Reid My Mind
Accessibility

Audio described movies, television and live theater is considered a service for people with visual impairments. It is discussed as a method for providing access to entertainment and information for those unable to see what is happening on the screen or stage. I recently had two experiences that demonstrate the impact described audio can have [...]

Continue reading “Audio Description Impacts the Whole Family” »

This week Amazon announced that they are developing accessible menu navigation for the popular Kindle I-Book Reader. The talking menus will allow people who are blind and visually impaired to independently use the reader. As you may recall, Amazon’s Kindle contains a “Read to Me” feature that uses text to speech (TTS) to read books [...]

Continue reading “A Brother Just Wants to Read” »

I planned to write more about my experience with the iPhone using VoiceOver, but a few problems developed. I purchased the phone a week prior to leaving to Florida for the ACB National convention, my first. I think further discussion on that is worthy of a separate post. That in itself is not a problem, [...]

Continue reading “Another Benefit From the iPhone” »

Thanks  to Ron Graham from the AccessAbility Blog for giving RMM a shoutout!   He pointed us to a blog post by Marcus over at Engel’s Ensights titled Pardon My Geekiness.   Ok, first, a lesson to all, never ever apologize for your geekiness! I don’t care what kind of Geek you are, it’s all [...]

Continue reading “IS the iPhone A Threat to Access Technology Vendors” »

Apple’s announcement that VoiceOver, there built in screen reader, is included in the latest version of the iPhone has the blind community buzzing.   Accessibility built in, I love it! I’m hoping to get my hands on one to test, especially since my current AT&T contract is expiring in August. More to come on that [...]

Continue reading “Accessibility, There’s An App For That!” »

I received the below email from the Author’s Guild in response to the Reading Rights Coalition protest held yesterday in NYC. Based on their statement it  still appears that the definition of audio rights will have to first be agreed upon. As someone who has been reading both books using TTS and audio narration, I [...]

Continue reading “Author’s Guild Responds to Protests” »

This was one of the slogans chanted during Tuesday’s protest  organized by the Reading Rights Coalition. The demonstration, held  outside of the NYC office of The Author’s Guild, seemed to be well attended both in person and virtually. Thanks to Mika Pyykhala and John Oliveira of the Association of Blind Citizens for streaming the event. [...]

Continue reading “No More Greed, We Want To Read!” »

I just signed the petition started by the  Reading Rights Coalition.   This organization began after Amazon released their latest version of their E-Book reader, the Kindle 2.0. The product which has built in Text to Speech has been attacked by the Author’s Guild. The Guild argues that this feature which uses synthetic speech to [...]

Continue reading “Allow Everyone Access to E-books” »

For the past few months I have been taking courses from The Hadley School for the Blind. If you’re not familiar with Hadley, it’s a free distance learning school for people who are visually impaired and blind. Their mission: To promote independent living through lifelong, distance education programs for people who are blind or visually [...]

Continue reading “Learning to Read, Again. Thanks Hadley!” »

Amazon announced that they will now modify the Kindle to allow the holder of the copyright to turn on/off the Text To Speech (TTS) functionality.   I thought I would put this in plain English, well sort of…   Amazon got Punked!   Now I don’t have any inside information so this is entirely speculative. [...]

Continue reading “Amazon Got punked” »