The Assistive Technology Blog

Click on http://www.freedomscientific.com/downloads/magic/MAGic11-promo-dl.asp to access "the MAGic® 11.0 promotional release...a trial offer that lets you try the newest MAGic screen magnification release, which can run with or without the latest release of JAWS® 9.0. This promotional version operates without interruption until September 2008, so that you can try out the most recent product enhancements or take the opportunity to try MAGic in combination with JAWS."

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 6:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://blog.blindaccessjournal.com/ to read the many entries in Blind Access Journal blog. Description from the blog:

This blog and podcast is all about the blind and our quest for the greatest possible access to all the information available in the world around us. Karen and I chronicle our experiences dealing with a variety of issues as a blind couple, show how we have dealt with various blindness situations and seek comments on ways to constructively address the concrete concerns of accessibility and transportation we face on a daily basis.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Click on http://www.zacbrowser.com/ for the free "ZAC Browser - Zone for Autistic Children."From the website:

ZAC is the first web browser developed specifically for children with autism, and autism spectrum disorders such as Asperger syndrome, pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), and PDD-NOS. We have made this browser for the children - for their enjoyment, enrichment, and freedom. Children touch it, use it, play it, interact with it, and experience independence through ZAC. ZAC is the zone that will permit your child to interact directly with games (a LOT of games) and activities (focused on MANY interests) that cater specifically to kids who display the characteristics of autism spectrum disorders, like impairments in social interaction, impairments in communication, restricted interests and repetitive behavior. ZAC has been an effective tool for kids with low, medium and high functioning autism.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Trying to make your websites accessible? Wondering how to stay abreast of the latest information on web accessibility? For more information, visit http://www.webaim.org/blog/wave-toolbar-and-blog-available/

Posted by Fran Smith at 3:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Interested in creating an accessible PDF document in Word 2007? Something that a user who is blind can access? Visit http://abilitynet.org/uk/webarticle87 for more information.

Posted by Fran Smith at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Amy Quinn of Virtual Hosting emailed us about their article " Test Me: 25 Freebie Website Accessibility Checkers" (http://www.virtualhosting.com/blog/2008/test-me-25-freebie-website-accessibility-checkers), writing that she thought our readers would find it interesting. Take a look-there are some well-considered comments already posted there, too!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 4:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The Firefox Accessibility Extension 1.2 is now available from the following website:
http://firefox.cita.uiuc.edu

New features include:
1. Testing dynamically generated web pages with the Illinois Functional Accessibility Evaluator
2. Improved support for ARIA markup, but for the latest ARIA features try beta version 1.3
3. Updated menus and better organization, fixing of reported bugs

The developers are looking for your evaluative comments. "Please write a review of version 1.2 on the Firefox Add-ins website, they will not update the version on the website until there are a certain number of reviews. Curretnly they only have version 1.0 on the "Firefox add-ins" website, so your help would be greatly appreciated."

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1891

Posted by Fran Smith at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ai Squared has recently released a new version of it's product ZoomText for a USB drive. This provides the screen magnification functionality on a portable flash drive--allowing users to take the software to another computer and access the program. For more information, visit http://www.aisquared.com/Products/usb/index.cfm

Posted by Fran Smith at 3:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Want to read more about a great conference on technology innovation? Follow the link below to review information, presentations, handouts, and more indepth information from the nation's leading innovators in AT and technology innovation. For more information visit, http://www.nationaltechcenter.org

Posted by Fran Smith at 7:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Google's search engine offers some great services that, not only help folks browse the web, but also assist those with disabilities. For example,

the calendar provides a speech-friendly interface
the GMail email service offers a simple html interface that works well with many screen readers
the sign-in captcha service provides an audio alternative

For more information, visit,

http://labs.google.com/accessible/
http://www.accessibilityblog.com/2006/04/11/google-releases-audio-captcha/

Posted by Fran Smith at 5:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The National Center for Technology Innovation has an interesting story in its headlines regarding the new alliance of AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft. These companies are working together to "increase the amount of online video accessible to people who are deaf or hard of hearing". To read more, visit http://www.nationaltechcenter.org/index.php/2007/1e-online-media-captioning/0/27/aol-google-microsoft-yahoo-unite-to-advanc

Posted by Fran Smith at 7:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Sun Microsystems' Accessibility Program has teh slogan, "Driven by the belief that designing to meet the needs of users with disabilities can improve the productivity of ALL users." What are they doing to back this up? Sun has recently earned the Americans with Disabilities Act Eagle Award in acknowledgment of its advancements in enabling technologies-largely for their work with Enabling Technologies in building accessibility for Java that does the following:

Works with the accessibility architecture(s) built into any platform on which Java programs run Scales and extends beyond desktop systems to include Java-powered devices such as information kiosks and nomadic systems Enables and promotes built-in accessibility to minimize the need for external assistive technology Provides programmatic support for assistive technologies Enables developer tools to implement and utilize the architecture in a way that promotes "access friendly" design methods

Some of their other activities include:

Developing guidelines on how to build accessible products
Specifying functional requirements for access solutions
Enabling Sun products to meet the requirements of Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Telecommunications Act
Establishing partnerships with research organizations, corporations, and standards bodies to focus on increasing product accessibility.

Worried about the inaccessiblity of Java applets that populate the educational, work, and social web? Looks like we'll have help soon.

For more info, click on http://www.sun.com/access/general/overview.html, http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/accessibility/reference/docs/index.html or http://www.zdnetindia.com/index.php?action=article&prodid=13650&chid=70&Ref=Java

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Communicate: Webwide from Widgit software, bills itself as "first symbol-supported web browser" and is intended to turn websites into different levels of picture supported text with full speech support if needed. Communicate: Webwide is a subscription-based service which gives users a flexible means of accessing information online. It will help any reader who has difficulty accessing the text in standard English language web pages.

According to the website, "You can choose between the coloured and black & white Widgit Literacy symbols (previously know as Widgit Rebus). These have a vocabulary of over 29,000 words. You can save your favorites through an easy to access manager. You can add an icon or graphic to remind you what the site is about. There is also a web portal that has links to sites that work well in symbols."

Most interesting, perhaps, is that the product is portable: "Symbols are accessed over the Internet, not from your machine. Widgit are constantly updating the online repository of symbols and vocabulary that powers Webwide. Because Communicate: Webwide is a subscription service, the symbols don't need to be installed on your machine. This means that you will get access to new symbols and extended vocabulary instantly. Every time the program is launched any available updates are installed, so you'll never need to worry about upgrading to receive new features."

Visit http://www.widgit.com/products/webwide/index.htm for a 30 day free trial.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The following link will provide recorded footage from the 2006 Big Ten Plus IT Accessibility Conference. These videos have been created to playback using the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) CCforFlash Player...offering an accessible playback mode. For more information and review, visit http://wac.osu.edu/conferences/cic_it_accessibility_06

Posted by Fran Smith at 11:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The other day, we linked to Darrell's comments on the need for more consultation with/decisionmaking made by people with disabilities related to assistive technology companies (his blog focuses on visual impairments). Here's some related news:

In the last month [Microsoft] has begun to work more closely with an organization whose employee mix includes both visually impaired and blind people. {They will be looking at questions such as] can the application be fully navigated and/or accessed without a mouse? Does it work out of the box with third party screen reader applications like JAWS?

Read more here: http://navintmicrosoftcrm.blogspot.com/2007/05/assistive-technology-and-microsoft-crm.html

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Description from topshareware.com:

IM Speak! is a tool that adds speech and personality to incoming messages from your favorite Instant Message program. By using the program, you can assign 'voices' to each one of your buddies allowing them to speak to you in any voice you choose along with many other features.

Click on Topshareware.com's website http://www.topshareware.com/IMSpeak!-download-2781.htm for the free download (if you like it, it's kind of pricey--$24 at last check...).

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've been thinking a lot lately about computer games, social networks like Second Life, and access for all people. I went out on the web looking for who else is thinking about it and ran across this great 2005 account of one person's desire to have fun while working on his AT use.
http://www.csun.edu/cod/conf/2005/proceedings/2233.htm is the link for "FUNCTION FOLLOWS FUN: HOW GAMES HELPED ME TO DEVELOP MY SWITCH SKILLS."

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Click on http://techdirt.com/articles/20050214/0927236_F.shtml to read about a researcher with a visual impairment who needed to be able to view atmospheric maps so he built a system that would turn colors into musical notes.

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Check out this Universal Design for eLearning: Making Learning Accessible to ALL Learners article with "webliography" by Pananea Rue: http://synergy.elearn2lead.com (about halfway down the page). The links include some courseware comparisons and links to things you might not have look at yet. Take a gander--eLearning is a significant part of our present and future and we need to be ready for it!

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 2:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Who's got the new Windows Vista? (I don't.) But if you do, or are curious about how the new Vista operating system will interact with consumers who use assistive technology, here's another source of info: http://blogs.msdn.com/ptstv/archive/2007/02/15/partner-tv-saqib-shaikh-talks-about-assistive-technology-for-windows-vista.aspx

The blog also provides some other accessibility links, to remind us that Bill and friends have AT users in mind:
The Accessibility home page: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/
Accessibility in Windows Vista: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windowsvista/default.aspx
Accessibility features in other Microsoft products: http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/default.aspx

Posted by Susanne Croasdaile at 5:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Amazon.com, the online resource for books and other popular items, has pledged its commitment to continue improving the accessibility of its Web site platform. The National Federation for the Blind will contribute its expertise in Web accessibility technologies to help further Amazon.com’s efforts. To read more, follow this link:
http://www.nfb.org/nfb/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=174

Posted by Fran Smith at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Looking for online discussion forums? Try http://www.fctd.info/webboard/index.php.
From the website:

You can also find in our archive, forum transcripts on assistive technology mediation, AT issues during times of transition, assistive technology outcomes, AT funding, AT research, Web accessibility, universal design, the SETT Framework, AT and occupational therapy, and emergent literacy. You may also request a copy of the Family Center's "AT Resources" CD-ROM, which contains formatted transcripts of our archives. All FCTD online conferences are free, having been made possible by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).

Posted by Kelly Ligon at 4:58 AM | Permalink

Captcha is a technique that is increasingly used on websites for web/ signature authentication. You're probably familiar with the box of squiggley letters and numbers that one is asked to type in correct sequence. This is a captcha technique. However, for many users who have certain disabilities, this can be difficult -- if not impossible -- to complete. To read more of the technical discussion, visit http://www.w3.org/TR/turingtest/

Posted by Fran Smith at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Web Accessibility Capacity Building Institute funded by the National Science Foundation through The Northwest Alliance for Access to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (AccessSTEM) met at the end of 2006 to discuss best practices/ directions on web access in higher education. The intent of this organization is to better assure that students with disabilities in higher education have the same opportunities to web based educational content -- better enabling them to access future careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. To learn more, visit http://www.washington.edu/doit/cbi/webaccess/proceedings.html

Posted by Fran Smith at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A new collaborative sponsored by the Illinois Center for Instructional Technology Accessibility, the D2L Consortium on Accessibility, is providing a one-point access on conversations around these topics. To learn more visit, http://cita.uiuc.edu/collaborate/

Posted by Fran Smith at 5:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Firefox, the open source browser from Mozilla, allows users to both create accessible web pages and integrate many assistive technologies. To access these tools, a user must have Firefox as their browser and then add extensions for tools such as a web developer toolbar, a screen reading emulator, and a color contraster. To learn more read, http://webaim.org/articles/firefox/http://webaim.org/articles/firefox/

Posted by Fran Smith at 7:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

At the recent Accessing Higher Ground conference in Boulder, CO, Canadian consultant Karen McCall shared her expertise on best practices in creating accessible meda. She taught participants the steps involved in converting PDF files to accessible documents and the importance of first setting up accessible formats in Word files. In addition, the importance of a Daisy e-text standard is increasing (especially for students in higher education). As Karen noted, this digital format assures that digital document is created in multiple formats for all types of user needs. For more information on detailed steps around these tools, visit Karen McCall at http://www.iprimus.ca/~martha/distributed-education-resources.htm

Also, listen to an interview with Karen, recorded at the Accessing Higher Ground Conference, Thursday, 11/9/2006
Download file

Posted by Fran Smith at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Assuring that a web site is accessible for ALL users requires a number of important considerations. The national source that defines best practice standards for web accessibility is the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative http://www.w3.org/WAI/. Several national projects help to inform web designers of best practices techniques for assuring that all digital media is created in an accessible format such as WebAIM http://www.webaim.org. Web accessibility can also be determined using some access validators such as the tool WAVE or the Firefox accessibility extensions http://accessproject.colostate.edu/modules/firefox/index.htm
Consider how your website is accessible by trying out some of these resources (or sharing these with your web developer!)

Posted by Fran Smith at 12:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Podcasts, blogs, and videocasts (Vodcasts) are becoming increasingly popular tools for sharing information. Podcasts, which are audio files, allow users to record interviews, lectures, and conversations, and convert them to portable MP3 files. MP3 files can then be shared on IPODs, portable MP3 players, and for ITunes subscribers. While these tools offer multiple formats to share information....they are often not accessible to individuals who are deaf. Thus, to assure accessible podcasts, the creator needs to keep in mind the importance of developing a text transcript.

Several tools that have been found to be helpful in accomplishing a podcast include the software programs Audacity (a free open source program), Total Recorder Pro, and Juice. For creating transcripts, users might consider investing in a speech recognition product such as Dragon Naturally Speaking (preferred or professional version 10).

For more information, visit: http://easi.cc/podcasts/

Posted by Fran Smith at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

When Powerpoint files are placed on the web, they remain barriers for individuals who are blind or visually impaired. These graphically rich files are "roadblocks" for screen reading assistive technology users. A few useful techniques and tools are worthy of considering when adding PowerPoint files to the web. Each of these tools or resources offer strategies and techniques for making sure each PowerPoint slide meets web accessibility guidelines. Some of these tools include:

Creating a multi-media PowerPoint with a product such as Camtasia http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp, offers the program in multiple formats. However, the video product needs to be captioned for users who are deaf or hard of hearing

Convert a PowerPoint outline into html, then add accessible tags and headers - this creates a completely accessible format

Consider using the Illinois Accessiblity Wizard http://www.accessiblewizards.uiuc.edu/ This program allows the user to create an XHMTL accesssible PowerPoint into multiple user formats such as text only, text with graphics. or the completely graphical version.

Consider using the product LecShare Pro http://www.lecshare.com/ which allows the user to create an XHTML accessible Powerpoint in several formats including a captioned Quicktime Movie, a narrated PowerPoint, or an accessible presentation

For more information, visit the website of Terry Thompson, IT Specialist with DOIT, University of Washington, http://staff.washington.edu/tft/

Posted by Fran Smith at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)