Blind BBC reporter on ACB Radio

RantWoman dawdled reading her email and apologizes that the window to find this interview may have shifted by the time this gets posted. However RantWoman in general commends ACB Radio andencourages readers to make full use of its archives and other resources.


Blind BBC Reporter Gary O’Donoghue May 8th on Speaking Out for the Blind
Date: May 7, 2013 10:46:25 AM PDT

Blind BBC Reporter Gary O’Donoghue - Wed May 8th 10:30PM Eastern/7:30PM Pacific

Blind BBC News reporter Gary O’Donoghue joins Speaking Out for the Blind to tell how you can pursue a career in broadcast news or maybe work in one of many communication or journalism fields. Gary will also share his early life, career highlights, and how he worked his way up to reporting for both BBC TV and Radio. (Rebroadcast)


Speaking Out for the Blind airs weekly on the American Council of the Blind’s own ACB Radio. Interviewed are blind and visually impaired newsmakers and experts about topics that affect the community at heart. The show airs every Wednesday night at 10:30 Eastern/7:30PM Pacific Time and rebroadcasts every two hours overnight and throughout the next day (Thursdays) on ACB Radio Mainstream. You can access ACB Radio Mainstream by going to www.acbradio.org , clicking on “Listen to ACB Radio,” and choosing the links on the following page under “Listen to ACB Radio Mainstream” to listen in the player of your choice. A show archive is also now available. Go to http://www.acbradio.org/node/30 , look under “Download Speaking Out for the Blind Archives,” and click on the episode you wish to hear. Your host is Brian McCallen.

The Good: iOS accessibilty for Kindle content; the BAD: Section 508 again.

RantWoman presents the good, the bad, and the ugly of building or not building accessibility into product design. Here to start is an item about the whole cascade of problems which arise when accessibility is not explicitly included in product purchase criteria. This item is the sad reality of the federal government; RantWoman wishes she had any expectation that things are any less automatic in the private sector.

https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm13/bm1305/bm130502.htm 

Now tidings of approaches that work!  Remember awhile ago when RantWoman opined that her alma mater along with every other academic institution thinking of delivering textbooks through Kindle deserve to get sued because Kindle is inaccessible. RantWoman is in no position to opine about the merits of lawsuits but does note that loss of access to the huge academic marketplace may possibly have been a motivator.  RantWoman is terribly excited by the following news items about the release of the new iOS Kindle ap with built-in accessibility to Voiceover.


New Accessibility Features to Free Kindle Reading iOS Apps
May 1, 2013 6:06:07 AM PDT
Kevin G. - Community Manager says:

(AMAZON OFFICIAL)

Today we announced new accessibility features for the Kindle reading app, making it easier than ever for blind and visually impaired customers to navigate their Kindle libraries, read and interact with their books, and more. These new features are available starting today on Kindle for iOS, and accessibility enhancements will be available on additional platforms in the future.

New accessibility features of the Kindle app enable blind and visually impaired customers to:


- Read aloud over 1.5 million titles available in the Kindle Store using Apple's VoiceOver technology. Over 300,000 of these books are exclusive to the Kindle Store. Over 700,000 books are less than $4.99; over a million are less than $9.99.

- Seamlessly navigate within their library or within a book, with consistent title, menu and button names; navigate to a specific page within a book and sort books in the library by author or title.

- Read character-by-character, word-by-word, line-by-line, or continuously, as well as move forward or backward in the text.

- Search for a book within their library or search within their book and navigate to specific text.

- Add and delete notes, bookmarks, and highlights.

- Use customer-favorite features like X-Ray, End Actions and sharing on Facebook and Twitter.

- Look up words in the dictionary and Wikipedia.

- Customize the reading experience including changing the font, text size, background color, margin, and brightness.

- Use iOS accessibility features like Zoom, Assistive Touch, and Stereo to Mono, as well as peripheral braille displays.



Other new features include:

- Easily rate and review books by accessing `Before you go...' directly from The `Go to' menu

- Enhancements to `Before you go...' including the ability to download a free sample and email yourself a reminder about recommended books.

- Additional Font Selection for Japan - Hiragino Mincho ProN (Serif)

These new accessibility features are available first on the Kindle app for iOS and accessibility features will be added to other Kindle apps in the future.

Customers can download the new Kindle for iOS app for free from the App Store on iPad, iPhone or iPod touch or at http://www.itunes.com/appstore  . Blind and visually impaired customers interested in using a Kindle app can also choose Kindle for PC with Accessibility Plugin, a free application for Windows PC's.

You can download a quick reference guide here:
 Kindle for iOS Accessibility Gestures - Quick Reference Guide

If you need assistance with this update, please drop by the Kindle Help Forum -
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/forums/kindleqna/ref=kindle_help_forum_gd




From: Pratik Patel pratikp1@gmail.com


Dear all,

We have spotted the pink unicorn. In this morning's app updates, Amazon's Kindle app was announced as being accessible with Voiceover. Initial testing suggests that remarkable work has been done. Book reading, note creation, highlighting, sharing and other features are all accessible. I am extremely pleased that blind and visually impaired people now have some of the world's largest catalogs of books available to them via the Kindle App, Nook, and iBooks. Kindle devices still need to be made accessible. All of ACB's members can take credit that such progress is being made in a short amount of time.

Regards,



Pratik Patel
Founder and CEO, http://www.ezfire.net/ EZFire
T: 718-928-5529
M: 718-249-7019
E: ppatel@ezfire.net    (or pratikp1@gmail.com )
Follow me on Twitter:  @ppatel
Follow me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/pratik-patel/9/985/882
Skype: Patel.pratik

Really useful list of training opportunities from Easter Seals

RantWoman recommends

http://www.projectaction.org/Training/OnlineCourses.aspx

May 10, Laurie Block, Generations of Disability Advocacy

The University of Washington Disability Studies Program presents a lecture and conversation about the history of disability activism in the US.


“The Work of Social Change: Generations of Disability Advocacy, 1820-1968”

Laurie Block, Executive Director of the Disability History Museum http://www.disabilitymuseum.org

Date: Friday May 10, 2013, 10:30am–12:30pm

Location: HUB 250, University of Washington
http://hub.washington.edu/directions


Please join us! This event is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided. We request that you register by emailing uwdisabilitystudies@gmail.com .

This talk will highlight the key roles played by parent advocates, Deaf community pioneers, and independent living advocates in transforming opportunities available to people with disabilities, from the early 1800s to the first disability rights legislation. Laurie Block is a public historian who develops innovative media projects and educational forums that use archival materials and oral history to foster community dialogue about contemporary social issues.

This event will have ASL interpreting and captioning, thanks to the UW D Center, http://depts.washington.edu/dcenter/wordpress . This event is wheelchair accessible. Please refrain from wearing fragrance/scents.

To request disability accommodation, contact the Disability Services Office: 206.543.6450 (voice), 206.543.6452 (TTY), 206.685.7264 (fax), dso@u.washington.edu  .

Sponsored by the Disability Studies Program at the University of Washington,
http://depts.washington.edu/disstud. Email uwdisabilitystudies@gmail.com .

Edited????

RantWoman...in p-p-print?

RantWoman, Holy Terror, is about to venture ...onto the printed page. RantWoman has offered to contribute an item to a magazine published by her faith community. RantWoman kept trying to write anything in her not-RantWoman voice and RantWoman kept taking control. So RantWoman wrote the editor and asked permission just to write as RantWoman.



This is part of what RantWoman wrote:

RantWoman is kind of a holy terror in a number of respects. The suggestion has been made that RantWoman needs an editor and she has of course received this rather ungraciously.


RantWoman frequently achieves approximately the interpersonal finesse of a Brillo pad and probably needs all the help she can get. It's just that the last person who made many noises about editting RantWoman was having such problems with shut up messages and Male monologue syndrome that there was no way he was going to be allowed near RantWoman's STUFF.


The editor graciously wrote back and suggested that she help RantWoman play dressup, at least a little bit to be more accessible.


Okay. RantWoman VERY rarely does pantyhose and should not attempt fishnet stockings, but let's see what we can do!

Support a WA state transportation bill

There is a Senate hearing tomorrow on a transportation bill. RantWoman urges her WA state readers to look their WA State senator up at http://leg.wa.gov  and then contact them. Urge them to support a Transportation bill in the year's legislative session.

Here is an example outlining several things one might emphasize:, aA statement jus issued by the King County Transit Advisory Commission

Sent: Mon, Apr 22, 2013 11:40 am

Subject: FW: King County Transit Advisory Commission urges you to take action on a funding solution for public transportation

April 22, 2013
To the Honorable Members of our Washington State Legislature:


Funding for public transportation is vital to the economy of Washington. Without a good transportation system, the people and jobs needed for our economic recovery will go elsewhere. The damage to our environment from increased automobile usage due to loss in transit service and negative effects from climate change will degrade the high quality of life Washingtonians enjoy.


Investing in transit simply makes sense. Roads and transit are both vital parts of our transportation network. In King County, growth and development, preservation of our environment, the beautiful landscape we live in, and budgetary constraints mean that we cannot build our way out of transportation problems. We, the members of the King County Transit Advisory Commission, urge you during the current legislative session both to provide funding through the state budget for public transit and to provide local jurisdictions options for additional local funding for public transit. A dedicated state-level funding source is necessary in order to keep transit funding from being dependent on the ebb and flow of sales tax revenue. When transit is funded primarily by sales tax revenues, transit agencies are forced to adjust service levels in tandem with unpredictable business cycles. Transit agencies need to be able to offer dependable services and plan for the future.

A dedicated funding source will serve transit users and non-users alike, both of whom benefit from riders’ use of public transportation. We pay about a quarter of the cost of our service through fares; road users pay about 27% of the cost of roads through their user fees. Transit users keep cars off roads, a more efficient use of public resources.


We recognize different counties have different transportation needs. It is not reasonable to ask state taxpayers to shoulder the full cost of individual counties’ needs. While we all share needs for a transportation network, we believe it makes sense to give individual counties as much flexibility as possible. County councils need authority to tap local funding sources to address needs beyond what can be funded through the state budget. Public transportation serves many people. Young people, senior citizens and riders with disabilities use public transportation to do things they could not do otherwise. Visitors and students can enjoy our area car-free because of our excellent bus and light-rail system.


The King County Transit Advisory Commission is a citizen advisory commission, created by the Metropolitan King County Council to provide advice on policy issues affecting King County Metro Transit. We represent transit users who live in every part of the county and use a variety of transit modes. Half of us are either people with disabilities or represent organizations that serve people with disabilities. Some of us have disabilities that preclude driving. Some of us rely solely on fixed route transit or paratransit for all of our work travel, shopping and life activities. Everyone benefits from well-used, well-funded, well-thought-out public transportation. The transit agencies of our state need your help in funding it.

Sincerely,
Members of the King County Transit Advisory Commission

Letter from the Birmingham Jail turns 50

Who knew? This is the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther king's Letter from the Birmingham Jail:

http://forusa.org/blogs/billscheurer/christian-churches-together-response-martin-luther-king-jrs-letter-birmingham

Definitely several layers of links to put on RantWoman's Mean to read list.