
Some of this could be solved if we had a pictures in a flash printer or similar device, and I'm trying to petition the school to buy us one, but I'm just a TA so I don't pull a lot of weight I guess. In the mean time we think this optacon will be pretty useful. I know I'm forgetting some of the reasons why it would be useful. We cowrote a fairly detailed petition to the local comission for the blind to get it anyway.
As for the maintenance, yeah that could be an issue. But I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. It seems worth the risk at present time anyway. My hope is that by the end of my PhD program and his bachelor's, that the lab is much more prepared for blind students, and that an optacon would be superfluous. Until then...
Anyway thanks again. It sounds like we maybe want to find an Optacon 1, but it depends on how big the resolution difference is. That gives me a good start on he may want to research.
Basically a lot of experiments involve doing something, taking a reading on a device which prints a graph, and then proceeding with the experiment in a manner that depends on that graph. So the optacon is basically going to be used to read graphs in real time.
The other benefit would be reading images from displays on some of these devices. They oftentimes don't even have any way to print because the machine is old and not hooked up to our systems. We have a *lot* of antiquated equipment in our teaching labs. In fact many that do print just print onto that old type of paper that has the holes along the side, and so scanning and reprinting as a tactile graphic is pretty time consuming.
Another would be that organic chemistry in particular is very drawing heavy. If you ask a question of an instructor or teaching assistant, their answer will usually involve several drawings. And while we have a tactipad, and I have grown used to drawing on it and or using other tactile graphic devices / schemes, not all of the instructors or TAs are. So this way they can just draw on paper instead. He's had classroom assistants that just couldn't quite get the hang of the scale that things needs to be drawn at and other issues.
Some of this could be solved if we had a pictures in a flash printer or similar device, and I'm trying to petition the school to buy us one, but I'm just a TA so I don't pull a lot of weight I guess. In the mean time we think this optacon will be pretty useful. I know I'm forgetting some of the reasons why it would be useful. We cowrote a fairly detailed petition to the local comission for the blind to get it anyway.
As for the maintenance, yeah that could be an issue. But I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. It seems worth the risk at present time anyway. My hope is that by the end of my PhD program and his bachelor's, that the lab is much more prepared for blind students, and that an optacon would be superfluous. Until then...
Anyway thanks again. It sounds like we maybe want to find an Optacon 1, but it depends on how big the resolution difference is. That gives me a good start on he may want to research.
KillerLag 2 points 1y ago
I figured it was likely for some sort of graphical work. Reading texts have largely been supplanted by OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology, but there isn't really anything good for converting pictures into tactile displays. There are a few things that some big companies are working on, but nothing practical yet.
https://www.dezeen.com/2018/05/06/fords-feel-the-view-smart-window-blind-passengers-technology/
https://mashable.com/article/disney-fireworks-tactile-visually-impaired
According to wikipedia, they "reduce the number of image pixels from 144 to 100 to lower cost". That is a surprisingly large drop in the number of those pixels... I can definitely see why it was less popular.
https://www.dezeen.com/2018/05/06/fords-feel-the-view-smart-window-blind-passengers-technology/
https://mashable.com/article/disney-fireworks-tactile-visually-impaired
According to wikipedia, they "reduce the number of image pixels from 144 to 100 to lower cost". That is a surprisingly large drop in the number of those pixels... I can definitely see why it was less popular.
ifyoulovesatan [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Yep that's the big thing anyway. Printed graphs from 70's and or 80's equipment which can't be cleanly converted. Hmmph! I'll be sure to pass the message along about the pixels. And thanks for the links. It is unfortunate that a solution once existed but isn't in production anymore without an equivalent replacement. Hopefully one of these other ideas comes to market.
TechnicalPragmatist 1 points 1y ago
Would using like glue guns, wiki sticks and just tracing a picture tactilly work? Sometimes instructors who want to ddraw a picture and explain it draw it on paper using a trace wheel or with a pen and a soft place. Not sure if one of those things would be useful. The finger trays is pretty small and it could only recognize a small area or one letter at a time. There’s probably a much better solution here.
ifyoulovesatan [OP] 1 points 1y ago
Oh, also, if my comment seems weird it's because I was replying to the wrong comment! Someone in another thread asked if there was a particular reason I ended up in this sub.
TechnicalPragmatist 1 points 1y ago
Yes that was me but ah, okay you’re probably explaining it to the others.
ifyoulovesatan [OP] 1 points 1y ago
You guessed it pretty much, haha. I ended up here asking for advice about a piece of technology (an Opticon) that a blind student I work with the was considering acquiring. Then I ended up subscribing to the subreddit when a few other posts I saw seemed relevant to me in terms of learning more about things to consider when working with people who are blind or have low vision. Basically I've been tapped by the chemistry department to work with blind students when they take chemistry classes.
We have used wikki stix! They were very useful for a few things in particular. We do have a purpose built drawing pad (Tactipad) but have also used the methods you mentioned in a pinch. We also just got the college of science to buy it's own raised line graphic printer (Pictures in a Flash). The disabiIIty access services folks have one as well but there is a 3 week turnaround which is useless for say, laboratory data that a student would need access to as it is generated.
Most recently we got to check out the Orbitz Graffiti, a 40x60 grid of variable height raised pips, basically like a braille note taker but much bigger and arranged in a grid. It was pretty cool, we actually got crude animations of a chemical reaction to work on it. They're incredibly expensive though, like $15,000.
Right now the first blind student I worked with are working on publishing a paper we wrote about his experience / various technologies or tricks we used. And I'm also working on writing up a guide for the department for some of the technologies we have at the school (tactile graphics printers, etc) as well as other things to consider regarding presenting material for when I finish my program. But yah, that's what I came here for now, but now I'm just lurking I suppose.
We have used wikki stix! They were very useful for a few things in particular. We do have a purpose built drawing pad (Tactipad) but have also used the methods you mentioned in a pinch. We also just got the college of science to buy it's own raised line graphic printer (Pictures in a Flash). The disabiIIty access services folks have one as well but there is a 3 week turnaround which is useless for say, laboratory data that a student would need access to as it is generated.
Most recently we got to check out the Orbitz Graffiti, a 40x60 grid of variable height raised pips, basically like a braille note taker but much bigger and arranged in a grid. It was pretty cool, we actually got crude animations of a chemical reaction to work on it. They're incredibly expensive though, like $15,000.
Right now the first blind student I worked with are working on publishing a paper we wrote about his experience / various technologies or tricks we used. And I'm also working on writing up a guide for the department for some of the technologies we have at the school (tactile graphics printers, etc) as well as other things to consider regarding presenting material for when I finish my program. But yah, that's what I came here for now, but now I'm just lurking I suppose.
TechnicalPragmatist 1 points 1y ago
That’s pretty interesting. And good for you and glad you’re so willing to help and are committed. Where are you from anyway?
I took a look at your profile because I was fascinated. Haha!
That’s good he’s writing a paper I think that would help. That’s why I got in to what I do was a student who quietly or not so quietly minded her business and was seen as good at adapting things and was asked for advice and I was good at asking for modification. Would be interesting if this said student would go on educating others on how it was done by advising and such. A paper is good though. Not everyone is in to what I am doing. I want to get in to a cross between tech and accessibility and see if I can do anything to help. But I also do a lot of talking and educating and helping others adapt if they want it. Or teaching and educating other sited people for sure. Represented a few places and advocated as an independnet sort at a few places.
Thats cool you got to check out the orbit’s graffiti but that’s neat, that sounds cool and yeah, that thing does sound really very expensive.
I took a look at your profile because I was fascinated. Haha!
That’s good he’s writing a paper I think that would help. That’s why I got in to what I do was a student who quietly or not so quietly minded her business and was seen as good at adapting things and was asked for advice and I was good at asking for modification. Would be interesting if this said student would go on educating others on how it was done by advising and such. A paper is good though. Not everyone is in to what I am doing. I want to get in to a cross between tech and accessibility and see if I can do anything to help. But I also do a lot of talking and educating and helping others adapt if they want it. Or teaching and educating other sited people for sure. Represented a few places and advocated as an independnet sort at a few places.
Thats cool you got to check out the orbit’s graffiti but that’s neat, that sounds cool and yeah, that thing does sound really very expensive.
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