Darrell Hilliker

New Skype 3.2 Release Takes a Temporary Step Back on Accessibility

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Skype 3.2 is out of beta now and many of you will be chomping at the bit to download this shiny new version. If you are a screen reader user who is not comfortable using the mouse navigation features of your assistive technology, then I must advise you to wait just a few weeks longer due to a couple of keyboard navigation concerns.

There are currently two known keyboard accessibility issues with the Options dialogue box in Skype 3.2. First, though it is possible to up and down arrow through the categories of options upon initial entry into the Options dialogue, this list becomes unavailable after pressing tab or shift+tab. It is necessary to exit and re-enter the Options dialogue in order to regain access to the list of categories. Second, the Save and Cancel buttons are no longer reachable by pressing the tab and shift+tab keys. They also do not have equivalent hotkeys, so, for instance, pressing alt+s will not click the Save button as one would expect. These two issues may be reproduced by following these steps:

  1. Run Skype from the Desktop or Start Menu, or open it from the System Tray by right clicking its icon and choosing Show Friends.

  2. Press alt+t to open the Tools menu.

  3. Press p to open the Options dialogue box.

  4. Press the up and down arrow keys to move between the available categories of options you may adjust. Observe that your screen reader describes each category as it is selected.

  5. Press tab followed by shift+tab. The list of categories is no longer available. It is possible to tab around the entire dialogue box without locating this list.

  6. While navigating the dialogue box by pressing tab or shift+tab numerous times, observe that the Save and Cancel buttons are no longer available. It is necessary to find and left click them utilizing your screen reader’s mouse navigation functions. This is a dawnting task for many blind and visually impaired users relying on screen reading software.

  7. Press alt+f4 to exit the Options dialogue box without making any changes.

A reliable source reports that these issues will be resolved in a hot fix scheduled to be released in the next several weeks. This source also tells me that the Skype developers are interested in insuring the accessibility of not only the software but also the Skype web site. In order to insure these two accessibility issues and any others get resolved, it is best that we essentially vote for their prompt resolution by reporting them through Skype’s official channels. I would also like to hear about these issues directly. Please report all accessibility issues, with as much detail as possible, by submitting a support request directly to Skype and sending e-mail to editor@blindaccessjournal.com so I may track and potentially facilitate the prompt resolution of your concerns.

Blind College Students in Maryland Will Have Textbooks on Time

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PR Newswire
Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Blind College Students in Maryland Will Have Textbooks on Time

By National Federation of the Blind

Governor O'Malley Signs Landmark Legislation Providing for Electronic Access

ANNAPOLIS, Md., May 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Maryland Governor
Martin O'Malley signed legislation today that will ensure that blind
college and graduate students in the state will have timely access to
textbooks and course materials in a format they can use. The legislation,
passed at the urging of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland,
provides for textbooks to be converted into an electronic format specified
by the Maryland Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. The
electronic format will allow blind students to download their textbooks to
computers or Braille devices.

"In the past, blind students in Maryland have had to wait for their
books to be produced in Braille or in recorded form by volunteers or by the
state," said Dr. Michael Gosse, president of the National Federation of the
Blind of Maryland. "Technology now makes it possible for students to have
access to their books and course materials at the same time as their sighted
peers, as long as the books are in a standard electronic format.
This legislation requires that publishers provide electronic copies of their
books so that blind students can access them directly with a computer
or Braille device. It is a historic piece of legislation, because never
before have blind students had access to textbooks at the same time as the
sighted." Amy Herstein, a blind sophomore at the University of Maryland of
Baltimore County, said: "Today is truly a great day for students like me. I
will no longer have to worry about hiring someone to read to me or spending
hours scanning my textbooks into a computer. Having timely access to my
books means that I will never get behind in my course work simply because a
book isn't available in an accessible format. College is hard work, but my
life as a blind college student has just been made a whole lot easier."

About the National Federation of the Blind
With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is
the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in
the United States. The NFB improves blind people's lives through advocacy,
education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and
self-confidence. It is the leading force in the blindness field today and
the voice of the nation's blind. In January 2004 the NFB opened the
National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and
training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind.

SOURCE National Federation of the Blind
http://www.nfb.org/

Senate Responds to Web Site Accessibility Issue

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Liz Horrell from the United States Senate has promptly responded to my
initial accessibility request indicating that the problem is being
worked. She also delivered us an alternative method of locating our
Senators.

Thank you for your e-mail and for alerting us to the problem. The
Webmaster has been notified and is looking into how to correct the
problem.

Screen readers will read the Senators Contact list. You can access this
by going to the Senator's tab (labeled Senators Home) on Senate.gov.
Once again thank you for your e-mail and we are working to correct the
problem.

Best Wishes,

Liz Horrell
On behalf of the Senate Webmaster

Coming up on Main Menu for the week of May 9

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This week on Main Menu we hear again from Rick Harmon from the Blind Geek
Zone web site. He reviews for us JAWS for Windows Public Beta 2 on Windows
VISTA.

During the second hour of Main Menu Live we bring on Raul Gallegos from GW
Micro. Raul recently joined the GW Micro staff and he joins us to talk all
things Voice Sense, new Braille displays and updates concerning Window-Eyes
6.1. If you have any questions about these new products or have any
questions pertaining to Window-Eyes 6.1, then make sure to call into the
show.

The number to call into the show is 866-400-5333. You can also email your
questions to mainmenu@acbradio.org. You can also interact with the show via
MSN 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.co. Come join an already lively group of
users.

Would you like to subscribe to podcasts 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

Main Menu and Main Menu Live can be heard on Tuesday evening at 9:00
Eastern, 6:00 Pacific, and at 1 universal on Wednesday morning on the ACB
Radio Main Stream channel. To listen to the show, just click this link:

http://www.acbradio.org/pweb/index.php?module=pagemaster&PAGE_user_op=view_page&PAGE_id=8&MMN_position=14:14

Jeff Bishop and Darrell Shandrow
The Main Menu Production Team

Visual Verification: Do Not Call Register failing blind

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The Australian is reporting that the web site for the Australian equivalent
of the Do Not Call registry is inaccessible to the blind and visually
impaired as it requires passing a CAPTCHA. As we all know, this represents
no less than a "no blind people allowed" sign locking us out.

The Australian
Saturday, May 05, 2007

Do Not Call Register failing blind

By Simon Canning, Marketing writer

HUNDREDS of thousands of blind and vision-impaired people have been unable
to sign on to the Government's new Do Not Call register as questions
continue to arise about the decision to rush the system into action.

Call centre operators yesterday continued their criticism of the move,
saying the system could cost up to 30,000 jobs.

Human rights and disability discrimination commissioner Graeme Innes said
the failure of the Do Not Call website to allow vision-impaired people to
list their numbers was in breach of the Disability Discrimination Act.

Communications Minister Helen Coonan launched the register on Thursday, but
minutes after its unveiling, the computerised system had gone into meltdown,
unable to cope with thousands of people wanting to block phone marketers.

Mr Innes said the website for the federal Government's $33million register
contained features designed to stop fraudulent registrations. These required
people to copy a series of letters and numbers that had been altered to make
them impossible for hacking programs to read. But these could not be
accessed by the blind.

"We would expect that any Commonwealth Government website would comply with
access requirements," Mr Innes said. "It's been the law for several years."

The Do Not Call registration system was expected to handle 700,000
registrations an hour, but 36 hours after its launch had processed only
250,000.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21674764-2702,00.html

Showing Internet Explorer 7.0 How to Get Along with VIP Conduit

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Are you having trouble accessing the chat rooms at http://www.vipconduit.com using Internet Explorer 7.0? Are you seeing various browser security related messages? Even though you know you have downloaded and installed the latest version of the VIP Communicator, is the client showing you strange error messages and unceremoniously closing? The solution is to add vipconduit.com to Internet Explorer’s “Trusted sites” zone and reduce the security of that zone. Here’s how to get that done:

  1. Open Internet Explorer 7 as usual.

  2. Press alt+t to pull down the Tools menu.

  3. Press o to select Options.

  4. Press Control+Tab to move to the Security page.

  5. Press tab to “select a web content zone”.

  6. Press right arrow until you reach “Trusted sites”.

  7. Press tab twice to move to the “security level” field.

  8. Press the End key to set the security level to “0 percent” which allows trusted sites to download, install and run most content without prompts.

  9. Press shift+tab to move to the “Sites” button, then press the space bar.

  10. If you are not already there, press shift+tab to move to the “Add this website to the zone” field.

  11. Press tab to select the Add button and press the space bar.

  12. Tab to the “Close” button and press the space bar.

  13. Tab to the OK button and press enter to dismiss the dialogue box and return to the browser window. You have now added vipconduit.com to the list of web sites that are implicitly trusted by your browser.

You can repeat this procedure for any sites you wish to use without running into frequent security related prompts displayed by means of Internet Explorer’s new info bar. Exercise extreme caution when adding a site to those trusted by Internet Explorer. It would be a very good idea for you to implicitly trust the authors of the web site before even thinking about asking your browser to do the same.

Serotek Remote Incident Manager Demo 1

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Shownotes

As promised, Karen and I conducted a simple demonstration of the capabilities of Serotek’s Remote Incident Manager which promises to revolutionize remote accessibility for the blind and open up many more doors to employment. Please keep in mind that we received no prior training from Serotek. Nevertheless, we successfully carried off this first demonstration of the technology. This may be seen as a testament to the practicality and simplicity of this solution.

Download and Listen

Accessible Devices – Sunday’s TapMemo Presentation

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We are pleased to announce that Nir Dvash, the developer of the New TapMemo Voice Activated Personal Data Assistant,, will be with us on Sunday May 6 th in the Accessible Devices Event Room  at VIP Conduit to present his product.  Be sure to mark your calendar for 2:00 PM Eastern on that date.  This will be a presentation you won’t want to miss.  We’re including some information about the TapMemo.  You’ll need to be with us on Sunday May 6 th to learn more.

TapMemo -Voice Activated Personal Data Assistant
TapMemo is a revolutionary, handheld, battery powered voice activated personal assistant.  It contains only one multi-functional button and two volume buttons. All verbal commands are Speaker Independent which means the user does not need to train the unit -it will work right out of the box.
 Some of the features include memos, phone book, calendar, alarm, unit locator and more.
 
We hope you’ll be with us for this presentation.  Access to the voice chat room for this event requires a free guest membership to VIP Conduit.  Visit http://www.vipconduit.com to sign up and join the event.
Parker, Terry and Randy

Writer of the Imagine Article Identified

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I learned over on the FreedomBox forum that the writer of Imagine is Carl Jarvis, a blind man from Washington State. The article was apparently published in The Braille Forum, the American Council of the Blind’s monthly magazine, but I have not yet been able to locate the issue containing this work. I just want to make it clear that, at the time I redistributed the Imagine article, the writer had been anonymous for several years, and absolutely no plagiarism was intended.