[Script Info]
Title: 
[Events]
Format: Layer, Start, End, Style, Name, MarginL, MarginR, MarginV, Effect, Text
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When I was about three or four years old,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I remember my mum reading a story to me
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and my two big brothers,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I remember putting up my hands
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to feel the page of the book
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to feel the picture they were discussing.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And my mum said, "Darling,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,remember that you can't see
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and you can't feel the picture
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and you can't feel the print on the page."
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And I thought to myself,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"But that's what I want to do.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I love stories. I want to read."
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Little did I know
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that I would be part of a technological revolution
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that would make that dream come true.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I was born premature by about 10 weeks,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,which resulted in my blindness some 64 years ago.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,The condition is known as retrolental fibroplasia,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it's now very rare in the developed world.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Little did I know, lying curled up
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in my prim baby humidicrib in 1948
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that I'd been born at the right place
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the right time,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that I was in a country where I could participate
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in the technological revolution.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There are 37 million totally blind people on our planet,b
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but those of us who've shared in the technological changes
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,mainly come from North America, Europe,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Japan, and other developed parts of the world.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Computers have changed the lives of us all in this room
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and around the world,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but I think they've changed the lives
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,of we blind people more than any other group.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And so I want to tell you about the interaction
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,between computer-based adaptive technology
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the many volunteers who helped me over the years
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to become the person I am today.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's an interaction between volunteers,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,passionate inventors, and technology,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it's a story that many other blind people could tell.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But let me tell you a little bit about it today.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When I was five, I went to school and I learned braille.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's an ingenious system of six dots
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,that are punched into paper,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I can feel them with my fingers.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In fact, I think they are putting up my grade six report.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I don't know where Julian Morrow got that from.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I was pretty good in reading,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but religion and musical appreciation needed more work.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When you leave the opera house,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,you'll find there's braille signage in the lifts.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Look for it. Have you noticed it?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I do. I look for it all the time.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When I was at school,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the books were transcribed by transcribers,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,voluntary people who punched one dot at a time
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so I'd have volumes to read,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and that had been going on, mainly by women,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,since the late 19th century in this country,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but it was the only way I could read.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,When I was in high school,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I got my first Philips Reel-to-Reel tape recorder,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and tape recorders became my sort of pre-computer
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,medium of learning.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I could have family and friends read me material,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I could then read it back
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,as many times as I needed.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And it brought me into contact
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,with volunteers and helpers.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For example, when I studied at graduate school
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,at Queen's University in Canada,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the prisoners at the Collins Bay jail agreed to help me.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I gave them a tape recorder, and they read into it.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,As one of them said to me,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"Ron, we ain't going anywhere at the moment."
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But think of it. These men,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,who hadn't had the educational opportunities I'd had,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,helped me gain post-graduate qualifications in law
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,by their dedicated help.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Well, I went back and became an academic
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,at Melbourne's Monash University,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and for those 25 years,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,tape recorders were everything to me.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In fact, in my office in 1990,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I had 18 miles of tape.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Students, family, and friends all read me material.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Mrs. Lois Dowery,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,whom I later came to call my surrogate mom,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,read me many thousands of hours of the tape.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,One of the reasons I agreed to give this talk today
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,was that I was hoping that Lois would be here
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,so I could introduce you to her and publicly thank her.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But sadly, her health hasn't permitted her to come today.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But I thank you here, Lois, from this platform.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Applause)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I saw my first Apple Computer in 1984,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I thought to myself,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,"This thing's got a glass screen, not much use to me."
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,How very wrong I was.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In 1987, in the month our eldest son Jared was born,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I got my first blind computer,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and it's actually here.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,See it up there?
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And you see it has no, what do you call it, no screen.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's a blind computer.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It's a Keynote Gold 84k,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and the 84k stands for it had 84 kilobytes of memory.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Don't laugh, it cost me 4,000 dollars at the time.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I think there's more memory in my watch.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It was invented by Russell Smith, a passionate inventor
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in New Zealand who was trying to help blind people.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Sadly, he died in a light plane crash in 2005,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but his memory lives on in my heart.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It meant, for the first time,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I could read back what I had typed into it.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,It had a speech synthesizer.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I'd written my first co-authored [unclear] book
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,on a typewriter in 1979 purely from memory.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This now allowed me to read back what I'd written
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and to enter the computer world,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,even with its 84k of memory.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,In 1974, the great Ray Kurzweil, the American inventor,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,worked on building a machine that would scan books
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and read them out in synthetic speech.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Optical character recognition units then
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,only operated usually on one font,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,but by using charged couple device flatbed scanners
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and speech synthesizers,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,he developed a machine that could read any font.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And his machine, which was as big as a washing machine,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,was launched on the 13th of January, 1976.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I saw my first commercially available Kurzweil
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,in March, 1989, and it blew me away,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and in September 1989,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the month that my associate professorship
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,at Monash University was announced,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,the law school bought one, and I could use it.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For the first time, I could read what I wanted to read
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,by putting a book on the scanner.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I didn't have to be nice to people!
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I no longer would be censored.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,For example, I was too shy then,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and I'm actually too shy now, to ask anybody
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,to read me out loud sexually explicit material.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Laughter)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,But, you know, I could pop a book on in the middle of the night, and --
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,(Applause)
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Now, the Kurzweil Reader is simply
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,a program on my laptop.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,That's what it's shrunk to.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,And now I can scan the latest novel
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and not wait to get it into talking book libraries.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,I can keep up with my friends.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,There are many people who have helped me in my life,
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,and many that I haven't met.
Dialogue: 0,9:59:59.99,9:59:59.99,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,One is another American inventor Ted Hentna.