When I was about three or four years old, I remember my mum reading a story to me and my two big brothers, and I remember putting up my hands to feel the page of the book, to feel the picture they were discussing.
喺我三四歲嘅時候 我記得阿媽同我同兩個大佬 講過一個故仔 我記得嗰時用手觸摸書嘅紙 想像佢哋討論梗嘅圖畫 我阿媽講︰「阿仔,
And my mum said, "Darling, remember that you can't see and you can't feel the picture and you can't feel the print on the page."
記住,你睇唔見, 你感受唔到圖畫, 你感受唔到頁面嘅印刷。」 我心諗︰
And I thought to myself, "But that's what I want to do. I love stories. I want to read." Little did I know that I would be part of a technological revolution that would make that dream come true.
「但係,我正想掂書。 我鍾意故仔,我想讀佢哋。」 我真係冇諗到 我會係一場技術革命嘅一分子 令到細個想摸書嘅願望成真 阿媽早產我十個禮拜
I was born premature by about 10 weeks, which resulted in my blindness, some 64 years ago. The condition is known as retrolental fibroplasia, and it's now very rare in the developed world. Little did I know, lying curled up in my prim baby humidicrib in 1948 that I'd been born at the right place and the right time, that I was in a country where I could participate in the technological revolution.
導致我 64 年前失明 呢種情況稱為晶狀體後纖維增生症 已經喺發達國家好少見 我唔知道喺 1948 年 我喺初生恆溫箱裏邊時 我出世嘅地方同時間都咁啱 我原來出世喺一個 可以參與到技術革命嘅國家度
There are 37 million totally blind people on our planet, but those of us who've shared in the technological changes mainly come from North America, Europe, Japan and other developed parts of the world. Computers have changed the lives of us all in this room and around the world, but I think they've changed the lives of we blind people more than any other group. And so I want to tell you about the interaction between computer-based adaptive technology and the many volunteers who helped me over the years to become the person I am today. It's an interaction between volunteers, passionate inventors and technology, and it's a story that many other blind people could tell. But let me tell you a bit about it today.
全球有三千七百萬盲人 但係,當中受惠於科技嘅盲人 主要嚟自北美,歐洲、日本 同其他發達國家 電腦已經改變咗在座各位 以至世界各地嘅人嘅生活 但我覺得電腦改變盲人嘅程度 比其他人仲要高 所以我想講下我同電腦輔助科技 同埋無數多年嚟 幫我嘅義工之間嘅互動 因為互動,至有今日嘅我 亦都因為義工、熱情嘅發明家 同科技之間嘅互動 先至有今日嘅我 我嘅故事有好多盲人都講過 但係,等我我講少少我嘅故事
When I was five, I went to school and I learned braille. It's an ingenious system of six dots that are punched into paper, and I can feel them with my fingers. In fact, I think they're putting up my grade six report. I don't know where Julian Morrow got that from. (Laughter) I was pretty good in reading, but religion and musical appreciation needed more work. (Laughter)
五歲嗰時我返學係學盲人凸字 盲人凸字係一個 剩係得六個點嘅巧妙系統 嗰啲點鑿入紙裏邊 透過手指,我可以感覺到佢哋 事實上,我覺得學校啲人 喺度展示梗我六年班嘅報告 我唔知 Julian Morrow 佢喺邊度攞返嚟 (笑聲) 我閱讀科好叻 但宗教同音樂科要多啲努力 (笑聲)
When you leave the opera house, you'll find there's braille signage in the lifts. Look for it. Have you noticed it? I do. I look for it all the time.
當你離開劇院 你會發現,電梯裡邊有盲人凸字 搵下!搵唔搵到? 我成日都搵嗰喎!
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
When I was at school, the books were transcribed by transcribers, voluntary people who punched one dot at a time so I'd have volumes to read, and that had been going on, mainly by women, since the late 19th century in this country, but it was the only way I could read. When I was in high school, I got my first Philips reel-to-reel tape recorder, and tape recorders became my sort of pre-computer medium of learning. I could have family and friends read me material, and I could then read it back as many times as I needed. And it brought me into contact with volunteers and helpers. For example, when I studied at graduate school at Queen's University in Canada, the prisoners at the Collins Bay jail agreed to help me. I gave them a tape recorder, and they read into it. As one of them said to me, "Ron, we ain't going anywhere at the moment."
我返學嘅時候 書本由抄卷員,即係義工 一點一點咁樣抄錄 所以我至有一堆書睇 美國嘅抄錄工作自十九世紀末開始 主要由女性做 抄錄亦係唯一方式令我可以閱讀 當我讀高中嘅時候 我有第一個磁帶錄音機 菲利普牌子嘅 磁帶錄音機成為我 電腦時代之前嘅學習工具 有咗錄音機之後 我可以請家人朋友將文字讀一次 然後我就可以將佢讀返,讀幾多次都得 佢令我可以接觸義工同助手 譬如 當我喺加拿大皇后大學度 讀研究生嘅時候 Colloins Bay 監獄嘅囚犯同意幫我錄音 我將錄音機交畀佢哋,佢哋錄低聲音 有一個人同我講︰ 「Ron,我哋宜家無地方去, 我哋可以幫你。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
But think of it. These men, who hadn't had the educational opportunities I'd had, helped me gain post-graduate qualifications in law by their dedicated help.
但諗一諗呢啲囚犯 嗰啲冇同我一樣受過教育嘅人 無私咁協助我讀到法學研究生 之後我去咗墨爾本 Monash University 做教職員
Well, I went back and became an academic at Melbourne's Monash University, and for those 25 years, tape recorders were everything to me. In fact, in my office in 1990, I had 18 miles of tape. Students, family and friends all read me material. Mrs. Lois Doery, whom I later came to call my surrogate mum, read me many thousands of hours onto tape. One of the reasons I agreed to give this talk today was that I was hoping that Lois would be here so I could introduce you to her and publicly thank her. But sadly, her health hasn't permitted her to come today. But I thank you here, Lois, from this platform.
25 年裏邊 所有嘢都係透過錄音機接收資訊 1990 年我嘅辦公室收藏嘅磁帶 長達 18 英里 學生、家人、朋友都幫過我錄音 Lois Doery 女士係我後來嘅代母 佢幫我讀咗成千上萬個鐘頭 其中一個我今日應承講上嚟講嘅原因 係我希望 Lois Doery 佢今日能夠喺度 令我可以介紹佢畀你哋,並公開多謝佢 可惜今日,佢身體抱恙,未能夠嚟到 但我想喺呢度多謝你 Lois Doery
(Applause)
(掌聲)
I saw my first Apple computer in 1984, and I thought to myself, "This thing's got a glass screen, not much use to me." How very wrong I was. In 1987, in the month our eldest son Gerard was born, I got my first blind computer, and it's actually here. See it up there? And you see it has no, what do you call it, no screen. (Laughter) It's a blind computer. (Laughter) It's a Keynote Gold 84k, and the 84k stands for it had 84 kilobytes of memory. (Laughter) Don't laugh, it cost me 4,000 dollars at the time. (Laughter) I think there's more memory in my watch.
1984 年,我有我第一台電腦 我諗︰ 「呢樣嘢雖然有玻璃屏幕, 但對我冇用。」 我諗得好錯 1987 年,我嘅大仔 Gerard 出世嘅嗰個月 我終於有我第一台盲人電腦 台上擺咗部咁嘅電腦 見到未? 你發現佢冇屏幕 (笑聲) 佢係一台盲人電腦 (笑聲) 佢叫做 Keynote Gold 84k 84k 代表佢有 84KB 記憶體 (笑聲) 唔好笑,當時佢使咗我四千美金 (笑聲)
It was invented by Russell Smith, a passionate inventor in New Zealand who was trying to help blind people. Sadly, he died in a light plane crash in 2005, but his memory lives on in my heart. It meant, for the first time, I could read back what I had typed into it. It had a speech synthesizer. I'd written my first coauthored labor law book on a typewriter in 1979 purely from memory. This now allowed me to read back what I'd written and to enter the computer world, even with its 84k of memory.
我諗我手錶嘅記憶體都多過佢 佢係由一個充滿熱情嘅發明家 Russell Smith 發明 居住喺新西蘭,致力幫助盲人 不幸地,2005 年 佢因為小型飛機墜毀而離世 但佢永遠喺我心裡面 講返轉頭,即係話第一次 我可以將我打出嚟嘅嘢讀出嚟 佢有一個語音合成器 喺 1979 年,我喺打字機上純粹憑記憶 完成我第一部關於勞工法嘅合著書 咁嘅電腦令我知道自己打咗乜嘢 同埋,就算係得 84k 記憶體 我都一樣可以走進電腦世界
In 1974, the great Ray Kurzweil, the American inventor, worked on building a machine that would scan books and read them out in synthetic speech. Optical character recognition units then only operated usually on one font, but by using charge-coupled device flatbed scanners and speech synthesizers, he developed a machine that could read any font. And his machine, which was as big as a washing machine, was launched on the 13th of January, 1976. I saw my first commercially available Kurzweil in March 1989, and it blew me away, and in September 1989, the month that my associate professorship at Monash University was announced, the law school got one, and I could use it. For the first time, I could read what I wanted to read by putting a book on the scanner. I didn't have to be nice to people!
1974 年,美國發明家 Ray Kurzweil 開發一台可以掃描書本嘅機器 透過語音合成讀出嚟 而光學字符識別單元 通常剩係展示到一種字體 但用咗感光耦合元件桌式掃描儀 同語音合成之後 佢開發到一台能夠讀任何字體嘅機 佢呢部同洗衣機一樣大嘅機 喺 1976 年 1 月 13 日推出 而喺 1989 年 3 月 我擁有第一台商業用嘅 Kurzweil 電腦 部電腦令人好感動 1989 年 9 月 Monash University 宣佈 聘請我做助理教授 法學院有一部 Kurzweil 電腦我可以用 第一次,我可以讀我鍾意讀嘅 只要將書放喺掃描器上面就可以讀嘞 我就唔需要求人啦!
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I no longer would be censored. For example, I was too shy then, and I'm actually too shy now, to ask anybody to read me out loud sexually explicit material. (Laughter) But, you know, I could pop a book on in the middle of the night, and -- (Laughter) (Applause)
唔好再有人審査我 例如,嗰時我好怕羞 其實宜家也好怕求人 幫我大聲讀性禁書 (笑聲) 但你知啦 我可以喺半夜攞一本書,然後… (笑聲) (掌聲)
Now, the Kurzweil reader is simply a program on my laptop. That's what it's shrunk to. And now I can scan the latest novel and not wait to get it into talking book libraries. I can keep up with my friends.
宜家,Kurzweil 閱讀器 縮細到我筆電嘅一個程式 宜家,我可以掃描最新嘅小說 唔使等佢擺喺發聲圖書館入邊先聽到 我可以同老友記聯絡
There are many people who have helped me in my life, and many that I haven't met. One is another American inventor Ted Henter. Ted was a motorcycle racer, but in 1978 he had a car accident and lost his sight, which is devastating if you're trying to ride motorbikes. He then turned to being a waterskier and was a champion disabled waterskier. But in 1989, he teamed up with Bill Joyce to develop a program that would read out what was on the computer screen from the Net or from what was on the computer. It's called JAWS, Job Access With Speech, and it sounds like this.
我生命裏邊有好多幫過我嘅人 仲有好多我從未見過嘅人 其中一位係美國發明家 Ted Henter 佢以前係電單車車手 1978 年因為車禍失明 對於渣電單車嘅人嚟講非常之慘 之後佢轉咗去玩滑水 仲成為殘疾人滑水比賽冠軍 1989 年,佢同 Bill Joyce 組隊 開發一款能夠閱讀 無論網頁定電腦文字嘅程式 亦叫做 JAWS 全稱 Job Access With Speech 名符其實
(JAWS speaking)
(JAWS 發聲)
Ron McCallum: Isn't that slow?
講者:係咪好慢?
(Laughter) You see, if I read like that, I'd fall asleep. I slowed it down for you. I'm going to ask that we play it at the speed I read it. Can we play that one?
(笑聲) 如果佢咁嘅速度讀,我實瞓著咗 其實係我較慢咗啫 大家想唔想用我平時聽嘅速度播? (JAWS 發聲)
(JAWS speaking)
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
RM: You know, when you're marking student essays, you want to get through them fairly quickly.
講者:你要明白,當你批改學生功課 您要快速咁讀
(Laughter) (Applause)
(笑聲) (掌聲)
This technology that fascinated me in 1987 is now on my iPhone and on yours as well. But, you know, I find reading with machines a very lonely process. I grew up with family, friends, reading to me, and I loved the warmth and the breath and the closeness of people reading. Do you love being read to? And one of my most enduring memories is in 1999, Mary reading to me and the children down near Manly Beach "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone." Isn't that a great book? I still love being close to someone reading to me. But I wouldn't give up the technology, because it's allowed me to lead a great life.
呢個 1987 年 曾經令我著迷過嘅技術 宜家喺同你哋 iPhone 上面都有 但我發覺用機器讀 係一個好寂莫嘅過程 喺我成長裏面,家人、朋友 都有讀書俾我聽 我鍾意啲人讀書嗰陣 嗰份溫暖、呼吸同親近 你哋鍾唔鍾意有人讀俾你聽? 我印象中最深刻一次 係 1999 年喺曼利海灘附近 瑪麗喺度讀「哈利波特與魔法石」 俾我同小朋友聽 唔係一本好書嗎? 我仲鍾意坐近讀俾我聽嘅人 但我唔會因此唔用文字閱讀器 事關閱讀器帶俾我精彩生活
Of course, talking books for the blind predated all this technology. After all, the long-playing record was developed in the early 1930s, and now we put talking books on CDs using the digital access system known as DAISY. But when I'm reading with synthetic voices, I love to come home and read a racy novel with a real voice.
當然發聲圖書比閱讀器更加早出現 畢竟,收錄長錄音嘅錄音帶 喺 19 世紀 30 年代初出現 宜家發聲圖書都入落去光碟入裏邊 用簡稱 DAISY 嘅數碼存取系統儲存 但當我用合成語音讀書嘅時候 我習慣返到屋企 讀一本內容生動嘅小說 兼且真人發音
Now there are still barriers in front of we people with disabilities. Many websites we can't read using JAWS and the other technologies. Websites are often very visual, and there are all these sorts of graphs that aren't labeled and buttons that aren't labeled, and that's why the World Wide Web Consortium 3, known as W3C, has developed worldwide standards for the Internet. And we want all Internet users or Internet site owners to make their sites compatible so that we persons without vision can have a level playing field. There are other barriers brought about by our laws. For example, Australia, like about one third of the world's countries, has copyright exceptions which allow books to be brailled or read for we blind persons. But those books can't travel across borders. For example, in Spain, there are a 100,000 accessible books in Spanish. In Argentina, there are 50,000. In no other Latin American country are there more than a couple of thousand. But it's not legal to transport the books from Spain to Latin America. There are hundreds of thousands of accessible books in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, etc., but they can't be transported to the 60 countries in our world where English is the first and the second language. And remember I was telling you about Harry Potter. Well, because we can't transport books across borders, there had to be separate versions read in all the different English-speaking countries: Britain, United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand all had to have separate readings of Harry Potter.
宜家我哋殘疾人士仍然有一啲問題 例如有好多網站都冇得用 JAWS 閱讀 其他技術都唔得 又例如網站通常都好多圖 有啲圖表冇標示 有啲按鈕都冇標示 呢樣正正係世界萬維網聯盟 3 簡稱 W3C 針對互聯網製定咗國際標準 我哋希朢所有互聯網用戶或網主 可以令網站更兼容 令我哋盲人都享有一個同等對待嘅環境 我哋嘅法律也帶嚟咗障礙 例如 澳洲好似世界三分之一嘅國家一樣 有版權豁免,令書籍可以製成盲人凸字 或者發出聲俾盲人閱讀 但呢啲書唔能夠喺其他國家使用 例如西班牙文嘅書籍 喺西班牙有十萬 喺阿根廷有五萬 但喺其他拉丁美洲國家就少過幾千本 但如果將盲人凸字嘅書 由西班牙運去拉丁美洲,係唔合法 成千上萬嘅可以用嘅盲人凸字書籍 遍佈喺美國、英國 加拿大、澳洲等國家 但佢哋唔可以運去其他 60 個 以英語為第一、第二語言嘅國家 記得我頭先講過哈利波特 因為我哋唔可以運書去第二個國家 所以同一本書喺唔同英語國家 英國、美國、加拿大、澳洲、新西蘭 就會有唔同版本嘅哈利波特 呢樣亦都係點解,下個月喺摩洛哥
And that's why, next month in Morocco, a meeting is taking place between all the countries. It's something that a group of countries and the World Blind Union are advocating, a cross-border treaty so that if books are available under a copyright exception and the other country has a copyright exception, we can transport those books across borders and give life to people, particularly in developing countries, blind people who don't have the books to read. I want that to happen.
有一個所有國家都會參加嘅會議 事關個會議關乎到 一啲國家同世界盲人聯盟 倡導嘅跨國協定 當中講到,如果兩個國家都有版權豁免 我哋就可以將書 喺兩個國家之間運嚟運去 尤其喺發展中國家 為冇書讀嘅盲人重新燃點生命 我想呢樣發生
(Applause)
(掌聲)
My life has been extraordinarily blessed with marriage and children and certainly interesting work to do, whether it be at the University of Sydney Law School, where I served a term as dean, or now as I sit on the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, in Geneva. I've indeed been a very fortunate human being.
我嘅生活一直都幸福 結咗婚又有細路 仲有得意嘅工作做 無論喺悉尼大學法學院擔任院長 定係宜家坐喺日內瓦 聯合國殘疾人權利委員會 我自覺係一個幸福嘅人
I wonder what the future will hold. The technology will advance even further, but I can still remember my mum saying, 60 years ago, "Remember, darling, you'll never be able to read the print with your fingers." I'm so glad that the interaction between braille transcribers, volunteer readers and passionate inventors, has allowed this dream of reading to come true for me and for blind people throughout the world.
我唔知將來會點 但科技必然會更加先進 我仲記得阿媽 60 年前講過︰ 「記住阿仔, 你永遠唔會用手指嚟閱讀。」 我好高興呢種我同 凸字抄寫員、志願讀者 同埋熱情嘅發明家之間嘅互動 令到我同全世界盲人嘅閱讀夢想成真 我想多謝我嘅研究員 Hannah Martin
I'd like to thank my researcher Hannah Martin, who is my slide clicker, who clicks the slides, and my wife, Professor Mary Crock, who's the light of my life, is coming on to collect me. I want to thank her too.
佢一路喺度幫我襟下一張投影片 我要多謝老婆 Mary Crock 佢係我嘅生命之光 佢會嚟接我 我要感謝我太太
I think I have to say goodbye now. Bless you. Thank you very much.
我諗我要講再見喇 祝大家平安。多謝曬
(Applause) Yay! (Applause) Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. (Applause)
(掌聲) 耶! (掌聲) 好,好,好,好