Greetings. Since we now have a definite competitive market for playing digital audio books, such as from NLS, RFBD, BookShare and Audible, among others, there is more of a choice for consumers. I read today on the Fred's Head Companion blog of the new
Victir Reader Stream, Library Edition
that has come out. For those that already own a Stream, this new Library Edition apparently is no different from the regular unit. I looked on the HumanWare site this afternoon on the Stream's page and couldn't find any more information, such as price, for this new player. I'm assuming that it costs similar to the regular Stream unit. It sounds like more of a solution for those in education, libraries, or independent living/training centers, but I'm sure that individuals can get one of these units as well. However, I submit that if you already have a stream or another digital book player, then you probably can pass on the Stream Library Edition. Read the link above for more information on what differs this unit from the regular Stream, or for a play on words, the main Stream. Enjoy.
Wednesday, September 30
Tuesday, September 29
2010 Census cautions
Greetings. Unfortunatley, in the current tehc times, we have to be careful about what we put out on the web or tell/give to other people, especially if that information is your birthdate, SSN, mother's maiden name, or other sensative information. With that said, consider the following note I saw on an email list regarding next year's U.S. census. Please pardon any formatting errors.
***
Be Cautious About Giving Info to Census Workers With the U.S. Census process beginning, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises people to be cooperative, but cautious, so as not to become a victim of fraud or identity theft. The first phase of the 2010 U.S. Census is under way as workers have begun verifying the addresses of households across the country. Eventually, more than 140,000 U.S. Census workers will count every person in the United States and will gather information about every person living at each address including name, age, gender, race, and other relevant data. The big question is - how do you tell the difference between a U.S. Census worker and a con artist? BBB offers the following advice:
** If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a handheld device, a Census Bureau canvas bag, and a confidentiality notice. Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don't know into your home.
** Census workers are currently only knocking on doors to verify address information. Do not give your Social Security number, credit card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the U.S. Census . While the Census Bureau might ask for basic financial information, such as a salary range, it will not ask for Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers nor will employees solicit donations.
Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail, or in person at home. However, they will not contact you by Email, so be on the lookout for Email scams impersonating the Census.
Never click on a link or open any attachments in an Email that are supposedly from the U.S. Census Bureau.
For more advice on avoiding identity theft and fraud, visit
www.bbb.org
***
Be Cautious About Giving Info to Census Workers With the U.S. Census process beginning, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises people to be cooperative, but cautious, so as not to become a victim of fraud or identity theft. The first phase of the 2010 U.S. Census is under way as workers have begun verifying the addresses of households across the country. Eventually, more than 140,000 U.S. Census workers will count every person in the United States and will gather information about every person living at each address including name, age, gender, race, and other relevant data. The big question is - how do you tell the difference between a U.S. Census worker and a con artist? BBB offers the following advice:
** If a U.S. Census worker knocks on your door, they will have a badge, a handheld device, a Census Bureau canvas bag, and a confidentiality notice. Ask to see their identification and their badge before answering their questions. However, you should never invite anyone you don't know into your home.
** Census workers are currently only knocking on doors to verify address information. Do not give your Social Security number, credit card or banking information to anyone, even if they claim they need it for the U.S. Census . While the Census Bureau might ask for basic financial information, such as a salary range, it will not ask for Social Security, bank account, or credit card numbers nor will employees solicit donations.
Eventually, Census workers may contact you by telephone, mail, or in person at home. However, they will not contact you by Email, so be on the lookout for Email scams impersonating the Census.
Never click on a link or open any attachments in an Email that are supposedly from the U.S. Census Bureau.
For more advice on avoiding identity theft and fraud, visit
www.bbb.org
Exciting guide dog advocacy announcement
Greetings. I received this information in my email recently and thought it appropriate to post here. Feel free to share as appropriate with others you know that use guide dogs, no matter what school or support/advocacy organization they may belong to. Enjoy.
***
Please circulate the following message as widely as appropriate!
Dear All,
I am pleased to announce that the National Association of Guide Dog Users, a strong and proud division of the National Federation of the Blind, has been awarded a grant from the NFB's Imagination Fund to develop and implement a nationwide toll-free Education & Advocacy Hotline. This hotline will provide information about the rights of disabled people to be accompanied by service animals under state & federal laws. It is our goal to provide summaries and full texts of each state statute, information about the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Air Carrier Access Act, and the Fair Housing Act, as well as specific guidance to particular industries, such as health care facilities, taxicabs, restaurants, and places of lodging. In addition, trained advocates will be available for personal assistance. Our projection is to begin beta testing in january and have the hotline fully functional by Spring 2010. As this initiative unfolds, messages will be sent to the NAGDU list, so you will be the first to know. If you have any comments or suggestions for specific features of this hotline, please send these comments to me at
President@nfb-nagdu.org
If you would like to subscribe to the email list of the National Association of Guide Dog Users, you may do so by going to
http://www.nfbnet.org
click on "Join or drop nfbnet mailing lists", find the link to the National Association of Guide Dog Users (NAGDU), and complete the subscription information. Once you have subscribed to the list, please send a message introducing yourself. I look forward to being of service to you!
Fraternally yours,
Marion Gwizdala, President
National Association of Guide Dog Users
National Federation of the Blind
***
Please circulate the following message as widely as appropriate!
Dear All,
I am pleased to announce that the National Association of Guide Dog Users, a strong and proud division of the National Federation of the Blind, has been awarded a grant from the NFB's Imagination Fund to develop and implement a nationwide toll-free Education & Advocacy Hotline. This hotline will provide information about the rights of disabled people to be accompanied by service animals under state & federal laws. It is our goal to provide summaries and full texts of each state statute, information about the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Air Carrier Access Act, and the Fair Housing Act, as well as specific guidance to particular industries, such as health care facilities, taxicabs, restaurants, and places of lodging. In addition, trained advocates will be available for personal assistance. Our projection is to begin beta testing in january and have the hotline fully functional by Spring 2010. As this initiative unfolds, messages will be sent to the NAGDU list, so you will be the first to know. If you have any comments or suggestions for specific features of this hotline, please send these comments to me at
President@nfb-nagdu.org
If you would like to subscribe to the email list of the National Association of Guide Dog Users, you may do so by going to
http://www.nfbnet.org
click on "Join or drop nfbnet mailing lists", find the link to the National Association of Guide Dog Users (NAGDU), and complete the subscription information. Once you have subscribed to the list, please send a message introducing yourself. I look forward to being of service to you!
Fraternally yours,
Marion Gwizdala, President
National Association of Guide Dog Users
National Federation of the Blind
Tuesday, September 22
Why I've been offline
Greetings. I'll keep this brief since I don't know how much bandwidth I have. In short, with the new netbook and getting up and running with that, and trying to setup a wireless router which I'm still learning about, and with causing a problemw with my home desktop PC which prevents me from doing anything on that PC; I've been a little occupied lately. My parents are coming down for a visit this weekend, so hopefully I can get my dad to look at my computer and work all those issues out. I am able to jump on someone's unsecured wireless network at home, but that's limited at best. About all it's good for is scanning some email and going to a few websites. Anyway, whenever I get my various computer issues worked out, I'll be putting more things on this blog and on my websites. Incidentally, the total hit count for the White Cane Day site passed 10,000 last week, which is awesome! If I didn't have the netbook, then my wired life would be a lot more dull. Trouble is most of my files, audio, and other content is on the desktop PC that's currently down. Ah well. Long live the netbook and wireless connections. Talk soon: Wayne
Sunday, September 6
History of the Internet
Greetings. I came across this article a few days ago called 40 Glorious Years of the Internet and found it quite interesting. Yes folks, the Internet has really been around for 40 years, unlike the WWW which has been around between 15 and 20 years. Kind of makes you wonder what's coming in the next 20-40 years. Whatever the Web and Net bring, it should be fun. Enjoy.
New initiative to make accessible textbooks for college students
Greetings. I received this information a few days ago and thought it was worth posting here. If this website grows with the number of textbooks, then this could end up being a great resource for colleges and their students. Enjoy.
***
Textbooks for the Disabled
August 28, 2009
The Association of American Publishers and the University of Georgia this week unveiled an electronic database aimed at making it easier for blind, dyslexic and otherwise impaired college students to get specialized textbooks in time for classes.
The database, called
AccessText is designed to centralize the process by which electronic versions of textbooks are requested by colleges and supplied by publishers. Experts say it will allow disabled students to get their textbooks more efficiently, help colleges save money and avoid lawsuits, and protect publishers' copyrights.
For students whose disabilities prevent them from using traditional texts, the normally straightforward task of acquiring books for their courses can be tedious and frustrating. Federal law requires that colleges and universities provide disabled students equal access to educational materials, but this is often easier said than done. College officials have to track down and contact the publisher of every textbook that each of its disabled students buys and request an electronic copy. If such a copy exists -- the likelihood shrinks the older the book and the smaller the publisher -- college officials still have to convert the file to a format that can be read by whatever reading aid the student uses. If not, the college has to wait, sometimes weeks, to obtain permission to scan the book and create its own electronic version.
Once a college has an electronic copy, converting to a readable format can be another complex process, says Sean Keegan, associate director of assistive technology at Stanford University. Math and science texts often arrive as scanned pages, and cannot always be easily read by the character-recognition software the university uses to turn them into standard electronic files, Keegan says. "That can take a longer amount of time to process that material internally and turn it around and give that to the student efficiently," he says.
Meanwhile, delays in the process can make it impossible for disabled students to prepare for and participate in classes. "Students need to have a book in time so they can do the assigned reading and study for tests and papers," says Gaeir Dietrich, interim director of high-tech training for the California Community Colleges system. "So if the book doesn't come until the term has been in session for three or four weeks, that puts that student very far behind." Some students have sued colleges over such delays, she says.
AccessText aims to mitigate these woes by streamlining the request and delivery process, says Ed McCoyd, executive director for accessibility affairs at AAP.
"There's a lot of transactional friction taking place currently," says McCoyd. "What AccessText is trying to do is take some of that out of the transaction by having parties agree to streamlined rules up front."
Having colleges submit requests using the AccessText portal should eliminate the need for the publishers to require endless paperwork with each request to protect its copyrights, McCoyd says. Under the system, the copyright protection agreements can be handled once, during registration, and the requester's bona fides can be verified by a log-in.
Currently, colleges that get tired of waiting for publishers to process the paperwork and procure an electronic copy of a text sometimes just scan a text themselves to try to satisfy the needs of disabled students in a timely fashion, says Dietrich.
AccessText is also set up to eliminate the need for different colleges to convert the same text to a readable format once it is acquired. Currently "numerous schools could be doing the exact same thing, converting the same text," says Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education at the publishers' association. Under the new system, "if one school has already spent the time and the money to convert a file to a format, they could advise the AccessText network, which could then make the info available that it was still available in that format, and that school could share it with another school" -- thereby sparing those colleges the time and resources it would have used to convert the file themselves, he says.
Eight major publishing houses paid a total of just under $1 million to develop the AccessText network and maintain it through its beta phase, which will end next July. From then on, it will sustain itself by billing member colleges between $375 and $500 annually, depending on size.
Dietrich notes that community colleges might not benefit from the AccessText network as much as other institutions, since "we have a lot more vocational classes and basic-skills classes, and a lot of those books don't come through those big publishers, they come through specialized publishers," she says. "It doesn't solve that part of the problem for us."
The network includes 92 percent of all college textbook publishers and is recruiting even more, according to AAP officials.
***
Textbooks for the Disabled
August 28, 2009
The Association of American Publishers and the University of Georgia this week unveiled an electronic database aimed at making it easier for blind, dyslexic and otherwise impaired college students to get specialized textbooks in time for classes.
The database, called
AccessText is designed to centralize the process by which electronic versions of textbooks are requested by colleges and supplied by publishers. Experts say it will allow disabled students to get their textbooks more efficiently, help colleges save money and avoid lawsuits, and protect publishers' copyrights.
For students whose disabilities prevent them from using traditional texts, the normally straightforward task of acquiring books for their courses can be tedious and frustrating. Federal law requires that colleges and universities provide disabled students equal access to educational materials, but this is often easier said than done. College officials have to track down and contact the publisher of every textbook that each of its disabled students buys and request an electronic copy. If such a copy exists -- the likelihood shrinks the older the book and the smaller the publisher -- college officials still have to convert the file to a format that can be read by whatever reading aid the student uses. If not, the college has to wait, sometimes weeks, to obtain permission to scan the book and create its own electronic version.
Once a college has an electronic copy, converting to a readable format can be another complex process, says Sean Keegan, associate director of assistive technology at Stanford University. Math and science texts often arrive as scanned pages, and cannot always be easily read by the character-recognition software the university uses to turn them into standard electronic files, Keegan says. "That can take a longer amount of time to process that material internally and turn it around and give that to the student efficiently," he says.
Meanwhile, delays in the process can make it impossible for disabled students to prepare for and participate in classes. "Students need to have a book in time so they can do the assigned reading and study for tests and papers," says Gaeir Dietrich, interim director of high-tech training for the California Community Colleges system. "So if the book doesn't come until the term has been in session for three or four weeks, that puts that student very far behind." Some students have sued colleges over such delays, she says.
AccessText aims to mitigate these woes by streamlining the request and delivery process, says Ed McCoyd, executive director for accessibility affairs at AAP.
"There's a lot of transactional friction taking place currently," says McCoyd. "What AccessText is trying to do is take some of that out of the transaction by having parties agree to streamlined rules up front."
Having colleges submit requests using the AccessText portal should eliminate the need for the publishers to require endless paperwork with each request to protect its copyrights, McCoyd says. Under the system, the copyright protection agreements can be handled once, during registration, and the requester's bona fides can be verified by a log-in.
Currently, colleges that get tired of waiting for publishers to process the paperwork and procure an electronic copy of a text sometimes just scan a text themselves to try to satisfy the needs of disabled students in a timely fashion, says Dietrich.
AccessText is also set up to eliminate the need for different colleges to convert the same text to a readable format once it is acquired. Currently "numerous schools could be doing the exact same thing, converting the same text," says Bruce Hildebrand, executive director for higher education at the publishers' association. Under the new system, "if one school has already spent the time and the money to convert a file to a format, they could advise the AccessText network, which could then make the info available that it was still available in that format, and that school could share it with another school" -- thereby sparing those colleges the time and resources it would have used to convert the file themselves, he says.
Eight major publishing houses paid a total of just under $1 million to develop the AccessText network and maintain it through its beta phase, which will end next July. From then on, it will sustain itself by billing member colleges between $375 and $500 annually, depending on size.
Dietrich notes that community colleges might not benefit from the AccessText network as much as other institutions, since "we have a lot more vocational classes and basic-skills classes, and a lot of those books don't come through those big publishers, they come through specialized publishers," she says. "It doesn't solve that part of the problem for us."
The network includes 92 percent of all college textbook publishers and is recruiting even more, according to AAP officials.
Friday, September 4
First netbook experience
Greetings. Thought I'd try to get this post out before it starts thunder storming again. We had a nasty one earlier. For a place like Austin that has been in a long drout, it really thundered and poured earlier, but at least we're getting some. Maybe we'll even catch up to the other parts of the state of Texas.
Anyway, netbooks have gained popularity in the general computing population and among the blind. Mainly because they are smaller and lighter than a laptop but stil sport many of the same things you find on a laptop or desktop PC. I've been looking into this netbook thing for around 6 months or so, studying different models, reading reviews, and considering features. I decided early on not to get one that was deeply discounted, since while that might have been a good deal, it also had the possibility of being cheap, as in not standing up to regular use over time. I also wanted to get one that included a long battery life, had wireless connection options for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and, from what you can tell from reviews anyway, looked to have a good keyboard. Oh, and now with all these different colors of netbooks, I also was hip to find one in blue. I finally found what I was looking for.
A week ago I ordered and today I received the ASUS EEE PC 1000HE, which sports, among other things: Wi-Fi of 802.11B/G/N (which means it can connect to all current Wi-FI standards and will likely keep pace for some time to come); Bluetooth; a normal sized keyboard, though from initial typing, the keys are smaller and some in weird places, but that's something I can adjust to; and the model I chose was a blue color with good looking finish on it. My colleagues at work today said that it was a very nice blue and finish. And the battery life is advertised at 9.5 hours. From the reviews, actual time looks to be around 8 or 9 hours, but still; that's lots better than some of the MSI models I read about that only got 4-6 hours. Though people have told me that even though the battery is 5 hours, it lasts them all day. I say, as long as the price doesn't go too high, the longer battery the better.
The ASUS 1000He is an older ASUS model, coming out in February of this year, but from what I've read it seems to be among the better of the various ASUS models. It also includes an SD slot, several USB ports, a Lan/Ethernet jack, web cam, microphone, and other things I'm probably forgetting. It weighs just over 3 pounds, which is notable since many notetakers weigh between 2-4 pounds and laptops around 6 pounds or more.
I'm still working out the kinks of getting a new computer, but this weekend should be rather fun as that process happens. Now I can understand why wireless web surfing is so much fun. Earlier, before all the storms, I was on an unsecured wireless netbook and going to Google and other websites. I actually signed into Gmail before I remembered that this was an unsecured network, and then I quickly signed out. I even was able to stream, all be it in fragments, a video and a radio station's audio. That brief wireless experience will see me investing in one of the many wireless routers out there. Though I have used my PAC Mate notetaker wirelessly before, it was somewhat limited with pocket versions of Internet Explorer and in the JAWS quick keys that actually work in the IE Mobile application, which by the way aren't nearly as many as on a PC. Now though, I've got full support on the netbook for any JAWS feature I want to use and in full versions of applications such as Internet Explorer.
Though I still have some kinks to work out and essentially a new computer to get used to, I'm more than pleased with my purchase and research, and look forward to many happy hours of mobile computing! Incidentally, if anyone has any resources for getting started with the netbook I have, then please email me through my site and let me know. Thanks.
Anyway, netbooks have gained popularity in the general computing population and among the blind. Mainly because they are smaller and lighter than a laptop but stil sport many of the same things you find on a laptop or desktop PC. I've been looking into this netbook thing for around 6 months or so, studying different models, reading reviews, and considering features. I decided early on not to get one that was deeply discounted, since while that might have been a good deal, it also had the possibility of being cheap, as in not standing up to regular use over time. I also wanted to get one that included a long battery life, had wireless connection options for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and, from what you can tell from reviews anyway, looked to have a good keyboard. Oh, and now with all these different colors of netbooks, I also was hip to find one in blue. I finally found what I was looking for.
A week ago I ordered and today I received the ASUS EEE PC 1000HE, which sports, among other things: Wi-Fi of 802.11B/G/N (which means it can connect to all current Wi-FI standards and will likely keep pace for some time to come); Bluetooth; a normal sized keyboard, though from initial typing, the keys are smaller and some in weird places, but that's something I can adjust to; and the model I chose was a blue color with good looking finish on it. My colleagues at work today said that it was a very nice blue and finish. And the battery life is advertised at 9.5 hours. From the reviews, actual time looks to be around 8 or 9 hours, but still; that's lots better than some of the MSI models I read about that only got 4-6 hours. Though people have told me that even though the battery is 5 hours, it lasts them all day. I say, as long as the price doesn't go too high, the longer battery the better.
The ASUS 1000He is an older ASUS model, coming out in February of this year, but from what I've read it seems to be among the better of the various ASUS models. It also includes an SD slot, several USB ports, a Lan/Ethernet jack, web cam, microphone, and other things I'm probably forgetting. It weighs just over 3 pounds, which is notable since many notetakers weigh between 2-4 pounds and laptops around 6 pounds or more.
I'm still working out the kinks of getting a new computer, but this weekend should be rather fun as that process happens. Now I can understand why wireless web surfing is so much fun. Earlier, before all the storms, I was on an unsecured wireless netbook and going to Google and other websites. I actually signed into Gmail before I remembered that this was an unsecured network, and then I quickly signed out. I even was able to stream, all be it in fragments, a video and a radio station's audio. That brief wireless experience will see me investing in one of the many wireless routers out there. Though I have used my PAC Mate notetaker wirelessly before, it was somewhat limited with pocket versions of Internet Explorer and in the JAWS quick keys that actually work in the IE Mobile application, which by the way aren't nearly as many as on a PC. Now though, I've got full support on the netbook for any JAWS feature I want to use and in full versions of applications such as Internet Explorer.
Though I still have some kinks to work out and essentially a new computer to get used to, I'm more than pleased with my purchase and research, and look forward to many happy hours of mobile computing! Incidentally, if anyone has any resources for getting started with the netbook I have, then please email me through my site and let me know. Thanks.
Tuesday, September 1
Our first year
Greetings. How do you summarize a partnership or a year’s worth of events, emotions and feelings? Today is the first year anniversary. One year ago, I was matched with my current Seeing Eye dog Gucci. It all began when I was sitting in a chair in a lounge in Morristown, waiting for my future match. When my trainer brought her over to me and introduced me to her, she pretty much set the tone by putting her front paws in my lap and without hesitation giving me that first lick on the face. Though I was initially wary and unsure of how things were going to work out, after having not worked a dog for 9 years, Gucci took those fears and that uncertainty away by putting one or both her front paws on my arms, chest, and even shoulders. I clearly remember one of the first nights that I had her, when she put first one then the other of her front paws on my shoulder and held that position for several minutes. When I asked a trainer about this later, he said that she was showing that she was comfortable with me.
Then, all too quickly we were on the plane coming home and I was in tears at one point, having fully realized what I had done in getting her and fully appreciating having her. AS time went on, things were perhaps not as smooth as I might have liked, but we both were adjusting to each other and a new lifestyle, as well as her adjusting to my home and work environment. Countless times I have patted her on the bus, run my fingers through her triangular Shepherd ears, or just stayed calm when she was looking at me for direction. Now we’re a year later and we’ve come up with different games and things we do when at work and at home. She’s attuned to me and I to her. Any uncertainty I had felt in walking with her through the open parking lot of my apartment complex, is now gone as I trust her to make the right turns and guide me safely to and from the complex’s office. Sure, she might get distracted or turn when she’s not supposed to, but I’ve also let my mind wander at different times and not realized what she was trying to tell me or point out to me.
She still walks between two people that are spaced out but having a conversation, which I don’t pick up on until we’re already through, and then I’m apologizing. And she still pauses when coming to a crowd or upon someone with a cane at work, of which there are many people that use canes at work, but I’m glad I got her and that she’s mine.
So thanks Gucci for the memories, the past year, the times of running around the apartment or playing tug with the rope, or just for laying quietly under my desk and having people forget that you were there because you were so quiet. For being there for me when I needed comfort from waking from a bad dream, being nearby when I’m in the shower and just keeping your eyes on me when not on duty, and for being there for me at the many doctor’s appointments that we’ve been to over the past year. And for being there and having fun all the other times. I got worried back in May when I had dropped your leash at the horseback riding place, but that brief instant at which the leash was on the ground, when I called, you turned back to me as if to say, “Don’t worry, I’m here.” For getting me back to our apartment last fall when the taxi had let us off on the other side of the apartment building. That particular event happened just a couple of months after we had returned to Austin and I was so proud of you and impressed with your abilities. Here’s to more years of loyal service, fun times and good companionship!
Then, all too quickly we were on the plane coming home and I was in tears at one point, having fully realized what I had done in getting her and fully appreciating having her. AS time went on, things were perhaps not as smooth as I might have liked, but we both were adjusting to each other and a new lifestyle, as well as her adjusting to my home and work environment. Countless times I have patted her on the bus, run my fingers through her triangular Shepherd ears, or just stayed calm when she was looking at me for direction. Now we’re a year later and we’ve come up with different games and things we do when at work and at home. She’s attuned to me and I to her. Any uncertainty I had felt in walking with her through the open parking lot of my apartment complex, is now gone as I trust her to make the right turns and guide me safely to and from the complex’s office. Sure, she might get distracted or turn when she’s not supposed to, but I’ve also let my mind wander at different times and not realized what she was trying to tell me or point out to me.
She still walks between two people that are spaced out but having a conversation, which I don’t pick up on until we’re already through, and then I’m apologizing. And she still pauses when coming to a crowd or upon someone with a cane at work, of which there are many people that use canes at work, but I’m glad I got her and that she’s mine.
So thanks Gucci for the memories, the past year, the times of running around the apartment or playing tug with the rope, or just for laying quietly under my desk and having people forget that you were there because you were so quiet. For being there for me when I needed comfort from waking from a bad dream, being nearby when I’m in the shower and just keeping your eyes on me when not on duty, and for being there for me at the many doctor’s appointments that we’ve been to over the past year. And for being there and having fun all the other times. I got worried back in May when I had dropped your leash at the horseback riding place, but that brief instant at which the leash was on the ground, when I called, you turned back to me as if to say, “Don’t worry, I’m here.” For getting me back to our apartment last fall when the taxi had let us off on the other side of the apartment building. That particular event happened just a couple of months after we had returned to Austin and I was so proud of you and impressed with your abilities. Here’s to more years of loyal service, fun times and good companionship!
Monday, August 31
JAWS 11 beta released
Greetings. For those interested, the JAWS version 11 public beta was released today. Before you install it though, you might want to check out the FS Cast for August 2009 that covers JAWS 11 new features. For the record before anyone asks: betas are not officially supported by Freedom Scientific, so if you come across problems, don't call tech support. Rather, use the beta report form on the JAWS 11 beta page linked above to report errors. Give as much detail as you can. Unlike prior years, you have to have a licensed version of JAWS 10 in order to run the beta. I say unlike prior years because in the last few versions, FS has allowed anyone, whether currently licensed or not, to use the beta. This time though, you have to have a current license for version 10. However, if you don't mind the 40 minute demonstration mode, you can still use the beta. There's no official release date for version 11, though if the FS Cast is any indication, they hope to have it out around the October 22 release date of Windows Seven. I think the big thing that jumps out at me with this version is the Research It tool that they've included, where you can look up pieces of information from various news/sports/weather sources. It's similar to the functionality that the average Joe has with the various gadgets in Windows Vista and Seven. The improved ARIA support also looks interesting, mainly because I'm hoping it will help out more on some of the Google ARIA sites, like the Calendar and Docs applications. Time will tell if this is a good release or not. It will be interesting to watch what is fixed during the beta cycle and when the final release comes out. Enjoy.
Friday, August 28
JAWS and ARIA
Greetings. ARIA, or Accessible Rich Internet Application, is an emerging set of web technologies that allows people to interact more with the web in new and different ways than HTML was designed for. HTML, or hypertext markup language, was for a long time the language of the web, as I've told my Internet class students. It tells the text where to go and what to do on a web page. However, now that we've entered the world of growing applications or what many people are calling Web 2.0, such as Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace, and even some of the Google apps like Calendar and Docs (documents), we need more from our WWW and we need it to act in different ways that HTML might not be able to do. Enter ARIA.
I'm focusing on JAWS here because that's what I'm familiar with, but given the dynamic nature of the WWW these days, in that it's always changing, and that many people want to keep up with those changes, I don't know for sure but it's probably safe to say that other screen reader manufacturers are also working on support for ARIA applications/sites. Though before you ask, refer to their documentation and versions of screen readers for more details.
As far as JAWS goes though, version 10 is where the ARIA support has started, and I'm sure it will be further developed and enhanced with future versions of JAWS. On the browser side, we saw some support for ARIA in Internet Explorer 7, but even more in version 8. And I've heard that Mozilla's Firefox was the first browser to "officially" adopt ARIA support.
For more on ARIA and how it will effect our daily lives in a short time, a colleague of mine predicts within a year we're going to be seeing it everywhere on the web, check out these resources:
In the January FS Cast (direct link to download the show)
ARIA was the topic of discussion. In that broadcast, Jonathan mosen spoke with Glen Gordon, the Chief Technology Officer of Freedom Scientific all about ARIA, then Jonathan did some demonstrations of how one might use ARIA on the web.
On May 26 of this year, Glen and Dan Clark appeared on a webinar, an online interactive seminar session, jointly hosted by FS and EASI, covering ARIA from a web developer standpoint. they also provided more of the history of ARIA. Download an dlisten to this broadcast at
http://www.freedomscientific.com/doccenter/archives/ARIA-GlenGordon.zip Click here to download the zipped HTML files from Glen's presentation on ARIA.
I'm sure that there are other resources out there, including some good ones mentioned in Glen Gordon's presentation linked above, but these will at least explain ARIA better and provide examples of where you might find ARIA applications/sites. Enjoy.
I'm focusing on JAWS here because that's what I'm familiar with, but given the dynamic nature of the WWW these days, in that it's always changing, and that many people want to keep up with those changes, I don't know for sure but it's probably safe to say that other screen reader manufacturers are also working on support for ARIA applications/sites. Though before you ask, refer to their documentation and versions of screen readers for more details.
As far as JAWS goes though, version 10 is where the ARIA support has started, and I'm sure it will be further developed and enhanced with future versions of JAWS. On the browser side, we saw some support for ARIA in Internet Explorer 7, but even more in version 8. And I've heard that Mozilla's Firefox was the first browser to "officially" adopt ARIA support.
For more on ARIA and how it will effect our daily lives in a short time, a colleague of mine predicts within a year we're going to be seeing it everywhere on the web, check out these resources:
In the January FS Cast (direct link to download the show)
ARIA was the topic of discussion. In that broadcast, Jonathan mosen spoke with Glen Gordon, the Chief Technology Officer of Freedom Scientific all about ARIA, then Jonathan did some demonstrations of how one might use ARIA on the web.
On May 26 of this year, Glen and Dan Clark appeared on a webinar, an online interactive seminar session, jointly hosted by FS and EASI, covering ARIA from a web developer standpoint. they also provided more of the history of ARIA. Download an dlisten to this broadcast at
http://www.freedomscientific.com/doccenter/archives/ARIA-GlenGordon.zip Click here to download the zipped HTML files from Glen's presentation on ARIA.
I'm sure that there are other resources out there, including some good ones mentioned in Glen Gordon's presentation linked above, but these will at least explain ARIA better and provide examples of where you might find ARIA applications/sites. Enjoy.
Booksense tutorial
Greetings. I came across a tutorial for the Booksense produced by Hims, the main manufacturer of the Booksense, that is around 2 hours in length and in 6 parts. The link below is for a zipped copy of the tutorial that has been put on Send Space. I learned of this from the Booksense list from GW Micro. This tutorial is for the Booksense XT, however users of Booksense Standard can still benefit from it. Remember that the only differences between the standard and XT models, aside from their colors, are: the XT has 4 gigs of internal storage, can be paired with a Bluetooth wireless headset, and has a radio. Other than these, all features are the same. The link is:
http://www.sendspace.com/file/6tuwq6
Enjoy.
http://www.sendspace.com/file/6tuwq6
Enjoy.
Thursday, August 27
Booksense audio demonstration
Greetings. Rick Harmann of Blind Geek Zone fame has recorded a podcast demonstrating the Booksense from GW Micro. Find the audio for this podcast and download using this direct link: http://www.blind-geek-zone.net/Audio/BGZ035.mp3 The booksense demonstration is after the review of the Quitter program for using Twitter. Since I don't twit or tweat, whatever the wording, this doesn't really interest me, but some of you might find it of interest. At any rate, enjoy.
Wednesday, August 26
Site trouble update
Greetings. For those interested, I've fixed the issues with the Wayneisms and White Cane Day sites over the weekend by upgrading to a more expensive plan from my web host. This will not only give us the proper allotment of bandwidth, but it will also give the sites, specifically the White Cane Day site, room to grow for the future. Thanks to those that have been visiting lately and will continue to visit. On a personal note, the Wayneism site recent passed the 6800 visitors mark. This is notable since it passed the 5800 point back in March. I'm not sure I've ever gotten around 1,000 visitors in such a short period before! The White Cane Day site has gained around 2,500 hits in the same 6 month period. again, this hasn't happened before. Thanks again to those that are visiting these sites regularly. Remember to get those WCD shirt orders in by the deadline for your 2009 shirts. Enjoy.
Talks version 4.1 released
Greetings. For those interested, Nuance recently released version 4.1 of Talks, their mobile screen reader. Here is a direct link to download Talks version 4.1 from the Blind sea website. It looks like this is mainly a bug fix release, except for the added ability to switch between Talks voices. This seems kind of confusing to me since Eloquence is the main voice for Talks, but perhaps Nuance will be coming out with more voices for Talks in the future. Time will tell. Enjoy.
Thursday, August 20
My sites may be down
Greetings. For those that have been trying to access my Wayneism and White Cane Day sites today and who have gotten error messages saying that the bandwidth has been exceeded, I'm aware of the problem and hope to have it fixed in the next day or so. In the 7 years that I've had a site or sites on the web, this is the first time that this sort of thing has happened to me. It seems that the White Cane Day site is getting lots of traffic and that's likely the cause of the bandwidth demands.
Seeing Eye on ABC Friday
Greetings. I received the following announcement from The Seeing Eye earlier. If you can't catch the initial broadcast/print story run of these stories, then check out the links below. Note that the time listed for the ABC World News program is eastern. Enjoy, and happy birthday Seeing Eye!
***
Breaking News!! Two stories on The Seeing Eye are about to hit the press!
The people and dogs of The Seeing Eye will be featured as the “Person of the Week” on Friday August 21 at 6:30 p.m. on ABC World News with Charles Gibson. The “Person of the Week” is a feature done every Friday at the conclusion of the network ABC news as a tribute to an individual that is making a difference in the world. The Seeing Eye was selected as this week’s honoree because of our 80th anniversary and the Graduate Reunion that is occurring this weekend. ABC News was impressed that about 200 graduates out of 1800 active graduates are returning to our Washington Valley campus, despite the economy.
ABC News was on campus yesterday, interviewing Jim and Ginger, accompanying an instructor training a dog, and filming a litter of black Lab puppies. They will return tomorrow to capture graduates at the Reunion. Look for the 2 ½ minute Seeing Eye segment on your network ABC news Friday, August 21 at the conclusion of the 6:30 pm broadcast.
The second news story will be a Friday, August 21 feature on the Graduate Reunion on the front page of the Star Ledger, the leading newspaper in New Jersey. The Star Ledger spent most of yesterday on campus interviewing our staff.
If you are unable to tune in or read the article, both stories will be made available on the Internet at
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerindex
and
www.nj.com/starledger
***
Breaking News!! Two stories on The Seeing Eye are about to hit the press!
The people and dogs of The Seeing Eye will be featured as the “Person of the Week” on Friday August 21 at 6:30 p.m. on ABC World News with Charles Gibson. The “Person of the Week” is a feature done every Friday at the conclusion of the network ABC news as a tribute to an individual that is making a difference in the world. The Seeing Eye was selected as this week’s honoree because of our 80th anniversary and the Graduate Reunion that is occurring this weekend. ABC News was impressed that about 200 graduates out of 1800 active graduates are returning to our Washington Valley campus, despite the economy.
ABC News was on campus yesterday, interviewing Jim and Ginger, accompanying an instructor training a dog, and filming a litter of black Lab puppies. They will return tomorrow to capture graduates at the Reunion. Look for the 2 ½ minute Seeing Eye segment on your network ABC news Friday, August 21 at the conclusion of the 6:30 pm broadcast.
The second news story will be a Friday, August 21 feature on the Graduate Reunion on the front page of the Star Ledger, the leading newspaper in New Jersey. The Star Ledger spent most of yesterday on campus interviewing our staff.
If you are unable to tune in or read the article, both stories will be made available on the Internet at
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerindex
and
www.nj.com/starledger
Monday, August 17
RFB&D now free for individuals
Greetings. I came across this announcement from Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic and hthought it worth posting here. The below message is what I sent to some work colleagues regarding this announcement, but for full details, check out the link below. It would appear that if you're an individual and have a compatible RFBD player, such as the VR Stream and soon to be the Booksense, then you can now download books for free! This is awesome news and I'm sure will be welcome news for any student, be they in school or students of life. Enjoy.
***
Unlike Book Share, there doesn’t seem to be any restrictions for being apart of any particular group, such as in school. It looks like as long as you can play the RFBD digital books, if you’re an individual then membership is now free.
*Aug. 18: here's an addition from one of my colleagues regarding the free memberships.
I spoke to RFB&D and the grant they received is for one year, so the free membership is just for one year.
When a individual consumer signs up online, the consumer does not have to pay the one time registration fee or the or annual fee for one year. If they have a portable audio book device such as the Victor Stream, the UAK (User Authorization Key) to download books is free also for the first year. If the grant is not renewed, the fee schedule will go back to what it was next year. Institutional memberships are not covered by the grant.
Read the following link for more details:
http://www.rfbd.org/membership-individual.htm
***
Unlike Book Share, there doesn’t seem to be any restrictions for being apart of any particular group, such as in school. It looks like as long as you can play the RFBD digital books, if you’re an individual then membership is now free.
*Aug. 18: here's an addition from one of my colleagues regarding the free memberships.
I spoke to RFB&D and the grant they received is for one year, so the free membership is just for one year.
When a individual consumer signs up online, the consumer does not have to pay the one time registration fee or the or annual fee for one year. If they have a portable audio book device such as the Victor Stream, the UAK (User Authorization Key) to download books is free also for the first year. If the grant is not renewed, the fee schedule will go back to what it was next year. Institutional memberships are not covered by the grant.
Read the following link for more details:
http://www.rfbd.org/membership-individual.htm
Tuesday, August 11
FS Reader now free
Greetings. For those interested, Freedom Scientific has announced a change in pricing for their FS Reader program that allows you to read Daisy material on the PAC Mate and PAC Mate Omni machines--in short, it's now free! Read the official press release regarding the free FS Reader. This is a good thing and will allow more people to be able to read Daisy content. Others would theorize why this was done; I won't. I'll just say this: I'm still waiting for a ntoetaker manufacturer to step out and add the ability to read the new NLS digital talking books with their Daisy program. Thus far, no one has done this. When this happens, I think that said company's Daisy program will see it's popularity soar! In the press release above, it is hinted that FS Reader will also be fre with the new JAWS 11 to be released later this year, and also for demonstration versions of JAWS. This is a good thing for students or those who may not have the funds to purchase a full license of JAWS. Enjoy.
Wednesday, August 5
Monday, August 3
Sunday, August 2
Saturday, August 1
Family vacation 2009
Greetings. Tomorrow I leave for Florida to join my parents and later in the week my other siblings, niece and nephews for a family vacation. For many years, we did semi-regular vacations in Colorado. However, thankfully we've switched states. Not that i have anything against CO; i love it up there. But what I get out of vacations and what other members of my family get out of it are different things I believe. Also, those long car trips driving upwards of 15 hours or more just to get there, have burned me out on long car trips. It's somewhat necessary in Texas, but anything too much longer than 3 or 4 hours is too long for me. So, while my parents and older brother and his family are driving there, both myself and my younger brother are flying from our respective cities. Besides, I much more like the idea of arriving in 3-4 hours verses 14 or more. Anyway, we'll be staying in a friends beach house, which from what I hear is pretty nice, with the beach a few blocks away. I talked with my mother a few times today and it sounds like the area around the house is nice, and like there are a lot of runners, joggers, bikers, and people doing other things nearby. OH, and there's the wonders of the beach, which I haven't partaked in for about 16 years or so. I'm glad i setup the ability to do mobile posting from my cell not long ago. I hope to do a few posts next week on what we're up to, so keep watching this space for periodic updates. Though it's only for about 6 days, I'm looking forward to it. We haven't done a real family vacation like this in several years, so it should be fun. Talk later, and see you on the sand, :)
Monday, July 20
Saturday, July 18
Interesting story from a blind iPhone owner
Greetings. I came across this post to the Blind Phones email list regarding the new iPhone 3GS, which is reported to be "accessible." I applaud Apple for building in accessibility in a screen reader and appropriate gestures to read and activate things on the screen, however, the nature of the phone as a touch screen leaves me a little skeptical of how practical it really is. Even though I've got a colleague at work who is excited about the possibility and saving her money for one, and even though a student yesterday in one of my classes was really encouraging me to take a look at one (even after I had spoken to him with another teacher of our skepticism), I'm waiting until I can actually get a look at one and see for myself. I've got my Nokia N82 and am quite happy with it. However, here's one person's experience. In short, they used the new iPhone for about a month and ended up returning it to the store and going back to their N82. Read more about it at http://tinyurl.com/nfzktx Enjoy, and think about it before you buy.
Blog comments and communication
Greetings. For those that choose to make comments on any post on this blog, take note of the following. While Blogger is supposed to email me and give the option of publishing or rejecting the comments, so I can weed out any potential spam, that doesn't always happen. I say this because earlier, in browsing the main blog's area for making new posts, accessing settings and the like, I saw a message that there were 18 comments which have yet to be moderated. As I'm going through some of them, I'm finding comments from as recent as earlier this month, to as far back as January this year or even further. If you need to get in touch with me, putting a comment here may not be the best way. In fact, given that I don't go through the comments on the Blogger side and moderate them very often, I'd actually say that if you are content wiht hardly ever receiving a response from me, then commenting here is the best way. However, if you actually have a concern, question about a technical gadget or computers, or want to ask something else, then please use another method. I'm on many different email lists and certainly don't mind receiving off list emails from people. Though I prefer not to put my email address on the web, I will in this post, more or less. Another good way to get in touch would be to fill out the feedback form on my site, linked below in the Sites to Watch section. Those forms go directly to me. If you want a response back, then replace what's in the subject with something like "Please contact me," and I will. So, for those that want to get in touch with me directly, here's the one and only time I'll put my email address out there, at least in this form. I try and limit the times it's out there to try and control any potential spam. Take note of how it's written and convert that into how they're usually written, remembering to remove the star (*) symbol. It is:
wcmerritt *at* gmail* dot* com*
Again, trying to trick the computerized bots that troll the web harvesting email addresses.
One other note on commenting: If you put your email address in your comment, it will not be filtered out when your comment is published. Further, it could be harvested by these computerized bots and you could begin getting more spam. So in shorrt, take note before you write your email in these comments. Remember, once I approve them to be published, anyone on the web can read them. Again, for private communication with me, either use the email above or fill out the feedback form on my site, which will both go directly to me. I'm not trying to discourage comments, but don't want to miss any private messages that might come through them, that could have gotten to me in other ways. Thanks.
wcmerritt *at* gmail* dot* com*
Again, trying to trick the computerized bots that troll the web harvesting email addresses.
One other note on commenting: If you put your email address in your comment, it will not be filtered out when your comment is published. Further, it could be harvested by these computerized bots and you could begin getting more spam. So in shorrt, take note before you write your email in these comments. Remember, once I approve them to be published, anyone on the web can read them. Again, for private communication with me, either use the email above or fill out the feedback form on my site, which will both go directly to me. I'm not trying to discourage comments, but don't want to miss any private messages that might come through them, that could have gotten to me in other ways. Thanks.
Mobile posting
Greetings. I've added the ability for me to post via text message. I tried to write this in a post, but found that Blogger cut off most of the message and only showed the last two lines. Guess I need to not write novels each time I send messages from my cell phone. Anyway, I looked at Twitter, but figured that this would be easier since I already have a blog and since blogger has added this feature at some point in the last few months. I wish I knew of this or that it was out there when I went to train at The Seeing Eye last fall, but oh well. I'm not sure i'll use this a lot, but it will be handy for when I'm out of town or away from my computer, such as perhaps during the trip to Florida I'm taking with my family in a couple of weeks. Talk later.
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