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.
當我大約三到四歲大的時候, 我記得母親唸了一個故事 給我和兩個哥哥聽, 我記得我把雙手放在 書本上碰觸頁面的感覺, 想像他們正在討論的畫面。
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."
我的母親說:「親愛的, 你要記得,你不能看、 不能對圖片有感觸, 也無法感覺頁面上的印刷。」
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.
我暗自在心裡想: 「可是那是我想要的啊! 我熱愛故事,我想要閱讀。」 我一點也不知道, 我會成為科技革命的一分子, 那是會讓我夢想成真的一場革命。
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.
我早產大約十週, 那讓我在 64 年前就失明了。 就是所謂的晶狀體後纖維增生症 (retrolental fibroplasia), 這個疾病現在在 已開發國家已經很少見了。 我一點也不知道,我蜷縮地躺在 嬰兒保溫箱中的 1948 年, 其實我就出生在對的地方 和對的時間。 我生在一個國家,那是一個能讓我參與 科技革命的地方。
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.
世界上有 3,700 萬人全盲, 但是我們獲得的科技革新 主要來自於北美、歐洲、 日本,以及世界上其它已開發國家。 電腦改變了在座所有人 以及全世界的生活。 但是我想電腦對盲人生活的改變, 遠大於其他人。 因此我想告訴你不同的互動方式, 包含了運用電腦科技 以及這幾年來幫助我的志工, 他們讓我成為現在的我。 這是與志工、 熱情的發明家和科技間的互動, 這是每一位盲人都能說的故事, 就讓我今天和你分享一點吧!
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)
在我五歲時,我上學去學點字, 那是一種非常巧妙的系統, 運用打印在紙上的六個小點, 我就能用手指感覺它們。 事實上,我想他們正把 我的六年級的成績單放在大螢幕上, 我不知道朱麗安.莫若是打哪找到這個的。 (笑聲) 我很擅長閱讀, 但是宗教和音樂賞析就需要多加強。 (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.
當你離開歌劇院, 你會發現電梯裡有點字板。 找找看,你有注意過嗎? 我有,我無時無刻都在找它。
(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."
當我還在學的時候, 會有人謄錄書本, 志工每次打印一個點, 而我因此能有許多書可以讀, 這項工作通常由女性來做, 早在我國 19 世紀末時就開始了, 但那是我當時唯一可以閱讀的方式。 當我讀中學時, 我得到第一台飛利普磁盤式錄音機, 自此之後,錄音機就成了我的 電腦前學習方式。 我可以請親友幫我讀點東西, 然後我可以跟著 要唸幾次就唸幾次。 這讓我開始接觸 志工和其他幫助我的人。 比如說,當我就讀 加拿大皇后大學的研究所時, 哥蓮士灣監獄 (Collins Bay Jail) 的囚犯答應要幫我。 我把錄音機交給他們, 然後他們把內容錄進去。 其中有一個人告訴我: 「朗,我們現在哪兒也不去。」
(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.
但你想想,這些人, 他們沒有和我擁有同樣的教育機會, 卻幫助我取得法律碩士學位, 全力以赴。
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.
嗯,我回來後任教於 墨爾本的蒙納許大學 (Monash University) 。 在那 25 年裡, 錄音機是我的一切。 事實上,1990 年時,我在辦公室裡 就有 18 哩長的錄音帶。 學生、家人和朋友都幫我唸各種東西。 露易絲.桃蕊 (Lois Doery) 女士 我後來視她如母親一般, 幫我錄了上千小時的書。 我同意今天演講的原因之一 是因為我希望露易絲能在這, 如此一來,我就能向你們介紹她, 並公開向她致謝。 但可惜的是,她今天 身體不太舒服,無法前來。 不過露易絲,我還是想在 這個舞台上向跟你說聲謝謝。
(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.
我在 1984 年時看到我的第一台蘋果電腦, 我心裡想: 「這個東西有一面玻璃螢幕, 對我來說沒什麼用。」 我真是大錯特錯。 我的長子傑拉德在 1987 年出生的那個月, 我得到了第一台盲用電腦, 其實它就在這裡。 有看到嗎? 你可以看到它沒有…嗯, 你們是怎麼說的?螢幕? (笑聲) 畢竟這是一台盲用電腦。 (笑聲) 這是 Keynote Gold 84k, 84k 指的是有 84 千位元組的記憶體。 (笑聲) 別笑,當時我花了 4,000 美元才買到。 我的錶也有很多回憶,
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.
這支錶是由一位熱情的發明家 羅素.史密斯 (Russell Smith) 所發明的, 他一直在紐西蘭試著幫助盲人。 讓人難過的是,他在 2005 年時 逝世於輕航機空難。 但是他的回憶將永存我心。 對我來說,這是第一次 我打出來的文字能夠被讀出來, 他有語音合成器。 我用打字機完成了第一本 勞工法令的合著書籍, 那是在 1979 年時,全憑記憶。 現在我能夠聽取我之前寫的東西, 然後把它輸入電腦世界, 即使它只有 84k 的記憶體。
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!
在 1974 年時,一位美國偉大的發明家 雷蒙德.庫茨魏爾 (Ray Kurzweil), 設計了一台能夠掃描書本的機器, 並透過合成語音把書讀出來。 光學辨識裝置 當時只能在一種字型中運作, 但是透過電聯裝置的平台式掃描器 和語音合成器, 他設計了能夠讀取任何字體的機器。 他的機器就跟洗衣機一樣大, 在 1976 年 1 月 13 日發行。 我第一次接觸到在市面上販賣的庫茨魏爾的機器, 是在 1989 年 3月時,當時我震撼不已。 在 1989 年 9 月時, 我的副教授同事 在蒙納許大學宣佈 法學院有一台,我可以使用。 那是第一次,我可以想讀什麼就讀什麼, 我只需要將書放上掃描機就可以了。 我不需要再討好人了!
(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)
我不再會被檢視。 舉例來說,我很害羞, 其實我現在還是 很不好意思去請任何人 詳細地為我唸出關於性方面的資料。 (笑聲) 但是,你知道,我可以在 深夜裡把書放上,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.
現在庫茨魏爾閱讀機只是 我筆電上的一個程式而已。 它已經縮小成這樣了。 現在,我可以掃描最新的小說, 不需要再等待它出現在有聲書圖書館裡, 我可以跟上朋友的流行腳步。
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.
在我的生命裡,有許多人曾幫助我, 很多與我是從未見過面的。 其中一位是美國的發明家 泰德.亨特 (Ted Hunter), 泰德是摩托車賽車手, 但是 1978 年時,他出了車禍而失明了。 這還蠻嚇人的,如果你正打算騎機車。 然後他轉身成為滑水運動員, 並且成為滑水運動身障者的冠軍。 但是在 1989 年,他和 比爾喬依絲 (Bill Joyce) 合作, 開發了一個電腦程式,能夠唸出 電腦螢幕上的東西, 透過從網路或是電腦螢幕上的東西。 它稱為 JAWS,意即透過語音工作, 聽起來就像這樣。
(JAWS speaking)
(JAWS 語音)
Ron McCallum: Isn't that slow?
朗:會不會太慢?
(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) 你看,如果我用這種速度唸,自己都會睡著。 我為了你們慢慢說話。 我現在想用我唸的速度來播放, 請播放。
(JAWS speaking)
(JAWS 語音)
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
RM: You know, when you're marking student essays, you want to get through them fairly quickly.
朗:你知道,當你為 學生的論文打成績時, 你會想飛快地解決它們。
(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.
這項科技在 1987 年時讓我著迷, 現在它也出現在你、我的 iPhone 裡了。 但是,你知道,我發現和機器一起閱讀 是一個非常寂寞的過程。 我的生長過程中有家人、朋友陪我閱讀, 我喜愛那種人們閱讀時的 溫暖、呼吸和親近感。 你喜歡聽他人為你朗讀嗎? 我印象中最久遠的回憶之一 是在 1999 年時,瑪麗為我和孩子 在曼利海灘 (Manly Beach) 附近 朗讀了《哈利波特:神秘的魔法石》。 那是本很棒的書吧? 我到現在還是很喜歡 有個人在我身邊為我朗讀。 但是我不會放棄科技, 因為科技讓我擁有更好的生活。
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,談到為盲人做書的日子 遠早於這項科技。 畢竟,長時間唱片 (LP) 的發明 是在 1930 年代早期, 現在我們把有聲書放在 CD 中, 運用數位資訊無障礙系統,稱為 DAISY。 當我用合成語音閱讀時, 我喜歡在家裡讀言情小說, 用真人的聲音讀。
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.
但是現在還是有障礙 在我們這樣的身障者眼前。 許多網站不能使用 JAWS 或是其它的科技來讀。 網站通常著重視覺效果, 但是所有這類的圖片 都不是標籤和按鈕, 那也是為什麼全球資訊網協會 (World Wide Web Consortium 3), 就是我們熟知的 W3C, 已經開發了世界標準 的網際網路。 我們希望所有的 網路使用者或是網站擁有者 都讓他們的網站與此相容,這樣一來 沒有視覺的人也被公平對待。 我們的法令也帶來了許多障礙。 例如在澳洲, 就像世界上其它 1/3 的國家一樣, 在著作權保護法方面,提供例外給點字法 或是唸書給盲人聽。 但是這些有聲書不能傳到國外去, 例如在西班牙,有十萬本 西班牙文的有聲書, 在阿根廷有五萬本, 在非拉丁美洲的國家中 不過幾千本。 但是從西班牙傳送有聲書到阿根廷 是不合法的。 有成千上萬的有聲書 在美國、英國、加拿大和澳洲等國家, 但是它們都不能被運送到 世界上的其它 60 個 以英語做為第一和第二個語言的國家。 記得我和你提到關於哈利波特的故事, 因為我們不能傳送有聲書到國外去, 就必須重複的閱讀製作 在每個同為英語系的國家: 英國、美國、加拿大、澳洲 和紐西蘭都必須 重新讀出不同版本的哈利波特有聲書。
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.
那也是為什麼下個月在摩洛哥 會舉行一場國際會議, 那是場聚集各個國家 和世界愛盲聯盟 (World Blind Union) 共同呼籲 應訂立跨國條約, 如此一來,如果有書籍 取得著作權保護的例外, 其它國家也同樣能享有例外, 我們就能夠跨國運送那些書本, 帶給人們生活,尤其是在那些發展中的國家, 沒有書可以讀的盲人。 我希望這件事能夠成真。
(Applause)
(鼓掌)
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.
我這一生非常幸福, 我有婚姻、小孩, 還有很有趣的工作, 不管是在雪梨大學法學院, 我在那當了一學期的院長, 或是像現在我任職於聯合國 位在日內瓦的殘疾人權利委員會 (Rights of Persons with Disabilities)。 一直以來,我都是非常幸福的人,
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.
我不知道未來會如何。 科技會有更進一步的發展, 但是我還是會記得我的母親在 60 年前曾說: 「親愛的,你要記得, 你永遠都不能用你的手指讀書。」 我很高興透過與點字轉錄員、 朗讀志工和熱情發明家之間的互動, 讓我還有全世界的盲人朋友們 能夠實現讀書的夢想。
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.
我想謝謝我的研究員 漢娜.馬丁 (Hannah Martin), 他幫我播放投影片, 還有我的太太瑪麗.庫克教授 (Mary Crock), 她是我生命中的亮光, 讓我的生命因她而完整。 我也想謝謝她。
I think I have to say goodbye now. Bless you. Thank you very much.
我想我現在得跟各位說再見了, 祝福你們,謝謝!
(Applause) Yay! (Applause) Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. (Applause)
(掌聲) 耶!(掌聲) 好了,好了,好了。(掌聲)