Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Coming up on Main Menu for the week of July 16 – The Icon and Our Panel of Experts

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Hello Everyone,
 
Coming up on this week’s Main Menu Live, we bring you two hours of brand new content. In the first hour, Marc Mulcahy from LevelStar tells us all about the Icon accessible pocket mobile manager and portable notetaker. We welcome your questions by e-mail to mainmenu@acbradio.org prior to the broadcast, or by way of calls and MSN (Windows Live Messenger) chats during the show. In the second hour, we bring you our panel of experts to discuss all things technology from a blindness perspective with emphasis on the recently concluded summer conventions. On this show, Jeff and I will be joined by Don Barrett, Randy Knapp, Debbie Hazelton and Caroline Congdon.
 
Jeff and I would also like to let all of you know that this episode represents our final appearances as host and co-host of Main Menu. We’re all going to connect and have a great time, so this is the show you will not want to miss!
 
Here is how to participate in the show:
The number to call into the show is 866-400-5333.
You may email your questions to: mainmenu@acbradio.org
You may also interact with the show via MSN (Windows Live) Messenger. The MSN Messenger ID to add is: mainmenu@acbradio.org
 
Would you like to interact with a group of Main Menu listeners about the topics heard on Main Menu and Main Menu Live? You can do this by joining the Main Menu Friends email list. The address to subscribe is: main-menu-subscribe@googlegroups.com
Come join an already lively group of users.
 
Would you like to subscribe to podcast feeds for Main Menu and Main Menu Live? The RSS feeds to add to your podcatching application are:
Main Menu – http://www.acbradio.org/podcasts/mainmenu
Main Menu Live – http://www.acbradio.org/podcasts/mainmenulive
 
For this next week, only the Main Menu Live podcast feed will be updated.
 
Main Menu can be heard on Tuesday evenings at 9:00 Eastern, 6:00 Pacific, and at 1 universal (GMT) on Wednesday mornings on the ACB Radio Main Stream channel.
Follow this link to listen to the show:
http://www.acbradio.org/pweb/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=8
 
Our best wishes to all our loyal Main Menu listeners,
 
Jeff Bishop and Darrell Shandrow
The Main Menu Production Team

Friends in Art Showcase to Air on ACB Radio

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Hello everyone,

Once again, ACB Radio is proud to provide exclusive live coverage of the
Friends in Art showcase from the ACB Convention. Join Chrissie Cochrane and
a team of ACB Radio broadcasters as they bring you a night of performances
by blind and vision impaired performers, live on stage at the convention in
Louisville Kentucky. The broadcast will get underway at or around 23:45
Universal, that's 7:45 pm US Eastern, and will probably run for something
like 3 hours.

We have set up a separate stream for this year's showcase. You will be able
to listen from the acbradio.org website or by clicking one of the following
links:

Broadband stream for Winamp: http://acbradio.org/special.pls
Broadband stream for Real Player: http://acbradio.org/special.ram
Broadband stream for Windows Media player: http://acbradio.org/special.wax
Broadband stream for other players: http://acbradio.org/special.m3u

Modem stream for Winamp: http://acbradio.org/special-low.pls
Modem stream for Real PLayer: http://acbradio.org/special-low.ram
Modem stream for Windows Media PLayer: http://acbradio.org/special-low.wax
Modem stream for other players: http://acbradio.org/special-low.m3u

We hope you are enjoying our convention broadcasts and look forward to you
joining us for the Friends in Art Showcase, only on ACB Radio.

Available for New Employment as of July 18

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This is just a quick note to all of you loyal Blind Access Journal readers to let you know that, as of July 18, my position with my current employer is being eliminated due to circumstances completely outside of my control. At that time, I will be available for contract or permanent employment. If you are interested in availing yourself of my services, or you have any ideas about how I may be able to acquire new employment, please send a note to editor@blindaccessjournal.com and I will get back in touch with you right away. Thank you for reading.

ACB 2008 Convention Podcast

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This year we are proud to present our 2008 ACB National Convention podcast covering all the general sessions, the candidates’ forum and the banquet. Please visit http://www.acbradio.org/conventions to manually download these files or add http://feeds.feedburner.com/acbconventions to your favorite RSS reader or podcatching software to automatically download the files in their intended podcast form.
 
Once again, we at ACB Radio innovate when it comes to providing consumer organization summer convention coverage in the online connected blind community. We hope you are enjoying our broadcasts and are finding the information helpful.

Exploring the AT&T Motorola Q9H Keyboard

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This is a short article covering how to find all the special keys on the Motorola Q9H phone. It is very much a work in progress. All feedback to editor@blindaccessjournal.com is appreciated. Thanks go to Jeff Bishop’s son Brian for his assistance with several previously “unknown” keys.

Orientation

Place the phone face up with the small QWERTY keyboard on the bottom. In this orientation, you should find the following items in order, from top to bottom:

  • Small round speaker representing the telephone receiver.

  • Large smooth display screen covering approximately three inches of the surface.

  • A set of tactile lines in a cross-like formation, followed by a circle with dots followed by a second set of cross-like lines.

  • The QWERTY keyboard.

Special Keys

The Motorola Q9H has a number of special keys that are not found on the traditional computer’s keyboard. These will be described in reference to the orientation provided above.

Soft Keys

The phone has a number of “soft keys” that perform special functions when pressed. It is important to know how to use these keys in order to do anything useful with the phone. The soft keys are located below the display screen and immediately above the QWERTY keyboard. They are tactilely differentiated using those cross-like sets of lines mentioned earlier. Remember, there is a set of cross-like lines on the left-hand side of the phone, followed by a raised circle with dots followed by another set of cross-like lines. It is critical to understand this configuration, as it is the basis for the following description. There are a total of 8 soft keys. Four of these keys are located on the cross-like structure on the left side of the phone, while the second group of four are located on the cross-like structure on the right side of the phone. For ease of reference, we will refer to the cross lines on the left side as the first quadrant and the cross lines on the right side as the second quadrant. The cross lines themselves are *not* the keys. Pressing on these lines won’t do anything. Instead, these lines help to differentiate the keys. Instead, the keys are immediately to the sides of these lines. The keys are “soft” meaning they are
made up of the phone’s smooth front surface and they may be defined to perform different functions, depending on the situation in which the phone is operating or the software program you are using at the time you press them. Each set of cross lines can be seen as a tactile X-Y graph. There is a soft key in the upper right-hand corner, another in the upper left-hand corner, a third in the lower left-hand corner and a fourth in the lower right-hand corner of the grid.
It should now be possible to fully describe the names and locations of these keys from a blindness perspective.

Let’s start with the first quadrant of cross-like lines, those on the left side of the phone.

  • Dial (Send) – The Dial key is pressed immediately after entering a telephone number in order to complete the call, much as it is on a traditional cell phone. Keep in mind it may also have other functions in different circumstances. The Dial key is located in the lower left-hand corner of the set of cross-like lines in the first quadrant (the left-hand side of the phone).

  • Home – The Home key performs many critical smartphone functions, most essentially for us it represents the MobileSpeak screen reader command key you press before many other keys to issue special accessibility related instructions. The Home key is located in the lower right-hand corner of the set of cross-like lines in the first quadrant (the left-hand side of the phone).

  • Left Soft Key – The Left Soft Key performs different functions depending on the situation. In many cases, it is used as an OK or Done button you may press to confirm that you want changes to be saved, etc. This operates in much the same way as the Continue, OK or Next buttons found in the dialogue boxes of many typical Windows applications. The Left Soft Key is located in the upper right-hand corner of the cross-like lines in the first quadrant (the left-hand side of the phone).

  • AT&T Symbol – This key activates the phone’s built-in default Opera Mobile web browser, pointing it to the AT&T web site. It is located in the upper left-hand corner of the cross-like lines in the first quadrant (the left-hand side of the phone).

We now move on to the second quadrant of cross-like lines; this set is located on the right side of the phone, to the right of the circle with the four tiny tactile dots.

  • Back – The Back key is most often used as its name suggests, to back out of actions you decide not to perform. It operates as a backspace key in any situation where you find yourself editing text, as well as a Back button in the Internet Explorer Mobile web browser. In many cases, it may also be used in a similar way as the Escape key is pressed on a computer’s keyboard to choose a cancel button in a dialogue box. The Back key is located in the lower left-hand corner of the set of cross-like lines in the second quadrant (on the right-hand side of the phone).

  • End – The End (hangup) key is used to do just that, conclude a phone call. If no call is in progress, it moves focus to the Today screen, which is similar to the Desktop on a Windows computer. The End key is located in the lower right-hand corner of the cross-like lines in the second quadrant (on the right-hand side of the phone).

  • Envelope (Mail) Symbol – This key may enable the user to quickly open their e-mail application, though we haven’t noticed that it does anything when pressed on our phones. It is located in the upper right-hand corner of the cross-like lines in the second quadrant (on the right-hand side of the phone).

  • Right Soft Key – The Right Soft Key performs many different functions, depending on the situation or the application you’re using at the moment. In some cases, it operates as a cancel key, while in other cases, it opens a menu. The Right Soft Key is located in the upper left-hand corner of the cross-like lines in the second quadrant (on the right-hand side of the phone).

The Circle

The Circle is a special grouping of five keys located between the first and second sets of cross-like lines. They consist of up, down, left and right arrows and an enter (select) key. Careful exploration will indicate that the circle contains four small, tactile dots. These dots reside on each of the arrow keys, which are located in a logical position representing their direction of navigation. The middle of this circle contains a smaller, slightly raised round key. This is the Enter (select) key. It is used to select choices in menus, as a real enter key when entering text in some scenarios and in many other cases where one might press Enter on a computer’s keyboard.

QWERTY Keyboard

The QWERTY keyboard is a grouping of 37 keys found immediately below the soft keys and the circle. It enables entry of all alphanumeric characters as well as punctuation using a special Function key. The keyboard does not include a numbers row as would be found on a typical computer keyboard. Entry of numbers is described shortly. There is a tactile dot on the f key. Given the compressed nature of this keyboard, it is potentially useful to list out each key by row from top to bottom and left to right, with the first row representing the top of the keyboard, as found immediately below the soft keys and the circle.

  • Row 1: q, w, e, r, t, y, u, i, o, p

  • Row 2: a, s, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, Enter

  • Row 3: Function, z, x, c, v, b, n, m, . (period), Shift (Caps)

  • Row 4: Calendar, Contacts, 0, Space Bar, Music, Camera, Speaker

The space bar is slightly domed and elongated in comparison to the other keys.

Entering Numbers

As we have already observed, the QWERTY keyboard in this phone does not include a separately defined numbers row. This situation is an unfortunate side-effect of the phone’s small size, though we are rather impressed with the keyboard in general given this constraint. Numbers are entered using a specific set of keys, preceeded by the Function key. For instance, pressing Function followed by f would enter the number 5. The keys assigned to numbers are as follows:

  • e, r, t = 1, 2, 3

  • d, f, g = 4, 5, 6

  • X, C, V = 7, 8, 9

  • The number 0 is entered by pressing the Function key followed by the key immediately to the left of the space bar.

Dialing the Phone!

Of course, the most important thing we want to do with our phones right away is to dial. Dialing is performed from the phone’s Today screen using the number keys previously indicated without preceding them with the Function key. When the Today screen has focus, it is assumed that you wish to dial rather than enter text. Follow these steps to place a call:

  1. Press the End key to ensure the Today screen has focus.

  2. Enter the numbers without using the function key. For example, press g, e, e to enter 611, which is usually the number used to contact the service provider.

  3. Press the Dial key to place the call.

  4. The numbers will continue to work without the Function key while you are on the call.

  5. Press the End key to hang up.

Simply press the Dial (Send) key to answer an incoming call.

This document completes the exploration of all the keys found on the front of the Motorola Q9H smartphone. Just as it is critical to know how to type before one can use a computer, it is essential and highly recommended to thoroughly learn the location of all these keys before delving into the use of this phone and MobileSpeak.

ACB Radio 2008 Convention Coverage Schedule

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Hello Everyone,
 
We’re gearing up for another great year of ACB Convention coverage! In addition to exhibit hall coverage on our Interactive stream and complete live broadcasts of the general sessions on Mainstream, we will also be featuring the Friends in Art Showcase and lots of content from Guide Dog Users, Inc. All times listed are approximate and are subject to change with little or no notice.
 
We start with our exhibit hall coverage on ACB Radio Interactive. Review our schedule below and visit http://interactive.acbradio.org to listen live:
 
Saturday: 17 to 21 GMT (1 pm to 5 pm Eastern)
Sunday: 13 to 21 GMT (9 am to 5 pm Eastern)
Monday: 15 to 21 GMT (11 am to 5 pm Eastern)
Tuesday: 15 to 21 GMT (11 am to 5 pm Eastern)
Wednesday: 15 to 21 GMT (11 am to 5 pm Eastern)
Thursday: 13 to 17 GMT (9 am to 1 pm Eastern)
 
We begin our general session coverage on Sunday evening. Please see http://acb.org/convention/prog2008.html for the official agenda. It all happens on ACB Radio Mainstream. Review the schedule below and visit http://www.acbradio.org/pweb/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=8 to listen live.
 
Sunday 22:30 GMT (6:30 pm Eastern): Sunday general session
Monday 3 GMT (11 pm Eastern): Sunday session replays
Monday 12 GMT (8 am Eastern): Monday general session
Monday 17 GMT (1 pm Eastern): Monday session replays
Tuesday 12 GMT (8 am Eastern): Tuesday general session
Tuesday 17 GMT (1 pm Eastern): Tuesday session replays
Wednesday 12 GMT (8 am Eastern): Wednesday general session
Wednesday 17 GMT (1 pm Eastern): Wednesday session replays
Thursday 12 GMT (8 am Eastern): Thursday general session
Thursday 17 GMT (1 pm Eastern): Thursday session replays
Thursday 22:45 GMT (6:45 pm Eastern): Candidates’ Forum
Friday 2:00 GMT (10:00 pm US Eastern): Thursday general session plus candidates’ forum replays
Friday 12 GMT (8 am Eastern): Friday morning general session
Friday 17 GMT (1 pm Eastern): Friday afternoon general session
Friday 21:30 GMT (5:30 pm Eastern): Friday general session replays
Friday 23:00 GMT (7:00 pm Eastern): ACB Annual Banquet
Saturday 2:00 GMT (10:00 pm Eastern): Friday sessions plus banquet replays
Sunday midnight GMT (8 pm Eastern): Entire convention replays
 
The Friends in Art showcase is scheduled to begin at 8 pm Eastern (midnight GMT).  We will probably begin our
broadcast at 23:45 GMT (7:45 pm Eastern).  Please stay tuned for listening details.
 
This year we’ll also be taking a feed from Guide Dog Users Inc. and their daily broadcasts.  This will be run on ACB Radio World, Sunday to Thursday from 23 GMT to 03:30 GMT, that’s 7 pm to 11:30 pm Eastern.  Here is an excerpt from one of their Emails which explains the programming further:
This will be our third year broadcasting the GDUI events and other material from the summer convention. Our broadcasts include replay of the daily events and workshops, interviews with special guests of interest in the guide dog community, listener interaction through call-in and email and special reports from throughout the convention. Visit http://www.acbradio.org/world to listen.
 
We are looking forward to bringing the blind community another year of fantastic ACB Convention coverage! We thank you for listening.
 
Best wishes,
 
Darrell Shandrow
ACB Radio Co-Webmaster

Delphi Programmer Says Freedom Scientific Does Not Play Nice with the Mainstream Developer Community

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We already know that Freedom Scientific’s JAWS end user license agreement is not friendly to mainstream developers and testers as they work to implement accessibility into their products, services and web sites. As a follow on to this concern, we now hear from Craig Stuntz who reports that no developer program exists for those who have purchased JAWS for this critical purpose. In his most recent blog article, he writes:

One would think that the makers of JAWS would want software producers to test their products with JAWS. But according to a salesperson for Freedom Scientific, there is no developer program for the tool. JAWS is moderately expensive — about $900 — but this is not a barrier for us. What we would really like is to have access to a defect reporting system for JAWS and early access to future versions of the software.

We in the connected online blind community very much do want to see developers striving to improve the accessibility of their applications! The accessibility or inaccessibility of technology makes the difference between our inclusion or exclusion from participation in critical life activities such as those involving education and employment. We urge mainstream developers to continue their efforts using screen readers from companies and open source projects that actively invite and request participation from the mainstream developer community:

We ask all mainstream developers to increase the accessibility of their software and to do so in the most favorable economic manner. Spending a thousand dollars on a screen reader for testing purposes is unnecessary. Download free evaluation copies from companies with more friendly license agreements toward developers or take advantage of free open source alternatives. Accessibility need not break the bank. We’re not asking you to go out of business. Instead, we are just asking for the reasonable accomodations that can afford us the opportunity to learn, work and participate in leisure activities.

Digital Television and Video Description: Service Continues, Consumer and Industry Efforts Required

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The WGBH – Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family National Center for Accessible Media
(NCAM) has published a new Outreach and Policy Paper, Digital Television and
Video Description: Service Continues, Consumer and Industry Efforts Required

Most consumers are just now becoming aware of the mandated transition from
analog to digital broadcasting scheduled for February of 2009 and how it
will affect the TV viewing that they rely on daily. Blind or deaf consumers
who purchase digital TV sets, and subscribe to cable, satellite or
fiber-optic TV services have expressed frustration with set-up, reception
and incompatibility problems regarding access services (captioning and video
description), few of which are understood or even documented by
manufacturers and retailers.

In addition, people who want to continue receiving free over-the-air
broadcasts using their analog sets and an antenna must purchase a set-top
converter box to do so – and figure out how to make captions and
descriptions work for them. NCAM previously published an overview of
problems confronting deaf or hard-of-hearing people trying to access
captions via DTV or through a converter box. The "DTVCC" paper can be found
on NCAM's Web site listed below.

This new paper focuses on challenges facing blind or low vision viewers who
rely on video description to enjoy and fully understand television
programming. Topics covered include:

– Set-top Converter Boxes
– Accessible Menus
– Tips for Finding Video Description in DTV
– Troubleshooting
– and a Technical Note about PSIP (or Program and System Information
Protocol)

This paper, along with much more information about the DTV conversion from a
variety of resources, can be found at NCAM's DTV Access site,

http://dtvaccess.org or http://ncam.wgbh.org/dtv

We want to hear from you…
NCAM has established a one-way e-mail address, dtvaccess@wgbh.org, as an
aggregator of complaints and problems related to the DTV rollout. If you
send a report about a DTV access problem to this address, you will receive
an automatic response that says that your report has been received and that
we are gathering information but cannot respond to your inquiry, and that we
will pass along common issues to relevant parties.

—
Mary Watkins
Director of Communications and Outreach
Media Access Group at WGBH
mary_watkins@wgbh.org
http://access.wgbh.org
One Guest Street
Boston, MA 02135
617 300-3700 v/fax
617 300-2489 TTY

WGBH Boston informs, inspires, and entertains millions through public
broadcasting, the Web, educational multimedia, and access services for
people with disabilities.

Catch the 68th Annual Convention of the National Federation of the Blind Online!!!

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Catch the 68th Annual Convention of the National Federation of the Blind
Online!!!

July 1-5, 2008

The National Federation of the Blind–the voice of the nation's blind–will
be streaming portions of its annual convention over the Internet. The NFB
National Convention is the largest gathering of the blind anywhere in the
world. If you cannot be in Dallas, Texas, to catch the excitement in
person, you will be able to get portions of the convention via the Internet.
To connect to the NFB convention stream, simply visit the NFB Web
site–www.nfb.org–and click on the "Tune In to the National Convention
Now!" link.

To view the full NFB 2008 Convention Agenda in a Microsoft Word format,
visit:
http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/documents/word/Agenda-2008-final-WEB.doc

The NFB Convention live stream schedule is as follows (note that all times
are Central Daylight Time):

Tuesday, July 1
9:00-11:30 a.m. NFB Board Meeting

Wednesday, July 2
7:45-8:45 a.m. March for Independence Rally/Louis Braille Commemorative Coin
design unveiling–note the rally program is scheduled to begin at
approximately 8:00 a.m.
9:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. NFB General Session
2:00-5:15 p.m. NFB General Session

Thursday, July 3
8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. NFB General Session

Friday, July 4
9:00-12:00 p.m. NFB General Session
2:00-5:00 p.m. NFB General Session
7:00-11:00 p.m. Annual NFB Banquet

Saturday, July 5
9:00-12:00 p.m. NFB General Session
2:00-5:00 p.m. NFB General Session

HumanWare Launches Version 2 of the Victor Reader Stream DAISY, MP3 and NISO Player

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VICTOR READER STREAM THE PROVEN SUCCESS STORY, IS NOW EVEN BETTER WITH A
FREE VERSION 2.0 SOFTWARE UPGRADE

Longueuil, Canada, June 30, 2008 — Victor Reader Stream, the pocket-sized
portable MP3 player designed for blind and low-vision people has swept the
world wide market place since its launch in September 2007. Heralded by its
users as the most significant assistive technology in recent years, the
Stream has already enhanced the life style of thousands of blind and low
vision people world wide. In addition to the variety of audio formats (MP3,
DAISY, and NISO books and music) supported by Victor Reader Stream, the new
version 2 software will add even more media and text formats.

Victor Reader Stream version 2 will now play electronic Braille files with
its built-in text-to-speech including multiple formats of English Braille
encoded files, Unified English Braille, and non-English Braille formats.
Version 2.0 also adds playback of Windows Media Audio (WMA) and Rich Text
Format (RTF) files. , Further, the bookshelf feature has been extended to
enhance the access and playback of all media types with special new features
for Audible books, Podcast files, and music.

With the addition of the new media types of version 2.0 the Stream now
provides a pocket size device that can play an impressive list of alternate
format books and documents available to the print-disabled. IT will play the
special navigable DAISY and NISO digital talking books produced by most
libraries for the blind in the world. It can be authorized to play the
AudioPlus digital books from Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D)
in the United States. It can play Bookshare.org digital books. It can be
authorized to play the popular commercial audio books, newspapers, and
magazines from Audible.com. It is optimized to integrate with Serotek.com
who provide an extensive repository of digital multi-media content for blind
and low vision people. It also plays MP3,, OGG Vorbis, WMA, Wav, AMR-WB+,
SPX, and FLAC audio files. The built-in text-to-speech can play electronic
text formats including BRF (Braille), HTML, RTF, TXT, and XML. In addition
to its extensive digital player capabilities, it has a voice recording
functionality for recording of voice notes, meetings, and lectures.

What Stream customers are saying:
"I love my Victor Reader Stream and it travels with me wherever I go."
"This is one of the best products I have seen come along in a long time. It
is well made, works right out of the box, and reads just about any kind of
book you need read."
"It's one of the most impressive and well-planned and well-working pieces of
equipment I have seen for a long time."

"We appreciate the overwhelming enthusiasm of our customers and are pleased
that we have been able to incorporate many of their suggested new features
and improvements in the enhanced version 2 of the Stream", says Gerry
Chevalier, HumanWare Victor Reader Product Manager. "And the best news is
that the latest version 2 software can be installed for free on all existing
Victor Reader Streams."

The Stream has extensive navigation features for moving through audio books
and text files, including functions that allow you to move to the next
chapter, section or page, or to set bookmarks. For all audio book and media
formats the Stream provides a variable speed control with digital pitch
correction which allows the reader to accurately listen at higher than
normal playback speed.

The player is completely accessible by blind and low-vision users. All keys
and messages are provided through audio feedback. The player has a built-in
User Guide and a Key Describer mode.

Besides playing electronic text, the integrated text-to-speech voice
announces the track names of music files. It uses an SD memory card to store
books and music transferred from a computer.

Victor Reader Stream can be purchased online at www.humanware.com (in USA).
Current Victor Reader Stream users can upgrade their player to software
version 2.0 online at www.humanware.com.

About HumanWare

HumanWare (www.humanware.com) is the global leader in assistive technologies
for the print disabled. HumanWare provides products to people who are blind
and have low vision and students with learning disabilities. HumanWare
offers a collection of innovative products include BrailleNote, the leading
productivity device for the blind in education, business and for personal
use; the Victor Reader product line, the world's leading digital audiobook
players, and SmartView Xtend, the first fully modular and upgradeable
CCTV-based video magnifier.

For more information:

HumanWare
Nicolas Lagace
Tel.: (450) 463-1717
E-mail: nicolas.lagace@humanware.com