🚀 go-pugleaf

                            THE BLIND NEWS DIGEST

                                 Issue # 909

                            Tuesday, May 04, 1993

Today's Topics:


                                ******


                Re: request tools info for visually impaired
                            Tinytalk Environments
                                 News Letter
                  Windows Access for Navigator and/or VERT?
                             looking for opticon
                          Re: two blink talk echoes
                      Re: Text to Speech for X Windows
                               Re: New $1 Coin
              Re: Wanted: short introductions to DOS and MSWORD
           E-mail contact between Americans and Austrian students


                                ******


To subscribe to the Blind News Digest mailing list or have your
thoughts in the next issue, please send electronic mail to
Bill McGarry at any of the following addresses:


UUCP:       uunet!bunker!wtm
INTERNET:   wtm@bunker.shel.isc-br.com
BITNET:     blindnws@ndsuvm1.bitnet
Fidonet:    The Handicap News BBS (141/420)   1-203-337-1607
            (300/1200/2400 baud, 24 hours)
Compuserve: 73170,1064

                              Bill McGarry (Moderator)
                              (203) 337-1518



------



Subject: Re: request tools info for visually impaired
From: wtm@bunker.afd.olivetti.com (Bill McGarry)
Organization: Olivetti North America

Liz Heller (lizh@StarConn.com) wrote:

> A friend of mine who is visually impaired has heard of an archive
> of tools for visually and other handicapped people, somewhere on the
> net.  Can anyone tell me where that resides, and how to request a
> catalog?  Thank you.

I run a ftp site devoted to disability-related information and
programs.  The site name is "handicap.afd.olivetti.com".  Log in
as "anonymous", using your e-mail address as your password.  The
index of all of the files available are in the file "/pub/index".

There are over 50 directories here.  Eleven of these contain
information and/or programs for visual impairments.
These are:
acb           American Council of the Blind
artic         Artic configuration files
braille       Files and programs for braille
dogs          Guide dogs
forum         Copies of the Braille Forum newsletter
large         Screen and print enlargers
monitor       Copies of the Braille Monitor newsletter
nfb           National Federation of the Blind
speech        Files and programs for speech synthesizers
uspeech       Speech friendly utilities
visual        Files and programs for visually impaired (enlargers, etc)

                                Bill McGarry
                                (203) 926-6187

UUCP:       {oliveb, uunet}!bunker!wtm
INTERNET:   wtm@bunker.afd.olivetti.com  BITNET:     l-hcap@ndsuvm1.bitnet
            (300 to 14400 baud, 24 hours)
NVN:        BillSysop                    Compuserve: 73170,1064




------



Subject: Tinytalk Environments
From: jason@merlin.demon.co.uk (Jason Arthurs)
Organization: QED

Has anyone out there written any environment files for Tinytalk?
I'd be very interested in seeing just what applications people are
using it with.

-
Regards,
Jason Arthurs,

"People are getting stronger, ten years ago it took two people to carry
 ten pounds worth of groceries. Today a five year old can do it..."




------



Subject: News Letter
From: pg@hpmalrnd.mal.hp.com (Pat Goodman)

[Note from Bill McGarry: I thought that some of you might be
interested in the following which shows how far this newsgroup
and mailing list goes.]

        Please include me on the distribution list for the Blind News
Digest.  The mailing information is:

        pg@hpmalrnd.mal.hp.com (IP address 14.17.49.60).

My wife is visually impaired.  She is a member of the Board of
Directors at St. Nicholas School for the Blind here in Malaysia.  She
also heads the library committee and is supporting the generation of a
computer skills class at the school.  The library offers many services
for the country of Malaysia including cassette news letters, book
translations (English and Bahasa Malayu into Braille) and several
outreach programs for young children to help get them into the main
stream.  The rehabilitation center works with adults to provide them
with marketable skill sets.  We hope to incorporate this news letters
information into some of these programs.

        Thank you
                pat goodman



>
>
> To subscribe to the Blind News Digest mailing list or have your
> thoughts in the next issue, please send electronic mail to
> Bill McGarry at any of the following addresses:
>
>
> UUCP:       uunet!bunker!wtm
> INTERNET:   wtm@bunker.shel.isc-br.com
> BITNET:     blindnws@ndsuvm1.bitnet
> Fidonet:    The Handicap News BBS (141/420)   1-203-337-1607
>             (300/1200/2400 baud, 24 hours)
> Compuserve: 73170,1064
>
>                               Bill McGarry (Moderator)
>                               (203) 337-1518
>
> I ran across it, and thought Kerry might be interested...
>
> --Roxette--
>
> +-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
> | Earle James George Goodman    | Administrator of Cambodian News Service |
> | eggoodman@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu +-----------------------------------------+
> | ez003719@othello.ucdavis.edu  | If you are interested in receiving      |
> | eggoodman@ucdavis.bitnet      | e-mail about Cambodia or would like to  |
> | ucdavis!eggoodman             | submit info, please send me e-mail.     |
> +-------------------------------+-----------------------------------------+
>
>


--
        ---------------------------------------------------------------
        Pat Goodman            Hewlett-Packard Malaysia             HPM
        60-4 850-5600          Bayan Lepas Free Trade Zone          R&D
        US (408) 435-6646      11900 Penang, Malaysia
        Fax 60-4-849-533                         pg@hpmaletb.mal.hp.com
        ---------------------------------------------------------------





------



Subject: Windows Access for Navigator and/or VERT?
From: peter@eml3.wrc.xerox.com (Peter Torpey)
Organization: Xerox


Is there any 3rd party software that will enable me to use my
Navigator braille display and/or VERT speech synthesizer from TSI
with Windows applications?  The manufacturer told me that "this
can't be done".  However I know that at least some speech programs
have been written to access Windows and at least one manufacturer
sells what is called the ALVA braille display (Humanware) which
proports to work with Windows.

What is really available or can work with my current systemsZ?

Thanks.

Pete Torpey
XEROX CORPORATION
Rochester, N.Y. 14580

e-mail: peter@wrc.xerox.com





------



Subject: looking for opticon
From: dperez@eis.calstate.edu (Rusty Perez)
Organization: Calif State Univ/Electronic Information Services

I am looking to by an opticon. Send me your asking price and some info on
the condition and we'll rock.
Thanks
rusty
 Organization: Calif State Univ/Electronic
Information Services


--
I refuse to disclaim anything!
Anything and everything I say is a product of  everything and everyone I
have ever been  associated with
David (Rusty) Perez (dperez@eis.calstate.edu)
. "Oh wind, if winter comes, can spring be far
behind?" -- Shelley




------



Subject: Re: two blink talk echoes
From: mikef@pacifier.rain.com (Mike Freeman)
Organization: Pacifier BBS

In article <28839@handicap.news> janina@netcom.com (Janina Sajka) writes:
|Index Number: 28839
|
|In article <28786@handicap.news> mikef@pacifier.rain.com (Mike Freeman) writes:
|>Index Number: 28786
|>
|>In article <28779@handicap.news> janina@netcom.com (Janina Sajka) writes:
|>>
|>>Still and all, why such a similar name?  Huh, NFB?
|>>
|>What would you call it?
|>
|
|Oh, I don't know ... let's see ... I KNOW !!  How about
|
|                       nfb talk
|
|Now, that would be truth in advertising.
|

Yup, it would.  Only one problem:  NFBTALK is *also* on the
backbone -- NFB distributes two echos, NFBTALK and BLINDTLK.
The question is:  what would you call BLINDTLK?

Cheers!



--
Mike Freeman            |       Internet: mikef@pacifier.rain.com
Amateur Radio: K7UIJ    |       UUCP: uunet!m2xenix!nipple!pacifier!mikef
GEnie: M.FREEMAN11      |       Pushing 40 is exercise enough!




------



Subject: Re: Text to Speech for X Windows
From: hartmans@npc.ece.utexas.edu (Sam Hartman)
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin


        I have received several interesting responses regarding my
query about the availability of speech software for the X Windows
System. Gregory Pike (gpike@watson.ibm.com) said that IBM was working
on a version of Screen Reader for AIX. This product will intercept
communications between the application and the X-Server (at the socket
level) and provide spoken output. Also, he mentioned a few other
projects:
>>>>> On Mon, 26 Apr 1993 18:11:09 -0500 (EDT), gpike@watson.ibm.com
(Gregory G. Pike) said:
gpike>    There is also a project called Mercator going on at Georgia Tech to
gpike> provide access to X.  They are trying to get special code added to the
gpike> Xt libraries to make accessing the information easier.

In a later message, he outlined a committee which is working with the
Mercator Project:
>>>>> On Wed, 28 Apr 1993 12:48:23 -0500 (EDT), gpike@watson.ibm.com
(Gregory G. Pike) said:
In article <28859@handicap.news> hartmans@npc.ece.utexas.edu (Sam
Hartman) writes:

Gpike> Sam,

Gpike> Mark Novak is coordinating the efforts of DACX, the Disabilities
Gpike> Action Committee on X Windows.  You can contact him to get on the
Gpike> DACX mailing list.  There are also a few papers on the project that
Gpike> Georgia Tech is doing that you can pick up via anonymous ftp from
Gpike> multimedia.cc.gatech.edu in the directory papers/Mercator.

Gpike> You can reach Mark Novak at novakme@macc.wisc.edu.  Give me a yell
Gpike> if you have any problems, I'll be in touch.

Gpike> /Greg
Gpike> --
Gpike> Gregory G. Pike
Gpike> gpike@watson.ibm.com

Two people suggested using Microsoft Windows with a Windows compatible
X-Server. Then, I could use a speech driver for windows (Slimware
Window Bridge was mentioned). Mr. Pike pointed out a potential problem
with this solution.

        At least in the case of trying to use Screen Reader/OS2 with
        The IBM OS/2 X-Server, the server simply puts bitmaps up on
screen instead of making OS/2 system calls to write text, display
icons, etc. A speech provider would have to examine the raw bitmaps,
recognize fonts, icons, and window borders; current programs don't do
this. Rather, they depend on the native operating system's system
calls being used to provide more information so that they can provide
speech. Although this is not certain to happen in all situations, it
is likely in any situation where you have an X-Server running under
another window system.

        Finally, I received a message from a programmer:
>>>>> On Wed, 28 Apr 93 10:37:47 BST, Julian Smart
<jacs@aiai.edinburgh.ac.uk> said:

In article <28859@handicap.news> hartmans@npc.ece.utexas.edu (Sam
Hartman) writes:

Julian> Hi,

Julian> I don't have any helpful suggestions on X and speech, but am
Julian> interested in the subject (I'm sighted). I have released a free
Julian> portable GUI library to the net, called wxWindows, for writing GUI
Julian> applications in C++ for X and Windows 3. An idea I've been toying
Julian> with is to provide access to all the events that underly a
Julian> wxWindows application, so that meta-programs (such as a speech
Julian> synthesis driver) could be linked in and used to drive the
Julian> application.

Julian> This way, speech output (and command-driven input) could be
Julian> provided `for free' so long as wxWindows was used to build the
Julian> application.  A wxWindows user is planning to write a text-only
Julian> version of the library to allow running on dumb terminals, without
Julian> having to rewrite the application.

Julian> For Sun workstations, it should be possible to use the built-in
Julian> sound system to output phonemes but I would not know quite where to
Julian> start.

Julian> Anyway, this is not much practical use to you, but I'd be
Julian> interested in helping anyone wanting to extend wxWindows in this
Julian> way.

Julian> Regards,

Julian> Julian Smart
Julian> Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute
Julian> University of Edinburgh
Julian> email J.Smart@ed.ac.uk

        My only comment is yes! I think that the more information you
can get out of a library, the easier it will be to provide speech.

        One concern I have with the projects I currently know about is
that there is not any work on designing a standard way for
applications to let speech programs know how to speak their windows. I
believe that it is necessary for an application to be able to give
hints about how to speak a window, or in certain cases, to provide a
textual representation of a window. Even Mercator, which uses
information from the XT Library should be able to take hints from
applications; people often design extensions to this library, and not
all of these extensions can be processed intuitively by software. I'm
not suggesting that programmers be required to think of the blind in
every program they write, but it would be good for speech software to
allow programmers to provide information about their windows.





------



Subject: Re: New $1 Coin
From: jason@merlin.demon.co.uk (Jason Arthurs)
Organization: QED

In article <28878@handicap.news> thorntn@ccu.umanitoba.ca writes:

>The reason the Susan B. didn't work is that they didn't pull the $1
>bill from circulation.  Some people don't like the idea of $1 coins -
>many people in Canada didn't like using the $1 CDN loonies, but when
>there were no $1 bills left, they acclimatized.

They replaced the one pound note in the UK in 1983, people *hated*
the pound coin at first but ten years on people know no different.
It's a very popular coin for vending machine producers, but a few
vending machines are beginning to take notes here in the UK.
Especially at railway stations (primarily due to the fact that
small local stations are unmanned during the evening and at
weekends.

--
Regards,
Jason Arthurs,

"CAT (noun). A soft indestructible automaton provided by nature to be kicked
             when things go wrong in the domestic circle".




------



Subject: Re: Wanted: short introductions to DOS and MSWORD
From: greglo@MICROSOFT.COM (Greg Lowney)

[Note from Bill McGarry: This is from the Blind-L mailing list]

Microsoft has made the complete set of MS-DOS 5 documentation available
through Recording for the Blind.  We have also delivered the source files
for the MS-DOS 6 documentation but they are still in the process of being
reformatted for electronic distribution.

Here's the standard statement on it:

Individuals who have difficulties reading or handling printed materials
can obtain most of Microsoft's publications from Recording for the Blind,
Inc.  RFB distributes these documents to registered members of their
distribution service in the form of text files on floppy disks.  These
files can be read by most text editors and Braille or voice output
systems.  Some titles may also be available on audio-cassette.  RFB's
collection includes a wide array of Microsoft product documentation as
well as books from Microsoft Press.

For more information on Recording for the Blind, customers can contact:

    Recording for the Blind, Inc.
    20 Roszel Road
    Princeton, NJ  08540
    800-221-4792
    Fax:  609-987-8116.

As an example, the MS-DOS 5.0 docs are listed in RFB's catalog as:

    Title: Microsoft MS - DOS : operating system : version 5.0
    By: Microsoft Corporation
    Primary Author: Microsoft Corporation
    Publisher: Microsoft Corp
    Date: c1991
    Includes: Microsoft MS - DOS user's guide and reference for the MS
        - DOS opera  Includes: Microsoft MS - DOS getting started for the
        MS - DOS operating system
    Book number: EP017
    Number of units: 05
    Price: $27

In addition, with Microsoft MS-DOS version 6, most of the command reference
material is included in the on-line help, and in fact is not included
in the standard printed documentation (although it is available in print
as a fullfillment item).

    Greg Lowney
    Accessibility and Disabilities Group
    Microsoft Corporation
    "Making it easier...for everyone"




------



Subject: E-mail contact between Americans and Austrian students
From: BERNHARD@mvblind.uni-linz.ac.at (Bernhard Stoeger)

Hi all,

Next week I hold a four hour workshop at my university department
where I shall introduce my blind and visually handicapped students to
the various Internet services, in particular, to Electronic Mail. It
would be a true pleasure for them if there were a chance to
communicate at this workshop with people from the US via E-
mail, perhaps, but not necessarily, people who are themselves visually
handicapped or are in connection with this group of people.
Therefore my question: Are there folks amongst you who might be
willing to send and immediately respond to some mail messages from
Austria?

The young guys would be greatly fascinated by such a surprise.
Here is the time table:

Beginning of our workshop: 1 pm Central European time
First Mail Messages welcome: 3 pm Central European Time =9 am
Eastern =8 am Central =7 am Mountain =6 am Pacific.

I'm well aware that, the more Email enthusiasm is required to join my
experiment the more western you are situated, but perhaps you can do
it anyway.

I thank all of you in advance who want to play the game.

cheers

Bernhard Stoeger

As an addendum to my call for volunteers, I have to say that the
workshop shall take place on Friday, the 7th of May.

Educational experiment "Computer Science for the Blind",
University of Linz, department for Computer Science,
Altenbergerstrasse 69, 4040 Linz, Austria.
Bernhard Stoeger               Tel.: +43/732/2468/9232, Fax: -/9322,
email: bernhard@mvblind.uni-linz.ac.at
    "I can't see my computer, my computer doesn't watch me, but
     together we conquer the world." (not Shakespeare!)





------






                                ******

                 End of Issue # 909 of the Blind News Digest

                                ******