Coverage of the 2007 ACB Convention continues on ACB Radio Interactive and Mainstream. Stay tuned to ACB Radio for updates, watch the ACB Radio Blog and visit the 2007 ACB Convention page for additional details.
Blind Access Journal Posts
Promoting Bookshare: Theme of Tuesday Event,July 3, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Theme: Telling Others About Bookshare
Facilitator: Monica Willyard (rhyami@gmail.com)
Although Bookshare.org has dramatically increased access to books for the
community of visually impaired and otherwise print disabled individuals
since 2002, it is still unknown in many circles. During Tuesday's live,
interactive meeting of the Bookshare community, the group will examine ways
to take the Bookshare story to schools, universities, libraries, retirement
communities, and other areas . throughout the United States.
Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2007.
Time: 5:00 p.m. Pacific, 6:00 p.m. Mountain, 7:00 p.m. Central, 8:00 p.m.
Eastern and Wednesday 00:00 GMT.
Where: The Bookshare Online Community Room.
There is no charge to attend this event. All you need is a PC running
Windows 2000 or later, an Internet connection, a sound card, and speakers. A
microphone will be needed to allow you to interact audibly with each other.
If, however, you do not have a microphone, text chatting will be allowed.
To join this community of book lovers, click on the Bookshare Chat Room link
on the Accessible World Home page at:
http://www.accessibleworld.org
or use the following direct link:
If this is the first time you have entered a Talking Communities chatroom,
or the conference client has been updated, you will need to install and then
run the Talkcom software. It is very small and safe to install on your
computer. When the installation is complete, you will be returned to the
sign-in screen. Select the Enter Room button. Enter your first and last
name, Leave the Password field blank. tab to the log in button, and press
Enter. That's it. You will be in the room and can begin talking with others
in the virtual audience by pressing and holding down the Control key.
Don't hesitate to invite all your friends. Seating is unlimited and All
events are FREE! Also, stop by the chat room anytime to visit with friends
or get immediate answers to Bookshare issues.
See you Tuesday, July 3!
For additional information, contact:
The Accessible World
Pat Price, Events Coordinator
http://www.accessibleworld.org
317-254-1185
Email: pat@patprice.org
This online live event is entirely an activity of Bookshare volunteers that
is sponsored by the Accessible World in partnership with Talking
Communities.
Susan Lumpkin, Co-Facilitator
Bookshare Chat Room
512-467-9725
slumpkin@austin.rr.com
Media Contacts for Additional Information:
Robert Acosta, Chair, Planning Committee
Helping Hands for the Blind
818-998-0044
Email: boacosta@pacbell.net
http://www.helpinghands4theblind.com
Pat Price, Events Coordinator
The Accessible World Symposiums
317-254-1185
Skype: patprice1
Email: pat@patprice.org
http://www.accessibleworld.org
FileDir 2.7 released
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/dirsetup.exe
Version 2.7
Released June 26, 2007
Fixed a corrupt zip archive being created when its location was in a
subfolder of the current folder.
Fixed Home, End, PageUp, and PageDown not working with the JAWS cursor in
the optional scripts.
Enhanced the wild card capability of filters. Previously, a * character
could be at the beginning or end of a pattern, or both, but not in the
middle (a limitation of the SQL parser built into the .NET Framework). This
restriction has been programmed around, thus allowing a pattern such as the
following:
calendar*.doc
As before, multiple, alternate filters may be separated by a | character,
e.g., calendar*.doc|*bill*
As before, Shift+T says the type of the current item in the Windows
registry, as well as its attributes such as ReadOnly, Hidden, or System.
A new command, Control+Shift+T, shows all "extended properties" of a file or
folder item that are available to Windows Explorer. Depending on the type,
32 possible properties may be examined as follows:
Name
Size
Type
Date Modified
Date Created
Date Accessed
Attributes
Status
Owner
Author
Title
Subject
Category
Pages
Comments
Copyright
Artist
Album Title
Year
Track Number
Genre
Duration
Bit Rate
Protected
Camera Model
Date Picture Taken
Dimensions
Episode Name
Program Description
Audio sample size
Audio sample rate
Channels
Coming up on Main Menu and Main Menu Live for the week of June 27
This week on Main Menu and Main Menu Live we focus on organization with a
Calendar, Windows Vista speech recognition, portability in traveling with
GPS and assistive technology techniques for being more efficient.
In the first half hour of Main Menu we hear from Brian Hartgen from T&T
Consultancy Limited. For those of you who are JAWS users and who are using
Office 2007 you will be especially interested in this. Brian will be
announcing here on Main Menu a set of scripts that will be available for
purchase at Sight Village 2007 giving complete access to the Outlook 2007
Calendar. In addition, Brian will talk about a low cost JAWS script
solution to Windows Vista's speech recognition interface. He will spend a
bit of time demonstrating this functionality as well.
In the next half hour on Main Menu we will hear from Earle Harrison all
about the new Way Finder Access GPS Navigation solution recently made
available for Mobile Speak Symbian phone customers.
When we visit a web site or open a document, we do much more than simply
listen to the entire text as it is spoken aloud. During the second hour on
Main Menu Live, Chris Hofstader and Karen McCall will talk with us all about
the efficiency and productivity related aspects of using screen readers and
other assistive technology. When a web page opens, what techniques do you
employ to quickly access only the information you need? This is your chance
to learn from the pros and share techniques of your own.
This will be the last Main Menu and Main Menu Live for the next few weeks as
the Main Menu production team takes some time off over the summer to spend
it with their families. We will be back in August with much more great
content.
Here is how to participate on the show. The number to call into the show is
866-400-5333. You can email your questions to mainmenu@acbradio.org. You
may 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.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
Main Menu and Main Menu Live 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. To listen to the show, just click this link:
Jeff Bishop and Darrell Shandrow
The Main Menu Production Team
JAWS for Windows 8.0 Update Released, Many Users Disappointed About Unresolved Issues
Today, Freedom Scientific has released their fifth update to JAWS 8.0. Many users are continuing to report unresolved issues, including the following:
- Blank virtual buffers in Adobe Reader, Internet Explorer, Outlook Express and other applications.
- Unexplainable crashes pointing to FSBraille when no Braille display is in use.
- Persistent canned responses and lack of responses on issues reported to technical support.
- Various concerns with Windows Vista support:
- Many dialogue boxes are not readable except by way of the JAWS cursor.
- Issues accessing Windows Mail included in Vista.
- Problems reading the sliders in the Windows Vista Volume Control.
Coming up on Main Menu Live for the week of June 20th
This week on Main Menu Live we will be presenting quite a variety of topics.
In the first hour we hear from Woody Anna Dresner from the National Braille
Press. A new book entitled "Google It! A Guide to the World's Most Popular
Search Engine" has been released and is based on Jonathan Mosen's audio
Google tutorial. We bring her on to talk to us all about this new book and
all things Google.
Next we hear from Steve Bauer, a familiar voice to many who listen to all of
the streams here at ACB Radio. We bring Steve on to talk all things radio,
that being commercial radio and HD radio. Steve works for a commercial
radio station and we ask him to talk about the issues he faces from a
blindness perspective in that area of his work.
Buckle your seatbelt everyone as we race Into the second hour on Main Menu
Live. We will talk with Che Martin from Blind Adrenaline Simulations. This
is a new accessible game software company and they are just about ready to
launch an exciting new game for everyone called Rail Racer. This is both a
single and multi-player game that is soon launching. Come listen as we
interview Che all about the game, his career, what the development process
is like in developing the game and much more, including your phone calls.
The number to call into the show is 866-400-5333. You can email your
questions to mainmenu@acbradio.org. You may 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.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
Main Menu and Main Menu Live 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. To listen to the show, just click this link:
We will be live for this week so this week expect to see the podcast feed
only updated on the Main Menu Live feed.
Jeff Bishop and Darrell Shandrow
The Main Menu Production Team
System Access To Go on the Job
Ask YouSendIt to Make its Plugin Accessible Within Replay A/V 8.20
Applian has just released Replay A/V version 8.20 with support for the use of YouSendIt for the purpose of exchanging recorded files. It turns out that the plugin providing this capability has been written by the YouSendIt folks. It is currently inaccessible to those of us who rely on screen readers. We ask all of you to send e-mail to freesupport@yousendit.com asking them to remedy this lack of accessibility. I am sure Applian colaborated with YouSendIt to make this work, so it is quite disappointing that accessibility was not made a requirement for integration with Replay A/V.
Independent Living Aids Sues American Council of the Blind, Assistech and Maxi-Aids for Assault, Libel and Slander
Here we go again… It looks like we have yet another lawsuit in the blind community. Independent Living Aids has filed suit in Federal Court against the American Council of the blind, Assistech and Maxi-Aids for assault, libel and slander after the publication of an article in the April 2007 issue of the Braille Forum entitled PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE: FIGHTING FOR ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY. ILA wants $25 million bucks! The following is a letter circulated by Chris Gray, President of the American Council of the Blind:
June 13, 2007
Dear ACB Members and Friends:
As the result of an article published by the ACB in the April issue of the Braille Forum, we have been sued by Independent Living Aids in Federal Court, New York. While it is the policy of the ACB not to comment on pending litigation, nonetheless we hold very precious the principle of free speech. We are confident that at the end of the litigation, ACB will be vindicated. Our mission as advocates for the blind and visually impaired will not be hindered by this litigation.
Thank you all for your ongoing support.
Sincerely,
Chris
Skype 3.2 Update, Skype 3.5 Beta and New JAWS Scripts Now Available
Doug Lee has made Revision 455 of his JAWS scripts for Skype available at http://dlee.org/skype.
This revision now supports the new Skype 3.5 Beta, which features a new, exciting, more accessible text chat facility. It is now possible to navigate in chat windows using the arrow keys!
Two new versions of Skype are now available.
Skype version 3.2.0.163 is now available and one place where you can download it is at http://www.skype.com.
Here are the changes in this version:
feature: Added Latvian localization done by Intars Students
improvement: Audio calls improved
change: Do not accept multichats from unauthorized contacts
change: IE plugin updated
change: Extras Manager updated to version 1.2.0.261
bugfix: CCleaner removed 2 Skype related registry entries
bugfix: Tray icon menu not translated during login
bugfix: Skype crashed on password change notification
bugfix: On rare occasions, Skype crashed when opening options.
bugfix: Skype may have crashed in large multichats
bugfix: NTLM proxy authentication did not work
Also Skype version 3.5.0.107 beta is now available and one place where you can download it is at http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-beta.
This is a direct link to the .EXE file for Skype 3.5 beta. Here are the changes in this version:
feature: Auto redial
feature: Call Transfer
feature: Device Indicators
feature: Edit chat messages
feature: Message history loading granulated
feature: Private Telephone Numbers
feature: Send contacts inside chat
feature: Visual indicators for Audio In / Audio Out in options
feature: Show examples of notifications / alerts in options
feature: Added Latvian localization – Intars Students
feature: In-Client Hardware store button
change: Extras Manager updated to version 1.2.0.261
change: Options categories smoothly slide open and close when changed
Updated language files: Arabic (Eriksen Translations Inc.), Bulgarian (Nikolina Filipova & Nikolay Filipov), Czech (Petr Silon), Danish (Eriksen Translations Inc), German (Claudius Henrichs & Dick Schiferli), Estonian (Eve Loopere), Greek (Panagiotis Sidiropoulos http://www.magenta.gr),French (Fabrice IMPERIAL & Bruno Lépaulard), Italian (Daniele Conte), Japanese (Mayu Shimizu), Hungarian (Mark Bender & Laszlo Koncz & Gabor Stefanik),Latvian (Intars Students), Lithuanian (Viktoras Kriukovas), Norwegian (Stig Auestad), Dutch (Kees Koenders), Polish (Karol Szastok), Portuguese-Portugal (Francisco Ferreira), Portuguese-Brazil (Leslie Predrotti), Finnish (Heino Keränen), Swedish (Anders Olsson), Russian (Eriksen Translations Inc), Romanian (Péter Henning and Mónika Iancu), Turkish (Ömer Emin Dede)