REVOLUTION IN THE AIR
Whatever your political views, you might to some extent, agree with me that times are tough for less able people. Some of our blind mates too, are losing their jobs, having their benefit cut and noticing their local services diminish. Yes, so is everyone else or rather others who can’t defend themselves and their way of life. We still hear that decisions about us are being made by wealthy people who can’t possibly know what it is like to struggle financially, socially or physically. So all this begins to raise questions about what, if anything, we can do about it.
In North Africa and the Arab world, we have witnessed an outpouring of expressive anger. People are thinking they could manage quite well without their greedy, wealthy despotic rulers who have done so little to better the living standards of their citizens. In the day of the internet, no one now believes in the divine right to rule and our brothers in the Arab world have shown great bravery in standing up and putting their very lives at risk.
So how does all this affect blind and other disadvantaged UK citizens when things don’t seem to be fairly going our way. Can we strike like a trade union? Can we fill a major London square for days? Can we refuse to cooperate with local or central government totally and not pay our dues or have our forms filled in? Can we rely on and trust those who claim to speak on behalf of us? Should RNIB, GDAB and Action For Blind People indeed speak for us? And what about the wealth issue? If my mate is now on £60 per week after a lifetime of work, should the people who claim to speak on his behalf receive salaries from £25,000 right up to over £100,000 when they don’t really seem to be making so much difference to his life?
With these thoughts in my mind, I read recently that the cost of blindness in the UK is a massive £20 something Billion each year. I have no idea how this is calculated but I am sure that a huge chunk of this represents the salaries of the many professionals who do good things on our behalf. The cost of blindness that does not and never can appear in the accounts is represented by the unpaid efforts of our families and friends. In the Big Society and the Smaller State, there is little reason to suppose that human unpaid-for support will diminish. Allowing for human nature, a good deal of the whinging and squealing from professional bodies might jus be at least partially motivated by the threat to their own jobs and status in society. But there is an even more interesting aspect arising out of the current challenging situation. Maybe now is the time for blind people to relearn to stand on their own feet, make their own stories and successes. Here are just a few examples: Instead of relying on Incapacity Benefit and no work, why not supplement the new and lower benefits by doing a little paid work but not telling the world about it. Instead of waiting to be taken to places, why not actually finding and asking a travel buddy to show you the way once or twice and then being brave enough to travel alone. Instead of of joining the general moan about UK transport not announcing stops and stations, why not make the effort to speak up and say, once or twice, ‘where are we’ or ‘Please could you tell me when we get to my stop’. And lastly and much more controversially, why not speak up and say as blind individuals what we ourselves really want. Do we want millions each year to go to large national charities or would we prefer the balance to shift to local provision and services? Do we want our big charities to involve with technology or would we prefer any public money that is going be spent encouraging small private companies to develop what we need? Of course, the argument can work the other way. Would we prefer to shut down some local dominos clubs and better spend the money on nationally significant projects.
Back then to the stirrings in the Arab world and North Africa. For my part, I have seen no evidence of such stirring spreading to the blind world so maybe we just need a mechanism to make our voices heard. This coming weekend, I am playing a part in a weekend which will teach ten young blind people how to make their own websites to get their young voices heard. A very small step, I agree; but we don’t have to sit silent and be told what to do by seeing wealthy people unless we choose to or can’t be bothered to change things. I will report on the kids weekend in another blog.
Showing posts with label blind people. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blind people. Show all posts
Friday, 18 March 2011
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Well, sadly, this blog has been a long time coming but at least there is some news to report.
There is a new version of Thunder up there on www.screenreader.net and some useful improvements too.
You will find three options: the first, thunder.exe is what you need if you just want to install Thunder and run it from your usual computer.
The second, let’s you use a memory stick, a thumb drive, and use Thunder on any machine. You just push the memory stick with Thunder on it, into a USB drive and away you go. The download is a .zip file. So you copy that zip file on to the memory stick and unzip it again on the memory stick – unzip here.
The third option probably won’t concern most home users. But Thunder is increasingly being used in schools, colleges, and other organisations. In such cases, the network manager will want Thunder as an MSI file so she can control the way it behaves on the various machines.
Of course, all versions are free to anyone in the world and we very much want to hear from you how you get on with Thunder. We mostly receive good reports and lots of encouragement but there will always be problems with computers and software. We can only learn from your feedback and strive to improve things.
We do encourage you to make a donation towards our work if you are pleased with what you get. We are not money-grabbers but do have monthly expenses in running this service.
You will find some improvements to both Thunder and to WebbIE too. There is a new set of help and support files. You will see on the website or should I say see or hear, a link with the title “First Help”. This is for complete beginners and gives you a start as to which keys to be pressing. The other help files in Thunder help were written by a volunteer great supporter who is a user himself who does not see the screen.
Always on the move, we shall be spending time next week planning ahead how we are going to improve Thunder and the web even more. It works fine on corporate websites where lots of cash has been spent but the web is changing fast and many of us are board with corporate stuff and want to do our own thing and listen to others doing their own thing too. And it is not reasonable to expect such home-spun websites to be so accessible. We have been looking at Facebook, Youtube and Twitter amongst others. Great fun and it won’t be long before we show you how to enjoy such pleasures.
There is a new version of Thunder up there on www.screenreader.net and some useful improvements too.
You will find three options: the first, thunder.exe is what you need if you just want to install Thunder and run it from your usual computer.
The second, let’s you use a memory stick, a thumb drive, and use Thunder on any machine. You just push the memory stick with Thunder on it, into a USB drive and away you go. The download is a .zip file. So you copy that zip file on to the memory stick and unzip it again on the memory stick – unzip here.
The third option probably won’t concern most home users. But Thunder is increasingly being used in schools, colleges, and other organisations. In such cases, the network manager will want Thunder as an MSI file so she can control the way it behaves on the various machines.
Of course, all versions are free to anyone in the world and we very much want to hear from you how you get on with Thunder. We mostly receive good reports and lots of encouragement but there will always be problems with computers and software. We can only learn from your feedback and strive to improve things.
We do encourage you to make a donation towards our work if you are pleased with what you get. We are not money-grabbers but do have monthly expenses in running this service.
You will find some improvements to both Thunder and to WebbIE too. There is a new set of help and support files. You will see on the website or should I say see or hear, a link with the title “First Help”. This is for complete beginners and gives you a start as to which keys to be pressing. The other help files in Thunder help were written by a volunteer great supporter who is a user himself who does not see the screen.
Always on the move, we shall be spending time next week planning ahead how we are going to improve Thunder and the web even more. It works fine on corporate websites where lots of cash has been spent but the web is changing fast and many of us are board with corporate stuff and want to do our own thing and listen to others doing their own thing too. And it is not reasonable to expect such home-spun websites to be so accessible. We have been looking at Facebook, Youtube and Twitter amongst others. Great fun and it won’t be long before we show you how to enjoy such pleasures.
Monday, 3 November 2008
MORE THUNDER SUCCESS
Blog: More Success for Thunder
Sometimes, but not very often, we feel the need to moan. It’s a bad old world and when thousands of people are so misused in the Congo and Jonathan Ross gets the BBC News headlines in the UK…well one could lose hope. Similarly, we sometimes wonder if we really can include poor blind people in the computer age when so many large blindness organisations only bang on about software which is absolutely out of reach of millions of pockets. But then we get fabulous emails from Thunder users and some formal recognition from “the powers that be”.
So Thunder is up for two more awards before Christmas and has won its first small Government contract here in the UK.
TalkTalk is a leading provider here of mobile phones and Broadband internet services. TalkTalk has a good reputation for being straightforward and not too expensive at the same time. Thunder has been given an award for IT services to disadvantaged communities and Margaret and I are off to the House of Lords on Wednesday for the presentation. We also get a business mentoring session with Martha Lane-Fox, the best known co-founder of lastminute.com.
And on December 1 we both get what looks like being a great night out in London. We are short-listed as Disabled Social Entrepreneur of the Year, UK hosted by RADAR at the Battersea Evolution. We should rub shoulders with the great and the good from Government and the private sector and spread the word on behalf of blind people needing computers which they can enjoy using.
We don’t, of course, regard such prizes as personal to us. But they do help Thunder, Sensory Software Ltd and Screenreader.net CIC to become known and this has the effect of bringing in more and more supporters and users. Its possible, for example, that our Ministry for Communities award for services to e-participation earlier in the year has played a part in us getting our first UK Government contract..
The UK Ministry of Justice website is technically accessible according to agreed standards. But that’s only part of the story from a blind user’s viewpoint. So we will provide specialist helpline support by telephone or email, to help individuals who need to perform a specific task on the website which is proving a challenge. If they struggle to do what they need to do about a passport, the individual can get in touch with our helpline and be guided through the process. And they won’t be told to click on this or that because our helpline people are visually impaired themselves and know the challenges of not being able to see the mouse pointer.
Lastly, its great to come across another company who wants to make something free for those not able to afford the costly stuff. Jarte (www.jarte.com) is such a company in the word processing sector. The creators of Jarte have produced something which just works out of the box – a simple word processor which will do all the things us normal people want to do at home or in a small business. But its small and friendly and not like the Titanic unwieldy liner which most of us come across at work. Jarte have agreed to make it work with Thunder, like it does already with other screenreaders, at the next version but if anyone wants to trial it now, please email me and I will pass on the simple instruction which will take just a couple of lines.
Sometimes, but not very often, we feel the need to moan. It’s a bad old world and when thousands of people are so misused in the Congo and Jonathan Ross gets the BBC News headlines in the UK…well one could lose hope. Similarly, we sometimes wonder if we really can include poor blind people in the computer age when so many large blindness organisations only bang on about software which is absolutely out of reach of millions of pockets. But then we get fabulous emails from Thunder users and some formal recognition from “the powers that be”.
So Thunder is up for two more awards before Christmas and has won its first small Government contract here in the UK.
TalkTalk is a leading provider here of mobile phones and Broadband internet services. TalkTalk has a good reputation for being straightforward and not too expensive at the same time. Thunder has been given an award for IT services to disadvantaged communities and Margaret and I are off to the House of Lords on Wednesday for the presentation. We also get a business mentoring session with Martha Lane-Fox, the best known co-founder of lastminute.com.
And on December 1 we both get what looks like being a great night out in London. We are short-listed as Disabled Social Entrepreneur of the Year, UK hosted by RADAR at the Battersea Evolution. We should rub shoulders with the great and the good from Government and the private sector and spread the word on behalf of blind people needing computers which they can enjoy using.
We don’t, of course, regard such prizes as personal to us. But they do help Thunder, Sensory Software Ltd and Screenreader.net CIC to become known and this has the effect of bringing in more and more supporters and users. Its possible, for example, that our Ministry for Communities award for services to e-participation earlier in the year has played a part in us getting our first UK Government contract..
The UK Ministry of Justice website is technically accessible according to agreed standards. But that’s only part of the story from a blind user’s viewpoint. So we will provide specialist helpline support by telephone or email, to help individuals who need to perform a specific task on the website which is proving a challenge. If they struggle to do what they need to do about a passport, the individual can get in touch with our helpline and be guided through the process. And they won’t be told to click on this or that because our helpline people are visually impaired themselves and know the challenges of not being able to see the mouse pointer.
Lastly, its great to come across another company who wants to make something free for those not able to afford the costly stuff. Jarte (www.jarte.com) is such a company in the word processing sector. The creators of Jarte have produced something which just works out of the box – a simple word processor which will do all the things us normal people want to do at home or in a small business. But its small and friendly and not like the Titanic unwieldy liner which most of us come across at work. Jarte have agreed to make it work with Thunder, like it does already with other screenreaders, at the next version but if anyone wants to trial it now, please email me and I will pass on the simple instruction which will take just a couple of lines.
Tuesday, 21 October 2008
The Credit Crunch and Greetings Cards
The Credit Crunch and Greetings Cards.
There is so much economic gloom and doom about these days, one wonders how people with little or no sight will survive and of course we will.
I was born in 1940 in the West Midlands, UK with bombs falling by night and visiting the hospital several times each week. So, from my perspective, things have greatly improved. And its great to hear that individual spirit remains undeterred. Organisations serving our interests might cut back, re-organise and come up with new strategies but here below is an example of two great individuals bringing something rather special to our market. So please encourage them.
Thursday, 9/10/08, was World Sight Day which is this year dedicated to raising awareness of visual loss amongst older people. To coincide with this awareness raising event a visually impaired couple launched an innovative venture which hopes, in some way, to help partially sighted older people and younger ones too! Jim and Linda Lawson launched Easy2C, producing a very different type of greetings card which is, as it says on the tin, easy to see for anyone with a sight loss who can still read a little. Both the artwork and print size have been carefully designed to match the needs of those losing vision and those with conditions such as Macular Degeneration or Glaucoma.
The card designs are produced by a visually impaired artist qualified to degree level, Rachel Duerden, and the paper, envelopes and inserts are made from managed forests, thus environmentally friendly. 5% of the profits will go back to charities supporting and selling our work, commencing with Henshaws Society for Blind People who have very kindly offered their knowledge and assistance to get the venture off the ground and host the points of sale for Jim and Linda.
Easy2C was created because so many older people receive cards they cannot read and often have to ask others to read them for them or just guess the name of the sender. Of those who have seen these new cards, the reaction has been fantastic. The greetings can be tailor made for different occasions as well as buying the standard greetings off the shelf. For further information contact Easy2C on 01704 573199 or Henshaws in Liverpool on 0151 557 1226.
I don’t know how many hours I have spent with a powerful magnifying glass trying to puzzle out who our Christmas cards are from.
Our sales of scanning software and higher quality voices have certainly dropped off over the past month but we continue to receive requests for computer training. We don’t get grants from the Government and we have no contract work these days to lose. I would remind you that our free Thunder software will not further drop in price, however bad any recession might get and we won’t stop giving our time and energy to blind people needing their computer questions answered.
You can see from all this that I remain pretty up-beat about things and just admire ordinary people like Linda and Jim who keep having a go, coming up with something straightforward that meets a need.
There is so much economic gloom and doom about these days, one wonders how people with little or no sight will survive and of course we will.
I was born in 1940 in the West Midlands, UK with bombs falling by night and visiting the hospital several times each week. So, from my perspective, things have greatly improved. And its great to hear that individual spirit remains undeterred. Organisations serving our interests might cut back, re-organise and come up with new strategies but here below is an example of two great individuals bringing something rather special to our market. So please encourage them.
Thursday, 9/10/08, was World Sight Day which is this year dedicated to raising awareness of visual loss amongst older people. To coincide with this awareness raising event a visually impaired couple launched an innovative venture which hopes, in some way, to help partially sighted older people and younger ones too! Jim and Linda Lawson launched Easy2C, producing a very different type of greetings card which is, as it says on the tin, easy to see for anyone with a sight loss who can still read a little. Both the artwork and print size have been carefully designed to match the needs of those losing vision and those with conditions such as Macular Degeneration or Glaucoma.
The card designs are produced by a visually impaired artist qualified to degree level, Rachel Duerden, and the paper, envelopes and inserts are made from managed forests, thus environmentally friendly. 5% of the profits will go back to charities supporting and selling our work, commencing with Henshaws Society for Blind People who have very kindly offered their knowledge and assistance to get the venture off the ground and host the points of sale for Jim and Linda.
Easy2C was created because so many older people receive cards they cannot read and often have to ask others to read them for them or just guess the name of the sender. Of those who have seen these new cards, the reaction has been fantastic. The greetings can be tailor made for different occasions as well as buying the standard greetings off the shelf. For further information contact Easy2C on 01704 573199 or Henshaws in Liverpool on 0151 557 1226.
I don’t know how many hours I have spent with a powerful magnifying glass trying to puzzle out who our Christmas cards are from.
Our sales of scanning software and higher quality voices have certainly dropped off over the past month but we continue to receive requests for computer training. We don’t get grants from the Government and we have no contract work these days to lose. I would remind you that our free Thunder software will not further drop in price, however bad any recession might get and we won’t stop giving our time and energy to blind people needing their computer questions answered.
You can see from all this that I remain pretty up-beat about things and just admire ordinary people like Linda and Jim who keep having a go, coming up with something straightforward that meets a need.
Monday, 4 February 2008
Blog: 4Free4All comes a bit nearer.
This last week has been pretty good for us and our free software cause. From Florida came a grand announcement that the Serotek Corporation too have launched one of their internet products as a freeby, SA2GO. There is a good deal of detailed information at http://blog.serotek.com/ which is the Serotek blog site. The AIR Foundation boldly states that “accessibility is a fundamental human right, regardless of financial or geographic constraints”. So now blind and partially sighted computer users worldwide have more free software at their fingertips as well as our Thunder and WebbIE.
But I was much more excited on Thursday to have access to an Apple notebook with Leopard installed. If that means nothing to you then read on and share my excitement.
Leopard is the latest Apple operating system and it comes with good quality and usable speech built in. I was able to listen to iTunes without special scripts or fuss. And then I discovered the magnification potential which is stunning. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, hold down the Control Key and move the mousewheel to control the level of magnification. With my old level of seeing I would have killed for that facility. But the greatest Apple gift this time round for me was that, when I plugged in my Alva Braille Display, Oh yes, it just worked and that is the tops.
So let’s look forward to this free access thing booming and its wonderful to know that we are not the only ones in the business. Our Thunder software is stable, efficient and innovative but we don’t mind at all being pushed to greater achievements by others with a similar mission and we are delighted that our users have a growing choice of free software.
Thunder already has five languages under its belt and well over 70,000 people have downloaded it. On Friday, out of the blue, came an offer to begin translation into Turkish…and so it goes on. Slowly but surely, there is a realisation that the costly traditional screenreader solutions have made a marvellous contribution to computer access for blind people but…and this takes nothing away from their achievement…its now getting time for 4Free4All and not just the elitist few receiving Government or charitable support to enjoy the computer age.
This last week has been pretty good for us and our free software cause. From Florida came a grand announcement that the Serotek Corporation too have launched one of their internet products as a freeby, SA2GO. There is a good deal of detailed information at http://blog.serotek.com/ which is the Serotek blog site. The AIR Foundation boldly states that “accessibility is a fundamental human right, regardless of financial or geographic constraints”. So now blind and partially sighted computer users worldwide have more free software at their fingertips as well as our Thunder and WebbIE.
But I was much more excited on Thursday to have access to an Apple notebook with Leopard installed. If that means nothing to you then read on and share my excitement.
Leopard is the latest Apple operating system and it comes with good quality and usable speech built in. I was able to listen to iTunes without special scripts or fuss. And then I discovered the magnification potential which is stunning. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, hold down the Control Key and move the mousewheel to control the level of magnification. With my old level of seeing I would have killed for that facility. But the greatest Apple gift this time round for me was that, when I plugged in my Alva Braille Display, Oh yes, it just worked and that is the tops.
So let’s look forward to this free access thing booming and its wonderful to know that we are not the only ones in the business. Our Thunder software is stable, efficient and innovative but we don’t mind at all being pushed to greater achievements by others with a similar mission and we are delighted that our users have a growing choice of free software.
Thunder already has five languages under its belt and well over 70,000 people have downloaded it. On Friday, out of the blue, came an offer to begin translation into Turkish…and so it goes on. Slowly but surely, there is a realisation that the costly traditional screenreader solutions have made a marvellous contribution to computer access for blind people but…and this takes nothing away from their achievement…its now getting time for 4Free4All and not just the elitist few receiving Government or charitable support to enjoy the computer age.
Wednesday, 26 December 2007
Blog: Christmas And All That
Blog: Christmas And All That.
Its that time in the year here in the UK when Christmas dinner and Boxing Day left-overs are eaten to excess and you are off out for a walk if sensible or sat down to your computer if you are well…in this case, thinking of friends and colleagues. 2007 has been a great year for us at Screenreader.net in many ways and it has been fantastic to be in touch with so many people round the world. There have been the odd problem or two, but in the main, most people have successfully downloaded our Thunder software and are hopefully enjoying their computers as a result. Certainly, the feedback has been tremendous and we love to hear of newcomers reading, writing, exploring the web, listening to masses of music and reading books, being entertained or even educated by podcasts on all sorts of subjects, as well as having access to radio stations on from all over the world.
The Thunder software has not only changed many of your lives but ours also. As a computer trainer, I used to have to spend hours on trains and it took two or three days to teach just one individual some of the tricks of the trade. Now I only teach here in my own home and the tutorial material goes round the world by magic and lands in many homes and schools where there is seeing help and a great wish to learn. In a strange way too, its absolutely marvellous that no money is involved. Its wonderful to give instead of having to sell and giving does mean that those with less or no money can come into the party too.
But its no good just smugly looking back on a good year unless we make time to plan for 2008. Friends tease me by saying I have no idea how to plan and I admit to being better reacting than setting out and sticking to a To-Do list. But we already have things in mind for the coming year: We need to finalise the European project which puts Thunder into five EU languages; We are committed to producing the first learning difficulties version of our talking software for those who struggle with words and learning and we very much want to get our software accepted into schools and colleges where budgets are restricted. And we must, of course, attend to the thorny issue of fund-raising and income generation because, if we fail to bring in money, we just collapse and are no use to any one.
I don’t actually know how many people take time to read The Blind Blogger; there is so much on the web, so much to look at or listen to and I know from my own experience that its only possible to do so much. But whoever you are, man woman, child, and whatever your country, religion, size and shape, be happy, do well, strive to achieve, and don’t harm any one else. If you want to write to us and tell us about yourself, that would be just terrific and have a fulfilling new year, 2008. Thank you too, for supporting us and telling other people about us.
Its that time in the year here in the UK when Christmas dinner and Boxing Day left-overs are eaten to excess and you are off out for a walk if sensible or sat down to your computer if you are well…in this case, thinking of friends and colleagues. 2007 has been a great year for us at Screenreader.net in many ways and it has been fantastic to be in touch with so many people round the world. There have been the odd problem or two, but in the main, most people have successfully downloaded our Thunder software and are hopefully enjoying their computers as a result. Certainly, the feedback has been tremendous and we love to hear of newcomers reading, writing, exploring the web, listening to masses of music and reading books, being entertained or even educated by podcasts on all sorts of subjects, as well as having access to radio stations on from all over the world.
The Thunder software has not only changed many of your lives but ours also. As a computer trainer, I used to have to spend hours on trains and it took two or three days to teach just one individual some of the tricks of the trade. Now I only teach here in my own home and the tutorial material goes round the world by magic and lands in many homes and schools where there is seeing help and a great wish to learn. In a strange way too, its absolutely marvellous that no money is involved. Its wonderful to give instead of having to sell and giving does mean that those with less or no money can come into the party too.
But its no good just smugly looking back on a good year unless we make time to plan for 2008. Friends tease me by saying I have no idea how to plan and I admit to being better reacting than setting out and sticking to a To-Do list. But we already have things in mind for the coming year: We need to finalise the European project which puts Thunder into five EU languages; We are committed to producing the first learning difficulties version of our talking software for those who struggle with words and learning and we very much want to get our software accepted into schools and colleges where budgets are restricted. And we must, of course, attend to the thorny issue of fund-raising and income generation because, if we fail to bring in money, we just collapse and are no use to any one.
I don’t actually know how many people take time to read The Blind Blogger; there is so much on the web, so much to look at or listen to and I know from my own experience that its only possible to do so much. But whoever you are, man woman, child, and whatever your country, religion, size and shape, be happy, do well, strive to achieve, and don’t harm any one else. If you want to write to us and tell us about yourself, that would be just terrific and have a fulfilling new year, 2008. Thank you too, for supporting us and telling other people about us.
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