Technology Help for Veterans

As a visually impaired veteran, a visually  impaired person is eligible for a complete computer system, including software, scanner and printer, and training in their use at no cost to the veteran.  If you go to the VA internet website, there is a list of VIST Coordinators and the means to contact them.  http://www.va.gov/blindrehab/

Virtual Eyes with technology

So you can't see well...welcome to the 21st century of seeing using a special camera attached to glasses. Watch the wonder as the world unfolds telling you about your surroundings from a simple camera.

Watch the wonder of Orcam
try out Google Glass option

Find more information at: www.yourtechvision.com

Creating a Bibliography in Word, using auto format options- APA, MLA and more with talking software

Learn the easy method to create a correct bibliography for your school paper: Creating a Bibliography in Word, using auto format options- APA, MLA and more with talking software

More Lessons at: www.yourtechvision.com

Textured touch screens such as ipads, etc

Disney does it again---feel a flat screen to "see" what is displayed:

Tactile Rendering of 3D Features on Touch Surfaces

Goggle Calendar-make an event with a reminder using talking software

Easily maneuver around Goggle Calendar-make an event with day, time month, year--what ever you need, with a reminder that will pop up in your email, using talking software
Go to: Goggle Calendar-make an event with a reminder using talking software

Audio/visual lesson

Thousands of Classic ebooks online-Free

Project Gutenberg has a mobile website, m.gutenberg.org where you can download many classic books free of charge
If you would like to see a video on how to use this site easily, go to: Free Ebooks directly on the iPad - How to use Project Gutenberg

For more information on all things blind, go to yourtechvision.com

YouTube for blind software

Get all the quick hotkeys that enable you to move around Youtube quickly
Check out Accessible YouTube

More great blind info at www.yourtechvision.com

Video of an incredible Life in the Living

Be inspired to live to your fullest potential: Watch---Richie Parker Drive

Bookshare--Free to Canadians Now

Bookshare now available through the CNIB Library!

CNIB clients can now sign up for a free one-year subscription to Bookshare, an accessible online library for people with qualifying print disabilities! Why join Bookshare?

· Access over 110,000 titles, including New York Times bestsellers, novels, mysteries, science fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, foreign-language books and more!

· Get timely access to books at or near the same time print titles hit the bookstore.

· Read books with text-to-speech, enlarged font, or refreshable braille.

· Read books using a variety of technologies: computers, Apple iOS and Android tablets and smartphones, MP3 players, braille displays and more. Download books in DAISY Text, DAISY Audio, MP3, and Braille Ready Format. Note: DAISY Audio and MP3 books from Bookshare are in synthetic speech, not human narration.

Subscriptions through the CNIB Library are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis, so sign up for Bookshare today!
More Info, Go to CNIB

OVERVIEW OF CHANGES FROM CURRENT LITERARY BRAILLE TO UEB

Authored by: Braille Authority of North America
March 2013
www.brailleauthority.org

Braille changes have occured from US braille to the UEB version: Begin learning about the changes in order to be ready for the new reading materials that will be issued as well as use of a new iOS7 device, which sets its default at UEB
Go to: Braille Changes to begin learning these new skills

You can change back to US Braille on an iOS7 device by merely going to the settings\general\accessibility\VoiceOver\braille, Then, find the option called translation and activate this with a CRB or by double tapping. The currently selected table will be English
Unified, and you can choose from either the US or UK table. double tap or press a cursor routing button above US, and you should be set-----.but it may be wise to begin making the shift in learning, so you can do both as needed.

For more information on all things blind/braille and technology, visit: www.yourtechvision.com

Talking Graphic Calculator and additional tools for blind/low vision

So your blind child needs a graphing calculator---first you know it needs to talk--Orbit Research and APH-American Printing House for the Blind have combined their ideas into the The Orion talking graphing calculator

If your student is Low Vision, this tool and a tool to enlarge the graphing calculator enables easy viewing to maximize the benefit of this calculator with a smartview emulator
These 2 tools enable many possibilities

Download books from BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download)-Windows 7 or 8

BARD is  a great option to download audio and braille books quickly and easily. Learn all steps to operate the site successfully with talking software

Go to the JAWS/Internet tab above or BARD

Virtual Lesson with Skype- Learning math on a PC with braille display and talking software

Blind students read content from their Nemeth math books then complete all assignments in word which can easily be emailed to the teacher at the same time and speed as their peers. Learn the power of how quickly this skill is learned with this great video on the steps needed to take to learn these skills. In addition, learn how to find that document of which you forgot the name...quickly and easily right in word. This audio visual lesson enables students to move as fast in math as their sighted peers.

Download your lesson at:  Skype math on a PC with braille display and talking software

Walking in Two Worlds: Dr. Denise Robinson's Quest to Change the Technology Landscape for Today's Visually Impaired Students

Larry L. Lewis, Jr. at AccessWorld

The Problem: A Disconnect Between Expectations and Reality

A monumental obstacle to today's job seeker with a vision impairment is the disconnect between meeting the mainstream educator's expectations (or performing at a level which makes him or her a valuable asset to the employer), and receiving the technology training required to do so. It's both unrealistic and unfair to expect the next generation of technology users who are visually impaired to be able to create visually formatted PowerPoint slides, or embed multi-media elements into a file, or create and edit a color-coded bar graph at a level comparable to their sighted peers without excellent, iterative training from qualified instructors.

The Current Solution

At this stage, a standard has yet to be developed that today's access technology trainer must meet in order to provide access technology evaluations and subsequent training for people who are visually impaired. While there are various organizations who have created programs to "train the trainer" in how to most effectively provide these technology services, at the end of the day, a service provider who is sighted or visually impaired and has a laptop with a screen reader installed on it may fill out the necessary paperwork and advertise himself as a service provider inmost states throughout the US regardless of his or her ability to actually instruct consumers. Often, the hourly rate that the service provider charges varies from state to state as well.
Consumers who are visually impaired may receive technology training at an agency, in their homes, or, in some instances, online. It's not the intent of this article to revamp how technology services are deployed throughout the US, but we as an industry must advocate for the high quality training received by sighted technology users to be adapted and made available to current and future generations of access technology users. One such individual has made it her crusade to make this happen!

A Change Agent

"It was never my intention to be a teacher of the visually impaired," states Dr. Denise Robinson, President of TechVision LLC, a company she founded almost three years ago. "I was attending Whitman College in Washington State and studying to become an English teacher when my world was turned completely upside down."
In her last semester of college, diabetic retinopathy caused Robinson's retinas to hemorrhage, resulting in her losing virtually all of her visual acuities in both eyes. This life-altering event forced her to depart college abruptly, just shy of graduation. After getting over the initial shock of losing her vision, she moved to Michigan where she had a friend in the medical field, a retinologist who became one of the pillars in her new support system. "I didn't know the first thing about how to do the world blind, but once I pushed through the feelings of self-pity and other emotions that accompany such a loss, I set out to learn how."
Robinson enrolled in the Vision Education program at Eastern Michigan University where she met the mentor who would spark her interest in providing education and technology services for people who are visually impaired.
"I owe much of what I've learned and who I am today to Ted Lennox, a blind faculty member who became my mentor. My exposure to access technology began with the Apple II computers in the mid-80s. We were fixated on pushing this and all technologies that came our way to their absolute limits: testing them, taxing them, getting all that we could out of them. He taught me to believe that technology could never defeat us but, rather, empower us."
Robinson used this time to not only fuel her passion for this newfound technology but also to continue to hone her ability to teach. She completed her internship under Lennox and received her Bachelor of Arts as a Teacher of the Vision Impaired while completing her degree in English. Then, she completed the graduate program at Western Michigan University, focusing on early childhood education while already working her first job in the industry as a teacher of the visually impaired.
During this period of approximately ten years, two things began to happen. The technology began to advance beyond the scope of the Apple II and its synthesizer, and Robinson's vision began to slowly return! "I had gone from a fully sighted college student on the verge of getting my degree to someone who had to adapt to interacting with the world audibly and tactily. As a result, I so get the necessity for learning how to read and write braille and understand from the perspective of someone who cannot see print what a powerful tool technology can be for the person who is visually impaired and learns how to affectively use it. I not only understand this truth, but I lived it."
Robinson began her career as an itinerant vision teacher and, amazingly, regained enough vision that she could drive during the daytime. Over the following ten years, her vision would improve to 20/15, making it possible for her to drive at night again. Her time as an itinerant teacher for multiple school districts provided her credibility in the trenches where she learned how to assess students' needs and communicate them to well-meaning administrators who were at a loss as to how to best serve their students who were visually impaired. "Administrators generally want to do the right thing for their students and want to believe that there are better ways for their students to learn and excel. I made it my mission to show them how," states Robinson.
As her caseload began to exponentially expand and the number of miles she would drive per month began to grow, Robinson believed that there had to be a better way for her to provide these services. "I spent more time in the car than I did teaching students and began to see a profound need for service delivery in very rural, scattered school districts. I knew there had to be a better way!"
While working full-time and driving an average of 3,000 miles per month, Robinson took on the task of earning her PhD in Instructional Online Design from Capella University, a degree she hoped would help her realize her dream of providing top-notch distance learning to more students. Robinson began to learn how to affectively deliver content using the technology that she had grown to love.
She voraciously learned concepts, such as website accessibility, along with methodologies designed to convey ideas, skill sets, and practical know-how to the very audience she desired to serve more effectively. Her ability to interact with technology from the perspective of a user who is blind, coupled with her ability to visually look at a computer application or an assignment means she is able to strategize with her students who are visually impaired on how to use a given technological solution to its fullest to conquer any challenge that they are facing.
In 2006 she received her PhD and launched TechVision, the vehicle for accomplishing her mission. She began by only taking on one student who is visually impaired. "I wanted to really beat up this concept of distance learning with one student, so I could fine tune all the hiccups and iron out any wrinkles."
During this time, she created a plan whereby she could provide real-time audio lessons to her students via remote access simply by using a computer, Skype, and remote access to the students' PCs. Once the word was out about TechVision, news began to travel fast, and just over two years ago, Robinson quit her full-time job to devote her entire energy to the company.
"Teachers, administrators, and parents are wildly happy with the idea of using something free, such as Skype, to interact with their students, and despite the realities of varying bandwidth speeds and PC specifications, instruction has gone remarkably well." Along with the top-notch instruction that TechVision students receive, the TechVision website is a rich resource full of lesson plans and news about the latest technologies and technology trends.

What You Can Expect

"Once the student connects with us on Skype (yes, it's the student's responsibility to call his/her TechVision instructor), we immediately ask them, "What do you need to do today?" It's up to us to be able to respond quickly and effectively to meet our students' needs during the 50-60 minutes that we have access to them," Robinson explains.
Dr. Robinson's business has taken off over the past two years. She's very selective about bringing on any extra assistance to help her with her expanding caseload of students for it's important to her that the instructors who work with her share both her passion and her commitment to educational excellence before she introduces them to her students.
"There [are] a lot of people out there who fancy themselves to be technology experts, but when I begin throwing real-life scenarios at them, they're not able to respond in a timeframe nor at a level of skill that is acceptable for the level of service that I want to provide to my students. I'm committed to TechVision students getting the most comprehensive instruction and practical application using access technology, and I'll only expand as quickly as my resources will allow me to do so."
Dr. Robinson provides virtual instruction to online students all over the United States. These students are predominately K-12, but she also provides instruction to adults as well. It's expected that the students come prepared for their next lesson, beginning with the completion of their given assignments.
"I'm here to get my students ready for real life!" she says. "If they're not prepared for me, how will they be prepared for their teacher? If they're not prepared for their teachers, how will they be equipped for college or the workplace?"
Dr. Robinson sees the mission of TechVision exploding at a similar rate at which technology shifts and changes. She's spending lots more time teaching and lots less time driving, and school districts can rest assured that their money is being solely used to fund their students' learning process. Her students are the recipients of her passion. It's through her own journey of walking in both worlds of the visually impaired and the fully sighted that she can offer such a unique blend of technology training to an industry thirsty for an alternative way to deliver technology training services.
To be sure, Dr. Robinson is only human and needs time to decompress and recharge the batteries. Her personal interests include gardening, wood working, rehabbing houses, working with her hands, and extensive hiking. Dr. Robinson's commitment to excellence shines through in any lesson that she delivers. Her commitment to excellence and problem solving makes her a one-of-a-kind pioneer for students who must rely on technology to level the playing field in the classroom and the workplace.
Comment on this article.at http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw140709

The first smartphone Specially Developed for the blind & visually impaired

RAY is the world’s first smartphone developed with advanced mobile technology for intuitive eye-free operation.
This affordable, device features an array of communication, apps and services including calls, email, messaging, contact list, calendar, GPS, advanced WEB remote assistance, voice recorder, panic and emergency services, and more, all with one common touch-and-sound-only interface.

With RAY, the blind and visually impaired enjoy greater independence, spontaneity and accessibility to services that we all take for granted in today’s smartphone world.

Read more about this incredible device at: Project Ray

 

Massive Open Online Courses- MOOCs

Online or remote access or virtual instruction is truly the trend of the future. Easier access to the education we need is just a click or keyboard command away. Read more about this facinating journey at:

The Minds Behind The MOOCs

June 4th, 2013 by Staff Writers

Academia is buzzing about MOOCs. What sounds like genteel name-calling is actually a powerful new medium with potential to transform the education system. Indeed, MOOCs and mooks are simply unfortunate homophones but the former is certainly ruffling feathers because their aim is to make higher education more affordable (free, in fact). These Massive Open Online Courses picked up speed and weight like a freight train, with more than five million learners in locations spanning the whole globe. Academic heavyweights like Harvard, Stanford and MIT back the courses, giving the world of online learning a much-needed boost of credibility.
In fact, two main players in online platforms, Coursera and Udacity, were founded by Stanford professors. As tuition rates continue to skyrocket, outpacing inflation like a Greyhound racing a Chihuahua, professors have banded together in hopes of making a world where anyone can access the elusive realm of an Ivy League education. The hurdles remain: Passing rates hover in the single-digits and completing a course has yet to be recognized for college credit. However, the appeal of MOOCs for both professors and students is so powerful it just might change higher education for good.
Read more at:The Minds Behind The MOOCs

From the New York Times
JERUSALEM — Liat Negrin, an Israeli who has been visually impaired since childhood, walked into a grocery store here recently, picked up a can of vegetables and easily read its label using a simple and unobtrusive camera attached to her glasses.
Read More at:

Device From Israeli Start-Up Gives the Visually Impaired a Way to Read

By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: June 3, 2013

Tell Me--help on weather and directory assistance

Tell Me, now as 24/7 at 888-247-2425
For reports on:
weather and time
your settings when you call back.
and as a  free directory assistance

For more help, go to www.yourtechvision.com

Games for Children with Visual Impairments

"Fun, interactive games" for
Children with Visual Impairments! 

 

Hello!

We are KeySense Games, creators of interactive, tactile board games for children with visual impairments.

Typing programs for the Blind

In general, most children will tell you that typing practice is boring and they do not want to do it. In general, you do not need to go this route  if the student is typing all day long....and you have already made sure they are using correct finger positioning. Just know that,  speed will increase with their daily work on the computer.
However, if repetition does need to occur because the student just needs more practice with finger placement, here is a suggestion of programs.
The most favorable program that can be used with talking software is
TypeAbility
The other commonly used, are:
Talking Typer from  (APH)), American Printing House for the Blind,
and many types of programs, from Marbelsoft