Hi all, There is an incomplete excerpt here at the end about speakup that I thought some of you may be interested in. Greg ----- Forwarded message from Peter Duran <brlinc at mindspring.com> ----- Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2001 09:28:10 -0500 From: Peter Duran <brlinc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: WYFIWYG Newsletter November 2001 WYFIWYG Email NEWSLETTER November 2001 Copyright November 2001 by Peter Duran All rights Reserved Table of Contents Note: The * (Shift+8) character precedes topics in this newsletter so you can search for a * to jump to the next topic. Windows XP Enhancements GPS Update Microsoft Reader 2.0 Let the Tigers Roam Free Screen Reader for Thanksgiving MACROMEDIA Makes ANIMATION Accessible The eBook Directory Update Newsletter Dead Microsoft Operating Systems Microsoft Word 2000 Stupidity Tiger Tricks for Tiger Advantage Window-Eyes Professional Update Dirt Cheap Duxbury Translator Update Comprehensive Mailing List Resource Screen Review Utility for Linux Subscription Information End of Table of Contents * Windows XP Enhancements The article at www.betanews.com/article.php3?sid=1001475527 has information about enhancements for Windows XP. * GPS Update From: Michael May <MikeMay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Dear Atlas and GPS-Talk Users and Friends, September 2001 will be the last month that GPS-Talk version 1x will be manufactured by Sendero Group. Let me explain why and what our plans are. I left Arkenstone 2 years ago and formed Sendero Group, a "grass roots" company dedicated to wayfinding technology and to releasing the first ever GPS products for the blind. My co-founders, Jim Misener of Beyond Sight and Charles LaPierre our Chief Technology Officer and developer, have joined me in putting much heart, soul, time and money into this effort. We released GPS-Talk in March 2000 and have had many improvements and subsequent releases since that time including our most recent release of a Canadian version. Our company of blind people for blind people has begun a new era of accessible location information and you, the GPS-Talk version 1X users, have been pioneers right along with us. The reality of pioneering a new product category is that initial GPS-Talk sales have not been sufficient to fund Sendero operations let alone development of new versions. In order to take this technology to the next level in terms of features and portability, we need to focus our resources on developing new products rather than on modifying the current version. We cannot do both. Getting GPS on note takers and Personal Data Assistants (PDAs) is our most immediate focus. Sendero is joining forces with Pulse Data International and HumanWare to provide GPS with BrailleNote and VoiceNote PDA products. These new units have nearly the power of a notebook computer and yet they are smaller, lighter, have an instant-on capability and serve many purposes. The small incremental cost and size of adding GPS to the BrailleNote and VoiceNote greatly enhances the access to GPS for blind users. By combining forces, we can quickly get a portable GPS solution into your hands and have the resources to develop this and other aspects of wayfinding technology. I am very pleased to be joining the highly respected HumanWare team to accomplish this. Sendero Group and HumanWare announce two and a quarter million dollar Grant Awarded The Department of Education National Institute for Disability Rehabilitation Research has awarded $450,000 per year for five years for Wayfinding research and development to an national all-star team led by Sendero Group. The goal of this project is to create a GPS core platform around which other wayfinding technologies will be tested and incorporated including GPS cell phones, indoor and outdoor navigation, location specific signs, complex intersections and signal lights. * Microsoft Reader 2.0 Microsoft has released MS Reader 2.0. The prior version of this application was not accessible, but now it is. It is self voicing. Check it out at: http://www.microsoft.com/reader go to http://www.fictionwise.com and you can buy hundreds of books in reader format which will work with the reader. They also have them in pdf and you can download both with no extra charge. Now, with the new MS Reader you can go to Amozon.com and buy a book just like everybody else. I just did that today and it works beautifully! The selection isn't that great yet but it is getting better, I also understand it works with Audible.com's books but haven't tried them. * Let the Tigers Roam Free Hello all, Many of you have received Tiger samples and have expressed your amazement at the braille and tactile graphics quality. Tiger is definitely the braille printer for this millennium. You can emboss any Word document or Excel spreadsheet in a matter of minutes with a Tiger font. Place an order for a Tiger before Thanksgiving and save $750.00! A great savings on a revolutionary braille and tactile graphics printer. Purchase orders are accepted from businesses, educational institutions, governmental organizations and other organizations. Prepayment by check is required of individuals. Act now so you can have a Tiger rome your premises in the near future! * Screen Reader for Thanksgiving Many of you have told me that times are tough on the financial front, but you need to switch to a more "rock solid" screen reader. Here is the best I can do for all of you. This offer is valid till Thanksgiving 2001, but supply is limited. Call toll free 877-993-4994 to order the most stable screen reader on the market. All major credit cards are accepted. Window-Eyes 4.11 Price $455.00 Shipment UPS Ground $10 Your choice of free tutorial on disk: Verbal View of Word 2000 or Verbal View of Windows 98 or Verbal View of Windows Me. * MACROMEDIA Makes ANIMATION Accessible Animation -- cartoons that wiggle and jiggle, are a staple of many graphic-rich web sites. Macromedia is the leader in web animation. This company has announced developments to make its animations more accessible to blind Internet users. Dreamweaver free add-ons let web designers check their web sites for accessibility. Download these add-ons at: http://exchange.macromedia.com Macromedia has plans for a Flash Accessibility Developer Kit and future enhancements to its Flash Player. This kit is expected to be available by the end of the year. This kit will contain guidelines and sample programs to fully support development of accessible web animations. Access to data in animations are planned for an updated version of Flash Player so screen readers can speak labels and other text tags. Go to http://www.macromedia.com/accessibility/ for further details.\ * The eBook Directory Update Newsletter Electronic books are becoming a mainstream item for many publishers. This newsletter is awonderful resource for anybody who wishes to read or publish eBooks. Current eBooks are listed and some are reviewed. Here is the sign-up information: To subscribe send a blank e-mail to: mailto:ebookupdate-subscribe at egroups.com To unsubscribe send a blank e-mail to: mailto:ebookupdate-unsubscribe at egroups.com * Dead Microsoft Operating Systems Whilst Microsoft support for DOS, Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 officially ceases at the end of this year, support for Windows 98 and 98SE (As well as NT4) is not scheduled to cease until June 2003. You can see full details at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycleconsumer.asp * Microsoft Word 2000 Stupidity Microsoft wants to make you say only nice things about folks as you write. Microsoft has removed all offensive words from the Word thesaurus. Look up the word "fool" and you won't find any nouns that could be used to call people names. * Tiger Tricks for Tiger Advantage Now, a user manual from BRL, Inc., for the Tiger is available in braille -- written in Word 2000 and embossed on the Tiger. You can order a copy for $25.00. Learn about the Tiger and its tricks -- most of which are beyond all other braille printers. The cost of this user manual is deducted from the cost of the Tiger when you order a Tiger of your very own. A very important Tiger trick is that the Tiger has its own tactile fonts. These fonts let you emboss dozens of characters beyond the capability of Grade 2 braille as well as the Computer Braille Code. You can use the Symbol Tiger font to emboss all the characters included in the Symbol font for Word. Try to emboss those characters on any other embosser. Good luck! * Window-Eyes Professional Update Dirt Cheap A new FAQ on the SMA program is now on the GW Micro web site. They have updated the information to reflect the price changes and how you can use two SMA counts to migrate to Window-Eyes Professional. Check it out at www.gwmicro.com/support and go to the FAQ link. * Duxbury Translator Update A Table of Contents Generator is one of the major features that will be in DBT 10.4. DBT 10.4 should be shipping first quarter of 2002. Editor comment: Well, about time! PC braille has had this feature for 15 years. * Comprehensive Mailing List Resource From: Cathy Anne Murtha <cathy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> I have gathered together all of the blind mailing lists I could find (I am still on the hunt) and placed them into a comprehensive indexed list for those who may be looking for a new list to which to subscribe or are just interested to see what is available. Over three hundred lists have been indexed and I invite you to pay a visit. You will find the link for the Mailing list index at: http://www.accesstechnologyinstitute.com * Screen Review Utility for Linux From: Kirk Reiser < kirk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> speakup v-1.00 allows you to hear all output directed to the console and move around the screen using the typical screen review functions. This is a stable release by popular vote on the speakup mailing list. Which eans it is by no means complete but seems stable and has been well tested. It is quite usable in it's current incarnation though, with the blaring lack of cursor output support. That means in an editor it doesn't read each line as you move up and down the screen. It tracks the cursor so you just need to do a say current line but it doesn't do it all by itself. There is more to be said for cursor tracking and speaking than meets the ear at first glance. Speakup is a set of kernel patches which means you should have some experience with kernel compiling. It currently works on the Linux kernels 2.2.18 and * Subscription Information WYFIWYG Newsletter Distributed by: BRL, Inc. 110 Commerce Drive Suite 210 Fayetteville, GA 30214 Tel: 7707169222 Fax: 7707169599 Email: comments at wyfiwyg.com Web: http://www.wyfiwyg.com Dear Readers You can unsubscribe or subscribe any time; just send a message to: http://www.newsletter at wyfiwyg.com and in the subject line say unsubscribe or subscribe. Please send reader comments about the newsletter (or anything else) to: Comments at wyfiwyg.com Any additions or corrections are greatly appreciated. This newsletter is only available by email! Please tell friends and colleagues about the WYFIWYG newsletter and the WYFIWYG web site. The newsletter is free and so is the online catalog. Please forward this newsletter, or any portion of this newsletter, to a discussion list or newsgroup whose members may enjoy the material. End of Newsletter ----- End forwarded message -----
