🚀 go-pugleaf

                            THE BLIND NEWS DIGEST

                                 Issue # 1068

                          Wednesday, July 27, 1994

Today's Topics:


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                Re: Power Wheelchair for Totally Blind person
                       identify dollars for the blind
                     Re: Identify Dollars for the Blind
                     Re: Identify Dollars for the Blind
                     Re: Identify Dollars for the Blind
                     Re: Identify Dollars for the Blind
              Re: Looking for a VCR Programmer for Blind Person
                      Improving Blind Access to the Web
                      Improving Blind Access to the Web
                  Selling computer equipment for the blind
            Alex: A Catalogue of Electronic Texts on the Internet


                                ******


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                              Bill McGarry (Moderator)
                              (203) 926-6187



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Subject: Re: Power Wheelchair for Totally Blind person
From: ebohlman@netcom.com (Eric Bohlman)
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)

Kathy Seven Rush (kseven@delphi.comOrganization:) wrote:
: Index Number: 33116
: Delphi (info@delphi.com email, 800-695-4005 voice)

: I am a Rehabilitation Counselor Teacher (and I refues to play the
: politically correct game of words) The fact is I have come in
: contact with people who have no usable vision, and who are also
: restricted to mobility using a wheelchair. We have experimented
: with the various sonic devices (hand-held and chair mounted) as as
: well as with the sonic guide glasses (probably a trademark should
: be here).  The problems encountered have to do with side drop offs,
: and with irregular curb or sidewalk bumps. We have about decided
: the best option is to use a long White cane in combination with a
: power chair. But my agency cannot issue such a solution due to
: liability and lack of proven history of the method.

Why does the agency think some high-technology solution is the answer?
I'm not aware of any studies showing that sonic navigation devices can
provide as much information as a cane.  Have you contacted the NFB and
ACB?  Surely they must have members who have had to use wheelchairs at
some point in their lives.  Doesn't your state have a White Cane Law that
would relieve your agency of liability by overcoming the presumption that
a blind person is incompetent out of doors?





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Subject: identify dollars for the blind
From: dashiell@nadc.navy.mil (Jude DaShiell)


The device is called the talking wallet and it was
marketed by american foundation for the blind in New york, NY.
I don't think it's being marketed any longer since the price was in
the $500 range and demand was very soft at that level.
A compromise which I use myself is a folding system and to be sure
those who are disbursing my money i have good
reason to trust.
the one's don't get folded at all.
The fives are folded over twice so that
they resemble a 3 inch long rectangle.
The tens I fold like fives but fold them one more time so they're square.
The twenties I fold lengthwise once.  I normally don't have anything over
a twenty and figure anything over a twenty is drug money so don't use it.

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




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Subject: Re: Identify Dollars for the Blind
From: skibabe@aol.com (Ski Babe)
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)

In article <33148@handicap.news>, bobz@truevision.com (Bob Zigon) writes:

I forgot another great resource for you and your aunt may be "Maxi Aids"
it is a catalog of aids and appliances for the visually impaired heir
phone number is 1-800-522-6294 or 1-516-752-0521.
Amy, OTR





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Subject: Re: Identify Dollars for the Blind
From: mikef@pacifier.com (Mike Freeman)
Organization: Pacifier BBS, Vancouver, Wa.  USA ((206) 693-0325)

In article <33148@handicap.news>, Bob Zigon <bobz@truevision.com> wrote:
>Index Number: 33148
>
>I have an aunt that is going blind. I just found out that one of
>the problems she has now that she is losing her sight is that she
>can not identify dollar bills.
[portion of quote deleted]
>
>Has anyone seen such a device? Where can I find it?
>
A number of such devices do exist.  I have seen one; it worked
quite well.  One opened up the device's lid, slipped the bill in and
upon closing the lid, the device would announce the bill denomination.

Mr. David Andrews, head of the International Braille and Technology Center
at the HQ of the National Federation of the Blind can point you
to manufacturers of such devices.  You may reach him at
David.Andrews@f1125.n261.z1.fidonet.org or by calling
(410)659-9314 or by checking in with him at the NFB-net BBS,
(410)752-5011.

Having said this much, I must also tell you that such devices
are rather expensive -- three or four hundred dollars -- and that
most blind persons keep their bills straight by folding them
in different ways, putting them in different parts of their
wallets/purses or other such means.  Most of us don't figure
the advantage of such an identifier is worth the expense.

Now if someone produced one that worked reliably for $25 ...

Good luck!
--
Mike Freeman            |       Internet: mikef@pacifier.com
GEnie: M.FREEMAN11      |       Amateur Radio Callsign: K7UIJ
... Ask not for whom the <^G> tolls.




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Subject: Re: Identify Dollars for the Blind
From: skibabe@aol.com (Ski Babe)
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)

In article <33148@handicap.news>, bobz@truevision.com (Bob Zigon) writes:

The people who are blind that I know use a regular wallet, but fold each
type of dollar bill differently.  A one dollar bill may have no folds, a
five dollar bill may be folded in half, etc.
Amy
Occupational Therapist




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Subject: Re: Identify Dollars for the Blind
From: rrock@clark.net (Kerby Hill)
Organization: my room (clothes all over the floor) 410-538-4301

In article <33148@handicap.news>, Bob Zigon <bobz@truevision.com> wrote:
>Index Number: 33148
>
>Hi there,
>
>I have an aunt that is going blind. I just found out that one of
>the problems she has now that she is losing her sight is that she
>can not identify dollar bills.
[portion of quote deleted]
>
>Has anyone seen such a device? Where can I find it?
>
I haven't seen any device like that but I've heard of something like that
but I think you're talking big bucks though.


--
Kerby Hill rrock@clark.net: Howard Stern is the only true radio god of the
morning anywhere.  Compuserve: 73162,536: Don and Mike are the only true
radio gods of the afternoon.  David Letterman is the only true god of late
night television.  Genie: k.hill3




------



Subject: Re: Looking for a VCR Programmer for Blind Person
From: rrock@clark.net (Kerby Hill)
Organization: my room (clothes all over the floor) 410-538-4301

In article <33152@handicap.news>, Mark McLeod <mmcleod@clark.net> wrote:
>Index Number: 33152
>
>     I have a blind friend who is completely blind and who wants to
>use her VCR.  She has seen the commercials for a product that allows
>you to program a VCR by voice, but that item has an LCD display that
>you must use to confirm that you have set the thing properly.  She
>needs one that would confirm the settings audibly.

well my friend Matt Roberts who does post to this newsgroup has a vcr that
talks.  I'm not exactly sure how it works but I've seen it before and I
know from watching him work it, he's had no problems with it and there
doesn't appear to be anything visual or whatever that's of any importance
at least, but you'd have to email him to see what kind of system it
actually is and where to get it, etc.


--
Kerby Hill rrock@clark.net: Howard Stern is the only true radio god of the
morning anywhere.  Compuserve: 73162,536: Don and Mike are the only true
radio gods of the afternoon.  David Letterman is the only true god of late
night television.  Genie: k.hill3




------



Subject: Improving Blind Access to the Web
From: wiseb@cs.rpi.edu (Bowden Wise)
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway

I have been reading the thread on Blind Web Access with interest and
would like to explore this further as a possible demonstration
prototype for my PhD research.  I am particularly interested in how
blind users interact with the Web.  Any feedback you provide will
prove very valuable to me.

My research involves the development of multimodal interfaces.
Applications running in a multimodal environment have the ability to
present their information in more than one modality.  For example, a
blind users may prefer only aural output while a deaf user will prefer
all visual output.  Even those with normal vision/hearing are
relatively disabled at some time or another and can benefit from such
software.

One of the challenges of this research is to develop auditory
representations of what has typically been presented visually.  For
example, a bar chart might be presented using a sequence of notes
where the frequency of the tone is proportional to the height of the
bars.

I am exploring the idea of developing a browser for the Web using
multimodal interfaces.

I have seen lynx.  What happens when you feed this to a screen reader?
Does it simply speak whatever is under the cursor?  A non-blind user
is able to determine the structure of the hypertext by looking at the
highlighted links on the page currently being viewed.  Does the screen
reader speak highlighted words differently?  Is the hypertext
information preserved from lynx to the screen reader?

I understand that these text-based Web browsers simply pass on textual
information; all image, video, and animation information is ignored.
What about sound information, is this information also not accessible
using lynx?

Are there any mechanisms or features that might make browsing the Web
easier for blind users?  What features are missing from the current
screen readers that you would like to see?

Navigating the Web is confusing even for sighted users.  What might
make this easier for a blind user?


--------------------------------------------------------------------
- G. Bowden Wise                    Computer Science Department
  Internet: wiseb@cs.rpi.edu        Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
                                    Troy, NY 12180





------



Subject: Improving Blind Access to the Web
From: wiseb@fomalhaut.cs.rpi.edu (Bowden Wise)
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Computer Science, Troy NY


I have been reading the thread on Blind Web Access with interest and
would like to explore this further as a possible demonstration
prototype for my PhD research.  I am particularly interested in how
blind users interact with the Web.  Any feedback you provide will
prove very valuable to me.

My research involves the development of multimodal interfaces.
Applications running in a multimodal environment have the ability to
present their information in more than one modality.  For example, a
blind users may prefer only aural output while a deaf user will prefer
all visual output.  Even those with normal vision/hearing are
relatively disabled at some time or another and can benefit from such
software.

One of the challenges of this research is to develop auditory
representations of what has typically been presented visually.  For
example, a bar chart might be presented using a sequence of notes
where the frequency of the tone is proportional to the height of the
bars.

I am exploring the idea of developing a browser for the Web using
multimodal interfaces.

I have seen lynx.  What happens when you feed this to a screen reader?
Does it simply speak whatever is under the cursor?  A non-blind user
is able to determine the structure of the hypertext by looking at the
highlighted links on the page currently being viewed.  Does the screen
reader speak highlighted words differently?  Is the hypertext
information preserved from lynx to the screen reader?

I understand that these text-based Web browsers simply pass on textual
information; all image, video, and animation information is ignored.
What about sound information, is this information also not accessible
using lynx?

Are there any mechanisms or features that might make browsing the Web
easier for blind users?  What features are missing from the current
screen readers that you would like to see?

Navigating the Web is confusing even for sighted users.  What might
make this easier for a blind user?

--------------------------------------------------------------------
- G. Bowden Wise                    Computer Science Department
  Internet: wiseb@cs.rpi.edu        Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
                                    Troy, NY 12180





------



Subject: Selling computer equipment for the blind
From: weitzel@acs.ucalgary.ca (Sieghard Karl Weitzel)
Organization: The University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada


Hi everybody:

I am a student at the University of Calgary and just bought some
new computer equipment.  I am selling my old system which is 4
and a half years old.  It is a fully working and configured
syste, but I will sell individual components.  The following is a
description of each component and then follows a table showing
the prices, first in canadian and then in U.S. dollars.

1.  Computer

It is a 386 SX with a 70 Mb hard drive, and 3.5 inch and 5.25 inch
high density floppy drives.  It has 2 Mb of RAM and a 12 inch
monochrome screen as well as 8 expansion slots and an almost new
Northgate Keyboard which alone cost me $130 canadian when I
bought it a year ago.

2.  Speech card

It is an Accent PC internal card which is manufactured by Aicom
Corp.  It is good for beginners, but has the speed and clarity
for advanced users who, like me, go nuts if it doesn't speak
really fast.

3.  Regular Printer

It is an Epson LQ 850 24 pin dot matrix printer and it takes
continuous paper as well as single sheets.  It supports graphics
and many fonts.

4.  Braille printer

This is a Versapoint that prints 40 characters a minute.  It was
and still is one of the top printers, user friendly and easy to
use with a clear, concise print.

5.  Scanner

It is an Arkenstone model E, that means it is an HP Scanjet +
that comes with an internal card that has its own memory and
processor on it.  If you wanted this scanner only, it wouldn't
matter if you only have a 286 or 386 computer, since the scanning
speed does not depend on your computer as it is the case with the
new software scanners.  Ideal for somebody who has an older
computer, does not feel the need to upgrade--and it is an
inexpensive solution if you want to have a scanner!!

6.  Modem

This is a 2400 Bps external JVC modem.  I almost give that away,
since I realize that modems have come down in price a lot.

Now the prices:

Component          Canadian $     U.S. $
---------          ---------      ------
Computer           $ 700          $ 525.00
Accent speech      $ 550          $ 400.00395.00
Epson printer      $ 150.00       $ 100.00
Versapoint printer $ 3900.00      $2750.00
Arkenstone scanner $1750.00       $1250.00
JVC Modem          $  30.00       $  18.00
                   --------       --------
Total system       $7080.00       $5043.00

Anybody who is interested in any of this equipment, please give
me a call or send me a message on internet or write to me, my
address, phone number and email address are as follows:

Sieghard Weitzel
#49 - 3519 49th Street N.W.
Calgary, AB, Canada
T3A 2C7

Phone  (403) (403) (403)403-286 8516
Internet:  weitzel@acs.ucalgary.ca

Hope to hear from you soon!!







------



Subject: Alex: A Catalogue of Electronic Texts on the Internet
From: jmkrafft@miavx2.ham.muohio.edu (John M. Krafft)


----------------------------Original message----------------------------


      Alex: A Catalogue of Electronic Texts on the Internet
                          July 23, 1994

     This is to announce the available of a new service, "Alex:
A Catalogue of Electronic Texts on the Internet."  Alex can be
found at gopher://rsl.ox.ac.uk:70/11/lib-corn/hunter, or by
pointing at gopher.ox.ac.uk, choosing "The World", then
"Gopherspace", and then "Alex".

     Alex allows users to find and retrieve the full-text of
documents on the Internet.  It currently indexes over 700 books
and shorter texts by author and title, incorporating texts from
Project Gutenberg, Wiretap, the On-line Book Initiative, the
Eris system at Virginia Tech, the English Server at Carnegie
Mellon University, and the on-line portion of the Oxford Text
Archive.  For now it includes no serials.  Alex does include an
entry for itself.

     New publications at the sites above will be detected
automatically.  However, pointers to other sites, specific
suggestions for additions to the catalogue, and notifications of
errors are welcome, particularly those with full bibliographic
information and URLs.  The email address for Alex is
alex@rsl.ox.ac.uk.

     Gopher space for Alex is graciously provided by the
Radcliffe Science Library of Oxford University, which bears no
responsibility for its content.  World-Wide Web and WAIS
interfaces for Alex are forthcoming, as are tools to identify
bad URLs and to sort copy records in reverse order of server
response time.  The Alex database is copyright 1994 and released
for noncommercial use.  No claims are made concerning the
copyright status or quality of texts referenced in the database.

Hunter Monroe

John M. Krafft, English                 | Miami University--Hamilton
Voice:   513-863-8833, ext. 342         | 1601 Peck Boulevard
Fax:     513-863-1655                   | Hamilton, OH  45011-3399
E-mail:  jmkrafft@miavx2.ham.muohio.edu
         jmkrafft@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu




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                 End of Issue # 1068 of the Blind News Digest

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