Setting Sail with ZoomText
Right now, Scott Duncan and his sailing partner, Pam Habek are in Vanuatu, an island nation in the South Pacific Ocean. And they arrived there with the help of ZoomText.
On October 11, 2004, Scott and Pam began their mission to become the first legally blind people to circumnavigate the globe independently in a sailboat. They are almost four years into their voyage that they originally estimated would take two and a half to three years to complete. While they won’t win any speed records, they are more determined than ever to complete this epic quest and are well aware that the true adventure is in the voyage and not the final destination.
Scott was born with bilateral congenital Colaboma, which is a condition that prevents parts of the eye from developing prenatally. As a result of this condition, Scott has blind spots throughout his visual field, with almost complete blindness in his right eye. In his 30s, he was also diagnosed with cataracts and currently, his overall visual acuity is roughly 5% of the total vision experienced by a normally sighted individual.
Growing up, Scott was exposed to a wide variety of resources and became familiar with the latest advances in adaptive technology from an early age. This gave him a comfort level with technology that has really empowered him to adapt to his vision loss throughout his life. It was at the age of thirteen that Scott really became interested in sailing. It was exhilarating to have control of driving something and from then on, he took every opportunity he could to be on the water. When he wasn’t sailing in the water, Scott was busy receiving dual Bachelor degrees in Human Development and Sociology from the University of California at Riverside, then furthering his education by achieving a Masters degree in Special Education and Rehabilitation Teaching. He’s worked in the vision loss field for nearly 25 years, and eventually started his own company, AccessAbility Inc, in 1997, specializing in adaptive worksite development and training. This company grew from a one man operation to one with 36 employees that was Ai Squared’s largest dealer!
In 2002, he took his first steps toward Blind Circumnavigation when he purchased “Tournesol”, a Valiant 32, cutter rigged cruising boat. The same year, he sold his business to HumanWare and began seriously training in the San Francisco Bay and eventually completed training to the highest level of US Sailing coursework available. Scott knew Pam for over twenty years and she expressed interest that she wanted to go with him around the world and they took off in October 2004. They made it to Tahiti and met some people who had a 39 foot boat which they purchased and named “Starship” which has been their vessel ever since. This year’s itinerary began in Australia in May, and continued on to New Caledonia, Vanuatu, and will include the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Darwin, Indonesia, Malaysia, and finally to Thailand for the Indian Ocean cyclone season.
Pam and Scott are both passionate ZoomText users and it’s their primary way they access the computer. Computers are an essential piece of sailing for anyone, but especially for Pam and Scott who depend on it to read charts and maps. In addition to ZoomText, they use JAWS as a backup, the VoiceNote (speech synthesized GPS), Trekker (speech output GPS system), Color PocketViewer (video magnifier), along with traditional optical aids (monocular telescopes, magnifying glasses).
When asked about the best experiences they’ve had thus far, Scott said that everywhere they go, they stop at agencies and schools for the blind and have had such rewarding experiences meeting the children. The other experience that stuck out was when they visited Pomerston Island, a small island consisting of 67 inhabitants who only have contact with the outside world once every six months for provisions. When cyclones or storms hit, they all gather together and stand in the middle of the island. Any storm that brings waves more than 30 feet high would engulf the entire island.
They’ve had many challenges along the way; many things not involving sailing so much but just the skills you need to have when on the open water such as navigation, meteorology, medicine, mechanics, etc.
“We were in New Zealand with 60 knot winds and 30 foot waves with lightning striking more than once a second,” said Scott. “There have been very few times we’ve been really scared and in those cases, there’s really nothing to do but go down in the boat and wait it out.”
Scott and Pam are about a third of the way complete on their journey and even though they wanted to be the first legally blind people to circle the globe without stopping, they are eager to learn as much as they can along the way. It’s been such an experience for them thus far that they don’t want to rush it.
“The world has a way of placing limitations on you and often people see people with disabilities and have already made up their minds about what they are capable of doing,” said Scott. “Don’t buy into these limitations – you can do anything with adaptations and determination.”
Feel free to visit their website at www.blindsailing.com – you’ll find photos from their travels, a blog, more information about Scott and Pam themselves, and even a way to track exactly where they are. Also, they love to receive email while at sea so shoot them an email to !
