TVI Tidbits - Volume 2, No. 19
May 17, 2010
- CALL FOR PAPERS!!!! 25th annual NYSAER conference October 24-26, 2010 in Syracuse!
- New Book from VIEW International!
- Free EASI Webinar: Streaming Captions with MAGPIE You Can Do It
- Apple’s iPad Improves Accessibility for the Low Vision Community
The following information is for your information and not an endorsement of any product or service:
- CALL FOR PAPERS!!!! 25th annual NYSAER conference October 24-26, 2010 in Syracuse!
- New Book from VIEW International!
- Free EASI Webinar: Streaming Captions with MAGPIE You Can Do It
- Apple’s iPad Improves Accessibility for the Low Vision Community
Click here for more information and contact Dawn Werner for details and forms! The deadline is May 28!
VIEW International Foundation is please to announce that we have a
new book available. This is the start of a new series which we
are calling the Anne and Alex Explorer Series. The title is:
Anne and Alex 1996; Book One.
Anne, age seven, is sighted and Alex, age six, is blind. Anne
and Alex are to be adopted by the family of Ben and Mary Walker,
who live in Forest Grove Oregon. Anne and Alex embark on a series
of adventures. They visit real places which their readers could
also visit. This series is intended for junior high and above.
The good characters in this series adhere to traditional family
values. For more information, to read a few chapters and have
an opportunity to purchase a copy click on the following link:
http://www.viewinternational.org/viewprojects.html
Look for the word "Anne" for faster navigation.
Thur. 5/20 at 2:00 Eastern
Presenter: Geoff Freed from NCAM
This free Webinar is sponsored by EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information)
The National Center on Accessible Media, (NCAM) several years ago, first created MAGpie as free software to let anyone provide synchronized captions for streaming multimedia. NCAM is an international leader in developing tools to facilitate providing captions and has led in advocating the government to make captions a requirement in many settings including on TV and even supports a chain of theaters which have in-theater captioning. Over the years, NCAM has continued to improve MAGpie and keep it current with new multimedia products. Here is the ideal opportunity to learn about the improvements of this quality, free software.
Register online to save a seat in the Web conference room for yourself:
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm
The National Federation of the Blind praised Apple for the inclusion of VoiceOver on the iPad.
For over 20 years, Apple has been at the forefront of accessible technology for the blind and visually impaired. The iPad, Apple’s new tablet computer, is changing the way the visually impaired community interacts with media. Included in each iPad, at no additional cost, is a screen magnifier and VoiceOver, an application that allows for audible instructions for each menu. With VoiceOver, the user can glide his or her finger around the screen, and the screen reader technology will read each icon.
“Not only does the iPad make reading easy for people with impaired vision, or no vision at all, it makes reading easier for everyone,” says Dorrie Rush, Marketing Director of Accessible Technology at Lighthouse International. Dorrie, who is diagnosed with a retinal disorder known as Stargardt’s Disease, sees the iPad as a media device she can fully utilize.
“On the bigger screen I can view many [of the] things I cannot see at all on my iPhone, [such as] photographs, movies and TV,” says Dorrie. “You can zoom [the] magnifying font to 40 points, then turn the 10-inch screen to landscape and it gets even bigger. You can [also] reverse the screen contrast to white-on-black … or just relax and listen with VoiceOver.”
Since its launch in April, the iPad has already been embraced by the visually impaired community. The National Federation of the Blind praised Apple for the inclusion of VoiceOver on the iPad. “We are looking at a paradigm shift,” says Rush.
“Apple has reset the bar on accessibility and they are way ahead of the curve [on] addressing the needs of a huge demographic – the aging population.”
Thanks to MaryJoan D'Amore for this Tidbit!