Below is a link to a pretty good article on George Kirscher. the article
itself contains two links to NFB resources on the Web.
David Andrews
e>Posted-Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 09:30:07 -0600 (CST)
>From: Gregg Vanderheiden <po@trace.wisc.edu>
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> "Techwatch (E-mail)" <Techwatch@trace.wisc.edu>,
> "'Uaccess-L'" <uaccess-l@trace.wisc.edu>
>Subject: George Kersher Featured in Latest U S News and World Report
>Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1998 09:29:27 -0600
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>
>Congratulations George,
>
>For those who have not yet seen it, check out the Dec 28th issue of U S News
>and World Report or check out the online version
>http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/981228/28viol.htm
>
>
>They list 18 American Innovators that are changing the way things will be in
>the future. It is a 16 page feature. William Kennard (commissioner of
>the FCC) is #2 and George Kersher is #10. There is a full page devoted to
>George. Great stuff and well deserved.
>
>George Kersher Page is http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/981228/28kers.htm
>
>William Kennard Page is http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/981228/28kenn.htm
>
>The text for the George Kersher article (including the caption under the
>picture in the magazine) is below.
>
>Gregg
>
>-- ------------------------------
>Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D.
>Professor - Human Factors
>Dept of Ind. Engr. - U of Wis.
>Director - Trace R & D Center
>Gv@trace.wisc.edu, http://trace.wisc.edu/
>FAX 608/262-8848
>For a list of our listserves send "lists" to listproc@trace.wisc.edu
>
>
>
>
>George Kerscher
>
>Making the world work for the blind
>
>BY JOSEPH P. SHAPIRO
>
>For George Kerscher, the world is a puzzle worth solving. There's little
>choice when you lose your sight at midlife. How does a blind man watch his
>daughter's basketball games? Find a retired sportscaster to provide a
>personal play-by-play. How does a blind man ski? His wife follows him
>closely, describing terrain ahead via two-way radio. But Kerscher's most
>important puzzle was to create a new generation of talking books for blind
>and dyslexic students.
>
>Currently, the "print disabled" have only a few, flawed options. They can
>find or hire someone to read books to them. They can buy a computer that can
>read text aloud. They can get books on tape or in Braille. But these
>solutions all have downsides, as Kerscher discovered a decade ago. Losing
>his sight to retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that starts as tunnel vision
>until the tunnel closes completely, he gave up work as a high school
>literature teacher to study computer science. The readers he hired worked on
>their schedules, not Kerscher's, and they stumbled when reading complex
>programming codes. The tinny monotone of a computerized voice synthesizer
>was deadly to listen to hours on end. Braille was hard to learn. Few of the
>specialized books he needed had been taped. Even if they were, the typical
>recorded text runs 30 hours and the only way to look up something is to
>fast-forward or rewind through piles of cassettes. Kerscher figured out how
>to digitize those audio books, so that one book fits on one CD-ROM and
>finding a quote is as easy as searching for a word on a computer. "This is a
>Gutenberg revolution," says Nolan Crabb of the American Council of the
>Blind, who calls digital books "the equalizer" that allows him to get
>information as quickly as a sighted person.
>
>Kerscher calls himself an innovator, not an inventor. He takes existing
>technology and finds ways to use it for the blind. Recently, in a hardware
>store, he came across something new-a wireless, battery-operated doorbell.
>You may see Kerscher one day at an airport baggage claim carousel. He's the
>tall, blind guy pulling a small doorbell buzzer from his pocket and then
>grabbing the suitcase that starts chiming.
>
>Today, recorded books for the blind are used most often by people with
>dyslexia. Kerscher's employer, Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, changed
>its name in 1995 to note that 67 percent of its users are learning disabled.
>A recent study for RFB&D shows that reading speed shoots up among dyslexic
>kids who use Kerscher's digital talking books because they get "dual
>reinforcement" from hearing spoken words while seeing them on a computer
>screen. RFB&D will start providing these books to three pilot schools in
>1999 and hopes to digitize the bulk of the 77,000 volumes in its collection
>by 2002.
>
>Kerscher also knows that technology applied carelessly can cut off the
>disabled. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in search of a device
>to help his deaf wife. But no other technology did more to isolate the deaf.
>So Kerscher globe-trots 100 days a year trying to make computer technology
>accessible to the blind. His office is wherever he sets up his laptop. Home
>is Montana, where he lives with his wife, Gail, a hospice nurse. Every few
>months he visits Princeton, N.J.-based RFB&D, where he is a research fellow.
>It was started in 1948 to record books for blind World War II soldiers so
>they could use the GI Bill to go back to school. This year, RFB&D sent
>nearly 250,000 audio books to some 55,000 students. Volunteers record the
>texts, down to arcane scientific formulas. Computers and the Internet create
>opportunities for learning that those first blind GIs never imagined. Says
>Kerscher: "I want to develop the technology for the next generation."
>
>
>BORN: March 16, 1950, Chicago
>EDUCATION: BA English, Northeastern Illinois, 1974
>ROLE MODEL: Yuri Rubinsky
>PROUDEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: 25 Years with Wife, Gail; three children; creation
>of e-text
>GOAL: to make information accessible to all
>FAVORITE BOOK: Les Meserables by Victor Hugo
>FAVORITE COMPUTER TECHNOLOGY: Screen readers for the Blind.
>
>
>
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