[Athen] Your opinions on keeping old AT

[Heidi Scher]

I love reading all the purge stories!  I do a similar process to what
Robert described.  Unfortunately,  w can't use the 2-year rule as we often
go more like 5 years between students who may need to use documents
requiring the PIAF and sometimes even braille. The main items I keep are
those big-dollar items - embossers and PIAFs, portable braille displays (as
long as they can still connect and work with a computer), portable
magnifiers. If it's less than $500 to replace and I haven't used it for 3-5
years, it goes. I do put labels that say "before disposing of this item,
please ask Heidi" on things that can't stay in my office.

Heidi



+++++++++++++++
Heidi Scher, M.S., CRC
Associate Director - AT
*she, her, hers*
Center for Educational Access at the University of Arkansas
1 University of Arkansas, ARKU 209
Fayetteville, AR 72701
479.575.3104 phone
479.575.7445 fax
+++++++++++++++


On Wed, Jul 17, 2019 at 6:57 PM David Andrews <dandrews920 at comcast.net>
wrote:


> You might be able to find homes for some stuff.

> In Minnesota our Tech Act program, called STAR

> recycles obsolete technology, and gives stuff to

> people who can use older technology.

>

> There are a number of projects that collect

> Braille for African countries, and others.

>

> It is work, but it may ease your conscious.

>

> Dave

>

> At 10:21 AM 7/17/2019, you wrote:

> >Content-Language: en-US

> >Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

> >

> >boundary="_000_61C6DD490FBB3D43A1AA33BF158ED7AF032C13EE84MB2FHDALEARN_"

> >

> >Curious about others' opinions here.

> >

> >Over the years I've had a variety of deans,

> >supervisors, bosses. Each time we switch to new management priorities

> change.

> >

> >One boss will want us to spend money when we

> >have it and buy as much equipment as possible.

> >Another boss wants to clean out and throw away

> >everything we haven't used in a few years. One

> >boss worries about accommodating every student

> >while another boss only worries if a student complains.

> >

> >The current management is on a massive cleanup

> >canpaign so everything I don't want to see

> >thrown away has migrated to my office. I have

> >piles of stuff we "might need" someday but

> >haven't used in a while. Before I could stop it

> >a thirteen-volume Braille textbook was thrown

> >away that was only used one quarter. Last year

> >they nearly threw away my PIAF machine because

> >nobody had seen me using it – but I resurrected it in time.

> >

> >So when the cleanup started I grabbed stuff. Now

> >I can hardly move I’m so – ‘er’ stuffed with stuff in my office!

> >

> >But maybe like some previous bosses, I myself am

> >a hoarder. Maybe I need to just say goodbye and move on.

> >

> >I email other departments asking if they want

> >some wacky thing, like a Braille atlas of the

> >world or an ancient but still working CCTV and get no response.

> >

> >I surplused three perfectly working Braille

> >embossers a few years ago simply because I no

> >longer had convenient parallel or serial ports.

> >I couldn't take it home because that would have

> >been stealing but it was probably broken up for

> >scrap metal. And just yesterday I threw away all

> >our CD-based Daisy players because nobody has

> >requested one in at least four years.

> >

> >I do tend to hoard because it  has served me

> >well before. One of my friends still uses a

> >large-print French-English dictionary, a massive

> >thing I found at a flea market for a dollar. No doubt some school

> surplused it.

> >

> >When I lost my job at TeleSensory, they were

> >literally throwing Braille displays and Optacons

> >in the dumpster. My husband and I snuck back

> >after dark and loaded them in to our car. I gave

> >away the Optacons to very grateful users and still use those displays

> today.

> >But I was young and poorer then; I’m not going

> >to grab stuff that doesn’t belong to me, yet I hate to see it thrown out.

> >

> >Do you others tend to hang on to obsolete

> >technology in case it might be needed? Or do you

> >toss it out because after all you don't have space and don't want to

> hoard.

>

> _______________________________________________

> athen-list mailing list

> athen-list at mailman12.u.washington.edu

> http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/athen-list

>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman12.u.washington.edu/pipermail/athen-list/attachments/20190722/247784ce/attachment.html>