Top tech tidbits for Thursday, March 1, 2007
1) Freedom Scientific has released a public beta version of JAWS that works with windows Vista, and at the same time has released an update to JFW version 8 that fixes various bugs. You can get the update through the automatic update feature of the program, or download it as well as the public beta version here:
http://www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws80fea.asp
2) Gw Micro has added three articles to its Knowledge Base, two of which concern the Braille Sense. Here is their Knowledge Base page:
http://gwmicro.com/Support/Knowledge_Base/
3) The National Federation of the Blind is accepting applications for Youth Slam, a STEM leadership academy for blind, high school age students. The Youth Slam will take place July 30 through August 4, and will provide attendents with the chance to explore careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Math,
as well as the exposure to successful blind mentors and professionals.
http://www.blindscience.org
4) The second issue of the ATHEN E-Journal, of the Access Technologists Higher Education Network, is now available. The focus of this issue is Higher Education and Web Accessibility: Providing Training and Support
for the Future.
http://athenpro.org/node/52
5) the best way to follow and influence the development of accessible receivers for XM satellite radio is through the official forum topic created for the purpose.
http://www.xm411.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=30236
6) Revision 380 of the open-source screen reader Non-Visual Desktop Access is available, with many bug fixes. Also on this page is an audio demonstration and explanation of this free screen reader.
http://www.nvaccess.org/nvda/
7) Accessmart is a new e-mail list, one of several, designed to facilitate buying, selling and trading of items among blind and visually-impaired folks. to join, send a blank message to
accessmart-subscribe@googlegroups.com
8) Another new mailing list discusses the use of the Replay series of products from Applian Technology from a blindness perspective. To join, put the word subscribe in the subject line of a message and send it to
blindreplay-request@freelists.org
9) The last Harry Potter book will become available on 21 July, 2007, and National Braille press will make it available that day in paper or PortaBook (electronic0 format. this should mean that the book will be downloadable that very day. They are charging a pre-publication price of $18.89 if you order before the publication date. If you order after, the price will be the same as the print copy, $34.99.
http://www.nbp.org/ic/nbp/HALLOWS.html
10) Users of Talking Book libraries in the U.S. will find this week's Accessible World presentation to be of interest. the title is KLAS, Library Management for Talking Book Libraries. the presentation, followed by discussion, takes place at 01:00 tuesday 6 March at
http://www.accessibleworld.org
11) The E-Access Blog offers an article entitled Windows ‘Vista’ Offers Enhanced Accessibility.
http://www.headstar.com/eablive/?p=48
12) Here is a video interview with Jim Fruchterman regarding his work with Bookshare, Behetech and other socially-responsible computing efforts.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=t9jcHjBYZ6U
13) Here is a 46-minute presentation on making web sites accessible
http://connect-cdn.educause.edu/files/active/0/EDUCAUSE2006_Making_Web_Sites_Accessible.mp3
14) this article by Fred Langa contains an evaluation of ten registry-cleaning programs and his recommendations for the best free and paid programs.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=171203805
15) Mozekty is a free program containing both a player to play Internet radio and a database of stations. the programmer has made special efforts to make the system accessible, and to this end, the program can use any SAPI version 5 voice on your system to speak its information.
http://www.infradrive.com/downloads/Mozekty.exe
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