Tassica Lim 3-31-13 Annotated Bibliography Primary Sources

TPSP Period 9

Holbrook, M. Cay. Children with Visual Impairments: A Parents Guide. Bethesda, MD: Woodbine House, 1996. Print. The book highlights the steps parents need to take if their children are visually impaired. It covers the topics of diagnosis & treatment, family life, adjustment, child development, early intervention, special education, literacy, mobility, and legal issues. It explains how a childs life changes one he/she becomes visually impaired and the obstacles he/she must face throughout his/her lifetime. By Illustrating issues that must be dealt with when one is visually impaired, I have knowledge of what medications they must take and issues there are with taking medicine for the visually impaired, helping me carefully design my product so the visually impaired have easy access to it and can use it properly and by themselves.

Jahoda, Gerald. How Do I Do This When I Cant See What Im Doing?: Information Processing for the Visually Disabled. Washington, D.C.: National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress, 1993. Print. The book explains about the future, including jobs and finances. It also explains the use of technology and activities for the visually impaired. Technology for the visually impaired has become available, but at a high cost, which means most dont use it. In an economic depression, jobs are scarce for those who are visually impaired, and finances for a visually impaired person piles high from medication bills, eye sight checks, etc. With knowledge of the issues of financing and technology for the visually impaired, I decided to make my product cheap (as in cost so little that companies would not require consumers to buy it) and not based on technology, so it is accessible by anybody. Also, I realized my product cannot must have a phone number to the pharmacy because visually impaired people often have questions about many products they are unsure of.

Neer, Frances Lief. Dancing in the Dark. San Francisco: Wildstar Pub., 1994. Print.

The memoir illustrates the change in lifestyle when one becomes blind. Frances Lief Neer tells the story of the many changes she had to make in her life when she became blind, especially when it came to taking medications, paying finances, and emotional effects. Neer shares tips and tricks to making life easier, but also asks for help for the visually impaired because they are often overlooked in society. Little adaptations can go a long way for the visually impaired. The depiction of life taking medications and the plea for help helped me create a more concrete idea. It helped me decide to base my product on helping the visually impaired take medications without assistants or helpers, which Neer explains can only be so helpful and available. It also made me come to the realization that the product must be simple so a visually impaired can easily understand it, and must be portable and not require an assistant to read.

Secondary Sources

Ager, Simon. Braille. Braille. Omniglot, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2013. <http://omniglot.com/writing/braille.htm>. The website shows the braille alphabet, contracted braille, punctuation, numbers, special signs, accented letters, grammar, and ways to practice reading and writing braille. It also gives examples of braille texts (like part of the Declaration of Human Rights) and provides many other links used for more information about Braille and how to read it. Knowing how to read and write braille is useful to my project because my product is going to be written in braille (except for the brochure) and requires correct grammar and usage so the visually impaired can read and understand it. Also, by acquainting myself with braille, I experience how the visually impaired read and communicate and also know how to make my product at a faster rate.

Braille Technology Braille Technology American Foundation for the Blind, 2011. Web. 27. 27 Feb. 2013. <http://www.braillebug.org/braille_technology.asp>. The website shows the different types of braille technologies there are and tells what they are made from, what they are used for, and how to use it. It also explains the pros and cons of each technology and what it would be used for (such a note taking, reading, etc). Because the website showed me the different types of technologies there are for braille, Ive decided to use the slate and stylus to create my product because its cheap, portable, and easy to use, which is necessary for the cost of my project and usage of it. Also, the slate and stylus allows me to create braille on paper, and not just on a computer, so it is accessible by everyone. It also taught me how to use the slate and stylus, an important lesson I needed in order to create my project.

Cheadle, Barbara. A Parents Guide to the Slate and Stylus. A Parents Guide to the Slate and Stylus. National Foundation for the Blind, 2007. Web. 4 Mar. 2013. <http://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr25/fr07spr18.htm>. The article gives a background on the slate and stylus and teaches how to use the slate and stylus in detail. Braille must be written backwards, from right to left and in a u-shape. It also compares the slate and stylus methods of writing Braille to others, tell the benefit of learning how to use the slate and stylus, and how long it takes to master the slate and stylus, which is a couple weeks with dedication and practice. In order to create my project, I must write in braille using a slate and stylus, so learning how to use it is vital. Also, because one has to do braille backwards in order to write with the slate and stylus, I learned braille backwards as well. I also did it a lot so I could do it fast and accurately.

Kingston, Mary. The Evolution of Braille: Can the Past Help plan the Future. Braille Authority of North America. Braille Authority, 2005. Web. 29 Jan 2013. <http://www.brailleauthority.org/article/evolution_of_braille-part1.pdf.> The article explains how Braille, developed by Louis Braille, has developed over the years from being barely used to expanding to almost 90% of the visually impaired population. It explains how raised letters were used at first but were quickly exchanged for braille because raised letters were not as easily read than braille, and visually impaired people need things to be simple and easy. Education for the visually impaired increased immensely. Braille had begun to be condensed and incorporated into the upcoming technology. The examples of how braille was being used to make visually impaired peoples lives easier helped me develop a way to use braille in my product so that most visually impaired people can read and understand it. It also helped me decide that braille was the best way to communicate my product to visually impaired people rather than creating a new code just for my product.

Leading Causes of Blindness. U.S. National Library of Medicine. NIH Medline Plus, 2008. Web. 5 Feb. 2013. <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/magazine/issues/summer08/articles/summer08pg 14-15.html>.

The article lists and explains the leading causes of blindness, which are cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy. It also lists symptoms and treatments for each cause and gives good background knowledge on effects on lifestyle and statistical information on who most likely gets the diseases. The information of the leading causes of blindness is useful for background information for my product. Because I know what each disease does to the eye, the medications needed to be taken for each disease, which gives me an idea of what medications the visually impaired will need and what information I might need to include on my product.

Louis Braille and the Braille System. Duxbury Systems. Duxbury Systems Inc., 7 Feb. 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2013. <http://www.duxburysystems.com/braille.asp>. The article gives a background on how braille developed through the use of Charles Barbier de la Serres idea of using raised dots to communicate between soldiers in the night. It also gives background on how Louis Braille developed braille (originally called sonography) instead of using raised letters. At first, I was going to create a new way for the visually impaired to read, but decided against it because of this article because raised letters did not work out and braille is an established language that many visually impaired people know how to read and write. Also, this article gave me background information on how braille developed and how it is used to communicate with others. It also gave me an idea of how to use braille so that it is most effective.

Venier, Alice. Mentor (Second Contact) Interview: Medication for Blind. Personal interview. 25 Feb. 2013. The interview gave insight on prescriptions with patients who are visually impaired and guidelines for prescription labeling. The interviewee also gave ideas on design and examples of aids used to help the visually impaired take medications. Also, the interviewee explained how the pharmacy is fast paced, so, if it were to use my idea, my product should be cheap, easy to make, affordable, practical, and take minimal effort to come up with. The interview helped me to design my product and keep in mind the key elements I need to have to make the product useful, which are the phone number of the pharmacy, dosage, name, type of medication, etc. It also helped me decide what my product would be made of (paper), size, and how it would be used.