Welcome to Roxanne Smolen Facts and Fiction
I am the author of nine books ranging from science fiction romance to horror. I'm a wife, a mother, and a grandmother. I'm also blind. Let me clarify that. I see shapes and shadows but no detail. For instance, I can see where my face is in a mirror, but I cannot see my lips to put on lipstick. This may seem a trite problem, but my husband keeps introducing me as Ronald McDonald.
Writing blind can be challenging. Typing is not a problem—typos are. My computer helps solve this. Computers offer new abilities to sight-impaired people. Screen brightness, color contrast, and font size can be manipulated to meet special needs, opening a world previously inaccessible to anyone with visual impairment. Verbose computer programs can read aloud everything from web pages to email—even regular mail if you have a scanner.
When I first began writing, I used a word recognition program with playback capabilities. This is not a foolproof solution. Word recognition is at best 90% accurate, which means that nine out of ten words will be right. That's fine for a sighted person, but all I could hope for was that the word that was wrong was not a really important one. And if I was tired and slurred my words, I ended up with sentences like hatchet fizz in the goop bandana.
Today I use a computer program that echoes the keys I press and reads the screen to me. The robotic voice took a little getting used to, but I've come to rely upon it. My computer is a frustrating and essential partner. It does more than help me write. It helps me research and promote—and it connects me to other writers.
Thank you for visiting my site.
Writing blind can be challenging. Typing is not a problem—typos are. My computer helps solve this. Computers offer new abilities to sight-impaired people. Screen brightness, color contrast, and font size can be manipulated to meet special needs, opening a world previously inaccessible to anyone with visual impairment. Verbose computer programs can read aloud everything from web pages to email—even regular mail if you have a scanner.
When I first began writing, I used a word recognition program with playback capabilities. This is not a foolproof solution. Word recognition is at best 90% accurate, which means that nine out of ten words will be right. That's fine for a sighted person, but all I could hope for was that the word that was wrong was not a really important one. And if I was tired and slurred my words, I ended up with sentences like hatchet fizz in the goop bandana.
Today I use a computer program that echoes the keys I press and reads the screen to me. The robotic voice took a little getting used to, but I've come to rely upon it. My computer is a frustrating and essential partner. It does more than help me write. It helps me research and promote—and it connects me to other writers.
Thank you for visiting my site.
