The Coburn Blog

Hey guys, aiquared, the company who develops Zoomtext for the computer, put out some nifty Tutorials that may be pretty neat to watch for people who are interested in what all Zoomtext does.

check it out: Zoomtext Interactive Video Tutorials

I use the Full screen magnifier alot, as well as the CTRL-SHIFT-C thing alot to invert the colors, so I can see webpages, email, and documents that are on white backgrounds. Inverting the colors, changes white backgrounds to black, and dark text to white, which makes seeing the screen so much easier on the eyes, esp for those with Glaucoma issues, like i have. Anyone interested might want to check those videos out.

Aiquared just recently came out with a new version, ver 9.1, that adds Windows Vista support, as well as some other bugfixes and things. a full changelog is available on their website, but its mostly just making it Vista compatible, and it still works in XP too.

VR didn’t get me the 9.1 version, just the older 9.0 version, so I am not able to use Zoomtext on my laptop right now, until I upgrade to 9.1, which I probably will at some point, but VR won’t pay for it, if I want the upgrade I have to pay for it myself. The upgrade is $99, and that price is only valid for 60 days after purchase, which I don’t have right now, but right now I am waiting on doing that, because VR ordered me the wrong version, they just ordered the magnifier. The magnifier/reader costs about $200 more, but there making the exchange as we speak. I basically have to return the product to Maxi-aids, with a return code that VR gives me, then Maxi-aids sends me the correct copy. The correct copy is the one that includes the doc and appreader and speech mouse hover things that I need for my Access class this summer. Since most of my class covers how to use the toolbar buttons, and the mouse locators cover up the captions, I need the speech to speak what the captions are, otherwise I can’t see which button does what on the Access toolbar, so VR is going to get me the right copy, but I will still have to purchase the upgrade to 9.1 if I want to use it with Vista.. I wouldn’t even bother and just stick to 9.0, except that 9.0 isn’t compatible with Vista, which isn’t a big deal right now, I don’t have to use my laptop right now, but next year Ivy Tech is switching to Vista and Office 2007, so I’ll need to upgrade to 9.1 by Fall or Spring semester probably.

Ivy Tech said they are switching to Office 2007 starting Fall of 2007, 9.0 isn’t compatible with Office 2007 either, so even by the fall I’ll probably need 2007 probably, which isn’t too far from now. VR won’t do it because Maxi-aids doesn’t carry the upgrades, something about my account is only good for Maxi-aids, so if I want the upgrade, I have to purchase it myself, but I am hoping that once Social Security kicks in, I’ll be able to find the money to do that. $99 is pretty good, considering its a $599 software product. There are other options, like Jaws for example, but Zoomtext is better for the Visually impaired, because of the screen enhancements. Jaws has better sounding speech they say, but Zoomtext’s Neospeech is getting quite good, but what makes them far superio, is all their magnification and screen enhancements, as well as their app and doc readers, that anyone can appreciate really, to just sit back and let the computer read your email or documents to you. Pretty neat, eh?

Lastly, I got this document back from VR today, a paper that was given to him about what my Eye condition is. Susan scanned it into the computer, so I have a copy of it in an image if anyone wants to see it, but anyway, according to this legal document, I have

Congenital Rubella Syndrome
Congenital Nystagmus
Bilateral aphakia
chronic open angle glaucoma
microcornea

It also says my visual acuity is “count 2 fingers at 2 feet” on right, and 20/300 in left. This is accurate as of 1/06/2007, and I see him again in July. Congenital Rubella is what I was born with, all these other conditions are from the Rubella, but Nystagmus means involuntary rapid eye movement, aphakia is just a fancy term for “congenital cataracts”, chronic open angle is just a fancy term for the type of glaucoma I have, and microcornea, just means the ball of both my eyes are under-developed, 3x smaller then the normal eye, which is why I cannot have Contact lenses or lens implants. I only know all this because I asked my doctor, Eye doctor lingo I guess, hehe.

We also believe that the Crohns Disease, may also be from the Rubella. According to the Wikipedia on CRS there are some delayed effects of Congenital Rubella Syndrome. IBS has already been proven to be a delayed effect, and since Crohns is in the same family of illnesses, it is believed that Crohns may also be a delayed effect. This is because the Rubella virus is still in the bloodstream, and it alone can cause the immune system to be thrown off, like what happens to people with Crohns, UC, IBS, etc. Other delayed effects include heart problems (which I do have), glaucoma, no teeth enamal, and other things, but what is amazing about all this, it puts us a step closer to finding a cure for crohns for everyone, but also, it explains why I have it so bad while nobody else in my family does, not as young as me anyway. It explains my heart problems, epilepsy problems, it all fits, so I’m sticking to that theiry. Of course, knowing still doesn’t help much, there still is no cure for Crohns, but at least that puts us a step further in finding a cure, I think, because it also tells us that Crohns could be birth defect related as well. I’m not saying everyone with crohns had exposure to Rubella, not saying that at all, I’m saying, there may be more then one cause, and that quite possibly, Rubella could be one of many causes.