Guide Horses: An idea that's a hit with neigh-sayers

Do you need a service animal but are scared of or allergic to dogs? Why not consider a miniature horse? The Guide Horse Foundation in Kittrell, NC can provide you with one of these dependable service animals. At this point, you're probably thinking "A horse! Why use a horse?" On their website, the GHF offers these answers to that question:

"Why use a horse?

There are many compelling reasons to use horses as guide animals.

• Horses are natural guide animals and have been guiding humans for centuries.
  
• Horses have been shown to possess a natural guide instinct. When another horse goes blind in a herd, a sighted horse accepts responsibility for the welfare of the blind horse and guides it with the herd.
  
• Many blind people ride horses in equestrian competitions. Some blind people ride alone on trails for many miles, completely relying on the horse to guide them safely to their destination.
  
• Through out history, Cavalry horses have been known to guide their injured rider to safety."

Those certainly are convincing arguments! It makes one wonder why no one thought of it sooner. History shows us that horses make excellent guides; what is it about horses that makes this possible? The GHF says horses have several characteristics that make them suitable to guide the blind:

• "Calm Nature - Trained horses are extremely calm in chaotic situations. Cavalry horses have proven that horses can remain calm even in the extreme heat of battle. Police horses are an excellent example of well-trained horses that deal with stressful situations. Guide Horses undergo the same systematic desensitization training that is given to riot-control horses.
  
• Great Memory - Horses possess phenomenal memories. A horse will naturally remember a dangerous situation decades after the occurrence.
  
• Excellent Vision - Because horses have eyes on the sides of their heads, they have a very wide range of vision, with a range of nearly 350 degrees. They also have outstanding night vision and can see clearly in almost total darkness.
  
• Focus - Trained horses are very focused on their work and are not easily distracted. Horses are not addicted to human attention and normally do not get excited when petted or groomed.
  
• Safety - Naturally safety oriented, horses are constantly on the lookout for danger. All horses have a natural propensity to guide their master along the safest most efficient route, and demonstrate excellent judgment in obstacle avoidance training.
  
• Stamina - Hearty and robust, a properly conditioned Guide Horse can easily travel many miles in a single outing.
  
• Manners - Guide Horses are very clean and can be housebroken. Horses do not get fleas and only shed twice per year. Horses are not addicted to human affection and will stand quietly when on duty."

The Guide Horse Foundation was formed by Janet and Don Burelson after they successfully trained "Twinkie," their pet miniature horse, to guide a blind person in a wide variety of situations, including busy urban settings and shopping malls. Founded in 2000, they already have nine horses in the training program and about 40 people on their waiting list. They placed the first horse, "Cuddles," into service in May 2001 with Dan Shaw, a blind man who lives in Maine. You can learn more about Dan and Cuddles at their website: http://www.danandcuddles.com.

On their website, www.guidehorse.org, the GHF suggests that the ideal guide horse owners are the following types of people:

• Horse lovers- Blind people who have grown up with horses and already understand equine behavior and care.
  
• Allergenic People- Many people who are severely allergic to traditional guide animals find horses to be a non-allergenic alternative for mobility.
  
• Mature Individuals- Many people have trouble dealing with the grief of losing their animals. Horses live far longer than traditional guides.
  
• Physically Disabled Individuals- Because of their docile nature, Guide Horses are easier to handle for individuals with physical disabilities. They are also strong enough to provide support, helping the handler to rise from their chair.
  
• Dog Phobia- Individuals who fear dogs are often comfortable working with a tiny horse.
  
• Outdoor Animal- Many individuals prefer a guide animal that does not have to be in the house when off duty.
  

While horses can adapt to living in any situation, GHF recommends that owners live in suburban or rural areas. A horse can be trained to live in an apartment, but they prefer to be outdoors when off duty, so a fenced yard with a lawn for grazing is ideal.

Training

To be selected for training, a horse must be 26" or less at the withers-the highest part of the horse's back, between the shoulder blades-and must be certified sound and healthy by a Veterinarian. The prospective guide horse must also exhibit the intelligence needed to be able to complete the training program before the horse is accepted. A horse can start training right after it is weaned (about six months old) and the training itself takes anywhere between six months and a year.

Because the horse is instinctively prey, not predator, the training of a guide horse is carried out in a much different fashion than the training of a guide dog, but the objectives and the end results are pretty much the same. A guide animal must be able to safely guide its handler in all common situations. To achieve this, the guide horse is taught:

• to respond to 23 voice commands
  
• to avoid stationary and moving obstacles
  
• to negotiate stairs, elevators, and even escalators
  
• intelligent disobedience- the ability to ignore commands from the handler that would put the handler or the horse into danger (such as refusing to cross a street when there is approaching traffic).

The Guide Horse Foundation also makes sure that the handler of the horse is trained. The handler must attend certified orientation and mobility courses, learn the 23 voice commands, and the proper use of the harness and reins before the handler is allowed to train with a horse. The prospective owner is also taught to provide the proper care, feeding, grooming, and housing of the Guide Horse. After this elementary training, the handler works with several horses to find the one whose speed and attitude match best the handler's needs. At this point the horse and the handler are trained together to learn how to function as a team. Once the team has proven its ability to successfully deal with the potentially dangerous situations of ordinary life (such as street crossings) the team will move to the new owner's home and train in negotiating the specific places, events, and regular travels of the handler's life. The Foundation will conduct periodic follow-ups to make sure the team remains safe and effective.

Guide Horse Foundation
2729 Rocky Ford Road
Kittrell, NC 27544
Phone: 252-433-4755
Email: info@guidehorse.org
Web: http://www.guidehorse.org

Do You Have Unclaimed Money or Property?

Have you ever forgotten about a check that someone owed you? It sounds hard to believe, but it happens. Did you get your tax return from the state last year? Are you sure?

Thousands of dollars of unclaimed property and checks go undelivered because the state doesn't have current information on the recipient. Someone could leave you money as part of a will and if you don't know about it, the money will sit in a state office until claimed by you or another family member.

As blind and visually impaired people, we know it's easy to misplace a piece of printed mail or to have someone forget to read it to us. Mail can easily be thrown away without us even knowing about it.

Most state treasury departments have online databases of unclaimed property that you can search for free. It only takes filling out a couple of pages of information, and sending a credit card bill that has an old address to claim most items.

To check and see if you have any unclaimed funds, click on your state's link below. Most have a simple database search. If you find your name with an address that's familiar to you, download the paperwork. Instructions should be on the page. Usually, it entails proving you're who you say you are (copy of a state ID) and proving that you lived at that address. If you don't have an old bill from the address, many times your electric or credit card company can make a copy.

Alabama State Treasury Unclaimed Property Program

Alaska's Unclaimed Property Searchable Database

Arizona Department of Revenue Unclaimed Property Division

Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt

California State Controller UCP Inquiry System

Great Colorado Payback

Connecticut State Treasury Unclaimed Property Owners' List

Escheat Unclaimed Property (Delaware) - Maybe Delaware is more efficient than other states because their list is so small that it's a .pdf file instead of a database!

Great Florida Treasure Hunt

Georgia Unclaimed Property Program

State of Hawaii Unclaimed Property Search

Idaho State Tax Commission

Illinois State Treasurer Cash Dash

Indiana Unclaimed

Great Iowa Treasure Hunt

Kansas State Treasurer

Kentucky State Treasury

Louisiana Department of the Treasury

Maine Unclaimed Property

Comptroller of Maryland

Massachusetts Abandoned Property

Michigan's Money Quest

Minnesota Department of Commerce

Mississippi State Treasurer

Missouri State Treasurer

Montana Department of Revenue Unclaimed Property

Nebraska State Treasurer

Nevada Unclaimed Property New Hampshire Treasury

New Jersey Taxation

State of New Mexico Unclaimed Property

New York State's Unclaimed Funds

North Carolina Unclaimed Property Program

North Dakota State Land Department

Ohio Online Treasure Hunt

Oklahoma Unclaimed Property Fund Search

State of Oregon Unclaimed Property

Pennsylvania Treasury

Rhode Island Treasury Unclaimed Property

South Carolina Unclaimed Property

South Dakota Unclaimed Property

Tennessee Treasury Department

Texas Window on State Government

Utah State Treasurer

Vermont State Treasurer

Commonwealth of Virginia Department of the Treasury

Washington State Department of Revenue

West Virginia Treasury

Wisconsin Office of the State Treasurer

Wyoming Unclaimed Property

Tack-Tiles: Building a better braille instructional aid

Teachers and parents who are in search of a fun yet effective braille teaching tool might want to explore the Tack-Tiles Braille System--a growing collection of instructional aids for anyone interested in learning braille. Tack-Tiles owe their origin to a parent who was seeking a way to teach his young son braille. One day he noticed the similarities between a typical plastic Lego-like block and a braille cell. He modified a set of blocks to represent each letter in the braille alphabet and created a sheet onto which his new invention, Tack-Tiles, could be affixed.

That moment of inspiration has become a multi-faceted instructional tool. A typical Tack-Tile is printed on the forward vertical surface with that Braille character's most commonly used visual code(s). For example, the Tack-Tile with dots 1,4 is labelled [ c/3 ]; Tiles bearing dots 3,4,5,6 are marked [number sign/ ble ]; those with dots 2,5,6 present are labelled [ dd/dis/.] and so forth.

Every Tack-Tile Braille System Set contains 320 tiles, four large support slates (each holds eight rows of 20 tiles), four small slates (four rows of 10 tiles) and a carrying case. Tack-Tiles currently offers the following sets:

• English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German literary Braille
• Nemeth Braille for mathematics
• Braille for music notation
• Computer Braille

In addition to its standard kit, Tack-Tiles also produces a Calendar Kit. The calendar slate has a magnetic-backing so it can be affixed to any metal surface. It includes enough specialized calendar tiles to display two months at the same time as an aid in teaching calendar concepts, transitions and comparisons. The upper right hand corner of each tile is radiused for proper Braille orientation.

For some imaginative methods for using Tack-Tiles visit the company's web site and follow the link to the Forum.

Tack-Tiles Braille Systems, LLC
PO Box 475
Plaistow, NH 03865-0475
Toll Free: 800-822-5845
Phone: 603-382-1904
Fax: 603-382-1748
Email: braille@tack-tiles.com
Web: http://www.tack-tiles.com

Contributor: Malcolm Turner

How to Record Nature Sounds

By Jake Ludington

Recording environmental sounds like singing birds, wild animal calls, water running through a streambed, or the chirp of baby birds is one of the more fascinating (and challenging) aspects of audio recording. Some of the same audio recording techniques apply when recording things like car noises, lawn mower engines and other man made sounds, but you don't always get a chance to do a second take with nature like you do with machines.

Getting started in recording nature sounds requires three basic things:

1) A recording device, like a MiniDisc recorder, Compact Flash recorder, or other digital audio recorder.
2) A stereo microphone or stereo microphone pair
3) Headphones for listening to what you're recording

The big reason to use a digital recorder is to avoid the hiss that comes with using a tape recording medium. The stereo microphone or pair of microphones provide the listener with something much closer to what you'd hear in the real world than a single microphone accomplishes on its own. A microphone zeppelin windscreen is also useful for cutting noise from wind while recording.

You also need a good dose of luck and patience in order to find the specific species of bird or animal you're hoping to record. For a great overview of what's required for recording sounds from the wilderness, the Wildebeat Podcast has a great interview on recording the sounds nature with Kurt Fristurp (of the National Parks Service Natural Sounds Program) and Dan Dugan (of the Nature Sounds Society). Two great tips from the podcast are how to find places free from unnatural sounds and some of the basic techniques for getting a good sample of the sound you hope to record.

One of the best places to get a quick foundation in how to record nature sounds is the Nature Sounds Society. Their Question Bird service provides a solid foundation of answers for people looking for detailed information on the types of audio gear you need for recording various kinds of natural sounds.

Article Source:
Jake Ludington's MediaBlab

Free Music Downloads at We7

Here's a legitimate, safe and legal way to download free music from the Internet, using the same concept Google made famous, ad-supported. We7, a UK based website, delivers free music downloads without any DRM, so users can play the tracks for free, when and how they like, and even share DRM-free music legally with friends. All with the small price of hearing an audio advertising message for up to 10 seconds or less on the tracks that are downloaded for free.

If the business model of We7 can succeed, it's not short of a digital music revolution, which currently is haunted by a high degree of online piracy. Money spent on online music stores such as iTunes, Rhapsody, BuyMusic, MusicMatch, Urge, Sony Connect, Zune Marketplace, Urge, Emusic and Walmart Music can be saved.

Backed by musician Peter Gabriel, British We7 works by offering consumers free music downloads tagged with 10-second advertisements, which are played before the music starts. Four weeks after downloading, We7 users have the option to download up to 20 favorite tracks with the advertisements removed for free. All tracks, whether purchased or free, are DRM free. Artists and singers in turn will get their share of earnings, paid for by We7 from the advertisement revenue. So essentially users will get free music, ad-free and DRM-free without involving piracy.

We7 is currently in beta and hasn't signed any major labels. The venture is currently working with independent record labels, featuring artists such as Youssou N'Dour, Public Symphony, Capercaillie, Jon Christos, Diana Galvydyte and Jakob Fichert, Afro Celt Sound System, Big Strides, the Dave Matthews Band and Hall & Oates. This may be one of the Achilles heel of We7. To be successful, more music from top artists and hot up-and-coming songs are needed.

For those who love a particular track, but don't want the advertisements, they can purchase the track directly, which comes in a higher bitrate.

To get your free music downloads, simply add the song to your playlist, and then download the free MP3 from there. You can also download your playlist as a podcast (RSS feed).

Click this link to visit http://www.we7.com.

White Cane to help blind and visually impaired webmasters

White Cane Media is a website design and hosting service catering specifically to the blind and visually impaired. The founder of White Cane Media, David Goodwin, is himself blind. David has been involved in website design and management since 1995, and has a sound understanding of the needs and concerns of blind and visually impaired webmasters.

Whether people want to promote their business, share news and information, express their thoughts through a personal blog, create an online discussion forum on their favourite topic, or share pictures through an online photo album, this service will provide the perfect opportunity. The service offers a range of hosting and web site design options that will cater for all levels of knowledge and experience. A basic hosting account is available for those who already have a good level of expertise, or are keen to learn for themselves. Additional options and features are provided for fledgling webmasters who require a little more help in getting a website up and running quickly and smoothly.

For more information, contact:

David Goodwin
White Cane Media
Email: info@whitecane.co.uk
Web: http://www.whitecane.co.uk.

AbilityOne: Employment Opportunities for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired

AbilityOne, formerly known as the JWOD Program, provides employment opportunities for people who are blind or have severe disabilities in the manufacture and delivery of products and services to the federal government. As the largest source of employment of people who are blind or have severe disabilities in the United States, the AbilityOne Program taps into the abilities of nearly 47,000 individuals nationwide in coordination with over 600 nonprofit agencies. In 1938, the Wagner-O'Day Act was passed under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to provide employment opportunities for people who are blind by allowing them to manufacture mops and brooms to sell to the Federal Government.

In 1971, under the leadership of Senator Jacob Javits, Congress amended this Act ( 41 U.S.C. 46-48c) to include people with severe disabilities and allow the Program to also provide services to the Federal Government. Over sixty years later, this extraordinary socioeconomic program provides Federal customers with a wide array of quality products and services, while providing thousands of people with severe disabilities real jobs and increased independence.

The Committee for Purchase From People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled is the JWOD Program's Federal overseer. Through two Central Nonprofit Agencies, National Industries for the Blind and NISH (serving people with a range of disabilities), the Committee currently works with over 600 nonprofit agencies across the country, as well as in Puerto Rico and Guam, to provide employment opportunities to people with severe disabilities. The purchase of JWOD products and services by Federal customers helps battle the 70 percent unemployment rate faced by this untapped labor resource.

In 2006, the Committee decided to change the umbrella name for the program it administers under the Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act from "JWOD" to AbilityOne. For more information, click this link to visit the JWOD Website at http://www.JWOD.gov, or click this link to visit the AbilityOne website at http://www.AbilityOne.gov.

Help Bring Accessibility to XM Radio Receivers

I received the following email and wanted to share it with you. There come times when opportunities arise to bring accessibility to products. There are people out there who realize that things need to be useful to everyone and that no one is getting any younger. Vision issues are going to dominate the lives of many baby boomers. Please help by reading the following and emailing the address below.

by Jim Aldrich: http://www.vipconduit.com and http://www.accessible-devices.com

Hello all,

I was speaking with Mr. Ralph Stewart of MyRadioStore.com. I was inquiring about which XM Radio Receiver was accessible to Blind people these days. A number of changes have taken place which necessitated some changes in XM receivers. The demodulator needed to be turned down to minimize interference to those listening to standard radio stations, especially in an automobile. Some people didn't like Howard Stern coming over their favorite religious station as an example. Many of the newer XM portables are using touch screens these days which aren't accessible for us.

Mr. Stewart then said it's about time for XM receivers to have audio feedback or prompts for those who cannot see the screen. Some engineers he spoke with said the chips used in XM receivers would easily support speech output. He wants to know how many people would be interested in an XM Receiver with speech? Please Email him at ralphs@myradiostore.com. Let's open the flood gates and let him hear from us! He will forward our mail to appropriate engineers and personnel at XM Radio. Perhaps we can make a difference! Please feel free to pass this on to any blindness lists you are on. Thanks for reading!

Protect Your Thumb and Clean Up Your Language While Hammering

In Fred's Head, we talk about devices that no blind or visually impaired person should be without because they improve their lives in some way or another. Well, if you work with wood or find yourself hammering nails into things often, I have another gadget for you. This one not only keeps you safe but prevents you from using the colorful language that often occurs when working with a hammer.

The inventor of this intelligent gadget must have bruised his thumb many a times while using the hammer. He or she obviously got tired of this and created a device that will help you keep the hammer on the right target.

The ThumbSaver was designed and tested by real tradesmen and lends a helping hand when driving nails, screws, fence staples, or just about any fastener. You can use ThumbSaver on nearly any job from fine trim or craft work to the largest framing jobs, building fences, decks or installing joist hangers.

A strong magnet is machined into the durable ergonomically designed aluminum shaft and finished off with a comfort grip. Just pull the tool out of your pack or tool belt, pick up a fastener with the magnet and drive the nail or screw! Once you use it you will know why it is called the ThumbSaver!

The thumbSaver comes in two sizes: large is 7 1/2 inches long with a 7/8 inch grip. Mini is 6 inches long with a 5/8 inch grip.

Click this link to order the ThumbSaver from the Awesome Tools website.

Tips on Using and Reusing Old Dish Towels

• When they get old and ratty, don't throw them away! Reuse old kitchen towels as cleaning cloths, cut the towels into sections, great for all-purpose cleaning and dusting.
  
• Reuse old towels as cheap Swiffer Mop refills. When you're done, just shake the excess muck off, then throw the dirty cloth in the laundry.
  
• Dish towels are also an easy alternative to a big, bulky dish drainer. Just put out a couple of tea towels on the countertop, and lay your dishes on them. Hang the cloth to dry when the dishes are finished drying.

If you're looking for a truly durable and absorbent dish towel, try using flour sack towels. Your mothers and grandmothers (or maybe you yourself) used these years ago from the actual flour sacks, but now these amazing towels come in fun patterns and colors. So you get the beauty of a funky towel, while actually getting a towel that dries properly. What a concept!

OneDerWear: The Wear Once Disposable Underwear

I know, everyone's wondering, right now, why I'm writing an article about disposable underwear on a service about blindness. I haven't lost my mind, hang in there and let me set this up and I think you'll see my reason for this entry.

Have you ever went to a national convention and, once at the hotel, discovered that you forgot to pack the stack of socks and underwear that you had sitting beside the suitcase before the cab showed up to take you to the airport? You thought you put it in with the shampoo and all the other necessities for the trip. Now, what are you going to do. Will you go to the giftshop and ask if they sell underwear? Maybe you'll get lucky and there will be a store near the hotel, but being a visitor to the city, how will you get there? Are you actually going to take a cab somewhere to buy socks and underwear?

Maybe you just don't want dirty socks and underwear around until you get home to do the laundry.

OneDerWear is an ultra-light disposable underwear created for traveling. Designed to provide the utmost comfort and convenience, OneDerWear disposable underwear is 100% cotton and ideally packaged for maximum space efficiency. Each package contains five compact pairs of individually wrapped disposable underwear that can fit in the palm of your hand. With OneDerWear, you simply wear and toss!

My suggestion for the above situation would be to put a pack of these in your suitcase and leave them there. Now, if you ever forget to pack socks or underwear, you're good to go because you've got a backup.

OneDerWear comes in a variety of packs and colors. For men, there are the classic Briefs and Boxers. Women can choose from Classic Briefs, Bikini Briefs or Thongs. Socks are available in Mid-Calf or Ankle Length, in black or white. Each pack is sold for six bucks, not bad to insure that you always have what you need on a trip.

By the end of your trip, you'll be surprised to find plenty of luggage space for gifts and souvenirs.

Click this link to purchase OneDerWear: The Wear Once Disposable Underwear from http://www.onederwear.com.
Click this link to check out Disposable PlaneSheets from Solutions.

Rated "A" for Accessible: Movie reviews for the blind and visually impaired

Movie Review Query Engine

So, you're thinking about going to the movies or maybe renting one, but you're not sure what would be good to see. Well, on this Website, you can find movie reviews that will help you decide if a film is worth seeing or not!

Registration is free and it will give you access to premium features, such as extra reviews and to see if the film you're looking up is showing in your area. Only the blanks with "required" beneath them are necessary in order to register.

The easiest way to use this site is to search by the title of the movie. It's awesome if you know what you are looking for. For instance, I wanted to look up the Superman films. I searched for Superman, chose it from a list of movies with Superman in the title and I got to read a ton of reviews on each movie.

Don't have a movie in mind? No problem, you can search by Categories. This search engine is a drop down menu, so just choose what you want to search by and click Go. My favorite option is Recent Releases, because it's a great way to find what's in the theaters now and how they fared with other viewers. You can also check out Upcoming Releases if you want to plan your movie trip ahead of time. Or, maybe do a search for "most popular title" for the last week, previous day, last 12 hours or last three hours.

No matter how you search, you are bound to find tons of reviews on the movie of your choice. Check it out today and have fun at the movies!

Click this link to visit the Movie Review Query Engine at http://www.mrqe.com.

Blindspots

Being blind or having a visual impairment doesn't have to keep you from enjoying the pleasure of going to the theatre and taking in a good movie. But the truth is, some movies are easier to follow than others. Now there is Blindspots, a website that rates movies for accessibility for blind and visually impaired moviegoers.

Every movie that Blindspots' reviews receives a rating on a 1 to 10 scale. A movie earns a 10 if a blind person can follow without any assistance from a sighted assistant. A 1 score indicates a film that was next to impossible to follow, even with assistance.

Of course, the most accessible film could have a real stinker of a storyline. But the creators of Blindspots' recognize that personal taste is, well, personal. Since the sole focus of the service is to rate movies for accessibility, reviewers do not judge films for content, violence, sexuality or profanity.

The site keeps current with new releases. And its archive of reviews is growing every day. Visitor comments and questions are openly encouraged.

Click here to visit the Blindspots home page: http://www.vashti.net/blind.

Kids in Mind

Now, you can find out a movie's appropriateness for your kids before you ever leave the house. This Web site breaks each movie down into three major categories: Sex and Nudity, Violence and Gore and Profanity. They also cover substance abuse, discussion topics and the message of the movie. For each category, they list what was seen or heard in the movie.

For example, Profanity: "1 scatological term, 1 clinical scatological term, a man yells "sheep" in frustration, 2 anatomical terms, name-calling (ugly, stalker, insane, loco, jerks, Captain Ahab, fool, stupid), 4 religious exclamations." - The Evan Almighty review at Kids in Mind.

Doesn't that really break it down for you? And they do that for each category. You will know exactly what your kids might see or hear before you ever get to the theater. That way, if there is some offensive material or if it's not age-appropriate for your kids, you can veto the movie beforehand.

On the main page, you will find the newest reviews added to the site. On the right hand menu, you'll find links under the categories of This Week, Last Week and In Theaters for movie reviews.

You can also use the alphabet under the main menu near the top of the page to search by first letter or you can use their handy search engine to type in what movie you are looking for.

On the main menu, you will also find a New on Video, which gives you the same style of reviews for movies that have been recently released on video or DVD. You will also find a Help/FAQ link on the main menu, should you have any problems with the site or if a question arises.

This is an excellent tool for monitoring what your children watch.

Click this link to visit http://kids-in-mind.com.

Let's Talk Twango

Twango is a Website where you can upload and share your photos, videos, audio files and various other documents. Now, I know there are a lot of sites that allow you to do the same stuff, but Twango definitely has some cool features. Twango is completely free to use and there is no sign up required.

To use Twango without signing up, click this link to visit their Website. The first thing you'll see is where you can start to upload your files. Just hit the Browse button and find what you'd like to upload. Select it and then hit the Upload button. Your file needs to be 10 MB or smaller, but other than that, you shouldn't run into any problems.

If you do choose to create a free account, you can immediately upload files up to 100 MB in size, upload multiple files at once, work with your video and audio players, create slideshows, page tickers, etc. and even easily organize your files. Another great thing about Twango is that when you upload a file, you can opt to get links to them to put in your blog or even send them through email. This way, your friends and family members can see your photos, videos, etc. with just one click. The links never expire either, so they'll always be there to view. How cool is that?!

Twango offers unlimited storage, so you'll never have to worry about running out of room for all the items you'd like to share. If you're not sure Twango is right for you, explore the site before you start anything of your own. You can see what other members are uploading, you can check out some of the other members' profiles and see their latest comments. There truly is so much to do with Twango, you'll never run out of options.

Click this link to visit http://www.twango.com.

The XP Look in Vista

Have you recently started using Windows Vista? If so, are you having a little trouble navigating your way through the new setup of the operating system? At first, it can be quite confusing. Everything you were familiar with in Windows XP has been changed or moved to another location and that makes it really hard to get your work done, doesn't it? Well, lucky for all of us, there are a few things you can do to change everything back to the way it used to be.

As I'm sure you already know, along with Vista came a whole new Start menu. And I'm guessing that some of you don't care too much for it. If that's the case, you can switch it back to the way it looked in XP. To do so, just right click on the Start button and choose Properties. Make sure you're under the Start Menu tab and tick the option for Classic Start menu. Click OK and then check out your new Start menu. Now, doesn't that feel better?!

Once you switch back to the old Start menu, you can also customize it. Hit the Customize button and you'll see all the choices you have. You can add or remove items from your Start menu list, you can sort your items and so on and so forth. There's even a checklist of different options you can choose from. For example, you can choose to display your favorites, display the Run command, expand the Control Panel, use the personalized menus, etc. There's so many choices! When you're done, just click OK twice and you'll be all set.

The Mouseless Right Click

There are many people who are new to the right click menus and the options they contain in various Windows programs.

Many people aren't remotely interested in trying to remember all the key combinations necessary to replace the features in a right click. These right clicks are great for everyone who's comfortable with the mouse, but what about the rest of you? The ones who have low vision and love to use the keyboard as much as possible, but still want to complete the same tasks found in these menus. Is there a mouseless solution for you?

Take a look at your keyboard to the right of the space bar and just past the Alt and Windows keys. See it? That key is called the Applications Key and it replaces the right click of the mouse. Many screen readers use this key for totally blind computer users, but you don't have to be a total to get good use of it.

Once pressed, you can use the arrow keys to navigate through the pop up menus and the Enter key to select your choices. If you hit this key accidentally or just want to back out of the pop up menu, hit the Esc key.

Here's a quick note: When I checked my laptop keyboard, I found this key in the top section of the keyboard. You may have to do some searching to find it.

Chocolate Microwave Pudding for One

I have found a fantastic recipe that I just had to share with all my Fred's Head readers. Are you craving a chocolatey treat? This chocolate micro pudding for one is perfect, totally rich and chocolatey and simple enough to keep the necessary ingredients on hand for any late-night treat.

Enough raving (and it really IS that good) here's the easy recipe. I made mine in an 8 ounce custard cup. I liked it better once it had sat in the fridge and got thicker, but warm was nice too.

Here's What You'll Need

• 1 1/2 teaspoon corn starch
  
• pinch of salt
  
• 1/2 cup milk
  
• 1 ounce (1/4 cup) chocolate
  
• Chocolate chips

Here's What to Do

1. Combine corn starch, salt and milk together in an 8 ounce custard cup.
   
2. Add chocolate chips. Cook 1 minute at 100% power until hot, but not boiling.
   
3. Stir until the melted chocolate chips are completely blended with the milk mixture.
   
4. Cook another 45 seconds at 100% power until just beginning to boil.

Notes

I would suggest using a bit more cornstarch, since my pudding didn't firm up quite as much as I would've liked it to. I'm going to try 2 teaspoons next time.

Instead of cooking the second time for 45 seconds straight, I had MUCH better results by stirring after 15 seconds and then repeating until the pudding took on a thickened consistency.

Double things up in a larger bowl and share with a friend.

Elevator Etiquette

Apparently, the state of elevator etiquette has gotten so out of hand that the people at ElevatorRules.Com decided to lay the ground rules for proper elevator behavior.

ElevatorRules lists the most important rules for different elevator-riding scenarios, so you'll always know what to do in every elevator-related situation. Sure, it's common sense, but you'll be surprised at what you can learn.

I've summarized the top 5 tips for those of you who frequent elevators:

1. If you are going up or down one floor, use the stairs.
   
2. Stand away from the doors while waiting to board and wait until everyone has exited before entering.
   
3. Do not have loud, annoying conversations or sing while in the elevator.
   
4. If you are sick, consider boarding an empty elevator so you won't get others sick.
   
5. Here's one that is more difficult for those of us who don't see: do not re-press the call button or a floor button that someone else has already pressed.

Click this link to learn more elevator etiquette from ElevatorRules.Com.

Two Screen Readers for Linux

The Linux Screen Reader (LSR) is an application that transforms the contents of the computer screen to other media, enabling non-visual access to the graphical Gnome desktop environment. The basic function of the screen reader is to report changes in the state of an application as a user interacts with it using the keyboard or other system input device. What is reported to the user and what commands are available for controlling the screen reader are determined by cascading scripts that completely define the user experience. The scripts can be loaded and unloaded by the user at run time, and custom scripts can be written to improve the usability of certain applications and interactions. How information is reported to the user and how the user gives input are determined by one or more configured input and output devices. Like scripts, devices can be loaded and unloaded by the user at run time, and custom device profiles can be written to support new methods of input and output (e.g. Braille, speech, switches, and joysticks).

The current implementation defines a keyboard device for input and a speech device for output using the IBM ViaVoice speech engine. A default script that responds to focus, selection, and caret changes in the active application is included. The default script also defines some basic keyboard commands for navigating applications, setting the speech rate, and reporting where the user focus currently lies. Documentation is included with the source code.

This technology was created by Pete Brunet, Larry Weiss, Peter Parente, and Brett Clippingdale. They can be reached through e-mail. at https://secure.alphaworks.ibm.com/aw.nsf/contact/lsr.

Another software speech synthesizer with capability for nine languages is also available for Linux. Click this link to check out TTSynth at http://TTSynth.Com.

Craft Adaptations for Adults with Vision Impairments

People who have enjoyed making crafts at different times in their lives prior to vision loss may think they can no longer continue. Also, individuals who would like to begin making crafts for the first time may hesitate because of reduced vision. But we know, from years of teaching experience with individuals who have little or no sight, that it is very possible to continue the fun activity of craft-making. This book, with its extensive range of easy adaptations, will show you how it can be done!

This is the first publication in VisionAWARE's Independence! series. It contains 17 favorite crafts, along with detailed instructions and adaptions for crafters who are blind or have low vision. The contents have been field-tested for many years by Vision Rehabilitation Therapist and author Stephanie Stephens Van, a highly qualified and experienced vision rehabilitation professional. This updated and expanded large print (18 point APHont) version includes five additional crafts, and a new introduction, "hints" section, and resource list.

A complete Table of Contents is located on the VisionAWARE web site and includes previews of two sample crafts.

Click this link to learn more or purchase Craft Adaptations for Adults with Vision Impairments from the VisionAware website.

Blind Friends of Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual People (BFLAG)

BFLAG, Blind Friends of Lesbian, Gay, Transgender and Bisexual People is a chartered affiliate of The American Council of the Blind. BFLAG is the only national organization dedicated to serving the special needs of individuals who are both visually impaired and part of the GLBT community.

Education and information remain cornerstones of BFLAG's mission of improving the quality of life of those who are blind and lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Collaborating with PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays), BFLAG has transferred a growing volume of literature into accessible formatted materials from which the visually impaired can benefit.

BFLAG also advocates for this segment of the community by ensuring adequate services are made available by agencies and institutions serving the blind and by providing a forum for views and concerns of this often overlooked segment of the GLBT community.

For more information about BFLAG and its services, contact:

BFLAG
4802 Holder Avenue
Baltimore, MD 21214-3009
Email: bflagmpls@yahoo.com
Web: http://www.bflag.org

reCAPTCHA That CAPTCHA

A CAPTCHA is a program that can tell whether its user is a human or a computer. You've probably come in contact with them, colorful images with distorted text at the bottom of Web registration forms that are totally inaccessible to screen readers and some screen magnification programs. CAPTCHAs are used by many websites to prevent abuse from "bots," or automated programs usually written to generate spam. No computer program can read distorted text as well as humans can, so bots cannot navigate sites protected by CAPTCHAs.

About 60 million CAPTCHAs are solved by humans around the world every day. In each case, roughly ten seconds of human time are being spent. Individually, that's not a lot of time, but in aggregate these little puzzles consume more than 150,000 hours of work each day. What if we could make positive use of this human effort and make it easier for the blind to solve these electronic puzzles? reCAPTCHA does exactly that by channeling the effort spent solving CAPTCHAs online into "reading" books.

To archive human knowledge and to make information more accessible to the world, multiple projects are currently digitizing physical books that were written before the computer age. The book pages are being photographically scanned, and then, to make them searchable, transformed into text using "Optical Character Recognition" (OCR). The transformation into text is useful because scanning a book produces images, which are difficult to store on small devices, expensive to download, and cannot be searched. The problem is that OCR is not perfect.

reCAPTCHA improves the process of digitizing books by sending words that cannot be read by computers to the Web in the form of CAPTCHAs for humans to decipher. More specifically, each word that cannot be read correctly by OCR is placed on an image and used as a CAPTCHA. This is possible because most OCR programs alert you when a word cannot be read correctly.

But if a computer can't read such a CAPTCHA, how does the system know the correct answer to the puzzle? Here's how: Each new word that cannot be read correctly by OCR is given to a user in conjunction with another word for which the answer is already known. The user is then asked to read both words. If they solve the one for which the answer is known, the system assumes their answer is correct for the new one. The system then gives the new image to a number of other people to determine, with higher confidence, whether the original answer was correct.

reCAPTCHA also provides audible methods to solve their CAPTCHAs. Instead of using a combination of numbers and letters, which can be confusing and difficult to understand, reCAPTCHA uses eight numbers to solve their puzzles. By using numbers only, the puzzles are easier to solve.

Click this link to learn more about reCAPTCHA by visiting their website at http://recaptcha.net.

The "Save All" and "Close All" of MS-Word

Have you ever had several MS Word documents open at once and want to quickly save or close them all?

Maybe you're going to close the program and would like to avoid the continual pop up boxes, asking you to save each document. Maybe you're going to walk away from your computer for a few minutes and would like to quickly save everything "just in case." You know how those situations arise when you wish you would have saved everything before the machine "freaked out" or the power failed.

I'm sure that when you save your files, you use either Ctrl+S, the Save button or you go to the File menu, Save choice. Any of those options are great, but remember, you have to repeat the process for each document.

Feeling a bit frustrated? After all, you only wanted to walk away for a quick minute and it's going to take you five just to shuffle through all those open files to get them saved. Looking for a quicker option? Maybe one that allows you to save all the documents in one quick move, instead of file by file? Next time you're in a bind, give this a try.

Hold down the Shift key and go to the File menu.

Take a good look. See it? Listen to your screen reader, you should hear something different?

Where the Save choices used to be, there should now be Close All and Save All options. Choose Save All and Word will go through all open documents and save each one without closing the documents. (For new documents, it will bring up the Save As window to allow you to name your document, just like individual Save As commands would have done). Close All will close all open documents, prompting to save if necessary.

Now, if only we had something like this for around the house. You know, vacuum one room and poof, they're all vacuumed. Make one bed and poof, they're all made. You get the idea.

American Egg Board Recipes

There are some ingredients out there that are so versatile that you will find them in most forms of cooking. The egg happens to be one of them.

Not only are eggs versatile, it seems like everyone you meet likes their eggs cooked a different way. People have all sorts of different preferences, like sunny side up, sunny side down, boiled, poached and even scrambled, to list a few.

Here's a site dedicated to the cooking of eggs and includes some great egg recipes. You'll find all the navigation on the side menu. The categories are:

• TV Recipes: Here you can find recipes that have been featured on television. There were three in all, which was a little disappointing, but they looked and sounded very delicious. I could easily make them and serve them to ravenous egg eaters!
  
• Recipe of the Month: Here you will find the featured recipe of the month. When I visited, it was Spinach Stuffed Deviled Eggs. You can find the previous months on the right hand side of the page.
  
• Basic Preparation: This section is a real jewel to anyone who is just learning to cook eggs. Here you will find the instructions you need to prepare eggs in the following styles: Scrambled Eggs, Fried Eggs, Hard-Cooked Eggs, Poached Eggs, Baked Eggs, French Omelet, Savory Soufflé, Soft Custard Sauce, Baked Custard, Soft and Hard Meringue and Swiss Meringue. You can also see all these techniques in one .PDF file by clicking the Click Here link in the middle of the page.
  
• Breakfast and Brunch to Desserts: In these sections, you will find egg recipes. Choose one from the right hand alphabetical listing to view it in the middle of the page.
  
• Low Carb: For those of you who are eating low carb, this section will help you spice up your menu. Don't eat the same old things, give these recipes a try! Eggs are virtually carbless. You will find recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and even dessert on the right side menu.
  
• Diet Conscious: Here you will find recipes that will add pleasantly to any dieter's meal plans. You'll find a delicious angel food cake recipe to more savory dishes for dinner.
  
• Economical: Here you can learn how economical it is to cook with eggs. I was amazed at the information here. You'll also find recipes that are economical to make for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
  
• Sauces and Dressings: Little did I know, there are six sauces you can make with eggs. They are: Bernaise Sauce, Caesar Salad Dressing, Green Goddess Dressing, Hollandaise Sauce, Mayonnaise and Tartar Sauce. You will find recipes for all six in this section.
  
• Egg Classics: Here you will find what are considered egg classics. I don't know if I agree with that though. A classic to me is what everyone thinks of when they think of eggs, like eggs benedict, but this was an interesting listing for sure.

Click this link to start cooking with eggs.

Egg Cracking Gadget

This egg White Separator is a clever time saver that keeps the chef's hands clean. The unique European design allows all the egg white to pour out a narrow opening. Made of porcelain, measures 3 x 3 x 3 1/4".

Click this link to purchase the Egg Cracking Gadget from Amazon.com.

Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology (COAT)

COAT is a coalition of disability organizations, launched in March 2007, to advocate for legislative and regulatory safeguards that will ensure full access by people with disabilities to evolving high speed broadband, wireless and other Internet protocol (IP) technologies. The Coalition of Organizations for Accessible Technology, or COAT, consists of over 67 national, regional, and community-based organizations dedicated to making sure that as our nation migrates from legacy public switched-based telecommunications to more versatile and innovative IP-based and other communication technologies, people with disabilities will benefit like everyone else.

Emerging digital and Internet-based technologies can provide people with disabilities with new opportunities for greater independence, integration, and privacy, but only if these are designed to be accessible. The guiding principle of this Coalition will be to ensure the full inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of daily living through accessible, affordable and usable communication technologies as these continue to evolve.

>More information about the disability coalition is available at http://www.coataccess.org or through email at info@coataccess.org.

Windows Vista Keyboard Commands

Do you have anything on Vista yet? (Vista being Window's new operating software.) Anna Dresner has compiled all the commands and tricks for using Vista without a mouse in one easy-to-use reference card.

It's not too soon to see what's different!

To order online, visit http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/VISTA.html or to order, send payment to:

NBP
88 St. Stephen Street
Boston, MA 02115-4302
Toll Free: 800-548-7323
Phone: 617-266-6160 ext 20

Fred's Head in Space

When we started the Fred's Head Companion, we wanted to push blindness-related information out to the millions of readers on the internet. Here's a service that takes our message and sends it even further.

Some 60 years ago humans first began transmitting television signals powerful enough to reach beyond our earth's atmosphere. Since then the media has continued to broadcast messages from I Love Lucy to the five o'clock news into space, potentially reaching intelligent alien life forms beyond our solar system.

Blog in Space is the first entity to allow everyday bloggers to transmit the news and thoughts of an everyday person into space. Simply put, they take your blog's RSS feed and transmit it out on a powerful deep space transmission dish.

Click this link to learn more or to send your blog into space: http://www.bloginspace.com

Free and Accessible Online Retail Store Price Comparison Service

SalesCircular.com announces the availability of an Internet service to help shoppers compare prices and features for products advertised at their local retail stores. This is a free service available immediately at their Website www.SalesCircular.com.

One of the best features of Internet shopping is to compare prices and features. However, blind and visually impaired customers still do the majority of their shopping in local retail stores as they need to touch and feel the products before buying. SalesCircular combines the best of both worlds by presenting prices and features of products advertised at the retail stores. This information is organized in specific product categories to show at a glance and screen-reader friendly listings.

Blind and visually impaired shoppers face three challenges to doing comparison shopping on their own:

1. The advertising information is fragmented in various circulars that are distributed as junk mail, newspaper inserts and E-circulars at store Websites. In addition, store advertising is targeted to cover customer population near retail store locations. This simply means customers do not have all the information on what's advertised in retail stores.
   
   
2. Rebates, coupons, bundled purchases (buy-one-get-one-free), middle of the week and one day sales make the comparison shopping difficult.
   
   
3. Conducting comparison shopping takes a lot of time and effort and all the above are not presented in a format easily used by the blind or visually impaired.

SalesCircular makes things easier by consolidating the sales information at the retail stores and making it available over the Internet. It provides for quick feature and price comparisons thereby allowing shoppers to find the best deal. Store ads have few specials mixed in with regular-priced merchandise. SalesCircular.com helps the shoppers pick and choose the best priced products from each store. As the shoppers know what products are available in stores before they visit the store, it also reduces the possibility they will fall for a potential bait and switch by the stores.

SalesCircular.com is a free service covering over 90% of population in 45 US states. It covers products from regional stores and major national retailers like Best Buy Co, Circuit City Stores, CompUSA Inc, K-Mart Corp, Office Depot, Office Max Inc, Radio Shack, Sears, Roebuck and Co., Staples Inc, Target, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. etc.

For more information, visit the company's website at http://www.SalesCircular.com.

Tips to Prevent Child Drowning

Hanging out at the beach or the pool is a ton of fun, especially for kids. As the summer approaches, think of the following tips so you and your kids can play by the pool without worry:

1. Never leave a child unattended or with a young sibling in a swimming pool, wading pool, bathtub or hot tub.
   
2. Pools should be fenced and gated with self-locking gates.
   
3. Always secure the safety cover on your spa or hot tub.
   
4. Do not leave empty containers in yards or around the house where they may accumulate water and attract young children.
   
5. Adults and teenagers age 14 and older who supervise children should know CPR. Studies have demonstrated that nearly drowned children given quick CPR suffered no brain damage.
   
6. Children should be given swimming lessons but should not be considered water-safe until they are 14 years old.
   
7. Keep small children out of bathrooms unless supervised by an adult or older child.
   
8. Older children and even adults should not swim alone in the ocean or fast-moving rivers.
   
9. Children should wear bright-colored flotation devices when boating.
   
10. Don't mix alcohol, children and water.

Article Source:
UCLA emergency physicians

How to Prepare for a Date

You did it! You got a date with someone special, and now you've got the chance to make an impression. Preparing for a date can be nerve-wracking, but can be approached in a step-by-step manner that'll assure you make it to your date fully prepared. The rest is up to you.

1. Do some homework. In the days before a date, take time out to catch up with current events and hot topics. These are great conversation starters and will impress your date. Try to remember as much as you can about previous conversations together so you can follow up on them. Have a couple of funny stories or conversation pieces up your sleeve in case you need them.
   
   
2. Start looking and feeling good in advance. Set time aside for exercise in the days before the date, whether it's yoga or push ups. Eat well and get plenty of sleep.
   
   
3. You should have several outfits laid out before the day of the date. This way you won't have any last minute panics when you realize you have a spaghetti stain down your favourite shirt. Plus, it will allow you to try on a few different looks on the day of the date and see which one fits your mood most comfortably at the time.
   
   
4. Take a nice, long shower or bath. Ensure you have clean hair and nails. You should smell good, but not overpowering. Avoid heavy perfumes and aftershaves, especially if your date could be allergic. Ladies, go easy when applying make-up and aim for a natural but groomed look. If things go well he will eventually see you without make-up - and you will want him to recognize you. Shortly before leaving for your date, floss and brush your teeth thoroughly.
   
   
5. Think positively, you're going out to enjoy yourself right? Don't start worrying about what disasters could happen. If you're getting nervous, call a good friend, watch your favourite TV show or listen to upbeat music. Loosen up. Focus on having fun and you inevitably will.
   
   
6. Give yourself plenty of time to get to your rendezvous. Keeping your date waiting will start things off on the wrong foot. If you are being picked up, be ready to go when the date arives.

Sometimes even with the best preparation, your date might turn out to be a bad one. You may wish to have a "back out plan" in case this happens. Find a good friend you can call and then he/she can call you back in a few minutes so you can say you have some sort of crisis you need to attend to. You could also try being an honest person and say that you don't think it's working out.

Never put yourself in a compromising situation. Most people are trustworthy, but "date rape" is unfortunately a real occurrence. Always have a first date in a public setting (restaurant, movie, club, mall, etc.) Only accept drinks served from a bottle that can be opened by you or in front of you, or by a third party (like a bartender). Unfortunately, there are "date rape drugs" that can be added to ANY drink without any noticeable difference in taste. Some people use these drugs to put women (and sometimes men) in precarious situations. If you turn away from your drink, get into the habit of covering it with your hand, as it only takes a second to slip something into a drink. If you are suspicious, get a new drink and a new date. If you feel something's wrong, trust your instincts and politely but firmly end the date.

Always have a cell phone and cash for a cab. Never feel you have to rely on your date for a ride home.

Read PowerPoint Presentations to Your Group with PowerTalk

Have you ever had to use PowerPoint for a presentation at work? You created the slides and had no problem reading them when they were on the computer, but now you can't see them on the large screen during your presentation.

Maybe you are a sighted presentor and your audience is visually impaired or blind and you are uncomfortable reading all the text associated with your presentation. You want to make things accessible for your audience, you just don't like to read aloud. What can you do?

PowerTalk will read aloud the text included in any Windows PowerPoint (2000 or later) presentation, at least through Windows XP. This is a great tool for anyone who is unable to narrate or read his or her own presentations.

PowerTalk is straightforward to download and install, and it is just as easy to use. All you do is right-click on the shortcut to a presentation and then select "Narrate with PowerTalk". PowerTalk reads both the text that appears on the screen as well as hidden text that is attached to images. Helpfully, PowerTalk waits for text to appear and for animations to run their course before speaking the text.

PowerTalk automatically uses your default Windows voice. So, if you use PowerPoint extensively, it might be worth your while to purchase a high quality voice. These readily available downloads normally cost about US$30.

PowerTalk is a completely free open source add-on that will make life easier for the visually impaired presentor. Click this link to learn more or download PowerTalk: http://fullmeasure.co.uk/powertalk.

The TEMO Talking Microwave

This is a great product that has shown up in stores like Best Buy and Wal-Mart. Imagine a talking microwave under $100. It's available and here's some of the features:

• 0.9 cu.ft. 900W Oven Cavity
  
• 10 Power Levels
  
• Digital Display with Clock
  
• Turntable
  
• Instructive Talking Programmable Feature
  
• Interchangeable Voice Language Feature (English/Spanish)
  
• Eight Instant Settings for Common Foods
  
• Five Express Cook One-Touch Settings
  
• Five Memory Setting Buttons
  
• Remind Signal

Specifications

• Model: 87106 or 87108 (the difference is the color)
  
• Turntable Diameter: 12.4 inches
  
• External Dimensions: 20.1 x 17 x 11.2 inches
  
• Net Weight: 30.5 lbs

The buttons are totally accessible. They're easy to feel, and are much like the buttons on any other appliance or remote control. It also has a little knob that you turn to set the cook times, with a little notch you feel [tactile] each time you turn it so you can easily tell how far to turn it.

You push a button on the knob and it'll ask you to set the minutes, then when you set the minutes you push the button again and it'll ask you to set the seconds. After you do that you push the button again and it starts. It is really easy to use. Click this link to purchase the Hamilton Beach 0.9 cu.ft. Talking Microwave from walmart.com

Contact your local Best Buy or Wal-Mart if walmart.com runs out of stock for pricing and availability or click this link to visit the Microwave section of the Hamilton Beach website.

You may also find this video, from the Washington State School for the Blind helpful. If using a screen reader, press space or enter on the first button to play.

APH News: June 2007

APH News

Your monthly link to the latest information on the products, services, and training opportunities from the American Printing House for the Blind.

June 2007

APH Products of Interest

Read on to learn about these products!

• Technology on Sale!
• APH Braille Book Corner

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139th Annual Meeting—Expanding the Core

October 11-13, 2007
Louisville, Kentucky

We invite you to attend APH Annual Meeting 2007, themed "APH and Ex Officio Trustees: Expanding the Core."

Keynote speaker Dr. Phil Hatlen, Texas, will share his core beliefs as a life-long educator. APH staff and product authors will provide information on exciting new and upcoming products. There will be a major presentation on the eagerly-awaited results of the ABC Braille Study. Always a highlight, the banquet will honor APH InSights artists and Hall of Fame inductees.

Information and a tentative agenda will soon appear on the Annual Meeting Website and in the APH News.

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Wise Ex Officio Trustees Advise APH!

APH's two standing Ex Officio Trustee Advisory Committees, the Educational Products Advisory Committee (EPAC) and the Educational Services Advisory Committee (ESAC) met at APH May 6 - 10, 2007. For the first time in many years the two committees were in-house together, allowing them time to meet jointly as well as in their respective committees.

The members of EPAC, chaired by Ex Officio Trustee Joe Catavero (NY), are charged with reviewing product development processes and priorities. Committee members met with Project Leaders and other key APH staff to discuss current products and those under development. Dialogs between committee members and APH staff were a highlight for this group.

Educational Products Advisory Committee as of May, 2007 (left to right): Nancy Niebrugge, CA; Tom Winton, NC; Lorri Quigley, UT; Dean Stenehjem, WA; Jean Small, Alternate, ME; Joseph Catavero, Chair, NY; Bernadette Kappen, PA. EPAC member Steven Rothstein, MA was unable to attend.

The members of ESAC, chaired by Ex Officio Trustee Jean Martin (MN), are charged with providing oversight and leadership in the planning, evaluation, and delivery of services in support of APH products. Members of this committee met with key APH staff in Advisory Services to discuss current programs and projects as well as those needed for the future.

Educational Services Advisory Committee as of May, 2007 (left to right): Barbara Perkis, IL; Jackie Denk, KS; Jean Martin, Chair, MN; Mike Bina, MA. ESAC member Jim Downs, GA, was unable to attend.

Each committee developed a draft of a written report with stated commendations and helpful recommendations for APH. A verbal report was given prior to the departure of the committees and we expect final written reports from each committee in the coming weeks.

If you are an Ex Officio Trustee with three years of experience and have not served on an Advisory Committee within the last three years, you, too, are eligible to serve on one of the committees. A nominations committee of Ex Officio Trustees prepares a slate of nominees at each year's annual meeting. If you are interested in serving on one of the committees, please contact Janie Blome, jblome@aph.org, or call 800-223-1839, ext. 367.

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Congratulations to the 2007 APH Scholars

During their May meeting, the Educational Services Advisory Committee (ESAC), met to select the five dedicated service providers who will be honored as APH Scholars during the 2007 Annual Meeting in October.

The committee, made up of five Ex Officio Trustees, had the difficult job of choosing the final five from an excellent field of twenty candidates nominated by Ex Officio Trustees. The five first time attendees who will be attending Annual Meeting this fall are:

• Carol Bogue, MA
• Marsha Clark, AR
• Linda Havlik, MO
• Juli Hintz, NE
• James Olson, CO

Congratulations to our winners, and to all who were nominated! Thanks to all of the Ex Officio Trustees who nominated worthy candidates. Please nominate again next year!

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Second Braille+™ Mobile Manager Training Set for June 12

APH Technology Project Leader Larry Skutchan will be hosting a second webcast on the Braille+ on June 12 at 1:00 PM EST. For sign-up and log-in instructions please contact Maria Delgado at mdelgado@aph.org

For more information on this exciting new PDA from APH, see the May issue of the APH News.

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Upcoming NIP Events

An upcoming National Instructional Partnerships (NIP) event, held in partnership with Ex Officio Trustee Cathy Johnson and the Kentucky School for the Blind, will feature Marilyn and Jay Gense highlighting the use of APH products for students diagnosed with autism and visual impairments. The workshop will be held July 26 on the campus of the Kentucky School for the Blind in Louisville, KY, in conjunction with the Gateways 2007 conference.

Registration information is available from Cathy Johnson by email, Cathy.Johnson@KSB.kyschools.us

Future NIP events include:

• "Learning to Use the Sensory Learning Kit", held in partnership with Diana Lewis and the Jefferson-Lewis BOCES, August 16 - 18, Watertown, NY
  
  
• "Learning to Use the Sensory Learning Kit", held in partnership with Ex Officio Trustee Sally Giittinger and the Nebraska Center for the Education of Children Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired, October 24 - 26, Nebraska City, NE
  
  
• "Cortical Visual Impairment", held in partnership with Ex Officio Trustee Jackie Denk and the Kansas Instructional Resource Center for the Blind, November 7 - 9, Wichita, KS
  
  

For information of any of these upcoming events, or if you'd like to schedule a NIP event highlighting the use of APH products across the areas of the core curriculum or the expanded core curriculum in your area, please contact Janie Blome, jblome@aph.org or call 800-223-1839, ext. 367.

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Workshop: Making Test Items Accessible

On Wednesday, June 20, Accessible Tests staff will provide a half-day post-conference workshop on "Making Test Items Accessible for Students Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired." It will be conducted from 1:30 to 5:00 p.m. at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel [Lincoln C] in Nashville, Tennessee, as part of the Council of Chief State Officers (CCSSO) Conference on Large-Scale Assessment. Participants may attend this workshop without registering for the CCSSO Conference. For additional information, go to http://www.ccsso.org/

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Students, Parents and Teachers Love "Loving Me"!

"Every parent of a child who is visually impaired should attend this workshop" said parent Laura Sanders after she attended a "Loving Me" Workshop in Louisville, KY on May 15. "I was feeling a little intimidated before coming to the workshop" stated 17-year old Samantha Sanders, "but Billy was excellent" and he put everyone at ease. "Attending this workshop with my students was helpful for me" to learn more about my students, said teacher of the visually impaired Cheryl Harrington, and it was "very relaxed". These are just a few of the comments heard following the "Loving Me" workshop conducted by Billy Brookshire, author of the APH product that is a guide to creating and presenting workshops on self-esteem.

Thirty students who are visually impaired, their parents, teachers, adult consumers and rehabilitation counselors for the blind attended the one-day workshop at the Charles W. McDowell Rehabilitation Center in Louisville. EOT Derrick Cox generously offered the site for the workshop, and appreciated the opportunity to partner with APH for this event.

Participants in the workshop will also appear in the future HomeGrown Video "Loving Me", as taping for the video took place throughout the day's many activities.

Photo of group; Billy Brookshire is at the far left

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ABC Braille Study Researchers Meet in Louisville

May 21 and 22 were days of focused and spirited discussion on the data collection and future reporting of the ABC Braille Study results. This 5-year longitudinal study, conducted by a collaborative group of prominent researchers in the field of blindness, is in its final year. Most of the student assessments have been completed. The researchers discussed the details of the writing assignments and possible dissemination activities. The first dissemination activity will be conducted at the APH Annual Meeting in October 11-13 in Louisville KY. The research questions which will be discussed are:

• Are there differences in reading rate and comprehension, vocabulary, fluency, word recognition, and reading achievement levels of children who are initially taught contracted braille as compared to those who are initially taught uncontracted braille?
  
  
• Are there differences in writing, vocabulary, and spelling abilities of children who are initially taught contracted braille as compared to those who are initially taught uncontracted braille?
  
  
• Are there differences in the quality and quantity of literacy and interactive experiences in general education classrooms, the home environment, and in the community of children who are initially taught contracted braille as compared to those who are initially taught uncontracted braille?
  
  
• Are there differences in attitudes towards reading and writing in children who are initially taught contracted braille as compared to those who are initially taught uncontracted braille?

In addition to these research questions, additional information will be provided on the collaborative model that was used to conduct the research. Also, recommendations for future research will be discussed. APH looks forward to receiving the final report.

Tessa Wright Carlsen (Vanderbilt University, NCLVI Fellow), Stephanie Herlich (TVI, CA), Robert Wall Emerson, Ph.D. (Western MI University), Sharon Sacks, Ph.D. (CA School for the Blind), Cay Holbrook, Ph.D. (University of British Columbia), Anne L. Corn, Ed.D. (Vanderbilt University), Liz Barclay, (CA School for the Blind), Jane Erin, Ph.D. (University of AZ), Debbie Sitar (TVI, Winnipeg, Manitoba, CA), Frances Mary D'Andrea (University of Pittsburgh, NCLVI Fellow), Diane Wormsley, Ph.D. (NC Central University), Cheryl Kamei Hannan, (CA State University-LA), Eleanor Pester (APH).

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Did you know?

When you order APH braille and large print textbooks you now receive an acknowledgement informing you of the APH catalog number, the estimated size of the book, estimated cost and estimated delivery.

Well it's true! APH implemented this process several months ago to keep our customers up to date on the progress of their textbook orders.

If you have any questions regarding your textbook order be sure to contact us at atic@aph.org for braille orders and largeprint@aph.org for large print orders.

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NIMAC Reaches 1,000th File Mark!

Now in its 6th month of operations, the NIMAC now has well over a thousand files in the repository. Thanks to the hard work of staff Charliann Becker and Anne Ledford, the NIMAC currently has reviewed and accepted 1054 files from 17 publishers. We've also registered state coordinators in 37 states and territories, and now have 46 Authorized Users from 26 states and territories.

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New Accessible Test Editor Joins APH

Kerry Isham began work as an APH Accessible Test Editor in May. Kerry received her M.A. degree in experimental psychology from the University of Toledo in Ohio. Her prior work experiences have helped Kerry develop skill sets needed to work with people in a number of different settings, and in more analytically-oriented contexts. She is excited to combine these skills with this new opportunity at APH.

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Cartographers Join APH Large Format Atlas Staff

Two new cartographers have joined APH staff for work on the Large Format Atlas Project. Adam Coomes and Kevin Devine, both from the University of Louisville's geography department, have combined their skills with those of existing staff to develop maps of Africa, South America, Caribbean countries, as well as ocean floor topography.

Adam (pictured at right) is a recent graduate in geography with specialization in environmental analysis. Kevin is a senior, majoring in geography with a specialization in geospatial information systems. Both are hard workers and have already produced some stunning maps which meet the 70 guidelines developed by the 2001 Atlas Focus Group.

The Large Format Atlas will be released in three sections, consecutively. Section One includes North America, China, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Indonesia. It will feature full color maps and photographs when released. Keep watching the APH News for release dates!

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New Ex Officio Trustees

Janet Ford, Louisiana Department of Education,replacing Eric Guillory.

Moeolo Vaatausili, the American Samoa Department of Education, replacing Jane French.

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APH Travel Calendar

June

June 1-3, 2007
KSB Alumni Association 2007;
KSB in Louisville, KY

June 4-7, 2007
Legislative Visits on Capitol Hill;
Washington, DC

June 16-19, 2007
RESNA 2007 (Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America);
Phoenix, AZ

June 17-20, 2007
Council of Chief State School Officers 2007 Large Scale Assessment Conference (CCSSO);
Nashville, TN

June 19-20, 2007
NIP Event-Teaching Math to the Blind;
Jackson, MS

June 22-23, 2007
Braille Challenge;
Los Angeles, CA

June 30-July 6, 2007
NFB Convention 2007;
Atlanta, GA

June 30-July 7, 2007
ACB 2007;
Minneapolis, MN

July

July 12-15, 2007
Literacy for All;
Louisville, KY

July 13-15, 2007
Families Connecting with Families National Conference;
Omaha, NE

July 17-21, 2007
AHEAD Conference 2007;
Charlotte, NC

July 18-20, 2007
Kentucky Rehabilitation Association Conference 2007: Bridging Kentucky Resources;
Lexington, KY

July 20-22, 2007
Visions 2007 (Foundation Fighting Blindness);
Kansas City, MO

July 24-26, 2007
Gateways for Independence;
KSB in Louisville, KY

July 28-August 3, 2007
BANA Formats Committee Meeting;
Watertown, MA

August

August 9-12, 2007
Envision 2007 Conference;
Kansas City, MO

August 13-15, 2007
BVA 2007;
Albuquerque, NM

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Two Giants to Enter the Hall of Fame for Leaders and Legends of the Blindness Field in 2007

The Hall of Fame, which belongs to the entire field of blindness, is dedicated to preserving the tradition of excellence manifested by specific individuals through the history of outstanding services provided to people who are blind or visually impaired.

Joining the 38 inductees of the Hall is the Class of 2007, made up of two remarkable individuals who are to be inducted in October at a ceremony that will be held in conjunction with APH's 139th Annual Meeting of Ex Officio Trustees and Special Guests.

The Class of 2007:

• Charles F.F. Campbell (1876-1935)

  Charles Campbell led the development of modern vocational rehabilitation for blind adults through the establishment of work stations that demonstrated to blind people and the public the many and varied jobs that could be done without sight. In 1907, he launched a journal which has become the Journal of Visual Impairment and Blindness, and he led the creation of the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) to continue the journal and to take on other projects of national significance. He then persuaded Helen Keller to dedicate her life to the support of AFB. "While I was still at Radcliffe College, his eloquent pleadings convinced my teacher and me that there was something we could do to better the condition of the adult blind." -- Helen Keller, 1936

  "The modern conception of work for the adult blind throughout the entire country owes more to his inspirational, vivacious initiative than to any other single factor." -- C. W. Holmes 1936

• Everett "Butch" Hill (1943 - 1994)

  Dr. Hill's significant contributions to our body of literature include his work in spatial positional concepts, preschool orientation and mobility, and the classic textbook: Orientation and Mobility Techniques: A Guide for the Practitioner, co-written with Purvis Ponder. For the last 14 years of his life he served as Professor at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University where his teaching and mentorship of O&M practitioners was legendary. As recognition to his competence in this area, he received the first Outstanding Teaching Award from Peabody in 1986. "In his all too short 28 years with us, he single-handedly accomplished what he set-out to do when he entered the field of O&M, which was to heighten the awareness and recognition of the field of O&M by creating a well defined base of research literature." -- George Zimmerman

  "Through his early work on concept development with children who were congenitally blind, Dr. Hill helped to build the bridge between the approach to the systematic delivery of orientation and mobility training as it was developed for adventitiously blinded adults and O&M services for congenitally blind children." -- Rick Welsh

For more information on these two giants, visit "What's New" on the Hall of Fame web site: www.aph.org/hall_fame/news.html

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Where Has All the Vinyl Gone?

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped announced in April that their network libraries will no longer be required to maintain collections of books recorded on vinyl records. A few larger centers will continue to carry vinyl. For many NLS libraries, the decision is a formality, as demand for talking books on records has been low for years.

The decision does highlight the need to preserve important examples of the first generation of books recorded for people with visual impairments. The first "talking books" were developed by the American Foundation for the Blind in 1933. By 1936, the American Printing House had established its own recording studio and issued its first five books: Gulliver's Travels, Silas Marner, Treasure Island, The Sketch Book, and Pinocchio. Today, the museum at the Printing House has a copy of only one of these pioneering books.

Most of these early books are not available in a digital format. If all copies of the original record are lost, famous voices such as George Patterson, Terry Hayes Sales, Jim Walton, and Livingston Gilbert might be silenced forever. Fortunately, NLS archives a large collection of its own books in Washington. APH is actively seeking to save these immortal voices as well. Currently, the museum holds a collection of over 2600 talking book records. If you know where copies of important books are preserved, in private homes, residential schools, or libraries, drop us a line. Call our museum director, Mike Hudson, at 800/223-1839, ext 365 or send email to museum@aph.org

Photo: The Sketch Book, by Washington Irving, was narrated by George Patterson at APH in 1936.

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NBA Offers Braille Opportunities

The National Braille Association is offering you two exciting braille opportunities:

• Professional course work with CEUs in the areas of Literary Braille, Nemeth Code, Music Braille, Tactile Graphics, Formatting Educational Materials, and Transcription Software.
• "Ask the Experts" from the new website at www.nationalbraille.org

For additional information contact NBA Secretary Jan Carroll at jcarroll@aph.org and visit the NBA website.

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National News Interview Touts the APH Book Port

CNN recently quoted American Foundation for the Blind Vice President Paul Schroeder on his devotion to APH's Book Port. Paul said, "The Book Port is easy to use, extremely portable and well-designed as an audio player and text-to-speech converter."

For the full story, and much more on the Book Port, visit: www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/ptech/04/26/schroeder/index.html

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First-Ever APH Assessment Catalog!

APH introduces a new catalog featuring standardized accessible tests, tools and manipulatives that can be used in assessment situations, as well as information about APH's custom production of assessment materials.

The Assessment Catalog 2007-2008 is available in regular print, on an accessible CD-ROM (the APH Demo Disc), and in accessible editions on our website. Not on our mailing list? Request your free copy by emailing catalogs@aph.org, or calling 800-223-1839.

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Did You Get Your Free Catalog? APH Products Catalog 2007-2008 Now Available!

The Products Catalog 2007-2008 contains our complete line of products, excluding textbooks. It also includes a catalog of commonly requested replacement parts. If you would like to be added to our mailing list to receive our print or disc edition catalog, please email catalogs@aph.org or call 800-223-1839. APH catalogs are also available online in accessible editions.

Over 30 new and revised products featured in the catalog include:

• Building on Patterns: Kindergarten Level -- This complete revision of the popular Patterns braille program helps teach beginning braille users to read, write, and spell.
• Woodcock-Johnson® III, Tests of Achievement, 2001: Large Print Edition -- This widely-used assessment is now available in a full-color large print version.
• Talking Watch -- Available in a leather or stretch band version, this easy-to-use watch announces the time in clear speech.

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Get "Hands On" with APH Products at the NFB and ACB Conferences

We invite you to come by our booth this July at the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) conference in Atlanta, or the American Council of the Blind (ACB) conference in Minneapolis. APH will display many products for demonstration and sale. This is your chance to get a first-hand look at such items as the Braille+™ Mobile Manager, MaximEyes™ Video Magnifier, the newest print/braille children's books, and much more. Come visit, we'd love to meet you!

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Technology on Sale:
Braille 'n Speak Scholar and 'K' Sonar

Braille 'n Speak Scholar on Sale
A Student's First Notetaker

Braille 'n Speak Scholar® now over 60% off! Effective June 4, APH is again dropping the price of the Braille 'n Speak Scholar. Inventory is available on a first come, first served basis.

1-07320-01 -- SALE PRICE: $500.00 -- Over 60% off of original price!

Also on Sale:

Replacement Item:
Serial Interface Cable for connection to a PC (9-pin female to mini-din 8 male): 1-07319-00 -- $28.00

Cables Available Separately:
Parallel Printer: 1-07318-00 -- $88.00
ImageWriter®: 1-07317-00 -- $28.00

Introduce younger braille users to the world of electronic notetakers with the Braille 'n Speak Scholar from APH and Freedom Scientific. The Scholar's simpler interface and new lower price makes it the ideal for first-time users.

Features

The Scholar will help students or adults create and organize their work with these features:

• Input with a braille-type seven-key keyboard
• High-quality synthetic speech output
• Advanced word processor with file organizing
• Hard copy output in braille or print, includes braille-to-print back translator
• Talking clock, countdown timer, stopwatch, phone directory, calendar, appointment book, and scientific graphing calculator
• Interaction with PCs

Included

• Soft leather carrying case
• Battery Charger / AC Adapter
• Earphone
• Serial Interface Cable for connection to a PC (9-pin female to mini-din 8 male)
• Braille and print reference manuals
• Cassette Tape Tutorial with demos
• A more extensive manual on CD-ROM
• WinDisc® and WinPrint® software
• One year warranty

Recommended ages: 8 years and up.

'K' Sonar Sonic Perceptual Aid on Sale

'K' Sonar: 1-07000-00 -- SALE PRICE: $500.00 -- 29% off of the original price!
'K' Sonar Replacement Headphones: 1-07001-00 -- $45.00

The 'K' Sonar is a small, affordable, electronic travel device that can be used independently or attached to a standard long cane. By listening to the sounds produced by the 'K' Sonar, the user can determine the distance, location, and even some of the features of an object.

The included headphones provide audio feedback--the pitch produced by the 'K' Sonar changes to indicate the distance to the object being scanned. Different objects create different sounds, which in some cases can be identified as specific items.

The 'K' Sonar comes with:

• Headphones
• Rechargeable battery
• Power adapter

Note: 'K' Sonar should be used along with a sighted guide, dog guide, or cane because it does not detect drop-offs and does not provide sufficient information on its own to ensure safety.

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APH Braille Book Corner:
Pirates, Nursery Tales, and Safety -- Books for All Ages and Interests

APH offers a number of recreational books in braille (Quota funds can be used). Each of these titles was originally transcribed and produced by APH for the National Library Service which has graciously granted permission for this offering. As usual, these titles have been added to the APH Louis Database where you can find thousands of titles produced in accessible formats.

Note: all books are produced upon receipt of orders, therefore, please allow approximately 8 weeks for delivery.

Piratica: Being a Daring Tale of a Singular Girl's Adventure upon the High Seas
by Tanith Lee: Braille: T-N1627-20 -- $83.50
Artemesia runs away from Angels Academy to return to the high seas, where she encounters a rival for the title of pirate queen. Grades 6-9. (*AR#82281, RL5.0, Pts. 12)

Nursery Tales Around the World
by Judy Sierra: Braille: T-N1634-30 -- $22.00
International collection of eighteen folktales in six different categories contrast cultural variations in stories. Grades 3-6. (AR#70868, RL 4.6, Pts. 2)

Medical Marvels
by Catherine Nichols: Braille: T-N1656-90 -- $12.50
Depicts four unusual medical events. Uncontracted braille. Part of True Tales Series. Grades 3-6. (AR#82450, RL 4.8, Pts. 0.5)

How to Avoid Falling: A Guide for Active Aging and Independence
by Eric Fredrikson: Braille: T-N1628-10 -- $21.50
Provides information on fall-proofing your home, negotiating stairs, avoiding hazards, and recovering after a fall. Adult. (AR not available.)

Two Little Girls in Blue
by Mary Higgins Clark: Braille: T-N1646-20 -- $72.00
After the ransom is paid, only one of the kidnapped twins is returned with a note claiming the other child is dead. But could she still be alive? Adult. (AR#106297, RL 5.7, Pts. 13)

*Accelerated Reader number, reading level, and point value. For more information on the Accelerated Reader program, see the January 2006 APH News or www.renlearn.com/ar/

APH News Credits

President:
Dr. Tuck Tinsley
ttinsley@aph.org

Designer:
Malcolm Turner, APH Web Site Coordinator
webmaster@aph.org

Thanks to the following APH staff:

• Cindy Amback, Support Specialist, Field Services
• Sandi Baker, Field Services Representative
• Ralph Bartley, Director, Research
• Janie Blome, Director, Field Services
• Scott Blome, Director, Communications
• Jan Carroll, Manager, Contracts Administraton
• Maria Delgado, Field Services Representative
• Tony Grantz, Business Development Manager
• Micheal Hudson, Director, APH Museum
• Elaine Kitchel, Low Vision Project Leader, Research
• Becki Moody, Support Specialist, Communications
• Artina Paris-Jones, Assistant, Field Services
• Debbie Willis, Director, Accessible Tests

Editor:
Bob Brasher, Vice President, Advisory Services and Research
bbrasher@aph.org

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For additional recent APH News, click the following:
May Issue - www.aph.org/advisory/2007adv05.html
April Issue - www.aph.org/advisory/2007adv04.html
March Issue - www.aph.org/advisory/2007adv03.html

Archive of all previous issues - www.aph.org/advisory/advarch.html

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The APH News is a monthly publication from the American Printing House for the Blind:
1839 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, KY 40206
800/223-1839

Please share this web link or any items that appear in this publication with anyone who might benefit.

Thank you.

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