HONORING DAVID HOLLADAY

February 9, 2007

By 1982, I had lost research funding, paid off my mortgage and lost patience with the promises of puzzle-solving developers. Desperate for computer tools, I bought an Apple II plus computer and outfitted it with everything promising that I could afford. That included David Holladay's fledgling Braille-Edit program. It worked better than expected of a new entry into the field of braille and speech software, so I wrote a list of twenty-four suggestions. Not wanting to overwhelm or discourage David, I sent him twelve of them.

I was amazed to soon receive a new version of his software that implemented most of those suggestions. That so gladdened this heart of one who perceived himself as a midwife for adaptive technology, that I quickly sent the other twelve. David wondered how I had come up with them so quickly, so I had to admit to him that I had held them back.

Well, it went on like that for years. It was his software that I used to persuade my employer to buy computers so that I could take mine home. I used that software at work and at conferences to convince colleagues that a blind person could edit efficiently with speech. I told math students about his special mathematics software. Using his program, I made a demo tape and braille print-outs to encourage potential users. That tape made enemies for me of some developers of adaptive technology. I did not denegrate their offerings, so I surmise that the example embarrassed them about what they had to offer.

Then came MS-DOS and Windows. David and his team which included his wife Karen Navy adapted to the dizzying shifts of platform.

It finally comes down to this question. But what distinguishes people like David and Karen from the crowd of puzzle solvers whose interest in speech software begins to flag when they get the computer to say swear words? It's just this. These folks are more than puzzle solvers. They are tool makers.

A tool maker returns to design a third and fourth generation of his creations. In the computer business, that's harder because the generations just go on and on. I therefore thank you for this opportunity to honor David, Karen and their teams, past and present, as true tool makers in adaptive computer technology for the vision impaired.

--Harvey Lauer