Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 166
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.

1) J.J. Meddaugh will figure prominently in this week's Tidbits. He has launched a new site, accessiblephones.com, where people can find, purchase and download manuals for most of the accessible mobile phones available, both for U.S. users and increasingly for users throughout the world.
http://www.AccessiblePhones.com

2) Through his blindbargains.com site, J.J. is providing some audio coverage of the current NFB convention in Dallas. For instance, this interview with Jonathan Josen discusses the soon-to-come version 6.1 of the PacMate and gives some information about version 10 of JAWS which is scheduled to begin a public beta cycle later in the summer:
http://www.blindbargains.com/redirect.php?redirect=3251

3) We previously mentioned Mobile Geo, the forthcoming GPS program which will run on Windows Mobile cell phones. Chris Grabowski from Sendero Group discusses the product and briefly demonstrates it in this interview:
http://www.blindbargains.com/redirect.php?redirect=3252

4) Finally, J.J. has joined the growing cadre of people producing scripts to enhance the functionality of Window-Eyes, or to use the program to perform tasks which were hitherto not possible. In this short demonstration, listen as he uses a bar code scanner and a Window-eyes script to identify packages and read product directions.
http://www.blindbargains.com/redirect.php?redirect=3243

5) A visit to Window-Eyes Script Central will reveal scripts, working under Window-Eyes beta version 7, to greatly enhance the functionality of Winamp, Skype, and iTunes, and to give Window-Eyes itself such functionality as progress bar indicators and the ability to provide a virtual text view of any window.
https://www.gwmicro.com/Script_Central/

6) Information Technology and Disabilities, June, 2008, the professional E-Journal from EASI, is now available for free reading.
http://people.rit.edu/easi/itd.htm

7) EASI will offer five free online webinar "snapshots" during the North American summer: Providing and Managing Accessible PDF Documents, Tuesday 8 July at 16:00 GMT; Making Accessible Online Surveys Tuesday, 8 July at 18:00 GMT; Making the Move to Vista: Things You Need to Know, Tuesday 15 July at 18:00 GMT; AMIS a Free Software DAISY Pllayer, Tuesday, Wednesday, 23 July at 18:00 GMT; and the Word-to-DAISY Add-in, Tuesday, 7 August at 18:00 GMT. Pre-registration is required, and also gives you a link to the archive when it becomes available:
http://easi.cc/clinic.htm

EASI also offers a number of fee-based courses during the summer:
http://easi.cc/workshop.htm

8) Serotek has announced an initiative, Keys for K-12, whereunder visually impaired students in the U.S. can receive a free annual renewable license for as long as they are in school to use System Access Mobile and download it into a thumb drive for easy use on any computer where they happen to be.
http://www.serotek.com/kk12.html

9) Humanware has released version 2 of the firmware for the Victor Reader Stream, enabling the versatile device to play files in Windows Media, contracted braille and RTF formats and incorporating other fixes. The Stream Companion software has also been updated to make transferring files to the Stream easier.
http://www.humanware.com

10) Humanware has now released the Trekker Breeze, the more simplified GPS unit designed for those who need to follow a fixed route.
http://www.humanware.com/en-usa/products/gps

11) Adobe Reader version 9 is now available. By default, the download comes with some extras you may not want, so this page allows you to just download the reader software:
http://www.adobe.com/accessibility/products/reader/

12) One of the reasons many people like the Firefox web browser is its ability to be enhanced by add-ons. One such add-on is called Webvisum, and purports to make the browser more accessible to those with limited or no vision, for instance, by providing a means to solve CAPTCHA verification schemes. They're looking for user feedback on the add-on.
http://www.webvisum.com/

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