Re: you guys may like... (Ruth Spivak) III

I don't think I have ever told you what you taught me... how you changed my life.

I don't know why I agreed originally to help you. But I soon was humbled. You listened to what was going on, formulated an answer to the current discussion and slowly pointed out what you wanted to say to me on your desktop typewriter keyboard. I couldn't pay attention in class. I couldn't formulate an answer to what was currently going on. I couldn't even remember the letters as you spelled them out. I had write them down, one by one, until I recognized a word.

I was never a great student, but I was always a great reader. To not be able to keep up with you even word by word was more than humbling. It was a wonderful life's lesson. I learned to see the inside of people instead of the outside.

In college one of my roommates was blind. I had a great time with her. She studied while I slept and I studied with the light on when she wanted to sleep! She used to type me letters and hide them under my pillow. I had a "first degree" Braille typewriter and typed her messages which she found under her pillow.

UCR was a campus that went out of its way to be accommodating to people with disabilities, one of a few in the late 60's. Besides my roommate, I also participated in many impromptu wheelchair races with friends. I was the cheering squad, not a racer. (I have never gone out of my way to move too much. )

I have found you an inspiration my entire life. I have found inner resources when I have needed them. I have talked about you to my children. My husband, Chuck, knew about you from the time we were dating. He was so pleased to meet you at the reunion in 1996 that he still carries your card in his wallet. I am not an introspective person, but you and Ray Haight changed my life... for the better.

Thank you.

Ruth

* * * * *

Ruth, this fuels me! And I was just starting out upon communicating back then! I made communicating my life work... Which always strikes me funny [especially when I am on the radio!}. We both opened each other, supported each other in that conservative environment. Mainstreaming does that... And not just for the disabled or the blacks, whatever. It fills out everybody!

I find that the brains of a lot of people aren't hot wired to read my board easily... And it is the little words that are the hardest to get! I recently have started to use a word prediction software. I start typing a word and it gives me nine words it thinks I mean. And I just type the number if it guessed right or keep typing until it guesses the word. It cuts my keystrokes by seventy percent at least... Saving my old neck! And it learns my writing style. So it gets easier! And it has a voice. After each sentence it reads the sentence back. I got it for computing, but I am hoping to use it when I am meeting with someone in my studio alone.

In Freedom,
Frank Moore