[blindlaw] Law Student Query About Adaptive Equipment

Fri May 5 04:10:46 CDT 2006

Hello, Deborah,

There are a couple more options than you have listed here for portable,
accessible PDA's. GW Micro, makers of WindowEyes and the Small Talk Ultra,
also sells the Braille Sense, which is a very powerful and easy-to-learn
note-taking device. However, it only comes with a 32 cell Braille display
and is perhaps too heavy for you. Also, although I have next to no
experience with this and cannot give you lots of advice, there is the option
of getting a commercial style PDA with speech software and supplementing it
with a Bluetooth keyboard and Braille display. HumanWare, which sells the
Braille Note family of products, also sells Maestro, a commercially
available, pocket-sized PDA with speech software and a tactile overlay
keyboard added. The Maestro itself would not be convenient for note-taking
but it would be entirely possible with an external keyboard. You may also
want to check out www.optelec.com and their family of EasyLink products. For
more advice on any of these options, you can contact the International
Braille and Technology Center operated by the National Federation of the
Blind by calling 410-659-9314, extension 2345. For myself, I have found the
BrailleNote Mpower to be extremely usable and helpful. I am not currently
practicing law but I used to, and this device would have been tremendously
helpful in law school and in practicing law.

With regard to your Braille reading speed, whether it is adequate for
reading your notes when participating in moot court and other activities
probably depends on how you take notes and use them during presentations. If
you're one of those folks who can write a brief outline with only a few
words to cover each point you want to cover, your reading speed may not be
as much of a factor as it would be if you intend to read your notes
verbatim. Keep in mind that when you make a moot court argument, you need to
be prepared with a full outline of your presentation, but more often than
not you will not use most of it, as the judges will be firing questions at
you. The judges will have already read the briefs you have submitted in
advance, and they will have questions about specific points in your
presentation, and they may or may not (probably not) want them addressed in
the order you had planned. Thus, a large part of being able to participate
in a moot court bar is being able to think on your feet and consult
different parts of your notes quickly if you need to. For both blind and
sighted participants, it's best to know your stuff backwards and forwards
without doing a whole lot of reading, even though it's still important to
keep an outline and your notes, particularly important case citations,
handy.

Good luck.

Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Deborah Byrne
Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2006 8:25 PM
To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blindlaw] Law Student Query About Adaptive Equipment

Fellow blind law students and attorneys:

I'm a newly admitted blind student who will be attending law school this
fall.  I do not yet have a lap top or note taking device and am hoping that
those more experienced than I may be able to give me recommendations as to
what equipment to purchase.  The following is a list of four devices with
notes about their features.

Since I am not able to carry much weight, my priority is for something lite.
I'm leaning towards the Packmate.  Of the keyboards I've tried, it seems to
be the easiest on my fingers.  I've heard, however, that it crashes a lot
and I found Freedom Scientific to be very unhelpful after the merger.   The
small Talk Ultra may be a good option but I don't know Windowize (another
system to learn) and no vendor in my area yet has it in stock to play with.
The Braille Note is heavy for me.  The Braille Note PK is wonderfully lite
but my Braille typing speed is slow and I don't know if it would be hard on
my hands to always use the small add on keyboard.

As far as Braille displays go, I'm hoping to have my Braille reading up to
45 words a minute by September but with all that needs to get done, I have a
ways to go.  Would you say that being able to read Braille at this speed is
crucial for participating in moot court or other law student endeavors?

Anyway, those are my considerations.  I don't have a lot of time left to
decide and I'm hoping to communicate with others in the profession who may
have relevant insights into these choices.  Please feel free to respond on
list or to me directly.

Thank you, 

Deborah Byrne

_______________________________________________

Hi Deborah,

Here are the choices as I see them for note takers.

1.  PacMate QX 

(which is the PacMate with the laptop style keyboard.)

Or, the PacMate BX (which has the braile keyboard.)

2.  The Small Talk Ultra 

(the new laptop (or tablet PC) from GW Micro

which weighs all of 14 ounces and comes already setup with Window-Eyes.

3.  Braille Note PK plus the Think Outside Bluetooth Keyboard.

4.  The BrailleNote mPower, where you have a choice between their

QWERTY style keyboard, or the braille keyboard.  You can also use the

Think Outside Bluetooth keyboard with the mPower.

The PacMate runs on Pocket PC.  you can install third party programs

that are written for that operating system.  The Braille Display is

removable so it can be used with a PC.  If you have to do a "cold reset"

you loose all your files in the PacMate's main memory plus anything you

have installed; so you need to do regular backups and also save your

files onto a Compact Flash card.

The Small Talk Ultra is a full computer running Windows XP so you can

install anything on it that you can install on a desktop.  It comes with

a 30 GB hard drive, 512 MB RAM, an external CD burner/DVD player, a

docking cable for attaching other peripherals like printers, etc.  It

also comes with a USB Keyboard that is supposed to be fairly comfortable

to use.  It has Wireless and Bluetooth built in.  It has a 5 inch screen

so a sighted person could assist if a problem occurred.

The BrailleNote PK only weighs a few ounces more than the Small Talk

Ultra, but with all the BrailleNote products you cannot install any

other software.  The PK has an 18 cell braille display.  It only comes

with a braille keyboard, but it works well with the Think Outside

Bluetooth keyboard.

The BrailleNote mPower comes with 18 or 32 cell braille display or as a

"Voicenote" without a braille display.  The VoiceNote I think weighs

about one and a half pounds.  The braillenotes weigh a little more

depending on which braille display.

The mPower has more ports than the PK or the PacMate and more internal

memory than either of them.

The braillenotes are less likely to loose any of your files, but with

all computer based equipment, including PC's or laptops, it is wise to

back up your files regularly.

The PacMates or the BrailleNotes can read MicroSoft Word files and save

their files in Word format.

They can all handle web browsing and E-mail.

They all have a calendar program and address book program.

You can find more details on their respective web sites.

For the PacMate, go to

www.freedomscientific.com

For the BrailleNote/VoiceNote family of products go to:

www.humanware.com

and for the Small Talk Ultra, go to:

www.gwmicro.com

I hope that helps.

Richard

Richard Turner

Braille & Technology Instructor

Oregon Commission for the Blind