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Top Tech Tidbits for Thursday, May 1, 2014 - Volume 455
The Week's News in Access Technology

A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
http://www.flying-blind.com/

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Greetings,

1) A step forward has been made in accessibility to free Office suites with the release of OpenOffice 4.1 with built-in iAccessible2 support. Screen readers with this support should, in theory, be able to work with OO out of the box, without the need to install Java Access Bridge. Reportedly, support is best with NVDA, with the most recent update for JAWS, which works in most places and forthcoming versions of Window-Eyes may also have support:
http://www.openoffice.org

2) GW Micro has announced that it has expanded its services beyond software and hardware for people who are blind or visually impaired. It will now be offering services to organizations who are required to develop, procure, maintain and use electronic and information technology (EIT) that is accessible to people with disabilities. GW Micro's accessibility services will also be available to any person or organization who is interested in making their websites, documents or software accessible and compliant with Section 508 standards, the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), or the internationally recognized Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0.
http://www.gwmicro.com

3) Accessibility has largely been returned to the mainstream version of the Fleksy iOS keyboard app, which many people find to be an effective tool for writing on iDevices:
http://fleksy.com/journey-towards-accessibility-we-are-home/

4) The Australian Communications Consumer Action Network along with other organizations there have embarked on a campaign to rid the world of CAPTCHA's, the inaccessible boxes that contain squiggly characters that many web sites require for security. So if you run into one of those and can't fill it out, send the Kill CAPTCHA letter:
https://accan.org.au/news-items/hot-issues/781-captcha-what-you-can-do

5) Another article casting doubts on the fitness of Android for the generality of users is "Why Android Is Not Accessible. And What Is Accessibility Anyway?"
https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140429154036-29289122-why-android-is-not-accessible-and-what-is-accessibility-anyway

6) Jonathan Mosen has written "Words and Disability - The Delicate Balance"
http://publicaddress.net/9228

7) HIMS will offer a webinar, "Aker: Math Made Easy with Advanced Nemeth Capabilities on the Braille Sense!," on Wednesday, 13 May at 19:00 GMT. Register even if you can't attend in person and they'll send you a recording:
http://hims-inc.com/webinar-registration-nemeth-braille-sense-makes-math-easier/

8) We have ceded to the request from Sight Enhancement Systems to include this link to a YouTube video about Flick, purported to be the world's first robotic camera for students who are visually impaired:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRvyfBkHDGI&feature=youtu.be

9) Barrier-free Information Technology EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) is a month-long course designed to guide an institution in making both its computer and information technology systems fully accessible to its users with disabilities. The course starts May 5:
http://easi.cc/workshops/adaptit.htm

10) Many of our more than 6,000 readers live outside the United States or speak primary languages other than English, so we are always happy to mention websites that will assist speakers of those languages as well. This is a Spanish-language website regarding assistive technology:
http://www.manolo.net

11) This new AppleVis guide post is called "How to Partition a Drive in OS X":
http://www.applevis.com/node/10359

12) Read this NFB AT blog post on an intriguing navigation device under development:
https://nfb.org/blog/atblog/ustraap-system

Moving on to the week's audio material:

13A) From the aforementioned Spanish-language site, where you can find a regular podcast and its archive, comes a review of Window-Eyes:
http://www.tifloaudio.com/podpress_trac/web/125/0/ta045.mp3

From the SPN Network:

13B) Serotalk podcast 196 has been out for a week, so #197 may well come soon:
http://serotalk.com/2014/04/23/serotalk-podcast-196-the-jamie-dilemma/

13C) They also give us High Contrast Issue 20:
http://serotalk.com/2014/04/28/high-contrast-episode-20-screen-dump/

13D) Episode 1 of the Blindpodcaster's latest series, Blind We Are, is out:
http://blindpodcaster.com/blind-we-are-001/

13E) From RNIB's Insight Radio comes "Music Event Provides Opportunities For Blind Musicians":
http://www.insightradio.co.uk/podcast-episode.html?category=early_edition&name=2014-04-22_reading_music_tx.mp3#.U2EMYWdOXiz

13F) Eyes on Success 1418 features the NFT Newsline Service:
http://www.eyesonsuccess.net/

The three podcasts from BGZ this week are:

13G) Olympus DM620 Demonstration:
http://www.blind-geek-zone.net/olympus-dm620-demonstration/

13H) Classic Shell:
http://www.blind-geek-zone.net/classic-shell/

13I) And TalkingFlix, Coming Soon To Speakers Near You by Cool Blind Tech:
http://www.blind-geek-zone.net/talkingflix-coming-soon-to-speakers-near-you-by-cool-blind-tech/

AppleVis' two offerings are:

13J) Quick Tip: How to Add and Edit Contacts on your iOS Device:
http://applevis.com/podcast/episodes/quick-tip-how-add-and-edit-contacts-your-ios-device

13K) And Add Something Different to your Social Networking With Melt for iOS:
http://applevis.com/podcast/episodes/add-something-different-your-social-networking-melt-ios

13L) AccessTalk Podcast 24 covers Windows Phone 8.1, Office 365 Personal, Samsung smartphone peripherals and the Blaze EZ:
http://accesstalk.co.uk/podcast-24/

13M) Episode 384 of Our Place Podcast is the second part of a discussion of the Telorion Phone:
http://t.co/6OlEURS9jn

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