Blind Man’s Software Makes Computers Speak to Sightless

Ron Hutchinson works in the dark to make computers talk for others who, like him, can’t see.

He makes the stuff that makes computers pronounce letters and words, read sentences, reveal information from graphs and charts and tell colors used on computer screens for users who are sight impaired.

The almost 25,000 sight-impaired people in Ohio and nearly 500,000 nationwide are all potentially his customers.

The particularly handy part of Hutchinson’s software is that it makes verbal action available on command without moving back and forth between search and write modes.

The stroke of a keyboard key brings his system into use or takes it out, so that users may write without interruption, then back up and listen for mistakes as their copy is read.

“The main thing we do is make software talk, including the processors,” Hutchinson said. “Our system will work with almost any system. It’s a talking word processor.”

Wayne Gleim, a computer program analyst at the Ohio State University Hospitals, swears by Hutchinson’s system.

“It’s the most versatile system in the country today,” said Gleim, who has been blind all his 35 years. “I’ve been using it a couple of years, and I can make it do anything I want, including spelling and speaking, any combination, searching for information.

“Anything anybody else does I can do with this system.”

Gleim, an OSU employee for six years, writes computer programs for the hospitals, evaluates problem situations, conducts studies on proposed changes and trains newcomers on the hospitals’ computer systems.

Hutchinson, who founded his Computer Conversations firm four years ago, develops software packages that refine computer-activated voice synthesizers--electronic devices that create sounds of letters and words.

His expertise is in compatibility and making the software that allows synthesizers to connect to computers and to “talk” with operators in other than a primitive fashion.

He says his system works on more than 95% of off-the-shelf software and on more than 100 of the microsoft disk operating system (MS DOSPC DOS) computers made in the nation.

“Another important thing about this is that the system is interactive,” Hutchinson said. “Previously, to use the system the user had to go into a review mode to find things, then come out of review to make changes. We realized that to be interactive, users needed to hear keystrokes. That was an innovation.

“This has opened up a whole new realm of employment for the visually impaired. It has opened new jobs, new opportunities for them that were not there before.”

Hutchinson, 43, who has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in sociology, was a social worker with no knowledge of computers until he lost his sight 10 years ago, a condition he blames on toxoplasmosis, “an intrusive bug that I can’t get rid of.”

His wife pushed him out into the world of computers to get him out of the house, where Hutchinson acknowledged that he was doing little more than sitting around listening to books on cassette tapes.

“I tried Opticon and it is too slow,” he said, “And I did not care for Braille at all. It has a top speed of only about 30 words a minute. It’s slow and tedious; it required training, and it’s costly, and I’ve always been an independent cuss.”

Ohio’s Bureau of Services for the Visually Impaired put him on the right track.

“We picked up a very rudimentary computer, a Votrax synthesizer type and talk unit,” he said. “I taught it to recognize keystrokes and to read any line on the machine. That gradually changed to an MSPC DOS talking computer, and it grew to become known as an enhanced PC talking program and currently is called the Verbal Operating System.”

From his New Albany residence 25 miles east of Columbus, he runs Computer Conversations with the help of a secretary and an assistant, and there are half a dozen salesmen nationwide who promote his products.