Archive for January, 2010
The Blind Buzz on Photography
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on January 31, 2010
Blind Students Survey Grand Canyon Soundscape – Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind – the purpose was to monitor the amount of sound pollution in the Canyon, but they used methods that could be relevant to photographers.
Dark Light: The Art of Blind Photographers – a film featuring legally blind photographer, Bruce Hall, who has won awards for his underwater photography. This page includes showings of the film and other references.
More references on Facebook.
Dark Light: The Art Of Blind Photographers Movie Synopsis and Overview Also visit
A Conversation About the Film Dark Light: The Art of Blind Photographers | Blind Photographers
Lancaster’s Blind Photographer Has an Eye for Business | Blind Photographers – Matt Wilkerson runs a photography business in Lancaster, PA, and is a photographer in his own right.The article from the local "Connections" magazine is not accessible to screen readers.
Photography for Blind People!? – on a forum for car enthusiasts. Interesting discussion by people, some of whom just don’t get it.
Poor Eyesight + Photography « I ? TREES – person who is almost legally blind grapples with DSLR viewfinders and tinted lenses.
Quiet Light Photography – "Although he is legally blind (visually impaired), Drew Bedo creates fine-art photographs using traditional films in vintage and antique large format cameras
Shared Visions Art Exhibit 2009-2010 – Eye Care Center, Southern California College of Optometry, until mid-August, 2010. The exhibit celebrates and focuses on the artistic accomplishments of 49 incredibly-talented, visually impaired and totally blind artists, featuring 90 pieces of artwork.
What Apple’s iPad May Mean to Blind Photographers | Blind Photographers
The Blind Buzz on Accessibility
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on January 28, 2010
Accessibility of Internet TV players in the UK – Spotless Interactive – some UK providers on online TV, and how compliant their services are to WCAG guidelines (captioning, ability to work with keyboards, etc)
Apple Reveals Its Latest Creation: the iPad | Blog | ZiggyTek – imagine my surprise, the newly revealed Apple tablet PC is, um, a tablet PC.
ATIA 2010 Orlando, January 27-30 – Showcasing Excellence in Assistive Technology | DAISY Consortium
BBC Posts Another Blio Article – Blind Bargains – more info on upcoming Kurzweil e-book reader.
Gleebox – extension for Firefox or Chrome that gives keyboard access to the Web.
Read the User Manual
Hands-on with Google Voice for the iPhone « The BAT Channel
Museums Trying to Increase Accessibility for Blind – Newsweek.com
New phone makes it easier for blind people to make calls – Bapco Journal – Geemarc BDP400 landline phone has been developed in association with RNIB, and has useful facilities for blind, partially sighted and hard of hearing peopleB.
The one octave scale interface for graphical representation for visually impaired people – this method has apparently been used with some success in representing maps.
Calling all Disabled cyclists in the UK
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on January 28, 2010
2010
Disability Circuit Race Series
I’m pleased to pass this on – received from
Phil Godfrey, Disability Co-ordinator of British Cycling. Please see the
British Cycling web site and get in touch with Phil if you’re interested.
British
Cycling are pleased to announce the dates of the 2010 Disability
Circuit Race Series. The races will be held on a mixture of circuits
used last year. For example ‘Salt Ayre’ and Hillingdon, as well as
new ones including Sundorne in Shrewsbury and Upavon in Wiltshire.
Round 3 will also incorporate the National Championships at the well
established Horwich Carnival on 20th of June. No stranger to holding
major events, this closed-road town centre race has hosted cycling
events since 1946. Expect thousands lining the street and a carnival
atmosphere!
The series will consist of five rounds and following the success of last
years series, will be held using the same format. However, there will
be a significant change due to the introduction of a new
classification system by the UCI.
This will mean that all riders will be put into new classifications
which will particularly affect LC and CP riders who will now be
combined into the new C Class. The new classifications will be
assigned by British Cycling and to enable us to do this, you will be
asked to supply details about your disability so that you can be
accurately assigned a new category.
The series is aimed both
at disabled cyclists who wish to compete for the first time, or for
more experienced disabled riders. Those with aspirations of riding
for the successful Team GB squad are encouraged to compete as there
will development coaches present to scout for talented riders. If you
are interested in competing at the series or would like further
information, please contact disability@britishcycling.org.uk
for further information.
Round 1:
Saturday 20 March Sundorne Circuit, Shrewsbury. Details
Round
2:
Saturday 29 May – Salt Ayre, Lancashire. Details
Round
3:
(inc. BC National Disability Circuit Champs) Sunday 20 June Horwich,
Lancashire. Details
Round
4:
Sunday 18 July Upavon, Wiltshire. Details
Round
5:
Saturday 25 September Hillingdon, Middlesex. Details
The Blind Buzz on Accessibility
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on January 27, 2010
ABBYY Announces Business Card Reading Application for the iPhone – StreetInsider.com – an application that reads business cards into the iPhone’s address book.
Accessible Electronics Relaunches Website – Blind Bargains: – this company sells mp3 players made accessible with Rockbox.
Accessible Electronics web site.
Accessible Media Project – try the player download.
Accessibility at Microsoft, Home
Access Keys -Accessibility Assessments – this, confusingly is not about the access keys used on sites – it’s the proper name of an award scheme for accessible sites.
BS 8878 British Standard For Accessible Websites In UK – Coming Soon | Hobo
Buttercup Player – the online digital talking book player, currently in an early demo version.
Creating Accessible Power Point Presentations – Web Accessibility for All
CT for Everyone includes Accessibility! « As Your World Changes – better training and commitment to accessibility at an organisational level could reduce accessibility flaws.
Free High Quality Audio Books at AudioOwl – Fred’s Head from APH, read by human beings.
Visit AudioOwl
Game companies blind to the consumer. Enter the lawsuit. – Civilization Fanatics’ Forums – a blind gamer has gone beyond writing polite requests for more accessibility – he’s issued a lawsuit.
gh, LLC Releases the First-Ever Fully Featured Commercial DAISY Player for Mac | DAISY Consortium
Google Builds iPhone Control for Blind – Noeman GSM – concept is that you can get a keypad to appear anywhere at the user’s request. This may not ever be available on the iPhone, of course.
Google Chrome 4.0 For Windows Adds Extensions and Bookmark Sync – - but among the 15,000 new features, they haven’t bothered with accessibility – again!
Google Reader Lets You Subscribe to Any Page on the Web « AccessTech News – even pages without an RSS feed.
Google Voice Web App Circumvents Apple’s Blockade | Epicenter | Wired.com – you can get to it via a web page.
Guess This Gadget Tuesday: a Most Moribund Contraption | Blog | ZiggyTek – just for fun, a weekly competition.
More Fun with the tabindex attribute – WebA11y
My guide – audio guides to the Louvre in Paris. You can get a foretaste of the commentary on offer so long as you can find the rather awkward Flash controls. English and Fench versions.
New standards for Section 508 compliance are coming – Federal News Radio 1500 AM – audio interview available on the page.
New transport law to protect disabled passengers in NI – treating disabled passengers less favourably than non-disabled will be illegal in Northern Ireland.
Notepad++ Portable 5.6.5 Released | PortableApps.com – Portable software for USB drives
OSM for blind people – OpenStreetMap
Putting Speech to Work :: Chapter 9. The Mac OS X Speech Framework :: Mac OS X for Java Geeks :: Mac OS :: eTutorials.org – using the speech API for Mac programmers.
Readable – can present web pages in a choice of visual formats.
SMIL – EduTech Wiki – SMIL is Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, used to mark up multimedia presentations.
Speech enable your personal website or blog – ReadSpeaker – there is a free version, supported by advertising.
Top Online Note Taking Applications | Online Tips, Free Download and Review
Using Accesskeys – Is it worth it? – WATS.ca – web accessibility technical services – no, this article argues, because they just might conflict with some keystroke in an assistive program.
Utter Command – This addon for Dragon Naturally Speaking makes speech fly! – and it costs a mere $300.
Go to Redstart Systems for more info
What improvements to accessibility are offered by HTML5? – Stack Overflow – forum discussion.
When the right hand doesn’t listen to the left. | Joe Dolson Accessible Web Design – even those who preach good web standards don’t always comply!
Why Won’t My Bank Install Talking ATMs? « Astrid’s Journal – yes, why won’t they? Now that my bank is almost wholly publicly owned, we should demand that they cater for ALL their customers.
The Blind Buzz on Charles Bonnet Syndrome
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on January 26, 2010
Here are some references to Charles Bonnet Syndrome, a condition typically experienced by people losing their sight where they get visual hallucinations. The condition is not the result of a mental health problem, rather it seems to be the brain’s attempt to make up for the lack of visual stimulation in visual impairments.
Please also see my
Charles Bonnet Syndrome web page
Blind Man ‘Sees’ : NPR – David Stewart could see very little by the time he was 80 due to Retinitis Pigmentosa. However, he started to get highly coloured and detailed hallucinations. Audio embedded on the page.
Charles Bonnet Syndrome – A day in the life of an OptStudent – tyro optometrist encounters Charles Bonnet Syndrome for the first time.
[Video] Charles Bonnet Syndrome – Visual Hallucinations – personal story by a member of the UK Macular Disease Society.
[PDF] Charles Bonnet Syndrome – Visual Hallucinations in the Elderly
Charles Bonnet syndrome – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Complex Visual Hallucinations in the Visually Impaired The Charles Bonnet Syndrome – CiteULike
Could ghosts sometimes be Charles Bonnet Syndrome? – Ghost Investigators
Hallucinations: The Science of Idiosyncratic Perception (Hardcover) – covers the whole field, including disease, drug abuse and Charles Bonnet Syndrome.
[PDF[ hallucinations and the Charles Bonnet syndrome: A review of the literature
Health Talk: Charles Bonnet Syndrome - The Tartan Online
Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Suffer Severe Vision Loss - injuries inflicting sight loss commonly lead to Charles Bonnet Syndrome.
[Video] Oliver Sacks: What Hallucination Reveals About Our Minds – eGuiders. We Search. You Watch – famous neurologist Oliver Sachs has personal experience of Charles Bonnet Syndrome, and talks about it with characteristic humour and humanity.
Seeing Things by Patti Hill – presented as a novel, this is an experience of Charles Bonnet Syndrome. Large print version expected soon, I understand. Kindle version available, but I don’t know whether the audio works.
Visual release hallucinations (Charles Bonnet syndrome) – a useful background article.
When the elephant in the room isn’t really there – The Body Odd – msnbc.com
The Blind Buzz on Photography
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on January 24, 2010
[Auudio] BBC In Touch programme for 19th January 2010 – Photography and China – this was broadcast to conincide with the Sights Unseen exhibition in London, which I believe I may have mentioned before.
Blind people of south London see through their lens – the PhotoVoice exhibition and the expereinces of African-Caribbean community in South London.
FSB Radio : F-Stop Beyond: The EXPERIENCE | Original Programming for the Visual Artist – Episode 99 is an interview with Alex De Jong, who as a professional photographer faced many challenges when he lost his sight.
RSS Feed. If you can fathom how to work a #flash control, there’s one below.
Sights Unseen – the exhibition in London, and some thoughts on non-standard photography.
Social Media for Photographers | PhotoShelter – get this free guide e-mailed to you to start building your online presence as a photographer.
The Blind Buzz on accessibility
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on January 24, 2010
Audio Vision – Campus and community stations transform to accommodate people with disabilities – Adam Noble hopes to help more blind and visually impaired people take part in radio.
Blind Community Gives Auckland’s Newest Station Thumbs Up | Voxy.co.nz – designers get it right from the start.
Cell Phone Accessibility – American Foundation for the Blind
Curtin University Centre for Accessible Technology – temporary location for CUCAT, which develops, and trains people in, accessible technology in Perth, Australia.
EASI: Equal Access to Software and Information – three EASI Web Conferences dealing with RSS feeds and Podcasts.
emacspeak The Complete Audio Desktop – blog.
EyeWriter Initiative – "The EyeWriter project is an ongoing collaborative research effort to empower people who are suffering from ALS with creative technologies. It is a low-cost eye-tracking apparatus & custom software that allows graffiti writers and artists with paralysis resulting from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis to draw using only their eyes"
Fujitsu ColorDoctor – simulate web pages in various states of colour. Free XP/Vista software.
How to make social media ‘wheelchair accessible’ | Socialbrite – and screen reader accessible, etc.
[PDF] How to use the Sound Recorder Feature of MSWord 2007 – record your thoughts by microphone as part of the document creation process. I can’t promise that this document and its content tell you the most accessible ways of achieving this.
Juicy Studio: User-Defined Access Keys – dive into the murky waters of access keys and write a PHP class to enable users to define their own.
Making Text Legible – Designing for People with Partial Sight – useful notes from Lighthouse International on this often neglected subject. Topics include colour schemes, font size, font family and spacing.
New Details Divulged Regarding Apple’s Tablet Device
PowerTalk – automatic speech for PowerPoint presentations – free program.
Download PowerTalk here
Web accessibility myths – Ian Pouncey » Blog Archive – useful reminder of some of the assumptions many web designers wrongly work by.
The Blind Buzz on Photography
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on January 22, 2010
At the Canopy, Tree Climbing Techniques for Photographers – Indoor Rock Climbing’s Hippest Coolest Website in the Galaxy – Rock Climbing Indoor – you never know when this will come in handy.
Blind photographer sees best through a camera – Local News – News | Northcote Leader – 70-year-old John Hoerner has tunnel vision, but not when he uses a digital camera. He has an exhibition, ‘Tunnel Vision Take 2′, from 21st to 30the January 2010 at Kick Gallery, 239 High St, Northcote, Melbourne, Australia.
Blinkie Photography – "
Photographer Andrew Follows Suffering from Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative ocular disease that renders me legally blind and reliant on my guide dog Eamon to move about, my world is blurred and distorted, lacking any detail. For many years I never knew what I was missing, even moderate light causes me to white-out completely. When I take a photograph I do so because in that time and place I cannot see what the camera can yet I know that image, that event will be waiting for me when I am ready and able to view it. In this way the camera becomes my eyes and my photographs my only way of experiencing a past moment from which I am otherwise excluded. Instead of wallowing in what I cannot see I become excited by what I can."
Atom Feed
RSS Feed
Colour Blind Photography – includes galleries. I don’t see the name of the photographer anywhere.
The Lazy Eye – Time and Time Photographer – the advantages for a photographer of having only one eye that works.
The Blind Buzz on Accessibility
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on January 22, 2010
is There Room for another OCR Product? HandyTech Thinks There Is – Blind Bargains – a new desktop OCR program, iRead, is trying to join OpenBook and Kurzweil.
More information and 30-day trial
Lynx Viewer – online service that demonstrates how your web pages appear to a text-only browser.
Mac Video Tutorial Subtitles project | ATMac – the aim is for Mac users to be able to add captions to videos, and in languages other than English.
Mobile office gadget – A new projector phone that helps you take the office anywhere – welcome to the Sweatshop California
Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Offers Notable Improvements – Enterprise Applications from eWeek – speed, appearance and HTML5 compatibility make this an upgrade worth having.
Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition 3.6 Released by PortableApps.com
Pantech’s New Sky IM-U560K For Girls – that’s what it says – a cellphone for girls. I only report this stuff. It has text-to-speech on it, but presumably no maps!
Solona Offers reCAPTCHA Help – Blind Bargains – the CAPTCHA-solving service, Solona, offers advice about dealing with Recaptcha.
SpeakingFox – text-to-speech add-on for the Mac.
Talkr — Letting blogs speak for themselves – turns the feed from any blog into a text-to-speech podcast.
Twitter accessibility, yellow/white on black | userstyles.org</p
