Woman Finds Success In Corporate World with Help of MiniViewer

"There are times when I have meetings all day long, and the MiniViewer is at my side... But when I am in my office, I read documents with my Aladdin desktop system. It's nice to have that kind of versatility, because my life demands that I be adaptive to change." ~Debbie Garrison

Debbie Garrison, of Richardson, Texas, was born with Glaucoma. No stranger to challenges that low vision poses to everyday activities, Debbie has had vision problems since birth. In school, she used large-print textbooks, and books on tape were often helpful. But Debbie's vision grew progressively worse, until July of 2002, when she decided that it was time to do something drastic. Debbie had a cornea transplant in one eye, which is healing slowly. But her vision got worse than it was before surgery.

Debbie has extreme difficulty reading anything without the assistance of her video magnifiers. She has owned an Aladdin desktop unit for over five years, and keeps it in her office to read documents and such. Two years ago, she decided to expand her resources and inquire about something that she could take with her. The operator she spoke with at Telesensory immediately referenced the MiniViewer. "It was just what I had in mind," says Debbie. Now she takes it to meetings and uses it at home. "After having a reading machine in the workplace and knowing I can use it at home, too, I can't imagine not being able to do everything I do."

"The only way I can read mail is to use MiniViewer," Debbie says. "I take it home to pay bills, read instructions on back of boxes, to read the newspaper and sale ads, and read my daughter's report card. Nothing gets by me!"

Because Debbie is constantly on the go, the MiniViewer has quickly become her primary system. "There are times when I have meetings all day long, and the MiniViewer is at my side." Debbie is on a project team that requires her to attend a lot more meetings than she had previously. "Colleagues hand out materials in a meeting, and I have to review it right then and there," she says. "It's not like I can take the documents back to my office and read at my own leisure, like completing a homework assignment," she adds. "But when I am in my office, I read documents with my Aladdin desktop system. It's nice to have that kind of versatility, because my life demands that I be adaptive to change."

Debbie loves the MiniViewer's ability to display high-contrast bland and white or color. "It's a great feature to have, when I'm trying to see something that I've highlighted on a document," says Debbie. She also gives high marks to the compact design of the carrying case. "Sometimes I'm transporting my MiniViewer to another meeting, and people think I'm leaving with my purse! A lot of people stop me and ask me about it, wanting to know what this thing is," she adds. "They think it's really cool."

For nearly nine years, Debbie has done accounting for Brinker International in Dallas (the corporation that owns Maggiano's, Chili's, Macaroni Grill and other successful restaurant chains). Prior to this experience, she worked for 13 years in the oil industry. Debbie does not like to have to slow down. Her work is important to her, and she realizes the value of having her video magnifiers close at-hand. "I even bring the church bulletins home after the service and read them with my MiniViewer," she says. "That's how much I rely on this thing. I really couldn't get by without it."