AFB Blog

Blind Student Learns to Use a Chainsaw. Surprised? Don't Be.

I saw a story on CNN recently about a student who is visually impaired who learned how to use a chainsaw. I think this illustrates that many are not aware of what people who are blind or visually impaired are capable of. I can say that I am legally blind, with less than one percent of my vision—I have used a chainsaw. I also help my father-in-law in the spring and summer doing hay. This entails collecting bails of hay, throwing them on the back of a truck, stacking, and then putting them in a barn. This is not my career. My career is based on creating content dealing with career exploration, education, employment, and technology—I use a computer with a screen magnification software or screen reader, depending on what I am doing and my vision on that particular day.

AFB has a program called CareerConnect, which features close to a thousand active mentors who are blind or visually impaired—these individuals work in many different fields. They are mechanics, engineers, teachers, computer programmers, a bodybuilder, and more! There are people who are blind and visually impaired working for Fortune 500 companies or who own their own businesses.

The CNN story makes some good points about competing in the classroom using assistive technology, and the same goes for on the job. Persons with vision loss can be successful on the job with the right job accommodations, which includes the right technology. AFB CareerConnect offers a great series of articles, called Success Stories, that highlight our mentors' successes from education to employment.

If you want to learn about how persons who are blind or with low vision utilize technology—mainstream as well as assistive technology—check out AccessWorld (a free online technology magazine). For all your information needs specific to people who are blind or visually impaired, please check out www.afb.org—The American Foundation for the Blind's website.

Every day, people who are blind or visually impaired get up, get dressed, and head off to work. Diversity in the workforce is a plus, so if you are thinking about hiring someone, why not consider someone who is blind or visually impaired. We can do the job right!

"Chainsaw" story sources:

• http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t3#/video/us/2012/01/26/dnt-blind-student-obstacles.kfsm
• http://www.5newsonline.com/news/northwestarkansas/kfsm-blind-teen-cuts-through-stereotype-20120126,0,1460039.story

Chainsaw photo courtesy of anankkml/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A True Pioneer In Our Field: Remembering Dr. James Bliss

Ike Presley, AFB National Project Manager:

We recently lost Dr. James (Jim) Bliss to cancer. He was truly one of the pioneers in the field of technology for people who are blind or have low vision. His first major contribution was in the development of the Optacon. Back in the 1970s, he developed this landmark tool in conjunction with Professor John Linvill to provide John’s daughter, Candy, a tool for accessing printed information. For many years this was the only piece of technology that allowed blind people to independently access printed information.

As technology progressed, other options became available and overtook the Optacon in prominence. However, it still has its devoted fans. Users have set up an e-mail listserv to discuss and share information about this valuable tool. Some users still consider it one of the best tools in their toolbox for accessing printed information while others prefer newer technologies. Regardless of one’s personal belief about the value of this device, I think all will agree that it was one of the landmark developments in the continuing struggle to acquire access to printed information.

Several years ago, I had the pleasure of accompanying one of my AFB colleagues, Tony Candela, on a visit to Jim's house. While Tony was recording an interview with Jim, I was allowed to look through Jim's garage. After the interview, Jim came out and showed me several prototypes of the Optacon and gave me a great history of its development. It was very exciting to see numerous Optacons in various states of functioning. I know that many of the current users are always looking for parts to keep their units operating and I discussed this with Jim. He told me that he was often contacted by users explaining how essential the Optacon was to their lives and he always tried to help out. Sometimes he provided technical advice and sometimes he was able to supply a spare part that helped the person continue to use this valuable tool.

Jim also went on to develop numerous tools for people who are blind or have low vision. His most recent company, JBliss Low Vision Systems, continues to provide several tools that assist people with low vision in accessing printed and electronic information. There are several good articles and remembrances at the website, www.jbliss.com, that you may wish to read.

Mark Uslan, Director, AFB Tech:

While Jim Bliss was well known as the inventor of the Optacon and co-founder of Telesensoy Systems, I had met with him at Telesensory, but I got to know him after he had set-up JBLiss Imaging Systems. I evaluated his early OCR product and published reports on it and early upgrades in AccessWorld.

Jim was a pleasure to work with on that project. He understood and respected my need to be objective about the products' strengths and weaknesses. He stands tall as a pioneer in our field and I feel privileged to have known him.

Jim's spirit and dedication to our field will be greatly missed. His obituary in the San Jose Mercury News provides additional information about his life and where donations can be made in his honor.

See also: Assistive Technology Pioneers Who Have Changed Our Lives

The 2012 AFB Leadership Conference* Is Making Waves in St. Pete Beach, Florida — Check Out the Action-Packed Agenda!

*Formerly known as the Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute

It's time to register for AFB's annual conference, and although it takes place May 4-5 (with a preconference day on May 3) at the fabulous Tradewinds Resort in St. Pete Beach, FL, it isn't just palm trees, beach, and sunshine. AFB has teamed up with some amazing partners in the state of Florida, including the Florida Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired (AER). In addition, we will have Dr. Karen Wolffe as the preconference keynote speaker and Kevin O'Connor as the conference keynote speaker.

This year's agenda is packed with the sessions you've told us you want, like the latest information on how to use iDevices. Darren Burton and Morgan Blubaugh's preconference workshop will take you to expert status in no time.

Or maybe your interests lie in learning more about orientation and mobility (O&M). Mickey Damelio jumpstarts the O&M preconference, which is packed with great content. Learn how to work with your team members more effectively and efficiently. And in the afternoon, Dona Sauerburger will cover the basics of O&M with persons who are deafblind, while Dianne Ketts gives an overview of how our modern travel environment has impacted instruction.

Are you interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics)? Learn about great resources from Tara Annis. Have you questioned whether your service delivery method is the best approach for your clients? Lynda Jones describes the blueprint for seamless services. Want to find the best approach to fitness, sports, and health for children and persons with vision loss? Dr. Lauren Lieberman explains your options.

National Industries for the Blind's Brian Hurley, Seattle Lighthouse's Kirk Adams, AER's Lou Tutt, and Kevin O'Connor will offer sessions specific to leadership. Find out what it takes to succeed and lead. And for those interested in professional development, Dr. Amy Guerette, chair of the Personnel Preparation Division of AER, addresses the state of personnel preparation.

With sessions specific to multiple impairments, supported living, and supported employment, this conference is staged to MAKE WAVES!

Register for the conference and preconference today!

AFB Leadership Conference homepage

Conference Agenda

See also: The AFB Leadership Conference 2012 – Coming Soon!

Celebrate Digital Learning Day!

February 1st is nearly upon us. You may be wondering, "What's the significance of that?" Well, it is not Groundhog Day. That is February 2nd. It is not Valentine's Day. That is February 14th. Nor is it Presidents' Day, which is February 20th. It will be Digital Learning Day, a nationwide celebration of online learning, technology, and educational systems.

The celebration honors the great innovation that has been made in the delivery of educational content via webinar, webcast, podcast, eLearning courses, apps, and more. It truly is an exciting time for education because this allows people in remote areas to access learning content and continue their education. I have personally taken a number of online classes and viewed webinars, webcasts, and listened to podcasts. I love my iPhone, which gives me access to amazing educational content via apps.

The American Foundation for the Blind offers digital learning through online publications, webinars, and online courses available through its fully accessible eLearning Center. You can find courses on aging, vision loss, and employment. There are a number of great courses to choose from, with more on the way. Please check them out and let us know what you would like to learn about in the future.

Additionally, the eLearning Center and AFB CareerConnect offer the Job Seeker's Toolkit, a free self-paced, online course on the employment process. The course is aimed at helping teens and young adults prepare for employment. Navigate and become more self-aware, build tools such as your resume and cover letter, and prepare for that interview!

How do you access educational content and courses electronically? Let us know!

Is Apple's New iTextbook Platform Accessible?

There has certainly been a lot of buzz surrounding Apple's event last week announcing their iTextbooks initiative, which includes iBooks version 2, enhancements to iTunes U, and a new iBooks Author software aimed at making it easier for authors to create iBooks.

Unveiling iBooks 2 on the iPad, Apple demonstrated exciting new interactive elements that can be included in a textbook, such as videos, slide presentations, animations, quizzes, and interactive images that can be rotated, zoomed and otherwise manipulated by the reader. In our AFB Tech lab, we took a sample textbook for a spin, E.O. Wilson's "Life on Earth," the biology textbook Apple demonstrated at their event.

Our sighted lab interns were immediately impressed with the way the biology book came alive on the iPad, and the books worked well with the iPad's Zoom magnifier and other visual enhancement features. However, I was not quite as excited by the way the iPad's VoiceOver screen reader interacted with these new textbook elements. Although the iPad's VoiceOver screen reader was able to read all the text of the book, it would sometimes skip a section when I was swiping through content, and it sometimes read things out of order. I could access the movies, slide presentations, and images that were part of the book, but the image descriptions included by the author were very limited. However, one nice thing about iBooks 2 is the Notes feature, which could be used by a teacher to add more detailed description to a picture or chart.

The bad news is that the Notes feature does not work perfectly with VoiceOver. You can highlight text and make a margin note related to it, but the text you highlight with VoiceOver is not the text that actually gets highlighted. Also, there is no indication of the highlight when reading with VoiceOver, and it is very difficult to find the margin note when reading through that section of the book. It is also impossible to associate the note with the highlighted text it annotates.

These new interactive textbooks are currently available only on the iPad, and not yet on the iPhone or iPod touch, which also concerns me. Although there is no cookie-cutter solution, when advising people with vision loss trying to decide between an iPad versus the smaller iPhone or iPod Touch devices, I generally advise a person with low vision to consider the iPad because its large screen is better suited to take advantage of the Zoom magnifier and other visual enhancements available on the devices. However, I usually advise blind people to consider the iPhone or iPod Touch because you get the same blindness features in a more portable, ergonomically friendly device, and I don't want those people to be left out.

Although my initial reaction was not nearly as positive as I had hoped, I do expect Apple, as they usually do, to make the necessary improvements. Apple has already showed they are concerned with the accessibility of this new platform, as they have developed a support page for using their iBooks Author software to design accessible textbooks.

iBooks has up to this point been by far the most accessible mainstream eBook platform, an I hope students with vision loss won't be left out of these exciting new textbook advancements.

How Can We Make Accessibility More Mainstream?

How can we ensure that mainstream products and services (including websites) are designed to meet our needs as people with disabilities? Over the past 20 years, advocates for people with disabilities have successfully pushed for legislation to foster accessibility in the design and development of information and communication technologies. For example, the Communication and Video Accessibility Act was passed to address access to advanced communications technologies like smart phones and television access (see the January AccessWorld article for more details on this law). However, far too often, policies are not effectively or comprehensively enforced. And, there are lots of technologies not addressed by our current policies. I'll explore this topic in February’s AccessWorld.

Now, there's another important advance that is needed. We need more experts on accessibility working within companies that provide services and make products. These internal champions influence decisions about research, development, design, marketing, and resource allocation, and there are precious few who really understand and fight for accessibility.

The Assistive Technology Industry Association is holding a full-day meeting at CSUN to delve into these issues and see if there is support for professionalizing access expertise. The session, "Taking Accessibility Mainstream: Making the Case for an International Society of Accessibility Professionals," is to be held February 28 at the CSUN conference site.

I'm looking forward to this discussion, and hope you can join us. Details below.

Taking Accessibility Mainstream: Making the Case for an International Society of Accessibility Professionals

Date: Tuesday, Feb 28, 2012

Time: 8:30 a.m.— 4:45 p.m.

Location: 2012 CSUN Conference, Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel, Edward Room, 2nd floor San Diego, CA

Please note, Early Bird Registration ($245) ends January 31. After that date, regular registration is $295.

For more information or to register, please visit: http://www.atia.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=4161

Nothing 'Wimpy' About Including Customers with Vision Loss

Perhaps by now you've heard about the South African burger chain, "Wimpy," cleverly promoting their braille menus. It really is pretty neat—they've created braille text on their burger buns using sesame seeds. The braille spells out phrases such as "100% pure beef burger made for you." The sesame seeds were placed on the buns prior to baking using tweezers. These special buns were given to 15 people who are blind or visually impaired from three local organizations. According to the article, these 15 people then sent out information about the promotion, which ended up reaching over 800,000 people with vision loss!

Braille menus are one small way that restaurants can embrace blind or visually impaired customers. Some restaurants offer larger print menus as well. However, this sheds light on a larger issue.

As the Wimpy franchise realized that they were missing out on a customer segment, other corporations have made the same realization. Corporations like Apple have truly embraced accessibility for people who are blind or visually impaired by including built-in accessibility in many of their products. It is rare that a person who is blind or visually impaired can simply go into a store and be able to use a product right off the shelf. Typically, a device may have to be labeled with tactual markings, or memorized. Usually, small screen displays and touch screens are used for electronics. More often, businesses do not consider the impact this has on people who are blind or with low vision.

It takes a company to realize their responsibility to make their products accessible to people who are blind or visually impaired. Our dollars work just as well as any other person's!

The American Foundation for the Blind's consulting branch works with companies to make their products accessible to people who are blind or have low vision. AFB Tech has a lab where they can measure the contrast, clarity, and readability of a small screen display for persons with vision loss. And AFB's free online technology magazine, AccessWorld, evaluates mainstream and assistive technology. Explore and find out more through www.afb.org.

So a tip of the hat to Wimpy. Great story, and great moral. Remember, my dollar is worth the same as yours!

In Memory of Calvin Wooten

On January 5, we said goodbye to Calvin Wooten, a former AFB board member and Migel Medal recipient.

Calvin was one of my all-time favorite people. He was born in Alabama and lost his sight in early childhood. He was a self-made man and a brilliant entrepreneur. He started Wooten Piano Company, a business that he owned and operated for 50 years, and later founded Wooten Enterprises, a real estate investment company.

Calvin was more than a successful businessman and blindness advocate, he was a dear friend. He will be missed.

I Want Some Stevie on Dancing with the Stars!

I heard Stevie Wonder was on recently on "The View," mentioning that he is working out, losing weight, and would like to be on Dancing with the Stars (which he also mentioned back in 2008).

Personally, I love the idea; we can hopefully get rid of the image of Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman. Al Pacino's character is told the approximate dimensions of the dance floor, then tears it up without a missing a step. Yeah, I am not buying that! I am, however, buying Stevie Wonder ripping it up on Dancing with the Stars. I can't say I watch it too often, but my wife digs it (which means I do watch it on occasion, although she does have to describe it a bit for me).

We (the blind community) had Erik Weihenmayer (100 percent amazing) overcoming crazy odds on Expedition Impossible. Now it's time for Stevie Wonder to show what a rocking blind guy can do on the dance floor. Next, we need a blind woman on Project Runway. I recall there was a woman with Retinitis Pigmentosa on America's Next Top Model a few years ago. We also had that guy from Arizona on American Idol as well.

While we're at it, sign me up for Fear Factor — actually, don't. I am not fond of bugs, creatures, and other nasty critters scampering all over me.

You really don't want to hear me screaming like a child because of spiders crawling on my face — so, let's make some noise in support of Stevie Wonder!

Helen on Helen

Helen's travels through Japan, Part 2

[Read Part 1 here]

Helen's fame among the Japanese people was sealed as a result of her second trip to the country in 1948. She was sent as the United States' first Goodwill Ambassador by General Douglas MacArthur as well as the Mainichi Press, an English-language newspaper that sponsored her trip. Wonderful news footage taken during her visit shows streets lined with spectators and open-air theaters teeming with waving children and adults. An estimated 2 million people saw her and Polly Thomson, her companion, during their trip. [Editor's note: Here's a YouTube clip, but please pardon the poor video quality.]

On October 13th and 14th they visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the cities that were devastated by U.S. atomic bombs. Helen spoke to countless groups of people, constantly advocating for those with vision loss in Japan. To a gathering before the Mayor of Hiroshima she said:

"...It was a cruel nemesis that overtook Hiroshima... Your splendid qualities which have times without number helped you in bygone days have triumphed, and Hiroshima is beginning to flourish again through your devotion and self-denial."

However, away from the public eye, she was horrified by the results of US military action in Japan and recognized the irony of making an appeal for funds to a citizenry that had suffered so much:

"...it was to these people that I made the appeal! Yet, despite the consummate barbarity of some military forces of my country and the painful wreckage upon the survivors, they listened quietly to what I had to say. Their affectionate welcome from the moment I arrived until two hours later, when we left by ferry for Miyajima, will remain in my soul, a holy memory — and a reproach."

Helen's efforts to uplift and galvanize the Japanese public and its government hit a powerful chord. If Helen could surmount her multiple disabilities, so could those maimed and dispossessed by war and poverty.

Image description: A scroll from the Mayor of Nagasaki, welcoming Helen to Japan.

Thoughts from the 2011 M-Enabling Summit

In early December, leaders from around the world gathered at the M-Enabling Summit held near Washington, DC to address access to mobile technologies for people with disabilities and seniors. The summit was sponsored by http://g3ict.com/. Check out the site in a couple days to find presentations and information.

I'd like to share a couple points I made during a panel on the implementation of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act, (CVAA), the landmark access law enacted last year.

Access to Television

In July 2012, top television networks will begin providing access through video description for four hours of programming weekly. And, within a few years, TV equipment controls and program guides are supposed to be made accessible to people with vision loss. These were hard-fought requirements of the CVAA. Yet, I sense ambivalence toward television access among advocates in our community. There seems to be an "I don't need it" mentality about television.

For sure, access to TV is not the same as access to a job or education, but certainly we can advocate for both. After all, television programming drives our culture, provides information and is likely the most widely enjoyed source of entertainment.

While four hours of programming a week isn't much, it represents a start toward access to television. I hope it will lead to the near-ubiquitous access now enjoyed by people who are deaf through captions which are required for essentially all television programs. I'd be interested in your thoughts about access to TV.

Full Access

Another point I shared at the summit relates to a concern that consumers with disabilities not settle for too little accessibility in communications technology. It relates to a fallacy I've started calling "the joy of something." For example, representatives of the technology industry sometimes point out, consumers with vision loss favor using voice controls to dial numbers on their cell phones. Surely some do, just as some sighted people do, but mobile phones provide a vast amount information on their displays from text messages and even web sites, to contact lists and details about missed calls. So, for a consumer with vision loss who has little or no experience with an accessible cell phone, voice-controlled dialing might be considered a great gift. But this "joy of something" quickly evaporates when stacked up against all the features that are not made accessible through voice-control.

We must not settle for half-measures and inadequate access now that we've got a law in place like the CVAA, which requires comprehensive access to advanced communications technology. Say no to the "joy of something."

You can find more information about the CVAA at the Federal Communications Commission's website. Additionally, the January 2012 AccessWorld will carry an article explaining the new law.

I Want to be My Own Boss: Is Self-Employment Right for Me?

While attending a conference a few weeks ago, I attended a great session on self-employment, which really got me thinking. I have previously written about working from home, but haven't yet addressed starting your own business.

I reached out to some friends who are self-employed, and all shared some common attributes and similar thoughts. Some things to consider:

• It requires working many more hours than you would in a typical 9-to-5 job. Most people (the ones I spoke with, at least) work 80 hours or more a week, often closer to 100. They stressed to me, "If you don't get it done, it will not get done." Some have assistants, but that was only after years of working on their own.
• You are not only provide the service or create the product, you also have to do the administrative aspects. This takes organization, time management, and being fiscally responsible. Many have accountants they work with, but still have to be on top of everything. You have to do your own inventory, billing, sales, and more.
• There is very little time for vacation or time off until you have become well-established. A few told me that it took over two years before they could take a "real" (five days or more) vacation—and even then, they still didn't feel comfortable leaving their business for that long. Others told me that they had to work through vacations, via internet and cell phone—"Vacations are for your families when you are self-employed."
• Overhead costs—who is going to pay for your business location or a new computer when your current laptop dies? You will have to incur those costs and build them into your budget. When building in the cost of your product or service, you have to make sure you allot for these types of expenses.
• Where will you get that money? What percentage do you have to provide towards starting your business? All of these persons had to provide a percentage when starting their business. Some stressed how long it took to get their loan to start the business.
• Marketing—are you a marketing expert? Often, businesses live or die on appropriate marketing plans. Are you reaching your target audience? Is your audience large enough to sustain your business? Is there room for your business to grow within the market?

Do you have what it takes to be self-employed? Recently, the Hadley School for the Blind launched the Forsythe Center for Entrepreneurship. The program helps individuals with visual impairments and their spouses become educated on starting their own business or helping their business to thrive. The center includes a number of courses and webinars aimed at preparation for this intriguing arena.

However, it should be stated: self-employment is not for everyone; it takes the right person with the right skill set to succeed and sustain a business. AFB CareerConnect offers guidance through mentors who work, or have worked, in many fields of interest. Become a user today and connect with our mentors via the CareerConnect messaging system or post a question or explore career specifics on Career Clusters.

If you are having issues navigating the employment process, check out the Job Seeker's Toolkit, a free online course that allows you to become more aware and get tips specific to cover letters, resumes, the job search, interview, and more.

What have your experiences been with self-employment? Let us know in the comments!

Celebrate World Usability Day by Embracing Accessibility

World Usability Day (November 10, 2011) was founded in 2005 as an initiative of the Usability Professionals' Association to ensure that services and products important to human life are easier to access and simpler to use. Each year, on the second Thursday of November, over 200 events are organized in over 43 countries around the world to raise awareness for the general public, and train professionals in the tools and issues central to good usability research, development, and practice.

The American Foundation for the Blind wholeheartedly supports the goals of World Usability Day. Technology should be easy to use—by everybody, including people with disabilities. Technology has become the infrastructure for education, work, community building, government, transportation, finances, staying in touch, and more. When we create barriers to using technology, we are creating barriers to full participation in modern life.

As AFB plans for an overhaul of its website, we have made usability testing an early and frequent part of the process. Our usability tests always include a wide range of people, reflecting the audiences that AFB serves:

• people who are blind
• people who have low vision
• family members of people who are visually impaired
• people who are aging
• professionals in the blindness field
• members of the general public with a specific question about an eye condition, Helen Keller, accessible products, or a whole host of other concerns

It takes time and effort to recruit such a wide range of participants, but the usability tests are without fail the most valuable source of feedback on our work in progress. It's fascinating to see how real users interact with our early prototypes, and it pays off in a stronger, more successful website. (If you are interested in participating in future usability tests, please let us know by writing to afbweb@afb.net.)

We encourage all companies to consider accessibility a critical facet of usability. Making your products and services accessible to people with visual impairments is not only the right thing to do, it generally improves your site or product's overall usability. Celebrate World Usability Day 2011 by including people with vision loss in your next round of usability tests!

Helen on Helen

Helen's travels through Japan

A fascinating and relatively unknown story is that of Helen and Japan. Helen Keller loved the Japanese people and culture and the Japanese people loved and still love her. Helen traveled to Japan on three occasions, in 1937, 1948 and 1955. The Helen Keller Archives contains over 300 artifacts, and a disproportionate number of these are beautiful gifts that she received during those trips—the image posted below* is an exquisite tiered ceramic incense burner, possibly Hirado ware from the early 19th century. We do not know who gave Helen this gift. However, the question remains: how did this strong bond between Helen and the Japanese people come about?

Helen was initially invited to Japan in 1936 by Takeo Iwahashi. Iwahashi was the director of the Osaka Lighthouse in Japan. He was blind, Christian and spoke English. His invitation was the beginning of a life-long friendship between the two of them, and one of the few close friendships she had with a non-sighted person.

Anne Sullivan Macy, before she died in October of 1936, encouraged Helen to travel to Japan in aid of their blind citizens. The huge loss that Helen felt upon her teacher's death motivated her to do just that. She and her companion Polly Thomson arrived at Yokohama in April 1937 and stayed in the Far East until the late summer. They traveled everywhere and were feted by everyone. They were received by Prince and Princess Takamatsu who, in turn, secured invitations for them to attend the Imperial Cherry Viewing Party at the Shinjuku Imperial Gardens in Tokyo. There they were received by the Emperor and Empress of Japan; in Nara, they touched the sacred bronze Buddha, the first women to be allowed to do so; and in Hakone the two women stayed at the famous Hakone Hotel where they were photographed holding a bird bred to have an extremely long tale—in this case 18 feet! They visited about five to six venues a day, where Helen often spoke with the aid of Polly as translator. Polly recounted their travels:

"Everywhere crowds gather to pay Helen honor. I understand the school children and students know more about Helen Keller than they do about their own men in high office. It is astounding, and oh, the gifts! How they keep piling up and up! We are writing Ambassador Grew to ask him how we shall manage at the Customs..."

In my next post, I'll continue discussing Helen and Polly's travels through Japan.

*Image description: Japanese incense burner. White porcelain with filigree work, possibly Hirado ware from Kyushu, Japan, early 19th century. Stands 15 1/2 inches tall and 6 3/4 wide at its base. Three bowls, perforated with a honey comb design, sit on top of each other. Each bowl has two handles—ther side; each handle has a multi-petal flower design at the top. The artifact is graduated, with each bowl becoming progressively smaller.

The AFB Leadership Conference 2012 – Coming Soon!

It may only be November, but I am already getting excited for the AFB Leadership Conference—formerly the Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute—which is paired with Florida AER and partners this year. The conference will be in sunny St. Petersburg Beach, Florida in early May of 2012. The Sunshine State holds a special meaning in my heart, as I have lived, gone to graduate school, and worked in Florida. How can you not like the beach and the beautiful Gulf Coast?

Beautiful weather aside, why attend? Glad you asked.

Amazing Sessions. The conference looks to be a tremendous event with exciting and innovative content being presented. I have heard that there will be sessions covering topics such as Apple products, accessibility, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), employment, the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC), innovation in small screen displays, optic nerve hypoplasia, current research, practical training tips, and resources, as well as sessions aimed at leaders in our field. This is just a small sampling of topics to be addressed. It sounds like there will be some tough decisions on which sessions to attend!

Networking Galore. There will be plenty of opportunities to network with professionals and experts from around the United States at the conference. I am also looking forward to seeing who will win the 2012 Access Awards and Migel Awards. I know there will be an amazing collection of nominees for all of these honors.

What about the location? I have been to a conference at the Tradewinds Island Resorts before, and I loved the location and especially the hotel staff. I had a great experience there. I will definitely be grabbing some seafood at one of the great local eateries—you wouldn't be able stop me from getting some of that fresh Gulf seafood. But, you can always hit up one of the restaurants on the grounds—I know I have in the past.

Lastly, a word on the conference name change. Since 1986, AFB's flagship conference was known as the Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute, named after the beloved educator and advocate for children with vision loss and with multiple disabilities. Ms. Taylor was an early champion, as well, for teacher training programs for instructors of the visually impaired.

Though we are indebted to Ms. Taylor for her contributions to the field, and we continue to honor her legacy with our national education and advocacy work, we have changed the title with the belief that the name more aptly reflects AFB's 90-year role in bringing together leaders in the blindness field, both seasoned and new, to share their knowledge and expertise to improve the quality of life for people with visual impairments.

Is It Time for National Public Radio to Update Its Website?

[Editor's note: The following post is authored by Marc Grossman, Accessibility Specialist, AFB Consulting.]

A recent frustrating experience on NPR's website (and iPhone app) prompted the title of this blog post. Allow me to explain.

A friend recently shared with me a link to the NPR story, "Blind Student Helps Make Denver Navigable For All." Sounded interesting, so I clicked on the link.

The page was mostly accessible—but certainly could use some improvement. It had headings for navigation, most of the graphics had descriptive text, and only a couple buttons were poorly labeled. For people with hearing loss, the program transcript was available right there on the page. What wasn't clear was there were actually two methods of listening to the story: one to launch the media player, and one to download the MP3 file and listen with your own media player. The reason it's not clear? On my screen reader, the link read: "NPR.Player.OpenPlayer(141514387, 141514382, null, NPR.Player.Action.PLAY_NOW, NPR.Player.Type."

Huh?

When you click on the link, a new window opens and the media player automatically begins playing. I counted 25 unlabeled buttons on the media player. This makes it impossible for someone using a screen reader to pause, forward, rewind, or adjust the volume.

I decided to contact NPR. There was no phone number, so I searched until I found the "Contact Us" link. I submitted my thoughts on the inaccessible media player, and mentioned that NPR really needs to live up to higher standards (since it serves the entire nation). The response I received wasn’t encouraging—a typical "Thank you for commenting... blah, blah, blah." It also encouraged me to use the text-only version of NPR.

Oh no. Did they really just say that? Don't they know how much people with vision loss hate being told to use text-only sites? But hey, I'm a professional web junkie, so I gave it a shot and logged onto the text-only site.

So what did I find on the text-only site? First and foremost, text. Of course. What I did not find was any method of navigating the site except for my arrow keys. There were no headings on the page to make it easy to jump around. There did not appear to be any method for searching the text-only site. I could find neither a search field nor a link to take me to a search page. So I returned to the regular site to find out the name of the show and the date it originally broadcast. Since the text-only site did have a list of shows, I was delighted to find "Talk of the Nation" and activated the link. This is a landing page for the show but only displays links for stories from that day. I had to continuously click the "previous" link until I reached the day I needed (October 19).

At last, I was ready to listen to the story on what was supposed to be an accessible media player. I found the link to listen, but was again disappointed to discover that the link only launched the file in Windows Media Player. So I saved the file to my desktop to see what else I could do with it. Turned out, it was a .wax file and could not play with the VLC player. I don't have a notetaker, but I am really curious if any of you out there could see if the media file works on your device. I sent a copy of the file to my Mac and iPhone, but couldn’t play the file on those platforms either.

Lastly, I turned to the NPR app on my iPhone. The NPR iPhone application has its own set of problems, but at least it had a search field. I entered the terms "Denver" and "blind" into the search field and the first result was the story I wanted, so I clicked on it. I found the "listen" button and double-tapped. Within seconds, the story began to play crisply and clearly. However, I was unable to find any controls to pause, forward, or rewind.

A frustrating experience, indeed.

The good news is that NPR covers important topics that affect people with vision loss. On the other hand, the company really ought to be focusing on making improvements to the accessibility of its online environment—including its iPhone application.

This sheds light on a broader issue— that this is way too common an experience for people with vision loss who rely on assistive technology to navigate the web. With the numbers of Americans with vision loss expected to grow, it's paramount that organizations keep their websites (and apps) accessible.

What are your experiences with NPR? What about other online news sources? I'd love to hear from you in the comments below.

Sign the Prescription Drug Risks Petition: A Matter of Life and Death

Each day millions of people with vision loss put their lives—and the lives of those they care for—at risk because they can't accurately read labels on prescription medications.

Shockingly, there are no federal guidelines to ensure that retail pharmacies provide drug information that is accessible to people with vision loss.

Being able to read a prescription drug label isn't a convenience—it's a matter of life and death.

That's why AFB staff are mobilizing on Capitol Hill, meeting with legislators, fighting to give everyone with visual impairments access to the same information—from dosing instructions to precautions—as everyone else.

But we can't do this alone—we need as many voices as possible to be heard loud and clear.

Please take one minute to complete a simple online petition that we'll forward to your congressional representative.

And, if you can, help AFB continue this vital campaign by donating a gift today.

Because make no mistake: What you can't see can hurt you.

For more information on this issue please visit: http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?%20SectionID=3&TopicID=329&DocumentID=3630

The Sounds of Success

Doesn't everybody love a happy ending? For those who may be afraid of the work it takes to make a dream come true, read our latest CareerConnect Mentor Success Story.

Choosing not to let the space between her dreams and reality get in the way, Canadian CareerConnect Mentor Becka deHaan prepared herself to follow her dream to become an award-nominated recording and performing artist. Read the full story here.

By visiting CareerConnect Mentor Success Stories, you can learn about many other people who are blind or visually impaired and how they met their goals as well. Each story is an attention-grabbing, first-person account of the journey they took to beat the odds and become who they are today.

White Cane Safety Day - Raise your cane in the air! (Oh wait, put it down!)

Did you know that October 15 is White Cane Safety Day? If you said yes, you are correct. It has been observed on that date since 1964, with localities celebrating it throughout the country. White Cane Safety Day is about celebrating and creating awareness about the white cane and its use.

I use a white cane, but I have also been an orientation and mobility (O&M) instructor. An orientation and mobility instructor is a professional who teaches persons who are blind or visually impaired how to properly use a cane and travel safely and efficiently through their environment. The white cane is many things, but overall it is a tool that allows persons to travel safely and independently (with training). The American Foundation for the Blind is a very important part of this process. AFB Press produces the textbooks most often used in the training of professionals who work with children or adults who are blind or visually impaired. Some of you may not even know that you could get an undergraduate or graduate degree related to teaching orientation and mobility, rehabilitation teaching (working with adults), or teaching children with visual impairments.

The first textbook utilized to train professionals on how to teach orientation and mobility was copyrighted in 1976 and written by Everett Hill & Purvis Ponder. This book was titled Orientation and Mobility Techniques: A Guide for the Practitioner. AFB still offers this book, and continues to produce quality textbooks for our field, the most recent being Foundations of Orientation and Mobility, Third Edition—a two-volume text that is the field's essential reference and teaching tool on O&M. I took two classes from Purvis Ponder at Florida State University. I am truly grateful to all those who train persons to use the white cane and have laid the foundation for my independence as a person who is visually impaired.

I believe we should all make an effort to be out in the community showing off our white canes not just on October 15, but every day. When someone stops you to ask a question about your cane, take a second and talk to him or her about how you use your cane to travel. White Cane Safety Day is about creating an awareness of the white cane. We want drivers to be aware of what the white cane signifies, but we also want people to know that it helps us with our independence. I am thankful that AFB works with experts in our field to create these textbooks that help people like me be independent. Thank you AFB!

The 2012 Access Awards – We Want to Hear from You!

[Editor's Note: The following post comes from AFB Consulting Accessibility Specialist Marc Grossman.]

In 2007, I was asked to join the selection committee to help sort through the nominations for the AFB Access Awards. This award recognizes individuals, corporations, and organizations that eliminate or substantially reduce inequities faced by people who are blind or visually impaired. The names on the list of past recipients is long and distinguished. It includes Apple, Inc., Canon USA, CBS Television, Google, and Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Recognizing these companies validates their commitment to accessibility and will encourage other companies to follow suit. With more than 25 million Americans living with vision loss, it is important for companies to recognize the importance of finding ways to satisfy these customers.

The window for nominations for the 2012 Access Awards is now open and we encourage everybody to put on their thinking caps. We want to hear from people with vision loss, teachers, and rehabilitation experts to help us identify those individuals or organizations that are making outstanding contributions.

The criteria are fairly simple. Nominees should illustrate an exceptional and innovative effort that has improved the lives of people with vision loss by enhancing access to information, the environment, technology, education or employment, including making mainstream products and services accessible. The effort should be one that has national impact or can serve as a model for replication on a national level.

I will gladly accept letters of nomination addressing these criteria. My email address is mgrossman@afb.net.

Don't hesitate, the deadline for submission is the end of November. All of us on the 2012 nomination committee look forward to reading your nominations!

Helen on Helen

[Editor's note: This is the first post in what will be an ongoing series showcasing the Helen Keller Archives, authored by AFB Archivist Helen Selsdon. Stay tuned for more to come.]

My name is Helen Selsdon and I'm the archivist at the headquarters of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) in New York City. I came to AFB in April 2002 with the task of taking care of the Helen Keller archival collection. It's been an amazing journey for me, both professionally as an archivist and as a woman to learn so much about this vibrant and commanding figure.

In case you don't know who Helen Keller was, she was born in 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama. At the age of 19 months, she became deaf and blind as a result of illness. At the age of 6, a governess came to Tuscumbia to help the family with their "wild child." This woman was Anne Mansfield Sullivan, a firebrand of a personality, who succeeded in communicating with Helen and taught her to speak with her hands and read and write in braille. This relationship is what is often best known about Helen. It was a truly remarkable friendship, but it's just the tip of the iceberg. Helen led a long and incredibly productive life (she died in 1968); as a seminal figure in U.S. history, she met other key players of the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th, and she blazed a trail for all those who are marginalized and demand to have their voices heard. She changed the face of blindness in America and around the globe.

Periodically, I will post an image of one of the 80,000 items in the collection—be it a document, artifact, or photograph. By sharing these items and discussing them, I hope to communicate not only how extraordinary Helen's life was, but also her belief that with hard work and a lot of gumption, one person can truly make a difference.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month, Christopher Columbus-style

Two significant observances occur in October – Columbus Day (October 12), and National Disability Employment Awareness Month (all month long!). However, I have no clue if Columbus employed any persons with disabilities. If he didn't, he should have. Let's suppose for a moment Christopher Columbus was alive today. He would be smart to hire a visually impaired navigator—they would be using AccessWorld (AFB’s free online technology magazine) to find the best accessible GPS.

AFB is setting sail and picking up speed in promoting National Disability Employment Awareness Month with a special employment-focused issue of AccessWorld, which will include technology evaluations and tips as well as topical issues. I think Christopher Columbus would have been checking out these resources prior to getting commissioned by Spain—for resources for his job search. The October edition [Editor's note: forthcoming] has a fleet of great articles, including an article about the "Current State of Employment," with comments from Kathy Martinez, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy. The Assistant Secretary comments on the past year as well as where we're heading in the coming year. She is the level-headed, strong voice of reason helping us navigate the crashing waves.

Land, ho! Our resources don't end with AccessWorld. Follow the horizon to CareerConnect for great tools like the "Job Seeker's Toolkit" (a free online job seeker's course) and Career Clusters' message boards (career exploration tool and place to connect with mentors).

Ahoy! Are you an older worker? Check out the newest section of employment information from Senior Site called "Today's Older Worker with Vision Loss." So, your ship has arrived—get aboard or be left behind!

You won't find these great tools in the galley of a ship, but on AFB's website. I hope you get out of the rough waters and head straight to our offerings. We may not offer the history lesson of Christopher Columbus' famous voyages, but we do offer valuable resources (and no shipwrecks). So, set your sail high and celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month with AFB!

AFB Remembers Steve Jobs

AFB, and the vision loss community at large, will miss Steve Jobs. Needless to state, the world would be a very different place today were it not for him. AFB has been a longtime supporter of Apple products, which come fully accessible right out of the box, and presented the company with a 2009 Access Award in recognition. In light of his passing, some AFB staff shared their thoughts on the man and the indelible mark he left on us all.

Carl R. Augusto, AFB President and CEO: "Steve Jobs, as a technology pioneer and CEO of Apple, was a longtime champion for people with disabilities. Here at AFB, we have applauded his accomplishments over and over. I speak for all of us when I say we will miss him immensely."

Paul Schroeder, AFB Vice President of Programs and Policy: "Steve Jobs is justly recognized for bringing innovative products to millions of consumers. AFB was pleased to recognize him and Apple for creating innovative access solutions for consumers with vision loss in Apple products from the Mac to the iOS line of devices, and wonderfully, the access was included in all products and at no additional cost."

Joe Strechay, AFB CareerConnect Project Associate: "Steve Jobs and Apple have enabled me to access information, my cell phone, and even my television in a user-friendly manner. The iPhone allows me to access Yankee games, my email, the web, and GPS with ease. Apple TV allows me to access movies and television without the assistance of others through the amazing Voiceover. I am grateful to his "user-centric" strategy that has led to accessibility for persons who are blind or visually impaired."

Crista Earl, AFB Web Operations Director: "Apple, with Steve Jobs' leadership, was the first company in my lifetime to design products with true usability at the top of the feature list for both sighted and blind users within the same product. This level of mainstream innovation for such a specialized niche group is unprecedented and so far unduplicated. Steve Jobs' vision for usability and inclusion and his ability to lead a company to effective implementation will be missed."

Darren Burton, AFB National Program Associate, Technology: "I can't say enough about the access that Apple builds into their products and how much it has meant to me personally and professionally. Apple is the model company when it comes to producing universally accessible products. AFB Tech was created as a way to convince mainstream manufacturers to produce products and services that are accessible to and usable by people with vision loss, and Apple does exactly what we want all the other companies to do. We are now developing our own AFB apps to run on Apple products. On a personal note, Steve Jobs' famous Stanford commencement speech inspired so many to live their dreams, and I really loved the part about second chances. I've been either given or created a couple second chances over my lifetime."

The Latest Amazon Kindle: Lighting a Fire of Outrage

I have written several articles in AFB's AccessWorld Magazine chronicling the lack of accessibility of Amazon's Kindle electronic book reading devices as they have evolved over the last few years. The original Kindle was completely inaccessible to blind people, and our community protested loudly and clearly. Amazon responded by adding some text-to-speech functionality to the second and third versions. Although that still did not lead to what I would call an accessible Kindle, the incremental improvements did give us some hope for the future.

Unfortunately, that appears to have been wasted hope as Amazon recently announced the impending release of the new Kindle Fire. The Fire is a touch-screen version of their popular device, and I understand that this version will again be completely inaccessible to blind people. To be blunt, I am absolutely disgusted with Amazon, as they apparently have no shame. They have no excuse in this day and age, as it has already been proven by Apple that a touch screen tablet can be made accessible. Amazon knows very well that we expect equal access to their devices, and they turned their backs on us once again. It is simply outrageous that Amazon and others who create many of today's electronic books also create barriers for millions of potential customers who are blind.

For people with vision loss eager to read, I recommend ebooks from Apple's iBooks app on the iPhone/Pod/Pad. Bookshare is also a great resource.

AT&T Takes Significant Step Forward to Improve Access to Android Phones for People with Vision Loss

This week, AT&T announced the launch of AT&T Mobile Accessibility Lite, a suite of applications for Android smart phones designed to be intuitive and easier to use for people who are blind. While I have not yet had a chance to fully test the new release, I am impressed by four things:

First, it is offered at no cost.

Second, AT&T Mobile Accessibility Lite is designed by Code Factory, an internationally recognized company that has made a name for itself in developing excellent software to provide access to mobile technology for people with vision loss.

Third, it fills an important need, as it was designed to be easy to use for someone with vision loss. More on this below.

Fourth, it was immediately released in English and Spanish.

Is AT&T Mobile Accessibility Lite a perfect solution? Probably not. No doubt many consumers with vision loss want to see full (and usable) accessibility built into the Android operating system (just like Apple builds in Voiceover into its iOS devices). While Android does include some accessibility features and apps, the results are not considered very user-friendly (see AccessWorld). Perhaps others might fault the AT&T and Code Factory approach for setting up a separate interface for consumers with vision loss. This is partly true, though access to apps running on Android is provided through the new accessibility option.

This brings up another point. The ideal would be for blind people to have access to all Android apps. The next step, then, would be to get app developers to use existing APIs and create apps that can use TalkBack or another built-in screen reader by default. This will not necessarily be easy. But, first, Google must take a leadership position to promote full accessibility within Android and then work to push developers to use the accessibility strategies in their Apps. Accessible Design it is the right and increasingly expected thing to do.

Bottom line: The AT&T release is a significant first step—the recognition that blind customers want to use a range of devices and are worth investing in.

Here is AT&T's release: Introducing AT&T Mobile Accessibility Lite, Free Application to Enhance Android Experience for People Who are Blind or Have Low Vision

AccessWorld: There's an App for That!

[Editor's note: the following post is co-authored by Darren Burton and Ricky Kirkendall.]

Given AccessWorld's mission of keeping readers up to date on the latest in accessible technology, we are proud to announce that you can now download the AccessWorld app on your iPhone!

This FREE app allows you to browse and read the entire AccessWorld collection up to the latest issue – it's like having 10 years' worth of AccessWorld at your fingertips! The app also allows you to locate the contact information for any member of the AccessWorld team, should you have any questions or comments.

The app is optimized for VoiceOver and other Accessibility features, and is designed for the iPhone and iPod Touch devices. Simply visit the App Store and search AccessWorld.

The AFB Tech staff has been evaluating iOS apps for a couple years now, and we have expanded our AFB Consulting work to evaluate apps for clients.

Given today's trend toward mobile applications and the popularity of Apple's highly accessible iOS devices, the AccessWorld app was a logical next step for us. Ricky Kirkendall, AFB Tech intern from Marshall University and co-author of this article, worked in conjunction with his mobile development company, FloCo Apps LLC, to create the AccessWorld app.

We encourage you to download the AccessWorld app and to check for updates as we make improvements and add features. We look forward to hearing your feedback on our latest AFB projects. Stay tuned for more news and announcements as we continue our involvement with mobile applications and other accessible technologies.

Dog Guide Etiquette, From One Who Knows

[Editor's note: The following blog comes from Paige, a Dog Guide here at AFB headquarters. Paige is here to share a few thoughts on what to do when you encounter a visually impaired person and his or her dog guide.]

Hi! I'm Paige, and I'm a Dog Guide. You may also hear of us referred to as "Seeing Eye Dogs" and "Guide Dogs," but we do prefer Dog Guides - after all, we're dogs first!

Since my master is currently occupied – she's a rather busy woman – I'd thought I'd use my down time to discuss what my colleagues and I do for a living. Because - make no mistake – this is our job, and a pretty darn important one at that.

Dog guides are carefully trained service animals used as travel tools by people who are blind or visually impaired. That's it in a nutshell, but the devil is in the details.

Dog guides and their masters undergo rigorous training together to work safely and effectively as a team. People who are blind – our masters – are responsible for our health and well-being at all times. We should be (and normally are) always kept under control by our masters. (And yes, this includes the occasional "accident" or "mess." Like I said, we're dogs first…)

We work most effectively with people who have very limited vision. It's likely that most dog guide users you'll meet are totally blind.

When we travel with our masters, we move only in response to our masters' directions – we only disobey commands to avoid – yikes! - danger.

Trust me, concentration is essential when people travel with their dog guides. If you see us guiding a person who's blind, please do not interact with us! We're working! Sure, we're cute and all, but petting, feeding, or any sort of distraction is not only inappropriate, it's potentially dangerous. You certainly wouldn't want people coming up to you, talking in a baby-voice and touching you while you were hard at work. It's a simple courtesy and, for my part, it's much appreciated.

Thanks for listening. Since my master is still busy at work, I think I'll take a nap.

Let's Talk Tech: Accessibility in a Changing Environment

In the September 2011 issue of AccessWorld, I wrote a commentary about the future of accessibility in light of the ever-shifting flow of technological advancement.

I discuss how mobile information technology, rapidly developing apps, cloud computing, social networking and other developments will supplant the centrality of the PC, upend "traditional" entertainment equipment like TVs and stereos (remember walkmen?), and likely finalize the shift away from printed mediums like books and magazines. What remains in question, then, is how these changes will affect accessibility, and whether that will be for better or for worse.

Given the magnitude of this discussion, I wanted to invite you to a session I'll be hosting at the upcoming AER Information & Technology Division Conference in Cleveland at the end of October. Details on the conference, including how to register, can be found here: http://www.aerbvi.org

Here's a brief description of my session:

"Disruptive trends are shaping information and communication technology with the dramatic rise of mobile information technology, 'apps,' cloud computing, gaming technologies in education and social network-driven communication. How do we find practical solutions to the increasing needs among consumers with vision loss for accessible technology, including built-in accessibility?"

The AER Conference registration deadline is October 11, 2011. Please make sure to register for the meeting before then to take advantage of the less expensive rate! Again, you can register online at http://www.aerbvi.org. If you can't make it, I invite you to read and comment on the AccessWorld article at: http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw120904

I hope to see you there.

Which Screen Reader Is Best?

Often I'm asked which screen reading program is best for users who are blind or have low vision. My response is always the same: It depends.

It depends on what computer tasks the person is trying to accomplish, and the type of environment in which he or she is working.

It has been my experience that all of the major screen readers do a good job of providing access to the three most widely used applications on personal computers. I bet you can guess what those are. If you said word processing, internet browsing and emailing, you are correct.

If you need to access other types of programs, then you may find that one screen reader does a better job than another. This can be particularly true in situations where you're working with specialized software, such as in a science class or an employment situation.

For example, a screen reader user working for an insurance company may find that the company uses a custom-designed application to track his or her customer accounts. It is my understanding that it's difficult to know which screen reader will work best with this type of software, depending on what tasks the user needs to accomplish with the software. My recommended solution is to acquire at least a trial/demo copy (or a full version) of several screen readers, and with the assistance of a knowledgeable assistive technology specialist, try out the various readers with the insurance company's software.

While this is the ideal approach, it's not always easy, much less possible. That is why I'm pasting below an announcement from the Top Tech Tidbits newsletter for Thursday, September 15, 2011 - Volume 318 (see #3), about an upcoming webinar comparing screen readers:

"EASI is offering two free webinars during September: Tobi: a software tool to author DAISY multimedia, Tuesday, 20 September at 17:00 GMT, and Practical comparison of screen readers, using scenario based user testing, Wednesday, 28 September at 17:00 GMT. http://easi.cc/workshop.htm" Please note, subtract five hours from GMT for EST.

I will not be able to attend this webinar, but I would greatly appreciate hearing any feedback that you might have if you're able to check it out. With your permission, I will pass your anonymous comments on to the folks at Equal Access to Software and Information (http://easi.cc/). I'm sure that they would like to hear any comments that you might have about the webinar and about how they can improve the needs of our field.

I hope you can attend the webinar, and I hope to hear from you in the comments.

Coming Soon to a Living Room Near You: Video Description

Big news for all the TV lovers out there: the FCC just took a decisive step toward ensuring more video described programming is available to people with vision loss. This week, the FCC voted unanimously (4-0) to require leading broadcast and cable channels to offer at least 50 hours of described programming every calendar quarter. This will allow those of us who are blind or visually impaired to keep up with news and pop culture and more fully participate in society. When the new rules kick in July 1, 2012, video description will begin to take its rightful place along side closed captioning as a useful and popular means for enjoying TV.

And just like captioning, we can expect that a service first deployed for people with disabilities will grow into a medium with much wider appeal.

For more information, visit: http://www.coataccess.org/node/10045

Expedition Impossible - Behind the Scenes, Episode 9

[Editor's note: the following post originally appeared on Erik Weihenmayer's blog, http://www.touchthetop.com/blog/, and is being republished here with his permission. Among Erik's many notable achievements, he is a CareerConnect mentor as well as the first blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. This summer Erik has been starring in ABC's Expedition Impossible. You can catch the show Thursday nights at 9 EST. Learn more about Erik at his website, http://www.touchthetop.com/.]

I couldn't believe it! What the heck just happened?! There was no way we were going to beat the Cops. Despite Ike hobbling as fast as he could, they had passed us on a brutal cross country push and had a 15 minute lead. Yet... somehow... we did it!

But let's go back to the beginning. Only the day before, we had had the unlikeliest of wins over the California Girls. We woke up the next morning, partly in disbelief that we were still in the competition yet still facing the reality that a team with a blind guy and a badly sprained ankle didn't have much chance.

This last episode was another two-days-compressed-into-one episode. The first day featured very technical whitewater—we had to hit the rapids just right or we'd risk a flip—so we were glad to have a guide to steer the boat. The rapids were fun, but I was yelling "Stroke!" every second, and in hour three, I lost my voice and was barely croaking. We were paddling so hard, it was a little difficult to get the full enjoyment factor of this amazing whitewater.

For the riddle challenge, we were stumped for about fifteen minutes. ("Sometimes you pass by them and sometimes you go inside of them, but lately you've been spending a lot of time in between them." The answer was "banks.") Anyway, our Gypsy pals helped us out with a vital clue. As they ran by, Taylor said, "Where do you keep your money?"

And the Fab 3 straight up gave the answer to the Football Players. I didn't realize at the time that this annoying "alliance" was forming at the instigation of Fab 3. I suppose some people could accuse No Limits and Gypsies of doing the same thing. But ours was truly a natural friendship that grew between like minds. None of us were conniving to steal the win; we just helped out friends when we could.

In fact, we had such a good bond, the Gypsies jumped at the chance to come to Boulder for the last show. Hopefully Taylor will do his Jeff Evans impression! After the finale, we're going to go hike and climb and have some more fun together. So we really weren't making backroom deals. It was just two teams who respected each other and shared a spirit for adventure and good work.

I must admit I was a little bummed out by the Football Players for falling into Fab 3's game of making Survivor-like alliances. The Football Players are such good guys but they let themselves get talked into taking the low road. We really liked them—along with the other teams: Cops, Firemen, Cali Girls, Fisherman, and Country Boys—and worked together with each of these teams at different points of the comp.

Anyway, after the lock challenge, where we collected food for camp (freeze-dried, blech), the river mellowed out but went through a spectacular gorge. Jeff was steering but he's more of a mountain dude and we went in circles a little bit. Still, we held our ground.

The next day we rowed across the lake in the tin boats. No time bonuses, everyone starts with the time they finished. With a motor like Ike on the oars, we probably could have waterskied across the lake. Then we hit the shore...

Suffice to say, it was ugly. The rugged, rocky terrain was brutal for Ike. We were passed, and passed again until we were dead last when finishing the rappels. That meant we had a long wait to get through the cave tunnels since only one person could crawl at a time and there's no way to pass.

Once we all got inside the cave, it was a frantic free-for-all looking for the darned appropriate vase—not that I could help much. Next time, let's do a pitch black cave and we'll see how all the sighted people do! When Jeff finally found our instructions, we were on our way. As you saw, Rob from the cops grabbed a correct vase, but it didn't have a finish line map inside it. I think this was because another team had already plucked out the map.

After swimming the river, once again, we were preparing ourselves mentally for finishing last. And then we came around the corner and there were the Cops running the wrong way! Suddenly it dawned on the three of us that we gotta run, we gotta run hard! I ran through a nasty bush and blood was flying all over the place. I didn't even care. Ike was hopping along behind us like Forrest Gump.

Then I heard Jeff fall down. And then he popped up and was bouncing around running circles and howling and laughing! I didn't realize what had happened at first but then it clicked that we had actually crossed the finish line... and beat the Cops! People told me I looked a little stunned, which was definitely the case.

So now, defying all odds, we're in the finals. We actually got a rest day before the last wild and crazy stage. This gave Ike the chance to cut off that awful clunky cast, rest up, and evaluate his ankle. And then we go at it again, with more devious twists and turns to the plot. I will say that on the last day, one team gets eliminated halfway through so only three teams will be competing for the pot of gold. Will you be watching?

Expedition Impossible - Behind the Scenes, Episode 8

[Editor's note: the following post originally appeared on Erik Weihenmayer's blog, http://www.touchthetop.com/blog/, and is being republished here with his permission. Among Erik's many notable achievements, he is a CareerConnect mentor as well as the first blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. This summer Erik has been starring in ABC's Expedition Impossible. You can catch the show Thursday nights at 9 EST. Learn more about Erik at his website, http://www.touchthetop.com/.]

When we signed up for this big, crazy adventure, we had little idea what we were getting ourselves into. And once underway, we had no idea what an impact it would have upon others. Even once it started airing, we didn't fully realize how powerfully it would affect others.

One of the things that makes me proud about being involved with Expedition Impossible is the message it sends. I won't let my kids watch other reality shows because I don't want them thinking the way to get to the top is by backstabbing. The cool thing about this show is it's a bunch of teams competing as hard as they can, trying to do their best. And once you get to camp, nearly everyone is a buddy; talking and laughing, sharing cramped goat herder tents, fighting windstorms together.

For the most part, everyone was into the spirit of a traditional adventure race. Only one team was trying to do some of the "alliance" silliness, the rest were content to compete on their own merits. In the end, good teamwork is what defines success.

This last episode was clearly a defining moment for Team No Limits. Even in our bleakest moments, we never fell apart. After that swim, all of the other teams passed us and were so far ahead that Jeff couldn't even see them on the horizon. Ike was feeling truly miserable for letting us down. But instead of turning on each other and imploding, like some other teams, we stuck together and accepted our fate.

There was no way we were quitting but we were forced to slow down for the first time. After three weeks of frenetically racing around Morocco, this was the first time that I really appreciated the amazing landscape around us: the massive openness, pastures with grazing sheep, spectacular mountains and canyons.

That calmness, combined with us not freaking out with each other, allowed us to keep plugging away. We all knew there was a remote possibility that another team might run into a problem with the next challenge. But we were so far off the back that it seemed unlikely. I even suggested stopping at a creek to go swimming but Jeff wanted to keep pushing hard.

And then we caught sight of the Cali Girls! In an instant, the adrenaline kicked in and we all charged hard... Ike hopped as fast as he could go. Jeff showed total leadership, telling each of us what to do and quickly solving the puzzle. He remembered the Bolder Boulder 10k running race is 6.2 miles and in no time figured we had traveled 310 miles.

We were giggling like little kids as we realized we were going to beat the Cali Girls. It was so improbable that we had overcome a 90-minute deficit and ended up 5 minutes ahead at the end! As we came up the hill to the finish line, the camp erupted in applause. The Gypsies in particular had already been morning our loss so they were especially pleased that we had survived one more day.

Alas, we only have one night of rest before the next episode—no rest for the weary, or injured! There's one more team to be eliminated before the finals. And this next stage won't be easy for Team No Limits. Perhaps we make it, perhaps not. Either way, I hope you've enjoyed the show so far and will keep sending us comments.

Expedition Impossible - Behind the Scenes, Episode 7

[Editor's note: the following post originally appeared on Erik Weihenmayer's blog, http://www.touchthetop.com/blog/, and is being republished here with his permission. Among Erik's many notable achievements, he is a CareerConnect mentor as well as the first blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. This summer Erik has been starring in ABC's Expedition Impossible. You can catch the show Thursday nights at 9 EST. Learn more about Erik at his website, http://www.touchthetop.com/.]

Prior to this episode, a lot of people have been asking about Ike because he has been underrepresented on the show. At last, Ike had his chance to shine!

It's crazy that there have been so many opportunities to get hurt—running along riverbeds, jumping off cliffs, charging down rocky slopes, plunging through snowfields—and Ike trashes his ankle getting into a taxi. In Morocco, there is a gutter between the sidewalk and the road and that's what caught his foot.

Jeff and I didn't immediately comprehend the seriousness of the injury as we all clambered into the car. But by the time we got to the airport, it was obvious that the game had completely changed for Team No Limits.

In 2007, Ike's right leg was severely broken during a firefight with the Taliban along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border. It required multiple surgeries, then a full year of recuperation, before he regained most of the strength and function to his leg. So another break on the same leg could be very serious. Even a bad sprain could cause irreparable damage due to all the swelling and pounding on it for another week.

Fortunately, we had about an hour for the medical staff to examine Ike while Jeff got to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. When Ike failed a test known as the "Ottawa ankle rule," the medical staff decided he had to go to the hospital for an x-ray... meaning we were out of the game.

At that point, the show's Executive Producer, Lisa Hennessy, stepped in and made the decision to put the call back in Ike's hands. Now this is a guy who has been deployed in war zones three times and has earned two Bronze Stars, a Purple Heart, and a host of other medals and awards. Suffice to say, he's tough and he's not a quitter. Ike simply said, "I'm good to go."

So No Limits was back in the race but now we were a team with two major disabilities: a blind guy and a gimp. The irony is that instead of being a liability, Ike gets out in front and hammers the whole day.

Jeff and I told Ike multiple times that we understood he didn't want to let the team down but he couldn't risk a permanent injury that would prevent him from serving his country. No matter what we said, Ike insisted on soldiering on. He'd just grit his teeth and say, "I'm good." He was given ibuprofen and a mild narcotic but you could clearly tell the pain was intense. At one point I asked Ike, "On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your level of pain." And he clearly says "Ten" and continues to hike.

Not only was Ike charging on but he was thinking clearly too. He solved the puzzle that Jeff and I couldn't figure out if our lives depended on it. The ability to focus despite considerable pain is part of what makes Ike an exceptional soldier. For him, it's all about pushing through adversity and giving everything he can to his team.

By the end of the day, No Limits went from down and out to second place! As a bonus, we got to hang out with the pretty and smart California Girls too. Our pace was about the same as theirs so it gave us a chance to get to know them better. It was interesting to discover that Brittany is a semi-pro golfer who works for Callaway, while Natalie is a teacher, and Christina does PR for Intel. All three are super nice and I really enjoyed talking with them.

It was definitely sad to see the Country Boys leave. They are the epitome of Southern gentleman and I'm proud to call them friends. Out of all the people on Expedition Impossible, Chad was easily the funniest. He has a sassy style of humor that was always cracking me up. It's surprising the show never mentioned that Nick was in severe pain from a horrendous blister on the bottom of his foot. It was very bloody and starting to get infected so it was probably a good thing they left when they did.

As soon as the stage was over, we headed to the hospital with Ike. I'm assuming some of this drama will air next week so stay tuned!

Expedition Impossible - Behind the Scenes, Episode 6

[Editor's note: the following post originally appeared on Erik Weihenmayer's blog, http://www.touchthetop.com/blog/, and is being republished here with his permission. Among Erik's many notable achievements, he is a CareerConnect mentor as well as the first blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. This summer Erik has been starring in ABC's Expedition Impossible. You can catch the show Thursday nights at 9 EST. Learn more about Erik at his website, http://www.touchthetop.com/.]

Another tough stage in Morocco! Lot's of people commented on how beautiful the waterfall was at the beginning of the show, but I didn't have a second to take in the beauty. Jeff and I were running down steep, broken, uneven stairs, crossing the river and scrambling along a narrow trail. Plenty of times a misstep to the left would have sent me plunging 50 feet off a cliff or tumbling down a rocky slope into the river.

It took focus to get through these sketchy sections. We were proud that we could at least keep pace with the other teams, though it was demoralizing to get passed at times.

As for the infamous "leap of faith," I'll admit I was just a little nervous. I had jumped off taller cliffs at Devil's Glen when I was a kid growing up in Connecticut. On that childhood cliff, you had to be pretty careful where you landed to avoid hitting rocks. I would point my cane and my friends would tell me "yep, right there" "not there" until I had it wired. Typically I'd be the first one in our group to jump so I guess my adventurous streak goes back a ways.

The two big differences here were 1) I could hear whitewater below me, which sometimes means there are rocks. That upped the ante a bit. And 2) since we were racing, Jeff didn't have time to give me the full beta. But I knew he wouldn't steer me wrong and it was just a matter of getting into position.

As always, Jeff did an amazing job helping me get ready for the jump. In fact, as you saw, we held hands and jumped together. That's more than a friend. That's a bro! In fact, he was so focused on getting me in position, he forgot about his own form and when we jumped, I dragged him back a bit so that he landed off-kilter in the water. Fortunately it was a relatively soft landing because the waterfall aerated the water.

When we got to the zip line, I had significant concerns. The previous summer, I was in an adventure race where the zip line was rigged improperly. I picked up way too much speed—a terrifying prospect since there is absolutely nothing you can do to slow down—and went crashing into rocks, nearly breaking my leg.

So it was with great trepidation that I hooked onto this zip line. Before launching into space, I even double checked and asked one of the judges if they were sure it was safe. I still wasn't totally convinced so if you watch the re-run, you'll notice I'm swinging my cane in front of me to feel for an impending collision.

The whitewater section was potentially dangerous. Before we launched, the safety team had told Jeff there were a lot of hazards on this section and that there was a chance I could be in trouble. I learned later that some of the water safety crew were even taking bets whether I'd swim or not. You might have noticed that I'm the only contestant with a big white cross on my helmet. That's so the safety teams will know which is the blind guy flailing in the water.

This section of river had Class 3 rapids with narrow passages in a tight canyon. Some gauntlets were only two widths of a kayak wide with precise zigs and zags. A screw-up meant a hard collision into an overhanging boulder. Eyeballs would have been a nice luxury!

While Jeff and Ike have done a lot with me in the mountains, they aren't my usual river partners. As much as possible, we had Ike out front calling big directions and Jeff in back providing micro adjustments to my course. Jeff and Ike aren't big kayakers themselves, so they had the huge pressure of guiding me, while trying not to flip or get pinned themselves.

Running rapids blind is exciting enough but it gets downright scary when I can't hear the commands from my team. The rapids themselves are plenty loud. However, at one point a film helicopter got so close overhead that the rotor wash drowned out communication and caused me to flip. Let's just say that I was not amused and let them know it by furiously waving them off; later the pilot came over and apologized. No hard feelings. Can you imagine the challenges of filming this over-the-top adventure?

Without question, Jeff and Ike have gone above and beyond for me and I definitely appreciate it. When you surround yourself with good people, anything is possible! Although I took a beating, It felt pretty good finishing in third place this time.

Several people have asked me why we don't hear more from Ike during the episodes. One friend who happened to know Ike is an injured soldier even asked me if he's a deaf mute! The only "problem" with Ike is he's just a down-to-earth understated Kansas boy. He's a total gentleman and always there when you need him. But that doesn't necessarily translate well to television.

Remember last week when we all got to talk to our family back home? Ike actually proposed to his girlfriend, Sarah, while we were in the car and she accepted! Jeff and I were stunned. I think I elbowed him and whispered, "not on national TV." Ike just chuckled. Somehow that didn't make the final cut. But I assure you'll hear more from Ike shortly!

Regarding ratings—this week, things are looking up as the ratings surged 23% with 5.13 million viewers. I hope you'll stay tuned in for as long as Team No Limits hangs in there! I really appreciate your comments—keep them coming.

Expedition Impossible - Behind the Scenes, Episode 5

[Editor's note: the following post originally appeared on Erik Weihenmayer's blog, http://www.touchthetop.com/blog/, and is being republished here with his permission. Among Erik's many notable achievements, he is a CareerConnect mentor as well as the first blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. This summer Erik has been starring in ABC's Expedition Impossible. You can catch the show Thursday nights at 9 EST. Learn more about Erik at his website, http://www.touchthetop.com/.]

Well ABC billed this episode as "A Blind Man's Nightmare" and it lived up to the hype. Though relatively flat, this is the type of terrain that is brutally hard on me. The loose rocks and uneven ground are incredibly treacherous for sighted people too—witness John's blown ankle. When I'm charging along behind Jeff or Ike, holding on to their pack, it's impossible for them to warn me about every danger.

As badly as we wanted to win this stage and talk with our families, we all knew that an injury could mean a helicopter ride home instead. So we had to reduce the pace and watch teams pass us. And that was even before we made some big mistakes!

You saw on the show that we messed up with the fish fossil. In our defense, nothing in the instructions or on the map said that you should keep the rock. In retrospect, we should have assumed that—despite none of the previous challenges requiring an item later—but at the time we were tired and looking at the home stretch so it just never occurred to us this silly rock was that important.

We made light of it and tried to have a good time with the fishmonger as you saw when Jeff offered to trade our GPS for a damn fish and then threatened to just steal a fish, proudly honoring his redneck roots. But it was discouraging to have to hike a mile back to the riverbed. Fortunately, Jeff remembered where he set it down so we weren't hunting all over again!

As we finished that afternoon, Dave Salmoni commented, "Until this stage you guys have come into the finish line with big smiles on your faces. This is the first day you've crossed the line with frowns." We were beaten down physically and emotionally.

Another goof up occurred after the rappel on the second day when we hit a riverbed and went downstream for a quarter mile instead of upstream. We were sliding on our butts down little waterfalls and thinking, "this doesn't seem right, the terrain is too sketchy." This cost us precious time and energy because we lost our focus and weren't communicating well. I knew Jeff was pretty upset because he turned quiet and stopped talking for a while.

Much of this stage, Ike would look back and there would be those persistent pesky fishermen. These guys are just amazing! As you may have noticed, they didn't seem especially fit but they are just tough dudes doing very physical work on boats out at sea. They were always on our heels.

And the Cops were always nearby too. Great folks. On the sections where we could run, they were right with us. Even in the thick of competition, Rob from the Cops team would shout out warnings about rocks I might stumble on. This was such a different reality than all that dog-eat-dog backstabbing on shows like Survivor.

After two weeks of sweating and suffering together, it's getting harder to say goodbye when a team leaves. Those New York Firefighters are definitely a class act. I don't think competition is necessarily in their blood—they run into burning buildings and save people's lives for a living—so they're more into helping other teams all the time. You saw this selflessness in a previous episode when they stuck by the Cali girls who were struggling, cold, with numb hands. We were all sad to see those boys go. I'm hoping to see them when I'm next in Brooklyn; they offered to let my kids slide down the firepole in their firehouse. We'll definitely take them up on this!

I have to say I was humbled by Akbar comparing me to the likes of Jerry Rice, Tim Brown, LaDainian Tomlinson (all NFL greats for those of you who don't follow American football). But come on Akbar, I'd rather be compared to Mohammed Ali...

Of course, the ultimate act of kindness came from our bros, the Gypsies. Right when Jeff and Ike and I were thoroughly crushed, their gift of a phone call and video from our families was almost overwhelming. We later found out that the Gypsies' own families were on hold when they made that gesture. So the producers had to make a hasty decision to accept the offer and then scramble to get our families on line.

Despite some blunders, Team No Limits is still hanging in there. The ratings for the show are still down against the posers on Big Brother. Apparently whining beats out drama these days. All I have to say is you ain't seen nothin' yet!

Expedition Impossible - Behind the Scenes, Episode 4

[Editor's note: the following post originally appeared on Erik Weihenmayer's blog, http://www.touchthetop.com/blog/, and is being republished here with his permission. Among Erik's many notable achievements, he is a CareerConnect mentor as well as the first blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. This summer Erik has been starring in ABC's Expedition Impossible. You can catch the show Thursday nights at 9 EST. Learn more about Erik at his website, http://www.touchthetop.com/.]

As you can imagine, Team No Limits was pretty psyched for the stage in the Atlas Mountains! Jeff and I both live around 5,500 feet so we barely even felt the altitude. Ike is the flatlander who lives in Kansas. But he had climbed a 20,000-foot peak in Nepal with us back in October so he didn't have much problem with the thin air either.

For those of you harshing on Chad and AJ, you might want to cut them some slack. Going from sea level to 10,000 feet and then racing isn't easy and not everyone acclimatizes the same; level of fitness has nothing to do with it. If you've never experienced altitude illness, it can be incredibly debilitating.

Our team pretty much hammered up the mountain and caught up with the Gypsies at the cage challenge. You can tell from what the producers have shown so far that ours is turning into a friendly rivalry. There was a lot of teasing going back and forth with the Gypsies kidding Jeff that he "throws like a girl" when he missed the cage a couple times. Naturally, he tossed jabs right back at them like the one you heard where he said, "you better knock me out with the first punch because I'm gonna come up swingin' for the fences."

While the climb was just a long grunt, the descent was downright treacherous. Fixed ropes were provided but they weren't really necessary. It was the deep, soft snow overtop of big rocks that caused a lot of problems. The Football Players were right behind us at that point so we were all pushing hard. Akbar nearly destroyed his knee on three occasions when he plunged through unexpectedly.

A lot of people were complaining about the food early on. One thing you learn on expeditions is you need to eat for calories instead of taste. Picky eaters are at a real disadvantage on any big endeavor. Typically teams were given a basket with things like corn, beans, sardines, canned fruit, bread, and a couple eggs. That night at the mountain camp, however, we were all treated to a Moroccan goat dinner that was roasted over the fire. So it was a nice treat to fuel up on protein and fat while we tried to dry our shoes and warm up by the bonfire.

As the episode showed, nobody slept well due to the cold and wind. We combined our tarp with the Gypsies, so we were rigged better than some of the others. But it was still pretty miserable with the tarp flapping just a foot above my face all night. And the wimpy sleeping bags didn't help either. This was where the inexperience of some of the other teams started to show through. Sure it was unpleasant but that's pretty much business as usual when you spend time in the mountains.

The next day, however, our team's inexperience cost us in the plow challenge. Since none of us are farmers, we didn't realize you were supposed to plow in the troughs and not on top of the humps! It took about ten rows of wasted effort before we finally realized our mistake.

After we crossed the finish line, David Salomni asked me if I wanted to say anything to my kids. Unfortunately my response didn't make the cut, "I want my kids to know, my Dad may be blind but he's the toughest dude in the world." Then I turned to Jeff and Ike and said, "Except for you guys of course."

It's a shame Expedition Impossible is currently losing the ratings war to Big Brother. But perhaps the next episode will change things. We will rappel 300 feet down a treacherous waterfall, wade waist-deep through a perilous river canyon, and master the Moroccan art of Henna. Suffice to say, it was really tough on me as the episode title indicates... "A Blind Man's Nightmare."

Announcements from AFB

In the spirit of cooperation and collaboration, AFB works with many other agencies in the blindness and low vision fields. These other agencies often share information with us to reach a broader audience. Below are a few of the more recent announcements we've received. To view all announcements, you can visit AFB's Announcements page.

REVISED! Light Box

This newly revised Light Box has a lighted translucent white work surface, providing a high contrast background for opaque materials and a source of illumination for colored transparent and translucent items. It also includes a dimming control to meet the needs of individual students. When used with unique sets of materials designed by the American Printing House, this Light Box helps students use their residual vision by developing awareness of light, color, and objects. The Light Box and materials assist in the instruction of tracking, scanning, eye-hand coordination, visual discrimination, and visual perceptual skills.

The Light Box can be used flat or tilted at three angles. Built-in ledges hold overlays in position. Cool, fluorescent bulb is housed in a tough plastic body measuring 25 x 15 x 5 inches. Includes cover.

How can you use a Light Box? Here's a list of 50 uses.

NEW! GAMES for People With Sensory Impairments (Book)

This valuable book initiates exploration and stimulates the reader's creativity and resourcefulness!

Physical education teachers and activity/recreation directors find GAMES for People With Sensory Impairments: Strategies for Including Individuals of all Ages to be practical, relevant, and realistic. Adapted physical education (APE) professors find it to be a valuable tool when teaching future APE teachers.

The authors, Lauren Lieberman and James Cowart, draw on their extensive experience in teaching students of all ages who have visual impairments, blindness, deafblindness, and multiple disabilities.

For more information or to purchase either the Light Box or GAMES, contact the American Printing House for the Blind.

Phone: (800) 223-1839

E-Mail: info@aph.org

URL: http://www.aph.org/advisory/2011adv07.html

Employment Mentoring Project for both Students and Professionals who are blind

Whether you're a student looking for your next big step after graduation or a professional who's interested in helping recent grads, the Mississippi State University's Research & Training Center on Blindness & Low Vision wants you to connect.

This project is being conducted to determine whether pairing students who are blind with mentors in their career fields will help them find employment.

If interested, both potential students and mentors are asked to fill out an eligibility survey beforehand.

Mentors: http://tiny.cc/mentor-professionals

Students: http://tiny.cc/mentor-students

For more information, contact Jamie O'Mally at Mississippi State University's Research & Training Center on Blindness & Low Vision at rrtc2@colled.msstate.edu or toll free: 1-800-675-7782

Dr. Kay Alicyn Ferrell to Answer Questions on FamilyConnect's "Ask the Expert" Blog

FamilyConnect and AFB Press are excited to announce a special opportunity for families to interact directly with one of the foremost experts on blindness and visual impairment in early childhood, Dr. Kay Alicyn Ferrell. Dr. Ferrell will personally respond to questions posted on the FamilyConnect "Ask the Experts" blog, July 18-29.

This one-of-a-kind opportunity gives families the chance to have their questions and concerns addressed by a top expert, in a forum that will share helpful answers with FamilyConnect members, other families, and professionals. Dr. Ferrell is Professor at the School of Special Education and Director of the National Center on Severe and Sensory Disabilities, College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, at the University of Northern Colorado, Greely. She was the principal investigator of the groundbreaking Project Prism, the first study of child development in 50 years to focus on children with visual impairments and the ways in which their development is similar to or different from that of typically sighted children.

In addition, Dr. Ferrell will also be answering questions about her newest book, Reach Out and Teach: Helping Your Young Child Who is Visually Impaired Learn and Grow. This invaluable resource for both parents of children with visual and multiple impairments and the professionals who work with them, provides information and strategies about promoting child development from birth to school age.

Reach Out and Teach is currently available from the AFB Press bookstore. Parents who wish to read the book prior to participating in the "Ask the Expert" event July 18-29 can purchase it at a special 10% discount by using the coupon code FC2011.

Out-of-Sight Science Experiments (Book)

Who says science isn't fun?

Get kids excited about hands-on science using ordinary materials, like straws, plastic bottles, cups, magnets, clay, sand, and paper clips. Each step-by-step experiment is simply explained for young blind and low-vision scientists. Make balloon rockets, musical instruments, acid rain, volcanoes, glaciers, moving hands, and more!

Don't wait for chemistry or biology class to explore the sciences—get some experience under your belt now! No prior experience is required. Safely uses household materials.

A perfect and safe summertime activity for parents and kids!

Contact: Customer Service, National Braille Press

Phone: (617) 266-6160 ext. 520

Email: orders@nbp.org

URL: http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/SCIENCEEXP.html

Expedition Impossible - Behind the Scenes, Episodes 2 and 3

[Editor's note: the following post originally appeared on Erik Weihenmayer's blog, http://www.touchthetop.com/blog/, and is being republished here with his permission. Among Erik's many notable achievements, he is a CareerConnect mentor as well as the first blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. This summer Erik has been starring in ABC's Expedition Impossible. You can catch the show Thursday nights at 9 EST. Learn more about Erik at his website, http://www.touchthetop.com/.]

Episode #2

As promised, here is some more of the backstory on Expedition Impossible. Things have been pretty hectic lately—the second episode aired during the opening ceremonies of the No Barriers Summit and I was giving a talk in London as the third episode aired—so I'm combining these reports.

When we picked up our Arabian stallions at the start of the stage, you saw Jeff get thrown from his horse. Ike told me what happened but I didn't realize that Jeff landed on his back until the footage was aired. That's pretty good reaction from my bud... a split second after taking a hard spill, he pops right up and shouts "New horse!" and then runs off into the woods in search of a less spirited animal.

I have to say that I was pretty nervous about the seven miles of horseback riding! Since I am blind, if I get thrown off, I can't see the ground coming up. I could easily land on a rock, or twist my ankle, or crack my kneecap in a fall. Not only could I be out of the race but possibly out of commission forever.

Because he was the most experienced rider, Ike would go out in front of me providing directions and Jeff would ride behind providing micro-adjustments while I was trying to control my horse. We got up to the point that we were galloping in places, which is quite exciting. It's actually a smoother ride than trotting but it's also kind of scary as I'm flying past trees and rock walls. Some of the horses were tripping and stumbling on the trail too, so it isn't like you can totally trust them.

One time, a horse from another team started snapping at my horse, which made it twitchy. Fortunately, I was ready for this because two weeks prior to the race I was training on a horse in Colorado and it threw me when another horse went to bite him; my horse jumped right and I fell off to the left on a gravel road. I'm glad I went through the pain of scraped knees and a sprained ankle back home because I was ready for my uppity Arabian stallion.

Leave it to Hollywood to greatly exaggerate reality. In the second show, they made a big deal about my being "abandoned" by our team. The truth is Jeff and Ike were never more than 50 feet away and I was in no danger whatsoever. Before they dashed off to deal with the water bucket challenge, they said, "Hey Erik, watch the packs." Which is often what happens when you're blind. It's sort of like when I was a kid, my Mom would say something like, "Eddie you sweep the leaves up in the backyard, Mark go pick weeds, Erik, uh, go take a bath!" It was a bit of that kind of moment and my teammates were trying to think quickly and they couldn't think of a role for me.

But we did accidentally violate a 20-foot rule, so the production team made Jeff and Ike dump their bucket of water on the ground and come back with me. Here we got lucky because they also found a watertight bucket that let us solve the challenge in a singe trip while the other teams needed two.

The four-mile section of boating in the rubber duckies was pretty tame, though it sounds like some teams may have struggled. And we didn't have any real problem solving the lantern challenge. The next two miles to the camp, we were neck and neck with the Football Players and Fab 3. It was rugged terrain, which slowed me down quite a bit, and both teams eventually passed us.

While blindness hampered our team, brains gave us a third place finish. Jeff showed some amazing navigation skills when he spotted a gap in the stone wall. He shouted, "That could be it!" and cut right, with all of us running hard. We beat the Football Players by mere seconds! And Fab 3 trailed in several minutes later.

Episode #3

Groan. More camels! And not just any camels, these were much bigger and nastier than the first ones we encountered. When we got to the camel station, we opted for some slightly smaller camels in the hopes that they would be tamer. Instead we discovered they had small-guy syndrome and compensated for lack of size with wildness.

I took the ride of my life when my camel, whose legs were hobbled, became hell bent on bucking me off. He was tilting back and forth, dipping his head down, reaching back to bite me, spitting, and letting out this guttural roar—I barely hung on and avoided getting thrown onto my head!

I'll admit to having a small panic attack. Jeff says it was the most freaked out he has ever seen me which, considering we climbed Everest together and have been on countless other adventures, is quite a statement. When I'm biking, kayaking, climbing, or skiing, I have a sense of control. But the animals during this race were unpredictable and downright dangerous. After that, we made a team decision to lead the camels instead of trying to ride them for the 3.8 miles to the olive mill. I would rather run twenty miles through the desert than get back on one of those beasts again!

Assembling the raft out of the barrels wasn't much of a challenge. And it didn't take us long to figure out an efficient system for paddling and steering into the nasty headwind. Just hunker down and get 'er done.

At this point in the competition, we are starting to get to know some of the other teams. Sure we race hard all day but spend time together at night talking and telling stories. Sometimes we cooperate, like when the Gypsies helped us out after Ike's GPS went on the fritz during this stage. The Country Boys proved themselves to be true country gentleman as well. After the rafting section, we had about a mile of off-trail running in our wetsuits to the camp. When I arrived, I was exhausted and covered with hundreds of stickers from the bushes. One of the Country Boys pulled me aside, got down on his knees and started pulling the stickers out of my wetsuit—it was such a nice gesture of kindness.

It seems the majority of the challenges are stacked against Team No Limits since I can't help with things like counting snakes, finding hidden objects on a map, or solving the scroll-a-pole. Thankfully, Jeff and Ike have been up to the tasks so we haven't lost any critical amounts of times... unlike some teams.

The next day's decision to take the 4.1-mile riverbed instead of the 3.3-mile brutal hike was a no-brainer. The two teams that decided to take the "short cut" paid a heavy price. We were psyched to come in second and it's now becoming obvious which teams are in the race for the long haul.

Next up... the Atlas Mountains. I think our chances are pretty good! Please leave a comment on how you like Expedition Impossible so far.

Expedition Impossible - Behind The Scenes #1

[Editor's note: the following post originally appeared on Erik Weihenmayer's blog, http://www.touchthetop.com/blog/, and is being republished here with his permission. Among Erik's many notable achievements, he is a CareerConnect mentor as well as the first blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. This summer Erik is starring in ABC's Expedition Impossible. You can catch the show Thursday nights at 9 EST. Learn more about Erik at his website, http://www.touchthetop.com/.]

I hope you enjoyed the first episode of Expedition Impossible, which aired last Thursday night on ABC! Somebody sure did because the show was ranked #1 among adults 18 to 49, teens 12 to 17, and kids 2 to 11—the highest rating the network has had on Thursday night since the finale of Lost in 2008.

While I can't tell you anything about future episodes, as long as Team No Limits hangs in there, I will post some stories about what happened that you don't see on the camera.

For example, you may not have realized that the first of the ten stages was actually two days long. The first day of racing wasn't too critical except the winning team got a 5-minute head start the next morning. And the teams that came in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, then got a 5-minute head start over the remaining teams. It's the second day of a stage that really matters because that's when the helicopter may be flying you away.

As we were resting in our Berber tent before the start on the first day, I left to go to the bathroom and Mark Burnett came in and had a talk with Jeff. Mark asked, "Are you sure he's going to be able to handle this?" Jeff replies, "Yeah, I think so." Then Mark says, "Well I hope we haven't made a big mistake here." Jeff told me this of course and we both think Mark said this on purpose, knowing I would hear about it. Not 100% sure, but if this was part of his plan, it totally worked. When somebody says I can't do something, I tend to get fired up!

At this early stage of the competition, all the teams are checking each other out. We had seen each other in L.A. at the audition and again in a hotel on the way to Morocco but nobody was allowed to talk to other teams. So Jeff and Ike sized up the others for me. We laughed about the guys in knee-high purple socks but, at the same time, they looked pretty fit. We also saw these giant guys, who we later discovered were NFL football players. We joked, "Big trees fall hard." When we happened to pass Akbar in the hotel, he actually growled at us, which was rather unsettling. It turned out he was totally kidding and is actually a super nice guy!

The first day involved the brutal sand dune climb in searing heat. Notice that out of all 39 contestants, I was the only smart one who wore gaiters to keep sand out of my shoes. This may sound like a small thing but everyone else had sand piling down their feet that gave them huge blisters. Jeff and Ike had to stop several times to pour sand out of their shoes.

Did I mention how brutal the climb was? The show focused on Chad (from the Country Boys) suffering but I can tell you he wasn't the only one. Jeff and I had just arrived from Colorado, which gave us a bit of an edge, but poor Ike was a flatlander and he really struggled. Of course Ike soldiered on—he's earned two Bronze Star Medals, a Purple Heart, and an Army Commendation Medal after all— but this raised the specter of doubt about our team's success for the first time.

The second day was really hard for me because it was super rocky as we descended into a valley. This type of terrain is very difficult for me to move through quickly and I got worked. At this point, we were about even with the Fishermen but eventually I couldn't keep up the pace and they passed us. As they went by, one of them turned to us and with that thick accent said, "Remember our names, we're the Fishermen. We're for real!" After that, Jeff, who is super competitive said, "I hate those guys!"

So lots of early assessments going on on everyone's part. I can't fault the girl who wrote me off in the beginning: She said something like, "There's a blind guy on one of the teams, so I know we'll beat at least one team." Like a lot of people, she just had no idea what a blind person is capable of. As we got to know the Fishermen, we actually liked them a lot; they came across as Gloucester gruff at first but were really awesome—sincere, hard working and the kinds of guys who you'd want around in a raging storm. They also had incredible fishing stories, going out to sea for weeks on end and having to be totally self-reliant. The Football Players are actually the nicest guys in the world. Akbar is a gentle giant full of curiosity, except when it comes to all the insects around camp. All the creepy crawlies terrified him.

Our big mistake wasn't mis-counting the snakes, it was moving too fast. We were among the front runners and just made a mistake, which was a huge bummer that cost us a half hour. But that's one of the things you learn from experience... you screw up, you make a mistake, deal with it. The faster you get over it and the faster you come together as a team and figure how you're going to remedy the situation and get back on track, the faster you're back in the game. I was really proud of Ike and Jeff because we kept our heads together even though we made this blunder.

Well that's it for now. Stay tuned for next week's episode [Editor's note: Thursday night] and then come back to my blog for more behind the scene stories!

Expedition Impossible - The Race Begins!

[Editor's note: The following post comes courtesy of Erik Weihenmayer, a former middle school teacher turned professional mountain climber, and the first blind person to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. Erik is also a CareerConnect mentor as well as author of Touch the Top of the World: A Blind Man's Journey to Climb Farther than the Eye Can See. This summer Erik is starring in ABC's Expedition Impossible. You can catch the show Thursday nights at 9 EST. Learn more about Erik at his website, http://www.touchthetop.com/.]

My boldest decision of the year was entering a new reality TV show, produced by Mark Burnett, called Expedition Impossible—an adventure race across the ancient kingdom of Morocco. No blind person had ever done anything like this, and it was a huge risk for the TV executives to even accept me.

My team—longtime climbing partner Jeff Evans, twice-wounded war veteran Aaron Isaacson, and myself—tested our skills against twelve other teams to see if we could out-think and out-suffer them on the way to the victor's cup. For a month, we raced across scorching deserts and frigid mountains, forged through chest-deep rivers down narrow canyon gorges, kayaked raging whitewater, and rode Arabian stallions and camels across the rugged countryside. Galloping a spitting, biting camel across the Sahara Desert as it puked green vomit and tried to throw me on my head may have been scarier than climbing Mt. Everest blind. Every day of the competition was a massive reach through adversity, and some days, to be honest, I was just happy to have survived.

In an ad leading up to the show, a woman from another team says, "I heard there is a blind guy competing, so I know we'll beat at least one team." Check out the series, which will run on Thursdays throughout the summer, to see if her prediction plays out. Also visit my blog to get behind the scenes stories about each episode. And be sure to cheer on Team No Limits throughout this grueling adventure!

Inspiration from a Pop Star: Lady Gaga's 'Born this Way'

I'm not sure how many of you bought Lady Gaga's new album; it just came out a couple weeks ago. Well, I did. A few of the songs offer positive messages, but one in particular stands out. I'm sure you've already heard this song on the radio or seen the video on TV: "Born This Way" (which is also the album's title) has quickly become an anthem for all who are proud of who they are.

I think this message needs to be embraced by those with visual impairments (or any disability). Lady Gaga didn't write the song alone, but she definitely delivers it amazingly. Simply put, she represents being who you are.

I am not saying that those with a disability aren't proud of who they are, but it doesn't hurt to shout it out. This song makes me think about being proud of who I am, and that includes my visual impairment.

Being visually impaired is not the end-all of what I am, but just a part of who I am. Take the time to think about who you are and be proud to be you! "Born This Way" is about self-acceptance and self-pride. It really is a mantra for being who you are and being true to yourself.

I encourage everyone to check the song out — here's a brief excerpt of the lyrics:

Don't hide yourself in regret / Just love yourself and you're set / I'm on the right track, baby / I was born this way*

I am proud to be a person with visual impairment; I am proud to work at AFB; and most of all, I am proud to be who I am! I want to thank Lady Gaga for delivering this message. I believe it's an idea everyone with disabilities or obstacles should embrace.

*Paul Blair, Fernando Garibay, Stefani Germanotta, Jeppe Breum Laursen, Born This Way, Born This Way, BMI Repetoire.

Apple helps you to take control of your TV!

Our cable boxes might not be accessible, but the good news is that there is something we can easily navigate using built-in voiceover: Apple TV.

The second-generation Apple TV allows you to access iTunes (for movies, TV shows, podcasts, music, and more), Netflix (in an accessible manner), YouTube, Major League Baseball or National Basketball Association subscription services, and Internet radio. Note that you do have to subscribe in order to use Netflix (a basic streaming plan that includes movies and TV shows goes for about $8 a month), and iTunes also requires you to pay for most content.

Set up is relatively easy. With some assistance from my sighted fiancée, I had Apple TV up and running in five minutes. It took an extra minute or two to set up voiceover in the accessibility settings. The device requires the following: high-speed Internet access, a high-definition television/monitor, a high-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) cord, an HDMI port on your TV, and high-definition content protection (HDPC) enabled on your TV.

I have less than one percent of my vision. In using Apple TV for the first time, I felt some freedom and independence in navigating through movies, TV shows, music, and more. In fact, my family and I are purchasing one for my mother, who is also visually impaired.

The device is so easy to use that after spending a few minutes playing with Apple TV, I turned to my fiancée and asked, "Why can't the cable companies do this? And why haven't we heard much about this option?" My colleague, Darren Burton of AFB TECH, was one of the first people I had heard talking about Apple TV, and that had piqued my interest.

I decided more people needed to know about this option, so when presented with the opportunity to do a product evaluation on Apple TV for AccessWorld, AFB's free online magazine, I jumped at the chance.

You can find out more about Apple TV and many other products from AccessWorld. AccessWorld offers great articles and evaluations on everything from the iPhone, iPad, printers/copiers, assistive technology, websites, and the most accessible apps available. Become an informed consumer--read AccessWorld!

And if you're thinking about how to best access media, including print and electronic text, you might want to check out Senior Site's eLearning webinar, Reading Without Seeing.

I hope the cable companies are listening and learning from companies like Apple. It is time for us to take back the remote control!

You don't have to trust your bartender anymore! Try the LookTel Money Reader.

In March, during our Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute, I was preparing a presentation demonstrating the built-in accessibility of Apple's iPhone and iPad devices when I heard about a new money identifier app: the LookTel Money Reader.

LookTel's Money Reader is a $1.99 app available from Apple's App Store, and it is by far the best currency identification tool I have ever used. It is certainly a tremendous bargain compared to the dedicated currency identification gadgets on the market priced in the $100-$300 range, and I have found it to be more accurate and much faster and easier to use. You simply wave your iPhone, iPod or iPad over the bill, with no need to flatten or straighten it out, and a voice quickly tells you the denomination. This app works on the iPhone 3G S or later, and it works on the iPad 2 and the iPod Touch (4th generation).

This app also caught the eye of representatives of the U.S. Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, who attended JLTLI. They are currently working on ideas for making U.S. currency accessible to people with vision loss, and an app like this could be one solution. Read more about their efforts.

Meanwhile, if you have an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad and have purchased the app yourself, please share your experiences in the comments.

Big Change in the Cell Phone Business Could Help People with Vision Loss

By now you've likely heard that AT&T wants to merge with T-Mobile to become the biggest cell phone provider in the United States. This proposed merger must get approval from a couple of government agencies before it is final, and there will be lots of arguments for and against the marriage of these two big carriers.

But there is one thing that definitely is important for cell phone customers who are blind or visually impaired. AT&T has been a leader in providing consumers with vision loss with comprehensive access to a range of mobile phone handsets, especially smart phones. It led the way in subsidizing and supporting specialized software for people with vision loss that provides access to a comprehensive set of features on a mobile phone, and of course, through its partnership with Apple, AT&T helped to bring to market the iPhone, the first fully accessible smart phone with built in accessibility (made available on all phones at no additional cost). And, AT&T is now working to improve the accessibility of handsets running the popular Android operating system.

To date, T-Mobile has not provided its consumers with vision loss with support for specialized software or with a fully accessible cell phone.

These are the facts that AFB has long made clear to anyone who is interested. So we hope that if this merger with T-Mobile comes to fruition, consumers with vision loss who had been subscribing to T-Mobile will benefit from access to AT&T's accessibility services.

There is one other interesting possible and beneficial outcome from this merger. A combination of AT&T and T-Mobile networks could lead to enhanced access to wireless broadband. For those of us with vision loss who are able to obtain mobile broadband, the benefits in immediate access to comprehensive information and services is truly remarkable.

Working from Home: Everybody likes the Idea of It!

"Hello there, do you want to work from home? Do you want a shorter commute?" Working from home is a hot topic and has been for a while. Often people think of all the positives about working from home, but do not grasp the negatives. Most of us receive emails telling us about the latest work-from-home opportunity, but many of these turn out to be scams. I am Joe Strechay and I work for AFB in the CareerConnect program. I write about employment issues. I get the opportunity to look at a lot of "work from home" opportunities —some valid, many not. The idea of working from home is very enticing; your commute is limited to a desk in your home, you are your own onsite supervisor, and the dress code is very lenient (I prefer my pajamas). AFB CareerConnect offers some great resources and in particular, an article on "how to spot work from home scams" from the true opportunities. You can also use a search engine to research an opportunity. Put the word "scam" or "fraud" in the search box, as well. You will find posts from others who have had this same opportunity. Take the time to research any opportunity prior to signing up.

"Working from home" can be even more intriguing for people with disabilities because it limits transportation issues. Transportation can be an extremely large barrier to persons with visual impairments becoming successfully employed. Another benefit could be that you may already have your assistive technology at home, so it would limit the cost to the employer—this might be more enticing for some businesses who worry about the cost of assistive technology. A negative would be that you become your own IT (Information Technology) specialist. This means you will have to able to problem solve and fix many of your own technology issues. Some issues can be resolved virtually, but not all. Disability.gov's "Disability Blog" offers a great series of posts called Career Connections. The most recent update is by Raymond E. Glazier, Ph.D., (Director of the Abt Associates Center for the Advancement of Rehabilitation and Disability Services and Member of the Work Without Limits Initiative) called Career Connections: The Pleasures and Perils of Working from Home: Is Telework for you? This piece gives a great list of positives and negatives to consider dealing with "working from home."

Another great resource to check out is AFB's "Work Life" message board where you can get commentary from other job seekers or persons with employment experience. Whatever you decide, just be smart and cautious. Stick with the old adage: "if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is too good to be true."

Review of the new film, Going Blind

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a viewing of the documentary, Going Blind. As a person with low vision and a professional in the field for over 30 years I am always a bit hesitant to get excited about media that deals with issues related to blindness and visual impairment. But I received some promotional material on the movie, and decided to check it out. In Going Blind, director Joseph Lovett chronicles his own experience with glaucoma. As Lovett's glaucoma becomes more severe, he wants to learn how others are coping with vision loss. He meets six other individuals living with vision loss, including a young Veteran who recently lost his sight, and tells us their stories. Each of the characters shows us how important it is to learn new adaptive techniques, such as how to travel independently using a cane, or how to access a computer using screen reading or screen magnification software.

One of the stories included in the trailer features a woman who wanted to hide her vision loss from the world. Though this sentiment is common, I was concerned about the message it sent to viewers. But after seeing the movie, and learning more about her story, my initial concern was alleviated. I realized that this feeling was just part of her journey, and by the end of the film, we learn that she now works with others experiencing vision loss and helps them accept their diagnosis and take advantage of training, techniques, and tools.

As I watched the movie, I could not help but notice the emphasis on finding a cure for vision loss. While it's natural to want to find a cure, it often interferes with the adjustment process and leads to unrealistic expectations and hopes. By the end of the film, Lovett has made some adjustments to living with diminishing eyesight and learned a few new skills, but he remains focused on finding a cure for his vision loss. My hope is that he also focuses on learning new skills and adaptive techniques that will help him live an active, independent life if a medical solution does not appear.

For those interested, the Going Blind web site has lots of great resources and strongly encourages viewers to host a panel discussion after the screening. With the vision loss rates expected to rise as the population ages, more and more Americans will soon be in Lovett's shoes. And it's really important that people with vision loss and their family members learn about the resources available to help them cope. I recommend seeing this film, hosting a panel discussion, and learning more about key resources such as AFB Senior Site or CareerConnect.

A Pilgrimage to Helen Keller's Birthplace, Part 1

Guest Blogger Helen Selsdon, AFB Archivist

I am an English woman who has lived for over twenty years in New York City. Eight of these years have been spent working as the Archivist at the American Foundation for the Blind, where I have organized the over 80,000 items contained in the Helen Keller Archives. I have come to live and breathe Helen and her teacher Annie Sullivan.

A few weeks ago I visited Helen Keller's birth place in Tuscumbia, Alabama. It was easily one of the most memorable trips I have ever taken. Period. This trip was a long-awaited pilgrimage; however, all the expectations I had of visiting her home and the South were nothing compared to the sensations that hit me and the thoughts that the trip prompted.

AFB CEO and President Carl Augusto and I arrived late on a Monday evening at Huntsville Airport, Alabama. I was immediately struck by the sweet Alabama air and the beautiful, lush landscape. We were greeted by a warm, southern welcome from Mike McMackin, the Helen Keller Birthplace Foundation President, an enthusiastic proponent of all things Helen and a man who knows everyone.

Mike took us to our hotel, where my room looked out onto a wide, sultry and quietly flowing Tennessee River. Great music was everywhere, and Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, where so many R&B artists have recorded, was two miles away. At 11 pm we went downstairs for a bite to eat and to listen to a young female singer with a lovely voice singing and accompanying herself on guitar. Mike has known her since childhood. I am very grateful to Mike who took it upon himself to be my personal tour guide, ensuring that I saw places that feature in Helen's story and that I would otherwise never have seen.

Arriving late Monday night, I was chomping at the bit on Tuesday morning to get to the Keller home, Ivy Green. I have to admit that when we arrived, in my excitement I jumped out the car, abandoning my boss in my dash to the pump. It's a big old 19th century pump and it's fabulously tactile with its curved, massive handle (and yes, I did give it a hug!).

Because AFB owns so many archival documents—photographs and letters about Helen—I was not surprised by the layout of the Keller home, nor its size. The pump is just a few yards in the back of the 1820 Virginia Cottage style house. It's a modest white clapboard home—not a huge plantation house—which surprises many. It feels larger on the inside than the outside; it's bright and airy, with windows, doors, and wooden floor boards that are all wide and typical of that period. It's full of gorgeous artifacts, 85 percent of which are original furnishings. The artifacts put you squarely in the 19th century, such as a "sugar chest," something I'd never seen before, which is a beautiful wooden piece of furniture (reminiscent of a dining room sideboard) that has pride of place, reflecting sugar's standing as a precious commodity.

Of all the rooms that I saw, I was most struck with Helen and Annie's bedroom. Although it was a lovely, good-sized room, I had not expected the ceiling to be so low—a result of being just below the roof. The room slants down on two sides and the light was rather dim. I kept trying to imagine Helen sitting at the small, beautiful wooden desk, which has a braille book displayed on it, earnestly studying. Her small, low bed is a few feet away and on the other side of this room is Annie's larger bed.

The main Keller house is one of the three buildings on the land that were inhabited. The three buildings form a closely arranged triangle, with the pump in the middle. The other two buildings are the cook's quarter and a small cottage house. The cook's quarter is divided in two, with the kitchen area on one side and the cook's bedroom on the other. Unlike the other buildings, the wooden walls of this building have not been renovated or replaced and its original structure is reflected in the discolored and slanted wooden planks and windows. I couldn't help but wonder over the fabulous food that Helen and Annie described in their letters and I was filled with awe that so small and inhospitable a kitchen produced such delicious meals.

As you face this building, to the right of this structure is the cottage house where the young Keller couple originally lived and where Helen was born and where Annie took Helen in an effort to "get through" to her pupil without the distraction of her parents. This pretty house with its large bay window and the cook's house look onto beautifully maintained flower beds.

When I was asked what I liked the most, I replied with what struck me the most—the smells around me. This is the result of the house being surrounded by beautiful 150-year-old boxwood trees as well as mimosa and magnolia trees. When Helen was a child, the property was over 640 acres, and reached down to the Tennessee River. I instantly understood why and how Annie decided to teach Helen outdoors. The natural vegetation, sights and smells must have been the perfect classroom—the sheer pleasure of the smells and touch sensations that were available to her provided a brilliant opportunity for learning, setting the stage for a lifelong love of both learning and nature.

[End of Part 1: In the next installment, Helen Selsdon discusses her impressions of Keller's early life and upbringing in the South.]

First Impressions of the Apple iPad from a Blind User

I dropped by my local Apple store on Sunday to see if the iPad might really be as cool as it sounded.

Well, it's as cool and cooler. I asked the salesman to turn on Voiceover, the built-in screen reader, for me, and he did and handed me the device.

If you're visually impaired and you've gone shopping for home or personal electronics in your life, you already think something is weird here. Screen reader built in? For free? Salesperson who knows it? Knows how to turn it on?

This is not science fiction, this is my actual shopping experience, and this is not the first time I've had such an experience at the Apple store (If you aren't visually impaired, you might think it's kind of normal to go to a store, ask about a product feature that's described on the web site, and have the sales person show it to you. You might even walk out of the store in frustration or disgust if the sales person couldn't figure it out. But we're pretty used to coming up empty-handed.)

OK, so I'll skip a few steps and say I bought an iPad.

Yes, it's an all-touch-screen device. Yes, I've always said that touch screens and blind people don't go together -- it's suggested, usually by slightly dumb people, that I could just memorize where all the icons were and then I could touch the screen at the right spot and get the right thing to happen... Do they really think they could withdraw $100 from an ATM that way? Dial a phone?

But, the iPhone and iPad have an ingenious and delightful interface that actually makes the touch screen a pleasure to use.

There will be a proper, full-featured review of the iPad in AccessWorld soon. These are just the first impressions of a so-far-happy customer.

How does it work?

To get around the screen on the first day, when you don't know where anything is or how it really works, you can explore by swiping your finger across the screen. So, you turn the iPad on (by pressing a "real" button called the home button) and hear the time. Already, a fabulous talking clock! Then, you swipe your finger to the right to hear the date, then again to the unlock button. You can go back the other way by swiping to the left (I presume everything is in reverse for a right-to-left language model, but I've only tried the US English version so far). Once you decide to choose something, which on the first screen is mostly only the unlock button, you swipe across the screen until you land on the thing you want, then double-tap with your finger to activate the button.

While you're exploring the home screen, which is where all the things you can do on the device are listed, you don't need to know where anything is or in what order they are listed. You start swiping, and you'll start with whatever you last did. So, if you had been in the contacts list earlier and then had gone back to the home screen, you would go forward hearing "Notes," "Maps," "Videos," and then you could go backwards through the list and eventually get to the top item. There, you get a sound effect to let you know you've hit the edge.

After using the device a little, you'll learn the physical positions of certain things. On my iPhone, I know where the phone is, where the compass is, and where the clock and battery icons are. So, you tap the spot where you think the item is and Voiceover reads what's there. If it's what you want, you double tap. If you've missed it by a bit, you can swipe across until you find the right thing.

You can explore everything this way, including your playlists in your music app (which they call "iPod") and the keyboard in the Notes application. You can type an entire note by swiping across the keyboard until you find the letter you want, then double-tapping the letter, then swiping forward or back to the next letter.

Life is too short to do many notes that way, and luckily there's an alternative. You can glide your index finger around the screen and Voiceover will say each thing as you pass over it. When you find what you want, you can touch the screen with a second finger, all without lifting up the first finger. This is much faster, but takes some practice.

Of course, if all I want to do is take notes, I have much better options than the iPad. I have a laptop, a BrailleNote,a Victor Reader Stream....

What is it good for?

What I really think I'll do with the iPad is read books, show photographs, watch videos, and surf the Internet. This seems to be a content-consuming device, not a content-creating device. In other words, if I want to write the great American novel, I'll go to my PC with a "real" keyboard, a full-featured screen reader and word processor, and all the bells and whistles. If I want to read my novel after it's published, though, I might do it on this little guy. I sometimes carry my laptop around the house with music playing. Now, I'll do it with the iPad and its much-superior sound quality.

So, what have I done with it so far? I've connected it to my Wi-Fi network and I've synched it with my mac. From there, I transferred my playlists and music files and my photos. The synching was painless.

I have not yet downloaded or read a book -- I did sample the book-reading capability at the store, and it appeared to work well -- the salesperson put me into a book, I explored for a while, then he put me into the text of a chapter so I could be sure the actual text was readable. That's as far as I've gotten.

One of my favorite little dumb features is the screen curtain. I use it on my iPhone. If you tap the screen three times with three fingers together, the screen will go blank. This might save battery... No evidence yet to support this, but it does keep people from looking at what I'm doing. Don't forget to turn it back on if you want to show off your vacation photos!

SPECIAL VALENTINE'S REPORT

AFB Puts Match.com, eHarmony, and Love is Blind to the Accessibility Test

By Adrianna Montague-Gray, AFB Communications, and Marc Grossman, AFB Consulting

With Valentine's upon us—that time of year when everyone's talking about relationships and dating—I was curious about the accessibility of online dating sites, so I asked my colleague Marc Grossman to help me evaluate a few. We didn't do a formal evaluation of each. Instead we looked at the homepages of Match.com, eHarmony, and Love is Blind, and tried to sign up for these sites' services using the JAWS screen reader on Marc's computer.

We started with Match.com, one of the most popular dating sites on the web. At first, things were looking good. Match makes good use of headings, and most of the links, edit boxes, and controls on the site were well labeled. But then, we started hitting some bumps. First, the "sign up" and "subscribe" buttons were not clearly labeled, which made it hard to locate them without sighted assistance. But the kicker came at the end of the sign-up process where we hit a CAPTCHA—the inaccessible, visual verification tool designed to keep spam out of systems. Though Match offers an 800 number (1-800-838-9045) for sight-impaired people who cannot read the CAPTCHA, it's not a working number. We tried it three times and got the same "out of service" recording!

From there we moved to Love is Blind, an online matchmaking site for blind and visually impaired people. This site was an accessibility dream in comparison. Links, edit boxes, and controls were well labeled. The site was clutter free and had a clean design. Unfortunately, we were constantly being reminded that we were not running the latest version of Adobe Flash. This file type is not supported by the W3C guidelines and efforts should be made to come up with a suitable workaround.

Our last stop was eHarmony, a site that asks users to fill out a very long compatibility survey before sending potential love interests their way. The good news is eHarmony doesn't use a CAPTCHA for their sign-up process. But the site was a little disorienting to navigate because it doesn't make use of headings or other markup. In addition, "register to begin" was an unlabeled graphic, which made it near impossible to find the sign up page. But once we did, the combo-boxes and edit fields and radio buttons all had clear labels. We wanted to check out the accessibility of the rest of the site, but we couldn't make it through the questionnaire. It was just too long!

So how many Cupids do these sites get for accessibility?

Here is Marc's conclusion:

Love Is Blind gets four Cupids for accessibility but could easily jump to a perfect five if they would develop a workaround for the Flash barrier.

The eHarmony site earns three Cupids for accessibility. While a few of the problems were annoying and slowed me down, with only minor persistence, I was able to navigate the site.

Match.com would have also earned three Cupids—as most of the site is well labeled and easy to navigate—but with its inaccessible CAPTCHA and out-of-service help number, I have no choice but to give it one Cupid.

But we're hoping all these sites show us some love this Valentine's Day by fixing their accessibility problems.

Now, how to convince my wife that I was on these sites for "research purposes…."

Thanks, Facebook!

Guest Blogger, Caitlin McFeely, AFB Communications

Over the past few months, AFB's Communications Department has spread the word about AFB through the "Cause" application on the social networking site Facebook. For those of you unfamiliar with the site, the Cause application allows individuals and organizations like AFB to explain their mission, invite other "Facebookers" to join and learn more, keep indivudals up to speed on issues, and raise money. To date, AFB's cause has 334 members and has raised $35!

AFB's biggest recruiter for our Cause is Michelle Hackman, one of the teenagers who spent a week at the L'Occitane Perfume School last June. Not only has Michelle recruited 65 people to AFB's Cause, but she has recently become an advocate for an accessible Facebook. Many blind and visually impaired users of Facebook, including Michelle, have noticed some flaws with the site.

One of the biggest problems still revolves around the CAPTCHA-the visual verification tool used to keep spam out of sites that provide online services. While it was great that Facebook added e-mail and audio alternatives to the CAPTCHA, Michelle noted these options don't always work: specifically, the audio alternative is difficult to comprehend. So even with these alternatives, the CAPTCHA still prohibits her from using many of Facebook's features. Another problem we recently encountered is that the audio CAPTCHA is available only when a screen reader is detected by the program. While this is great for blind users of Facebook who are accessing the site with a screen reader, this can prohibit low vision users from accessing the audio and/or e-mail alternative.

Michelle decided to take action and bring this and other problems to the Facebook staff. Last week, Michelle and I had the pleasure of discussing the inaccessible features of the site with Jeff, a Facebook employee that works on accessibility issues. Jeff was really responsive to our concerns and promised that his team would work hard to tackle these issues. He even hopes to set up a project timeline to keep track of the concerns and progress made.

I'll keep you posted about changes that are made by Facebook to make the site usable by all. For now, we want to thank Jeff and Facebook for making accessibility a priority. As Michelle said after the meeting, "I really liked what he said about Facebook really being accessible for everyone who wants to use it, because, of course he's right, but I don't think other people are always as considerate."

AT&T Expands Options for Cell Phone Users with Vision Loss

Good news on the cell phone front. This week, AT&T Inc. announced their new partnership with Code Factory and their initiative to increase usability for wireless customers who are blind or have low vision. AT&T will now offer the screen reader and magnification software, Mobile Speak and Mobile Magnifier, on select Windows Mobile and Symbian Series 60 phones. Consumers with vision loss are advised to contact AT&T's National Center for Customers with Disabilities at 866-241-6568 with questions or for more information.

We have set up a page on our web site to compile information about cell phone accessibility and ways in which people with vision loss can address access concerns. As we more fully understand the AT&T offer, we will provide details on that page.

We're pleased to see that AT&T continues to show leadership in addressing the needs of the blind and low vision community. AT&T is to be commended for offering full-fledged screen access software, something that no other cell phone company is doing. However, we are disappointed that AT&T has decided to charge people with vision loss an $89 fee for Mobile Speaks or Mobile Magnifier. Though this price is a substantial savings off the market price of these products, this financial burden amounts to a "disability surcharge" for cell phone use that is available to customers without disabilities at no extra charge. (By the way, AT&T had offered the screen reader TALKS with a full rebate for the price of TALKS with a two-year contract).

I also want to note two other concerns:

1. The phones that are offered with the screen access software tend to be expensive (even with a two-year contract).
2. Some consumers do not wish to learn the commands of a screen reader. We hope that AT&T will do more to address the needs of consumers with vision loss who want a low-end phone with a simplified access interface.

Those concerns notwithstanding, I commend AT&T for its leadership and hope that other cell phone carriers and manufacturers will follow AT&T's lead and will offer more accessible wireless options for customers with vision loss, while keeping in mind these options should be made available at no additional cost to blind or visually impaired consumers.

GPS...I don't remember that fraternity

Ah, campus life. Dormitories, dining halls, and...GPS? The newest school staple for co-eds with vision loss is a talking Global Positioning System (GPS). Some of you readers might not be familiar with GPS, how it works, or its level of effectiveness so you should read AccessWorld®'s—AFB's online technology magazine—review of Sendero GPS 3.5 for BrailleNote. Now, back to school. Florida State University recently completed mapping its campus so that various important spots can be picked up by the electronic tracking tool. Hmmm...I wonder if this includes all the party spots. In order to use these systems, students must have upgraded Braille Note notetakers which are basically small computers with a one-line Braille display and a Braille-input keypad. Then they can just attach the GPS to their Braille Notes and they're off. I can only imagine how great this is for student's confidence, independence, and sense of belonging. Lets just hope it spreads to campuses across the country.

Glenn Beck Makes Offensive Comments on CNN

Guest Blogger Paul Schroeder, Vice President, Programs and Policy Group

Late last week Glenn Beck made some offensive comments on his CNN Headline News program about braille signs on walls. Media Matters has a clip on their site.

The reality is that braille signage is extremely important for information and orientation purposes just like signage for anyone. And though we wish Mr. Beck would have thought twice before making such stupid remarks on national television, it has given us the opportunity to address some of the questions people have about braille in public spaces.

Lots of people probably wonder about braille signs, on elevators, next to office doors or hotel rooms, and everyone's favorite, drive-up ATMs. For the record, the signs are placed according to a standard to ensure that people who are blind do in fact know where to check— typically on the wall next to a door or next to an elevator button. And why are those drive-up ATMs accessible to people with vision loss? Ever stop to think that blind people use taxis (and, yep, go to ATMS), how about that?!

Glenn Beck didn't even pause to think about how braille might be used when he popped off about the silliness of braille signs in buildings. Glenn knows nothing about blindness or braille, and unfortunately for him, he's probably not really interested in learning either.

But, thanks, Glenn, for giving us an opportunity to remind the world just how helpful braille signs can be, and to make clear to the pitiful few who might actually look to Glenn for guidance that yes, braille signs are placed just where blind people can find them.

Good things coming out of Carnegie Mellon

Earlier this month a friend sent us an interesting article from the Carnegie Mellon newspaper about a new technology developed on campus to make it easier for people who are blind to go shopping. According to the school's paper, the technology works as follows:

"Imagine a blind man walks into Entropy [Carnegie Mellon's campus store] and wants to pick up a bottle of mustard. As he walks past one aisle to another, he uses a UPC-reading Baracoda pencil integrated with his phone to scan the barcodes on the shelves under the products he browses. The Baracoda pencil contacts the UPC database through the Internet-enabled phone and identifies the product. The information returned to the phone is then read out by TALKS, software developed by Nuance that was installed in the phone."

Assuming the technology would be affordable, this could be really useful for people with vision loss. The team worked closely with a man who is blind on the project, and he gave the assistive technology rave reviews. I was very moved when I read this article, because there's something very heartwarming about students working to improve the lives of people with disabilities. According to the article, the team's next mission is to make the school's shuttle service friendlier to people with vision loss by keeping them informed of arrival times through text messaging. Hats off to Carnegie Mellon! We'll be following the team's progress.

Braille Bug I Love You's

It's that one day of the year when everyone's talking about love... and we have a cute, creative way to celebrate here at AFB. If you visit our Braille Bug web site, you can e-mail braille love notes (like the "I love you" above) to your friends and loved ones. The recipient of your note will be taken to a page where they can easily decode your message. We think it's a fun, different way to say I love you. Rumor has it Cupid likes it too.

Online Shopping Makes for a Happy, Hassle-Free Holiday Season

Holiday shopping is right around the corner and this year I'm doing mine online. Long gone are the days of mile-long lines, busy sales clerks, and crowded stores; online shopping is convenient and hassle-free. One of the things I like most about shopping on the web is that the majority of sites contain useful descriptions of their products and are very accessible to people with vision loss. A recent review of online shopping sites in AccessWorld® shows that most e-tailers are actually ahead of the curve when it comes to accessibility. From Amazon to Gap to PetDiscounters, shopping sites are screen reader-friendly and, best of all, they are open 24 hours a day.