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ACB Radio covering the Rose Bowl Parade

December 30, 2009 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

We are happy to carry the following listening opportunity announcement from ACB Radio.

It is with great pleasure to let you know that ACB Radio will be streaming the Rose Bowl Parade on January 1, 2010.

The coverage will begin at 15:30 UTC, which is 10:30 A.M eastern and 7:30 A.M pacific.

The coverage will be streamed on ACB Radio world.

Ken Metz will be providing the coverage from the home & garden TV booth.

Also there will be full audio description provided on the stream so you won’t miss a single movement in the parade!

So mark your calendars!

  • Date: Friday January 1, 2010.

  • Start time: 15:30 UTC 10:30 A.M eastern and 7:30 A.M pacific.

  • Where: ACB Radio World

Hope to see you there!

Larry Turnbull

ACB Radio Managing Director

Categories: Uncategorized
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Free Wi-Fi ups coffee shops’ popularity

October 10, 2009 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

I wrote this story for my news writing (JMC 301) class. It was published in the Oct. 6 edition of The State Press. I have reposted it in full for the benefit of blind readers, who may find this copy easier to access

Photo caption:

surfing the web: ASU sophomore Michael Robinson takes advantage of the free Wi-Fi at Starbucks Monday night. He said he often comes after work to meet friends or study. (scott stuk | The State Press)

By: Darrell Shandrow

Published On: Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Many Tempe coffee shop customers said free wireless Internet access adds an important dimension to their experience, and shop owners are delighted by the increased business.

Margie Derwin, owner of Margie’s Coffee House just west of South Hardy Drive on West Broadway Road in Tempe, said she added free Wi-Fi shortly after her shop’s April grand opening and has never looked back.

The business generated by customers who use the free Internet connection is well worth the $80 monthly price tag, Derwin said.

“A lot of people come in here and ask if we have Wi-Fi,” said Derwin. “They’re either students wanting to study or businesspeople who need to work. They need to get to the Internet.”

Psychology senior Lauren Watson prefers shops that help her go online and study.

“I’m much more likely to frequent a coffee shop if it has wireless Internet available,” Watson said. “Most of the stuff I have to do is online, either through Blackboard or other sites where I need to look up information.”

Watson is not alone. According to a September 2008 survey released by standards-setting organization Wi-Fi Alliance, 52 percent of undergraduate college students said the availability of wireless Internet connectivity affects their coffee shop choice.

Amir Dabir, a tourist attending a conference in Phoenix, frequents coffee shops regularly. He said shops get more of his business when they offer free Wi-Fi.

“I like to drink coffee, answer e-mails and be able to enjoy myself online while I’m at the coffee shop,” Dabir said as he waited to meet a friend at Cupz Coffee on South College Avenue, just north of the Tempe campus.

Dabir said he appreciates a shop with a free, reliable wireless connection.

“If it doesn’t have free Wi-Fi, I wouldn’t sit around and do work,” he said. “I’d just basically get my coffee and leave.”

Hannah Baldwin, wildlife biology junior and a barista at Xtreme Bean on East Southern Avenue in Tempe, said students spend an average of two to three hours in the coffee shop when they go online.

“Just looking around, you can see pretty much half the people with their laptops,” she said.

Many of the students who go online at the store are also socializing or participating in study groups, Baldwin said.

“We have some students we see come in midday and they don’t leave until we close,” Baldwin said. “Everyone who comes in grabs a coffee and they sit down and it’s totally fine. It’s a good atmosphere.”

The ambience of a coffee shop is almost as important is whether it has Wi-Fi, Watson said.

“The atmosphere has a lot to do with it, of course,” she said. “I’m looking for one that’s friendly but individual, where it’s quiet enough so you can be on your own if you need to, or you can start a conversation with a stranger.”

Derwin said she aims to please with her shop’s fast, reliable Wi-Fi connections and calm, friendly atmosphere.

“I get a handful of serious students who come in here and want to find a place to study,” said Derwin. “I like the home-away-from-home feeling. I want people to feel like they’re at home. We’re just relaxing. There’s no stress. We’re just being friendly.”

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Lawsuit Leads to Reconsideration of Patent

October 9, 2009 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has re-examined a patent held by the maker of a screen reader for blind computer users in connection with an infringement lawsuit filed against a competing company. Reliable sources hailed the move as a significant victory for the defendant.

The Document Placemarker patent, held by Freedom Scientific, Inc., covers a specialized screen reading capability that allows a blind person to save their position on a Web page and return to the same place at a later time. The company’s Job Access With Speech (JAWS) screen reading software incorporates this feature.

In a July 15, 2008 complaint filed in the United States District Court, Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division, the self-proclaimed “world’s leading manufacturer of assistive technology products for those who are vision impaired” accused GW Micro, the maker of the competing Window-Eyes screen reader, of deliberate patent infringement, claiming their placemarker technology is the same as that described in the patent. According to court documents, Freedom Scientific is seeking an injunction requiring GW Micro to stop including the placemarker feature in their product, asks for significant unspecified financial compensation for the infringement and requests recovery of legal fees.

“I believe that this technology shouldn’t have been patented to begin with,” said Doug Geoffray, Vice President of Development with GW Micro, Inc. “It obviously was around way before what they’ve done. We have stated that our version, Window-Eyes 3.1 back in 1999, had previous position capability.”

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office agreed. In a re-examination of Freedom Scientific’s patent, at the request of GW Micro’s attorneys, the office rejected all claims to the invention.

“A person shall be entitled to a patent unless the invention was patented or described in a printed publication in this or a foreign country or in public use or on sale in this country, more than one year prior to the date of application for patent in the United States,” stated a published document describing the re-examination as the basis for the patent’s rejection on the grounds that the technology had already been invented.

The document also cited two existing patents and the availability of IBM’s Home Page Reader, a product employing place marker technology prior to the Freedom Scientific patent, in its reasoning behind the decision.

“We take that as a positive sign,” Geoffray said.

“It’s a victory,” said Dennis Karjala, Jack E. Brown Professor of Law, Faculty Fellow, Center for the Study of Law, Science, & Technology at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. “There’s no question that, if the re-examination decision is upheld, that’s the end of it. There is no patent.”

He said Freedom Scientific may still have some cards to play in this case.

“The patent owner in a re-examination proceeding may appeal,” Karjala said. “It goes to an appeals board within the Patent Office and then they can later seek judicial review. This thing could go on for awhile.”

According to the re-examination document, the Patent Office must receive a response from Freedom Scientific by Oct. 28 if it wishes to appeal the decision.

Karjala said the legal trend points to a probable GW Micro victory.

“Because the Supreme Court has been reviewing so many of their cases with an obvious eye to overturning them, the Patent Office is pretty sensitive now that they’re being accused of being too patent friendly,” said Karjala. “My guess is once you got a ruling by the examiner that the patent is invalid, I’d say the chances are pretty good it will be upheld by the board in the Patent Office. If it’s upheld by the board, the chances that a court would overturn it in this atmosphere are pretty slim.”

Freedom Scientific representatives declined to comment, citing the ongoing litigation.

Notes:

  • The examiner cited Patent 6085161 describing the invention of a system for assigning and playing specific sounds when a Web page changes or the user encounters a specific Web page element such as a header or list. All of the claims in Freedom Scientific’s patent were rejected based on the positioning techniques described in this “sonification” system.

  • The examiner also cited Patent 7058887 describing a means of determining the position on a Web page according to user-defined settings, including the page’s domain. This IBM patent was referenced in the re-examination as clarification for the rejection of the sixth claim.

  • The examiner also referred to the IBM Home Page Reader Version 2.5 Manual.

  • Ex Parte Re-examination, Control Number 90/010,473, Central Re-examination Unit, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Visit the Patent Application Information Retrieval Web site and enter the specified control number to obtain this document. The Patent Office provides this document only in scanned image PDF, which is inaccessible to blind readers. An accessible copy of this document has been made available using Kurzweil K1000 Version 11.03 optical character recognition software.

  • An accessible copy of Freedom Scientific’s complaint was made available in the July 24, 2008 article about the lawsuit.

Categories: assistive technology, lawsuit
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Seeking Blind People Tossed Out of Their Jobs by Discrimination, Inaccessible Technology

October 3, 2009 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Are you a blind person who has lost your job due to blatant discrimination or inaccessible technology? If so, we want to hear from you!

In a Sept. 30 press release, President Obama said he proclaims October National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

“Fair access to employment is a fundamental right of every American, including the 54 million people in this country living with disabilities,” Obama said in the press release. “A job can provide financial stability, help maximize our potential, and allow us to achieve our dreams.”

What does this really mean for blind people? Can we have “fair access” to employment while much of the technology used by the sighted remains out of the reach of the screen readers and other assistive technologies that enable us to effectively operate computers? What happens when technology in a workplace changes without a thought to the needs of employees with disabilities? How are we supposed to respond to the removal of “financial stability,” the wasted potential and shattered dreams of blind people who have lost their jobs due to the wreckless actions of thoughtless employers who respond to technology inaccessibility by tossing away the person as though they are yesterday’s newspaper or just so much trash whose usefulness has expired?

“The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act substantially increased funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and provided more than $500 million for vocational rehabilitation services, including job training, education, and placement,” said Obama. “If we are to build a world free from unnecessary barriers, stereotypes, and discrimination, we must ensure that every American receives an education that prepares him or her for future success.”

Although blind people continue to face discrimination and negative stereotypes on a daily basis, many are also hired to fill positions in virtually all walks of life based on their qualifications. Through our own experiences in the world of business and employment, many of us are growing to believe the barrier of inaccessibility is a critical factor that holds us down. In an increasing number of cases, employers would love to hire or retain blind people as employees if only the software they must use in order to do their jobs could be accessed with a screen reader.

Let’s use National Disability Employment Awareness Month to make a strong case for greater accessibility. If you have lost your job because of inaccessible technology or were not hired because the software used in the workplace could not be made accessible, we would like to hear from you right away. Now is the opportunity for you to let your voice be heard around the world, not only on Blind Access Journal, but possibly in the mainstream media. Please e-mail employment@blindaccessjournal.com and tell us your story.

Categories: accessibility, advocacy, employment, technology
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Download Instructions for Microsoft Security Essentials

September 30, 2009 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Microsoft released its new free anti-malware Security Essentials product to Genuine Windows users Tuesday. The company’s Web developers forgot to make sure that the download process was intuitive for its blind customers. While browsing the Security Essentials Web site, people who rely on screen readers feel or hear a link containing the following text: “A38FFBF2-1122-48B4-AF60-E44F6DC28BD8/mssefullinstall-x86fre-en-us-vista-win7.” Microsoft representatives have been asked about this concern, and a response from the company’s public relations staff is anticipated in the near future.

Until Microsoft corrects the download process, an alternative exists for blind users to gain access to the software. Follow these steps to download Microsoft Security Essentials:

  1. Visit the Microsoft Security Essentials Web site.

  2. Select the “Locales and languages” link.

  3. Press the screen reader keystroke to redraw or refresh the interpretation of the screen’s contents. This command is Insert+Escape for JAWS and System Access, and Insert+Backslash for Window-Eyes. This step is critical in order to view the information that has changed on the dynamic Web page.

  4. Select the country in which you are located from the combo box.

  5. Select the link appropriate for the 32- or 64-bit operating system you are running. The download process begins.

Categories: accessibility, tips
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Job Opportunity: Lighthouse Seeks Blind Executive Director

September 28, 2009 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Kirk Adams, President, The Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc has asked us to carry the following job announcement to fill an executive director position.

“I am committed to having a blind person in the top leadership position at our Inland Northwest Lighthouse facility,” said Adams. “This is an exceptional opportunity for the right person, and I am willing to take all the time necessary to find the right fit. Either a person with the skills and experience to step right in, or someone who can develop with training and mentoring.”

Underscoring his desire to see a blind person holding a leadership role in the community served by the Lighthouse, Adams added: “We opened about fifteen months ago, making office products for the federal government. We currently have 35 blind employees, with a goal of 45 by year’s end. I believe this operation will support employment of 100 blind people five years from now.”

The Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc

Inland Northwest Lighthouse

Job Announcement

Title: Executive Director

Department: Administration

Reports To: President, CEO

Location: Spokane, Washington

Hours: Full Time M-F, includes some Saturday work

Summary: The Executive Director is responsible for accomplishing the mission of The Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc. at Inland Northwest Lighthouse (INL). Provide leadership, with passion, to address issues facing persons who are blind, Deaf-Blind and blind with other disabilities. Educate and create awareness about the blindness field within the greater Spokane community. Provide successful leadership and management of the INL facility. Align INL initiatives with the strategic plan of the Lighthouse. Accountable to accomplish specific goals that support the INL business plan.

Responsibilities:

  • Leadership

    • Represent the Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc. and the INL within the Inland Northwest community.

    • Participate with the INL Advisory Committee and CEO to develop a vision, mission, values, and INL strategic and business plans.

    • Identify, assess, and inform the Advisory Committee and CEO of internal and external issues that affect the organization.

    • Foster effective team work among the Advisory Committee, staff, and CEO.

  • Operational planning and management

    • Ensure the INL meets the expectations of its customers, employees, Advisory Committee, funders, CEO and all other stakeholders, including blindness consumer groups, NIB and its associated agencies.

    • Oversee the performance management system including creation and implementation of individual development plans for each INL employee.

    • Oversee accommodations, accessibility and use of assistive technology at organizational and individual employee levels.

    • Give input to Lighthouse HR staff in terms of developing and implementing policies and procedures that affect the INL.

    • Ensure that personnel, client, donor and volunteer files are securely stored and privacy/confidentiality is maintained.

    • Work with Board Support Team to prepare meeting agenda and supporting materials for the INL Advisory Committee.

  • Program planning and management

    • Ensure that the programs and services offered by the organization contribute to the organization’s mission and reflect the priorities of the Advisory Committee, CEO and blindness communities.

    • Work closely with Lighthouse government relations to partner with agencies and public officials to identify issues and improve mission-related legislation, services and supports.

    • Monitor the day-to-day delivery of the programs and services of the organization to maintain or improve quality.

  • Human resources planning and management

    • Work with HR Department, GMO, and GMA to determine staffing requirements for overall organizational management, program & service delivery. Work with GMO as requested to support workforce needs in manufacturing.

    • Oversee the implementation of the human resources policies, procedures and practices.

    • Establish a positive, healthy, safe and accessible work environment that promotes positive open communication in accordance with the Lighthouse human resources, safety & wellness program and applicable laws and regulations.

    • Recruit, interview and select staff that have the knowledge, skills and abilities to help further the organization’s mission.

    • Ensure that all staff receives orientation and training appropriate for their positions.

  • Financial planning and management

    • Work with CFO, GMO, and INL Production Manager to prepare a comprehensive budget. Monitor actual performance against the budget and recommend corrective actions to achieve budget as needed.

    • Work with the Advisory Committee and development staff to secure adequate funding to meet INL goals.

    • In conjunction with the Communications Department, coordinate and lead INL fundraising activities.

    • Work with Lighthouse CFO to ensure that accounting and recordkeeping policies and procedures are implemented.

  • Community relations/advocacy

    • Establish good working relationships and collaborative arrangements with community groups, funders, public officials and other organizations to help achieve goals including funding, donations, customer support, community responsibility and involvement in the blindness field.

    • Attend NFB, WCB and AFB meetings and events as appropriate. Participate and serve as a speaker as appropriate.

  • Risk management

    • Identify and evaluate organizational risks to: stakeholders including employees and persons receiving services; property, finances, goodwill, and image. Implement measures to control risks.

Requirements: (equivalent education/and or experience may substitute)

  • Education

    • Bachelor degree in business/management and non-profit leadership.

  • Knowledge

    • Knowledge of current community challenges and opportunities relating to the mission of the organization.

    • Knowledge of leadership and management principles as they relate to non-profit/ voluntary organizations.

    • Knowledge of sound business practices and principles.

    • Knowledge of government, political process, fundraising, community service and service provider organizations.

    • Knowledge of federal legislation applicable to voluntary sector organizations.

    • Knowledge of human resources management.

    • Knowledge of financial management.

    • Knowledge of project management.

    • Knowledge of disability issues, workplace accommodations and assistive technology strongly preferred.

Skills

  • Demonstrated blindness skills that support independent living such as orientation and mobility, cane travel, use of assistive technology such as JAWS or ZoomText. Braille, or guide dog/cane use are strongly preferred.

  • Leadership, collaboration and teambuilding skills necessary to work seamlessly with all stakeholders and employees.

  • Excellent presentation and communication skills are necessary.

  • Proficiency in the use of computers for Word processing, financial management, and e-mail.

Abilities and Attributes

  • Adaptability: Demonstrate a willingness to be flexible, versatile and/or tolerant in a changing work environment while maintaining effectiveness and efficiency.

  • Demonstrate Ethics: Understand ethical behavior and business practices, and ensure that own behavior and the behavior of others is consistent with these standards and aligns with the values of the organization.

  • Build Relationships: Establish and maintain positive working relationships with others, both internally and externally, to achieve the goals of the organization.

  • Communicate Effectively: Speak, listen and write in a clear, thorough and timely manner using appropriate and effective communication tools and techniques.

  • Creativity/Innovation: Develop new and unique ways to improve operations of the organization and to create new opportunities.

  • Focus on needs of those being served: Anticipate, understand, and respond to the needs of disabled employees and community members to meet or exceed their expectations within the organizational parameters.

  • Foster Teamwork: Work cooperatively and effectively with others to set goals, resolve problems, and make decisions that enhance organizational effectiveness.

  • Leadership: Positively influence others to achieve results that are in the best interest of the organization.

  • Make Decisions: Assess situations to determine the importance, urgency and risks, and make clear decisions which are timely and in the best interests of the organization.

  • Organize: Set priorities, develop a work schedule, monitor progress towards goals, and track details, data, information and activities.

  • Plan: Determine strategies to move the organization forward, set goals, create and implement action plans, and evaluate the process and results.

  • Solve Problems: Assess problem situations to identify causes, gather and process relevant information, generate possible solutions, and make recommendations and/or resolve the problem.

  • Think Strategically: Assesses options and actions based on trends and conditions in the environment, and the vision and values of the organization.

Experience

  • Five or more years of progressive management experience in a nonprofit sector preferred.

  • Experience in government and political processes; blindness consumer groups and issues.

Working Conditions

  • Work in an office environment within a manufacturing facility.

  • Work a standard work week, but additionally will often work evening, weekends, and overtime hours to accommodate activities such as attending advisory council meetings and public events.

Persons who are legally blind and meet the qualifications are urged to apply for this position.

Seattle Lighthouse will conduct a nation wide search to fill this position. We expect this extensive search to take six to twelve months.

Equal Opportunity Employer M/F

Please email cover letter and resume to jobs (at) seattlelh.org or mail them to:

The Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc.

Attn.: Don Helsel

2501 S. Plum Street

Seattle, Washington 98144

Telephone: (206) 436-2760

Fax: 206.436.2244

TTY: (206) 324-1388

Visit our Web site for more information about employment at the Lighthouse, and to download an application form.

Categories: Uncategorized
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Friday’s State-wide Cox Outage Inconveniences Customers

September 27, 2009 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Some Cox Communications customers throughout Arizona woke up Friday morning to find themselves disconnected from their digital lives. Technical support calls were greeted by a recorded message that stated: “We are currently experiencing outages affecting high speed Internet and digital telephone state-wide. Our engineers are working to resolve this issue. There is no estimated time of repair.”

Tempe resident Lauren Peikoff, an Arizona State University journalism student, wanted to go online before leaving for class.

“I needed to check to see if I had any assignments posted,” said Peikoff. “I wanted to find out if there was anything else I needed to do. What if my instructor said class was canceled?”

She was also concerned about an assignment in her online class due Friday evening.

“I was thinking ahead. OK. I am going to have to go to the library to submit my homework,” Peikoff said.

She was relieved to discover she could complete the assignment at home after service was restored sometime between 1:30 and 2 p.m.

Tempe resident Corey Nava also experienced the outage.

“I was trying to check my e-mail at the time and I couldn’t even get to it. It was just a pain, really,” Nava said. “I was actually looking for a car online, too, so, it kind of put a damper on that.”

Cox representatives said the service interruption was caused by a software problem.

“It disrupted service to around 10 percent of our customers,” said Michael Dunne, Director of Media Relations, Cox Communications, Southern Arizona. “It wasn’t geographically located. It was kind of all over. Our techs immediately started working the issue.”

Cox Media Relations Director Andrea Katsenes prefers not to classify the incident as an outage. “The interruption was intermittent,” she said.

“We’ve been talking to our customers on a case-by-case basis,” Katsenes said, declining to provide details on any steps Cox might take to compensate customers.

Nava said he won’t ask Cox for any credit to his account. “I probably won’t even follow up on it. It was an inconvenience and it’s not the first time it happened.”

Categories: Uncategorized
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Let’s Ask Twitter to Enable Us to Moderate Follow Requests

September 27, 2009 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Hard-working, honest Twitter users are getting sick and tired of all the bogus follow requests they receive on a daily basis as they post updates to Twitter. It seems there are automated computer programs, AKA bots, that search for interesting topics and try to follow everyone who tweets about them in hopes the favor will be reciprocated. Once the user follows the bogus Twitter account, their time line can be spammed with unwanted links to advertising and marketing from a strange company with an unknown reputation. What measures can we take now to protect ourselves and what can Twitter do to help?

Some people I know take a conservative, guarded approach to Twitter. These users protect their accounts. They may be followed only by request and their tweets may be viewed only by approved followers. Users in this camp restrict their followers to close friends and relatives, limiting their participation in all that Twitter has to offer. These users can’t be followed by others with a legitimate interest in the topics about which they tweet and are unable to meet new people. It would seem they lose out on most of the benefits of social media. While a portion of these users really do want a private Twitter experience, others feel the need to employ these measures as protection against spammers.

In contrast, other users wish to avail themselves of all the social media benefits Twitter offers, putting up with the junk in the process. They allow everyone to follow their public tweets and revel in the prospect of connecting and communicating with people they met online. The public profile of these users exposes them to phishing, spamming, social engineering and other forms of abuse. How can public users protect themselves while enjoying all of Twitter’s benefits?

There are currently a number of ways for public Twitter users to combat abuse, but all may require significant time and effort. How does one avoid unscrupulous users while ensuring they allow participation by those who have a legitimate interest in their tweets? While much of the abuse is perpetrated by bots, it seems the defense must be conducted manually, on a case-by-case basis as attacks are attempted.

Good protection seems to start at the point where a user makes a follow request. The requester is asking for permission to see your updates on their Twitter home page or in their Twitter application. Once the user follows you, he or she typically hopes you will return the favor in order to form a connection. When two Twitter users follow each other, a two-way relationship exists permitting the private exchange of direct messages and the public swapping of Twitter updates. The malicious user can abuse this new relationship by posting pushy marketing information to all their followers or by attempting to lure their followers to questionable Web sites that try to collect usernames, passwords and other personal data.

The key is to ensure you are only forming healthy relationships on Twitter by carefully evaluating each new follow request and keeping these guidelines in mind before approving anyone:

  • Check the Twitter username. If it contains several numbers after the name, this may represent a red flag. Proceed with caution. Bots can create accounts based on a name, adding numbers until an unused one has been found.

  • Look for nonsensical names or missing biographical information on the user’s Twitter home page. If you don’t like what you see, by all means ignore the follow request.

  • Consider taking a look at the Web site linked in the user’s profile. Exercise caution, though, as this link might point to a malicious page or an attempted social engineering attack. Do not trust the page’s content and avoid entering any personal data.

  • Review the updates the user has posted. You can quickly see the 20 most recent tweets on the user’s Twitter home page. Red flags include a large number of links without context, little or no conversation with other users and a lack of information you deem interesting.

  • If you believe the user is malicious, press the Block button. If you just find the user’s content uninteresting, simply ignore the follow request but do not block. Blocking can have a negative impact on a user’s reputation and may potentially limit their future ability to use Twitter.

We can ask Twitter to develop an easy solution that would allow us to strike a balance between the limitations inherent in a protected account and the anything-goes nature of a public account. The solution is moderated following. In a moderated following scenario, anyone making a follow request would be asked to explain why they should be granted that honor. The proposed feature would work like this:

  • A user wishes to follow someone on Twitter.

  • She visits the person’s Twitter home page and presses the Follow button.

  • She is asked to provide the reason she wishes to follow the other person.

  • Twitter notifies the recipient of the follow request, including the stated reason.

  • The recipient is given a chance to accept or reject the request.

  • If it is accepted, the requester receives appropriate notification. If denied, the requester receives nothing.

Let’s all think about how a moderated follow scenario might work and, if it’s something worth pursuing, ask Twitter to consider putting it in place as a new feature. All comments are appreciated as always.

Categories: feedback, opinion, Twitter
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FeedBlitz Adds Audio CAPTCHA, Tears Down "No Blind People Allowed" Sign

September 25, 2009 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

In a Sept. 24 post on the company’s news blog, the self-proclaimed “Email Marketing Service for Blogs, Social Media and RSS” announced it has added an audio CAPTCHA. This facility delivers an audio alternative to the distorted text sighted users are asked to enter during registration or subscription, permitting access for blind and visually impaired users to the same resources available to the sighted.

“FeedBlitz has added an audio version of the visual CAPTCHA (which has also been slightly updated) used on all FeedBlitz subscription forms,” according to the statement.

The new audio verification system can be heard on the company’s registration page. A clear voice is used to announce the letters and numbers to be entered. No background distortion is heard. Audio playback is delivered in the form of a standard MP3 file that can be opened and played according to the user’s needs and preferences.

FeedBurner, a Google property competing with FeedBlitz in the RSS space, continues to lack audio playback functionality, thus barring access to blind people.

Categories: accessibility, CAPTCHA, Visual Verification
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Opportunity to Ask Google for More Blogger Accessibility

September 18, 2009 • Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Though Blogger already has a lot to offer blind and visually impaired audiences and content creators, there continue to be some nagging unresolved accessibility issues, including missing alt tags and unlabeled Flash controls. All blind and visually impaired readers, and those who care about us, are asked to take the Blogger user feedback survey and use the comment fields to ask Google to improve the accessibility of the service for blind and visually impaired people.

Categories: web accessibility
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