Posts Tagged tts
The Blind Buzz on Accessibility
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on May 19, 2010
Access is a Right and Good Public Policy | Accessibility News International – May 30 to June 5 is Manitoba Access Awareness Week
Access IT review of SuperNova v11.50 – Dolphin
Accessible book (Open Library) – read books online.
Accessible Media Project – ways of presenting media on web sites. Requires Silverlight.
Accessibility for the Disabled – A Design Manual for a Barrier Free Environment – United Nations Program on Disability.
Accounting Software for Vision Impaired, World First – Cash Manager, an Australian product.
Adobe Announces eLearning Suite 2 & Captivate 5 – Assistive Technology
AFB AccessWorld: Technology and People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired – May 2010 Issue – contents include Android Phone Accessibility, Oratio Screen Reader for BlackBerry, Illuminated Magnifiers, the iPad, CSUN 2010 Highlights, Social Networking Accessibility, Home Appliance Update
Another iPhone 4 Prototype Leaks–What Can We Learn From It? [Updated] | Fast Company – probably one of those controlled Apple leaks…..
AssistiveWare: Accessibility solutions for Mac OS X
Bad Eyes Sees the PDF Light – PDFs need not be horribly inaccessible.
Barriers to Careers – Fred’s Head – guess what – not all blind people are musicians, and not all need huge amounts of care…..
BrailleNote Apex BT 32 – HumanWare USA new 18-cell Braille notetaker.
Humanware UK
Computer centers for visually impaired open – UzA – centre in Tashkent, Uzbekistan .
Crosswalk removed after complaints – China Daily – 2 weeks after being installed to enable blind and deaf children to cross the road, the crossing, in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China, annoyed local people by being too noisy when driven over.
E-Access Bulletin’s sixth annual conference and exhibition on access to technology by people with disabilities, e-Access ’10, takes place on 13 July 2010 at Olympia 2 Conference Centre, London.
EASI Webinar – Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Section 508 Monday May 24th
eSpeak text to speech – a speech synthesiser that can handle English and many other languages. Works on Linux and Windows.
Eye Glasses Turns iPhone into Magnifier For Oldies | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
[Book] Google It! A Guide to the World’s Most Popular Search Engine (2010 Second Edition) (GOOGLE) – new edition to cover recent developments.
GPS for guide dogs promises greater freedom for the blind
Happy Birthday VoiceOver– The Mac-cessibility Network – News [Lioncourt.com] – what’s happened to VoiceOver since its launch in April, 2005.
Helpful bus stops are talk of the town – Edinburgh Evening News – blind passengers can use a fob or smartphone to get timetable and other bus information in this new pilot project.
How Are Seeing Eye Dogs Taught to Interpret Stoplights if Dogs Are Color-Blind? – short answer – they aren’t, and they don’t.
How to Allow Your Visitors to Switch Between Alternate CSS Styles / Themes (thesitewizard.com)
HTML5, ARIA Roles, and Screen Readers in May 2010 — Research — Accessible Culture – how the major screen readers measure up in these new environments.
HTML5 & Accessibility – Access U 2010 – slide show without apparently any sound. Humph!
Importance of HTML Headings for Accessibility
Indoor & Outdoor Travel Skills for Adults with Vision Loss | VisionAWARE – an american site, but could be useful anywhere.
J-Tools? – T & T Consultancy – enhancements for JAWS version 11.
Bierley Maggie – Hagger Electronics – a pocket CCTV for £99 (£116 including VAT)
Michigan Students to Develop RFID-enabled Robotic Guide Dog – RFID Journal – sounds a bit like the Batcane or Ultracane, but this one recognises radio tags in places like supermarkets.
Microsoft Impresses — Really — with TellMe Voice Text and Search – PCWorld – text messages and web searches look really easy on the Samsung Sprint Intrepid, which responds to voice commands.
MoPix – Motion Picture Access – Making Movie Theaters Accessible to Disabled Audiences
Mushroom FM Internet radio station. – The home of the Fun guys – Jonathan Mosen, Brian Hartgen, Jeff Bishop and others have set up this new Internet radio station.
New information system for blind and visually impaired individuals – Freie Universität Berlin researchers are working on a device that connects wirelessly to the Internet and provides numerous information channels and the ability to handle e-mail. This is aimed primarily at those who are not experienced computer users – the InformA device works a bit like a radio.
Over 1 Million Digital Books Now Available Free from the Internet Archive – Fred’s Head
[DOC] Self-directed support – What it is and how blind and partially sighted people can benefit. Factsheet from the RNIB in the UK about the new Personal Budgets/Direct Payments system. You may also like to read
[DOC] Personalisation: getting the most from personal budgets and self-directed care
ScreenRuler Suite V3 from Claro Software – with new features for Windows XP and Windows 7 (including 64-bit). This is a screen tool of most use to those with some sight, though it also has high-quality voices.
SeroTalk Tech Chat 61 – The iPad, Tool or Toy?
Speech in a Virtual World, Part II – SpeechTechMag.com – technology assisting in Second Life, etc, including the Virtual Guide Dog and speech recognition.
Tactile voting system for the blind sought – RTÉ News the current system in Ireland is to ask a trusted friend to help you vote. the National Council for the Blind say this is no longer adequate.
This Free WiFi Network Finder is Easy to Use and Very Powerful
UK Service TextMagic Makes Texting Your Friends as Easy as Sending Email – Fred’s Head
Visually Impaired Person Technology User Conference (Hosted by Vista Center for the Blind) | DAISY Consortium – May 22nd, 2010 in Mountain View, California. Presentations on smart phone topics.
West Bank invention to help blind – Al Jazeera English – Video – 3 girls from a Palestinian refugee camp have researched and produced a buzzing and vibrating cane for blind people.
The Blind Buzz on Accessibility
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on May 3, 2010
Accessible Insights Blog
Accessible Insights RSS Feed
[Audio] Accessible World Tek Talk presents An Introduction to Social Networking, April 19, by Anna Dresner – 52 mins. Twitter, Facebook et al. and privacy settings.
Attitudes on Accessibility « Peter Ganza’s Blog – comparisons between the USA,Canada and Europe.
[PDF] Best Practice in Form Design
Campaigning Peer Blocks Weakening Of Web Access Law – E-Access Bulletin Live » Blog Archive -
Discover Smartphone Accessibility Webcast « The BAT Channel – this page will refer you to a web site and a piece of software that won’t be readily accessible if you’re totally blind.
Doctor, I’m Seeing Spots – Fred’s Head – starting with Braille labels.
“DROP” GPS Braille system | Keol.Net – hand-held tactile display navigation system with voice commands. This may be a concept device, i.e., not available yet.
e-Access ’10 – "E-Access Bulletin’s sixth annual conference and exhibition on access to technology by people with disabilities, e-Access ’10, takes place on 13 July 2010 at Olympia 2 Conference Centre, London.
Ecommerce Accessibility for High Street Retailers 2010 – how accessible are the web sites of the UK’s most famous retailers?
Facebook and Accessibility – Accessibility Toolkit – Version 3 – 2009 (eGovernment Resource Centre)
Facebook Shuts Down Facebook Lite « AccessTech News
Free JAWS 11 Update Adds Office 2010 Support – Blind Bargains
Free Online Spider Simulator | Summit Media – find out how a search engine is likely to react to your web pages.
HP Slate Review: Netbook Alternative, Not iPad Killer | Blog | ZiggyTek -early review is none too enthusiastic. Also note
HP Reportedly Cancels Plans for Windows 7 Tablet – Slashdot Hardware Story
iBooks and the iBookstore: A Walkthrough – books for the iPad.
Ideas on Coping With Low Vision by a member of Macular Degeneration Support. (mdsupport.org).
Improve Accessibility With The Power Of Powder | Business Computing World – POWDER is a certification system for web pages that may come a bit nearer to reassuring readers that the site is accessible.
Inclusive Design Toolkit: = the what, why and how of inclusive design.
iPad drawing interest as device for disabled-Hardware-Infotech-The Economic Times – there’s more to the iPad than entertainment.
[Video] iPhone VoiceOver function for people with disabilities
It’s A Wheelchair! It’s A Trike? It’s RoTrike!
LiSeng Vbook: Dual-Screen Tablet (720p Video) | Blog | HTCYou – the embedded video on this page doesn’t have any meaningful audio (like a commentary!). It’s a dual-screen tablet machine.
LiveScribe – never miss a word – smart notetaking pen.
Los Angeles creator of TheatreVision for blind people celebrates its 10th year – Media dis&dat
Making sure hidden frames are hidden – The Paciello Group Blog – they may be hidden gfrom sight, but not from screen readers.
Pilot project allows library to offer more to those with disabilities – ai squared – making accessibility simple – ZoomText is one of the choices for the New Brunswick Library Service, Canada.
RNIB’s Shaun Leamon Clarifies iPad Points– The Mac-cessibility Network – News [Lioncourt.com]
Salman Khan makes VEER available for blind fans – this Bollywood film is a love story set in the time of the British Raj. The audio description track is in Hindi.
Second Life Disability Resources
Second Site: Online Accessibility for the Visually Impaired – Linux News: Spotlight Features – the case for accessibility is getting stronger.
Senator Harkin’s Web Site Recognized as One of the Best in Congress – Tom HarKin, Senator for Iowa, gets high praise for
his user-friendly web site
Seven Tips To Help Cope With Vision Loss – Fred’s Head – it’s tough getting to grips with visual impairment, but these may help you through the jungle.
Sidewalks become battlegrounds – USATODAY.com – disability advoctes in the US are at odds with cash-strapped local authorities over the poor state of sidewalks in many cities.
Some Random Impressions On The iPad – The Ranger Station – you might get the impression that the Ranger isn’t totally delighted.
Teach Blind Students – information from (American) National Federation for the Blind.
The Tech Doctor Blog and Podcast – latest episode – Does Size Matter? iPad vs iPod.
Tech Doctor RSS Feed
Techshare Mobile 2010 – this UK conference aims to bring people together to encourage the development of accessibility on mobile devices.
Text Email Newsletter (TEN) Standard – this standard intends to improve the readability of plain text e-mail.
The 4th European eAccessibility Forum | DAISY Consortium – having trailed the event on this blog, I now bring you the results.
Tips, techniques, and tutorials for the jQuery JavaScript library – including some accessibility techniques.
Towards A Cooler Focus Caret – some CSS techniques for making the point of focus more obvious, and possibly even making it prettier if you must.
Trekker Breeze (Support) – HumanWare United Kingdom – version 1.2 of this navigation system has points of interest, clearer text-to-speech and more languages.
Twitter and Accessibility – Accessibility Toolkit – Version 3 – 2009 (eGovernment Resource Centre)
US Government Helps Job Applicants With Disabilities – E-Access Bulletin Live » Blog Archive
Using Automatic Testing to Predict Accessibility Results « E-Government Assessment
Voice Synthesis for your iPhone – Speak It! claims to have 4 high-quality voices.
Web Accessibility Tools – UserFocus – useful selection of accessibility aids for developers.
Webster’s New World Large Print Dictionary – Fred’s Head
[Audio] White House promising more attention to 508 – Federal News Radio 1500 AM –
Get the mp3 file or dig out your old long-wave radio!
With new technology, few blind Canadians read braille – CTV News
woices.com: Location-Based Audioguides – Fred’s Head – create your own audio walk, including maps and photographs.
Direct link to woices.com
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
The Blind Buzz on Accessibility
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on April 3, 2010
CSUN 2010 Audio
Blind Bargains: Audio Content Index includes several items related to CSUN
CSUN 2010 – 27 interviews conducted on March 25, 2010, in the exhibit hall of the San Diego California Manchester Grand Hyatt.
Hands On with Accessible Canon Copiers
MagniLink Go Reads, but also Magnifies
New Magnification Upgrades from Enhanced Vision
Serotalk – SeroTek at CSUN 2010
Tech Chat 56 – CSUN Highlights, and XP Mode Under Windows 7 « SeroTalk
The Summit of I.D. Mates
Other CSUN 2010 items
Adaptech Research Network Presentations
Adventures From My First Day at CSUN 2010 – Perspectives from a Blind Point of View
More Adventures from CSUN 2010 – Perspectives from a Blind Point of View
CSUN 2010 recap – Marco’s Accessibility Blog
Olympus DM-4 And DM-2 Digital Audio Devices Are At Your Command To Deliver Super High-quality Recording And Simple Playback
Slides from CSUN 2010 Talks – Adobe Accessibility
Two New Seika’s Coming to the U.S. – new Braille displays
10 Insanely Great iPad Apps We Can’t Wait to Use « AccessTech News
[Video] 2007 Faculty Development Award Winner: Access E-Learning – Georgia Tech tutorial on many aspects of accessibility.
A Brief Guide to WordPress and Web Accessibility
ABBYY Invites iPhone Users to Try Its Business Card Reader for Free
Accessible JavaScript: Beyond the Mouse
Accessible World Tek Talk Presents Make It Work, Computer Consultants March 29, 2010 by Mr. Daniel Kevorkian – general computer discussion
Accessibility tips for the casual coder – hope: Nerdy PSA – Why you should use em and strong tags for italics and bold.
ai squared – making accessibility simple – ZoomText, Victor reader Stream, Pebble, SenseView Duo and more.
Ajax Accessibility and ARIA – Ajaxian
Apple iPad Helps Businesses Meet Needs of Disabled Employees – Yahoo! News
Bank of America Installs Talking ATMs by Bank Systems & Technology
Best Buy Adds Tactile Keypads to Improve Checkout Experience for Customers with Visual Impairments – USA story.
Blind Bargains to Begin Charging for Access on April 15
Blind-friendly ipad – Latest Technology News
Browser Zoom Comparison | AlastairC – several ways of changing the size of things on screen in several browsers.
Choosing To Use A Cane – Fred’s Head
Cinemas apply for exemption to the Disability Discrimination Act of 1992 « AccessTech News – cinemas in Australia are asking for a delay in the demand for audio description and captioning.
Contributor Robert Kingette – Accessible PDF with WebbIE – Matilda Ziegler Magazine for the Blind – first-hand experience of Accessible PDF from webbie.org.uk, which on the whole is very good.
Council on e-accessibility « Sköne Oke – standards are inconsistent across ~European countries.
Costa Rica Zip line Tour at Turu Ba Ri park is almost for any body | Costa Rica Turubari Park – Canopy Tours – elderly blind woman enjoys the tour.
Digital Talking Book Internet Service Delivers One Millionth Download « AccessTech News this is the NLS BARD Service in the USA.
eBooks page on the RNIB web site. On the same subject, you may like to visit
The tale of the accessible eBook – BBC Ouch!
eClipseWriter Student-Teacher – talking word processor with adjustable fonts and "Save as DAISY" facility.
FAE: Run FAE – functional accessibility evaluation. Enter a web address for an assessment of the page’s accessibility.
Free AVG Rescue CD Helps Get Unbootable PCs Working
Freedom Scientific Lease-to-Own Petition – sign the petition if you agree that FS should let people pay by instalments instead of needing the whole purchase price of JAWS up-front.
GNOME 2.30 released – with excellent accessibility support – Peter Korn’s Weblog
Google funds new research to help blind web surfers | Bioscience Technology Online – work at Manchester University to be supported by a £50,000 grant from Google.
Google Services Optimized for iPad: Gmail, YouTube, Maps and More « AccessTech News
GrabText – the idea is to take a picture of the whole screen and pick out the text from it using OCR
[GSoC Proposal] N900 as an Accessibility device – maemo.org – Talk
How Perceptual Blindness Works – Simple test shows how Humans (yes, even you) sometimes completely miss things that are in plain sight – Try the test – The Blogs at HowStuffWorks – Mozilla Firefox – even if you have some sight, you can miss something that’s right in front of your face. Here’s why.
How to Use Bump Dots to Maximize Accessibility – Fred’s Head – raised dots have uses on keyboards, ATMs and keypads. there are other uses for them in your life.
iPhone HD or iPhone 4G release? – rumours, no doubt carefully orchestrated by Apple, of the new iPhone release in the summer of 2010.
Is it possible to develop an accessible dynamic menu? – AccessIT
Issues in improving accessibility « H809 Learnings by SkillKick – some of the barriers.
IVONA Text-To-Speech Makes Mobile Applications More Accessible – free trial and book available on the site.
Juicy Studio: Image Analyser – This service examines all images found on a web page to check for any accessibility issues. The width, height, alt, and longdesc attributes are examined for appropriate values.
Kit support scent – Kit Cosmetics want to support Guide Dogs Australia. They have even sent scented Braille letters to blind people making them aware of their support and their product.
Support Scent Video Commercial
KPR – Koester Performance Research – ‘ …enhances the usability and accessibility of information and assistive technologies through research, development, and education. We research the “fit” between users and their technology. We develop software to assess user needs and to enhance computer interfaces. We also consult on usability and research desig’.
Learning the way – Donna Jodhan – how are you going to find your way about when you can’t see landmarks?
LookTell, Mobile Applications For The Blind – Technology Blog – mobile application for object recognition.
[Video] LookTel demo shows how Looktel system recognises objects, including food cans, newspaper items, shop signs, currency notes (at least, American currency notes).
Mouse by Keyboard « AccessTech News – Mac tip
Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0.4 Final « AccessTech News
Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition 3.0.4 Released « AccessTech News
Multiple form labels and screen readers | 456 Berea Street – using an extra label to carry text for users to read seems like a good idea until you try it with a screen reader…..
New Design Opens Door To Full Screen Displays For The Blind – page display rather than line-by-line.
News Bytes – latest on Linux.
Nuance Announces TALKS 5.0 for Touchscreen Phones | Business Wire
Nuance Talks web site.
Nuance announces T9 Trace « AccessTech News – it’s not clear whether Nuance Talks will support this text entry system.
OverDrive Announces New Program for Visually Impaired Readers « ResourceShelf – download up to 20 ebooks per month.
Podcast: 30 Mar 2010 Software Walk-Through Resco News S60 – Blind Mind News – Unrestricted Access – RSS reader for symbian 3rd and 5th generation phones.
ReadPal -Free download to read faster with no stress or glare. – read documents in easy formats.
Set default zoom level in Safari using a CSS file – Mac OS X Hints
Sharp’s New 3D Touch Displays Eliminate Need for Glasses | Blog | ZiggyTek
Software @ ColorJack – products include a free Sketchpad program, Color Galaxy for color visualization and Color Sphere, which lets you choose color schemes, including colorblind simulators.
Sources of Research Articles on Cognitive Web Accessibility « Clear Helper
[Audio] The very first look at a touch screen phone with Talks 5. | Listen and Learn Recordings
The Web Isn’t for Everyone … Yet but lessons here try to help web authors make the most of it.
Virtual Ability, Inc. – offers techniques and training to enable disabled people to enjoy virtual worlds, such as Second Life.
VisionZone Initiates Eye Heath Awareness and Low Vision Community Connectivity -online arm of Optelec promises education on eye health and support for visually impaired people and their allies across the USA.
What to do with a Guide Dog when entering a Mosque? – www.TurnToIslam.com
Whenever you use :hover, also use :focus | 456 Berea Street – applying :focus to the CSS state of links.
WinPenPack Gathers Hundreds of Portable Apps in One Package [Downloads] « AccessTech News
YouTube accessible interface alternative now available « AccessTech News
Full story
Accessible Interface to YouTube
The Blind Buzz on Accessibility
Posted by nystagmite in Uncategorized on February 28, 2010
Accessibility – Mono – this allows some Windows applications to run on Linux machines with the same level of accessibility.
Betsie | Get Betsie at SourceForge.net – "Betsie is a CGI filter script written in Perl that can improve the accessibility of arbitrary websites by creating an intelligently decolumnised text-only version."
Braille Struggles Under Threat From Audio Technologies – E-Access Bulletin Live » Blog Archive – translated from the Italian newspaper, La Republica. Braille in decline, but still valuable to visually impaired people.
Creating Accessibility-aware Silverlight 2 Content -CODE Magazine
EDeAN: European Design for all eAccessibility Network – this group of 160 organisations in European countries aims to support accessibility for all.
Google, the largest blind user on the ‘net | Accessibility NZ – making a site accessible also makes it search-engine friendly.
Hit-a-Hint Bookmarklet Generator – makes it super easy to select links with keyboard only. This is an add-on for Firefox and Opera.
HTML5 Media and Accessibility presentation – ginger’s thoughts
Large Print Guidelines – Resources – Vision Australia Website
Latest Technology Instant Messenger Now Available For Mobile Phones And PCs From FIXITCHAT – one interface for all your messaging accounts on mobile phone and PC.
Low Vision Simulation – WebAIM – simulates what it is like to surf the Web with macular degeneration.
Researchers Plan To Automate Web Image Description – E-Access Bulletin Live » Blog Archive – UK group aims to develop browser plug-in to decipher graphics.
SpeakingFox Makes Firefox Talk | ATMac – works with Mac OS X. Not for serious screen reader users.
Visual Impairment Simulator for Microsoft Windows – this software imposes the effects of visual impairments on to your Windows environment.
Wrestling With the CAPTCHA Arm-Lock – AbilityNet – the distorted image CAPTCHA, some alternatives, and some of the problems that still exist.