We demonstrate the Talking Appliance Timer from Independent Living Aids. In addition, we talk a bit more about Christmas, the end of our mini vacation and the upcoming New Year.
Our Christmas Dinner
Listen as we eat our simple Christmas dinner and enjoy seasonal music in the background.
Opening Some Gifts on Christmas Eve
Listen as Karen, Dougie and I open a couple of early gifts on Christmas Eve. If you want to hear more, don’t forget to listen to the Desert Cafe on ACB Radio Interactive coming up Christmas evening.
Merry Christmas to All
Karen, Douglas and I would like to wish all of you a very merry Christmas and a happy, prosperous New Year from all of us here at the Blind Access Journal!
This year we are spending Christmas at home, just the two of us. Our presents to each other are wrapped and under the table upon which our small fiber optic Christmas Tree sits. Gifts from relatives are sitting nearby. We will open our gifts on Christmas morning. A recording of this will be made and broadcast on Christmas afternoon on our Desert Cafe live show carried on ACB Radio Interactive from 22:00 to 01:00 Universal time (2:00 PM to 5:00 PM Pacific, 3:00 to 6:00 Mountain, 4:00 to 7:00 Central and 5:00 to 8:00 Eastern). Don’t miss us!
You might also enjoy a short podcast of us chatting and listening to Christmas Carolers singing at the Hyatt Regency Scottsdale’s Squash Blossom Restaurant as we savored a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner.
Tucson Winterhaven Christmas Lights
Shownotes
Listen while Keri describes the various Christmas decorations as we walk through the Winterhaven neighborhood in Tucson.
Avoid Skype’s Internet Explorer Toolbar
Yesterday, I installed Skype 3.0 on my brand new Dell XPS 410 system. During the process, it seems I mistakenly opted for the Internet Explorer toolbar add-on. As this was one of the last things I did to the system last night, I didn’t notice any problems at the time.
As I started working this morning in Internet Explorer 7, I noticed that JAWS 8 was having a great deal of trouble reading links as I navigated using the tab and shift+tab commands. I was not having similar issues during the entire previous day. Thinking through the typical troubleshooting process, and knowing how some toolbars and similar extensions have been known to cause access difficulties in the past, I promptly disabled Skype’s Internet Explorer 7 toolbar. Taking this action resolved my issue immediately!
If you start experiencing unknown access issues with your web browser, I recommend the removal of any recently installed add-ons by taking the following steps:
- Open Internet Explorer 7.
- Press alt+t to pull down the Tools menu.
- Down arrow to Manage Add-Ons and press enter.
- Press enter on Enable or Disable Add-ons.
- Select show add-ons currently loaded in Internet Explorer. Use up and down arrow keys to select this option if it is not already the default.
- Press tab to reach the list of currently installed add-ons.
- Press down arrow until you have reached the item you wish to remove. The Skype toolbar would represent an excellent example.
- Press tab to reach the settings for the selected add-on.
- Press down arrow to select the Disable radio button.
- Press tab until you reach the OK button and press enter to make the changes to your browser.
Replay A/V 8.02 is Out and Much More Accessible!
Applian Technologies has now released Replay A/V 8.02, and it is more accessible than ever! After some initial accessibility setbacks in versions 8.0 and 8.01, Applian is getting back on track with this release.
Replay A/V 8.02 now sports a standard menu bar at the top of the window enabling access by pressing the alt key and featuring keyboard shortcuts. Previously defined alt key commands have been switch to the control key to relieve conflicts with menu shortcuts. The Application key or Shift+F10 command can now be used to access the context menu for each show in the list. My only gripe is the presence of a quirky “hints” dialogue box that pops up with a check box and OK button that do not seem to be accessible using either the space bar or enter keys. The screen readers mouse movement and left click commands must be used to access these controls. Read this Product Update notice for more details. If you are a current Replay A/V 7 user, this upgrade can now be highly recommended. We thank the folks at Applian Technologies for listening to the blind community by making Replay A/V accessible.
How to Reach Us by E-mail
It is unfortunate that, at this time, there is no permanent text on our web site providing contact information. This will be corrected by either modifying the Blogger Beta template or by way of the new layout feature once that becomes available for blogs published using FTP.
In any case, please feel free to contact us by way of the editor (at) blindaccessjournal.com e-mail address. We would be happy to hear from you directly!
Blind Access Journal Moves to Blogger Beta
The move to the new Blogger Beta has now been completed. Please feel free to e-mail us if you experience any issues or concerns.
Karen and I are also having a great time visiting with the Bishop family in Tucson.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Karen and I wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving!