Blind Chance: David Faucheux's Audio Web Log
Friday, July 02, 2004
Audio's back
Hoo-ray! Audioblogger is working again! I'll let David Faucheux know so he can resume his audio posts. Meanwhile you might scroll down the page to enjoy the ones you missed.
--Written and posted by David Rothman
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Two Braille PDAs
Still no Audioblogger. Meanwhile the Engadget Web log reports on two PDAs for blind people. Some details:
Two PDAs for the blind in two days. VisuAide’s Maestro is actually an HP iPAQ h4150 Pocket PC that’s been tricked out with text-to-speech and a special tactile keyboard that sits on top of its touchscreen. No braille matrix like the BrailleNote PK, but it obviously has all of the features that the h4150, like built-in Bluetooth and WiFi, and you can connect a braille keyboard to it.And an earlier post on a PDA for the blind:
There’s a new PDA for the blind from Pulse Data International. The BrailleNote PK doesn’t have an LCD screen (obviously), but they’re claiming it’s the world’s smallest PDA with a Braille display (which has a matrix of dots that can be raised or lowered depending on what information needs to be displayed), and it does feature a built-in speech synthesizer, built-in Bluetooth, 16MB of RAM, an Ethernet port, a CompactFlash expansion card slot, and run on Windows CE.Good news. Now if only Audiblogger comes back soon. Keep checking.
--Written and posted by David H. Rothman
Audioblogger apparently having problems
If you're having problems hearig David Faucheux's files, you're not the only one. Audioblogger may be down. Sorry for the inconvenience! - David Rothman
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Monday, June 28, 2004
Deafblindness Awareness Week: The Modern Helen Kellers
David Faucheux will be back soon with audio commentary. He's awaiting a computer upgrade and, beyond that, has been feeling under the weather. Enjoy his past posts while you're waiting. One of my favorites is his audio essay on guide dog etiquette, an MP3 file which includes fond memories of Nader, his much-misssed yellow Lab. "He seemed to like to snooze under the table," David recalls of his library visits with Nader, "while bits of knowledge rained down on his slumbers." Elsewhere on this page you can find a lists of older postings by headilne and by date range.
Meanwhile here is a news story on Deafblindness Awareness Week in the U.S.. Apologies, but I don't see a mention in the story of the sponsoring organization at the national level. Could it be the American Association of the Deaf-Blind or another group mentioned on an Internet Resources Page for the deaf blind and their families? The most famous person with deafblindness, of course, was Helen Keller. One can imagine how much the Internet would have meant to her.
But back to the news story. The subject of the story, Clara Johnson, 39, of Anniston, Alabama, is learning to use the Internet for email and other purposes. The computer also teaches her English--her first language is American Sign Language. Some 40,000 Americans are deafblind. Although legally blind, Ms. Johnson can see partly with the aid of eyeglasses.
Might the article have been even more intesting with a subject who was totally blind? Any inspirational stories to report involving deafblind people whom you know? As usual, David F and I welcome your letters. You can write him at trivaguy@bellsouth.net, and I'm at dr@teleread.org.
Related: Deafblind Awareness Week as reported by the BBC, as well as a deafblind-related story out of Canada. Apaprently the U.K. version of the Week is different from the U.S. version as reported in the article on Clara Johnson. The U.S. version is June 27-July 3, while the BBC reports the U.K. version as June 21-25. The BBC story contains a link to Deafblind UK, which estimates that 24,000 people in the U.K. are deafblnd or dual senstory impaired. Other useful links could be the pages of the Australian DeafBlind Council and A Deafblind Web Resources Guide.
--Written and posted by David Rothman
