To Glen Beck

Note: This email was sent to Glen Beck. Mr. Beck’s comment reflects the greatest challenge to blindness, perceptions.

Yesterday, June 28th,part of your show’s conversation centered on an unusual topic: If you had to choose one of the body’s senses to lose, which would it be. You mentioned that losing your sight would be the least desirable as you love to read. Like you, I share your passion for reading despite being legally blind. However, I have read almost 20 books this year, so far, by using audio books from the National Library for the Blind. However, I am not limited to reading what the NLB provides. I can use a screen-reading program (JAWS) to read information from my computer, such as your website, or I can scan pages into the computer and use another program that performs Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and then reads the entire file audibly. One advantage of using JAWS or Open Book is I can change the reading rate to fit my needs. I usually read at 300 words per minute. Can you do that? Additionally, if I am out and about I can use my cell phone (KNFB Reader phone) to read a menu or other item. The phone takes the picture and then performs OCR on the document and then it reads it audibly.

My blog, blynkofaneye.blogspot.com may interest you. I am losing my residual vision and the blog is my therapy. It describes my journey into blindness, the good, the bad, and sometimes, the funny.

Respectfully,
Thomas Taylor

P.S. I imagine some of your listeners might have been offended by the “Goldline” fake eye comment. I thought it was funny but a reference to the James Bond movie, “Golden Eye” would have been more appropriate.