The Blind Vampire Hunter by Tim Forder Read Free Book Online

loss could happen again and leave me
totally blind at any time. I might have mentioned that it would be
great if I got my programming degree and got into a programming
department before I went totally blind, so I had some visual
experience within my chosen career. They acted on this.
    A week later Employee Assistance called me in
and introduced me to Mrs. Walker, Head of Internal Programming
Department. The result was that I was offered and accepted a
programming position before I finished my education and received my
degree, “..so you will have the optimal time to develop program
experience while your eyesight lasts.”
    This was great. But what about those visual
devices to aid me in my work? Calls to my rehab counselor all were
the same, “Lack of funding, complain to your local
Congressman.”
    Following such a call, I received another
call from my mother, who could hear the disappointment in my voice
from my talk with my rehab counselor. After asking about my “moody
mod”, she asked for my counselor’s name and phone number.
    The next day, my rehab counselor called me at
my apartment because I had been up all night with a migraine
headache and had called in sick to get some sleep. She set up an
appointment at my apartment for that very afternoon to discuss my
needs and to give me a required IQ test. Before the meeting, I
called my mother who informed me that when the counselor gave her
the “Lack of funding, complain to your local Congressman.” My
mother responded with, “I work with Congressman so-n-so,
Congressman so-n-so and Congressman so-n-so. Which one would you
like me to have call you? ”
    During the IQ test, Miss May made the
observation that I would make a great programmer because I think
like a computer. During one part of the test, the person tested is
supposed to look at a circle and check the chart to see what the
number for that circle is (for example “1”), record it under the
circle, go to the next figure (for example, a square), check the
chart to see that the number for squares are (say “2”), go to the
next (for example, another circle), check the chart to see what the
number is and so on..
    I looked at the circle, checked the chart and
put a “1” under all the circles, checked the chart for squares and
put a “2” under all the squares and checked the chart for triangles
and put a “3” under all the triangles and so on. Miss May commented
that my system was the fastest she had ever seen, I had handled it
like a computer would have. I should make a great programmer.
    This was the early 80’s. Computer-wise, this
was still the time of mainframe computing. There was no such thing
as PCs. Dumb terminals connected a human to one very big computer
and that was all the terminal could perform. All the real work was
done at the mainframe computer, hence the term “Dumb Terminal.”
    The Corporation, note the corporation, not
Maryland Rehab., got me the first talking terminal on the East
coast, so of course they also got me a news reporter to report the
event. The interview went well—almost. I thought the reporter had
left, so I was quite surprised when a question my boss asked just
after the interview was printed in the article...
    My hearing impaired boss asked, “Does this
terminal have both voice input and output?”
    Having a little fun with the women
programmers within our department, I pointed at the large speaker
under the CRT screen and answered, “No. It’s like a woman, all
mouth—no ears.”
    Later, when the article was printed, my
girlfriend read it to me, rolled up the newspaper, and hit me over
the head with it. I will not tell you what my mother had to say
when she read the article, but no, she did not cry.
    A teacher of the blind after reading the
article called me for permission to bring her students out to see
my equipment and to allow her blind students a chance to talk with
a visually handicapped professional. I told her it was fine with
me, but she most