The following issue of The Bulletin was prepared by Deb Lewis (Statewide Vision Resource Centre).
Inside This Issue
Mountbatten for Beginners - with Trevor Boyd Wednesday 14 November
Expo 1pm - 6.30pm Monday 10 December
SPEVI Christmas Drinks - SVRC 6pm Monday 10 December
Learning Media Kit for DEET Visiting Teachers
The new and updated version of the Learning Media Kit with a new novel
- Paul Jennings' 'Unbelievable' is now available from the SVRC.
The Learning Media Kit, produced by the staff of the Statewide Vision
Resource Centre is based on the work of Koenig and Holbrook. It is designed
to assist Visiting Teachers select appropriate literacy media for students
with vision impairments. The complete Learning Media Assessment Kit contains:
Space Camp 2001 - The CD-ROM
Would you like a copy of "Space Camp 2001" - The CD-ROM? It contains images
from the most recent Space Camp event including the missions, the simulators
and even the cup game! The Space Campers will receive a complimentary copy -
others can purchase a copy for $5 - with funds raised from the sale going to
Space Camp 2002 or 2003…
Please call or email your order to Deb Lewis - 9841 0242 or deblewis@svrc.vic.edu.au
Nifty Little Camera
Lee Clarke has found a very compact digital camera, the "007", which she is now using with gusto as a tool to encourage literacy skills in her students. Snapping off pictures from around the classroom and school ground, she and the students are producing books with speed and grace. This camera is hand-held and lightweight. Lee stores her camera in a spectacles case! The camera takes still photos and movie footage and downloading occurs quickly through a lead, which comes as part of the package. Costing only $148 from Dick Smith Electronics, this camera is a bargain!
Disability Services at the State Library
From the September 2001 edition of BCA's Parent News:
It's getting down to the serious part of the school year, when there
are lots of research projects and assignments to complete. Families may
be interested in the information below, describing services of the State
Library of Victoria to people with disabilities.
The State Library of Victoria is committed to making the items in its
collection available to all who need them. This includes people who have
a temporary or permanent disability, their service providers and carers.
The services are offered in the form of adaptive/assistive technology,
information resources, customer assistance, physical access and referral
to relevant agencies.
The Victorian State Library Disability Website offers the following
service:
Accessible Games
ESP Softworks is a company dedicated to developing innovative entertainment
software that is designed to be completely accessible for students with
vision impairments. The products are completely self-voicing and do not
require the use of a screen reader to play. They write:
We are currently developing and preparing to release several titles
that range from action, arcade, role-playing, and real-time strategy style
games. These games are developed using the latest audio and platform technologies
in order to present the player with a rich environment and intuitive game
play to bring about a truly accessible and fulfilling experience.
What's Going On?
We've just released our first retail title, ESP Pinball, and are in the mid-development phase of an action/arcade style game called Monkey Business, which is scheduled for release during the last quarter of 2001. Once Monkey Business is released, we'll be working on a role-playing title as well as a real-time multiplayer combat strategy game.
About ESP Pinball
Since the first pinball game was introduced in 1947, people the world
over have had an obsession with making a little silver ball jump all over
a table, hitting targets and flying up ramps along the way. Pinball has
been one of those true classic arcade games with ongoing appeal to generations
old and young. ESP Pinball captures the magic and fun of arcade-style pinball
and makes it accessible for everyone. ESP Pinball features:
- Five exciting and interactive themed tables plus a free bonus table
- Great Ambient Sound Effects
- Two Modes of Play: Classic and Accessible
- Two difficulty levels: Normal and Insane
- Fast-Action Game Play
Monkey Business
Chase and catch monkeys and avoid obstacles in real-time through a lush
3D audio environment while visiting more than ten completely different
themed levels. It's fun and furious action and puzzle solving at it's best!
Run, jump, climb and swim through ten themed levels of game play with fun
puzzles, great ambient sound effects, complete 3D player freedom-of-movement,
several bonus levels, and cool music!
Monkey Business features:
- Run, Jump, Climb and Swim Through Ten Themed Levels of Gameplay With
Fun Puzzles
- Great Ambient Sound Effects
- Complete 3-D Player Freedom of Movement
- Several Bonus Levels
- Intuitive, and Fast-Action Gameplay
- Cool Music
For more information, visit the website at http://www.espsoftworks.com
e-mail at info@espsoftworks.com
Iconic Images of US Attacks Described for Blind
From the September, 2001 edition of E-Access:
Visually impaired people are able to keep informed of the latest news
and implications of the US terrorist attacks by accessing a web service
provided by the New York-based Visually Impaired Computer Users Group.
The site contains an archive of descriptions of television images associated
with the attack. "Many of the indelible images from the attacks have been
transformed into iconic images, about which the blind, are usually the
last to learn," says webmaster Gregory Rosmaita.
"Imagine the cloud of smoke as a grey fish shaped like an oval reaching down
from the top left corner and taking a bite out of the right hand tower two thirds
of the way down," reads part of the description of the World Trade Centre cataclysm.
For more visit: http://wtc.crysm.net/.
Arts Access: Children's Week (Free Stuff)
Arts Access provides access to arts and cultural activities for people who are disadvantaged including people with disabilities.
'The Min Pins'
Saturday 3rd November, Melbourne Town Hall 11am & 2pm
BYO cushion, sit in the orchestra surrounded by the magical Forest
of Sin and hear Roald Dahl's story 'The Minpins' set to music by Sibelius.
A feast of music for the eyes and ears, by the Geminiani Orchestra
with the Victorian College of the Arts Choir, narrated by John Stanton.
This event is free but bookings are required.
Bookings City of Melbourne - email on kimdun@melbourne.vic.gov.au
or phone 9658 9658.
Check out the Arts Access website: www.artsaccess.com.au
Mountbatten Notes
You can find instructions for the Mountbatten on the Quantum Technology website.
Go to: www.quantech.com.au
Then: Support
Then: The Mountbatten Easy Guide or Connecting your Mountbatten to a computer.
Interview with Patty Duke
Below is an interview with Patty Duke by John Williams (October 10,
2001). John Williams writes for Business Week OnLine and hosts a column
on assistive technology and related issues. Patty Duke speaks about her
feelings about education for children who are blind or visually impaired.
Patty Duke is one of the most talented actresses in America. Patty Duke
received an Academy Award for her brilliant performance as Helen Keller
in the film The Miracle Worker, and an Emmy Award for her performance as
Anne Sullivan Macy in the television version of the same movie. Recently,
The American Foundation of the Blind presented Ms Duke with the 2001 Helen
Keller Lifetime Achievement Award in Performing Arts for these performances,
and for her years of work advancing career opportunities for people with
disabilities.
John Williams: Did you ever meet Helen Keller and what impressions
did she leave you with?
Patty Duke: When I met her, I knew I was in the presence of a great
woman with a stupendous personality. She took life and its challenges seriously,
but, to use the old cliché, "She did not take herself too seriously."
Everything with her seemed fun and games. It was her personality that struck
me. She was determined. She was strong. She was sensitive. She was brilliant.
She was insightful. She was aware of her presence and her influence. Above
all, she was a regular lady. She was not haughty. She was a great teacher,
and we need to recognize that quality in her.
JW: Are you working on any project in the disability field now?
PD: I am certainly involved with the American Foundation for the Blind
and anything to do with Helen Keller and anything to do with her name.
Recently, I recorded the audio version of To Love This Life: Quotations
by Helen Keller. I have also spoken out on the need to improve educational
opportunities for children with blindness. Helen Keller set an example
for the world to emulate through her abilities as a writer, spokesperson
and supporter of equal rights for all. I work in my home state of Idaho
with people who have reading disabilities There is personal joy is seeing
people with reading disabilities discover the benefits of reading. Reading
is a great empowering tool, and when people discover how empowering it
is their lives change. I encourage the country to spend more time reading
and discovering the fruits associated with reading.
JW: When you portrayed Helen Keller and later Anne Sullivan Macy, did
it give you any insight into the personalities of these women?
PD: I am not so sure it gave me any deep insight into their disabilities.
The insight I acquired was much more of the souls of these two women. At
first I questioned why Helen Keller was so badly behaved as a child - I
certainly would not have gotten away with the things she did. I came to
understand that this brilliant person's desire to communicate her feelings,
her ideas, her love, her humanness was trapped inside her, and she misbehaved
because she wanted powerfully to communicate and to have others communicate
to her. And so could empathize with her desire to escape from this trap
and to communicate. As for Anne Sullivan, she had a seemingly impossible
task to train and educate Helen. She was dauntless in her determination
to educate Helen. From her I learned perseverance, patience. She knew that
Helen could learn. She knew Helen needed to be heard and understood this
trait better than anyone. Anne Sullivan was a great special education teacher.
JW: Do you know anything about assistive technology
PD: I know assistive technology includes Braillers, low vision products,
telecommunications products, hearing aids, and products that can speak.
While I lack your expertise in knowing about these products, I have seen
what these products do for people with disabilities. I applaud them and
think we need to provide more people with disabilities access to them in
all walks of life. Assistive technology products, as you so rightly labeled
them, are great equalizers for persons with disabilities. Let me add that
I think that such products need to be introduced to children with disabilities
and their peers at a young age. No child with a disability should be denied
the tools they need in school and in society. I believe our schools need
to do a better job in educating students with disabilities, and the country
must spend more money in educating our children with disabilities and in
training teachers to work with them. Teacher training in special education
is as important as educating a child with a disability. Anne Sullivan Macy
was a special education teacher, and look at the miracles she produced
with Helen Keller. There are more Anne Sullivans and Helen Kellers out
there waiting to come out of their shells. Special education teachers have
a duty to find them.
JW: What do you think Hollywood can do to portray a more positive image
of people with disabilities rather than the "superman" and "superwoman"
images of people with disabilities they glorify.
PD: First, let me say I have never met a superman or superwoman with
a disability. I know ordinary people with disabilities who find extraordinary
means to compensate for their disability. Having said that, I think Hollywood
must realize there are talented writers, actors, actresses, directors,
set decorators, and agents with disabilities, and start using them. I think
agents have to do better jobs than they have in getting persons with disabilities
jobs. Pressure must be put on the studios by the Screen Actors' Guild to
use more actors in parts requiring a disabled person. And in parts that
don't require a disability. Actress Marlee Matlin comes to mind as an exemplary
talented actress who is deaf. I think we need more writers with disabilities
producing scripts with disabled people in them. Writers need to produce
scripts showing people with disabilities as neighbours, parents, and workers
in real life situations. The scripts don't need to focus on disabilities.
My industry has an obligation to do more than it has to show people with
disabilities in positive roles.
If you have any comments or questions, or would like more information on this
week's article, please contact John Williams at JMMAW@aol.com.
Science for Vision Impaired Students
The 'Teacher's Manual for Adapting Science Experiments for Blind and Visually Impaired Students" is a great reference and includes principles of adaptation, safety, skills, equipment modifications and also several experiments. Call to request a copy or download from http://www.visinfo.dk/forlag/online/.
Braille Readers are Leaders Contest
The "Braille Readers are Leaders" contest is sponsored by the National Organization
of Parents of Blind Children and the National Association USA, to promote the
use of braille.
The purpose of the Braille Readers Are Leaders contest is to encourage blind
children to read more braille. Good readers have confidence in themselves and
in their abilities to learn and to adapt to new situations throughout their
lifetimes. Braille is a viable alternative to print, yet too many blind children
are graduating from our schools with low expectations for themselves as readers.
They do not know that braille readers can be competitive with print readers.
This contest helps blind children realize that reading braille is fun and rewarding.
Prizes are awarded based on material read between November 1, 2001, and February
1, 2002.
Contact Deb Lewis 9841 0242 or deblewis@svrc.vic.edu.au
for further details.
Talking Software
Gerry Kennedy of Gerry Kennedy IT Consultancy, sent the following information:
Below are two very worthwhile software resources with great potential,
namely "Wordweb" and "TextAloud MP3".
TextAloud
Instead of the valuable time you spend reading on your computer, imagine
being free to relax, get up and stretch, or work on other things while
the information you need is read to you in a pleasant, natural sounding
human voice. Better still, leave your computer behind. TextAloud MP3's
unique Text to MP3 conversion can save your daily reading to MP3 audio
files to download to your portable MP3 player. Listen to email, online
news, or important documents while you exercise, work or commute.
TextAloud MP3 is easy to learn so you can put it to work for you right
away. Everything is user friendly, from the help function to the VCR style
playback controls. It's never been easier to keep up with the information
you really need.
Download a 30-day trial version from http://www.nextuptech.com/TextAloud/.
WordWeb
WordWeb Pro is a quick and powerful English thesaurus and dictionary.
Unlike any paper dictionary or thesaurus WordWeb is truly a Word Web -
each set of synonyms is linked to other related sets. Lookup "tree", click
on the "Types" tab and you'll have a list of different types of tree. Click
on "Part of" and WordWeb will tell you that a tree can be part of a "forest"
or "wood".
WordWeb Pro also has a powerful engine for finding words matching a
pattern - great for crosswords or finding that word you can't quite remember.
The anagram feature will generate fun multi-word anagrams for you, and
you can also find partial anagrams.
There is a free version available of Wordweb at http://www.wordweb.co.uk/.
Improving Access to the Internet
The following information was compiled by Lyn Robinson, Statewide Vision
Resource Centre.
There are two web browsers commonly used for surfing the internet
Netscape:
· Use TAB and SHIFT+TAB to move around various elements of the
screen
· To enlarge the print on the screen go to the View menu, select
increase font, keep selecting until the print is at the required size.
(This doesn't increase the button/menu heading however)
· To customise print size, colors and styles go to the Edit
menu, select Preferences, then Fonts. Here you can change the size of the
print and the style of the print. E.g. Arial Font size 16. To permanently
show these settings check the box next to the words "use my default fonts,
overriding document specific fonts" To change the color settings choose
the color heading and select the colors you want the browser to display.
Microsoft Internet Explorer
· Use TAB and SHIFT+TAB to move around various elements of the
screen
· To enlarge print size go to the View menu, fonts select largest
and the print will increase
· To set larger print size and style as a default go to the
View menu select internet options, then fonts, font size, click on default
· For advanced internet accessibility options such as turning
pictures off go to the View Menu, select Internet Options then select the
Advanced tab. Find Show Pictures… etc. and clear the box so there is no
tick if you do not want to download pictures. If you want to download pictures
then check the Always expand alt text for images. This will then show the
text associated with pictures so those who want to download pictures can
get the picture with a brief description.
Voice and the Internet
Specialised Web Browsers
IBM Home Page Reader
Home Page Reader can speak text, frames, image and text links, alternate
text for images and image maps, form elements, graphics descriptions, text
in column format, and data input fields. It even includes special table
navigation features that allow users to understand even the most complex
tables, such as television listings.
This is a specifically designed web browser for blind and visually
impaired internet users. It is a web browser with speech facilities and
is available for download from
http://www-3.ibm.com/able/hpr.html
pwWebSpeak
A non-visual web browser that provides auditory access to web pages.
Has voiced menus as well as Keyboard commands. Available for download from
http://www.issound.com
Software which provides voice
JAWS and Internet Explorer
JAWS works with Internet Explorer 4.01 or higher, concepts learned
in word processing can be carried over to Internet Explorer, such as navigation
commands, reading commands etc.
JAWS and Netscape
The consensus from blind JAWS users seems to be that JAWS works with
Netscape but not as successfully as with Internet Explorer.
Read Please
Speaks any text copied into the window clipboard including web pages,
email, word documents.
You can save files to the Read Please folder on the hard disk. Clicking
on the saved file will launch the Read Please program. Read Please is available
for free from
http://www.readplease.com
Web Sites
Educational implications of blindness and vision impairment:
Statewide Vision Resource Centre
http://www.svrc.vic.edu.au
Texas School for the Blind
http://www.tsbvi.edu/
Medical References
Color Blindness
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8833/coloreye.html
eMedical
eMedical has been established by a group of Australian registered Medical
Practitioners. Membership is free and entitles you to access current information
on many different health issues. The site contains a section on children's
health.
http://www.emedical.com.au/
Family Village
http://www.familyvillage.wisc.edu/index.htmlx
Selected Anomalies and Diseases of the Eye
Compiled by Virginia E. Bishop, Ph.D. This site has descriptions of different
visual impairments, and related web sites. http://www.tsbvi.edu/Education/anomalies/index.htm
VI Guide Medical Resources
An excellent list of sites on the internet which have medical references
about vision impairment.
http://www.viguide.com/medi.htm
Directories/Dictionaries
Encyclopedia Britannica
http://www.britannica.com
Webster Gateway
http://work.ucsd.edu:5141/cgi-bin/http_webster
White Pages or Yellow Pages
http://www.whitepages.com.au/index.html
or http://search.yellowpages.com.au/
NetscapeDictionary
http://home.netscape.com/bookmark/4_5/webdirectory.html
Electronic Texts
Bibliomania Network Library
http://www.bibliomania.com/
Book Stacks Electronic Library
http://www.books.com/scripts/lib.exe
The CMU Poetry Index
http://eserver.org/poetry/
The Etext Archives
http://www.etext.org/
Great Books Inde
http://books.mirror.org/notavail.html
Internet Classics Archive
http://classics.mit.edu//titles.a.html
Project Gutenberg
http://www.promo.net/pg/
Shakespeare
http://www.gh.cs.usyd.edu.au/~matty/Shakespeare/index.html
Adaptive Technology and Equipment for Students with Vision Impairment
Meredith Walsh's most excellent CD-ROM - described and demonstrated
at our term 3 PD day - is now available from the SVRC! The CD-ROM contains
the complete Manual, plus all relevant files, to enable Visiting Teachers
to prepare complete personalised Student Profiles and Information Packages
for Classroom and other Teachers.
Cost: $30 - see Dianne.
VAPVI: New Australian Parent Group - Newsletter
The following information appeared in the 29 October 2001 edition of
the VAPVI Newsletter:
On the 25th of October 2001 we had our information and committee nomination
meeting at the RVIB in Burwood Victoria.
The meeting was very successful with 12 parents nominating for committee
positions. Speakers on the night discussed the objectives of the support
group, and some parents shared personal stories regarding their vision
impaired child.
Our vision of helping parents by providing information, developing
a membership referral base of parents and organizations, improving education
standards, and actively assisting service providers, is becoming realised.
We would like to thank everyone that has helped spread the news of
our existence, and has distributed the questionnaire data-form, which enables
us to contact parents. We have been receiving a steady stream of completed
questionnaires, and we will continue to build our membership base.
We welcome any inquiries regarding our membership and continuing developments.
If anyone would like to become a member please send your contact details
to the address below.
All inquires can be made to:
Michael & Ingrid Siles
Ph 03 9849 0900 Email: silesmi@bigpond.com
PO Box 638, Box Hill, Victoria, 3128.
Staff News
Baby Pearl came to visit us with her mother, Yvette last week. And what
a little cutie she is!!!
She has a wild black mohawk and is smiling already. Yvette looks well,
happy and relaxed - quite amazing given the midnight parties that Pearl
has been inviting her to!
Brailling Aide Needed
A student in Eastern Region requires a brailling aide. Please leave a message for Carolyn Mentiplay on 9841 0242.
Student News
Deb Lewis (who can be emailed at deblewis@svrc.vic.edu.au).