My First Impressions of the BookSense

On Monday I got my first accessible book player that isn't a tape player. I decided on the BookSense from GW Micro because of the great reviews I heard on twitter. After only a few days, I am giving it a thumbs up.

I have successfully downloaded my first book from BookShare.Org onto the device, and am pleased with the TTS voice. Listening to fiction narrated by a computer is a little weird, but the voice is clear and pleasant enough to listen to.

Another plus is the form factor. The BookSense is sleek and looks like a "mainstream" device. It's taken a long time, but it appears that more and more assistive tech companies are really trying to make their devices attractive and light weight.

The draw backs of the BookSense are that because I am a Mac user, downloading Audible and RFB&D content is not compatible. I do have access to a p.c., but it is a bummer that I have to use a different computer than my own to put books from these sources onto the device. Those are my only complaints so far.

If you use an accessible book player, which one? If you use the BookSense, what do you believe are it's pros and cons?

Let Freedom Ring: Letters to President Obama

Last August, the NFB started a project called "Let Freedom Ring: Letters to President Obama". The project would result in a book of 100 letters explaining why braille is important. I decided to submit a letter, and I found out yesterday that my submission was one of the letters included in the book. Along with my letter congratulating me, I also received a Louis Braille Silver Dollar which I have out for all my guests to see.

This month the book of letters was presented to the Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan in a ceremony. The president and vice president of the NFB, along with two blind children, and a parent of a blind child explained to the Secretary why braille is still so valuable to the blind community, and why the literacy rate must improve in the coming years. The Secretary said that he would support the cause and share the book with the president. I am extremely proud to be a part of this book. I encourage everyone to download the full copy from the link I provided, and to read all the letters.

Bills in Congress that Could Benefit the Blind

Currently there are two bills in congress that should directly benefit the blind if passed. One is in the house and the other is in the senate. THe house bill, HR 5433, Technology Bill of Rights for the Blind Act of 2010 is aiming to make mainstream technology accessible to those with vision problems. As technology continues to move towards touch screens and other non visual mediums, more and more devices are becoming inaccessible to the blind. In order to solve this problem, congress wants to require manufacturers to make their devices accessible. THe Commerce Dept. would start by researching what the best ways to make devices accessible are. THey will have two years to do the research. They then would report their findings, and make a set of guidelines for manufacturers to use when making new versions of their products. I think this bill would have some really positive implications. I come across devices that I can't use all the time and making them accessible to me would not be that difficult. Apple has already demonstrated that touch screens can be used by the blind, so now that technology just needs to be applied in the rest of mainstream devices.

The bill in the Senate is designed to lower the unemployment rate amongst the blind. The bill introduced by Senator Dodd and Senator McCane is called the Blind Persons Return to Work Act of 2010. If passed, it would change the social security disability rules to encourage the blind to go back to work rather than punishing them for earning money. As it stands, there is an income cap if you are on SSDI. Instead of taking a person's benefits away once they reach that cap, the law would change to allow benefits to slowly be eliminated. This will hopefully encourage people to go back to work because they know they wouldn't lose their benefits immediately. There is a 70% unemployment rate in the working age blind population and the threat of losing social security benefits is one of the reasons it's so high. This bill will help those on SSDI, but it will not help those on SSI. Maybe at some point there will be a better way to help younger blind people find work so that they can earn SSDI, and not spend their whole lives on SSI because they can't get work.

I hope that both these bills pass and get signed by the president.

Creating User POI's in Mobile Geo

This weeks lesson with mobile geo taught me about user Points of Interest (POI). One of the great things about mobile geo and Sendero GPS is that you can create your own POI's. I think in particular these will really come in handy on my college campus. Since the POI's built into GPS systems really only cover particular buildings, this may not be enough information for the blind to find where we need to go.

Yesterday I created three POI's. These included my home, the bus stop I use, and the library on LBCC's campus. One of my plans to help orient me to the college campus is to create user POI's for the buildings I use. I would like to create POI's for my actual class rooms, but I often lose my satellite connection once I'm in a building. At least though getting to the buildings should be easier.

One of the cool things about Sendero is that they're creating a database of user POI's. THis means that users can create the POI's and upload them to the web. Then when you update your map you will get the new POI's that were created by other users. If you are a current Sendero GPS user, here is the site to find out more about the user POI database.

Next week I plan on using my user POI's to get places and I'll let you know how it goes. I also hope to create a pedestrian route to somewhere in town I want to go, that I don't know how to get to on my own.

Is Braille Doomed to Become Obsolete?

There has been a lot of talk about whether braille should still be taught and used. In a recent New York Times article, the author points out that braille really just costs too much. Another blogger, compared braille to Latin, and concluded that since text to speech is more prevalent and less costly than maybe braille should die out just as Latin has. The problem with both of these philosophies is that they both ignore the facts. The fact is that most of the small number of people who are blind and employed are braille readers. Also if you take away braille, then you are stripping away the ability for the blind to connect to language in the same way their sighted peers do.

In some recent posts I have talked to you about my goal to improve my braille skills. One of the reasons I'm doing this is because I want to become a teacher for the blind, but I'm also doing it because it's a completely different experience than reading using my ears. Reading using my hands is the only way for me to recreate what it was like to read with my eyes. Not even the greatest audio book can do that. .

The system for the blind to be able to read and write has only existed for 200 years and now people already want to throw it away? That's not only unreasonable, it's likely not what the blind community really wants. What this feels like to me is the sighted world believing that because there aren't enough braille instructors, and because producing braille can cost more, that using it is a waste of time.

In my Introduction to Education class I will be researching how knowing braille effects how well a visually impaired child does in school. When I'm finished with my project I will report on my findings. I have a feeling that I'm likely to find that braille helps children in reading, writing, and math rather than hurts them. I also believe that I will find that children who use all the technology that is available to them will do better in school. Braille is one of many tools that the blind have access to, and if we're smart and we care about our visually impaired children then we'll do everything we can to make sure braille always exists.

What are your feelings about the role of braille? If you know braille, do you think your life would be the same if you never learned it?

Using Accessible GPS for the First Time

In November of last year I started working part time for Sendero Group. I am in charge of their social media, so if you're a fan of their facebook page, or you follow them on twitter, then now you know who is behind all that great content. I have really enjoyed learning more about the company and working with the team. Since I represent them online, it seems important that I learn how to use their products. So starting this week my goals are to learn how to use mobile geo and sendero GPS on the Voice Sense.

I will admit now that as techie as I am, I've never owned an accessible cell phone or PDA. So when I turned on my demo cell phone this week, I realized that not only would I be learning about mobile geo, but I would also be learning about mobile speak. I haven't downloaded the manual yet, but I have a feeling I will get to that point. For now, I am exploring, and seeing what I can learn on my own.

I am proud to say that I have already created a route, and learned how to use mobile geo to tell you where you are as you drive or walk along. Creating a route was quite tedious because I was unsure of all the steps, but I think that now that I understand the process, inputing addresses will be much easier. I really enjoyed having mobile geo tell me where I was when I was on the bus because I now know what streets we use. When I use the city bus, they have a built in GPS that announces every stop, but when I'm using the bus to go to my community college, there is no GPS.

I hope to take you along with me on this journey. If you are a mobile geo or Sendero GPS user, please feel free to give me any tips, and if you're not, maybe these blog posts will inspire you to start using an accessible GPS.

Should Braille Instruction Be Mandatory?

In Nebraska, the state legislature is considering a law that would require all visually impaired children to learn braille. As I've mentioned before, the NFB estimates that only 10% of blind children in the nation are literate in braille. I agree with them that this is a big problem, the question is, will mandating braille instruction solve the problem.

One of Nebraska's state senators, who himself is blind was the person who proposed the bill. If passed, braille instruction would be mandatory unless the parents object. Also, braille instruction would start in elementary school regardless of the child's level of vision loss. This would mean that people like me who could read print at an early age would learn braille early even though I might not need it until later. The belief of the supporters is that early braille instruction will increase reading and writing speed and comprehension, which will in turn make the blind and visually impaired more employable. Although braille is not a requirement for most jobs, 70% of the blind population that has a job knows and uses braille.

The opposers to the bill don't think the law is necessary because it goes against the philosophy that education should be personalized to the child's needs, and the belief that there just isn't enough teachers to fulfill the requirement. The other problem with the bill is that braille instructors would have to be nationally certified through a specific program before they could continue to teach braille.

In this case I feel that both sides have valid arguments. On the one hand increasing braille literacy should be a goal for the nation, but on the other hand, making braille a requirement can't truly be achieved until there is enough instructors. I also don't believe that instructors should have to be nationally certified, especially if they've gone to school to become a teacher for the blind.

The NFB is currently working on a recruitment plan to increase the numbers of teachers for the blind. As someone who is pursuing that career, I hope their campaign is successful, but until we increase the number of qualified professionals, I'm not sure mandating braille instruction is the way to go.

What do you think? Do you feel mandating braille instruction is the solution to the braille literacy problem, or is there another way?

Here is the link to the article discussing this issue.