Talking Book Review

White Coat, White Cane: The Extraordinary Odyssey of a Blind Physician By David Hartman

The woman's arthritic fingers feel gnarled and crooked, her knees lumpy rocks. But I can detect no swelling, so I press here, there, trying to rouse an inflamed spot. "What are you doing"she challenges.

"You're blind!" "I'm examining you. Haven't you ever been examined by a blind doctor before?" She refuses to be humored. "That's silly. What can a blind doctor do?" "I'm not sure, but we're going to find out..."

When David Hartman, blind since the age of eight, announced his intention to become a doctor, the reactions ranged from sympathy to ridicule. How could he diagnose his patients? Examine them, except by touch? Look through a microscope? Even understand what was being described? The battle lines were drawn: David and his family on one side, the schools and society on the other. But with an incredible strength of purpose, David Hartman went on to become the first blind person in over 100 years to enter medical school. What is it like to adjust to a world of darkness? David Hartman lets us know bluntly, with real emotion, insight, and humor. He had to relearn the simplest things. He had to overcome mental obstacles that were at times more formidable than the physical ones. Yet he was determined to reach beyond his difficulties to fulfill an impossible dream. His teachers were helpful, hostile, embarrassed, unsure-and in medical school he had to work twice as hard. The work had to be read to him or translated into Braille. Often he had to rely on a sighted person to confirm his diagnosis, and he needed a nurse to read the patients' charts to him. But he utilized all his other senses to achieve his greatest desire: helping to heal. His journey is a moving and inspirational story for us all...we can achieve any and all dreams if and when we set our minds to.

Talking Book Review

For our next Talking Book review Erica has chosen August's Independent Living for the Adult Blind (ILAB) Book Club's selection The Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa by R.A. Scotti.

     In Paris at the start of a radically new century, the most famous face in the history of art stepped out of her frame and into a sensational mystery. On August 21, 1911, the unfathomable happened—Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa vanished from the Louvre. More than twenty-four hours passed before museum officials realized she was gone. The prime suspects were as shocking as the crime: Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, young provocateurs of a new art. As French detectives using the latest methods of criminology, including fingerprinting, tried to trace the thieves, a burgeoning international media hyped news of the heist.

     Part love story, part mystery, Vanished Smile reopens the case of the most audacious and perplexing art theft ever committed. R. A.Scotti’s riveting, ingeniously realized account is itself a masterly portrait of a world in transition. Combining her skills as a historian and a novelist, Scotti turns the tantalizing clues into a story of the painting’s transformation into the most familiar and lasting icon of all time.

  

Talking Book review

This post marks the first installment of a series of weekly book reviews submitted by a long-time Talking Book customer, Erica. She will be reviewing books written by and about people who have a visual disability, the Independent Living for the Adult Blind Book Club monthly selection as well as fiction and nonfiction titles of interest.

Book Review on Taking Hold: My Journey Into Blindness by Sally Hobart Alexander

RC/DB 40247 (DB available for download only). Alexander's story of her adjustment to blindness reads like a gripping suspense novel with all the makings. She was a fit and healthy third-grade teacher when she first noticed a black line flit across her eye and disappear. After a series of various doctor appointments, temporary vision losses, and numerous hospital stays, she gradually realized that at some point she would be completely blind. She began to learn Braille and eventually checked into a center to learn new life skills. Her emphasis is not on the hospitals and the rehab center but on coming to grips with her disability and all the accompanying emotions of fear, anger, despair, loneliness, and acceptance. Her tension-filled relationship with her boyfriend is realistically portrayed. Since the ending downplays the serious obstacles she has yet to face, the story is uplifting, inspiring, and encouraging. Readers will find the pages turning quickly not wanting the book to end.

Attention Braille Volunteers!!!

The Temple Sisterhood Braille Group is looking for volunteers to train as Braille transcribers. The group meets at Congregation Ahavath Chesed at 8727 San Jose Blvd. For many years this group of volunteers has transcribed all different types of printed material into Braille. The Talking Book Library often refers students who need education materials such as textbooks to this group. Throughout the year the group works to transcribe printed materials for local organizations such as the Florida Instructional Material Center, Duval and Clay County Schools, and the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind as well as filling requests submitted from other parts of the country. Training classes for men and women over 18 are on Thursday mornings. You can reach the Temple Sisterhood Braille Group at (904) 955-8831.

E-newsletter

Due to a temporary shut-down of newsletter printing and distribution at our regional center in Daytona Beach the Jacksonville Talking Book Library is offering its latest installment of our quarterly newsletter, The Insight, in electronic format. You can access the Spring 2013 newsletter at the following link: www.jaxpubliclibrary.org/lib/pubs/Insightspring13.pdf
As of today we don't expect to print and mail another newsletter until sometime this Fall. If you would like to receive a printed version of our newsletter please call our office at 630-1999 and a staff member will try to send a copy to you.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

Continuing Digital Magazine transition

Our customers who subscribe to audio magazines are beginning to see them delivered on digital cartridges. These are the state produced magazines which are now only available in anthology groupings. Individual titles are no longer available. The anthologies will be distributed every 2 months and are grouped into 7 separate categories: Senior Living, Women's Interest, Men's Interest, General Interest, Youth and Young Adult, Literary/Historical/Cultural and Spanish Language.

It is very important that all of our customers know that these cartridges must be returned to the location they were issued from. The cartridges will circulate just like ordinary digital Talking Books with a postage-paid mailing card; the only difference being the color of the cartridge and mailing container. Failure to consistently return the cartridges will result in the suspension of a customer's audio magazine subscription.

Customers who subscribe to audio magazines may find it easier to navigate the new anthology cartridges with the advanced digital Talking Book machine rather than the standard digital Talking Book machine. In this case customers who currently have the standard machine may request that it be switched with an advanced machine. 

The image below lists each magazine title per anthology grouping.

Perhaps as soon as next month Florida residents who subscribe to federally produced audio magazines will begin to receive them on digital cartridge as well. We will pass along the information regarding this digital transition in a future post.

Cars for Blind People

Motor vehicle independence for the blind and visually impaired is being improved by the development of both self-driving vehicles and sensory driven vehicles.

In October 2010 Google unveiled a self-driving automated car that allows drivers to travel to pre-programmed locations. In essence the driver isn't actually "driving" the car so much so that he or she is going along for a ride. As part of the car's sophisticated on board technology are cameras, radar and lasers that aid in navigation. Google's self-driving car will give visually impaired drivers the freedom to choose their own destination(s), change the route as needed and experience the independence that other drivers enjoy. 

In February 2011 Mark Riccobono, a blind executive at the National Federation of the Blind, drove a Ford Escape at 25 mph around the Daytona International Speedway while dodging obstacles thrown from another vehicle. The event was part of the Blind Driver Challenge and the car had been equipped with an array of sensory equipment, laser-range finders and global positioning that provided cues on how to navigate the race track.The development of this vehicle is a major advancement for blind drivers in that it allows a blind individual to "drive" the car and not just ride along. The vehicle's sensory equipment included features that allowed the driver to experience tactile, physical stimuli integrated into the steering wheel and driver's seat that compensated for the lack of visual stimuli. Furthermore, the continuing development of sensory driven vehicles for those who are visually disabled will invariably lead to advancements in safety and operation of standard vehicles such as devices that alert a driver when a vehicle is in their "blind spot" or assisting drivers in navigating in conditions like fog that impair visibility.