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Archive for November, 2009

The second meeting of the Beaumont Area Council of the Blind went smoothly, but after a rather rough start.  You see, our meeting was supposed to start promptly at 1:30 pm, but we didn’t start til sometime after 2:30 pm.  Nevertheless, we accomplished what we needed to accomplish and a bit more.

We read our constitution and bylaws, and then we voted on them and made them final. Then we actually had the chance to confirm our officer positions.  You see, we started with temporary positions.  The president, Vice president and the secretary were some of the positions that were deamed temporary until we had our second meeting.

Kenneth Semien SR. our President;  sent in our documentation regarding chaptership, so that means that sometime next month, we will recieve chaptership status, thus making BACB the 10th chapter in texas.  This is a  true milestone because when we recieve full chapter status, we can begin assisting educators, and other professional officials  in making the needed changes that our area needs to greatly improve the lives of those who are blind and visually impaired.

Since our officers have been confirmed, and all documentation has been submitted,  all that we need to wait on now is the final say by the board of directors at whether or not we’re a chapter.

I am the first vice president, and Kenneth is our president.  We also have a second vice president, Melinda.  I will be working close with Melinda to train her and to assist her in her duties as second vice president of our chapter.

My duties as first vice president is to back up the president should he not be able to attend the meetings.

This is really an exciting time for the Beaumont area blind and visually impaired because a chapter of ACB was very much needed in our area.  However, now that this is underway, now a much brighter future is in store for our local area as a direct result.

As Co-Founder of the BOSS program, I urge everyone to join either ACB, or NFB, or any other organization of their choice to help support the blind and visually impaired in whatever way possible.

These organizations have helped many blind and visually impaired people to live more independent lives.  They have brought hope and inspiration to those whithout hope and inspiration, and they have brought much needed education to where it is needed most.

So whether you join ACB, NFB, or even the Lions Club, or any other organization that supports the blind; it really doesn’t matter because we’re all working towards one great cause and that is the betterment and full independence of those who are blind and visually impaired.

After all, that is what the BOSS program does.  It helps to make those that are blind and visually impaired more independent by offering them skills that they can use the rest of their lives to build, run and manage a successful business on the Internet.  Combined with these organizations mentioned above, the skills and abilities that are achieved by each individual insures that individual a greater understanding of their place in society, as well as within a business setting.

It really doesn’t matter which organization that you’re a part of because all of these organizations do something to assist those that are blind or visually impaired in one way, or another.

Amazon’s Kindle can read books aloud, but if you’re blind it can be difficult to turn that function on without help. Now two universities say they will
shun the device until Amazon changes the setup.

The National Federation of the Blind announced Wednesday that the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Syracuse University in New York won’t consider big
rollouts of the electronic reading device unless Amazon makes it more accessible to visually impaired students.

Both schools have some Kindles that they bought for students to try this fall, but now they say they won’t look into buying more unless Amazon makes changes
to the device.

"These universities are saying, `Our policy is nondiscrimination, so we’re not going to adopt a technology we know for sure discriminates against blind
students,’" said Chris Danielsen, a spokesman for the National Federation of the Blind.

Amazon.com
Inc. spokesman Drew Herdener said many visually impaired customers have asked Amazon to make the Kindle easier to navigate. The company is working on it,
he said.

According to the National Federation of the Blind, there are about 1.3 million legally blind people in the U.S. Many more people have other disabilities
such as dyslexia that make it difficult to read.

The Kindle could be promising for the visually impaired because of its read-aloud feature, which utters text in a robotic-sounding voice. For blind students
in particular, the Kindle could be an improvement over existing studying techniques — such as using audio books or scanning books page by page into a computer
so character-recognition software can translate it for a text-to-speech program.

But activating the Kindle’s audio feature probably requires a sighted helper, because the step involves manipulating buttons and navigating choices in menus
that appear on the Kindle’s screen.

The federation says the device should be able to speak the menu choices as well.

Electronic books still make up a small portion of the overall book market, but it’s a fast-growing segment. In hopes of getting even more people to try
the Kindle, Amazon released the $489 Kindle DX this year, which has a large screen and is geared toward textbook and newspaper readers. The company then
worked with several colleges to give out Kindles this fall with digital versions of their textbooks on them.

The Federation of the Blind sued one of the schools that participated in this pilot program — Arizona State University — in June, along with the American
Council of the Blind and a blind ASU student, arguing it was discriminating against blind students. That case is ongoing.

The group also filed complaints with the Department of Justice against five other schools that are participating in the Kindle trial with Amazon. Wisconsin
and Syracuse are not among those schools.

Ken Frazier, director of Wisconsin-Madison’s library system, said the library bought 20 Kindle DX devices for use in a history class this fall. Though he’s
not sure how many blind students are at his school, he said many students have difficulties reading texts for various reasons, such as learning disabilities.
"Our experience is that when you make technology accessible, everybody benefits," he said.

It is clearly stated that there’s a problem with the Kindle Ebook reader in regards to accessibility.  It seams that when a new technology such as this first arrives onto the scene, and it is equipped with accessible technology to aid the blind in one way or another, it usually means that in order to begin using that bit of technology requires someone who is sighted to navigate to the proper settings to make the device work for one who is blind, or visually impaired.

I strongly suggest that when you turn the device on, that it automatically defaults to the speaking option first so that when a blind person purchases the device and begins using it for the very first time, that it begin speaking immediately without having to use a sighted individual to locate the proper settings just to make the device speak.  The speach can always be turned off by a sighted individual by simply flipping some sort of toggle switch, or selecting that option from a very simple menu that instantly appears when the device is first turned on.

A blind or visually impaired person should never have to worry about navigating through numerous menu structures and even hidden menu structures just to get to what they need in order to use the device that they had just purchased.

It shouldn’t be all that difficult for Kindle to make these necessary changes.  They should also make all menus speak, including any sub menu structure, and any choices that that menu provides the user for input.  The blind and visually impaired should not be left in the dark over complicated menu structures.

For example, I have noticed that on some cell phones, some of the menu structure speaks, but not all of them.  If they’re going to add speech access to a device, then all of that device should be made accessible, not just certain parts of it.

After all, if you’re going to add speech to a device, then doesn’t it make perfect sense to make that speech navigation easy to get to and turn on?  It should never ever be burried under menu after menu after menu.  You should not have to navigate through numerous menu structures just to turn on  speech access for any device.

So whether it is the Kindle Ebook reader, or a plasma television, all electronic devices sold in the United states should all be made accessible.

A brand new chapter of the American Council For The Blind is about to be open in Beaumont Texas.  I myself, along with Kenneth J. Semien, and Dr. Ed Bradley, former president of ACB Texas, along with at least 10 other people will be meeting on Thursday November 5th to begin development of this new chapter.

What this means for the Beaumont Texas area is that now we will have our own chapter of ACB, and we will not have to travel to Houston to attend ACB meetings.  This new chapter will do many of the same things that other chapters of ACB in Texas does.  We Sincerely hope that this new chapter will bring more independence, and education to the Golden  Triangle area of Southeast Texas.  This could help to open the doors to employment and better blind services for our local area.

We will be meeting at Division of Blind Services to begin proceedings for the development of this new chapter.  I will keep you all posted and informed as to what transpires from this meeting and future meetings to come regarding the development of this new chapter of ACB in Beaumont Texas