Thunder Wins E-Democracy International Award

Thunder Wins E-Democracy International Award

Quite unexpectedly, we were delighted to receive a phone call saying that we had won a prestigious international award and we were hurrying down to London by train to enjoy nibbles, wine and good company. There is nothing like the feeling of winning. We know we are doing the right thing by blind people as we deliver a free option; but its great to be recognised officially.

So what is all this E-Democracy and E-Participation business all about?

Its far more than voting machines. When I was a Head Teacher, I could not even fill in forms or tick the school register. Going into a normal library has never been a thrill for me because I needed help to find the inquiry counter, let alone the frustration of all those unreadable printed books.

But now blind people everywhere can get to a computer, have the Thunder software installed and learn to use it. This means we can read about our rulers, councillors, officials, and fill in forms, know what is going on and write up our views, complaints or solutions.

The building blocks of society are the individuals, the communities, the representatives and the leaders. Amongst many other benefits, the talking computer enables those of us with little or no sight to join in, have our say, and very much extend our ability to participate. We got our award for services to E-Democracy and E-Participation for making this possible for the world blind community. The technology is not new but our Thunder technology is easier to use than most and its free to everyone.

The award was given by Parmjit Dhandra, UK Minister for Communities. The commendation says:

Ministerial Award for e-local participation 2008.

. Dear Mr Hinds

ICELE (International Centre of Excellence for Local E-democracy) Ministerial Award

May I offer you my congratulations on Screenreader.net winning the ICELE Ministerial Award for making a difference to local communities.

The Thunder tool is clearly an invaluable product which enables the previously excluded to take a fuller role in their communities using technology. By empowering over 100,000 people you have made a difference and no doubt touched the lives of many. With the free tool Screenreader.net is providing, you are enhancing Society by matching opportunities for engagement with the opportunities for democracy that technology can potentially offer.

I would like to thank you for entering the awards and wishing Screenreader.net every success on taking forward this innovative and life-changing tool to the rest of Europe.

Yours sincerely

Parmjit Dhanda MP

So what is ICELE (International Centre of Excellence for Local E-democracy) all about? Probably most of us spend our days taking democracy and inclusion in society for granted and grumbling when petty things go wrong for us. But there are innovators with big visions who work behind the scenes on our behalf and such an organisation is ICELE. The ICELE brings people together who are concerned with empowering and engaging communities. The website is http://www.icele.org and their work goes far beyond the UK.

We are proud to have been chosen for this award.

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.

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.

Podcast Made Easy

Blog: Podcasts

As part of the rapid move towards listening to radio broadcasts when you want to instead of the old-fashioned way, the Thunder download includes some software called Podcatcher. You will find it in All Programs under Accessibles; but you can always have it put into your Start Menu for convenience.

When you run Podcatcher, you will find some podcast options already there but the chances are they are not what you really want. So here is how to grab at a podcast and make it available. Sorry to be UK-boring, but that’s where I live and you can always adapt the instructions to your own situation.

So if we want to hear the weekly podcast of the BBC program for blind listeners we open up WebbIE, press Control + W and type in “bbc in touch podcast” without the quotes. Press Enter and Cursor Down until you hear those words. Press Enter again and, at the time of writing, you will be taken to http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/podcasts/intouch/.Press. Press Control + F and type in “feed url” Without the quotes. Press Enter.

Highlight the URL which in this case is http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/intouch/rss.xml, copy it with Control + C and then open up Podcatcher in readiness to paste it in the appropriate place and add it to the podcast list. There are more than one hundred BBC podcasts as well as the In Touch one.

With Podcatcher on the screen, press the Alt Key and Right Cursor once to hear the menu item Podcasts and Cursor Down to Add Podcatcher and press Enter.

You will be asked to enter the name of the podcast, which you could call BBC In Touch, in this case. Press Enter. You will then be asked to enter the web address or URL so press control + V to paste it in and press Enter.

Be patient while the connections are made and next time you go into Podcatcher you will have your new podcast waiting for you and it will be updated each week.

When you further explore Podcatcher, you will find the menu option to remove those podcasts you don’t like. Using the Control + W routine you can type in podcast and almost any subject and you will get to what you might want. I even typed in podcast talking microwave and got several audio descriptions. The days are long gone when we are restricted to formal broadcasts. Each of us can spread our word and our ideas. Its great.

Of course, as well as listening to such podcasts on your computer or laptop, you can download them and listen at your leisure in the garden or on the train via some kind of iPod. Podcatcher is free with free Thunder and so I want to tell you about a low cost tiny device called Zen Stone. I went into the local computer chain store and asked for an iPod with no screen. I was offered the Zen Stone, just 1 GB, for the princely sum of £27.50 pence. I got it home, plugged it into the USB computer port and left it to charge for the suggested four hours.

Within My Computer, Thunder found it and I was able to download my chosen podcasts, carry the Zen Stone and headphones in my jacket pocket and listen on the train. The Zen Stone is made by Creative Labs and it feels just like a large bean with tiny switches. Its totally accessible, being made for joggers who don’t want to look at a screen. The instructions are brief and scanned perfectly for me to listen to but, honestly, there is little to learn. There seem to be lots of iPods out there and the challenge is to find the one that you can use and afford.

Well, enjoy podcasting the easy way. It just takes a little time and trouble to get into the routine.

NEW BRAILLE

Louis Braille (From the RNIB Website, 2007
The NEW Braille from The Blind Blogger, sometime in the future.

Louis Braille (From the RNIB Website, 2007

Louis Braille invented "braille" , a world wide system of embossed type used by blind and partially sighted people for reading and writing. It has been adapted to almost every known language, from Albanian to Zulu.

He died in 1852 and, for a while, it seemed as if this system would die with the inventor. Thankfully a few key people realised the importance of this invention. In 1868 ,
Link 13: Dr Thomas Armitage
led a group of four blind men to found the British and Foreign Society for Improving the Embossed Literature of the Blind.

This small band of friends grew and grew to become Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) . We are now the largest publisher of braille in Europe. Our pioneering work helps anyone with a sight problem.

Where does the story begin?
Louis Braille was born in a small town near Paris on 4 January 1809.

One day when Louis Braille was a small boy, he crept into his father's workshop to play. He had often seen his father making shoes and he decided he would like to try. He picked up an awl, a sharp, pointed tool used for making holes in leather. As he bent over, the awl slipped and pierced his eye, destroying it forever. Some time later his other eye became infected by the first and he lost his sight altogether . He was aged only 4, but still went on to become one of the most famous Frenchmen ever to live.

Louis Braille's school years
Despite his sight loss the young child attended the village school with his sighted friends for two years. Eventually it became clear that he would not be able to learn much more, largely because he could not read or write. Without an education it was likely that he would have to beg on the streets, like other blind people at that time.

At the age of ten he was lucky enough to be sent to a school for blind boys in Paris, one of the first in the world. Conditions in the school were very harsh. The building was damp and unhealthy and discipline was severe. Pupils who misbehaved were beaten, locked up and given stale bread and water. In fact, this kind of discipline was common in all schools at that time. Life was harsh for nearly everyone and most sighted children left school at the age of 12 and went to work in factories or in mines.

At the school in Paris the blind pupils were taught practical skills like chair caning and slipper making so that when they left the school they would be able to make a living. Once a week, after lunch, the boys were taken for a walk in the park, linked together by a long rope.

They were also taught to read but not to write . The letters they read were raised above the surface of the page so that they could feel them with their fingertips. This form of writing was very difficult to read because it was very hard to tell the letters apart. The letters were printed by pressing copper wire into one side of the paper to make a raised shape on the other. Because each individual letter had to be made out of wire first and because the wire then had to be forced into the paper with a press blind people were unable to write anything for themselves.

One day something happened that changed the lives of blind people forever. In 1821 , a soldier named Charles Barbier visited Louis' school. He bought with him a system he had invented called "night writing" . Night writing had originally been designed so that soldiers could pass instructions along trenches at night without having to talk and give their positions away. It consisted of twelve raised dots which could be combined to represent different sounds. Unfortunately it proved to be too complex for soldiers to master and was therefore rejected by the army.

How did he develop braille?
The young Louis Braille quickly realised how useful this system of raised dots could be, provided it was simplified. Over the next few months he experimented with different systems until he found an ideal system using six dots . He continued to work on the scheme for several years after, developing separate codes for maths and music. In 1827 the first book in braille was published.

Even so, the new system did not catch on immediately. Sighted people did not understand how useful braille could be and one head teacher at the school even banned the children from learning it. Fortunately this seemed to have the effect of encouraging the children even more and they took to learning it in secret. Eventually even sighted people began to realise the benefits of the new system.

Not only could people with sight problems read braille but they could also write it for themselves using a simple stylus to make the dots. For the first time blind and partially sighted people began to be truly independent and to take control of their own lives.

What did he go on to do?
Louis Braille eventually became a teacher in the school where he had been a student. He was admired and respected by his pupils but, unfortunately, he did not live to see his system widely adopted. He had always been plagued by ill health and in 1852, at the age of 43, he died from tuberculosis .

In France itself, Louis Braille's achievement was finally recognised by the state. In 1952 his body was moved to Paris where it was buried in the Pantheon, the home of France's national heroes.

The Modern Braille from The Blind Blogger, sometime in the future.

The modern Braille is the computer that talks or magnifies what is on the screen or what is typed from the keyboard. Blind and partially sighted people all over the world are taught to use the computer in this way. We take it for granted that they can read and write, send and receive emails, surf the web, fill in forms and play a full part in Society.

The old Braille was invented by a Frenchman called Louis Braille who lost his sight as a child in a family workshop accident.

The modern talking computer was invented back in the last quarter of the Twentieth Century but we don’t have a name for the inventor.

For years blind people had to pay lots of money to purchase the software that gave them accessibility and they had to pay lots more money to be trained to use the computers. The great step forward came about in 2006 when a far-sighted small band of friends, two blind people and a talented Professor of Assistive Technology, got together and made the talking software free to all blind people as a download on the web.

At first the organisations of the blind and the commercial providers of the expensive alternatives did not take the free software seriously. As time went on they then grudgingly sought to portray it as inferior and not very functional, while continuing to profit from sales of the costly software.

But the blind couple and the clever Professor were independent and never gave up on their vision of free access software for all blind people regardless of their ability to pay.

Just like Louis Braille in his lifetime, they failed to get appropriate recognition at the time; but this did not matter because, now, as everyone knows, its quite unthinkable that blind people should have to pay such a disability premium on their accessibility.

Sadly, Louis Braille died alone of TB, upstairs in his Blind institution without knowing the wonderful benefits his peers enjoyed after his death. The inventors of the modern Braille, though, had the satisfaction of knowing that the web would take their software round the world quickly, efficiently and freely within a year or two and despite the lack of interest and cooperation from wealthy blind organisations.

Blog: Thunder, WebbIE and Techshare.

Well, life has been very hectic of late and there is a good deal to report.

We put a new version of Thunder up on the www.screenreader.net site and a new version of WebbIE up at www.webbie.org.uk. Things are improving all the time.

I managed to sort things out with the Editor of the RNIB NB magazine and the following Right of Reply will appear in the October issue.

My Right to Reply – 246 Words.

LOW AND NO COST SCREENREADERS FOR BLIND PEOPLE AT HOME

Full marks to NB for publicising the growing availability of affordable access software for home computer users after years of high priced options only.

But I felt that the article in last month’s NB was somewhat flawed in its methodology and left readers still not able to pick a winner for their own purpose. So I hope the following summary clarifies matters:

All three packages were given the thumbs up, are user-friendly and will cope with MS Word, Notepad, Emails, the internet, live and listen again radio, as well as podcasts and RSS news feeds which were not mentioned. Minimal tuition is required for all three and there is plenty of help and training manual material.

Thunder and System Access can be run on the modern Windows Vista but not Mercury.

There is a magnification option with Mercury and WebbIE on the internet but not with System Access.

Regarding pricing, System Access starts at £210.00 plus £70.00 p.a. No price was given for Mercury but I understand it to be something over £800, but including the PC so the software might be £400. Thunder is free for home use but priced at £159 on a memory stick or for commercial use.

All in all it’s a great time for the man or woman in the street to get to know what a talking computer can do to improve their lives and independence.

I have spent a few days out in Estonia in Tallinn as part of our European Partners’ project to translate Thunder into other languages. So we now have German, Italian, Estonian, Slovak and French well on the way.

We shall be starting on a new project very soon to create a version of Thunder which will be usable by people with learning disabilities. We have received a generous grant from the Esme Fairbairn Charitable Trust and are currently gathering information as well as planning the detail of the user-friendly Thunder interface.

Lastly, If you want to meet up with us, why not come along to the London Techshare Exhibition and Conference at the Hammersmith Novatel on 4th or 5th October between 10 and 5. Screenreadaer.net is on Stand 42 and we will be proudly strutting our stuff. You will be amazed just how easy it is to enjoy many excellent resources with Thunder and WebbIE.

One thing more. I have received three Blind Blogger responses saying how difficult it is to comment on this blog. I am very sorry about this but the fact is that I don’t fully understand the technology and so can’t work out an easy accessible way for readers to respond. But I am working on it.

Blog: Techshare, Audio Porn and fighting our corner

Here’s a date for your diary and Screenreader.net will be there on a stand so please come and spend a little time with us.

- The biggest ever European exhibition on access to the information society
by people with disabilities

- Free entry for all, pre-registration now open

- Runs 4-5 October 2007 at award-winning London venue: Novotel West

- Please promote to your public networks http://www.techshare-expo.com/

Techshare Expo 2007 is a new showcase for products and services helping
people with disabilities participate fully in the information age. From the
internet to home computers, educational technologies, video games, digital
TV and mobile phones - Techshare Expo 2007 will be a showcase for products,
services, tips and techniques.

Entrance is absolutely free and open to all. If you are an organisation with
communication channels to the public and people with disabilities who are
your service users, please do promote the exhibition widely - everyone is
welcome.

Pre-register today at: http://www.techshare-expo.com/

PLEASE NOTE: this exhibition is running alongside the revamped,
comprehensive Techshare conference, hosted by the RNIB for professionals in
the field, which does have an admittance charge: for more information and a
full speaker programme for the conference see

www.techshare.org.uk

If you are attending the Techshare 2007 conference, there is no need to
separately pre-register for the free 'Techshare Expo 2007' exhibition.

At the age of 67, I am ashamed to admit I have never been to a Strip Club and dirty pictures do nothing for me. Nothing to do with having little sight – I just prefer the real experience with love and care. But there is a website, xxx, stuffed with audio Porn experiences and its very accessible too. So off you go to www.soundsdirty.com if that’s your thing and, if it is not, just read on for something more interesting and wholesome. .

I am learning just how much we need to fight our corner with regard to the free screenreader. I was at first pleased to hear that RNIB was to publish a piece about us in the September NB magazine. But when I read three brief articles on SA2Go, Thunder and Mercury, I was very disappointed. The bit on Thunder was boring, no passion, no mention of the easy access to internet radio, the huge free library, RSS Feeds and podcasting. Just a list of programs such as Notepad, Outlook Express, Sound Recorder would you believe and MS Word which Thunder could cope with. The joy of the computer for us has moved on and for me its my entertainment and information centre, not just an old typewriter. But what is worse: I wrote and asked that the article about Thunder be not published and was told “Too late”.

So what’s the basic issue here? Is Big Brother or Aunty still around, speaking for me as a blind person when I am more than able to speak and write for myself?

Surely not!!! Perhaps the person who wrote the Thunder piece is just busy, knows about other screenreaders and failed to talk to us before putting pen to paper. I have corresponded with him since and he has been tremendously helpful in pointing out bits we need to put right. Well, when it comes out, do read NB because it contains some good stuff but, when you read the Thunder article, take it with a pinch of salt and explore for yourself the fabulous accessibility options it opens up to blind and visually impaired people round the world for free. Oh, and the good news is that I was promised 250 words as a right of reply. We have to work hard to explain to others that, just because Thunder is free, it is certainly not a baby or cut down version of something else.