Top Tech Tidbits - Volume 184
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) To learn the latest about the National Library Service digital conversion plan, how and when you can get digital talking books from your US network library or from the National Library, attend the December 5 21:00 GMT NLS Digital Conversion Seminar, online, via free telephone conference call, or in person at the Lighthouse for the Blind in San Francisco. e-mail for more information to
info@lighthouse-sf.org

2) Learn about "Turning Text Into Audio Using Text Aloud" at the next Tek Talk online training on Tuesday, 18 November at 01:00 GMT.
http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rsc9613dc89eb2

3) Fred's Head Companion offers the next several resources: RefSeek is an academic search engine:
http://www.refseek.com/

4) Two resources for children and families: Kids Together seeks to enhance inclusion for disabled people by a variety of means, electronic and otherwise:
http://www.kidstogether.org/
and Special Child is a Website and Publication For Parents of Children with Disabilities
http://www.specialchild.com/

5) For those in Disability Studies, There is Society for Disability Studies (SDS)
http://www.disstudies.org/
and Abilityinfo: Disability Information for Students and Professionals
http://www.abilityinfo.com/

6) Last, The AccessApps site has compiled a number of handy accessible programs that can all be run from a thumb drive, hence are truly portable:
http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/accessapps/index.php

7) Humanware states that the Trekker Breeze, its simpler GPS product, is now shipping in five languages:
http://www.humanware.com/en-usa/about_us/press_releases/breeze_now_shipping_in_5_languages
Leader Dogs is testing the usability of this product as an adjunct to its training. You will be able to read blogs of students and instructors starting on the 18th of November.
http://www.leaderdog.org/breeze/

8) The November, 2008 issue of the Braille Monitor contains an article entitled Optical Character Recognition and High-Volume Book-Scanning
http://www.nfb.org/images/nfb/Publications/bm/bm08/bm0810/bm081010.htm

9) The newly-released version 3.0 of System Access from Serotek is, along with NVDA, the first screen reader to offer access to 64-bit windows Vista and Xp. It also offers acces to iTunes version 8 and the iTunes store, and the ability to use refreshable braille with the Alva BC-640 braille display.
http://www.serotek.com

10) As a service primarily for deaf-blind users, Gw Micro has made available text transcripts of each section of its audio tutorial. So now, besides downloading and streaming the audio, one can read the text, including reading what Window-Eyes says in each situation.
http://www.gwmicro.com/Window-Eyes/Tutorials

11) Dolphin Systems has joined the parade of screen reader manufacturers creating web sites to showcase their products' scripting functions. Scripts are available for various popular programs, as well as explanations of the script language.
http://www.yourdolphin.com/Scripts/

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