Seeing Eye Announcement

Greetings. I received the following announcement in my email Inbox. Note the date and time that the show below is on in your area. Enjoy.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Teresa Davenport (973) 539-4425 ext. 1761
December 17, 2007

The Seeing Eye Provides Clues for Popular Game Show

MORRISTOWN, N.J. – Question: “This organization, based in New Jersey, has matched over 14,000 specially bred and trained dogs as guides for persons who
are blind or visually impaired.”
Answer: “What is The Seeing Eye?”

On December 26, “Jeopardy! America’s Favorite Quiz Show®” will feature The Seeing Eye as part of its popular “Clue Crew” segment.

The Clue Crew is a group of energetic correspondents who travel the globe bringing clues to life by visiting places that are informational and entertaining.
Past Clue Crew destinations include the pyramids of Egypt and ancient Greek ruins.

“We were delighted when the producers of ‘Jeopardy’ approached us about filming clues here at The Seeing Eye last summer,” said The Seeing Eye’s Communications
Associate Bonnie Lannom. “We were able to represent all aspects of the Seeing Eye program, from puppy raising and dogs in training all the way up to a
working dog.”

“Jeopardy!” airs locally at 7 p.m. on WABC Channel 7, but check your local listings for the time and station in your area. Tune in and test your knowledge
along with 23 million other viewers.

The Seeing Eye, established in 1929, provides specially bred and trained dogs to guide people who are blind. Seeing Eye® dog users experience greatly enhanced
mobility and independence, allowing them to retain their active lifestyles despite blindness. The Seeing Eye is a philanthropy and is supported by contributions
from individuals, corporations and foundations, bequests, and other planned gifts.

The Seeing Eye is a trademarked name and can only be used to describe the dogs bred and trained at the school’s facilities in Morristown, N.J.

If you would like more information on The Seeing Eye, please visit the website at www.seeingeye.org or call (973) 539-4425.

VR Stream goodies

Greetings. HumanWare has been busy today, for they have released a couple of notable things. Note that you can know about releases and other Stream announcements when they are initially made by subscribing to the Stream News Wire on the VR Stream home page. This is an email announcement only list that is used whenever any announcements need to be made. I'll make the effort to inform you when these things are released, but I might miss things, either because I'm busy myself, or because I don't think they're worthy of a post here. So subscribe to the News Wire and stay up to date.

Here are a couple of things that are worthy of a post. The first is a tutorial that HumanWare has put out for the Stream. The tutorial is hosted by Jeff Bishop, from Main Menu fame and other things. The direct link to download the tutorial as a zip file is http://www.humanware.ca/web/en/media/stream_audio_tutorial.zip There is a Stream Tutorial folder within this zip file that you can copy to the $VROtherBooks folder on your SD card and play within the Stream. If you're like me and are a bit more selective, you can open the folder on your computer and select and copy only the files you want to put on the SD card. Either way will work. The tutorial covers topics from the basic (bookshelves, navigation, etc), to the advanced (using NLS digital books, BookShare material, and Audible).

The other announcement is the Companion Software that will start to be included on all CD's that come with new Stream orders. The software allows you to use a file transfer utility that HumanWare has developed to move files back and forth to yourStream, and to convert the proprietary audio note files into Wav format. Incidentally, the transfer utility is covered in the tutorial mentioned above if you want to know how to use it. The download link for the Companion Software is http://www.humanware.ca/web/download/StreamCompanion-1_0_11.zip Or you can download the Stream Companion Software User Guide in DOC format.

One other quick note. We learned from the Stream presentation on this week's Tech Talk, from the Accessible World website, that the Tom synthetic speech male voice of the Stream, for reading non-Daisy files, should be released within the next week or two. You cannot have both the Tom and Samantha voices on the Stream at once. You have to choose one or the other. This Tom voice is the same Tom voice that came with the SAPI 5 voices that FS released for JAWS 8, if that gives you a reference. There will be a download link on the Stream page from HumanWare when the voice is ready. Or, you can be notified from the Stream News Wire. Frankly, I'm looking forward to installing this voice on my Stream since I don't like the Samantha voice as much. Its this female voice that has prevented me from reading as many Book Share books of late. The Tom voice version of the Stream software can be installed just like a software upgrade. If you're interested in this voice, then follow the instructions from HumanWare on how to perform the upgrade.

Merry Christmas and enjoy all these new goodies! Here's looking forward to the future software versions from the Stream in 2008!

PM Omni released!

Greetings. For those faithful PAC Mate users who have been patiently, or perhaps not so patiently, waiting for the Omni to be released--your wait is over, partially. Freedom Scientific has officially released the PAC Mate Omni today. On this page, you will find a what's new link with much of the information that we've been told up until now. You will also find information on how the upgrade process will be handled, including sending your unit in for the upgrade. Remember that this is both a hardware and software upgrade, so it will be necessary to send your unit in. Since the Omni has been highly anticipated, I'd recommend filling out the upgrade form to send your unit in, as soon as possible. Also, make sure your hardware/software agreements are up to date. Prices range from $299 (if your agreements are up to date) to $699 (if you have no current agreements). Refer to the link above for more details. When filling out the form, FS promises to get back to you within one business day, so be sure you provide them with a valid email address.

Note that it will be possible to send your unit to FS in plenty of time before the date you receive back from them in the email. If you miss this date, it will make your wait longer, and in essence take you out of the order, or of line, and you will have to wait a longer time after many others have their units upgraded. In other words, save yourself the time and trouble by sending your PM in within a reasonable amount of time before the date it will be upgraded. I'd recommend at least a week before so you can ensure enough leadway.

Though it will be hard to be without my beloved note taker, it will be worth the upgrade. Also, it looks like there's a great effort to have the unit back to the user in as short amount of time as possible, which is good. When I filled out the form, I chose to have my unit sent back via 2 day UPS Ground, which had a nominal cost with it. There was an over night/one day option, but that was too expensive. The default is 3 day UPS Ground. Any way you choose, you'll have it back within probably 10 to 14 days or so from when you send it to Florida, which again is good. Enjoy, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving message and PM update

Greetings. First off, happy Thanksgiving to all. Its nice that we have this day to be thankful, however, may we always be thankful throughout the year and not just on the forth Thursday in November.

As for the PM update: no, its not the big one, the Omni. For whatever reason, I just now came across the update that was posted last week. So, if you have not done so yet, then click here to read about the PAC Mate Battery Driver and Firmware Update. This is available for all BX and QX units, and can be installed either through Active Sync or by using a compact flash card. According to the information on the page, this update is offered to maximize the battery life and is recommended for everyone, whether or not you plan on getting the Omni when it comes out.

I find this update's timing of particular interest. According to the What's New in JAWS 9 audio file that Freedom Scientific put out not long ago, the Omni would be released not long after the JAWS 9.0 version was officially released. So, since JAWS 9 is out, and since we have this battery/firmware update, I'm inclined to think that the Omni isn't that far away; perhaps in the next few weeks before Christmas. I've said it before in other posts, but what a wonderful Christmas present: a totally new and upgraded PAC Mate! Enjoy, happy Thanksgiving, and hook 'em Horns!

The future of reading is here

Greetings. In my post earlier today, I referenced the current digital talking book pilot program that the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) is conducting. A review of this ability to read digital talking books and the program appears in the November 2007 issue of Access World called Reading into the Future: An Overview of the National Library Service's Digital Talking Book Test Program. Even though this article barely scratches the surface of what its like to read a digital book, much less browse the collection which currently numbers just over 8200, it will give you a sense of what the program has meant to people already and its potential. The article also includes addresses for how you can get the Victor Reader Stream and get involved in the test program. Its way cool to be able to hit Play and sit back and listen to a book while in bed or riding the bus to work. Though I'll miss the announcement of the number of sides a book has, I can still get information on amount of time lapsed and remaining with the Stream's information function (key 0), which I often do since I like knowing where I am in a book, even if the book doesn't have any cassette announcements. Anyway, I've already put my borrowing on hold with my local NLS library, and will probably let my membership run out. I can't see myself borrowing another book through the mail with them given the access to books that I now have. Sure, the digital book collection is far less than the tape collection. However, new books are being converted and posted all the time. There's also access to magazines from cassette, which are slowly being converted over as well. There's talk that all the tape based magazines will be converted by the end of next year. When the Stream adds support for electronic Braille files, that will increase the number and amount of content available as well. So, I'm quite content to listen to my digital and professionally narrated books for now. That could change of course, but I honestly can't see it doing so anytime soon. If you're interested in signing up for the DTB program from NLS and getting a VR Stream, then I'd highly encourage you to do so. It might be one of the best investments you've made in awhile, as far as access to information goes. I think that it is for me, after my purchase of the Talks software for my cell phone. Enjoy and happy reading!

VR Stream version 1.1 released

Greetings. I've bought many tech devices and gismos in my time, some that I've used a few times and then put aside, and others that I've truly enjoyed and carried everywhere. The Victor Reader Stream is one of the latter ones. On November 15, version 1.1.15 was released. Among the many improvements and fixes, support for Audible content has been added. Read more about the VR Stream 1.1 release. For those that don't have a Stream and want one, HumanWare is offering free shipping on new Stream orders through the end of the year. Contact your local dealer or HumanWare directly at 800-722-3393.

The Stream is truly one of a kind, being able to play MP3 files, Audible, text and text based DAISY books, HTML files, and more. In addition, you can play Book Share DAISY books and the new digital talking books from the National Library Services pilot program. Check the Blindness Resources page of my website for more details on the Stream. In the nearly two months that I've had my Stream, I've read about 10 digital talking books from NLS, that's 10 more than I've read on my 4-track player of the same material in the past year. Its truly a cool, nifty and fun device to use. When I go home for Thanksgiving, I'll take my Stream and my Walkman (yes, I still have one of those; its still the only way to listen to regular radio in different cities, which is something I'll never grow tired of). Anyway, enjoy.

What's New for JAWS 9.0

Greetings. For those interested, Freedom Scientific has posted an audio recording nearly 45 minutes long on What's New in JAWS 9.0. This is simply a short recount on the highlights of JAWS 9 and a few demonstrations on what it can now do. One of the tidbits thrown in was the release of JAWS 9, and of the PAC Mate Omni. JAWS 9 will be released, according to this recording, around the middle of November, and the Omni likely shortly after that. Either way, look for some good software/hardware updates from Freedom in the next 30 days or so. This link comes from the current "What's New" page for the JAWS 9 public beta cycle. Enjoy.

Candidate forum for people with disabilities

Greetings. I received the following announcement in my email Inbox today. The only thing with this forum that disappoints me is that it is in the daytime when the working disabled person is out. I would have liked to see it at night, like other candidate forums such as the ones on TV. However, I suppose I should be glad that "people with disabilities" have a forum at all. It looks like this event is for all people with disabilities. Meaning, I don't know how synpathetic the candidates will be to blindness related issues. If they will allow interaction from the public, then I'd encourage those interested and who can participate in the live event, to send in relevant questions/issues having to do with blindness. Note the day/time on your calendar and pass the word about this great event. Enjoy.

Presidential Candidates' Forum

A National Forum on Equality, Opportunity and Access

Hosted by Granite State Independent Living

  WEBCAST
Friday November 2, 2007
8:30 am to 4:00 pm EST

Made possible by generous support from
Hands On Video Relay Services, Inc. &

Manchester Community Television

This day-long live event will take place in Manchester, New Hampshire and will feature presidential candidates speaking on disability issues, panel discussions with national disability leaders, and more!

The entire event will be Webcast at
www.hovrs.com
  beginning at 8:30 a.m. EST.

Please invite your consumers and local constituents to view this important, pre-primary event at your local office or another common gathering area with Internet access.

If your organization will host a Webcast viewing, please contact Terri Voth at Granite State Independent Living, (603) 228-9680 or e-mail
terri.voth@gsil.org.

The Presidential Candidates' Forum is co-hosted by:
NH Developmental Disabilities Council (NH DDC)
NH Disabilities Rights Center (NH DRC)
NH Institute on Disability (NH IOD)
NH Chapter, National Spinal Cord Injury Association
Greater Boston Chapter, National Spinal Cord Injury Association
People First of New Hamphshire
TASH

Sponsored by:
AARP
ADA Watch
ADAPT
America (NEPVA)
American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)
American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD)
Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF)
Easter Seals
Epilepsy Foundation
National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
National Coalition of Mental Health, Consumer/ Survivor Organizations
National Council on Independent Living (NCIL)
National Spinal Cord Injury Association
New England Chapter Paralyzed Veterans of
Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA)
Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE)
Telecommunications for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Inc. (TDI)
The Arc of the United States
United Cerebral Palsy (UCP)
United Spinal Association
VSA arts

This webcast will include CART translation and an on-camera interpreter.

Visit
www.gsil.org
   or
www.hovrs.com
  for more information.

Another honor

Greetings. I want to share with you an honor that I received recently. Though I wasn’t able to attend the White Cane Day celebration this past Monday, as it turned out, several plaques were given out to various people. I received one of them. The plaque was in recognition and appreciation of the WCD website that I helped obtain, maintain and build. I was told that there were a number of people at the event that learned of it from the site. And these people would not have come if it were not for the site.

The plaque is yellow and it has the designs from the front of this year’s T-shirt on it, the 9 drawings from the kids at the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired. In print and on a Braille overlay, the plaque read:

CERTIFICATE OF APPRECIATION

for: Wayne Merritt

For Your Dedication in the Promotion of Awareness and Independence of Blind Citizens. Your Participation Contributed to the Success of a Memorable Event.

White Cane Day
October 15, 2007

There are cut outs on the back for hanging on a wall or cubicle, which I intend to do. Thanks to those that helped promote the website and to those on the committee. I paid for the domain name out of my own pocket because I wanted to do this for the committee. I wanted to give them a site that they could use this year and hopefully in future years.

Its humbling for me in receiving this honor. I am continuously humbled by being recognized by students and colleagues and a good teacher, and by others for things that I do, such as the White Cane Day involvement. Its this continued humbling that has told me that I’m in the right place right now. I’ve got the “perfect job,” at least for now. As a side note, that makes 2 honors or awards in 5 months, counting the honor back in May of this year at the student graduation. Pretty good for someone who’s a little over a year and a half into a job.

MySpace and Skype partnership?

And why not? The largest social networking site with the largest voice and video communications network. Get all the details from this New York Times article called MySpace and Skype to Announce Partnership.

Windows XP Service Pack 3

Greetings. Though many people might have Windows Vista by the time that SP3 is expected to come out for Windows XP, which according to Paul Thurrott is at the end of the second quarter of next year, I submit the following for your consideration. Indeed, I plan on getting a new computer at some point in the next few months, but then again, who knows. Note that this will be the last service pack for Windows XP. For those interested, you can read the FAQ for XP SP3. Enjoy.

And it continues

Greetings. Even though White Cane Day is over for this year, I plan on maintaining the site and adding things as I come across them. One of those things, or categories you might say, are news stories about White Cane Day. Though I initially set out to gather stories in my community, after doing a Google search for "white cane day 2007 news," I was presented with many results. I've added some of those, along with others that I've found, to the site. Even if I don't find anything else, check out the list of places that observe this yearly event. And I'm not just talking about cities in the U.S., but worldwide. I never would have thought that this historic day would have reached so far and affect thousands like it has and continues to do.

The site continues to get hits and visitors, which at last count was over 1100! I don't know how long this constant level of hits will continue, but it sure is fun to watch. I'll write later about another interesting thing that has happened to me. Until then.

How I spent White Cane Day

Greetings. Well, its finally here: White Cane Day. I don’t have a recap this time like I did last year. I’m sure that the marchers gathered at the Capitol this morning shortly before 9 and marched down Congress and over to City Hall; I’m confident that everyone gathered at City Hall to listen to some short speeches and the proclamation by the Mayor; and I’m sure that after this, everyone walked over to Republic Square Park for plenty of food, fun, and celebration with the different activities, music, and great food providers. However, I don’t have any information because I wasn’t there. I unfortunately obtained some of the allergies/cold sympthems that have been going around. The first signs were when I got congested and my ears started stopping up last Thursday. Its only gotten progressively worse since then, with stuffiness, sneezing, and at times not feeling all that great. I decided to skip the event last night and have been taking it easy today. If anything, I’ve gained another day of rest without the worry of missing classes since the events were today. I’ll hopefully make it tomorrow. Though it will be hard to listen to the stories of what went on today, knowing that I was home sick, I’m sure that the students' stories will be great.

However, here’s a story that I found through the Blind News archives on White Cane Day in Sri Lanka called
White Cane: Identification for the Blind
Which gives a worldly perspective on White Cane Day.

Incidentally, I've been keeping track of the numbers on the White Cane Day site, and earlier today, we passed the 1,000 mark! Who would have thought that the site would get that many hits. On Tuesday of last week, we had 230 hits in one day, which was quite remarkable. I put several expectations on the numbers, telling people that we might hit 400, then 500, then 600. However, when we hit 700, I stopped trying to put a limit on things. We might get more hits tomorrow and for a few days this week, but this is probably the mountain top for this year. Still, 1,000 hits in a little over 2 months; wow. It probably took my personal site about 8 or 9 months before it hit 1,000 and White Cane Day did it in two!

Toward the end of last week, I was asked to put information about the Houston, Texas, celebration of White Cane Day on the site, which I did. I added to that over the weekend so that now there’s a good amount on there regarding the Houston events. The thought crossed my mind earlier today that this WCD site could turn into a gathering place for WCD celebrations and observances around the state or country. That would be cool and something I would not have expected. Then again, I also didn’t expect the numbers to top 1,000. I’m willing to post information about events in other cities, if people only send it to me and I can add the HTML tags to make it “web worthy.”

Someone brought up the idea to me to add an option next year for people to buy the
T-shirts online, like through Paypal or something. That sounds interesting and cool, if I can set it up. Since I basically know HTML, I’d welcome any ideas from folks on how to do this, or what might be involved. I’ve looked at code on other pages that have Paypal buttons, and it doesn’t look that hard, but there’s probably more to it than just putting up the code and making the form. Anyway, that’s for down the road.

Happy White Cane Day to all!

White Cane Day Activities

Greetings. For those in the Austin, Texas area, here's information on the activities, marching route, and park celebration that will be taking place next Monday for White Cane Day. Refer to the site for more details. Hope to see some of you there. Enjoy.

2007 White Cane Day Marching Routes and Activities

Everyone will gather in front of the State Capitol at 8:30AM. The Capitol is located at 11th Street and Congress Avenue. Marchers should gather behind the
gate of the Capitol on the Capitol grounds. It is very important that people do not stand in the street. Do not wait on any stairs of the actual Capitol
building as a permit is needed for that.

The march begins promptly at 9:00AM.

MARCHING ROUTE

Start on the North side of 11th Street at Congress Avenue. March South on either side of Congress. Cross 11th, 10th, 9th, 8th, 7th, 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd,
2nd and continue to Caesar Chavez (1st Street). Do not cross Caesar Chavez. Turn West (right) and cross Congress (if needed), Colorado, and Lavaca. After
crossing Lavaca, City Hall will be to the North (right). Find a seat if possible. Please reserve seating for children, elderly, and others with physical
disabilities.

WHITE CANE DAY PROCLAMATION & SPEECHES

The Austin Mayor will read the White Cane Day Proclamation at 10:15 AM. Following the reading of the proclamation, recognition awards will be given to all
major sponsors and organizations. While receiving awards, each sponsor organization will have 1-2 minutes to give a speech. Please keep speeches short.
We expect to finish everything at City Hall before 11:00 AM.

REPUBLIC SQUARE PARK

After finishing at City Hall, everyone should walk West (right of stage) to Guadalupe Avenue. Once on Guadalupe, marchers should walk north crossing 2nd
and 3rd Streets. After crossing 3rd Street, marchers need to cross Guadalupe. After crossing Guadalupe, march North (turn right) and cross 4th Street and
you will be at the Southeast corner of Republic Square Park.

The event is scheduled to conclude at approximately 4:00 PM. This event is kid-friendly.

Activities at Park

list of 11 items
• Lots of Music
• Free Food
• 2 Rock Walls
• Moonwalk
• Industrial Art Projects
• Face Paintings
• Clowns
• Small Job Fair
• Cane Exchange
• Fire Truck
• Games
list end

Initial thoughts on JAWS 9 beta

Greetings. Well, I’m sitting here trying out the new JAWS 9.0 beta, and I must say, things are working pretty well. I usually don’t try beta software for the basic rule that its not supported by the company. And, the fact that I’m a wiser computer user. In my younger days, I would have jumped on each beta just to see what’s new and what had changed. Now though, I’m a bit more cautious. Since betas aren’t supported yet by the company and are by nature testing software, there’s no one to help if something does go wrong. Anyway, there were a few things that jumped out at me with this JAWS version. First, the fact that you can now copy text from websites and have the formatting be retained. Granted, this might just be a benefit for sighties as I call them, but after thinking about it, I realize the benefit for bloggers. Now, if there’s a story that I want to post on my blog that has links in it, in theory, I can copy that article and post it on my blog with the formatting intact. Though I’m still playing with this feature, its pretty cool.

Another one that I thought would be great is the improved support for Word, ranging from Word 2002 (XP) to 2007. I have Word XP on my home computer and 2003 at work. Word 2003 with JAWS 9 works great, but then again, there was never any real slow down. However, Word XP on my home machine with JAWS has presented some sluggishness. The sluggishness was there with both JAWS 8 and now with 9. When I first pull up a document JAWS is fine. After spending a few minutes navigating though, it slows down a lot. To the point that I’d rather edit with my Braille display than navigate with JAWS, and for me, that’s kind of saying something since I tend to prefer auditory editing rather than Braille.

Freedom Scientific has been pretty responsive to user feedback thus far, posting a revision two days ago which already addresses some of the user issues. There is a definite pause between when I arrow up in Word or do a say line in JAWS, to when JAWS reads the information or when the Braille display shows it. Granted, this might be due to an older computer, but I don’t think that all of it falls at the 4-year old machine’s fault. While editing this post, I’ve also had issues where, when I press one of the routing keys on my display to route the cursor to that cell, the text goes blank on the display and I’m moved to the bottom of the document. Currently, JAWS seems to be reading things fine and I can navigate fine, but the display is giving me trouble. At any rate, unless something changes, I’m probably going to invest in some System Access software for my next computer, in hopes that it will pick up where JAWS leaves off. This all assumes that the JAWS reading and access will be the same in Vista, which hopefully it will be better than what I’m dealing with now and not the same. Anyway, as I stated before, this is beta software. Those not comfortable with using “test” software should wait for the final release later this year.

One change in Thursday’s revision that I am pleased with is the continued tracking of the System Tray when you click on an item to open there. Previously, when I was ready to stop the transmission of material to my Victor Reader Stream and when to the Safely Remove Hardware item in the System Tray, after choosing the Safely Remove option, JAWS lost focus. I had to try at least 3 times before I was able to stop the processes. Now though, JAWS retains focus and makes the process smoother. Refer to the JAWS 9 beta page on the FS main site, or elsewhere on this blog, for the direct link to the list of changes and to keep up with all changes in this beta cycle. Enjoy, and remember, try at your own risk.

Afterward: I need the spell checker to correct what I miss. If it weren't for that, then I'd compose all of my posts in Blogger itself instead of Word. I really hope the issues in Word are addressed, since it makes me not want to use Word at home, and Word is one of those packages that you need to have available and use from time to time. I have done numerous JAWS screen refreshes and made sure my window was maximized in Word with no positive effect. Is there anyone else who's beta testing JAWS 9 that uses Word XP who is having these same problems? If so, please follow my lead and let FS know so we can fix these issues once and for all.

Things to consider for that new computer

Greetings. Just because new computers are on my mind tonight, I submit the following, also from The Ranger Station. Ranger wrote a post yesterday on things to consider when upgrading or moving to a new computer with Windows Vista on it, such as hardware, software, AT considerations, video cards, etc. I'm approaching this from the perspective of buying a new machine, but you may be upgrading. Either way, here are some suggestions to guide your thinking. By no means are these the only things to think about; also consider any other specialized software/hardware you have, such as OCR software, scanner requirements, any specific sound cards that are recommend from your screen reader, OCR software, or other company; and so forth. In other words, it is wise to do your research ahead of time and prepare for the new system rather than just walking into a computer store out of the blue and buying the first machine off the shelf. At any rate, here's what Ranger has to say about upgrading/moving to Windows Vista.

Possible change in Target lawsuit and web accessibility

Greetings. The below article addresses the lawsuit that the National Federation of the Blind has brought against Target for its website being inaccessible to the blind and screen reading software. After the article is a link to another article on the topic. Enjoy, and as always, please excuse any formatting errors.

Lawsuit seeks to improve website access by the blind
A judge's ruling in a suit against Target could mean that businesses and government
agencies would have to make their sites compatible with screen-reading software.
By Molly Selvin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
1:52 PM PDT, October 3, 2007

A ruling by a judge in San Francisco could mean that businesses and government agencies
would have to make their websites accessible to the blind, something disability rights
advocates say is vital as the routine transactions of everyday life take place more
and more on the Internet.
U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel granted class-action status Tuesday to a lawsuit
alleging that Target Corp. is in violation of California and federal laws because
its website doesn't work with screen-reading software, essentially making the site
unusable for blind people.
To comply, Target would have to tag product images on its site with word descriptions,
allowing the software to "read" those images aloud.
FOR THE RECORD:
An earlier version of this article identified John Pare as an executive of the National
Foundation of the Blind. The organization is the National Federation of the Blind.
Many retailers, including Wal-Mart Inc. and Amazon.com, have upgraded their websites
or are in the process of doing so, said John Pare, executive director for strategic
initiatives for the National Federation of the Blind. Most companies have done so
voluntarily, he said, in response to concerns raised by the 50,000-member foundation.
The lawsuit contends that some 10,000 people in California alone use reading software
to access the Internet.
Target, in a statement, said its online business had made "significant enhancements
to improve the experience of our guests who use assistive technologies." The company,
based in Minneapolis, said it would request an immediate review of the judge's ruling.
The ability to access websites is particularly important to the visually impaired,
whose mobility is limited because they can't drive, said Eve Hill, executive director
of the Disability Rights Legal Center at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.
Judges have applied California's disability accommodations law more broadly than
the federal Americans With Disabilities Act, Hill said; the federal law focuses on
access to physical locations such as stores or banks.

Second article: Lawsuit over web site accessibility for the blind becomes class action.

Great news from Book Share

Greetings. If you are or know a student, you might want to note the following information. The below announcement is taken from the
Book Share website,
which provides books to people with qualifying print disabilities, such as blindness or dyslexia. Software or hardware is needed to read the books since they are in the specialized formats of electronic Braille files and Daisy files. Open Book and Kurzweil 1000 are popular Optical Character Recognition or scanning programs that can read these formats, and hardware devices may include the PAC Mate, Braille Note, Victor Reader hardware/software, and others. This opens up many opportunities for students to learn, since at last count, Book Share had 34,400 books. Membership is $50 annually and a one time $25 setup fee. Read more on the site about how to join. Enjoy.

***Book Share announcement***

We're happy to share incredible news, which will transform Bookshare.org. On Friday, the Office of Special Education Programs of the U.S. federal Department of Education made a major five-year award of $32 million to Bookshare.org. This will further the objectives of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), by supplying high quality textbooks and educational materials to students with special needs.

This funding is to fully support all schools and students with qualifying print disabilities in the United States, K-12 and post-secondary, with access to the entire Bookshare.org collection of accessible electronic books and to software for reading those books. As of October 1, 2007, we will cease charging these schools and students anything to join Bookshare.org. We also expect to add over 100,000 new educational titles in high quality DAISY and Braille formats over the next five years, getting students the terrific quality textbooks they need for academic success!

JAWS 9.0 beta out

Greetings. The below is taken from The Ranger Station blog, which you can find in the Blogs to Watch section of this page.

I am sure it's all over the net by now but .. If you haven't heard elsewhere JFW 9 Public Beta is now ready for download. To get the English ILM 64 MB release click the link below.

JAWS 9.0.348 - October 2007 English ILM Release (64 MB - HTTP download)

Remember to fully read the release notes at this link as well..

http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws90fea_beta.asp#download

Afterward: If you want to hear a preview of what's included in JAWS 9, then download and listen to the September 2007 FS Cast which covers several highlights of the upcoming release. They also talk about who can use the beta, which is more people than in previous times. Enjoy.

Changing blog layout

Greetings. Apologies for going so long without posting. So much for my frequent posting pattern I had back in August, :) Anyway, I've added some layout changes to this blog to try to spice it up a bit more. Though all of this is a work in progress, I'm open to any comments or suggestions anyone might have. Also, note that any changes I make will be after all of my posts. For instance, you will find new sections called Blogs to watch and Sites to watch, along with a New York Times Technology feed area, all at the end of the posting area. Check out the Blogs and Sites section, as well as the NY Times Tech area, since new content is added all the time. Enjoy. I'll write later about some of the things that have gone on this month, and perhaps return to my semi-normal posting pattern--and perhaps not, :)

WCD and random stuff

Greetings. Well, I guess I'm back in blog form. If you look back at my posts this year, it seems that I posted about once a month from Feburary to June, then in July, it got kicked up into overdrive. Like I said back a few months ago, we're back up to full force in my department at work now, so there's people to cover for others, sort of, and things feel good again. We're two, nearly three, months into the "new system/direction" at work, and though I was a little skeptical in the beginning, it looks like this will work. I'll write in another post about it if anyone's interested. Anyway, life is good, I'm feeling good about work, and I've gotten back into my routine of posting about once per week, at a minimum.

On the subject of the White Cane Day website, its growing nicely. When It first went live about two weeks ago, there's was a basic framework of the article and a few random links. Since then, there's now links for sponsors, participating agencies, efinitions and articles on the white cane and the day itself, a "Model White Cane Bill" that many of the laws around the country are based on, a graphic of last year's proclamation, places to buy white canes and cane accessories from, and more coming. I've just added a section on media coverage, which I'll upload when I confirm some information. One of the committee members had an interview yesterday with one of the top Austin radio stations which will really kick this thing into gear. I want to wait until I get more information on that interview and verify that it will aire, but once that's done I'll upload the updated page. The hit counter is chugging along, with 22 visitors at last count. That number will really jump once all those posters and flyers are distributed around town, and hopefully even after the radio piece airres. We've got another committee meeting next Thursday, which will be cool and exciting. Look for more graphics to be added as well.

I'm off to enjoy the weekend and hopefully forget about tonight's Dallas Cowboys loss. Well, better to have a loss in the preseason rather than the regular season, though those will happen as well. There are those in Dallas that are already predicting that the Cowboys will go to the Super Bowl this year. We'll see.

Setting up a website

Greetings. Periodically, I get emails from friends or others asking about the process of getting a website started. Below is a response that I sent out recently on this very subject, which I think covers all the bases for starting a site. I could write a separate post on things to consider when designing the site. This one however is simply questions to ask yourself before you start, and might help you clarify what you want before you jump right out and do it. Links are provided where appropriate. Enjoy.

Hello. You recently asked me about starting a website. Here's a brief list of what you need to consider. 

Website name: Do you want your site to have a long address, like

www.yahoo.com/domains/my_site/home.htm 

Or, a shorter name more on the web, like

www.mysite.com 

The longer site names are usually free, but may have ads associated with them. While the shorter names are not free, but if you look around, you can get
a good price on a domain name. The domain name registrar, as they're called, that I've used is Go Daddy, and they really do discount their prices for new names. For instance, I recently purchased a domain name for $45 over 5 years. You might also want to consider getting the privacy protection that Go Daddy offers. I forget what its called directly, but basically, with this protection, your contact information and email address will be hidden on the Who Is database, which keeps track of all the domains on the web. This can be a great help since it can cut down on the amount of spam you might get from having your email address exposed. For that domain name I bought, the protection was $35 over 5 years. 

Site design: do you want to design the site yourself or get someone else to do it? If you get someone else, there may be cost involved. If you design it yourself, then do you want to write the HTML or web code yourself (which is very easy), or do you want to use a program to do the coding for you? By writing the code yourself you can see exactly where errors are and fix them immediately. But, you might not want to be weighed down by all the ins and outs of coding. Incidentally, coding isn't that hard. If you want to do your own coding, there's tons of sites to learn from. Two of the easiest are:

HTML Help
and
Web Monkey. 

Web Monkey is the one that I learned from when I started, and my personal fave, but as I say, there's lots to choose from. If you're into more advanced coding or want to do more with your site, then check out:

Blind Programming. 

Web space: you will need to purchase space for your site from a web host, if you're going to have a real domain name like Mysite.com. Again, there's lots to choose from. The one that I use and advertise on my site is Ultra Host:

Ultra Host.

They offer the most for the least amount of money, IMO. I'm paying $50 per year for 250 MB of space. They have annual and monthly plans, but the annual ones tend to be a little less. 

Uploading files: Some web hosts give you utilities for maintaining your site and some don't. You can also get file transfer protocol programs to upload files. I've used FTP Voyager for several years now and have had good success with it. I've also used FTP Explorer. Both of these programs are about $40 or so. I've heard that you can also use IE to upload files, though I haven't done this as much. 

That should get you started. Feel free to contact me with any other related questions. Also, refer to the web development section on my computer resources page:

Computer Resources page

for a list of helpful resources on web development. 

And, once you get your site rolling, send me the address and I might add it to my site.

Enjoy, have fun, and good luck

Beware of greeting card emails

Greetings. Note the following article that I received today in my email Inbox. As was true before, a little common sense goes a long way. Enjoy.

Greetings! Someone has sent you an e-card virus

Todd R. Weiss
August 15, 2007 (Computerworld)

Think you got a cheery greeting card from a friend via e-mail?

Well, think again, and be careful before opening it. A new form of fake e-card notification e-mails are unleashing nasty viruses and virus-carrying Trojan
horses on unsuspecting users.

While e-card-triggered viruses and Trojan horses are not new, the latest versions are becoming more difficult for typical antivirus and antispam defenses
to detect, according to alerts issued today by security software vendors Avinti Inc. and F-Secure Corp.

The new complication, said Dave Green, chief technology officer at Lindon, Utah-based Avinti, is that the latest slew of fake e-card e-mail notifications
are using plain text in their messages, which don't get scanned and scrutinized by antivirus and antispam defense applications. While the e-mails don't
contain pasted links or attached files that a recipient can click on to get a computer infection, many e-mail clients automatically convert the included
text into a clickable link when the e-mail clients recognize a Web address in the text.

"It appears they have done that to get around a lot of the parsing used by antivirus and antispam applications" to fight such attacks, Green said. "It's
an interesting cat-and-mouse game between the bad guys and the good guys."

"Apparently, they've found that they can be very successful in getting these through by not having it be formatted as an HTML message," Green said.

All recipients have to do to trigger the virus is to click on the link created by the e-mail client once they have read the message, he said.

Adding to the confusion and the potential seriousness of the problem, he said, is that the perpetrators sending these e-mails are using the names of some
of the most popular electronic greeting card companies in their messages and Web links.

Avinti said it has updated its Avinti Isolation Server product to protect against such attacks, while other vendors are still updating their own products.

Avinti's alert said the links to the fake e-greeting cards lead to IP addresses in various locations, including the U.S. and Eastern Europe, and many are
registered to U.S. Internet service providers. The damaging payload files are new variants of the Storm Worm virus that was first detected in January,
the company said.

In its alert today, Helsinki, Finland-based security vendor F-Secure said the fake e-card messages from one group of online criminals appear to have changed
since last night, when they dropped the use of attached files and went to plain-text messages.

An included link then tells the recipient to install a free "Microsoft Data Access" application to retrieve the e-card, but that file -- msdataaccess.exe
-- is a damaging virus. F-Secure said it has identified the virus as Email-Worm.Win32.Zhelatin.gg.

Danny Allan, director of research at security analysis vendor Watchfire Corp. in Waltham, Mass., said he has seen similar all-text e-greeting mailings
before, but the numbers have increased lately.

For antivirus and antispam vendors, the theory had been that if the message includes plain text without links and attachments, it could cause no harm,
he said. That approach has to change, Allan said.

User need to be cautious and not click on links they find in e-mails, Allan said. Instead, they should go directly to a Web site by typing its address
into a Web browser and go there on their own, bypassing links that could be malicious.

Vendors will have a tough time making the problem go away completely, he said, because they can't devise ways of evaluating every Web link or instance
in an e-mail. However, they can improve detection of suspicious encoded characters and domain names in messages.

"If there was a silver bullet that could solve the problem, the antivirus companies would have done it," Allan said.

Zully Ramzan, a senior principal researcher at Cupertino, Calif.-based security vendor Symantec Corp.'s security response team, said Symantec has seen
plain-text attacks before and doesn't view them as a new problem.

"There's been a bit of a resurgence lately" with e-card notification messages, possibly because of last month's July 4 holiday or because criminal groups
have been organizing mailing campaigns, he said.

Andrew Jaquith, a security analyst at Boston-based Yankee Group Research Inc., said the latest e-greeting attacks are an example that criminals "are going
to be coming up with more and more ingenious ways of tricking people or exploiting ways of tricking your e-mail client. This is just one of any number
of ways that these guys are going to try to lure users to do something they shouldn't."

WCD website update

Greetings. I just wanted to write a quick note about today’s White Cane Day committee meeting. (Incidentally, if I ever use the abbreviation WCD for White Cane Day, you'll know what it means). It was quite fun to run down my list of points at the meeting and presenting what I had done to a group. However, what brought me more satisfaction and joy was to hear one of the people from the local major grocery store here, say how much she and her fellow coworkers liked the site. She said that it looked very well done and that they appreciated the link that I put for their store. (Got to keep the sponsors happy, :) Anyway, that was cool and something I’ll remember for some time to come.

Toward the end of the meeting, I asked if the committee would like a hit counter on the site, or a means of keeping track of how many unique or individual visitors come to it. Once I explained what a counter was, they liked the idea. I thought that doing this would be hard, but all I did was copy the code from my Wayneism site, change some numbers in the associated files, renamed those files, and uploaded the pages to my web space. Now, we’ve got a hit counter, and as of this writing, there have been a whopping 2 visitors. It’s a work in progress though. What made me think of this is the fact that various flyers and posters with information on the event, including the web address, will be distributed around Austin. I thought to myself, “Imagine the kinds of numbers we would draw if the site had a counter.” Incidentally, though my Wayneism site has been a hobby, all be it a resourceful one for a lot of people (which I’m grateful for), this site for the White Cane Day celebration is a big deal. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people will see the web address and hopefully visit the site. That raises the bar higher for me, but it also brings me lots of satisfaction. If we can pull anything close to what Wayneism has, then this could be a really cool thing. Perhaps not this year alone, but give it a few years and who knows.

Anyway, thought I’d update you, the thoughtful Wayne’s Blog reader, as to my activities. Till we meet again, :)

Celebrating White Cane Day

Greetings one more time. See, this is what happens when I go awhile not being able to put my thoughts and ideas on the web, :) I've been assigned the task of developing a website for the Austin celebration of White Cane Day! This is one assignment that I'm embracing. I've already got some good introductory content on the site, including a description of White Cane Day, information on ordering T-Shirts, a list of participating agencies and groups, and more. Check it out and let me know what you think, either through comments on this entry or sending me an email through the site. Among other things, I was very pleased to get the domain of WhiteCaneDay.org for the site. I'll be going to the White Cane Day committee this Thursday and presenting a short piece on the site and opening it up to the committee for ideas. That will be fun, to stand up in front of the group, give my name and job title, and then to say something like, "I'm the webmaster for the WhiteCaneDay.org website." Should be fun! Incidentally, if you're out of town and want to order a T-Shirt, then you're certainly welcome to do so. Also, remember that this site is a work in progress and that it will be updated regularly as we get closer to the event, and perhaps even a few times afterward. If anything's not working as it should then let me know so I can correct it. I hope to put some pictures/graphics on there soon, and would appreciate any feedback on how those look. Us blind folk are good, but sizing pictures can be a challenge, :)

Observations

Greetings. I haven't been posting in awhile. Though the gap between tonight's post and the last one isn't as long as in the past few months, I had something interesting happen to me.

Apparently, shortly after the July 28 post, the Blogger spam bots got the idea that my blog looked like a spam blog. Whenever I went to the blog to try and post, I was presented with a visual word verification graphic, those annoying graphics that JAWS doesn't read and that you either have to get someone to read or use the audio solution to hear what letters/numbers are in the graphic and that you need to fill in. Actually, this started happening before the July 28 post, but it was after this post that I finally got fed up with having to approve my own posts in essence for publication. I was ready to pull the plug on Blogger and move to another blog host, when someone gave me a solution. Thanks to Darrell Shandrow of the Blind Access Journal for bringing this to my attention. He said that there was a link near the verification graphic that offered help. Previously, I thought this had to do with filling in the letter/number combination, which is why I didn't initially check it out. Rather, the page that came up explained that from time to time, Blogger misidentifies blogs as relating to spam, and then it prompted the reader to fill in one more word verification and their email address, in order to have a human review their blog. This was to ensure that the blog wouldn't be in the spam category anymore. I completed and submitted the form, and now I have a regular old blog again and can post to my heart's content. Its funny though that I can go weeks without putting a post up, and then when I have news or something to say, I'm unable to do so due to the word verification, :)

One other thing: while I totally support the implementing of word verification on sites to cut down on spam and automatic sign-ups, as long as an alternative is presented to the blind/low vision person that they can independently use (whether it be audio or otherwise), the idea of having to approve your posts to your own blog is going a little far. Thankfully Blogger has a fail safe for that if it ever happens. If you have a blog on Blogger and are faced with this situation, then do submit that form in the Help link near the graphic. Though they said it would take 2 days, I filled out the form yesterday and got a response back today.

PM Omni news

Greetings. Here's a couple of items relating to the upcoming PAC Mate Omni release. First, Jonathan Mosen was on the Tech Talk Internet broadcast from Accessible World on July 30 to demonstrate and talk about the new PM Omni. Download the PM Omni demonstration and Q&A from Tech Talk. In the July 2007 monthly edition of the Freedom Scientific podcast, Jonathan takes the Omni through its paces and explores many parts of this upgraded machine. Click here to download the July FS Cast on the PAC Mate Omni. Both of these programs are around the same length, at about 90 minutes. Enjoy.

Random stuff

Greetings. Here I sit on a rainy Saturday afternoon. Its been raining a ton here over the past few weeks, and while I like the rain, its beginning to grow tiresome even to me. However, as long as it mainly rains when I’m inside, I don’t mind it too much. And anyway, when was the last time it rained like this in July in Austin, or on a larger scale in the south? Then again, I live in a pretty good area; not close to any rivers or lakes, and in a place where it doesn’t flood too badly. I live on flat ground and the apartment complex’s parking lot can flood easily, but the apartments themselves are a little raised up from the ground so that water doesn’t flood the sidewalks too often. If it ever did, then it would be raining a lot. I may have slightly different views of the rain if these conditions were different.

On another issue, I don’t believe I’ll purchase any of the System Access software, at least not for now. I’m still experiencing the problems I wrote of a week ago and Serotek hasn’t really offered any solutions for me. In the Word problem, where System Access was losing focus in Word XP, the only thing they said was, “We don’t support that version of Word for Windows.” I know that, and I even replied telling them that. I however also asked them why this happened, since it’s a notable issue that needs to be addressed bys someone. The response I got back went something like, “We don’t’ know why it happened.” Oh well. I’m not knocking Serotek or their products by writing all of this. I’m sure that my issues are more the exception rather than the rule. And, hopefully whenever I get my new Vista computer and try these packages again, the same things won’t happen. However, they’re happening to me and I’m not willing to pay several hundred dollars for faulty software. I’ll still keep rooting for Serotek and support their endeavors in what they’re trying to do.

I indirectly received more complements from one of the July graduation students from the training Center. He asked someone to pass along a message to me from him, that according to the graduate, I had made a large impact on him; that he enjoyed having me as a computer teacher. That made me feel pretty good. I had made an impact on him. He was one of the students that I really clicked with and really got along well with. There were many times when I asked the students in class how they were doing on a particular task, and this student would say something like, “Already done,” much to my surprise. I’d give him another few tasks to do and he would finish those in short order as well. These are the times that give me great satisfaction and help confirm for me that I’m in the right place as a tech teacher at a rehabilitation center. These are the times when I think back to that award I received two months ago at another graduation ceremony, for excellence in teaching and dedication to the students.

I’m beginning horseback riding again. I’ve had a secret passion and love for horses. Many people are surprised when I tell them that, but its true. Just being around horses, petting them and giving them treats gives me a recharge, much less taking regular lessons and spending hours at a time with them. This all began when I participated in a therapeutic horseback riding program for the disabled back in the late eighties. I had liked horses before that time, but those 10 weeks over a semester was the thing that really did it for me. I found a place in south Austin that offers horseback riding lessons, as well as horse/dog boarding and dog training lessons. The lessons themselves are very affordable and I’m glad to be at a point in my life where I can pay for my own lessons and easily afford to do so. The horse that I’ve been paired up with, coincidentally has a little bit of vision loss, but is a red roam color with some white. I think the owner said that the white spots are on the horse’s mane. Anyway, the horse is named Rye and he is about 16.5 hands at the withers. For those that don’t know, a “hand” is about 4 inches, or about the distance from your pinky to your index finger when your fingers are together. So 16.5 hands is pretty tall, about 66 inches. I’ve only been on one lesson thus far but hope to go weekly. My next lesson is tomorrow night. That time might pose problems as we get into football season if the Cowboys play on a Sunday evening, which happens a few times this season. That will be a hard choice: go horseback riding or watch football. Though there is that deep passion for the equine, football in general and the Cowboys in particular might win that contest.

I think the plan is to have me do some training with Rye. The owner was asking about my horseback riding experience, the types of saddles I’ve ridden in (both English and Western), and if I’ve done Join Up with a horse before, which I haven’t. Join Up is a means of getting a horse used to the rider and to a saddle. Some would call this “breaking a horse..” It was largely brought into the mainstream by
Monty Roberts,
as a means to build trust with the horse in a nonviolent way. Though I’ve read how this is done and read Monty’s book (available through the National Library Service on talking book), I’m not sure how I as a totally blind person would do it. Anyone who has experience with this is welcome and encouraged to comment on this entry and explain how this can be done, so I can pass it along to the people at this facility I’m going to. Though they are not an official
North American Riding for the Handicapped Association (NARHA) stable, they do seem willing to work with me. I think that the owner has worked with blind folk before. Horseback riding is one of the few things that I’ve done over the years that I’ve truly gotten a lot from, been able to relax while doing, and truly enjoyed. I’m glad that I found this place and can get into it again. I’d love to own my own horse or two someday, along with that dream home of a ranch, with stables near the house in easy walking distance, and a bus stop at the end of the sidewalk or driveway. That may be a little unrealistic, but then again, who knows.

Well that’s all for now. The training Center is supposed to get a large group or intake of people, as many as 30 or more, coming in a few weeks. So my weekends and week nights will become a lot more enjoyable and hopefully restful shortly. Speaking of which, I’m off to enjoy this one. I’ll attempt to get some pictures of Rye that I can put up on my website for you to see, and will post more about my riding experience. Until then. (Hey, …, you, …, pssssssst, football’s coming!)

Interesting article about regaining sight

Greetings. Here's an interesting article about the blind possibly regaining sight, and the possible questions and issues that come out of that. I received this from the NFB's blind students email list. As for me, I have thought about some of the questions raised below often and really haven't come up with any answers. Except that if I were offered the chance to see again, I'd first think about it for a long time, but eventually probably refuse. Read on about the various issues that come out of sight restoration to find out why. Enjoy, and as always, please excuse any formatting errors.

Subject: The Chance to see again...would she take it?

REBECCA ATKINSON IS GOING BLIND. AN EXPERIMENTAL
THERAPY COULD OFFER HER THE CHANCE TO SEE AGAIN - BUT WOULD SHE TAKE IT?

TUESDAY JULY 17, 2007
THE GUARDIAN

EARLIER THIS YEAR, DOCTORS AT MOORFIELDS EYE
HOSPITAL, LONDON, BEGAN THE WORLD'S FIRST GENE
THERAPY TRIALS TO TREAT 12 PATIENTS WHO HAVE LEBER'S CONGENITAL
AMAUROSIS, A CONDITION THAT CAUSES PROGRESSIVE
SIGHT LOSS. FOLLOWING SUCCESSFUL ANIMAL TRIALS
(SAID TO HAVE RESTORED THE VISION OF BLIND DOGS SO THEY COULD
NAVIGATE A MAZE WITHOUT DIFFICULTY), IT IS HOPED
THAT THE TECHNIQUE, WHICH INVOLVES INJECTING
WORKING COPIES OF FAULTY GENES DIRECTLY INTO THE RETINA,
WILL PROVE EQUALLY EFFECTIVE WHEN CARRIED OUT ON
HUMANS. THE RESULTS WILL NOT BE MADE PUBLIC FOR A
YEAR BUT, IF THE TECHNIQUE WORKS, SCIENTISTS HOPE IT
COULD EVENTUALLY BE USED TO TREAT A WIDE RANGE OF
INHERITED SIGHT DISORDERS AFFECTING UP TO 30,000
VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE IN THE UK AND POTENTIALLY MILLIONS
MORE WORLDWIDE.
THE FIRST VIABLE TREATMENT FOR BLINDNESS IS
TWINKLING ON THE HORIZON AND AS ONE READER SAID
ON A NATIONAL NEWSPAPER MESSAGE BOARD DISCUSSING THE TRIALS,
"THE POSSIBILITY OF BEING ABLE TO GIVE IMPROVED
SIGHT TO PEOPLE WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENTS IS A
GREAT DEVELOPMENT FOR THE HUMAN RACE." BUT WHAT OF THE PEOPLE
WE SEEK TO REPAIR? THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN BORN BLIND
AND THOSE, LIKE ME, WHO ARE LOSING OR HAVE LOST
THEIR VISION. IS THIS WHAT WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR?
IS IT "A GREAT DEVELOPMENT FOR THE HUMAN RACE",
OR A STEP FORWARD IN THE EUGENIC QUEST FOR AN
UBER-RACE, FREE OF IMPERFECTION AND RID OF THE UNEASE ABOUT
DISABILITY THAT NESTLES QUIETLY IN SOCIETY'S POCKET?

FOR THE PAST 13 YEARS I HAVE BEEN LOSING MY
SIGHT, DUE TO A GENETIC AND INCURABLE CONDITION
CALLED RETINITIS PIGMENTOSA (RP). RP CAUSES THE PHOTORECEPTIVE
CELLS ON THE RETINA TO DIE OFF, CAUSING, IN MY
CASE, TUNNEL VISION. I LIKEN IT TO LOOKING AT THE
WORLD DOWN THE MIDDLE OF TWO TOILET ROLLS. MY CENTRAL
VISION REMAINS INTACT, BUT WHERE ONCE WAS
PERIPHERAL VISION NOW FLOAT ONLY MY THOUGHTS. IN
TIME THESE LOO ROLLS WILL SHRINK TO KNOTHOLES AND THEN PINHOLES
AND THEN POSSIBLY NOTHING.

IN THE EARLY YEARS AFTER MY DIAGNOSIS, BLINDNESS
REMAINED A REPULSIVE AND TERRIFYING CONCEPT.
EVERY YEAR I WOULD VISIT THE DOCTOR AND HE WOULD SAY THE SAME
THING - THAT I MUST LIVE AND PLAN MY LIFE WITH
THE CERTAINTY THAT BLINDNESS WAS INEVITABLE. AND
SO, SLOWLY OVER TIME, THAT IS WHAT I LEARNED TO DO. BUT
NOW THE ADVENT OF GENE THERAPY HAS PUSHED OPEN A
CHINK IN THE DOOR. DISABLED PEOPLE HAVE LONG
ASKED THEMSELVES THE HYPOTHETICAL "WOULD YOU BE CURED IF
YOU COULD?" QUESTION. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME,
THERE IS A CHANCE, ALBEIT VERY SMALL, THAT MAYBE
ONE DAY I MIGHT ACTUALLY GET MY SIGHT BACK.

HURRAH, YOU CRY. I MUST BE THRILLED. ACTUALLY, I
AM A BIT CONFUSED. IT IS EASY TO ASSUME THAT ALL
VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE WILL BE HAMMERING DOWN THE DOORS
SHOULD GENE THERAPY PROVE SUCCESSFUL. BUT TO SAY
THIS IS TO ASSUME THAT A BLIND LIFE IS LESSER AND
THAT ALL BLIND PEOPLE REALLY WANT TO BE SIGHTED. THEY
DON'T. THE FIRST BLIND MAN I EVER MET, WHO ALSO
HAPPENED TO BE MY BOSS AT THE TIME, IS ONE OF
THEM. I RECENTLY ASKED HIM IF HE WOULD HAVE GENE THERAPY
IF HE COULD. NO, CAME HIS REPLY. BECAUSE, HE
TELLS ME, REGAINING SIGHT IS MORE THAN JUST SEEING AGAIN.

THERE ARE ISSUES OF IDENTITY AND CULTURE AT STAKE
TOO. "AS THE BLIND-FROM-BIRTH SON OF BLIND
PARENTS, I AM, IN PART OF MY SOUL, DEFINED BY MY BLINDNESS,"
HE EXPLAINS. "IT DIRECTLY EQUATES TO ETHNIC OR
RACIAL ORIGIN. IF YOU GIVE A BLACK PERSON THE
CHOICE TO BE WHITE THERE MAY WELL BE SIGNIFICANT ADVANTAGES
IN SUCH A DEAL: MORE ACCESS TO BETTER JOBS;
FREEDOM FROM THE SHACKLES OF IGNORANT PREJUDICE;
IN SHORT, A STEP CLOSER TO EQUALITY. BUT I'D BET MOST WOULD
TURN THE OFFER DOWN FLAT."

BUT WHAT IF, UNLIKE MY OLD BOSS, YOU HAVEN'T
ALWAYS BEEN BLIND? WHAT IF, LIKE ME, YOU GREW UP
WITH FULL VISION AND HAVE SEEN ALL THE CLICHE-RIDDEN THINGS
THAT THOSE BORN TOTALLY BLIND ARE PITIED FOR
NEVER HAVING SEEN - THE SUNSET, YOUR OWN
REFLECTION, THE LOOK IN YOUR LOVER'S EYES. WHAT IF YOUR SOUL IS SIGHTED,
AND THEN YOU GO BLIND?

YOU WILL CRY AND WONDER WHY. YOU WILL HOPE AND
PRAY. YOU WILL WISH IT WOULD ALL GO AWAY. BUT THE
LONGER YOUR SIGHT HAS BEEN ON THE SLIDE, THE MORE IT SEEPS
INTO EVERY CRACK OF YOUR PSYCHE - UNTIL ONE DAY
YOU ARE NO LONGER THE "SIGHTED PERSON" WHO CAN'T
SEE ANY MORE. SOMEHOW, STRANGELY, IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT,
YOUR IDENTITY HAS ROLLED OVER IN BED AND YOU WAKE
UP AND GET OUT THE OTHER SIDE A "VISUALLY
IMPAIRED PERSON" - AND IT FEELS LIKE PART OF YOU.

IT DOESN'T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT, AND PERHAPS IT
DOESN'T HAPPEN TO ALL WHO SAIL THE STRANGE SEAS
OF SIGHT LOSS WITH ME. BUT FOR ME THERE CAME A POINT WHEN IMPENDING
BLINDNESS WAS NO LONGER MY ALIEN BUT MY FRIEND. I
HAD HAD MY TIME AS A SIGHTED PERSON. I HAD SEEN
THE WORLD THROUGH MY EYES. NOW IT WAS TIME TO TOUCH IT
AND SMELL IT AND HEAR IT.

WHEN YOU LOSE YOUR VISION YOU HAVE TO RE-LEARN
THE SORTS OF THINGS THAT WILL ALLOW YOU TO
SURVIVE ON THE PLANET, SUCH AS CROSSING THE ROAD WITHOUT BEING
FLATTENED. NEXT YOU MUST TACKLE THE REAL PROBLEM
AND LEARN TO DEAL WITH THE ATTITUDES OF OTHERS AS
THEY MORPH AROUND YOU. MISCONCEPTIONS START TO SPOUT
FROM EVEN YOUR OLDEST FRIENDS' MOUTHS BECAUSE
NEGATIVE ATTITUDES ABOUT BLINDNESS PERMEATE US ALL.

YOU ARE ABOUT TO CROSS OVER INTO THE DARK SIDE
AND SEE WHAT WRIGGLES AND WRITHES ON THE
UNDERBELLY OF SOCIETY. FOLK WILL SEE YOU AS THE SUFFERER, THE PITIFUL,
THE AFFLICTED, THE SUBHUMAN - THAT'S YOU, YES,
YOU. IF YOU USE A CANE OR A DOG, PEOPLE WILL
STARE AS YOU WALK DOWN THE STREET. PEOPLE WILL ASSUME YOU ARE
MORE LACKING IN INTELLIGENCE THAN YOUR SIGHTED
COUNTERPART. PEOPLE YOU HAVE NEVER MET BEFORE
WILL ASK IF YOU WANT CHILDREN, AND IF YOU DO, THEY WILL ASK
IF THE KIDS WILL HAVE THE SAME CONDITION THAT YOU
HAVE, AND WHETHER THAT IS RIGHT OR WRONG.
WELCOME. YOUR REPRODUCTIVE AUTONOMY IS IN THE DOCKS OF THE
MORAL COURTS OF THE NATION'S MINDS.

SO IF THIS UNDERBELLY IS SO WRETCHED, SURELY IF
THE TIME COMES WHEN THE DOCTORS ARE LOOMING FORTH
WITH A NEEDLE CONTAINING THE WORKING VERSION OF MY FAULTY
GENE AND HERALDING THE PROMISE OF A NEW DAY, ONE
WITH A BRIGHT SUNSET AND ME AT THE WHEEL OF A
FAST CAR, I'LL TAKE IT, RIGHT? ANYTHING TO ESCAPE? NO. SAYING
YES TO SEEING AGAIN, EVEN FOR SOMEONE WHO WASN'T
BORN BLIND, ISN'T EASY. THE REPERCUSSIONS WOULD
RIPPLE BEYOND MY EYES INTO MY FRIENDSHIPS, MY WORK, MY
RELATIONSHIP.

WOULD I RETAIN THE UNITY I HAVE WITH MY DISABLED
BRETHREN IF I COULD SEE? OR WOULD I HAVE
DIFFERENT FRIENDS, THE TYPE WHO FALL BY THE WAYSIDE NOW BECAUSE
THEY ARE NOT AWARE OR EMPATHETIC, OR ARE TOO
AESTHETICALLY OBSESSED? WOULD I LOSE THE FRIENDS
WITH WHOM I HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON BUT WHO REMAIN IN MY PHONE
BOOK BECAUSE THEY GET THE BLINDNESS THING? AND
WOULD IT BE RIGHT TO DUMP THEM JUST BECAUSE I CAN
SEE AND DON'T NEED THEIR EMPATHY ANY MORE? IF I STEPPED
INTO THE POOL OF "NORMAL PEOPLE" AGAIN, WHERE WOULD MY IDENTITY GO?

THE KERNEL OF WHO I AM HAS BEEN SUCKED INTO A NEW
BODY; NOW IT WOULD HAVE TO BE SUCKED BACK INTO
THE OLD ONE. AND WHAT OF MY RELATIONSHIP? WOULD WE STAY
TOGETHER OR WOULD I RUN OFF TO DO ALL THE THINGS
I NEVER GOT TO DO BEFORE? THERE IS A HIGH RATE OF
SEPARATION AMONG COUPLES WHERE ONE PERSON GETS A GUIDE
DOG FOR THE FIRST TIME. WHY? BECAUSE SUDDENLY
THEY CAN DO THINGS ON THEIR OWN AGAIN. THIS
NEW-FOUND INDEPENDENCE SHIFTS THE BALANCE AND CRACKS APPEAR.
IF THIS CAN HAPPEN WITH A DOG, THINK WHAT COULD
HAPPEN WITH A PAIR OF FULLY WORKING EYES AND A CAR.

GOING BLIND ISN'T A SMOOTH RIDE, THOUGH. IT COMES
DOWN AND SQUISHES YOU UNDER AN INSURMOUNTABLE
WEIGHT OF GRIEF AND DISBELIEF. IT IS LIMITING, FRUSTRATING
AND CHANGES THE WAY YOU DO MANY OF THE THINGS YOU
USED TO ENJOY - NOW YOU MUST DANCE WITH THE LIGHT
ON AND DRIVE FROM THE BACK SEAT. BUT LIKE THE AFFIRMATION
OF NEAR DEATH, IT AFFECTS MORE THAN JUST YOUR
PHYSICALITY. IT GIVES YOU A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE.
IT IS A GRAND EXPERIMENT THAT MOST DON'T GET TO TRY; TO OBSERVE
AS YOUR BRAIN REWIRES AND WATCH AS THE HUMAN BODY
ADAPTS IN INFINITE WAYS. WHEN MY VISION BEGAN TO
GET WORSE, I BUMPED INTO EVERYTHING IN MY PATH BECAUSE
I WAS STILL CAREERING DOWN THE PAVEMENT AT THE
SPEED OF SOMEONE WHO COULD SEE. AS MY MIND CAUGHT
UP WITH MY EYES, I CHANGED THE WAY I WALKED - WITH MORE
CAUTION AND LESS SPEED - AND THE PERPETUAL BUMPING AND TRIPPING STOPPED.

LOSING YOUR SIGHT IS NOT LIKE JUST SHUTTING YOUR
EYES. THE LOSS IS SO GRADUAL THAT AS ONE SENSE
DIES OTHERS GROW. SUDDENLY YOU CAN SMELL THE WORLD AND SENSE
WHEN SOMEONE IS STANDING OUT OF YOUR LINE OF
VISION. YOUR BRAIN GROWS ON THE INSIDE AND THINGS
ON THE OUTSIDE START TO MATTER LESS. I GET TO LIVE MY LIFE
TWICE OVER IN TWO DIFFERENT BODIES (THE SIGHTED
ONE I USED TO HAVE AND THE PARTIALLY SIGHTED ONE
I NOW HAVE), AND WITH THAT COMES THE PRIVILEGE OF SPYING
ON THE WORLD AND ITS INTRICACIES FROM MULTIPLE VANTAGE POINTS.

IT'S A CLICHE TO SAY THAT DISABLED PEOPLE ARE
NICER. IT IS INCORRECT, IN FACT. BUT FOR ME,
VISION LOSS HAS MADE ME MORE EMPATHETIC AND MORE OPEN- MINDED.
I HAVE TO TAKE SO OFTEN THAT I GIVE MORE FREELY.
WHEN YOU RELY ON FRIENDS TO TAKE YOU DOWN OXFORD
STREET OR A STRANGER TO GET YOU ACROSS THE ROAD, YOU
THINK MORE CONSCIOUSLY ABOUT WHAT YOU GIVE BACK
AND BATTLE WITH THE FEELING THAT YOU NEED THEM
MORE THAN THEY NEED YOU. BUT, STRANGELY, I AM HAPPIER LIKE
THIS THAN IF I HAD CARRIED ON DOWN THE MIDDLE
LANE TO MEDIOCRE CITY NEVER HAVING SEEN OR FELT
REAL LOSS AND KNOWN HOW TO APPRECIATE THE GOOD THINGS AROUND
ME.

I HAVE MET PEOPLE I WOULD NEVER HAVE MET HAD I
BEEN SIGHTED, AND WE HAVE BEEN JOINED TOGETHER BY
THE COMMON BOND OF DISABILITY (AND THERE IS NO GLUE THAT
SETS AS HARD AS THAT SQUEEZED FROM THE PORES OF A
MINORITY). WHEN PART OF YOUR BODY STARTS TO DIE
YOU FEEL WHAT IT IS TO BE HUMAN. YOU WAKE UP FROM THE
SLUMBER OF BEING JUST ANOTHER IDIOT WITH AN IPOD
BECAUSE YOU ARE FORCED TO WORK OUT THE BIGGER
QUESTIONS. OR AT LEAST ASK THEM. WHY AM I HERE? WHY IS THIS
HAPPENING? YOU ARE ALERT TO THE IMMEDIACY AND
FRAGILITY OF YOUR LIFE. YOU KNOW THAT THE CHOICES
OF THE MODERN AGE DO NOT AND CAN NOT EXTEND INTO EVERY
REALM OF YOUR LIFE. YOU CAN'T CHOOSE TO SEE (AT
LEAST NOT YET). THIS IS IT. THE UPSHOT? YOU LIVE
IN THE MOMENT. YOU SETTLE FOR YOUR LOT AND LOVE IT.

THE CONCEPT OF SIGHT LOSS AS A POSITIVE THING IS
AN ELUSIVE ONE. IT IS HARD TO GRASP WHEN YOU HAVE
EXPERIENCED IT; AND EVEN HARDER TO GRASP WHEN YOU HAVEN'T.
IT IS NOT SOMETHING I WOULD HAVE CHOSEN, BUT IT
IS NOT SOMETHING I WISH HADN'T HAPPENED. WOULD I
LIKE TO STOP IT GETTING WORSE? YES, BECAUSE I'M ONLY HUMAN
AND SOMETIMES I LIE AWAKE WORRYING HOW I'LL COPE
WHEN IT'S ALL GONE. BUT WOULD I LIKE TO HAVE GENE
THERAPY AND SEE PERFECTLY AGAIN? FIVE YEARS AGO I'D
HAVE SAID YES. NOW I'M NOT SURE, BECAUSE IF THIS
EXPERIMENT OF GOING BLIND HAS TAUGHT ME ANYTHING,
IT IS THAT WHAT YOU LOSE IN ONE PLACE YOU GAIN ELSEWHERE,
AND WHILE A BLIND LIFE IS DIFFERENT TO A SIGHTED
LIFE, IT IS NOT LESSER. AND ULTIMATELY IT IS BETTER THAN HAVING NO LIFE AT
ALL.

Serotek products and thoughts

Greetings. Let’s try this again. I started this post a little while ago but it was erased by some circumstance, so I’ll try again. Of course, this slightly changes my view on the software that I was and am going to talk about, :)

Serotek is a name that some blind people have heard of, either from their line of products for Windows or, perhaps more likely, from their involvement in a lawsuit from Freedom Scientific recently. Either way, it’s a name that we should be familiar with. Why? Because of the types of products that they are coming up with; products that innovate and push the envelope. I’m not going to get into technical details. There are others that can do that much more eloquently, not to mentioned informed, than I can. I will talk about my experience thus far with their products, aside from the information loss, and tell you what I think.

System Access. This is a new product that Serotek has come up with that performs like, and in fact is, a screen reader. Its not as complex and involved as JAWS, but then again, it doesn’t pretend to be. System Access is what it is, and it’s a pretty good product. It allows you to use your computer nonvisually, from accessing desktop icons, to using Microsoft Word, to sending email in Outlook Express or Microsoft Outlook, to surfing the WWW, and more. Serotek has recently introduced a new product similar to System Access, called System Access to Go or S.A. to Go. They are currently offering S.A. to Go as a public beta for people to test. There’s no indication on when the beta cycle will end, however you can sign up by going to:
www.SAToGo.com.

I’m using a 4 and a half year old computer running Windows XP Home and am writing this in Word XP,a program that Serotek freelly says that they don’t support. Perhaps hat’s why I’ve had problems with it. When using their System Access program, each time that I’ve come back to Word from another window, my focus has been lost and I’ve been placed on one of the many pages of my currently 28 page blog document. Sometimes I’ve gotten speech when arrowing through the document, and sometimes I haven’t. And then there’s the issue of that disappearing text I had earlier. I should say that it seems that Serotek’s products use some of the familiar JAWS navigation keys. I’ve been able to use the equivalent Windows keystrokes for moving by word or paragraph. About the time that I thought I’d run into trouble (which I’ll get into later), I was able to switch back to the Word window with Ssystem Access, and attempt the save file command in Word (Control with S). I assumed that the file did indeed save and closed the file. This was several hours ago. When I returned a few minutes ago I found that the last post in the file was one I had written before convention. All of the stuff I had written before was gone. That wasn’t very much, but I figure I had written about a page and a half or 2 pages altogether. That as some good stuff with good observations. Hopefully I can recreate that in this post or another one. However, those good thoughts are now in the bit bucket as some call it. This is disappointing to say the least. I plan on informing Serotek about this, even if they don’t’ support Word XP.

I mentioned that System Access and S.A. to Go don’t use many of the JAWS keys I’ve come to know and love, such as moving by character, word, spelling the word, etc. The programs are however much more responsive in Word as a whole, as least compared to JAWS. They are also pretty good in Outlook Express. There is a bit of a delay when arrowing through messages, but I can deal with that, at least for a short time. I’m not sure if I’d want to rely on it all the time, but its good to have available.

The advantage and huge selling point to S.A. to Go is that you don’t need any software on the computer in order to use it. All you need is either an Internet connection or the S.A. software on one of the many new U3 USB thumb drives, for when you plug in the USB drive into any computer, you instantly have access to that computer, whether or not if there’s any assistive software on that machine. This has been the big selling point for some of the Serotek line of products for several years, starting with their Key to Freedom product. That I know of, no one else in the AT industry has been able to duplicate this level of access. Some have come close, like Freedom Scientific with their dongle or thumb drive version of JAWS, but one still needs JAWS on a computer in order to use this, which kind of defeats the purpose of “access anywhere.” I think that Dolphin have also attempted this kind of access as well with their Dolphin Pen, though I don’t know if that requires the Dolphin software on the computer in question in order to work, like FS does. In any case, Serotek are true innovators by introducing and maintaining this level of access.

The last product I’d like to talk about is the S.A. Mobile Network, formerly known as the Freedom Box Network. Basically, this is a safe “sandbox” like environment that they introduced back in 2000 to give blind and low vision people access to many different software, such as email, web browsing, chat, word processing, etc. Among other things, one of their most popular offerings is the ability to listen to the audio track of many different DVS or describe movies. Thik of the S.A. Mobile Network like what America Online attempted to do some years ago.

I’ve gone onto the Mobile Network, after I signed up for a free 30 days trial, and have watched, er listened, to several movies in the last 12-24 hours. I must say that these movies present a very good and enticing argument and plus for the S.A. Mobile Network and Serotek as a whole. The movies range from classics to Holiday favorites to action and adventure, and all points in between.

In watching these movies I’ve discovered that while I started out the session with System Access, after a said period of time in which I haven’t pressed any keys on my computer, S.A. disappears. I know this because I’ve attempted to check the time a number of times and was unable to do so. When the movies were over, I’ve also attempted to move to another window finding that I got no speech. I tried bringing up JAWS and Microsoft Narrator with no success. Incidentally, Narrator’s not so bad if you adjust the speech rate to a faster speed. Its still the same voice, but at least he doesn’t sound as drunk. Anyway, I know that JAWS came up because my Braille display came to life but nothing was displayed. There was no speech either. Perhaps S.A. was blocking the speech, since if Narrator did load, the program spoke with hesitation, menaing there were many pauses when it was trying to announce some things. All but one of the times that I’ve watched a movie, which has probably been 5 or 6, I had to eventually restart my computer from a complete shut down state. Being able to watch movies is quite nice, but I’m not sure I’d pay for this ability if I have to reboot my computer after the movie’s over. The one time that I didn’t have to restart was when I closed the media player’s window and got S.A. speech back, but I was still unable to check the time during that session after awhile. The point when I lost my work in Word, I had started a movie and had it on pause. I had a feeling that I might have to restart at some point, so I paused the movie, went back to Word, and tried to save the document. I don’t know if the presence of the movie or media player had anything to do with my data loss, but if so, that’s not a good selling point either.

Like I’ve said, I’m still evaluating things and my conclusions might not amount to much. However, over all, these are great products. While I may not pay the money for System Access or the Mobile Network for this computer, after all it is still 4 years old. There’s a good chance I will try it on Windows Vista, whenever that next computer comes. Even when my 30 day trial runs out, I’ll still use the S.A. to Go program, if at all possible. Its great not needing any software and just being able to type in a web address or bring up a favorite to launch a screen reader. And then, when done, to just close the window or unload the program, and have there be no trace of the program on that computer. There’s one other part of S.A. to Go that might interest others but doesn’t really do much for me: the ability to remotely control another computer with both System Access and S.,A. to Go. For the person in information technology, tekkie, or computer repair person, or even for the true geek, this is pretty cool. Also, as far as Windows Vista is concerned, System Access doesn’t have any trouble in working with Vist’as graphics. Which means that unlike JAWS, Window Eyes, and other screen readers, you don’t have to unload or change the display settings in order to use System Access. For any sighted people in your life, this is pretty notable it would seem.

There you have it. I’m off to play some more in this virtual sandbox. Serotek is running a "summer conference special" on their site until 7/30/07 that combines many of these products for only $500. Check it out if you're interested. To learn more about Serotek, visit them online at
Serotek.com

Remembering Tony

Hi Tony. I just wanted to write you a quick note and wish you happy birthday. I know you're in Heaven now, but I still need to remember your birthday and the happy times. I've thought about you a lot in recent months and days. For awhile, you were in my dreams. I don't dream about you as often these days. You do come up from time to time though. I've met a girl named Beth and I think you would have liked her. She's a real dog person so there would be a definite connection between the two of you. May this day bring you happy memories in Heaven just like they're bringing me down here. Talk to you in awhile. Love, Wayne.

JAWS 8.0 for Windows Vista Final release

Greetings. I meant to post this before I left for convention, but didn't get a chance. JAWS 8.0 for Windows XP/Vista has been released. On the Windows XP side, there's not a lot of enhancements/improvements since the last minor update. However, this is considered a "final release" for Windows Vista. So from now on, you can burn this copy to a CD or get a CD from Freedom Scientific, and install it on a new Windows Vista computer. For those interested, you can read more about the JAWS 8.0.2173 Final Release. Refer to the "Enhancements for JAWS version 8.0.2173" heading for specifics on what has changed since the last update. Also, in the JAWS seminar at the NFB convention last week and on FS Cast (FS's podcast), there was mention of version 9 coming out hopefully in September. If you have Windows XP and don't see a reason to get this update, then I'd suggest just waiting for 9.0. One notable thing and a reason you might want to order the 8.0 CD is that a new batch of training material is included on it. Among this material are free Daisy moduals, including one on moving to Windows Vista when using JAWS or Magic. Refer to the JAWS Training Headquarters and look for the heading, "Download these additional DAISY books." Enjoy.

The PAC Mate Omni

Greetings. After long last, an upgrade for the PAC Mate is coming. It was officially announced this past week at the National Federation of the Blind and American Council of the Blind conventions. For those that missed the convention or announcement, or want more details, then check out the PAC Mate Omni press release. As a PAC Mate user, I'm grately looking forward to this upgrade. Though I hate to be apart from my technology I rely upon, I'll gladly send my unit in if they're going to perform this sort of upgrading to it. In case you're interested, it would be a good thing to do any maintenance or repairs to your unit before the new version comes out. FS in fact said that they won't do any upgrading if your unit is not working perfectly. Also, the pricing structure that FS has announced is pretty great too; think of it, paying from only $299 to $699 for an upgrade like this. That sounds a lot better than the nearly $2,000 that HumanWare was charging a few years ago when they introduced the BrailleNote mPowers. Since my hardware and software agreements are up to date, I'll only pay $299 for this upgrade. As the date gets closer, Freedom Scientific will announce other details about how the upgrade process will work, as well as other enhancements to the PAC Mate. For now though let's enjoy the moment and the news.

June update

Greetings. Thought I’d given an update since I have time on my hands. Usually, about this time of day on a normal week, I’m either sleeping or being really lazy in front of the TV. However, this has not been a normal week. Mainly because I’ve been off. The Center closes during the last week in May and during the week of Christmas and New Year’s. All the students and staff get the week off, which is great. I’ve been catching up on my R&R this week, and basically not accomplishing anything. Its been wonderful! I know that things will get plenty busy next week when work starts up again, and then the following week when a lot of new students come in. Its safe to say that June will be a busy month for me and that there will probably be some nights when I come home, put my feet up on my coffee table, and fall asleep. However, since I’m going to the NFB convention in Atlanta the first week in July, that gives me something to look forward to and plan for. That will be nice, to go off to a convention in the middle of that craziness at work. So I’m completely cool with not accomplishing anything this week, :)

The mattress has been everything I thought it would be, and more. Its one of those mattresses where when you lay down on it, its not immediately comfortable. But as you lie on the bed, the mattress’s various “pressure points” mold or shape themselves to your body. So, if you can get up after a few minutes, you then realize how comfortable it really was. There have been a few times when I have laid down for a few minutes while listening to some audio on my computer, and then had thought of changing songs or stations, and dreaded the idea of getting up again. So to say that its been enjoyable might be an understatement, :)

The graduation ceremony went very well. It was good to see the students that I had taught, at various stages, finally accomplish their goals and get their certificates. However, as it turned out, the students had a little surprise for the staff. Apparently, they had gotten together in one of their planning sessions for the graduation, and decided to give certain staff members awards. They gave awards to at least one person from each department. I’m writing this not only to draw attention to their efforts, but also to mention that I received the award for the technology department!

As part of the introduction, the student that presented me the award said something along these lines: “The next award goes to someone in technology. This person hasn’t been here that long, only a little over a year, and he doesn’t get much recognition.” The award says:

Service Excellence Award
Presented to
Wayne Merritt
In recognition of your outstanding service and dedication to consumers.
05/24/07

And then it had the student’s name. There were things I could have said and things I wanted to say, but as soon as I mounted the steps to the stage and received the award, I was speechless. How could I thank students that had just paid me probably the biggest complement I’ve yet to receive in my career? Truth be told, I’m not recognized that often. It was a long time, about a year, before someone even mentioned me in their short graduation thanks that each student gives when they receive their certificates.

So, I’d like to take this space to thank all the students, especially the presenter (and you know who you are), for recognizing me. Your recognition helps make my job worthwhile. And it helps to validate all those days of arriving on time for class, of giving challenging homework, and of talking about anything from lecture material, to Shrek, to blindness skills in class. As I said to one of my colleagues after the ceremonies were done, “Now my life is complete.”

Pretty much everyone, staff and students alike, were at the graduation ceremony. It was neat to be recognized and acknowledged by my students and colleagues.

On another note, I went and saw Shrek the Third last weekend with a friend. For the record, though its better than Shrek 2, its not nearly as overwhelmingly funny as the original Shrek movie. At times though, I thought that there was too much going on in Shrek the Third. I did enjoy the medieval names and places though; those were amusing. I was left with one question though: will there be a forth installment in this movie series? I guess we’ll see in 2010, since all of the movies have been released every 3 years.

Well, that’s about all for now. I’m off to enjoy the rest of my weekend and vacation, at least until Atlanta, :) See ya.

NFB convention agenda available

Greetings. For those interested, the NFB 2007 Convention Agenda is now available. This is a direct link to download the Word document on the NFB website. Note that this file is just over 3 megabytes in size, and that it might take some time to download on a modem connection and further to open in Word. I recommend, that as soon as you open it in Word, you perform a Save As and save it in either rich text or plain text to reduce the file size. Remember to load this on your note taker or laptop of choice before you go to convention. By doing so, you can preserve some trees for all the people that forgot their laptops, or those that don't have the ability. Also, while they're still reading over their agendas, you can be rushing to a meeting or the event of your choice, chuckling all the way because you were prepared :) Enjoy.

May entry

Greetings. Well, its time for another monthly blogging update. Some people have asked me why I don’t post as often as I once did. Truthfully, I don’t really know myself. Things are a little less stressful at work and as a result I’m not as stressed. Though, this coming week, I’ve got a mess of reports and summaries to write for my students, some of whom are graduating so they’re even higher on the priority list. I think I’ll always be a blogger to some degree, but perhaps that degree is getting smaller as we go. Anyway, I do have some notable things to update you on this month.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought my first pair of boots, which has surprised and pleased several people in my daily life. I had heard about boots and their comfort several times before now, and I needed some new work shoes anyway, so I thought, “Why not?” Wearing boots has presented its own set of challenges and interesting observations. Mainly that I’m now 2 inches higher than I once was. I realize that those of you who may have been wearing boots for a long time are reading this and thinking, “Well of course Wayne, they’re going to make you taller.” But bare with me for a moment; after all, these are new experiences for me. For the record, I bought a pair of break in or transition boots, or those that are recommended to people that have been wearing shoes and are in the process of switching to boots. Thus, they have a good amount of padding in them to ease the process. I’ve noticed differences in the height of things around me, in going up or down stairs, and I’m even considering obtaining a 67 inch cane, since now my 65 inch doesn’t come up as high as it once did. Its definitely different. On the flip side, I’ve gotten complements from many people that, “You look good in those boots,” when I wear the boots with jeans or khakis. I do like the ability to pull the boots on at any time and not to have to mess with laces or any mess like that. I’ve been told from people that know such things that it will take a week or two to break them in, but after that, I’ll love them. I’m inclined to believe them.

On another front, yesterday I went out with a friend and ended up buying a new mattress, bed frame, and side table at a local furniture store for some great prices. Actually, as much as I’m pleased with the kind of mattress I got, I’m equally, if not more, excited about the delivery of all of this on this coming Saturday. For those interested, the mattress is one of those Posturepedic mattresses, which basically means that it provides good back support and firmness throughout the whole mattress. So, you get the same firmness whether you’re sitting on the edge, laying in the middle or on either end or side of it. You don’t feel like you’re going to roll off the side, which is great. This is my first queen size mattress and I’m already rubbing my hands together in anticipation.

The other big day in this coming week is Thursday, since its another consumer graduation day. I’ve taught many of these students, some more than others. It will likely be one of those bitter sweet days, where it will be good to see them achieve their goal of program completion, but sad to see them go.

Add to that the fact that the Center is closing for a week next week, or Memorial Day week, and you can understand my anticipation of Friday. I’m going to go ahead and throw out the prediction that, among staff, there won’t be very much productivity on Friday afternoon, especially after 3pm. With the end of May looming, my anticipation for the NFB convention in Atlanta is growing. I always love going to those conventions, and this year‘s is no exception. On that happy note, I’ll bid farewell for now. Adios.