Posts Tagged colour
The Blind Buzz on Photography
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on October 27, 2010
A Foray into Infrared Photography | Shutter Photo – how to see in the dark in film and digital photography. But please note the dangers to your eyes when using infra-red equipment incorrectly.
Camera for the Blind / Nadeem Haidary – designed at the Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Pittsburgh, PA. I take it, but don’t know, that this is what we frustrated photographers call a concept device – i.e., you can’t buy it at your local photo shop. Features include the ability to take sound clips along with each picture, and the possibility of making tactile versions of pictures.
Fall Photography – Russ Photo Shop – a photographer with poor colour vision can still find autumnal colours amazing. Some hints on getting the best shots.
Flashes of Light in the Darkest Depths: The Faith and Life of Blind Photographer Pete Eckert – Christine A. Scheller – Huffington Post – how Pete Eckert dealt with encroaching blindness, and how he gets his images.
Going Blind – the Movie with trailer video
Miracle of Sight: New Art Exhibit Shows the World Through Eyes That Were Once Blind – special project for those who have had corneal transplants has produced this exhibit of photographs.
Revisiting – Nothing Peripheral: A Sight Impaired Artist – Steven Erra is sight-impaired and was one of those who helped create the Seeing With Photography Collective in New York. Here he talks about his worsening sight, and what he might have to get rid of as a result. His light paintings are likely to stay!
Nothing Peripheral RSS Feed
SF0 / comit / Seeing Beyond Sight Photo Challenge – presumably for normally-sighted people, the challenge is to hamper your eyes in some way (blindfold, shades, etc), take and then caption the most telling images you can.
Showing country kids what photography can do for the vision impaired | Blinkie Photography – Andrew Follows gets some interesting results from a workshop in a Melbourne school.
The Amazing Flo Fox | Street Reverb Magazine – celebrated New York blind photographer Flo Fox seems to be getting a new generation of fans.
Use Firefox Browser?? – Miscellaneous Discussion Topics – Your Discussions – The Canon DSLR Photography Club – Message Board – includes notes on the
Color Management Firefox Add-on
The Blind Buzz on Accessibility
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on June 4, 2010
A new style of audio description under discussion – Blind Mind News – ‘cinematic audio description’ includes the way a film has been shot and edited.
A Very Tiny, Huge Leap Forward – Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind – the world’s smallest electronics promises much more powerful computers and assistive technology, amongst other things.
Accessible Insights Blog
Accessible Insights RSS Feed
ACTF Project Home – this is a project within Eclipse that aims to build tools for accessible applications and content.
Accessible e-Books “Tantalisingly Close” – E-Access Bulletin Live » Blog Archive – barriers to ebook accessibility could be removed by changing the implementation of existing technologies, claims new report.
Announcement – Audio Version Available Now – Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind – the magazine is now available at the end of each month in audio and DAISY formats.
Applian Technologies Info For Blind Users – for blind people using this audio and video recording and streaming software.
Bright-F: A Gadget for Blinds | NetShet.ORG – a talking colour detector.
City maps for the blind trialled in Sheffield – The Star – tactile maps to go on sale in Sheffield, Northern England.
Differences Between Windows and Macs « SeroTalk Tech Chat 63
e-Access ’10 – conference and exhibition in London on access to technology. 13th July, 2010 at Olympia 2.
EASI Webinars for June include DAISY hardware players and PDF accessibility.
First Impressions: ViewPlus Premier 100 Braille Embosser – NFB Access Technology Blog
Full Page Magnifier, Book Magnifier, Low Vision Magnifiers – WebRN Macular Degeneration
Get Going With Mobile Geo 2.5 – Code Factory Live « THE CODE FACTORY BLOG – Sat, June 5th, apam Pacific Time, 7pm Central European Time.
Gogo Inflight Internet – Splash Page – offers passes so you can use inflight wi-fi. Accessible CAPTCHAS available.
gotNET – checks that you have .NET Framework on your system. This is a direct link to the setup program.
Handy Tech North America, where US residents can buy Code Factory software such as Mobile Speak and Mobile Geo on one-year interest-free contracts.
How to Conquer Assistive Technology Barriers for Low-Tech Parents – Fred’s Head
iPad apps may need to be disabled-accessible – Possible legal duty, says BSI – British Standards Institute looking at accessibility of web sites on a wide range of devices, not just iPads.
Loadstone GPS – Satellite Navigation for blind mobile phone users – new version for Symbian phones.
Mike Calvo Rants, Tech News and Two Product Reviews – SeroTalk Podcast 42
Mushroom FM Internet radio station. – The home of the Fun guys – tutorial (3 hours) in mp3 and DAISY about becoming a radio presenter.
Olympus DM5 – New voice recorder. Voice Guidance, Voice Commands, Text to Speech and DAISY 2.02. PCM, MP3 and WMA compatibility. 8GB flash memory, microSD slot, multilingual menus, a large backlit colour display and rechargeable battery. Sonority file management software is compatible with both PCs and Macs
Reading Files From Intel Reader On Apex – HumanWare United Kingdom – the Intel Reader can capture text and this can be sent to the Braillenote Apex for conversion into Braille almost instantly.
Rigel Technology offers three of its two-hour, $70 trainings during June. These can usually be purchased for the same price on cd if you can’t attend in person. All start at 21:00 GMT: Tuesday 8 June: Google This; Thursday 17 June: Dropbox 499; Tuesday 22 June: Microsoft Office 2010. The only way to register for these appears to be by phone at (888) 723-5011 Ext. 1. Thanks to Top Tech Tidbits for this one.
Screen-reader access to SharePoint – Jeffrey’s Soapbox
SIGHT VILLAGE 2010 – TEXT GUIDE – new version including site layout for this event in Birmingham, UK..
TextMagic – Text messaging solution for visually impaired texters
Touch Color Helps Blind People to Draw | Tuvie – Industrial Design and Future Technology – this device works by generating different amounts of heat, enabling a blind artist to draw on a thermal board.
Twitter: Remaking the Persona of the Physically Challenged – many disabled people are getting a new identity online.
[Book] Understanding Accessibility – ebook and paper versions.
Using the Accessible iPod (iTunes 9 Ed.) (ACCIPOD) – National Braille Press
Victor Reader Stream SoftPak – HumanWare USA – gives several new input and output format options for your Stream.
Vinux: 3.0 released – based on Ubuntu 10.04, this release has a wealth of accessibility features.
Windows 7 and Mac OS X: A Head to Head Comparison « The Tech Doctor Blog and Podcast
The Tech Doctor Blog and Podcast RSS Feed
The Blind Buzz on Accessibility
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on April 3, 2010
Accessible Pages Aren’t Automatically Ugly
Check My Colours – Analyse the color contrast of your web pages
Create text-to-speech (TTS) podcast from RSS feed for iPod, iPhone, MP3 player and mobile phone
Google Announces Gmail For iPad « AccessTech News
Happy April Fools Day from Blind Bargains
iPad Launches! Round-up of Major Reviews | Blog | ZiggyTek
iPhone Human Interface Guidelines for developers.
Nocturne Download – Softpedia – test your web site for contrast in varying lighting conditions.
OASES –-Assess your Library Accessibility and Inclusion Provision « Chrissie’s Muses – JISC TechDis have now launched the OASES which is the Online Accessibility Self Evaluation Service.
Go to OASES
White window rafting – ow, my eyes!
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on January 12, 2010
This article turned up in my news feeds today.
Ironic Sans presents: Ow, My Eyes!
As there doesn’t seem to be any way to leave a comment, pardon me if I comment here.
The author states baldly here, “The eyes are happiest reading dark text on a light background.”
I just need to point out that that depends whose eyes you are talking about.
I have macular degeneration, and one of the abiding problems I come across, on the computer, and in real life, is glare. So, I say, “Ow, my eyes!” when I come across all those glaring white windows that are the norm, often with a diddy little white mouse pointer that you are supposed to use for navigation. What a classic design idea, white on white with, for me, a barely visible line around the pointer which is no use at all.
Luckily, with a nifty stylesheet, anyone can override the web author’s preferences and impose their own. There are also colour preferences built into many web browsers that don’t depend on stylesheets.
This is what’s commonly known as accessibility for all.
The essence of the thing is that you can choose settings that work for you. I actually don’t have sharp enough sight to make white text on black a problem, in fact, it’s my preferred colour scheme. Many people would say that this gives too much contrast and leads to the persistence of vision problem referred to in our article. Well, OK, if you don’t like it, change it.
People with dyslexia might also have a problem with the glaring white windows, and I understand that some of them use a soft yellow background to stop the words crawling about, as they may do on a white background.
Blue backgrounds, such as those that were popular for word processors back in the 80s, may suit some, but for me they wouldn’t be much better than white, especially if the text is white as well.
The reason is that glare is, for some of us, mainly a problem of high-frequency light – so the blue, violet, ultraviolet end of the spectrum, and by extension white, are the problematic colours. I am well aware that we can’t see ultr-violet, but we may notice its effects on bright days.
Clearly, the author of our article has a pet hate, white text on black. Fine, but please don’t assume that this is going to be any help to the next person.
The Blind Buzz on Accessibility
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on December 17, 2009
10 Best Nokia Beta Labs Apps -include the experimental Braille Reader, indoor GPS, magnifier
[Audio] 1197am RPH Adelaide – Listen On-line to Vision Extra
33 Must Read CSS3 Tips, Tricks, Tutorial Sites and Articles | Graphic and Web Design Blog -Resources
A Beginner’s Guide to Web Accessibility: 21 Ways to Make Your Site More Web Accessible
A vision for inclusion – A Guide to the European Blind Union. Includes a section on inaccessible products and services.
A website for teachers who are blind or visually impaired
Abilities Expo | Events for People with Disabilities – USA organization for disabled people and proefessionals. Events display latest technology, products and services.
Access for Everyone: Empower Technologies’ Accessible Comparison Shopping Service – Fred’s Head from APH
Direct link to empowereveryone.com
Access Keys -Accessibility Assessments – these are awards for web sites that meet particular needs.
Accessible Alternatives for CAPTCHA – those visual puzzles you have to solve before you can enter some web sites are not a whole heap of use to blind people, so here are some solutions.
Accessible Devices Podcast Feed
Listen to Episode 9: iBill Currency Identifier – other episodes cover the iPhone, Penfriend Audio Labeler and the BrainPort. Plextalk recorder,
Accessible HTML/XHTML Forms – The Web Standards Project
Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.0 – what’s ARIA all about?
Accessible Tech Resource Library: How can our organization deliver accessible webcasts?
Accessible Twitter : web accessibility for the Twitter.com website application
Accessible Twitter Wins Award, Slidedeck – Web Axe
Accessible Web Video: JW Player Controls – OSU Web Accessibility Center
Accessibility tools, web developer tools, wizards and markup generators | Accessify – warning: a script on this page generated a threat warning from AVG anti-virus. Probably trivial, but it’s your choice whether to follow this link.
Accessify Forum: Accessibility Discussion Forums
ADA Online: Is a Website a “Place of Public Accommodation”? | Citizen Media Law Project – in the light of the recent case claiming that Sony’s games site was not made accessible to visually impaired people, questions arise about the status of websites.
Adobe – Accessibility training resources
AMP Express – get a free accessibility report for your web site.
ASSOCIATION OF BLIND AND PARTIALLY SIGHTED TEACHERS AND STUDENTS [ABAPSTAS] – UK based
Balabolka: Free Text-to-Speech for Windows – Fred’s Head – this is a simple text-to-speech program that can read from the clipboard and save sound files from what it reads there.
Beyo CBS Reader is an OCR application for Symbian phones, cost £75. Get a demo in the UK from
Computer Room Services – supposedly the OCR program requires Talks.
Blind in business: Cutting-edge seeing aids – The Independent, UK – how a City of London blind high flyer does it.
Bookshare – Accessible Books for Individuals with Print Disabilities – books and periodicals made accessible. USA based.
Browser Keyboard and Mouse Shortcuts « AccessTech News – Firefox, IE, Chrome, Safari, Opera.
Cambridge University Press Has Signed an Agreement with the DAISY Forum of India
Captchas: The Bain of Everyone’s Existence – Perspectives from a Blind Point of View
Color Vision – by Cal Henderson – a tool to simulate how someone with color deficiency would see your site – or not, as the case may be.
Copyright Owners Fight Plan to Release E-Books for the Blind | Threat Level | Wired.com
Discover new ways of thinking about accessibility – W3C Blog – new documents urges designers to involve users, not just stick to standards.
Dive Into Accessibility – book for site owners.
Dragon Dictation comes to the iPhone. Wow. – The Unofficial Apple Weblog
The Unofficial Apple Weblog
RSS Feed
easy computer for our seniors – software and hardware that are easy to use.
Eldy RSS Feed
Enhanced Keyboard-accessible Google Maps » Learning the World
eyes-free Google Group – access to Android phones.
Finally, Posted Notes for the Visually Impaired – Fred’s Head – ever wanted bigger post-it notes? Now’s your chance!
FireVox – free text-to-speech extension for Firefox.
Free PDF to Word Converter Online – send in your scanned PDF file, and get a Word document back with page features preserved.
Global Assistive Technology Encyclopedia – accessible wiki site that everyone can help to build.
GW Micro – News & Events – Upcoming Events – Online Presentation of BookSense 2.0 Firmware! – When: Monday, December 21, 2009 – registration for this event is closed, but you will be able to hear a recording of it eventually.
IDEAL Group Android Accessibility Wizard – helping people to move from previous generation phones to Android smartphones.
Introducing Easy Web Browsing – Macy’s talking web browser in co-operation with IBM. Only works with oudated versions of Internet Explorer.
JAWS ate my tables – WebAIM Blog – is this a data table or is it a layout table? It isn’t always clear to screen readers.
JAWS scripts for Mozilla Thunderbird version 3.0 – this link starts the installer.
KeyboardNavigation Does Away with Mouse Clicks in Chrome – Keyboard Shortcuts – Lifehacker
Lighthouse International: Get Organized – handy hints on making your whole life more accessible.
Lou Reed Launches iPhone App for the Visually Impaired – Spinner UK – yes, it is that Lou Reed. The app zooms your iPhone contacts.
Main Menu show on ACB Radio has a feature on MobileSpeak 4 on Saturday, 19th December, 2009. If you miss it, find it in
the Archives.
Make Thunderbird 3 Your Ultimate Online/Offline Message Hub – Thunderbird 3 – Lifehacker
Memory Fox Manages Firefox’s Memory Use, Aims to Keep It Low – Memory – Lifehacker – much as you might love Firefox, it can be a memory hog.
northtemple – The Accessibility Checklist I Vowed I’d Never Write – a guideline for developers not experienced in accessibility.
Obama Sides With Blind in Copyright-Treaty Debate – some copyright holders (authors and publishers) in the USA want to deny blind people the right to accessible bookes e.g., text-to-speech on the Kindle). Obama has laid his cards on the table on this issue.
Primula Speak N’ Brew Coffee Maker, world’s first talking coffee maker » ZiggyTek » Blog
Section 508: Summary of Section 508 Standards – site may not be available this weekend.
SeroTalk Tech Chat 44 – Accessible Gifts Under $50
Simplicity launches in London computer powered by Eldy – easy computer targeted at older people.
Simply Accessible – presntation dating from 2005, but may still be useful .
RSS Feed
SmartMenus DHTML Menu / JavaScript Menu – Accessible List Based Website Menu / Web Menu – accessible menus for web pages.
Speech-to-Text: Dictation software for Mac OS X | ATMac
Text Speech Plugin Turns Winamp into a No Frills Book Reader – Blind Bargains
Thunderbird 3 is coming out soon, and it’s accessible! – Marco’s accessibility blog
Total iTV, on-line movies and series with subtitles and audiodescription
Ubuntu brings advanced Screen features to the masses – screen profiles are very powerful, but most users don’t know about the advanced features.
UN Agencies Agree on Need for Closer Collaboration in Favor of Visually Impaired including access to literary and scientific materials.
Usability Testing Toolkit: Resources, Articles, and Techniques – Noupe
VisionAWARE | Resources For Adults Experiencing Low Vision, Vision Loss, and Blindness – find products, services and useful information.
WCAG 2 Tutorial – learn about the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
Web Accessibility Toolbar for IE – several manual web page testing tools for Internet Explorer only.
Web Axe – Practical Web Design Accessibility Tips – Podcast and Blog: Colorblind, Law, and Lightboxes 4
RSS Feed
Window Eyes Scripts for TeamTalk 1.0 by J.J. Meddaugh
Windows Vista Accessibility Tutorials from Microsoft.
