?What are your favorite possessions. Why?
Oviously being blind makes me different than other people in this regard. Certain tools are imprescindible for the blind, like a white cane, that acts not only as an extension of my index finger for orientation purposes, but also identifies me as a blind person, enabling other people to recognize me as such and assist me in public places, notably large restrooms like at airports. I was reluctant, the first few years, to admit and show that I was blind, but bumping into other people in airport restrooms seemed much worse, so I relented and use it since.
Going blind gradually I had to first learn to type, next use a hand-held magnifier to read the computer screen, albeit using a closed-circuit TV for reading papers, writing checks, etc.
As my blindness progressed, the magnification of the hand held device had to increase. Luckily in 1989 an engineer and former race car driver named Ted Henter from a company called Henter-Joyce at Saint Petersburg Florida began selling DOS software that could read the text on the screen out loud. It was called Job Access With Speech, or JAWS. Then in the early ninetys Microsoft switched to Windows and the blind had to stay on DOS, JAWS did not work on Windows which showed graphics on the screen.
It was not until Windows 95 that a company named Arkenstone from California found a way to read the text used as a background of Windows screens. It was called the Off-Screen Model, and luckily shared this discovery with Henter-Joyce, their Florida Distributor. JAWS for Windows came out in 1995, on Windows 3.1, enabling us to navigate Internet and use modern software. Today I could not function without JFW.
My book reading had become very difficult until going to the Low Vision Clinic at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami, where in addition to other things like eligibility for Handicap Parking, I learned of the existance of a program, managed in Florida by the public library of Daytona Beach, where I could obtain talking books, first on slow playing vinyl records, then on 4-track 90-minutes cassettes that played on a player they furnished, eventually they switched to digital using a special strange looking cassette that likewise need a player they furnished, finally making available on internet a website where we can search for and download over 100,000 books they have on audio.
Then other equipment not furnished by them, but needing their approval on each, by specific serial number, such as Milestone and the very popular Victor Reader, became the standards to listen to the books which would not play on unauthorized equipment, including computers.
Other equipment and software, such as GPS, iPhone, barcode databases and readers, ORCAM and many others are likewise very useful to the blind.
Other than adaptive equipment and software, I value the very few things I brought with me from Cuba or have acquired in Miami and am beginning to pass on to my grandchildren, as I think they would be of value instead of a burden to them.
Automobiles were a passion for me since childhood, as a small boy, I used to seat at the driver's seat of my father's car, a 1937 Buick, or Pepe Villamil's 1937 Ford.
In Miami I bought several cars that I enjoyed, a 1951 Pontiac, a 1967 Citroen, a 1953 Packard Clipper, a 1955 Packard Patrician sold originally in Honduras, with no heater and the speedometer in kilometers instead of miles, a 1956 Packard Patrician with electric push-button automatic transmission and electric door locks, the first car to offer them. Then my favorite, a 1956 Packard Caribbean convertible, of which only 276 were built.
First I could not drive them anymore, although I drove them while I could, even with low vision, but then I could not even see them. I gave them up long ago.
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