The Blind Buzz on Accessibility

2010 SDS Conference | Society for Disability Studies, Temple University, Philadelphia, June 2nd to June 5th.

A Brief History of Markup – A List Apart – presents chapter 1 of “HTML5 for Web Designers”.

A smartphone for Geniuses? | Tech Blog | FT.com – the HTC myTouch 3G Slide features a QWERTY keyboard, speech recognition and some speech output functions. The Genius button starts some of the ‘smart’ features.

Access Technology – Now and Tomorrow – the author, who is about to leave AbilityNet, reflects on progress over the last 10 years and speculates about the future in assistive technology.

Accessible Tourism? – Low Visionary: accessible information, disability rights, web accessibility » Blog Archive – disabled people are still likely to be seen as problems.

Accessible World Tek Talk presents An Introduction to Express Burn, April 26, 2010 by Joshua Hendrickson | Accessible World

Accessibility & Inclusive Design with Ann McMeekin & Antonia Hyde – developer Fusion – ASP.NET, C# Programming, VB.NET, .NET Framework, Java and Visual Basic Tutorials – event in London on 24th May, 2010.

AccessibilityOnline – "AccessibilityOnline represents a collaborative training program between the ADA National Network (DBTACs) and the US Access Board. The program includes a series of free webinars and audio conferences on different topics of accessibility. Sessions are held on a monthly basis and cover a variety of topics concerning accessibility to the built environment, information and communication technologies, and transportation."

Accessing YouTube Offline with Tooble | DigMo!

ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing

Adding ARIA Landmark Roles – Web Axe – Practical Web Design Accessibility Tips – Podcast and Blog – future-proof your site!

An Interview with the Audio Only Game “Cadet 227″ Creator

Announcing the third annual Disability Awareness Month this May 2010. The theme for this year is “Accessibility: Creating a more inclusive Nation” – The Democrat Newspaper, St Kitts and Nevis

APCD impressed with Brunei disability advocates – there is still much to develop, but there is also a great deal to praise.

APH News, May, 2010 – products, services and training from the American Printing House for the Blind.

Audio Available from Today’s BookSense and NFB Newsline Webinar

BarrierBreak Technologies Launches the Digital Talking Book Website | DAISY Consortium

Bay Area project puts 1 million books online for blind, dyslexic – ContraCostaTimes.com – Internet Archive, a San Francisco non-profit, aims to make many more books accessible to bline people.

BBC – AM Glass Box – The ‘Disabled Voter’ or ‘The Disability Vote’ – one listenerto the Radio 4 PM programme claims that UK politicians don’t care about disabled voters.

Better Internet & Technology Access for Blind, Deaf Community – Senator Mark Pryor, Arkansas, reveals new legislation.

BlackBerry OS 6.0 will target consumers – CNN.com as opposed to business types, who, of course, are a different species.

Blind for a day where a medical student has to take on a disability for a day. In this case the disability was blindness.

Blind women taking on doubters, one brush at a time | Jordan Times – blind women from under-privileged backgrounds train to be hairdressers in Amman, Jordan.

Blindness-Related Books, Publications, and Periodicals

Braille Printing Services & Alternative Formats |T-Base Communications – information on compliance, and a service that will send you an impression of what your site sounds like to a blind person.

Canada has no federal accessibility law? « transect

Changing How Qatar Sees the Blind – one womans achievements as head of a school for blind children, and the cultural and accessibility difficulties.

chester creek large key keyboard visionboard – yellow – Cheap! Game Controllers » Blog Archive

Creating Accessible Computer Applications – American Foundation for the Blind

Creating accessible links in PDFs

DaveBanesAccess – Access Technology – Today and Tomorrow.

Design Phase | Accessibility in User-Centered Design | Just Ask: Integrating Accessibility Throughout Design

Designer Cool Canes – "unique designer canes for people with disabilities and for those who want to make a fashion or attitude statement."

Disabled rights advocates say proposed legislation long overdue – The Nassau Guardian Online Guide – advocates in the Bahamas complain of 25 years of broken promises by governments.

Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) & web accessibility Webcredible – this refers to the UK equality law.

Disenfranchisement at its Worst – jady_lady – blind UK voter tells of her futile attempt t to use a polling station in the General Election.

Disney World magical for the disabled – CANOE Travel – Florida

Early Voters Test New Machines – electronic voting machines in California can accommodate several languages and people with disabilities. Early voting to avoid the crush is also possible. Seems there are lessons there for the UK’s antiquated electoral system.

FCC Releases First-Ever Paper On Accessibility & Technology Issues | Accessibility News International – part of the US National Broadband Plan.

[PDF] FCC TO HOLD WORKSHOP ON EXPANDING DISABILITY ACCESS WITH WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES, MAY 13 – Federal Communications Commission – Washington DC

Experiment with video accessibility and time-aligned text

Innovative New Apps for the Blind : Healthymagination – useful summary of some recent developments in technology.

iPad Available in Nine More Countries on May 28 including the UK.

Play AudioRacer, a free online game on Kongregate – an audio game that includes blind players.

Screen Readers And WAI-ARIA Landmark Roles – Humanising Technology – Léonie Watson describes a relatively new way of navigating through web pages.

Solona Enhanced iPhone Screen Protector – makes the touch screen of your iPhone more tactile and prolongs its life, Solona claim.

Speak To Me Catalog – many kind of talking product, including coffee maker, photo album, clocks, music players and the PenFriend.

Special services at Macquarie University – Sydney Morning Herald

[PDF] The EU. What’s in it for me? – booklet made accessible on the Web, aims to demystify the benefits of membership of Europe for UK citizens.

World Access for the Blind – US-based non-profit that promotes FlashSonar, a technique whereby a blind person can make clicks like a dolphin to detect objects around them. Also read
Blind boy learns how to ‘see’ using dolphin technique – Telegraph

Window Eyes 7.2 released – GW Micro

The Blind Buzz on Accessibility

A small apology if necessary – because WordPress seems to have had some downtime today, some of the links here haven’t been checked as they would usually be checked. Chances are that they’re fine, but time will tell.

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A few upcoming free technology webinars – The Assistive Technology Blog

Accessible-devices.com Podcast – Show 11 Computer Utilities and Odds and Ends 

Accessible Devices Podcast Feed

Accessible drag and drop using WAI-ARIA – Opera Developer Community

Accessible form builder – Generate XHTML-compliant accessible forms quickly and easily | Accessify

Accessible Open Source Content Management System – TYPOlight Open Source CMS – to produce well-organised and accessible web sites.

Accessible World Tek Talk Presents a Discussion of iTunes with JAWS 11, February 8, 2010 by Brian Hartgen | Accessible World

Adobe is Bad for Open Government – Sunlight Labs: Blog

AIM 7.2 Integrates with Facebook Chat | SSB BART Group – improves accessibility to Facebook.

Airline staff refuses to help blind man from the Deccan Herald

Ai Squared sponsored show "Cooking Without Looking" goes national – ai squared – making accessibility simple

ARC Accessibility Simulations – Home Page – simulations of the ways in which various disabled people may interact with Blackboard. This is for awareness-raising.

Are You Aware February 10, 2010 | VisionAWARE newsletter of zVISIONAWARE.ORG

Built-in video arrives in Opera beta | Deep Tech – CNET News and still Opera refuses to work with my screen reader. Why haven’t they ever got this right? Is this the fastest critique on the Web?

Computer Training for the Over 50s – based in southern England. Online learning materials are free, and you can pay for a tutor to visit.

csun10 – APH to Present Half-day Book Port Plus Workshop, Release Projected Beforehand « The BAT Channel

csun10 – Wireless Downloads coming to Plextalk Pocket – Blind Bargains

Design for Disability Will Become the Norm – The Chronicle Review – The Chronicle of Higher Education – as the population ages, the penny’s dropped that accessibility is good for everyone.

Disabled score voting victory | Toronto & GTA | News | Toronto Sun – elections must be made more accessible in the whole of Canada, human rights judgement says

Dolphin – Version 11.50 out now – FREE for ALL version 11 users

EASI Webinar: NonVisual Desktop Access free open source Screen Reader – use this link to register for the webinar scheduled for Wed. March 3, 9 GMT in the US, times are 1 PM Pacific, 2 PM Mountain,

Expedia Offers New Option for Disabled Travelers – find out which hotels can offer facilities for people with disabilities.

Full Screen Weather : Weather Underground – partly accessible with a screen reader.

Google Buzz Has Completely Changed the Game: Here’s How « The BAT Channel – what Google Buzz might mean for the social networking environment.

Humanware releases version 3.1 of the Victor Reader Stream firmware – AccessTech News

Internet Your Way to a New Job (JOBONLINE – National Braille Press (USA)) – $11.95 Braille and e-book.

iPad: no books here and an interesting diversity challenge – The Mobiliser » Blog Archive – no iPad books in the UK at the moment, and some criticisms of Apple’s software.

[Audio] iPhone Review – Action for Blind People

Law Office of Lainey Feingold – Disability Rights Legal Advocacy – Home Page – has represented blind and visually impaired people in class actions in the USA.

[Video] Mac OSX Universal Access features for sight impaired users – YouTube

[Audio] Michel Pepin Talks Oratio in Extended Interview – Blind Bargains – Oratio is Humanware’s screen reader for the Blackberry smartphone.

Mobile Speak 4.01 for Symbian phones has been released – Blind Bargains – maintenance update of CodeFactory’s screen reader.

Monthly Event Calendar | Accessible World – podcasts, webcasts and e-learning.

Olympus Announces New Accessible Recorders with Text-to-speech, Drastic Cut in Battery Life – Blind Bargains

Qwitter Client – an accessible Twitter interface for blind people.

REAPER | Download – trial version (fully working) of this music editing software is reportedly accessible to screen readers.

SeroTalk Podcast 35 – Lots of News, 5 Things for the iPhone, and 3 Radios Under $100 « SeroTalk

Solona teams up with independent developers to make Captcha Solving much easier – Fred’s Head

‘Talking’ bus stops for blind – pilot project in Leicester, UK, using the Star Trak bus information system.

Teaching about accessibility – via @saraheborne – Hello Happy Pitbulls » Blog Archive – Alan Brightman of Yahoo! explains how staff are made aware of accessibility needs. Better late than never, I suppose.

The Government’s medicines watchdog want to put their comprehensive and up to date medicine information online. Is this a good idea? How would you use it? – they don’t say which government!

The Internet Archive: An Untapped Resource for the Blind – Braille Monitor – set up in 1996, the Internet Archive’s mission was to make knowledge universally available. In partnership with the NFB, they are making efforts to make it accessible to blind people.

The one handed typing tutor – Learn to touch type with one hand. Suitable for child and adult. One handed typing helps people with a disability in education and employment. Become a one hand typist

The Top 5 Roadblocks To Web Accessibility – Karl Groves asserts that accessibility is the last thing on the minds of web designers, and explains why it is important, and the major pitfalls.

Theatre for the blind gives unique insight at Upton Village Hall show – Chester Chronicle – local production of ‘Jane Eyre’ will be audio described.

TidyRead Turns Your Web Reading into a Fast, Smooth, No-fringe Experience Again – extension available for Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer. Results for me have been a bit patchy, I must say.

U.S. to Celebrate World Standards Day 2010 with a Focus on Standards for Accessibility

Usability.Edu: 25 Incredibly Useful Usability Cheat Sheets & Checklists | Designer City, USA

UIC Accessibility Guide for Non HTML Formats including PDF, Word, Powerpoint, multimedia formats.

Vodaphone… get blind pedestrians back on track! – group aims to save Wayfinder Access GPS software. Thanks to Top Tech Tidbits for this one.

Win a new VW Urban Fox or £10,000 in our Big Spring Prize Draw 2010 – Action for Blind People – hey, does the car include driving lessons?

The Blind Buzz on Accessibility

28 Interviews from ATIA 2010 « SeroTalk

94 more secret Windows shortcuts | Ed Bott’s Microsoft Report | ZDNet.com – especially the SHELL command, mostly for Windows 7, though some of these work in Vista and a few in XP.

A-Prompt Project – get the new version of this free accessibility checker.

Accessibility Programming Guide for iPhone OS: Accessibility on iPhone – iPhone Dev Center

Assistive Software collection of useful small utilities.

audio by title accessible world tek talk presents walt kramer february 1 2010 | Accessible World – best use of the Windows volume control for listening and recording.

V3 Software Store – Auslogics BoostSpeed 4 – currently available free, this utility may be able to speed up your PC. I haven’t found the program particularly accessible, however.

Balabolka – a free text-to-speech program that can read files and convert from text to mp3/wav. Not apparently accessible to screen readers though.

BBC – My Web My Way – Guides to help disabled people get more out of the web

Blind Bargains: Audio Content Index – includes coverage of ATIA 2010 and podcasts

Clarity release plug & play portable Screen Magnifier/Reader – WinZoom « AccessTech News

[Video] DTorial (Part 1): An interactive tutorial framework for blind users in a Web 2.0 world

[Audio] EyePodTechnoCast9B.mp3 – MobileSpeak compared with the iPhone – Larry Lewis of flying Blind.

Free ARIA Community | Google Groups – the group has a
related wiki

Fullmeasure – Open Source Assistive Technology Software links to useful software and contacts.

Giz Explains: Why HTML5 Isn’t Going to Save the Internet – HTML5 – Gizmodo – maybe html5 has too many shortcomings to deserve the hype.

GW Micro Script Central – Windows Live Mail 0.1

Hey Apple, What About iPad’s Accessibility? – abledbody: news, insights and reviews on disability and assistive technology

How do I Use VoiceOver to navigate the web? » Vision » 4All » Tech Ease

IDEAL Group Portable Assistive Technology (AT) Software SmartDrive Project – this page lists many programs that are accessible or assist with accessibility, from Firefox extensions to screen readers to OCR applications, all capable of running on portable devices.

Microsoft Accessibility Update February 2010 « AccessTech News – all the news about accessibility in a certain well-known operating system, directly from Microsoft. 

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Mobile Geo: User Guide – the new version of this GPS software works with MobileSpeak 4

Mozilla Sponsors GNOME Accessibility Efforts – accessibility to be core value of GNOME.

NAVIGON Makes the Orient Accessible for iPhone Users – new Gulf/Jordan edition of this navigation software now available.

Nokia Accessibility: Home – "Making mobile devices accessible for all"

Open Accessibility – an overview of projects and communities

Owl Radio – READING FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT SEE – "Owl Radio is a free community service of the Low Vision Resource Center and is co-sponsored by Texas Public Radio and the San Antonio Express-News. The service provides daily radio broadcasts of newspapers, magazines and other information for persons who are unable to read regular print due to a visual, physical or reading impairment. The service has been on the air continuously in San Antonio since March 6, 2002. Service to the Hill Country began on January 10, 2005. Owl Radio transmits its programming to special radio receivers provided to qualified applicants over subcarriers provided by Texas Public Radio. The signals can be picked up within the greater San Antonio Metropolitan area and adjacent counties and in the Kerrville and Fredericksburg areas of the Hill Country."

Portable Handheld Electronic Video Magnifiers Comparison – Updated « AccessTech News

Probably the Best Free Security List in the World – Gizmo’s listing of the best, mostly free, security software.

Read The Words – TTS Online : Free Text to Speech Voices – this service can convert text into audio files. Free account available. 

ReadTheWords Tutorial video

RNIB and National Talking Newspapers and Magazines Officially Join Forces | DAISY Consortium

Senators Dodd and McCain Introduce Blind Persons Return to Work Act — WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire

SeroTalk Podcast 34 – Blio Reader, Booksense, Oratio for Blackberry, Mobilespeak 4, and Talks 4.5 « SeroTalk 

Serotalk Podcast Feed

Solona a11y — When inaccessible is unacceptable! – Solona helps you to interpret those visual CAPTCHAs that exclude blind people from many of the world’s web sites.

Symbian Foundation says phone software now available for free – CNBC – Symbian is the operating system for many smartphones.

Tech Ability: Making the Web Work For All Users | NBC Bay Area – The article features Alan Brightman of the Yahoo! Accessibility Lab.

Teridon’s Resource file hacks for iTunes for Windows – includes a hack to increase the font size in iTunes. If you struggle to read the “large” 10-point font !!! try
Teridon’s iTunes Font Size Editor, included on that page.

Test Page – command-line utility for testing web pages for accessibility and HTML validity. The link starts the installer.

Unleashing the Power of Innovation for Assistive Technology – National Center for Technology Innovation

[Video] Using a DAISY reader

The Blind Buzz on Accessibility

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

More accessibility buzzd

I knew this topic would have to run on and on. Well, at least for a second day! Some of these topics will no doubt turn up again in more detail, but for now, these are the links.

Accessible Kitchen Appliances « The BAT Channel – your views are wanted on which ones really are accessible.

Bar Code Scanners, an article at Fred’s Head.

BBC iPlayer Guide – A guide for users of the Jaws screen reader (and other screen readers), written by David Bailes

BCI: Thought control for smart home – Taking thought control from parlour trick to scientific reality using brain-computer interfaces. Emerging technology of interest to disabled people and the military.

Bioptic Driving USA – types of technology that may enable mildly visually impaired people to drive, state laws, available training and an explanation about who would be eligible for bioptic driving. 

Website Introduction Video on Youtube

Blind + Linux = BLINUX

BlindAid: Virtual Maps For The Blind

BookSense 1.1 Public Beta Released – GW Micro’s book reading machine gets some stability fixes.

Color Oracle – Design Tips Design for the Color Impaired

Digidesign Demonstrates Upcoming ProTools Accessibility– The Mac-cessibility Network – improvements to this professional recording software for the Mac.

Download WebbIE 3.95 – you will need this update if you want to carry on using the BBC Live Radio program, as the BBC has scrapped its Real Audio streams. The package has several bug fixes too.

EU launches free satellite system to fine-tune GPS – free European Union satellite service could improve accuracy for pilots, drivers and blind people using GPS.

Fifth-generation iPod nano Review | iPod | Playlist | Macworld – another device uses the VloiceOver screen reader.

Flash 10.1: Full Flash for Everyone But iPhone, Actually Playable HD Vids [Flash] « The BAT Channel – up-and-coming fast Flash version invading everything except the iPhone.

Guide to Making Board Games Accessible to the Blind

Guidelines on Presenting Accessible Powerpoint Presentations

High-tech glasses help the nearly blind see – eSight, developing special glasses with cameras looking out and LCDs looking in, which they claim are suitable for people with severe sight loss. Production hoped for in 2010.

iSonic: Interactive Data Sonification for Blind Users

IT PRO | Windows 7: The most accessible Windows yet?

jady_lady: Gadgets We Can’t Live Without – in praise of the Nokia N81

JAWS Public Beta 11 Released! from the Ranger Station Blog

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard With VoiceOver– The Mac-cessibility Network

MacMegasite » Media Atelier introduces Retina 1.0 for iPhone – Color Blindness Helper

Math Education and Nemeth Code for Braille users

Movies For the Blind – enjoy films without looking at a screen. Download audio-described movies.

New software helps blind venture out on their own – BlindAid, developed at tel Aviv University, allows blind people to feel and hear information about their surroundings.

Nokia Braille Reader makes SMS tactile

Open Textbook Resources free from the Orange Grove

Orator for BlackBerry ® Smartphones – this is a Frequently Asked Questions page on this screen reader by CodeFactory, with some less than satisfactory answers.

Phone eyes documents, reads to the blind – the KNFB Reader offers increased independence by reading bills, menus, etc.

Qwitter: the Accessible Way to Access Twitter – "The Qwitter client enables blind individuals to interface with the Twitter service globally, regardless of application focus. Based off of revolutionary concepts pioneered in The Jawter Jaws Scripts, Qwitter, with full support for the three major comercial screen readers and sapi speech, provides you instant access to all aspects of the twitter microblogging service, giving you the ability to post a tweet from anywhere, read tweets, perform searches, and far, far more. "

Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic®: Building Bridges Between Print Disabilities and Educational Success

Scanning Pens – these are pens that let you write on ordinary paper, but save your text and drawings in digital format as you go. An example is the Digiscribble. Pens, small scanners, portable printers, consumables. Request a catalogue and the site newsletter via e-e-mail forms on the site.

SOFIA Program Supports Astronomy For Students With Sensory Impairments

Solona – a site that can solve CAPTCHAs by getting volunteers to read and decipher the graphics.

Sony Partners With WGBH to Deliver Descriptive Video Service for DVDs

Students Developing A Car For The Blind – The Early Show – CBS News

Ten Innovative Designs To Help The Sight Impaired » Yanko Design – introduces several products, including Siafu PC, B-Touch mobile phone, Braille Label Maker The Visual Assistance Card, Braille Interpreter, Braille E-Book, Voice Stick, Swatch Sens, Rubik Cube For Blind.

The Nokia N900 Wants To Take On The iPhone, Will It Match Up? 

YouTube Video

Toshiba Touch cell phone for blind people – Google translation from Russian.

Traveleyes – world-wide travel for blind and sighted people. That’s accessibility all right!

Universal Phone For The Blind And Sighted by Seunghan Song » Yanko Design

Updates Everywhere You turn for JAWS, Zoom Text , Dolphin And Window Eyes – Mozilla Firefox

VINUX Project Page – A Customized Version of Ubuntu for Visually Impaired Users

Virtual reality used for blind to map real world – VR used to deal with the world, not escape from it!

Visionplus Sightstick for the Blind – not any old cane, this one has GPS, can output sound, vibration and braille and can bookmark specific locations.

WebAIM Screen Reader Users’ Survey – you may have seen one of these before, but this is a new one. Your chance to influence the industry.

Webvisum – your web helper – WebVisum is an add-on for Firefox that lets you solve CAPTCHAs, those mangled symbols that you have to decipher to get into some web sites. It also lets you label graphics on a site to make clear what they are.

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