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                            THE BLIND NEWS DIGEST

                                 Issue # 1136

                           Friday, April 07, 1995

Today's Topics:


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                       Re: Organizations for the Blind
                      SEEING-EYE TECHNOLOGY FOR THE NET
                  New netscape beta supports alt text (fwd)
    Does this reduce access by the blind? FWD>Acrobat and Netscape (fwd)
                         Phone book for blind users.
                          Visual Cortex stimulation
                       AOL with Windows and outSPOKEN
                      Re: Re: Brailler For Young Kiddo
                             linux screen reader
                     relocating & finding blind services
   Volunteers needed for tactile map research. Sheffielf University, U.K.
                        question about braille system


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thoughts in the next issue, please send electronic mail to
Bill McGarry at any of the following addresses:


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                              Bill McGarry (Moderator)
                              (203) 926-6187



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Subject: Re: Organizations for the Blind
From: bitter@netcom.com (Edward Bitter)


I'm trying to find some organizations, support services for someone I
work with who has recently become blind.  She is a Sr.Citizen who lives
in Santa Monica, California.

I've got some information from the Braille Institute in L.A.  But they
seem to be pretty commercially oriented.  I'd like to know about other
organizations with more of an interpersonal networking emphasis.  Perhaps
even someone who could visit this very alert, highly educated woman in a
skilled nursing facility and give her some encouragement about the
ability of the blind to cope with life.

Thanks for any information you can provide.

Best Wishes,

Ed




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Subject: SEEING-EYE TECHNOLOGY FOR THE NET
From: senkmj@ptbma.usbm.gov (Mark J. Senk WB3CAI)

I pulled this from the current issue of Edupage.
-- mark


SEEING-EYE TECHNOLOGY FOR THE NET
A scanning laser ophthalmoscope, or SLO, can be used by the
visually-impaired to read words on a computer screen.  The SLO is
essentially a $100,000 miniature projection-TV system that is used as
research tool for probing inside the eye.  But people with very poor
eyesight may one day be able to use goggle-sized SLOs with lenses made from
semiconductor lasers to access the words and images on their computers.
The scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute in Boston who invented the
SLO notes that commercial production is not yet viable:  "If the video-game
people would just grab this, it would take off like a rocket."  (Business
Week 3/27/95 p.182)

ARCHIVES & TRANSLATIONS. For archive copies of Edupage or Update, ftp or
gopher to educom.edu or see our WWW server: URL: http://educom.edu/.


        Information, like love, is worth little until you share it with someone.
Mark Senk       (412) 892-6513  ms5@usbm.gov




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Subject: New netscape beta supports alt text (fwd)
From: senkmj@ptbma.usbm.gov (Mark J. Senk WB3CAI)

I think the next step is to send mail to the webmaster at your favorite
site and ask that these text descriptions be added to the many images we
encounter.


        Information, like love, is worth little until you share it with someone.
Mark Senk       (412) 892-6513  ms5@usbm.gov

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 29 Mar 1995 10:15:46 -0600
from: Gregg C. Vanderheiden <GCVander@facstaff.wisc.edu>
To: Multiple recipients of list <uaccess-l@trace.wisc.edu>
subject: New netscape beta supports alt text


The new beta release of Netscape (1.1b1) (the world wide web browser) now
supports ALT IMAGE TEXT.   This is good news for both Lynx users and
Netscape users (all users including those who use screen reader and those
who do not)

Now that a major graphic browser supports ALT TEXT we will be seeing even
more use of ALT TEXT descriptions for graphics on the network ( on WWW
pages).

For people who are not using screen readers... it allows much faster access
to web pages..
much much much much faster if you are over a modem

For people using screen readers, it means access to information that was
often lost if presented (only) in the graphic.   It also means less
wondering what the graphic was even if it was no important information
(e.g. how do you know it isnt important).

The new netscape browser is available from netscape free of charge to
individuals and universities.  (Companies must pay)

the addresss for NETSCAPE is   www.mcom.com

Gregg



-------------------------------------------------------
Gregg C. Vanderheiden Ph.D.
Trace R&D Center
Waisman Center and Dept of Industrial Engr.
University of Wisconsin - Madison   53705
gcvander@FacStaff.Wisc.Edu  ,   FAX 608 232-8848
FTP,Gopher and WWW servers at  trace.wisc.edu






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Subject: Does this reduce access by the blind? FWD>Acrobat and Netscape (fwd)
From: senkmj@ptbma.usbm.gov (Mark J. Senk WB3CAI)


        Information, like love, is worth little until you share it with someone.
Mark Senk       (412) 892-6513  ms5@usbm.gov

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 1995 08:59:56 -0400 (EDT)
from: Mark J. Senk WB3CAI <senkmj@ptbma.usbm.gov>
To: wacwimtbb-l@netcom.com
subject: Does this reduce access by the blind? FWD>Acrobat and Netscape (fwd)

I believe the adobe .pdf format is akin to PostScript and moves the www
away from the ASCII based html.  Let's hope that it is possible to export
pages to text.


        Information, like love, is worth little until you share it with someone.
Mark Senk       (412) 892-6513  ms5@usbm.gov

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 31 Mar 1995 14:50:05 U
from: Susannah Frishman <susannah@utpress.ppb.utexas.edu>
To: epub list <epub@digital.COSN.ORG>
subject: FWD>Acrobat and Netscape

Mail*Link(r) SMTP               FWD>Acrobat and Netscape

Date: 3/31/95 6:59
from: aaup-l@unl.edu
John Cook passed on this news release:

Adobe and Netscape to Bring Commercial Publishing to the Internet

Boston, Mass. (March 28, 1995) (NASDAQ: ADBE) - Adobe Systems Incorporated
and
Netscape
Communications Corporation today announced joint plans to enable commercial
Internet publishing capabilities that are not possible through currently
available products. By integrating and extending functionality offered by
their
respective product lines, the two companies will be able to offer a complete
set
of technologies that support secure, electronic transactions across the
Internet
while also allowing publishers to author and distribute graphically rich
content
that large audiences can access.

As part of the joint plans, the two companies will integrate the Internet
navigation and electronic commerce capabilities provided by Netscape with the
commercial quality authoring and universal document distribution capabilities
provided by Adobe. This will include work to combine functionality offered by
Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), an open, searchable file format that
preserves document fidelity across all major computer platforms and printers,
with Netscape's line of Internet software products.  The integration work is
designed to allow commercial publishers who use Adobe software products daily
for the production of highly formatted, printed materials to easily use the
same
tools to provide quality content in electronic form on the Internet. In
conjunction with Netscape technology and PDF, publishers will now have a
commercial solution for electronic information distribution in a universal
format.

"Adobe technology, such as the PostScript language, provided new ways for
people
to create rich
printed documents and set new computer industry standards," said James Clark,
Chairman,
Netscape Communications. "By combining Netscape and Adobe technologies, we
can
bring that
same quality and creative power to on-line information, allowing publishers
to
leverage their existing tools and quality standards in a way that perfectly
compliments Internet publishing via HTML."

Many corporations, government agencies and professional publishers, including
J.
P. Morgan; Time
Life Inc.; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; TimesFax, a
division
of The New York
Times Information Services Group; and Springer Verlag New York Inc., are
adopting PDF for Internet publishing. By integrating Adobe and Netscape
technologies, such as Netscape Publishing System(tm) which manages all
aspects
of an electronic publishing house, businesses can make professionally
published
content more directly accessible while opening up new business opportunities.

"Our customers have very successfully harnessed the power offered by desktop
publishing tools to expand the publishing industry and create new
expectations
for creativity and quality," said John Warnock, Chairman and CEO, Adobe
Systems.
"Our relationship with Netscape reflects our commitment to keep providing
tools
that enable the publishing industry to expand to new frontiers."


Roadmap Specifics

The companies disclosed a four step roadmap for delivering a complete suite
of
Internet publishing tools.

First, the Macintosh(R) and Windows(tm) versions of Netscape Navigator(tm)
1.1
will support the
Acrobat Weblink(tm) software plug-in, a free add-on application from Adobe
that
allows Acrobat
documents to link to other documents on the Internet.

The companies will also collaborate on a future version of Netscape Navigator
that will seamlessly view documents in Adobe's Portable Document Format
(PDF),
the open, cross-platform file format created by Acrobat software.

Additional integration efforts will include work on Netscape server software
to
provide quick access to PDF documents across the Internet, allowing users to
download portions of PDF files at a time for faster on screen viewing.

Lastly, Adobe will extend its authoring applications to more fully support
the
ability to import and export PDF files and will provide the ability to output
to
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) in a future version of Adobe PageMaker(tm).


The announcement has generated positive reactions from the publishing
community.
"We have been working closely with both Netscape and Adobe to achieve our
charter of developing innovative new media information products," said
Stephen
Lake, Senior Vice President, Reuters New Media. "The flexibility and security
of
the Netscape Worldwide Web publishing platform and the richness of new media
content we can create through Acrobat allows us to create new products such
as
the Reuters Photojournalism Magazine. The ability to download portions of a
PDF
file across the Web will allow us to create even richer documents."

"The fact that Netscape and Adobe are coordinating development activity is
truly
exciting," said Mr. Robert D. Ingle, Vice President/New Media for
Knight-Ridder.
"Like many publishers, Knight-Ridder has been active in exploring information
dissemination via the Internet. However, to date, we've been missing both
control over formatting and a commercially viable way to distribute that
information.  The combination of Adobe and Netscape gives us the full suite
of
tools to move our efforts from exploration to commercial deployment."

"We chose Acrobat because TimesFax is a branded product, and it was essential
to
provide context in addition to content, preserving the look and feel complete
with the typefaces used in the New York Times", said Patricia Ecke,
Publisher,
TimesFax. "Producing it in HTML just didn't give us that capability.  The
announcement between Adobe and Netscape reinforces our decision to use PDF,
and
gives us additional tools to take further advantage of the World Wide Web
publishing opportunity". The TimesFax World Wide Web edition is an eight-page
digest of news from the New York Times that is made available in PDF format
via
the World Wide Web.

Netscape Communications Corporation is a premier provider of open software to
enable people and companies to exchange information and conduct commerce over
the Internet and other global
networks. The company was founded in April 1994 by Dr. James H. Clark,
founder
of Silicon Graphics, Inc., a Fortune 500 computer systems company; and Marc
Andreessen, creator of the NCSA Mosaic(tm) research prototype for the
Internet.
Privately held, Netscape Communications Corporation is based in Mountain
View,
California.

Adobe Systems Incorporated, founded in 1982, is headquartered in Mountain
View,
California.
Adobe develops, markets and supports computer software products and
technologies
that enable
users to create, display, print and communicate electronic documents. The
company licenses its
technology to major computer and publishing suppliers, and markets a line of
powerful, but easy to use products for home and small business users. Adobe
has
subsidiaries in Europe, Asia and the
Pacific Rim serving a worldwide network of dealers and distributors. Adobe's
1994 revenue was
approximately $598 million.
###









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Subject: Phone book for blind users.
From: senkmj@ptbma.usbm.gov (Mark J. Senk WB3CAI)



        Information, like love, is worth little until you share it with someone.
Mark Senk       (412) 892-6513  ms5@usbm.gov

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 1995 20:06:38 -0700 (PDT)
from: Darrell Shandrow <nu7i@netcom.com>
To: wacwimtbb-l@netcom.com
subject: Phone book for blind users.

Phil Scovell, af0h, puts out a listing of blind users of the internet and
blind amateur radio operators.  Also included are businesses dealing in
blindness related areas and blindness organizations.  To get the latest copy:
anonymous ftp to ftp.netcom.com and change to the /pub/ph/philscov
directory.  Do an ls to see the files in the public directory.  The
latest version so far is pb104.zip.  The URL for this file should be:
ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ph/philscov/pb104.zip.
You can write to philscov@netcom.com to get your information in this
listing.  It has the potential to be a great resource.

Thanks to Mark for posting this message to me.  I attempted to forward it
earlier but it failed and I had already deleted the original text so this
is the summary.  Hope it helps.  73

Darrell Shandrow
Student: Colorado Center for the Blind
Member: National Federation of the Blind
Living a Great Adventure! [ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/nu/nu7i/resume.txt]





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Subject: Visual Cortex stimulation
From: greg@prometheus.hol.gr (Sankey T. Greg)


I am very interested in the Blind News Digest. Need some news immediately
on the subject above for my blind patients. Heard a news release on
Visual Cortex Stimulation to help the blind see some type of Images.

Possibly -black and white sight??

Any information on this would be greatly appreciated and the Blind News
Digest.

Thanks
Greg




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Subject: AOL with Windows and outSPOKEN
From: KSEVEN@delphi.com (KSEVEN)

Now THAT was an experience!
I just tried America On Line - the WINDOWS version using outSPOKEN for
WINDOWS as my screen access.  It was a frightening journey into the
uncontrolable.

First of all, I had to unload OSW and run SETUP "blind" or it locked up.

Then once loaded I discovered I had to run AOL to its WELCOME window first
and then go back to my APPLICATIONS GROUP and run OSW by hand in order to
keep both running and speech going.

Once logged on there is the most amazing array of NEW ICONS ever imagined.
It seems nearly everything on AOL has its own pretty little picture with no
words below it to give you a verbal clue via OSW. Well, I'm certain none of
their blind customers have complained because it's all but impossible for a
blind person to get around their system.  Sure, you could Name the dozens of
Icons in your screen access program, but why?  It runs slower than the
tortoise.

And it kept doing this thing where they say it's loading new
graphics to my system. But between these loads my hard drive kept running
and running and running and there wasn't an Energizer Hare anywhere.  Does
anyone recall the old gossip about Prodigy supposedly downloading what was
on your system while you were online with them? (No varification of this
rumor ever came my way.) Well, that's sure what this system looked like
tonight.  It said it would take 2-3 minutes to download these new graphics
to my system and 10+ minutes later it was still going at it with its
intermittant Dialog Boxes telling me that's what it wa doing. Pretty scary!

The original load was said to take 2.5 MB on my system and these graphics it
gave me subsequently were supposed to take very little space according to
their dialog boxes.  Well it got well over 6 MB of my disk. ERASE *u c* comes
next.

The sad part is they have a whole load of magazines online that I'd really
like to be able to read. They have Time, Consumer Reports, Woman's Day, PC
World, and many more.  But just getting a peek took nearly half an hour and
once the peek was started there was no stopping it for another 10 minutes.

My conclusion - unless AOL comes up with a TEXT interface, it's not for me
even though I have access to WINDOWS.

 K7 * * Opening doors and Windows for myself and for other blind people * *



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Subject: Re: Re: Brailler For Young Kiddo
From: davros@eden.com (Davros T. Slug)

I would agree that starting him out with braille is a good thing.
However, I'd go further than starting out with a braille writer; start
the kid out on a slate and stylus. It's very analogous to starting a
sighted kid with pencil and paper, rather than, say, a typewriter. (I
wish, now, that I'd started out this way, but I didn't...)


--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV        | And we will all go together when we go,
3508 S. First St. #208       | All suffused with an incandescent glow.
Austin, TX 78704             | No one will have the endurance
(512) 441-3246               | To collect on his insurance.
Internet: davros@eden.com    | Lloyd's of London will be loaded when they go.
davros@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu    | --Tom Lehrer



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Subject: linux screen reader
From: scottr@ion.apana.org.au (Scott Rutkowski)



Hi all. I have recently heard that a linux screen reader is under
development by a man called brett persons. I have written to him
expressing my interest and haven't heard anything.
Can anyone tell me the progress of this linux screen reader or tell me
where I can get more info?
Your help would be very much appreciated.
Cheers and bye for now.




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Subject: relocating & finding blind services
From: DMWAGEN@VM1.ucc.okstate.edu (janelle wagenknecht)
Organization: Oklahoma State University

Hello-I was wondering if anyone subscribed to this list lives in or around
Colombus, Ohio.  My husband is possibly going to get a job up there and we
are not familiar with the area.  I will call the A.F.B. to find out about
a school for my 2 and a half year old daughter.  But I was just writing to
see if there are any of you members out their that live in that area.  Any
information will be greatly appreciated.

                                        Thanks,

                                                Janelle

e mail address:dmwagen@osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu



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Subject: Volunteers needed for tactile map research. Sheffielf University, U.K.
From: s.ungar@sheffield.ac.uk (Simon Ungar)

TACTILE MAPS: VISUALLY IMPAIRED VOLUNTEERS NEEDED IN OR NEAR THE SHEFFIELD AREA

At the Psychology Department of Sheffield University, we have been involved
in research on tactile maps for more than seven years. Until now, most of
our work has been with visually impaired children. We noted some time ago
that tactile maps are used very little in the education of children with
visual impairments, and hardly at all with children of primary school age.
This situation seems a little strange, as an important part of the
education of young visually impaired children involves providing them with
an understanding of the layout of their environment. Tactile maps are an
excellent means of showing such information as they present the structure
of the built (or natural) environment at a scale which can be explored with
the fingers of one or two hands. This contrasts with the laborious process
of building up a "mental picture" of the environment by learning several
routes through it.

We are presently exploring the use of different strategies for reading a
tactile map. These include different ways of scanning the map with two
hands and different ways of organising the information from the map.
Sighted people also need ways of scanning and organising map information,
but the tactile format places different demands on the map reader. We hope
to identify the most efficient methods for reading a tactile map to gain
information about the structure of the environment.

We are currently seeking volunteers - mainly in the Sheffield area -  who
would be willing to give a small amount of time to participate in some of
our studies. Anyone who is interested should contact me by e-mail or by
telephone on (0114) 282 6556 (direct line) by post or at the following
address:

Dr Simon Ungar
Department of Psychology
University of Sheffield
P.O. Box 603
Sheffield S10 2UR





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Subject: question about braille system
From: spcell@NCUE4680.ncue.edu.tw (coscell)

Dear sir:
  I am a blind in Taiwan. My braille terminal system is Power Braille 40,
from TSC. It cannot work on graphic mode software like CAI, games, or
WINDOWS.
  Do you have any good idea to solve this problem? Or you would give me
some informations about this. Thanks for your help!
         Sincerely yours
          Coscell Kao





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                 End of Issue # 1136 of the Blind News Digest

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