BlindOnlineSuccessSystem.com

Webvisum is a Firefox plugin to help with Captcha images. It does far more than solving captias, to include allowing community lables of graphics. For example 1 person labels graphics on a page which can then be shared with all webvisum users and some OCR capabilities of images which are not captias, etc.

For more info visit www.webvisum.com

Captcha images are those images that are displayed on a website that a visitor must type into a box to show that they are "human". Many websites use these to prevent automated submissions for things like blog comments, account creation and a whole slew of instances.

Apparently these sites think that you have to have "normal vision" in order to be "human". These images can be a huge annoyance even if you do have "normal vision". But for people who are blind or visually impaired the can make the difference between being able to access the internet independently or not.

Some sites offer an audio option for people with vision impairment but these can be very difficult to understand. If you’re sighted and have never tried the audio captcha, try it sometime.

Now thanks to the folks at solona.net there’s another option available to people who are unable to read the captcha image.

Solona is a suite of Internet-based tools that empower visually impaired people to independently negotiate inaccessible objects. They enable people to overcome obstacles that are encountered on a regular basis due to
inaccessible images and web page design. Each tool within Solona is Human-Powered. In other words, everytime a user submits an image to be solved, a sighted human operator is on the other side to translate the image. By harnessing human power to solve inaccessible images, Solona can provide higher quality and more accurate
solutions than any fully automated program or service.

Solona is a non-profit corporation registered in Texas. There is no charge for using any of their services.

Visit solona.net today

A blind chef is cooking up a storm in an upscale Chicago Restaurant.

She wheelds a knife like a ninja as she cooks up her famous dishes at this upscale restaurant in Chicago.

She is not afraid of the knives, or the fire, and she proves that she can cook up a mean dish just like her sighted peers do.  She doesn’t let her blindness get in her way, and you can see that when you watch the video below.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6160732n&tag=mncol;lst;1

Blind Woman Sees With ‘Tooth-in-Eye’ Surgery

Doctors in Florida Restore Sharron Kay Thornton’s Vision by Implanting a Tooth in Her Eye

By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit

Sept. 17, 2009—

Forget about an eye for an eye — doctors in Florida have taken a
blind
woman’s tooth, and used it to help restore her vision.

A team of specialists at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine announced Wednesday that they are
the first surgeons in the United States
to restore a person’s sight by using a tooth. The procedure is formally called modified osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (or MOOKP).

Sharron “Kay” Thornton, 60,
went blind
nine years ago from a rare disorder called Stevens-Johnson syndrome. The disorder left the surface of her eyes so severely scarred she was legally blind.
But doctors determined the inside of her eyes were still functional enough that she might one day see with the help of MOOKP.

“This is a patient where the surface of the eye is totally damaged — no wetness, no tears,” said Dr. Victor L. Perez, the ophthalmologist at the Bascom
Palmer Eye Institute at the University of Miami who operated on Thornton. “So we kind of recreate the environment of the mouth in the eye.”

The three-phase operation started with University of Miami dentist, Dr. Yoh Sawatari, who removed a tooth from Thornton’s mouth and prepared an implant
of her own dental tissue for her
most severely damaged eye.
The tissue would be used to make a new cornea to replace the damaged one.

Doctors then removed a section of Thornton’s cheek that would become the soft, mucus tissue around her pupil. Finally, Perez and his team implanted the
modified tooth — which had a hole drilled through the center — to support a prosthetic lens.

“We use that tooth as a platform to put the optical cylinder into the eye,” explained Perez.

Perez said doctors often use less risky and less invasive techniques to replace corneas, but the damage from Thornton’s Stevens-Johnson syndrome ruled those
out.

Using a tooth might sound strange, but it also offers an advantage. Because doctors used Thornton’s own cheek and tooth tissue she faces less risk that
her immune system will attack the tooth and reject the transplant. Patients getting a cornea transplant from a deceased donor, on the other hand, face
chances that their immune system will reject the new tissue.

This Labor Day, Thornton was able
to take off the bandages
and she immediately saw the light.

Regaining Her Vision With Tooth in Eye Surgery

“From the first day, she’s been able to see 20/70,” said Perez. “She cannot drive legally (yet), but she can see her hands, see TV, see the sky, see the
clouds.”

At the moment, Thornton has nothing covering the cheek tissue on her eye, an aesthetic drawback MOOKP patients must face.

“Her eye looks different but, the goal is once she heals more we can put on a cosmetic eye shield,” said Perez.

The technique was developed in Italy in the early 1960s, but the original procedure has been modified over the years by doctors in Europe. Hundreds of people
in Japan, England and Italy have regained vision through the technique, but most eye specialists in the U.S. don’t foresee MOOKP catching on in America.

“It’s a complicated and rare procedure that a few people use in desperate situations [and] some patients benefit when the alternative is blindness,” said
Dr. Stanley Chang, an ophthalmologist at the Columbia University Medical Center in New York City.

Why the Tooth and Eye Procedure Is Rare

While OOKP is used more often in Europe, doctors U.S. typically choose a less tedious technique called the Boston Keratoprosthesis, which is similar to
MOOKP but uses a prosthetic cornea instead of one grown from dental tissue and does not require cheek tissue to surround the implant.

The Boston technique, experts say, can save patients time and give them a more natural looking eye.

Doctors may use MOOKP for some uncommon situations — including people with Stevens-Johnson syndrome, or who were chemical burn victims — but not always.

“These conditions, although rare or uncommon, are still important because the patients may have little or no vision, and because there have not been very
effective treatments to restore their vision,” said Dr. James Chodosh, a cornea specialist at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

However, Chodosh added, “The [MOOKP] procedure is unlikely to be very commonly used because of the difficulty, length, and invasiveness of the surgery and
the cosmetic appearance after surgery.”

Rare Procedures to Reverse Blindness Still Have Benefits

Dr. Uyen Tran, associate professor of ophthalmology at the Vanderbilt Eye Institute, agrees that “these types of patients are not common” and says that
“we probably see about 20 cases a year at our center.”

Yet, while the number of patients for MOOKP may never reach the number of patients getting the Boston Keratoprosthesis, Perez said he hopes to perform more
of these procedures for those in need.

“Absolutely there are a lot of patients like her (Thornton), and also patients with chemical burns& we also want to work with the Department of Defense
to help with soldiers who are scarred,” said Perez.

One of our members, Tracey Frost, is in the Medical field.  She has done medical transcription for a number of years now, and she has had lots of experience with the medical transcription field, as you will see in her story which has been posted on the following web site.

http://www.afb.org/Section.asp?SectionID=7&TopicID=267&SubTopicID=83&DocumentID=4888

As you have seen from the story from the link above, the medical transcription field is quite demanding and at times, quite intensive with little, or no breaks.  This is one of those jobs that you really have to love doing if you do decide to do it.

Some people would think that medical transcriptionists have gone nuts sitting at their computers all day long, but that’s what this job requires.  It requires dedication, focus and the willingness to help others in times of need.

Tracy frost is one of those people who loves helping others.  She is an outstanding BOSS member.  She has achieved a lot through her career as a medical transcriptionist and she continues to grow by being a valuable part of the BOSS program.  If you are blind and visually impaired, then you may want to join Tracy in making your dreams come true by becoming a part of our program.

Through our program, Tracy Frost has learned a great deal about marketing online, and she is on her way to developing her own medical site, wich will feature many of the things that she holds dear, and that will help other people in many different ways.

Besides being a medical transcriptionist, Tracy Frost is also a patient advocate which means that she is the link between you, the doctor and the medical facility.  All of this is part of her willingness to help others.  As a BOSS member, tracy has been instrumental in providing excellent ideas that will help the other members of the program.  She is definitely a very active part of the Blind Online Success System.  That is why she was added to the Blind Persons Achieving Success Section of this blog.

Congratulations to Tracy Frost for her outstanding achievements and commitment to the BOSS program

Amazon working to make the bestselling Kindle also a breakthrough device for
the blind

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Kindle, the #1 bestselling product across all of
Amazon, has enabled many vision-impaired readers to enjoy books more easily
than
before, and has also helped dyslexic readers and those with learning
disabilities improve their reading skills. Vision impaired customers benefit
from
Kindle’s ability to change the font size – easily making any book a large
print edition. Dyslexic readers benefit from being able to listen with
Kindle’s
text-to-speech technology while simultaneously reading along with the
synchronized text. Today, Amazon announced that it is working on a new set
of features
that will make Kindle even better for these readers as well as a meaningful
breakthrough device for the blind.

"Kindle is for anyone who loves to read-in fact, we’ve heard from thousands
of vision-impaired customers and customers with learning disabilities over
the
past two years who have been helped tremendously by Kindle," said Ian Freed,
Vice President, Amazon Kindle. "With some key modifications, we believe
Kindle
can be a breakthrough device for the blind, and the team is excited about
making these enhancements."

Below are examples of emails sent to the Kindle team over the past two years
about the significance of these features:

"The other day I took my visually impaired friend to the eye doctor. I just
happened to take my Kindle out of my purse to show her the birthday gift I
had
received. Amazingly, she was able to read on it. How exciting; she had not
been able to read books for many years."

"I’ve always loved to read, but the last year or so vision problems have
hampered my reading. Reading small print was extremely difficult and caused
eye
strain. Fortunately, a dear friend gifted me with my Kindle 2 on my birthday
in September. Since that time, my Kindle has not left my side."

"I have an 11 year old daughter with cerebral palsy. She has very poor
vision and cannot turn pages in a book, so the kindle text to speech is a
blessing
for her. She loves books and will listen for hours!"

"I am an ophthalmologist specializing in rehabilitation of the visually
impaired. I have found the Kindle DX to be of tremendous value to my
patients. A
few modifications could increase its effectiveness."

[From teacher of students with learning disabilities] "One of my students
brought his mom’s Kindle to class this week and gave a little show and tell
for
two different classes. He is certainly a hard worker, but reading is not an
easy skill for him. He reports that the lack of back-lighting, the ability
to change font size and the ‘read-to’ features have been very helpful -
already he feels he has made great progress! The Kindle has really grabbed
the
attention of many of my students who have typically been turned off by
reading assignments."

To make Kindle more useful for the blind, the Kindle team is currently
working on an audible menuing system so blind and vision-impaired readers
can easily
navigate to books unassisted, in addition to listening to books as they can
already do today with Read To Me. In addition, a new super size font will be
added to Kindle, increasing the number of font sizes from six to seven. This
seventh font size will be twice the height and width of the current largest
font. These new features are scheduled for release by the summer of 2010.

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

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Nine-year-old Corey Haas can ride his bike alone now, thanks to an experimental gene therapy that has boosted his fading vision
with a single treatment.

The gene therapy helped improve worsening eyesight caused by a rare inherited disease called Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA, which makes most patients
blind by age 40.

Twelve treated patients, including Corey, now have better vision, their doctors told a joint meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Pan-American
Association of Ophthalmology in San Francisco on Saturday.

“All 12 patients given gene therapy in one eye showed improvement in retinal function,” Dr Katherine High of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and colleagues wrote in a report to be released at the same time by the Lancet medical journal.

LCA causes the retina to degenerate and the researchers found that the younger the patient treated with the therapy, the better the effects.

“Before, I used to ride my bike just in front of the house and now I just ride around the neighborhood with no one watching,” Corey told a news conference.

While the experiment was meant mostly to show the treatment was safe, it showed remarkably strong effects, High and Dr Jean Bennett of the University of
Pennsylvania found.

“This study reports dramatic results in restoring vision to patients who previously had no options for treatment,” said High. “These findings may expedite
development of gene therapy for more common retinal diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration.”

BATTERED FIELD

They could also help restore the tarnished image of gene therapy, battered by the death of an 18-year-old volunteer in a clinical trial in 1999 and cases
of leukemia in a few young children treated in France.

“The study by Bennett and co-workers will further boost gene therapy trials and provide hope for patients with inherited blindness and other genetic disorders,”
Dr Frans Cremers and Dr Rob Collin of Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands wrote in a commentary.

A faulty gene means patients with LCA start to lose their vision in childhood. There is no treatment.

High, Bennett and colleagues worked with 12 volunteers, aged 8 to 44. They reported on three of the adult patients in April of 2008.

They designed a harmless virus, called an adeno-associated virus, to carry corrective DNA directly into the eyes. The gene they used, called RPE65, is mutated
in up to about 16 percent of LCA patients and the normal gene restored light-sensitive pigments in the retina at the back of the eye.

The treatment did not restore normal eyesight to any of the patients but half are no longer legally blind.

“The clinical benefits have persisted for nearly two years since the first subjects were treated with injections of therapeutic genes into their retinas,”
Bennett said.

Four children aged 8, 9, 10, and 11 can now walk unaided.

Corey’s father, Ethan Haas, from Hadley, New York, said they embraced the experiment.

“You start to think of what could happen — he could go completely blind. And then it’s like, well, he may go blind in the future anyway because it’s degenerative,
so I decided to try it now and see if we could stop it and correct it,” Haas said.

Corey’s mother, Nancy Haas, said it was worth the risk.

“It’s hard to see a child not be able to play like he should with his other friends, and then to have shortly after surgery, he’s out there with his friends,
playing, being able to see things coming from his peripheral vision, noticing other kids,” she said, beginning to cry.

“It’s all worth it.”