Darrell Shandrow Hilliker

Torn from the Collective!

by

I am taking a break from my job search activities to watch an episode of Star Trek The Next Generation. This episode is the one where an injured Borg is recovered from his crashed scout ship. An evil plan is initially devised to return him to the Borg Collective with an invasive computer virus that would eventually destroy the Borg completely. As the crew gets to know him as an individual, he is given the name Hugh and given the opportunity to seek asylum on the Enterprise. In the end, Hugh decides to return to the Collective in order to avoid the possible capture and assimilation of the entire Enterprise crew.

As this episode comes to an end, I am reminded of the circumstances surrounding my job loss. Most people hope that they will achieve success, that their “ship will come in” so to speak. Sadly, my ship has crashed. It got coldly and callously shot down by people who say they are sorry but the accessibility accomodations needed to allow me to keep my job are not reasonable and there are no other positions available at this time. It seems I am not deserving of a serious, detailed, well-considered discussion of the matter. I am a disposable “resource”, good to have around when it was convenient for everyone, but easily thrown away at the least sign of a burden or need to make a reasonable accomodation. There is no chivalry, honor or morality applied to my situation. There is no grant of asylum, no reprieve and possibly no compensation of any kind. I am the sole loser out of this deal, the only one facing negative consequences for artificially imposed circumstances completely out of my control. I may be reassimilated once more into the dark, doom filled, gloomy world of unemployment, from which it is orders of magnitude harder for me to recover as a blind person than it is for someone fortunate enough to be sighted. I am thus unceremoneously torn from the collective I once knew as my job and thrown to the wind to fend for myself. I must seek new opportunities, persist, with all my will and prove that, once and for all, resistance is not futile!

CastBlaster Accessibility Leaps Forward

by

It is time for brave blindcasters to download and try beta 60 of the CastBlaster podcast creation and publication software. Feel free to access the direct download, then visit the CastBlaster home page for additional details. The direct download link is intended only to insure you get beta 60 rather than an older, less accessible, copy of the software. It will become invalid upon the release of an update. CastBlaster Mike has also enabled forum registration without inaccessible visual verification, but you had better get in fast as he says he will have to reinstate visual verification should spam rear its ugly head. We thank CastBlaster Mike for his willingness to work with us. Stay tuned for future great things on the CastBlaster front.

Sound Card Blues, Job Loss and Commentary About Accessibility at Podshow

by

Shownotes

Here are the names of the files I have installed for my Dell provided OEM Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live Value:

  • LiveDrvUni-Pack(ENG).exe

  • LiveDrvPack_Patch.exe

  • creative_patch_v010.zip

Though I now have “what you hear” functionality and the crackling has been greatly reduced, things aren’t yet perfect and the older drivers (without what you hear) sound better. Any help with this sound card driver issue would be hugely appreciated.

Download and Listen

Jim’s Thoughts on the State of Accessibility

by

James Mannion shares his thoughts on the state of accessibility.

First I am so sorry to hear about the loss of your job I just read
over at the blind access journal. I am really feeling that lately I
have been wondering if the state of accessibility is falling into a
worse state than it has been in in a very, very long time if ever in
the time that solutions have existed. The sad thing is that for a
few years there I truely thought we were not only staying in the
game, but things were making positive forward progress. These days I
truely think we are in a serious back slide. I, like you, really get
frustrated and wish people would do the right thing. It frustrates
me that they almost hopelessly don’t have the insentive to much
care. I have signed and sent many people to the google petition. My
feeling is that this will set an example one way or the other about
this issue and any others that people choose to connect with it in
any way. If it does not succeed it could possibly be not just a dud,
but a step in the wrong direction. There is absolutely no way I
would consider any lack of success your fault. You have done more
than your part in making this happen. I also realize that you want
to do everything you can and my comment is not to take anything away
from that.

The point I want to get to though is that our screen
reader manufacturers need to be doing more and taking more of a lead
in directing accessibility improvements. They seem to be hanging out
in their cornor working the small number of things they have for a
while and not paying attention to much else. One company I
absolutely congradulate is IBM. They seem to take on a lot in terms
of accessibility and have been the driving force in Mozilla building
in accessibility measures. It is a beautiful thing when screen
reader manufacturers can work directly with the internals of a
program and that gives us amazing results or at least the potential
for them. However, what concerns me is that they are getting away
from any general approach to accessibility. Perhappes they just
don’t have the capacity to keep up on both fronts. I don’t know. It
just feels to me like one either gets lucky enough to fit into the
small segment of what the screen reader manufacturers deal with much
or more likely not these days and access is slipping away.

Meanwhile the companies are doing what they are doing out there and have little
insentive and very little central technical guidance in which to have
much confidence. I often hope they are listening to the podcast, but
what urges them to seek such information? I would have been happy to
direct yahoo people to the podcast and to any other source of help,
but writing them on several occasions produced absolutely no response
concerning their beta of yahoo mail. By the way it is interesting
that their praise comments on that new yahoo mail beta are the
stupidest crap I have seen in a while and appear to be written by
their own people??? The real issue though is the common technologies
that they as well as the software packages are using that the screen
reader manufacturers need to pay more attention to because the
“locks” on so many of the doors have the same brand name so to
speak. That could be a cloud with a silver lining, or could just
spell trouble a thousand times over and continue to do that while
others pile on top of it and do more of the same. We seem to be in a
period of rapid growth in the technologies being used and our
industry players seem to be sleeping or only talking to their
favorite people making up a small segment of things.

Accessibility – The Bottom Line

by

Shownotes

The number of this show is appropriate as my job will soon be nothing more than a code 86 and a part of my tortured history of dealing with inaccessible technology. Economics are never a reason to justify exclusion of the blind or anyone else from participation in society! Not much else to say here in the shownotes. This is a rant cast. You have been warned.

Download and Listen

Google Accessibility Petition – Google’s Doors Still Shut to Blind (InternetNews.com)

by

We thank Susan Kuchinskas of InternetNews.com for her publication of the article entitled Google’s Doors Still Shut to Blind. It is certainly worthy of exposure on sites like Digg and Slashdot. Several attempts have been made to obtain Slashdot coverage without success, and Digg submission is impossible due to another instance of visual verification without accessibility. All assistance to increase the media coverage of the Google Word Verification Accessibility Petition will be greatly appreciated.

Google Petition Update, Morse Runner, iTunes U and More

by

Shownotes

Have a little Friday fun with us as we update you on the Google Word Verification Accessibility Petition, play with the Morse Runner amateur radio contest simulator, continue our accessibility inquiry into SalesForce.com, chat about the potential illegality of Apple’s new, probably inaccessible, iTunes U service delivering online educational content. Please also check out Todd Cochrane’s Podcaster News Network and give your feedback on this innovative service.

Download and Listen

Morse Runner

by

Are you an amateur radio operator? Do you enjoy Morse Code contesting or pine for the good old days when you had HF capability? Well, thanks to technology, you may find you can recapture most of those memories by downloading, installing and launching Morse Runner, a free program that simulates a real contest right down to band conditions, interference, pile ups and more. Just be careful; you might get hooked!