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                            THE BLIND NEWS DIGEST

                                 Issue # 1048

                           Tuesday, June 14, 1994

Today's Topics:


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                  Radio control program for Kenwood ts440?
                             Re: Talkative Menus
                          Re: online access (long)
                                4dos question
                                books on disk
                Re: BRAILLE OUTPUT DEVICES FOR PC COMPATIBLES


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                              (203) 926-6187



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Subject: Radio control program for Kenwood ts440?
From: dlawlor@morgan.ucs.mun.ca (Doug Lawlor)
Organization: Memorial University of Newfoundland

Hello everyone, I am looking for a speech friendly radio control
program for the Kenwood ts440s.  I would like to know what is out
there in the shareware / comerical market for this rig.  We have
the interface up and running and know it is working by trying it
with another control program which tends to crash on an Olivetti
m111.  Does anyone know of something stable and relatively easy
to use?

Thanks in advance,
Doug

--
Doug Lawlor, vo1cm
Internet: dlawlor@morgan.ucs.mun.ca or dlawlor@kean.ucs.mun.ca




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Subject: Re: Talkative Menus
From: panda@trace16.waisman.wisc.edu (Administration User)
Organization: U of Iowa Panda System

I'm not necessarily critical of this service because having access to a menu's
great.
However, when I tried this the other day I found that the recorded menu was
very incomplete when compared to the print menu.





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Subject: Re: online access (long)
From: ebohlman@netcom.com (Eric Bohlman)
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)

Kelly Pierce (Kelly.Pierce@ican.com) wrote:
: Index Number: 32596

:      Below is a letter I wrote in response to the statement the
: Chicago Tribune company prepared in response to my complaint to

...

:      The Chicago Tribune Company seeks complete dismissal of my
: complaint because ensuring usability of Chicago Online by me or
: other blind persons or those with disabilities would
: "fundamentally alter the nature of the graphic based system
: through the creation of new customer software with difficulty and
: huge expense."  Later, the statement charges that my need for
: access is a means in which "CTC be compelled to abandon America
: Online's Multi-million dollar investment in graphics-based
: software and databases or create from scratch new custom software
: at a price so high it would impose an undue burden on the service
: and all its subscribers.

...

:      The Chicago Tribune Company complains that providing access
: would cost the company a "high" price and create an undue burden.
: CTC never specifies in its statement the price that it considers
: so high, nor does it supply any documentation that could be
: verified by an independent third party to the validity of this
: claim.  Further, CTC fails to use formulae and/or criteria set
: forth in the ADA or in any other disability or access policy to
: demonstrate that my accommodation request causes an undue burden
: or is unreasonable.  CTC claims that access would cost about
: $600,000.  The subscriber base is more than 800,000, CTC reports.
: Considering the subscriber base at about 800,000, the cost per
: subscriber if amortized during a two-year period would be about
: three cents per month.  This cost compares to the 14 cents a
: month all telephone companies in Illinois charge to each
: subscriber to provide access to their telephone service for deaf
: and hearing impaired users.

I will make a standing offer.  If the Chicago Tribune Company will supply
me with the technical details of the communications between their host
and the end-user software, and if they're actually transmitting text
rather than graphics (which I assume they are, as their communication
links would be completely overloaded if they were sending graphics for
everything), I will develop a text-based interface, usable with ordinary
DOS screen readers (not just my own product Tinytalk) and give the
Tribune Company the right to distribute it on a royalty-free basis, for a
fee of 1/20 of the cost they claim would be necessary (i.e. a flat,
one-time fee of $30,000).

You may notify the Tribune Company of the existence of this offer, and
provide them with my name and address.  I have been in the business of
developing system and application software for 14 years, and access
software for the blind for 10 years.  I am the developer of one of the
major DOS screen-reader packages, and have performed custom development
work for one of the major reading-machine manufacturers.

Eric Bohlman
OMS Development
610-B Forest Ave.
Wilmette, IL  60091

Voice: 708-251-5787
FAX: 708-251-5793

Internet: ebohlman@netcom.com
Fido: 1:129/89.3
Genie: E.BOHLMAN





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Subject: 4dos question
From: dashiell@nadc.navy.mil (Jude DaShiell)


specifically how is it possible to make the list command in
4dos talk with an artic speech synthesizer?  The synthesizer does not
have smart windowing capability.

jude <dashiell@nadc.nadc.navy.mil>




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Subject: books on disk
From: dashiell@nadc.navy.mil (Jude DaShiell)

In the case where professors write their own material if I
got into a course like that and couldn't get the text in useable form on
disk I'd ask for a refund for the course.  Presumably at least
the compositor's tapes are available as are the disk files that
made up the text or these should be available.

jude <dashiell@nadc.nadc.navy.mil>




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Subject: Re: BRAILLE OUTPUT DEVICES FOR PC COMPATIBLES
From: mattioli@panix.com (John Mattioli)
Organization: Panix Public Access Internet & Unix, NYC


Hi,

        I've used several different Braille displays on ibm pc compatible
hardware.  I tend to favor the 80-cell versions although the prices are
much higher.  Baum sells the dm80 for $15,000 and I don't know what the
Braillex is being sold for these days but probably something like
$15,000.  An important question is what you plan to use the display for.
Is this to be used with DOS only, DOS and Windows, Unix (that's 386-based
unix) or what?

                                        John




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                 End of Issue # 1048 of the Blind News Digest

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