The Week’s News in Access Technology
Distributed by Flying Blind, LLC
http://www.flying-blind.com/
For questions and comments regarding Tidbits, please e-mail Dean Martineau at dean@topdotenterprises.com. Dean Martineau provides adaptive technology training by phone, online, and in person, with flexible arrangements, and at affordable prices.
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News
1.) Exploring Word 2007 with JAWS by T.R. Fraser
T.R. Fraser has written an e-book, selling for $25: Exploring Word 2007 with JAWS. The book comes as an accessible pdf document, but once you buy it if you prefer Word or text format, you can e-mail the author and he sill send you that format.
http://www.lulu.com/content/e-book/exploring-word-2007-with-jaws/7538888
2.) Updated List of Accessible iPhone Apps
The list of accessible apps for use on the iPhone has been moved and considerably updated.
http://maccessibility.net/iphone/apps/
3.) The Mac-cessibility Network for Mac and iPhone Users
Josh de Lioncourt launches an expansion of his previous site: the Mac-cessibility network for Visually Impaired Mac and iPhone Users, featuring news, tutorials, and links to forum and mailing list discussions.
http://maccessibility.net/
4.) MacFixIt Mac Tutorials Now Free
CNet has purchased the MacFixIt web site, so beginning in September, all the tutorials on use of the Mac that formerly required a paid subscription to access are now free.
http://www.macfixit.com/
5.) Listen and Learn Recordings on Windows Media Player and Linux
Content on the Listen and Learn Recordings site continues to be updated. You can download or stream the recordings, and a podcast feed is available. Recent additions include a three-part guide on using Windows Media Player, guides to installing Linux, and a tutorial on using Talks.
http://www.lalrecordings.com
6.) 50 Best Web Sites for Audio Book Addicts
Thanks to BlindBargains.com, we discover the Accredfited Online Degrees web site, which features an article listing the 50 best web sites for audio book addicts:
http://accreditedonlinedegrees.org/50-best-websites-for-audio-book-addicts/
7.) Bookshare Review Contest for Students
Through September 15th, the student who reads, rates, and writes the most reviews of Bookshare books could win a Victor Reader Stream! To learn more about the contest or register a student, please view the contest details here:
http://www.bookshare.org/brochure/community/contest/readersVoice
8.) Spark Keyboard Shortcut Manager for the Mac
Fred’s Head introduces us to Spark, a keyboard shortcut manager for the Mac.
http://www.shadowlab.org/Software/software.php?sign=Sprk
9.) Menupages Restaurant Menus Online
They also point us to Menupages, a site containing hundreds of restaurant menus. Menus are available as “viewable on-screen” or “printable” in a pdf. Both formats are easy to read with a screen reader.
http://www.menupages.com
10.) SeroTalk Podcast 21: Cooking in the Dark and Accessible Meetings
SeroTalk podcast 21 features a diverse lineup: an interview with creators of the Cooking in the Dark program, an interview regarding SeroTek’s Accessible Meeting service, and an interview with a blind self-employed massage therapist.
http://serotalk.com/2009/08/18/serotalk-podcast-21-cooking-massages-and-accessible-meetings/
11.) SeroTalk Tech Chat on Getting the News
SeroTalk Tech Chat #28 discusses various ways to get the news in the 21st century.
http://serotalk.com/2009/08/14/serotalk-tech-chat-28-21st-century-news/
12.) Free Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic Memberships
Thanks to major grant funding, individual memberships to Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic are now free with proper certification.
http://www.rfbd.org/membership-individual.htm
13.) Using Window-Eyes with Office 2007
Gw Micro has posted to its knowledgebase an article entitled Using Window-Eyes with Office 2007 (list of hotkeys)
http://gwmicro.com/kb1110
14.) AMIS Free DAISY Player Now in French
AMIS stands for Adaptive Multimedia Information System. It is a free self-voicing DAISY player available in several languages, now including French.
http://www.daisy.org/projects/amis/languages.php
15.) Innovations on the Nokia E71 and a Color Identifier
This week’s edition of Innovations, in the midst of its broadcast week as we speak, features a talk on the Nokia E71 phone, an interview with the designer of accessibletwitter.com and a discussion of an accessible color identifier from Cobolt Systems.
http://www.theglobalvoice.info
16.) Plextalk Pocket Firmware 2.0 Released
Version 2.0 of the firmware for the Plextalk Pocket DAISY recorder/player has been released, enabling this unit to play books from Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic and the National Library Service, and sporting some other usability enhancements.
http://www.irti.net/products/Plextalk%20Pocket/index.html
17.) IRTI Releases eClipseWriter Pro 4.2
IRTI announces the release of eClipseWriter Pro 4.2. This $595 DAISY production tool includes the latest Abbyy FineReader OCR engine update, and lets you create DAISY books from all sorts of content including graphical pdf documents.
http://www.eclipsereader.com/index.html
18.) Here is a good directory of European radio stations streaming live
19.) Tek Talk on the Brain Port
The Brain Port is the topic for Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, August 25 at 00:00. After a few hours of training on this device, which conveys information about the environment through the tongue, users have been able to detect shapes, identify motion, and report contrast differences and depth cues.
http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rsc9613dc89eb2
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