The Blind Lifestyle Newsletter for August 15, 2022 - Issue 10The Blind Lifestyle Newsletter is the newsletter by and for the blind and visually impaired by Award Winning Sight Loss Coach, Advocate and Author Donna Jodhan. Content curation sponsored by Top Tech Tidbits. The Blind Lifestyle Newsletter focuses on current lifestyle news and trends for the blind, deaf, deafblind and disabled. Subscribers: 234 opt-in subscribers were sent this issue via email. Dear Blind Lifestyle Subscriber,1) BlindShell Partners with Aira to Debut Aira App on Award-Winning BlindShell Classic 2 Mobile PhoneBlindShell and Aira have announced the integration of the Aira app for live, on-demand visual interpreting with the BlindShell Classic 2 accessible cell phone, which combines a tactile keypad, voice control, and a high-volume speaker for flexibility and ease in operation, eliminating the barriers to communication found in traditional cell phones with touchscreen navigation. The Aira app connects those with vision loss to professionally trained visual interpreters, called Agents, who read documents, assist with navigation, access computers remotely, and provide any other visual information needed to accomplish a task: 2) Pottery Barn Launches Accessible Furniture Line"The Accessible Home" collection includes bestselling pieces from Pottery Barn's regular lineup that have been tweaked to be more accessible. Chairs have been adapted to offer a lift function while tables, desks and other items have been adjusted to the appropriate height to roll up in a wheelchair. There are also grab bars, non-slip rugs, unbreakable plates and other tabletop products, adjustable beds, mirrors that pivot and more: 3) FTA Issues NOFO For Rail Station Accessibility ProgramThe Federal Transit Administration (FTA) issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for $343 million available through the All-Stations Accessibility Program (ASAP), which is one of four new programs established under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) that was signed into law in November 2021: 4) Q&A: Jill Bateman Makes Online Accessibility A Priority At Ohio UniversityHere is an interview with Jill Bateman, digital accessibility coordinator, at Ohio University: 5) Google Glass Helps Kids With Autism Read Facial ExpressionsWearing a device that identifies other people's facial expressions can help children with autism develop better social skills, a Stanford pilot study has demonstrated: 6) Uber Receives ADA Complaint Over Drivers' Refusal to Transport Guide DogA blind Florida resident sued Uber Technologies Inc. for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) violations relating to its drivers' refusal to transport the plaintiff because of his guide dog. The Southern District of Florida complaint argues that the discrimination the plaintiff has experienced is the fault of the company for failing to train its drivers even after notification of the recurring problem: 7) Libraries Can Now Share Thoughts And Recommendations With LibbyOverdrive Libby has just gained new functionality for libraries to share thoughts, quotes, trivia and recommendations. Shelf Talkers provides a new space for each library to showcase their curatorial expertise and knowledge through personal notes to patrons within the Libby app. Shelf Talkers in Libby allow librarians to connect with readers by recommending titles, providing interesting facts about a title or author, showing curators' personalities and adding more library-specific flavor to their Libby collection: 8) Adaptive Sports, Support For Visually-Impaired Hoosiers | YouTubeA nonprofit called Bosma provides services for people in Indiana who are blind of visually impaired: 9) Our Story: U.S. Association of Blind AthletesUSABA was founded by Dr. Charles Buell in 1976 with the purpose of improving the lives of people who are blind and visually impaired. That year, 27 young men and women were selected to represent the United States in the first Olympiad for the Disabled in Toronto, Canada. As a result of this Olympic involvement, a group of national leaders, educators and coaches of the visually impaired met to discuss the need for an organization to structure, promote and sponsor competitions for people who are blind and visually impaired throughout the United States: 10) South Western Railway Leads The Way In Sight Loss TrialIn an industry first, South Western Railway has embarked on a trial of new, cutting-edge technology which enables people with sight loss to navigate train stations with greater ease: 11) Texas A&M Team Translates Thousands Of Pages Of Math Into BrailleA Texas A&M University Disability Resources team is dedicated to ensuring courses are accessible to all Aggie students: 12) Riverside-Based Startup's 'Smart' Frames Eye Your HealthWhat started as eye pressure monitoring designed to track a patient's risk of glaucoma — the most common cause of irreversible blindness — expanded to an ocular health care platform called Blink, with a microscopic camera concealed in stylish eyeglass frames: 13) DOJ Announces Intent for Future Website Accessibility RegulationsIn July 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its intent to establish new regulations providing technical standards for website accessibility under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): 14) Kellogg's Trials Code For The Visually ImpairedThe new code was developed by NaviLens from Spain, where the technology is already in use on public transport, for example. Kellogg's is the first food manufacturer to be using it. "There is a lot of information to be included on packaging. Often even in several languages. This means that everything is written in a small font, which does not make it easy to read. For visually impaired people, it is often even impossible", general manager Luc Houben of Kellogg's Benelux says in Belgian newspaper De Morgen: 15) Detroit Students Design Accessible Products, From Menstrual Cycle Apps To Better WalkersFrom electronics to cookware, many of the products used in everyday life are developed for able-bodied individuals. But what about people who don't have the use of one of their five senses? Students at Detroit's College for Creative Studies (CCS) are coming up with innovative solutions, through design: 16) AccessReady Reporter | Issue 29 | July 28th 2022The Reporter Newsletter is a service of Access Ready Inc. which is an independent, non-profit, cross-disability education and advocacy organization promoting a policy of inclusion and accessibility of information and communications technology (ICT). For people with disabilities, accessible information and communications technology is a necessity, not a luxury or a convenience, which fosters independence, economic self-sufficiency, and active, meaningful participation in civic life:. 17) Beyoncé Changing Lyrics Over Disability ConcernsThis is the second artist in a month to change Lyrics because of ablest language: 18) For People With A Different Way Of Thinking, A Different Approach To HiringMastercard recently introduced a pilot program geared toward employment of more neurodiverse people: 19) Aussie Tech To Help The Blind Read Screens Hits USBrisbane-based blind inventors Michael Curran and James Teh have signed up Texas State University to use their free screen reading software NVDA, marking a milestone for the open-sourced not-for-profit: 20) The Good, the Bad, and the Current Landscape of COVID-19 At-Home Test AccessibilityThe pandemic has exposed many life-threatening inequities in many "systems" for people who have disabilities, including blindness or low vision. In early 2022, the New York Times published a story with the headline: 'Covid Tests Inaccessible to the Blind', highlighting one issue in a series of serious issues that have arisen for people who are blind or low vision. Furthermore, The Flatten Inaccessibility Study, conducted during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, documented many of the challenges those who are blind or low vision faced. Let's look at the potential inequities surrounding COVID-19, the process of obtaining an in-home test kit, the accessibility of test kits, and how accessibility is evolving and improving: 21) Two New Bots Can Help Newsrooms Prioritize Accessibility And Alt TextWith more than a decade of experience in visual journalism, user experience, and front-end development, Patrick Garvin shares how prioritizing accessibility is possible for all newsroom employees, not just tech staff: 22) How A Visual Language Evolves As Our World DoesUbiquitous video technology and social media have given deaf people a new way to communicate. They're using it to transform American Sign Language: 23) How AI Is Being Used To Help Blind Students 'Visualize' Graphs And ChartsRoll back the decades, or for the more youthful, a shorter few years, and reflect for a moment on the foundational educational importance of being able to interpret graphs and charts from early high school years onwards. Imagine then, the experience of young learners with sight loss who, when undertaking vital education in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects, lack even a frame of reference for what a graph or chart is in the first place — let alone the data that it relays: 24) Researchers Win Prize For Software That Makes Self-Driving Cars More AccessibleThe VEMI lab at the University of Maine earned third place in a national competition and an invitation to the White House for developing an inclusive smartphone software platform that will provide navigational assistance to people with visual impairment and seniors who want to use self-driving cars for ride-sharing and hailing services: 25) Republicans Mock VP Harris For Offering Visual Description At Meeting With Disability AdvocatesVice President Kamala Harris was mocked by Republicans seizing on her introduction at a roundtable for disability advocates to mark the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Harris told the group gathered at the White House that her pronouns are she and her, and she described what she was wearing. The clip went viral in conservative circles, with the Republican Party and GOP members of Congress joining in to ridicule Harris: 26) Spotify Paid Over $120 Million for DIY Audiobook Platform FindawayThe acquisition marks the music streaming giant's ambitions to become the world's leading audio platform, bringing music, podcast and audiobook streaming under one roof. Adding audiobooks to Spotify's ever-growing library would allow the streaming service to bring in a new base of content creators and listeners to the service: 27) 'Talking' Glasses: How An Artificial Intelligence Device Helps Blind Students In Brazil | Innovation"People don't always understand me. Few can really know what inclusion is. For me, having a technology that allows me to read different books by turning words into audio has brought me more confidence, security and independence". The testimony is from student Kayenne Alves, 16 years old, resident of Cuiabá, Mato Grosso. Visually impaired since she was born, the student at the Federal Institute of Mato Grosso (IFMT) received something from the institution that, according to her, has made her progress in her studies since April: the artificial intelligence device called Orcam MyEye: 28) Building a More Accessible Social Virtual Reality WorldImagine trying to navigate a virtual space without being able to see the objects in it. If a host tells everyone to move to the outside space and you can't see where is outside and where is inside in the virtual world, then how do you do that? 29) A Blind Researcher Making A More Accessible WorldJoshua Miele has spent his career trying to make the world more accessible for blind and visually impaired people. As a blind person, his lived experiences have shaped the way he thinks about technology and how it can be used to better serve disabled people. He's invented products like YouDescribe — a tool that adds audio description to YouTube videos — and Tactile Maps Automated Production, a software that creates tactile maps for people to feel: 30) Caught On Camera: Visually Impaired Woman, Service Animal Denied Uber RideMelisa Licon was born with a visual impairment, she has low vision but is legally blind. The number of times she's been denied rides by Uber drivers, she said, is frequent. So, she began recording the incidents: 31) Promoting Workplace Equity Through Inclusive Innovation: What's New In Microsoft 365 Accessibility For Summer 2022Last week, we celebrated the thirty-second anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The ADA helps ensure that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. At Microsoft, we support the ADA's goal by developing products and features that help our customers drive greater accessibility and inclusion across their organizations, especially as so many transition to hybrid and remote work. This summer, we've continued to push forward in three key areas crucial to inclusion in the hybrid workplace: making meetings more accessible to all, providing more flexible and streamlined options for creating and consuming content, and supporting mental health and neurodiversity through features that give you greater control over time and tasks: Our PartnersPartner: Top Tech TidbitsPartner Since: January 1st 2022 Website: https://www.toptechtidbits.com/ 🌐 About: Top Tech Tidbits is the world's #1 online resource for current news and trends in adaptive technology. Founded in 2004, Top Tech Tidbits is a leading not-for-profit Adaptive Technology publication that reaches over 7,000 assistive technology professionals, educators and enthusiasts each week. Adaptive Technology refers to items that are specifically designed for people with disabilities. Adaptive Technology is a subset of Assistive Technology. Adaptive Technology often refers specifically to electronic and information technology access. Top Tech Tidbits is a Mind Vault Solutions, Ltd. Publication. Subscribe: Subscribe at: https://www.toptechtidbits.com/subscribe to receive the Top Tech Tidbits newsletter every Thursday morning at 4:00 AM ET. Support: publisher@toptechtidbits.com ✉ Partner: Blind AbilitiesPartner Since: May 26th 2022 Website: https://blindabilities.com/ 🌐 About: Blind Abilities podcasts cover the latest technology and developments that enhance quality of life for the Blind and Visually Impaired. 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So was the low-vision senior who designed and in 2015, started a company to make exactly such a product. He did so only after not finding anything that met his low-vision needs. Annually, thousands of repeat and new customers appreciate its design features that include: • Each week is presented across two 8.5" x 11" heavy-weight pages. Also available on Amazon. Partner: Whose Blind Life is it Anyway NetworkPartner Since: June 1st 2022 YouTube: https://bit.ly/3PUsSI8 Facebook: https://bit.ly/3GIpSdH Twitter: http://twitter.com/blindwhose About: Our network has grown from a simple YouTube blog, to a network of shows that all can enjoy. Our network features cooking shows, interviews with blind individuals around the world and how they navigate through life as a blind or visually impaired individual, television and movie reviews, original content from Donna Jodhan, as well as the Blind Perspective, a show dealing with today's news and topic from a blind perspective, which anyone can participate on. The network has also acquired re-runs of the Blind Handyman and Blind Like Me shows, featuring Phil parr and his crew. Adults aren't left out of the mix, as our network also provides sexually explicit content in the form of the Saturday Night Adult Party (SNAP), where we talk about sex, sexuality and relationships from a blind perspective, as well as the Afternoon Radio Theater Sundae, broadcasting old-time radio features of yesteryear. Our network has something for all, but if you don't like YouTube or it's apps, you can catch us on our Facebook Page, or on Twitter, which we also broadcast to for your enjoyment. If you can't catch us live, you can always catch us on podcast on all your favourite podcast apps or players, from Apple to Google, To Spotify. You can also ask Alexa to play Whose Blind Life is it Anyway, and she'll provide you with all our shows. The network is also providing advertising space, free of charge to anyone interested, as well as blocks of show times for people who would like to produce their own content, or add their content to our network on a weekly basis, perhaps you'd like to have your own blog, but can't be bothered with all the technical nuances, or you would like to feature an infomercial, features products you sell, or services you provide. All of this is free of charge, with no hidden fees, you just have to provide the time and content, and we can provide the platform. Join our network, and enjoy the entertainment we provide on a daily basis. 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Your support makes the difference in keeping our children connected, healthy and part of our community. You may donate one time, monthly, quarterly or annually. All donations, no matter how small, ensure that persons with disabilities, especially our kids with disabilities, are given every opportunity to be a part of our growing virtual world. Learn more today at: Sight Loss Coach And Author Donna JodhanCatching Up With The Coach
Catch up with the Coach in August 2022. Insightful tips, shares, how-to's and other useful information from Award Winning Sight Loss Coach, Advocate and Author Donna Jodhan. This month I'd like to share with you the following tips ... |
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