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Hey everybody! I hope you're all well, and staying out of the cold if applicable. I'd like to start today's entry off with a bit of exciting news. I'm getting a new neighbor! I actually had the opportunity to meet him and he's a good guy. He is scheduled to move in within the next few months or so. I titled this entry "Independence Is?" and there's a reason for that, which in large part goes back to the accessible paper money issue. Before I proceed any further, I want to mention that unfortunately this issue is still being heavily debated. So with that in mind, just what is independence and how do people achieve it? This question might well be answered somewhat differently by different people. That is all cool with me, but there is a problem which in my humble opinion needs to be brought to the table. That problem is that certain people, mainly members and leaders of a certain blindness "advocacy" organization, tend to really get defensive and very nasty when presented with an opposite viewpoint. Please be aware that I am speaking from the viewpoint of an outsider, since I have never been a member. But I have read numerous works of literature, and I've listened to a few diatribes espoused by leadership of this group. My brother and I were at one time on an email list hosted by our state chapter of this organization, but not for long. Apparently the list moderators and many others on list were pissed off just because my brother and I stated our opinion on a certain issue which has ended up being rather controversial. Well, that opinion got us kicked off the list. I'm not kidding, my brother and I were booted off an email discussion list not because we said something mean, not because we used offensive language, but because the "majority" in that case did not like what my brother and I had to say about the issue of audio description. I will talk more about audio description in a future entry, but just for the record my brother and I support all forms of this means of conveying information to people who cannot see well or who cannot see at all. But back to the issue at hand. It is very disheartening to me that this group, the group which hosts the email list, finds it necessary to launch personal attacks on people who are well-meaning but have a different viewpoint than said group. Take the issue of accessible paper currency, which I just mentioned. There is one nagging question which in my mind deserves an answer. How can a visually-impaired person who wants to have the independence and freedom so rightly deserved by each of us, not be in favor of accessible paper currency? Those of us with visual impairments make transactions all the time, just as do people who have perfect vision. Some of us fold our bills differently in order to distinguish one from another, but what if a bill somehow comes unfolded? Or what if we have difficulty folding these bills in the first place? There are such things as talking money identifiers. But there are three reasons why these are not a viable solution for everyone. First of all, not every single blind or visually-impaired person can afford one of these devices. I don't think I can afford one right now. The second reason for these devices not being the "cure-all" is that as with all technology, the devices aren't always consistent. Finally, who wants to carry around one of these devices with them wherever they go, only to have to fumble for it whenever the person has to pay for a grocery item, or what have you. Did I mention that even before the bills are folded, we need to know which denominations they are? Despite the immense cost of altering bills, the right thing to do would be to make them all accessible so that if nobody who can see is around to help us we are certain of each bill's denomination.

Hi everyone. First off I'd like to clarify some things appearing in my previous entry. The National Federation of the Blind, which is the organization that opposes making US paper currency accessible, isn't all bad. There are actually some level-headed Federationists out there, which I honestly found quite hard to believe until recently when I have done more research. It's just the leadership of that organization that is out of touch with reality. There have actually been people kicked out of the NFB for "going astray." There may in fact be Federationists out there who support accessible paper currency, but for whatever reason this group as a whole has wrongly chosen to speak out in opposition of accessible paper currency. I could site many other examples of Federation members becoming ex-Federationists, but I think I will save that for another time. I actually knew somebody who was a member of both the ACB and the NFB. He unfortunately passed away some time ago, but he was a really nice guy and very open-minded. I suspect this guy might've been expelled from the NFB at one point not long after the NFB was born. There's a book entitled "People of Vision: A History of the American Council of the Blind," which chronicles the formation and birth of the American Council of the Blind from what was originally a much larger National Federation of the Blind. This book is available in various formats from ACB's online presence, www.acb.org . I read this book on cassette, and it is a must-have for people who want to know the history of our country's blindness movement from its original stages all the way to the present. Very good stuff! With that out of the way, I would like to alert everyone to something very important. Please forgive me if some of you have heard this already, but Daylight Savings Time is changing beginning this year. Back in 2005 Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, which apparently has something to do with the Earth's rotation. This has resulted in new start and end dates for Daylight Savings Time. So it will now start at 2 a.m. on Sunday, March 11, 2007. Daylight Savings Time will now end at 2 a.m. on Sunday, November 4, 2007. This change will be pretty straightforward for standard wall clocks, watches and calendars. But for those of us using computers there are some precautions. Everything is explained in great detail on Microsoft's website, www.microsoft.com . They have created a very lengthy section entitled "Preparing for Daylight Savings Time in 2007," which can easily be located by doing a search for "Daylight Savings time." Alternatively, there is a website which includes a direct link to download the little Microsoft utility. That website is http://www.bluegrasspals.com/dst.html. This website also explains everything in less technical jargon. I am a big fan of Microsoft, but sometimes their technical jargon can really confuse people. So if you use a computer and haven't already taken the proper steps, please do so within the next couple of weeks before March 11. Computers shipping with Windows Vista will not require any changes on the user's part, but anything before Vista is subject to these time changes. .

Hi peeps. Many of you have probably been wondering what on Earth a "screen reader" is. Well actually, the definition inandof itself I think is rather obvious. Quite literally a "screen reader" reads the computer screen for somebody who cannot see well or who cannot see at all. But I'd like to get into the nitty gritty details of screen-reading technology today. Before doing so, I must mention that these screen readers all have keyboard commands which are equivalent to using a mouse. There are several very high-quality Windows-based screen readers to choose from. The one I use is called JAWS, and it is available from either www.hj.com or www.freedomscientific.com . Both these addresses go to the same website. This company started out as Henter-Joyce, and eventually merged with two other adaptive technology companies to form Freedom Scientific. JAWS is an acronym for Job Access With Speech. Though JAWS does come with a price tag, there are several features which make it perhaps the most widely-used screen reader in the US today. Most notably, perhaps, is the fact that JAWS was designed not only for people with visual difficulties, but also for people with learning difficulties. It is therefore very intuitive. The user has the option of turning on tutor messages, for example, which aid the user by giving them information about the control they are on. The JAWS help system is also quite extensive. In addition, there is a Keyboard Help mode, which may be turned on for learning all keys and their functions, as well as key combinations and their functions. Next there is Window-Eyes, made by GW Micro. Their website is http://www.gwmicro.com . I have used that screen reader only briefly, but it too is very good. Window-Eyes is, perhaps, not as intuitive as JAWS and many people therefore prefer one screen reader over the other. But that's okay, because no two people are exactly alike, right? The third is Hal, made by Dolphin Computer Access. From what I understand, Hal resembles JAWS in a lot of ways and is also quite intuitive. Check out Dolphin at the following website: http://www.dolphinusa.com . The three screen readers I just mentioned all come with a very high price tag, and just may not be right for some people. However, downloadable demos of all of these are available on their respective websites. For those adaptive technology users who cannot afford any of the above-mentioned screen readers, there are two very high-quality offerings which cost absolutely nothing. I heard about the first of these free screen readers sometime last year on an email discussion list. It is called Thunder, and it is manufactured by Sensory Software out of the United Kingdom. Their website is http://www.screenreader.net . WebbIE is the only Internet browser that is compatible with Thunder. I've tried this browser and it works very well. Finally, there is an additional free screen reader. It is called Non-Visual Desktop Access, or NVDA for short. Check it out at http://www.nvaccess.org . This one came to my attention only within the last couple of months in a computer-related e-newsletter. I just downloaded the latest version of NVDA, and I am finding it to be quite good. I currently have NVDA and JAWS on my computer. An adaptive technology trainer I had once told me that It is not advisable to run more than one screen reader on the same machine at a given time, unless ya want mixed messages and all that. I will admit, however, that it is at times fun to run two, three or even more at the same time! I have set up hotkeys for launching each screen reader that is on my computer, and both screen readers also have hotkeys for exiting. Hotkey is another term for shortcut. Without any of these screen readers, my life as well as the lives of many would be quite different. It would not be very good because we wouldn't have access to the world of computers, like our sighted counterparts. There is a very good technology talk show on ACB Radio aptly called "Main Menu," and tonight's episode features the developer of NVDA, Michael Curran. The show will soon be made available in the archives. Go to http://www.acbradio.org , and click on "Shows on Demand." I had actually planned on calling into the show tonight, but due to slightly unforeseen circumstances I couldn't do that. My roommate and I had a mouse running through our kitchen. So as y'all can probably well imagine, things got just a little crazy and chaotic here tonight. I will leave everyone with this thought. What if the whole entire universe were made solely of chocolate?