This issue was edited by Lyn Robinson, Resource Teacher, Statewide Vision Resource Centre.
Date: Tuesday, June 3, 4.30pm until about 6.00pm
Venue: Statewide Vision Resource Centre, 370 Springvale Rd,
Donvale
Parking: just North in the Doncaster Indoor Sports Centre car
park
Format: 4.30pm drinks and nibbles 5.15pm Guest speaker and
panel
Theme: Art and Community access for VI students
Cost: $5 for members, $10 for non-members
Come and hear Michael Donnnelly (Art teacher, Vision Australia) on ‘Arts
Access, UK style’. Michael will outline some of the approaches being used
in England for making the ‘visual’ arts accessible to people who
are blind or have low vision. These findings come from Michael’s recent
visit to London and attendance at the inaugural “In touch with art”
conference held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in November 2007. Also catch
up on the latest with the exciting “Braille Windows Project” which
has been in Sydney and now Melbourne. Lyn Robinson (Resource teacher, Statewide
Vision Resource Centre, DEECD) will outline how the project came to Melbourne
and where it might go from here.
Are you interested in furthering your studies in vision impairment? Renwick
(through the University of Newcastle) offers a great course that you might like
to consider - with on campus units (and cheap accommodation) or distance education
options. You can even propose your own study if there is something you feel
passionate about. To see the handbook and explore the range of options, visit:
http://www.ridbc.org.au/renwick/handbook/2008%20Student%20Handbook.pdf
I have recently received a number of queries from people wanting to know about accessibility options for Macintosh computers. Although the PC still dominants school environments there are a number of schools and students who have opted for Macintosh computers. Macintosh now has voice and enlarging software built into their operating systems. With that in mind I thought it would be timely to have a closer look at exactly what is on offer from Macintosh computers.
VoiceOver Screen Reader for Apple Macintosh
Leopard
The Apple OS X v10.4 (also known as Tiger), released in April 2005, included the first implementation of its VoiceOver screen reader. With the release of v10.5 (Leopard) in November 2007, VoiceOver has been further developed.
Unlike screen readers for Windows, VoiceOver is built into the operating system and is free (Narrator, included with Windows, is, at best, a very rudimentary screen reader). VoiceOver employs Apple's high-quality synthetic speech and offers text magnification. A number of electronic Braille displays are also supported.
VoiceOver can be set to start automatically from System Preferences. Importantly,
one option is to have it start at the login screen, thus facilitating entry
of username and password. Adjustment to a wide variety of parameters can be
made on either a temporary or "permanent" basis. That is, temporary
settings are lost when turning off VoiceOver or shutting down the computer,
while permanent adjustments are retained until the user changes them again.
Parameters that can be customised include voice(s) to be used, speech rate and
level of spoken punctuation, text size and tailoring of keyboard combinations
for issuing some VoiceOver commands. Customised settings can also be copied
to another computer, thereby providing the user with a consistent interface
on multiple machines.
The User Experience
It is stressed that the reviewer has limited knowledge of the Macintosh operating
system. Access to the test machine was also limited, both in terms of session
time and frequency. Therefore, not all of the VoiceOver benefits have yet been
fully explored.
One feature common to screen readers is their employment of keyboard commands. Due in no small part to the different environment, VoiceOver's commands are somewhat different to popular Windows-based screen readers. People coming from a Windows background must therefore undertake a considerable amount of relearning. This process is greatly assisted by inclusion of two features. The first is the keyboard learning mode (ctrl-option-k) which announces the function of each key combination. The second is the Commands Menu (Command-h), which provides a list of available commands for the current situation.
An excellent manual is also available from http://w3.wmcnet.org/dtbmaker/books/vogs/ in several formats including DAISY, correctly structured PDF and grade 2 Braille. The manual in PDF form was put onto the test machine and this proved useful, both by way of information acquisition and for practising navigation. Unlike Windows-based screen readers, it is often necessary to issue a command (option-shift=down arrow) to begin interacting with content and another (option-shift-up arrow) to finish the interaction. Until recognising the situations where this process is necessary, it was not possible to access the table of contents in the PDF manual.
Software supplied with Macintosh computers is specifically written to work
with VoiceOver. This is well demonstrated by TextEdit, the default Macintosh
word processor. Feedback on document layout, including text size and attributes
is available. Words shown as misspelled by TextEdit are also reported by VoiceOver.
Performance with Safari, the Macintosh web browser, is not as impressive. While
basic web access is provided, features now commonplace on Windows-based screen
readers are lacking. These include facilities for reading data tables and jumping
to elements such as paragraphs, headings and lists.
A limitation of VoiceOver is lack of keyboard control of the mouse pointer. Other screen readers offer movement by such increments as character, word and line and can restrict movement to within the active window. Especially for exploring screen contents and/or for dealing with difficult layouts, this can be an important facility.
On the other hand, VoiceOver does offer magnification of screen contents. This can be helpful to those who have some useful residual vision. The combination of speech output and visual display is also valuable to those who have visual reading difficulties.
Summary
While not yet as powerful as screen readers developed for the Windows platform,
VoiceOver will be very effective for some people. It seems especially suitable
for those who wish to augment the visual display with synthetic speech output,
but should also benefit those who have little or no vision wanting to use the
computer for word processing, email and basic internet access. The availability
of screen magnification is also an important feature.
The inclusion of VoiceOver as part of the operating system is noteworthy. Any
Apple Macintosh with the current operating system is immediately available for
use by people requiring speech output and/or screen magnification. Furthermore,
most screen readers for Windows cost between $1,000 and $1,800. Cost of upgrading
these can also be considerable.From:Adaptive Technologies News and Reviews
April 2008 http://www.cli.nsw.edu.au/cli/e-learning/Adaptive_technologies/reviews_2008/voiceover.shtm
Mac OS X enables you to easily increase the size of the mouse cursor so it's
easier to find and follow when you move the mouse. The cursor remains scaled
to your preferred size even when the cursor shape changes from an arrow to an
I-beam, to cross-hairs, or any other shape. It remains in effect until you change
it, even when you logout, shutdown or restart your computer. Cursor scaling
works together with other screen magnification technologies in Mac OS X, allowing
you to combine them in unique ways to suit your needs. For a copy of the article
about enlarging the cursor go to: http://www.apple.com/accessibility/vision/
If you are looking for some good resources for multi-impaired vision impaired
students try the Vision Associates web site. Vision Kits and professional learning
resources from Vision Associates offer a wide range of materials many from leaders
in the field including Dr. Lea Hyvärinen, Lilli Nielsen, Dr. jan van Dijk.For
more information go to: http://www.visionkits.com/index.cfm
It appears that we don't have enough students to proceed with Space Camp this
year, however 2009 is looking rather promising. So far, there are a number of
students who have expressed interest - so if you would like to be kept in the
loop with information for 2009, please let Deb Lewis know. You may be joining
the group which already comprises:
Brooke - Northern Region
Cassie - Northern Region
Crissy - Eastern Region
Daniel - Eastern Region
For more information about Space Camp, visit either the SVRC website or the
Texas School for the Blind website: http://www.visiontech.svrc.vic.edu.au/camps.htm
- and click on the Space Camp link http://www.tsbvi.edu/space/
In the past the cost has been around $4,600 per student - some students do fundraising,
some families pay - if you need assistance, please ask and we can see what suggestions/support
we can offer - but if you are fundraising for 2009, you really need to start
now! The SVRC contact person is Deb Lewis, phone (03) 9841 0242 or you can email
Deb at
deblewis@svrc.vic.edu.au
Rebecca Maxwell is compiling a book of interviews with people who use braille.
The publication of the book is to celebrate the bicentennial of Louis Braille's
birth, in January 2009. Rebecca comments “We wish to recognize his huge
gift of tactile literacy. Braille script is as precious to blind people as the
roman alphabet is to sighted people. Life without a system of reading and writing
would be unthinkable, for sighted people, and equally unthinkable for blind
people.”
Rebecca is facilitating some workshops for braille users who wish to express
themselves on two themes: "living with braille literacy", and "particular
interests". You can choose to be interviewed by Rebecca, or to write your
ideas on these themes yourself and send writing to Rebecca. Rebecca will be
editing the book for publication. Interviews can be done by phone, or in person.
For more information contact Rebecca by phone on (03) 9427 7579 or write to
her at 60 Butler Street, Richmond, Vic. 3121
From: Ramona Mandy, National Blindness Products Consultant, HumanWare
Is your student still using a notetaker that is not UEB compliant? As you may
know, a decision was recently made by the Australian Braille Authority to adopt
UEB (Unified English Braille) as Australia's official reading and writing braille
code. We at HumanWare believe it is paramount for students to have access to
this code and in September 2007, implemented UEB into the BrailleNote family
of products. In fact, the BrailleNote is the only device of its type to offer
UEB support!
BrailleNote UEB means students can read and write literary material in UEB,
as well as use the scientific calculator with the UEB Maths code.This is an
absolute time-saver for both students and teachers! No more having to remember
and switch between two codes. When connected to a
monitor, teachers can be confident that your students are indeed on the right
track.
So, what can you do? Trade in your old (blindness-related) notetaker for a
BrailleNote or VoiceNote mPower, and receive up to $1890 off the retail price.
The BrailleNote has all the standard peripherals you would expect in a student's
laptop, including inbuilt bluetooth, SD card, serial port and two USB ports.
In addition, free support for reading/writing of Spanish, French, German and
Italian is now included. Free on-site training can be arranged in most instances.
For further information please contact HumanWare on (02) 9686 2600 or email
sam.taylor@humanware.com
Vision Australia, Access All Abilities and ValleySport are looking at holding
Tandem Bike Riding Days in the following areas:
• Shepparton
• Benalla
• Wangaratta
• Wodonga/ Albury
If you would be interested in joining in on a great day please call Louise Pettigrew
on (03) 58313555 or email louise.pettigrew@visionaustralia.org
to receive more information
It’s so nice to hear from people who read the bulletin. Recently I received this email from a reader who tried out the “Braille Teddy Bear” from the previous edition of the bulletin. She writes: “Being a bit spatially challenged I always struggle using the slate and stylus but since it is my only braille writing tool on hand at the moment thought I'd take a moment and make a teddy for my friend. After a few disastrous trials I realised that if you entered the pattern into the slate exactly as written and working left to right you'd come out with the perfect teddy. Just thought Toni might like to add that to her armoury of knowledge. From Penny Stevenson” Thanks Penny for your email –I’m sure others will be interested in your discovery and may even try it themselves!
Visiting Teacher Vacancy: There is a full-time Visiting Teacher Vacancy in
Western Metropolitan Region for a Visiting Teacher Vision Impairment/Health
beginning 14/07/2008. The advertisement for this position can be found on Recruitment
Online, the Job Reference Number is 627402. Please phone the contact person,
Pat Brophy on (03) 9291 6500 if you would like more information. The closing
date for applications is 27/05/08.