TVI Tidbits: Volume 2, No. 3
March 3, 2010
NYSAER Conference Notice
Access World
Braille Challenge 2010 Award for Excellence
Social Networking
Touch the Earth Book Released!
Campaign for Active Transportation Act
Braille Pals
The following information is for your information and not an endorsement of any product or service:
1) 25th Annual NYSAER Conference
Save the dates! Preliminary plans for the 25th annual NYSAER conference have been made for October 24-26, 2010 in Syracuse! ... see more details
2) The March issue of AccessWorld is now available at http://www.afb.org/aw/main.asp
This issue features:
- A Look Back: Two Historical Interviews with Deane Blaize
- An Evaluation of Kindle 2 and Sony Reader Digital Book Players, by Darren Burton — We report on the accessibility of two popular digital book players
- Apex and Intel: A Commentary, by Deborah Kendrick — A perspective on two new products in the assistive technology market
- What Can Policy Change Do for You?, by Paul Schroder — A look at pending legislation and what it could mean for you
- The ScripTalk Experience, by Bradley Hodges — A look at how people are using ScripTalk to independently manage their prescription medications
- Social Networking Is Becoming a Way of Life, by Marc Grossman — A discussion of popular social networking sites
- Book Review: Assistive Technology for Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired: A Guide to Assessment AccessWorld News
- Letter to the Editor
3) The Braille Challenge® 2010 Award for Excellence in Braille Instruction
Looking for a way honor a very special teacher
of the visually impaired? From now through April 1st we are accepting
nominations for The Braille Challenge® 2010 Award for
Excellence in Braille Instruction. All nominees are recognized nationally
and the awardee and his or her guest is invited to Los Angeles to attend
The Braille Challenge Finals June 26, compliments of Braille Institute.
The Teacher of the Year also receives a cash award and a Freedom Scientific
PacMate worth nearly $4,000. Go to
www.braillechallenge.org and
click on the Teacher of the Year link on the menu to
your left. The website outlines the criteria for submission and a includes
a PDF of the nomination form. Past awardees include Anna Swenson of Virginia,
Graham Cook of British Columbia, Sandy Serventi from Florida, Jim Nezol
from Oregon and Carolyn Mason from Texas.
"Receiving the Teacher of the Year award was a high point in my long
teacher career." --Anna Swenson.
Don't wait---the deadline for submission is April 1st!!
Nancy Niebrugge
Asst. VP of Programs and Services
Braille Institute
741 N. Vermont Avenue, LA, CA 90029
323-663-1111, ext. 3113
4) Social Networking and You:
Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for Blind Users
By Anna Dresner
In braille, eBraille, text, and DAISY formats, $12.00 from National Braille Press (NBP)
"I started my job search with my LinkedIn contacts." "Your tweets are hilarious!" "We're Facebook friends, but we've never met in person!"
It seems like everyone these days is spending at least some of their time on social networking sites. If you're not participating, you may feel left out - and it doesn't help that none of these sites were designed with blind users in mind! But what exactly do Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have to offer? How do you get started on them? And what about issues of privacy?
This book is designed to help you learn about these three social networking sites so that you can decide which, if any, you wish to join. Anna Dresner gives you enough information to get started; she describes how these sites work right now and gives you some idea about the sorts of things you can do on them. Anna offers commands and strategies for navigating these sites with screen readers, and includes pointers for handling specific situations using JAWS, Window-Eyes and System Access, and VoiceOver on the Mac.
Note: The DAISY version of this book will work with any version of FSReader, which comes free with every installationof JAWS. Read the full table of contents for this book, or order it, at http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/SOCIAL.html
To order any books, send payment to NBP, 88 St. Stephen Street, Boston, MA 02115-4302
Or call and charge it: toll-free (800) 548-7323 or (617) 266-6160 ext
20. Or order any of our books online at
http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/publications/index.html.
5) Touch the Earth Book Released! Request a free copy for your school today!
The National Federation of the Blind is pleased to announce the release of a new tactile book created with the support of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Touch the Earth: A Multimedia book about the Earth's Biomes was written by Amy Hansen and conceptualized by Elissa Levine. It includes tactile graphics created by Noreen Grice.
This book aims to educate middle school students while also providing guidance for teachers on how to incorporate this book into classroom instruction. Each book contains contracted Braille and large print, along with tactile and visual graphics to illustrate important concepts in both a tactually and visually friendly way. Each book also comes with a colorful tactile map of the continents of the Earth.
Exclusively available through the NFB Independence
Market , Touch the Earth (product# LSA91B) can be purchased
for $20 . To place an order please call (410) 659-9314 or visit
http://secure.nfb.org/ecommerce/asp/product.asp?
product=854&cat=47&ph=&keywords=&recor=&SearchFor=&PT_ID
We are pleased to announce that we are offering one free copy upon request to schools and libraries for the blind across the country for their collections. Please contact Mary Jo T. Hartle, Director of Education for the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, at (410) 659-9314, ext. 2407, or by e-mail at mhartle@nfb.org to request a free copy for your institution.
6) Campaign for Active Transportation Act
Building on the successes of the
Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program, this Act would establish a competitive active
transportation investment fund, to invest in walking and bicycling
improvements in targeted communities around the country. These resources
would enable communities to build interconnected systems—allowing
people to travel between the places they work, live, play, learn and
shop without needing car. If the act is passed, the U.S. Department
of Transportation will administer a competitive fund, which will invest
in communities that best make the case for resources to shift large
numbers of trips from driving to walking and bicycling. For more info:
http://www.railstotrails.org/ourWork/advocacy/activeTransportation/
campaignForActiveTransportation/ACT_act.html
7) The BraillePals Club is Always Open for New Members!
Do you know someone who might like to become a Braille Pal? ...
See details! 
Braille
Pals Permission Form