Blind Access Journal

The direct link to Blind Access Journal has recently changed. All old links now point to a version of the journal that is no longer being updated. Please update all your browser bookmarks and other links to Blind Access Journal right away to stay current with all the latest news and commentary on accessibility. The journal’s RSS feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/blindaccessjournal has already been corrected; please use only this RSS 2.0 feed in your aggregator, reader or podcast receiver. Thank you for your attention. Please post a comment right away or call the comment line at 206-350-6925 to report any unforeseen issues.

The OcuSource online blindness technology expo starts tonight, June 8 at 7:15 PM Central Daylight Time, which is 02:15 GMT. This event is similar to such well known conferences as Closing The Gap and CSUN, except that all activities will be conducted over the Internet. Make the OcuSource Expo a part of your online life over the next three days: June 8, 9 and 10. See you there!

Despite numerous contacts with Skype staff, we in the blind community continue to observe not only a lack of forward movement on accessibility, but actually a backward slide. It has come to our attention that the latest version 1.3.0.29 beta of Skype for Windows has removed the Call > Call Contacts submenu upon which many of us have relied as an effective, accessible way to call our online Skype contacts. The needless removal of this option forces blind users into the rather inaccessible Call Contacts panel, which works reasonably well only for users of a specific screen reader for which a group of volunteers have written customized scripts. Even these special scripts are often subject to breaking as Skype makes changes to user interface elements.

I have created a support request asking Skype to fix this problem and provide information on its intentions toward the blind community. Please compose an online reply to my existing support request ticket and create a problem report of your own to insure this matter gets clearly placed on Skype’s radar screen of issues to be resolved before releasing a new mainstream public version of the software.

We want to hear from you! Check out the new Blind Access Journal telephone comment line. Simply call 206-350-6925, leave your message of five minutes or less in length and stay tuned!

Download and Listen

We’re evaluating a new paid service called audioblog.com to replace the free but unreliable audioblogger.com.

Download and Listen

If you are located in the Bay Area near Google headquarters, I strongly urge you to sign up for this Blogger Usability Testing opportunity right away! Time is of the essence here as the testing is being conducted in late May and early June. Let’s get a few blind people in there to show them, first hand, how the creation of a blog has been made inaccessible due to visual verification! During sign up or if contacted by Google staff, do not mention your blindness. Give Google no possible excuse for your exclusion from their usability testing. Let’s do everything we can to make ourselves count!

Check out Jeff Bishop’s The Desert Skies web site and follow his Podcast as he and his family enjoy their Disneyland vacation. We wish we were there!

By the end of this year, Microsoft says it will begin public beta testing of a new consumer based anti spyware, antivirus and firewall product known as OneCare. Check out this PC World article for additional details. The question is, will Microsoft care about us by insuring the accessibility of OneCare?

There has been an absolute lack of media coverage of yesterday’s rally at the Department of Education in Washington D.C. to stop the downsizing of the Rehabilitation Services Administration. This begs the question, do we count? Of course, sadly, the answer seems to be a resounding “no”. Has anyone located any media coverage? If so, please comment.