Access ITMarch 2006Reprinted with permission from the March 2006 issue of Access IT published by the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the UK
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Editor: Peter Bosher.
This magazine has been produced by permission of the copyright holders who are credited at the start of each article. The magazine is copyright. The copyright owners have allowed this magazine to be made for the sole use of blind and partially sighted people. Copying of this material is not permissible.
Prices per issue: 54p (UK); £2.80 (export).
A new facility to help blind and visually impaired people navigate their way around the heart of Birmingham city centre will be launched in Spring 2006. The 60 Wayfinder units will be installed around the city centre, providing users with practical audible information, to confirm their location and assist them to reach their destination safely.
Most units are being installed on existing street furniture to minimise street clutter and, where no street furniture exists, being fixed into new purpose built stainless steel posts located at the back of footways. Users will carry a trigger card to activate the speaker unit when within range. These triggers will be made available in Birmingham's principal languages. Details on how and where to obtain the triggers will be available shortly.
The total cost of the Wayfinder scheme is £165,000, £65,000 of which was recently agreed by Councillor Len Gregory, Cabinet Member for Transportation & Street Services. Cllr Gregory said; "This is an excellent system, assisting blind and partially sighted people find their way around Birmingham city centre. It will help people more easily find transport in the city, their places of work, shopping venues, public services and visitor attractions, making Birmingham an even more accessible city".
The city council has worked in partnership with many other agencies on this project, including The Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB), Birmingham Focus on Blindness, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Queen Alexandra College, National Federation for the Blind, BBC Birmingham and others. Many of these organisations have been represented by people with a visual impairment.
Rob Legge, Chief Executive of Birmingham Focus on Blindness, said; "Sight loss is a frightening and traumatic experience that affects almost every aspect of a person's life! Our aim is to help the 30,000 children and adults in Birmingham who have sight loss to achieve a better quality of life. Wayfinder goes a long way to achieving this. For people with sight impairment, travelling around the city independently is a major problem, so Birmingham Focus is delighted to be working with Birmingham City Council and others on the Wayfinder project."
Following the launch, the city council will be encouraging users to give their views on Wayfinder to enable the system to be fully adapted to their needs.
Further information is available from Kathy Williams, Press Office, The Council House, Victoria Square, Birmingham B1 1BB (tel: 0121 303 3764/0121 303 6410, or if phoning outside office hours 0121 303 3287, e-mail: press.office@birmingham.gov.uk, website: www.birmingham.gov.uk).
The Milestone 311 is a high-end, portable all-purpose voice recording and MP3 playing device for demanding users with professional or private applications in mind. The Milestone 311 focuses on simple, always ready, daily use.
Based on the popular voice recorder Milestone 310, which was developed specifically to meet the requirements of visually impaired people, Milestone 311 has the same advantages such as excellent sound quality, ergonomic casing, credit card size, simple operation logic and large tactile pushbuttons with clear pressure points. It also includes the following enhancements:
Milestone 311 is another successful example of quickly integrating available and emerging technologies into innovative and useful applications specifically developed for visually impaired people. Standard languages available for all the pre-recorded voice messages used in the navigation guidance are English, French and German. Other languages may be implemented upon special request.
Milestone 311 is available in the colour combination black (cover)/ivory (buttons and bottom side). Standard packaging includes a Milestone 311, a battery charger, a lanyard, a USB cable and a printed manual. A memory card is not included.
Milestone enables you to:
The Milestone is furnished with:
Recordings are saved in MP3 format, at 192 bits per second and 44.1 Hz. The Milestone provides voice feedback while you manoeuvre around the unit, in a clear female voice. It has an internal memory of 256 Megabytes, (2 hours of recording) but has the opportunity for use of a Secure Digital Card up to 2 Gigabytes, (140 hours of recording). For more information, please ask customer service about available SD cards for your Milestone.
You can contact Independent Living Aids on (001 from UK) 800 537-2118 or via e-mail at: can-do@independentliving.com
(UK supplier not yet confirmed)
HumanWare is pleased to announce the release of KeyMaestro, a portable Braille Bluetooth keyboard, offering enhanced notetaking capability to the Maestro PDA. Now users can input data quickly and conveniently in computer braille or Grade 2 anytime, anywhere.
The HumanWare light and highly portable braille keyboard uses Bluetooth technology, allowing users to communicate with the Maestro PDA without the hassle of cumbersome wires and adapters.
Maestro, the first mainstream pocket computer accessible to the blind and visually impaired, allows you to manage appointments and contacts, take text notes with a standard or braille keyboard, record voice memos, consult and edit documents, read books, manage your e-mails, listen to music, and more, all in the palm of the hand.
KeyMaestro is a full Perkins-type keyboard. The user can input data in braille, quickly access favourite applications, enter commands with special function keys and enjoy the convenience of compact portability. KeyMaestro can be used alternatively with the tactile keyboard of PDA without quitting the active Maestro (or Trekker) application.
The KeyMaestro keyboard has an improved power management with a power on/off key, battery autonomy of 100 hours of continuous use and a power-saving auto-sleep mode. Visually impaired users can also know the battery status via audio feedback.
The Bluetooth Manager of the Maestro platform has been finely tuned to provide users with a robust, easy-to-connect interface. Once the keyboard has been enabled, Maestro will automatically communicate each time you want to use it, as soon as the Maestro and KeyMaestro have been turned on.
KeyMaestro comes with a carrying case and four AAA batteries and is available now from HumanWare and its distributors.
For more information contact Humanware Europe (tel: 01933 41 58 00, e-mail: eu.sales@humanware.com, website: www.humanware.com).
Optelec US Inc, a member of the Optelec Group, announced the launch of its newly designed EasyLink 12 refreshable Braille Assistant at the ATIA 2006 Conference, Orlando, Florida, 18th-21st January. Optelec will be debuting EasyLink 12, an expansion of its EasyLink efforts which began in April 2005.
EasyLink 12 presents the end user with a wireless braille keyboard with a 12 cell refreshable braille display designed to give persons who are blind wireless access to their PCs, PDAs and smart phones. This ultra-portable 12 cell Wireless Braille Assistant places the key benefits of both a braille display and Notetaker in the hands of the mobile braille user. The EasyLink 12, weighing only 9 ounces, is compatible with all desktop and pocket screenreaders. In addition to EasyLink's globally acclaimed braille keyboard, the EasyLink 12 includes a 12 cell refreshable braille display as well as two navigation keys and a joystick for effortless navigation throughout menus, dialog boxes, and application windows. With its compact size of 5.9 inches long by 3.8 inches wide by 0.8 inches thick, Optelec's EasyLink 12 offers all essential benefits that PDA, mobile phone and laptop users require to be successful in countless capacities.
Dolphin's desktop and mobile software provide a means by which individuals can either write braille information to these specific devices as well as review the output of these devices via the crisp responsive braille synonymous with Optelec's longstanding refreshable braille cell manufacturing prowess. Dolphin Computer Access has created the world's first full screen reader for the Windows mobile environment with crisp, responsive Acapela text to speech output and unparalleled refreshable braille support, and Optelec is demonstrating this software's mobile capabilities when used with EasyLink 12.
'Optelec is very excited to be launching this innovative access solution' states Jim Denham, Optelec's National Sales Manager at Dolphin Products. 'Pocket Hal, combined with hardware such as the EasyLink Braille solution revolutionises the way in which users can access information and enables them to fully participate in today's ever-growing mobile information society. By allowing users to benefit from a number of PDAs and selecting a device that they wish to pair with that PDA, Dolphin is opening up possibilities that those of us who are visually impaired have never had before.'
'It's exhilarating to be a part of this EasyLink effort as it expands into the world of portable, wireless refreshable braille,' stated Larry Lewis, President, Blindness Products Sales, Optelec US. 'Such an effort truly offers the end user portability, flexibility, and affordability as he/she chooses the components necessary to construct an accessible environment in the classroom, workplace, or within his/her community.'
Sales offices have been established in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands, and the company supports a strong distribution network throughout North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. For more information visit www.optelec.com
Since the Owasys 22C talking screenless cell phone was first introduced in the United States late last year, Owasys has answered numerous questions about this exciting new telephone. Now it has gathered the questions that are most frequently asked into a special 'Frequently Asked Questions' document, also called a FAQ, and published this FAQ on its website at www.screenlessphone.com/faq
Owasys believes the FAQ is a perfect way to get acquainted with the Owasys 22 and the company is certain that it will be adding more information to this FAQ as new features are created for the 22C, and as more questions arise. So feel free to refer to this document often and to download a copy for yourself, or to e-mail to your friends who are also wondering about the talking screenless cell phone.
The Quick Reference FAQ answers the following questions:
GW Micro, Inc, manufacturer of Window-Eyes, a screen reader for the blind and visually impaired (www.gwmicro.com), and Libera Inc, developer of System 7, a comprehensive case management software application (www.libera.com), are pleased to announce a collaboration effort to promote speech friendly, accessible case management solutions for use in health and human services areas.
Libera's innovative and highly customisable browser-based software packages used in conjunction with Window-Eyes unrivalled Internet/Intranet support allows blind and visually impaired users to access data previously unavailable in old case management software. 'This collaborative effort is a tremendous step forward for access to blind computer users,' says Dan Weirich, Vice President, Sales and Marketing. 'With the unparalleled web-based support of Window-Eyes, a blind user can now access any data that is available within the Libera system.'
System 7, a forms based, Section 508 compliant system, can be used with any existing data storage system, making it an excellent choice for state agencies looking to increase accessibility, and decrease complexity of current case management software. 'The system can be implemented with Window-Eyes for unparalleled accessibility in a matter of weeks, not years,' says Dr Al Cecchini, President of Libera. 'This effort shows how Libera and GW Micro are leading the way for a new era of data management, which can be accessed by all users, regardless of their disability.'
GW Micro and Libera make it easy for private corporations and government agencies to implement 'out-of-the-box' turn-key systems that combine ease-of-use with accessibility. IT professionals will find that implementing Window-Eyes and Libera together is simple, secure, cost effective, and easy to maintain.
For more information on GW Micro and Window-Eyes, contact Dan Weirich, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, GW Micro, Inc. (tel: 260-489-3671, e-mail: dan@gwmicro.com, website: www.gwmicro.com).
For more information on Libera and System 7, contact Dr Al Cecchini, President, Libera, Inc. (tel: 716-665-2800, e-mail: abpc@libera.com, website: www.libera.com).
In the August 2005 edition of Access IT, I made reference to the fact that I had personally seen concrete evidence that the software developers at Dolphin Computer Access Ltd (Dolphin) were almost at the end of a current project to implement their screen access solution into mobile devices. On 18th November 2005, Dolphin formally launched Pocket Hal, an implementation of their popular Windows screen reader designed to run under the Windows Mobile operating system. This is the platform on which most of the popular pocket PCs and Personal Data Assistants (PDAs) are based. In this article, I take a brief look at this approach to using mobile devices such as PDAs, and it is my hope that by the time you reach the end, you will have caught a glimpse of the vision for what this technology is likely to open up in the future in terms of accessibility. But before we look at Pocket Hal, it is well worth our while taking a moment to consider the advantages and disadvantages of using a mainstream PDA as opposed to one which has been specially designed for the visually impaired user.
Prior to Dolphin's contribution to the PDA accessibility market, there were in essence two basic approaches to the problem available. One approach has been to design a PDA which hosts a custom-built suite of applications which for the most part resemble in functionality the suite of applications normally found on a conventional PDA. The second approach has again been to design a PDA specifically for its target audience, and implement a somewhat cut down version of a desktop screen reader so that it can go some way towards providing access to the conventional pocket applications found on a PDA.
The first strategy has the distinct advantage that it permits the human interaction between purpose-built applications and the user to be achieved by an interface made up of a simple command structure which can be made to be consistent throughout the suite of applications. However, by the very nature of the beast, such devices are for the most part prohibitively expensive, certainly when looked at in the light of the domestic marketplace. This strategy also rules out the possibility of permitting the user to run any other applications designed for the Windows Mobile platform unless they have previously been incorporated into the purpose-built application suite by the manufacturer.
The second strategy, and one for which I personally have the least support, seems to have somehow produced itself a physically much larger device than it ought to have done, requiring almost a rucksack to carry the system around. Although this family of products goes some way towards providing true access to off-the-shelf pocket applications, in reality, access to many of the functions available in these applications is to say the least limited, and again does not seem to work well with new bespoke applications.
So what is unique about Dolphin's latest product offering? The strategy which Dolphin has employed for providing access to a PDA differs at grass roots level from those approaches just described, in that their goal has been to take a conventional PDA or Pocket PC, and implement their fully functional screen reader into this environment. All customisation with which desktop Hal users are already familiar have been where possible identically incorporated into Pocket Hal, and this even includes Dolphin's highly successful map file technology for providing access to bespoke applications. Not only is full access to the standard suite of pocket applications now possible but the user can, with Pocket Hal, attempt to run bespoke applications designed for the Windows Mobile platform and customise their map files accordingly. And all this can be achieved in a tiny box which can fit snugly into the palm of the hand or comfortably into the jacket pocket. Not only can you now get full speech access to your PDA, but full braille output is also supported, and all this for a fraction of the price of dedicated PDAs, under £600. In the following paragraphs, I take a brief look at Pocket Hal, its installation and a few conceptual tips that a new user should be aware of.
Pocket Hal will normally arrive at your front door in a box containing two CDs, one containing the software and the other a comprehensive manual in DAISY format. I was slightly disappointed to discover that there was no tactile clue inside the box to indicate to me which disk was which, a minor point but one which seems to recur with Dolphin software packaging. Once you have identified the manual disk, I would strongly recommend that you read the Getting Started material before attempting to install Pocket Hal. This is a well-written document and provides excellent verbal description of many PDAs. Familiarity with the content of this section of the manual will help a new user to become comfortable with using the system. A most welcome quick reference guide is also provided in braille, and I have often turned to this for a quick reminder of some functionality.
Whether you have purchased your PDA with Pocket Hal from Dolphin as a complete package, or you have purchased the pocket PC separately from a high street store, your PDA packaging should contain a CD which has a Microsoft application called ActiveSync on it. This may also be downloaded free of charge from the Microsoft website downloads section. ActiveSync allows desktop/laptop systems running Windows to communicate with devices running Windows Mobile by establishing what is known as a partnership. It is via this partnership that all communication between your pocket PC and desktop machine is carried out: you can control how your data is to be synchronised between the two systems whenever the partnership is active, and for the purpose of this article, you use this partnership to install and manage Pocket Hal and the associated Dolphin components. Before installing any of the Dolphin software, ActiveSync must be installed on the host machine and a partnership established. Once ActiveSync has been installed, and the PDA is connected to the host via a USB port, ActiveSync will usually initiate a partnership wizard automatically. At this point, you may choose which data elements are to be synchronised, such as calendars, contacts and tasks, and under what circumstances they should be synchronised, but since this is now into the realm of mainstream PDA activity, we will close this matter at that point.
Once the partnership is active, the Pocket Hal installation can take place. This is pretty much an automatic process once the Dolphin CD has been inserted into a drive, and speech feedback is provided throughout. All of the Dolphin mobile components (Pocket Hal, Pocket SAM and Pocket Pronouncer) are first installed onto the host machine, then they are installed to the PDA via the ActiveSync partnership. One excellent feature of the Dolphin mobile installation is that at any point in the future, you may remove from, or repair, the Pocket components on your PDA by using the Dolphin CE Installer which gets installed on the host machine. Remember, of course, that the ActiveSync partnership must be active in order to do this. Even product activation has been made a painless exercise. At the end of the installation, the user is asked if product activation is to be performed at this point. This can either be completed via a direct Internet connection, or may be done manually provided that a correct activation code has been provided by an authorised Dolphin dealer. If the user chooses not to activate, a reminder will appear at each establishment of the partnership with ActiveSync until the 30-day trial period expires.
As intimated earlier, using Pocket Hal is by and large exactly the same as using its desktop sibling. You may create settings files containing situations which determine what is and is not brailled or spoken right down to individual window level; you may create Verbosity Schemes in exactly the same way as in the desktop version, and so on. Quick online help is available at any point in Pocket Hal's control panel, and a concise help system can be accessed through its start menu group. However, probably the most important difference which a new user will need to become comfortable with is the ways in which Dolphin makes provisions for a blind user to be able to communicate with the Windows mobile environment. In mainstream PDA usage, interaction with the system is achieved by tapping a small screen area with a small pointing device called a stylus. For most users with little or no vision, this is a nigh on impossible activity, and even if it is possible for the determined user, the speed of success would surely deter anyone from ever making any real use of their Pocket PC! To get around this, Dolphin has developed a keyboard driver system which can support both braille and standard keyboard connectivity via Bluetooth. By using a pocket-sized folding Bluetooth keyboard, such as the HP Bluetooth Foldable Keyboard, the user can navigate the application interface and enter text in the same way as would be done on a desktop machine. These keyboards are extremely small, folding in half so that they can be fitted easily into a pocket; yet despite their size, one can quickly become reasonably proficient at typing if you possess good keyboard skills.
Quite often, you might just want to review data, such as your e-mail, current appointments, tasks etc without needing to enter actual text. One might initially think that it would first be necessary to connect up a keyboard before this could be achieved, but not so. Most of the popular Pocket PCs have a number of buttons located on their surface, which in normal use can be defined by the user to perform certain tasks. Pocket Hal automatically re-defines these buttons to perform the most common tasks that a user is likely to want to perform, even tasks such as going to Hal's control panel and allowing the user to make configuration changes.
Before I bring this brief article to a conclusion, there is an important point concerning the choice of PDA which I would urge the reader to consider. Although Pocket Hal seems to work splendidly with many of the off-the-shelf Pocket PCs, there are inevitably a few devices in the wild for which performance and access is not so good. This is due to the fact that some manufacturers deviate slightly from the generally accepted design and architecture of such devices, and Dolphin is constantly testing its products against newly identified machines. If the reader decides to purchase the Pocket PC from a mainstream supplier, it is very strongly recommended that the Dolphin website be consulted. This site contains a comprehensive list of compliant machines, and Dolphin's Technical Support staff will also do their best to offer guidance if a device is not yet listed but is known about.
In conclusion, it is my view that the advent of true access to mobile devices will have far reaching ramifications for those needing better accessibility in the future. It is already being recognised in the mobile industry that the days of the Symbian operating system for mobile phones is numbered. More and more phone developers are moving towards the Windows Mobile platform for their products, and this move is now being observed as so-called Smart phones are becoming more prevalent. With Dolphin's mobile solution being not only ready for the here and now, but in active development, the blind user will have an increasingly wide choice of both mobile phone and PDA in a single physical device at his/her disposal.
For more information, visit Dolphin's website at www.dolphincomputeraccess.com, call Dolphin UK on 01905 754577 or e-mail: info@dolphinuk.co.uk.
From the Editor (Braille Monitor): Jim Fruchterman, founder of Benetech, the not-for-profit organisation that developed Bookshare.org, delivered the following address at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis, Tunisia, on November 15, 2005. If anyone can be said to be an expert in a field as young as making electronic print material accessible to print-disabled readers, Jim Fruchterman is that person. This is what he said:
'Hi, I'm here from Silicon Valley, and I'm here to help you.' These words may not always inspire comfort, but I hope to reassure you in my talk today. Technology people like me love to solve problems with technology. Important and dramatic problems are even more attractive. And building a global digital library for people with print disabilities is one of those attractive problems. Even better, it's within our grasp to solve it today. We want to build a world in which a blind girl and her sighted friend have equal access in reading; whether it's a novel, a textbook, or a newspaper. And for that blind girl it has to be at least as easy, as cheap, and as fast as it is for her sighted friend to access all of this information.
What are the nonbarriers? What stands in our way? What are the barriers to reaching these goals? First let me tell you what the barriers are not.
The advancements of the information and communication technology sector have put the global library within reach and have created the possibility of universal access. Our job is to find those last few barriers and overcome them to realise this possibility. Today I am going to talk only about the biggest barrier, finding a way to share the content across borders and building a consistent culture of sharing that is legal and practical. Why is sharing hard?
Sharing used to be physically difficult. The effort and cost to send a physical copy of a book across a border or an ocean, whether print, large print, braille, or audio tapes, was considerable. And in theory the sharer wanted it back. But now that same information in electronic form can be sent across the world for less than a penny. And the nature of electronic information is such that, when I give you a copy, it usually doesn't take away my copy. Thomas Jefferson famously compared the sharing of ideas and intellectual property as like sharing the lighting of a candle, 'He who lights his taper at mine receives light without darkening me.' So sharing is still hard because we have systems and customs that come from a day when it was hard to share.
The main issue is intellectual property restrictions. Copyright laws and the contracts authors and publishers make are holdovers from the day when sharing was hard. Copyright law is a national affair, not an international affair. It is a formidable challenge to realise that our dream of a global library has to comply with the national copyright laws of more than a hundred countries.
Now a brief digression on copyright law. I am a big fan of copyright law. My background is that I started two commercial software companies in the 1980s, and it was the commercial success of these companies that made it possible for me to develop reading machines for the blind and engage in this important effort for universal access. It is crucial that the incentives remain for people to create value: to write books and to prosper when they create something of value to society.
However, it is important to realise that intellectual property is not the same as real property. A book is not a house. As Jefferson said, ideas are different: they can be shared without diminishing their power. Intellectual property law is a bargain among creators, writers, inventors, and society. Copyright laws give rights to authors and publishers while at the same time typically reserving rights for society: the right to quote from a work, the right to lend it from a library, the eventual conversion of the work to public-domain status, among many others. One of those reserved rights, those exceptions to the right of the copyright owner to control the making of copies, is the right to make accessible versions of books for people with print disabilities. However, these exceptions differ from country to country, and, of even more concern, they stop at each country's borders. Part of the deal in international copyright law is reciprocity and domestic limits. Reciprocity, in that our country's laws must treat your country's authors the same way as we treat our own authors. Domestic limits, in that our country's law applies only in our country, and we acknowledge that our citizens should respect your country's copyright laws when they are in your country. Right now that means we are solving the problem of access for the print-disabled country by country, and an impediment to sharing across borders is built into the structure of copyright law.
Let me make some of these ideas real. My non-profit organisation, Benetech, created a digital library for people with print disabilities in the United States called 'Bookshare.org.' Under US law it is legal for our non-profit organisation to make any book in the US accessible to people with print disabilities in specialised formats. I keep using the term 'print disabilities' because we serve more than people who are blind or visually impaired; we also serve people who cannot read because of other disabilities, such as severe physical disabilities that prevent holding a book or turning a page, or significant learning disabilities such as dyslexia. We now have 25,000 books in our digital library, as well as providing one hundred daily newspapers. Our users can download these books and access them as large print, braille, or synthetic speech. And we have thousands of users in America. However, it's difficult for us to serve people outside the US because US copyright law does not apply outside the US. I have two strategies to recommend to overcome this copyright law barrier to the creation of a global digital library. I think we should pursue both of them simultaneously. The first is global copyright reform, to change national laws to have a disability-access exclusion as well as a reciprocal-access solution. This strategy is being driven by the World Blind Union, ably led by David Mann of the Royal National Institute of the Blind in the United Kingdom. The goal is that each country should have these exclusions in its copyright law, as well as explicitly making cross-border sharing possible with like-minded countries.
I used to think that these provisions were going to be hard to implement. However, I read the latest proposal from David Mann, and I saw a very clever idea. The concept was that a country that passed a disability exemption could add a simple additional clause: 'The distribution is also permitted in case the copies have been made abroad and the conditions mentioned above have been fulfilled.'
We are checking this language with the US Copyright Office because it could make it possible for Bookshare.org to start serving people with disabilities in any country that passed such a law without the US needing to pass a new law. Why? Because the theory that has stopped us from sending books we scanned under the US copyright law exemption was that what we did in the US wasn't legal under another country's copyright law. If a country makes it legal, then we could be legal under both countries' laws. There is a counter-argument that this would need to be true of both countries, but we're definitely looking into it.
The second approach is getting permissions from authors and publishers, but with a much broader approach to permissions than today's. The typical approach to permissions - the approach we used until last year - is to get the narrowest possible permission: limited to our organisation, our clients, and our country. But, if we agree about the vision of building a global library that makes access for the disabled as easy, cheap, and fast as that for the nondisabled, we must take a broader view. Our new permissions form asks publishers and authors to give us permission to provide access to people with disabilities around the world and to work through other non-profit or government agencies similar to our non-profit organisation. It also asks them to grant permission for us to work directly with third parties such as Amazon and Google who are scanning their books. It does not limit our work just to the visually impaired but to all people with disabilities that significantly impair their ability to access print. And it asks that these permissions be granted royalty-free. Publishers and authors are generally willing to grant such permissions. They want to hear a few things from us:
Already we have received such permissions for more than one thousand books that are currently on Bookshare.org, as well as for another two thousand books that will be added to our collection over the next six months. Of these books two thirds will be in English and one third in Spanish. We are getting ready to serve the world.
But our efforts are not enough. The global library is not an American library. It is not an English- or Spanish-language library. We need our peers in countries all over the world to secure as many similar permissions as possible and pass as many of those copyright law exemptions as they can. By working together and by sharing, we can build the global library. Together we can assure that people with print disabilities in the next decade will have access that is as easy, cheap, and fast as for everybody else on the planet.
(Reprinted with permission from the Braille Monitor, the monthly journal of the NFB of America, January 2006.)
If you are not interested in card games then skip this article. Otherwise read on. I have recently taken up the popular card game bridge after an absence of some 30 years. I play in a bridge group with sighted people using braille cards. As a blind person this is quite challenging as I have to remember the cards in my hand and the cards in the dummy hand in addition to the bidding and the card play which everyone has to remember. I thus needed to enlist my computer to hone my skills in a more relaxed environment.
Bridge is one of the most enduring and popular games in the world. The normal game requires four players in two partnerships: North-South and East-West. A full deck of cards is shuffled and each player is dealt thirteen cards. Card play is the same as whist; you have to follow suit if you can and the highest value card wins the trick. If you cannot follow suit you can take the trick with a card from the suit designated as trumps. Ace is the highest value card followed by King, Queen, Jack and then the numbered cards in descending sequence. Before card play you have the auction. Players bid in turn for the contract - that is how many tricks their partnership will take. A bid of one club means the partnership will take seven tricks with clubs as trumps. A bid of three no trumps means the partnership will take nine tricks with no suit designated as trumps. Each successive bid must overcall the prior bid with suits ranked in the order clubs, diamonds, hearts, spades, and no trumps. Thus a bid of one diamond overcalls a bid of one club, and a bid of two clubs overcalls a bid of one of any suit or a bid of one no trump. You can pass rather than make a bid, and the auction finishes when all remaining players have passed. The player in the winning partnership who first bid the winning suit is the declarer and the player to the left of the declarer plays the opening card. The declarer's partner then places all their cards face up on the table to form the dummy hand which the declarer then plays. Your partnership wins points which count towards the game score if you make your contract, and you win bonus points for each over trick. If you fail to make your contract the opposing partnership wins bonus points for each under trick. A key function of the auction is to convey information about your hand to your partner. Thus some bids have conventional meanings depending on the prior bidding. In the ACOL bidding system, which is widely used in the UK, an opening bid of two clubs means you have a very strong hand but not necessarily a lot of clubs, and a bid of two clubs in response to your partner's opening bid of one no trump asks your partner whether they have good hearts or spades. Look at www.acol.info/home.html for information on how to play bridge using the ACOL bidding system including a set of free lessons with interactive questions and answers.
To improve my bridge skills I needed a bridge program which would work with my screen reader (Window-Eyes) allowing me to bid and play one hand while the computer bid and played the remaining three hands. I downloaded the free trial versions of several such programs and eventually found Bridge Baron from www.bridgebaron.com/home.html. Bridge Baron is the product of over 42 years of research and development and is a five-time winner of the world computer bridge championship. You can download a free trial version of Bridge Baron from www.greatgameproducts.com/download.html. You can purchase Bridge Baron release 16 from several dealers in the UK for around £50. Try using Google with the search term 'Bridge Baron' to locate a dealer. Bridge Baron provides accessibility through the following features:
Bridge Baron also includes the following functions unrelated to accessibility which have greatly helped improve my bridge skills:
There are many Bridge Baron functions that I have not yet explored, including support for multiple human players. Thus you and your regular bridge partner could play North-South and have Bridge Baron play East-west. I have found Bridged Baron fully accessible for all the functions I have so far used. It has helped improve my bridge skills and has been great fun. I have developed Bridge Baron SET files for the Window-Eyes screen reader and SCRIPT files for the JAWS screen reader which I am happy to share with interested readers. Please e-mail me at hopewell@f2s.com for further information.
The online auction giant eBay recently paid 2.6 billion dollars worth of cash and stock for a relatively small Swedish company which had developed a single piece of software, but a revolutionary one: Skype.
Skype (www.skype.com) is a messaging application that allows you to talk to other Skype users worldwide over the Internet for free. You can also exchange instant messages, swap files including documents, pictures or music, and call any ordinary telephone number in any part of the world at very low rates.
The system was developed by two entrepreneurs who had previously developed the peer-to-peer file-sharing programme Kazaa, and in two years had acquired some 54 million users - a growth-rate of 150,000 users per day.
The price paid for the company - which according to some reports could rise even further depending on performance - might seem somewhat dizzy to the uninitiated. But eBay and many other Internet portals see online voice communication as a key part of all future communication online, and the glue for future online communities.
Skype uses VoIP (Voice over IP) technology to encode, encrypt and transmit the sound of the voice to be decoded at the other end and reproduced in near CD-quality sound. It is not only reliable but also very secure, as it is not possible for someone to listen in to your conversation.
Skype offers its main functionality - calls between Skype users - for free, and the company has said these will always be free. They do charge for some enhanced services however, such as 'SkypeOut', which allows users to call ordinary telephones anywhere in the world over the internet. Sound quality is far superior to a normal telephone.
'SkypeIn' is another premium service (costing 30 euros a year) that allows users to register a phone number with Skype that anyone can then call. If you are online when they call, you can receive it, otherwise it diverts to Skype Voicemail.
For blind people, Skype offers many potential benefits beyond the obvious ones of free or cheap voice calls. For one thing, it has fairly good compatibility with the main types of screen reader including JAWS and Window-Eyes.
There are improvements that could be made, and screen reader developers have been talking to Skype about how to improve future versions for accessibility, including better use of MSAA (Microsoft Active Accessibility) - the system used by Windows to communicate effectively with screen readers and other assistive technologies. But nevertheless it is already mostly accessible.
There are other accessible features too. You can assign hotkeys for answering, holding, resuming or ending a call. You can access the menu bar and most of the program functions using keyboard procedures.
However, navigating lists like your missed call list or the list of users that are currently online use non-standard Windows controls, with no information currently passed through to screen readers using MSAA.
There are also accessibility problems with the chat part of the program; the online Skype directory; and Skype Voicemail, which has point and click functionality without many hotkeys.
On the other hand the Skype Store - the part of its website where services are bought - and the Skype website in general is very well designed for screen reader access.
Page layouts are easy to understand and navigate with a minimum of keystrokes. When you use the Skype Store, the web forms are coded correctly, with labels for each of the controls, and the HTML is written in such a way that the screen reader can interpret it correctly. In the community section of the website, there is also a message board which is very accessible, unlike many others to be found on major sites.
As Skype continues to develop - and with eBay's billions behind it, one would assume it will do so rapidly - new services will be added such as call forwarding. We must hope that the Skype interface continues to improve so better access is provided using standard Windows controls, a better structured hierarchy and a more usable design.
As the popularity of Skype continues to skyrocket, it is also to be expected that a clutch of rivals such as Google's Google Talk (www.google.com/talk/) will attempt to steal its thunder. Screen reader developers and users will need to keep an eye on all these systems as well: Google Talk for example is not yet usable at all from the keyboard.
Skype must now set the accessibility standard at a high level: and then hopefully the others will follow.
(Article sourced from E-Access Bulletin, a free monthly e-mail newsletter sponsored by RNIB. To subscribe e-mail: eab-subs@headstar.com or go to www.e-accessibility.com).
Subject: BBC Listen Again.
I know that some people think that such programs are unnecessary and prefer to use the BBC site directly, but personally I find version 2.1 of Accessible BBC Listen Again available via www.webbie.org.uk/download.html a very useful site offering a quick route to the latest editions of a large number of programs on all the main BBC stations. - Douglas
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Access IT.
Published in braille, by e-mail and on disk 17th monthly by RNIB. Registered Charity No. 226227.
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