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Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 216
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.

Greetings to all who are commemorating the 159th anniversary of the Martyrdom of the Bab, and who are working to free the falsely-imprisoned Baha'is in Iran, as well as all other persecuted people.

I am looking to combine two favorite activities, travel and tech training, so if you would like some very reasonably-priced personalized technology training or computer setup services, let's talk. As an example, I'll be in the Denver-Colorado Springs area in the near future, so could provide training there or somewhere along the route. Users there and elsewhere can combine for mutual benefit for all.

1) In keeping with my policy, I try only to mention products when one can actually buy them. So I'm pleased to see that we can now buy the Book Sense, a new reading device from Gw Micro. Those considering such a purchase may find the chart comparing the available portable players worth consulting.
http://www.gwmicro.com/BookSense/Comparison_Chart/
Wayne Merritt's blog has some thoughts about the Book Sense as well as lots of other interesting technology news and thoughts:
http://wayneism.blogspot.com/

2) The accessibility of the iPhone continues to be a lively topic. Rather than citing many resources, I'll direct you to a wiki which seems quite comprehensive and is frequently updated with new resources as they become available:
http://blind.wikia.com/wiki/IPhone

3) Subscribers to the major iPhone accessibility mailing list on Google Groups decided to start a list where they can socialize as well as discuss their favorite Apple products. To join, send a blank message to apple-socialize+subscribe@googlegroups.com or visit
http://groups.google.com/group/apple-socialize?msg=new&lnk=gcis

4) The iPhone has also generated a lot of discussion about photography; there is a lot of useful information and support for any visually-impaired person wanting to get into photography, and a good starting point is the Blind Photographer's Blog
http://blog.blindphotographers.org/

5) The Solona service is a great way to get around the problem of captchas, those web sites that require you to type text you see in a picture, which of course screen readers cannot read. They have created a free little program to make the process of decoding a captcha easier, which you can download from your account on the Solona page:
http://www.solona.net

6) Solona will be the topic for the next Accessible World online training on GMT Tuesday, 14 July at 00:00.
http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rsc9613dc89eb2

7) Speaking of both Accessible World and accessible mobile phones, yours truly will be leading a panel to discuss the various accessible cell phone options on Accessible World on Monday, July 27 stateside (28 July GMT.) If you have questions you would like answered, or any other pertinent input, please e-mail me.
dean@topdotenterprises.com

8) T and T Consultancy will again this year be podcasting from Sight Village, the large European blindness-related technology event. They've already started creating daily audio files, and the gathering goes forward next week.
http://www.tandt-consultancy.com/pages/podcast_blog.php

9) Marco has prepared a well-documented comparison of how five screen readers handle WAI_ARIA, web 2.0, content using Firefox version 3.5. It's called the The WAI-ARIA Windows screen reader shootout
NVDA wins, followed by strong performances by JAWS and Window-Eyes and weak performances by System Acces and SuperNova.
http://www.marcozehe.de/2009/07/01/the-wai-aria-windows-screen-reader-shootout/

10) Drs. Amy McKenzie and Susan Smedema of Florida State University are conducting an online survey about social supports and life satisfaction in persons with visual impairment. They seek participants.
http://www.survey.coe.fsu.edu/TakeSurvey.aspx?SurveyID=n40Ln62

11) Gw Micro now offers a version of its Braille Sense notetaker with a qwerty keyboard.
http://www.gwmicro.com

12) Rigel Technology is offering more of their $75 2-hour online trainings. Registration by phone or e-mail is required in advance. These all start at 21:00 GMT: Wednesday, 15 July: Books, Books and More Books; Monday, 20 July: Internet Faxing; Thursday, 30 July: Paypal and E-Bay; Friday, 4 August: Thunderbird E-mail Client. Call 888-723-5011 Ext. 1 or e-mail
cleblond@rigeltechnology.com

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