99 Year-Old Poet Rediscovers Writing, Reading with iPad

Virginia Campbell, from Lake Oswego, Oregon, is a 99-year old woman who loves to read and write. Unfortunately, an aggravating eye disease (glaucoma) has prevented her from doing so with ease lately. Now, on the heels of her 100th anniversary, Campbell has been introduced to the Apple iPad, which allows her to effortlessly adjust text size for reading, and use the large virtual keyboard for writing.

Campbell graduated from Reed College in the early 1930s with a bachelor’s in English literature, and is a widow of former Lake Oswego Mayor C. Herald Campbell. The Apple gadget has "changed her life," Ginny Adelsheim, one of her daughters, reportedly said. She cited the iPad’s ability to manipulate the way how text is viewed as the winning feature. “She’s writing all of her poetry on her iPad now,” Ginny told The Oregonian. "Her handwriting is so scratchy. It’s so much easier because she can actually read it. Others can read it, too."

The iPad not only offers the ability to increase or decrease text size, but also to choose different kinds of fonts, making it easier and more pleasant to read on the 9.7-inch Multi-Touch display with IPS technology.

“The thing that’s so neat is there’s nothing between you and the screen,” Adelsheim said. “You can enlarge the print, and it has a much brighter screen so you can read on it more easily than with a regular computer screen.”

Virginia Campbell never owned a computer, but the Apple iPad hype got the best of her, according to the paper. To grant her wish, her daughter Corinna Campbell-Sack and son-in-law, Bob Sack, went and stood in line on launch day. Campbell has been using the device ever since. Moreover, Apple's methods of putting technology into the hands of everyone, young and old, has prompted Campbell to write a tribute to the iPad.

"To this technology-ninny it's clear,

In my compromised 100th year,

That to read and to write

Are again within sight

Of this Apple iPad pioneer.”

Below is a video featuring Virginia Campbell and her family in her apartment (Mary’s Woods Retirement Community). The video has gone viral with over 400,000 hits to date. Campbell is visibly drawn to the Multi-Touch interface and control system as she never even bothers to look at the camera.

Softpedia note
Softpedia's Apple news editor would like to add a personal note in saying that this video is a clear testament of Apple's continuous aim to provide the most intuitive ways of using the latest technological achievements to one's advantage. Some say the iPad will go down in history as a major game changer. If this is only the first chapter of what's believed to come, we're impressed, to say the least.