Accessibility Zone

Here you will find Web applications, technologies, toys, games, and gadgets for the blind and visually impaired.

Use the following same page links to move directly to these topics:


Technology and gadgets.
DVS- Movies for the visually impaired.
Where to order products for the blind and visually impaired.
Hot programs for the blind.
Games .

Technology.

Apple iPods, iTouch, iPad, and iPhones are accessible straight out of the box

This section of the Accesibility Zone is dedicated to the tiger, the runner, and his girl, and yall know who you are! smile.

Steve Jobs, you're my accessibility hero!

Of course there are probably more people involved in the new accessibility revolution than just Steve Jobs, the head of Apple Computers, but the point is: most Apple products are accessible to everyone. The Apple line of hand held mp3 players, tablet PC, and mobile phones have, since September 2009, been designed with built in accessibility features including the Apple trademark Voice Over text to speach engine, and Zoom screen magnification capabilities.

So, due to the reasonable price, their many features and innovative design, these products have become the mp3 players, hand held PDA's and mobile phones of choice for people who are visually impaired and blind.

In other words, we get the same product as the general public all now with built in accessibility features.

There is a lot of info available online about the accessibility of the iTouch, iPad, and iPhones, so we will look specifically at the iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano.

Apple mp3 players all require iTunes installed on your computer.

In order to sync music to your Apple product, you will first need to download and install the iTunes application.

iTunes and your screen reader

JAWS 10 or less.
Screen reader version. iTunes version.
JAWS 11 & higher. iTunes 9.
WindowEyes 7 & higher iTunes 9.
iTunes 8.1.1.
WindowEyes 6 or less. iTunes 8.1.1.

Don't worry about iTunes accessibility and installation. It's quick and easy and although there is a slight learning curve with iTunes, you will soon see how easy and fun it is.

So what is iTunes?

iTunes is a computer based application that manages your music and video collection. It will manage your mp3 files, podcasts, playlists, audio books and even offers a list of free online radio stations ranging from Alternative to Talk radio, from Ambient, to Folk, to Jazz, Classical, hip hop, Country, Comedy and many more genres.

So, even if you don't have an iPod, you can stil use many iTunes features.

If you need iTunes 8.1., you can click here to go directly to the iTunes 8.1.1 page and then move to and activate the button titled,"en_US/iTunes_enUS_Dwdl_09022008".
Then simply follow the download wizard instructions to install iTunes on your computer.
Note: during the installation process you will be asked if you want to have Windows automatically install iTunes updates. Uncheck that option with the spacebar.
You will also be asked if you want iTunes to be your default media player. Uncheck that one too.

Using iTunes with your screen reader.

iTunes is a standard application. This means that it offers the familiar menu bar, accessed via the Alt key.
Along the menu bar are the following menus: file, Edit, View, Controls, Store, Advanced, and Help.

Note: The first menu item within the Help menu is "keyboard shortcuts". Press Enter to access the list of available iTunes keyboard shortcuts. It's defintley worth reviewing these.

Navigating iTunes from the keyboard.

To navigate through the main application using your keyboard, simply use the Tab key to move forward through the options and Shift Tab to move back through the options.
Within the options are many of the iTunes features, player controls, and information specific to the loaded audio.

Once it has been installed, iTunes can be accessed within your list of programs, (Start menu/ All Programs/iTunes). Also, if you go with the default installation settings, iTunes can also be accessed via a new "iTunes" icon on your desktop.

iTunes, the program, installs itself into your C:\My Documents\My Music folder.
This means that Any music files within your "my music" folder will be automatically synked to the "music" list item within the iTunes "Source list.

The very first iTunes option Tab, located on the far left of the screen is called "Source". Consider this your home base. Within the Source list is:
Music, Podcasts, Audio Books, Radio, Store, Playlists etc.

When you locate the Source treeview you will be able to arrow up and down through the list. if you hear that one of the items within the Sources treeview is "closed", you can open it by arrowing once to the right, and then arrow down through it's contents. The source list is a treeview.
Tab twice and you will be in the list view, ready to choose audio associated with the Source you have selected.

Tab once and you will be on the "Search edit field". Here you can search for a specific artist, song, podcast title etc., associated with the currently visible menu item within the Source list.
After you type a search term here, you have to press Shift Enter in order to activate the search.
So for example, if you have just Tabbed over from the Podcast list, you can search for a podcast called "Sound Opinions" (which is a great music lovers podcast hosted by Jim and Greg of NpR WBEZ Chicago). Just Tab along the options and you will be able to view related information including the Podcast details, and Podcast subscribe button followed by similar other podcasts related to your search term.

Don't worry if you have misspelled a podcast title. One of the options will be a pane that reads something like "Did you mean?"
Press Enter, if iTunes has correctly located your podcast.

The podcasts are accessed via the iTunes store and most are free. It will be clearly indicated within the podcast title that it is indeed free.

iTunes Radio

If we Shift Tab back to the "Source list treeview", and arrow down to "Radio", we can then Tab past the search edit field and over to the list view of available radio stations which are sorted by genre. Arrow to the right and a list of sub genres will appear offering a brief description of the radio station.
Simply press Enter to begin streaming a radio station. Arrow left to return from the Radio stations/ sub genres, back to the main list of genres.

    Now is probably a good time to point out a couple of things:
  1. If you Tab along the options within iTunes, you will eventually loop back around to the Source list tree view.
  2. Navigation is sometimes a little unpredictable. Meaning that you might Tab from previous, to play, to next, to elapsed time. Then you might want to Shift Tab back through these controls. However, the dynamic nature of the iTunes interface might add a couple of controls or read only information panes along the way.

A great feature within the radio stations is the ability to find out the current song being played.. All you need to do is Tab over to the pane displaying info about the station (sometimes starts with "http:", and then press spacebar to toggle from the station info to the current artist/song title.
Note: Not all stations list artist/song titles.

iTunes Preferences.

To access and change your iTunes preferences, locate the "preferences" menu item within the Edit menu.
There are 8 page Tabs here. The "devices" and "advanced" tabs are all the way on the right side. These last 2 page tabs aren't visible at first so you may have to arrow over through the list of page tabs and then arrow left and back right to get to them.

Connecting your iPod for the first time

Now that you have installed iTunes on your computer, you will want to plug your ipod into a USB slot
The first time you do, you will be presented with a few installation questions related to your iPod. Also, you will choose the voice over settings to enable the text to speach features.
Don't worry, this guided form will make sense and completing the guided form is easy and intuitive + you can change the settings later if you like.
Complete the short form. you can choose to have iTunes start automatically when you insert your iPod into the computer, and either automatically sync or manually sync audio when you insert your iPod. It's up to you which of these you might prefer.
I'd go with automatically starting iTunes when the iPod is inserted, and manually synking audio.

Creating playlists and synking them to your iPod.

When your iPod is connected to the computer, the iPod name will appear within the Source list tree view.

Move to the iPod name within the Source list and then Tab to the create new playlist button and press Enter.
An edit field will appear where you can type a name for your playlist. Type a name and then press Etner.

Now Tab over to the list view. It will say 0 items. This is where you will paste music for the playlist.
So, access songs etc. from your harddrive and then paste them here.
Note: You might want to access the Edit menu from the menu bar and then arrow down to "paste", as opposed to using the Ctrl V (paste shortcut).

Your songs will be added to the list view.
Tab to the "sync" button and press Enter.
Now return to the iPod name within the Source list.
Then press the applications key (located just left of the Ctrl key right of the spacebar).
A menu of options will appear. Arrow up or down to the menu item titled "eject" and press Enter.
If songs are still being added to the iPod, a dialog box will appear warning you that the process has not completed. If no dialog box appears, you are safe to eject the ipod.

Adding and deleting songs to your playlists

To add a song to a playlist
  1. Locate the playlist name from the main Sources list or, if your iPod is connected, access the iPod name, which is also located within the "Sources" list, then right arrow to open an iPod playlist.
  2. Tab over to the list view, of song titles.
  3. Paste songs from your harddrive to add new songs. Or,
  4. Press Delete to remove a song from the playlist.

Note: If you are adding or deleting audio to your iPod, you will want to then Tab over to the sync iPod button, and press Enter.

The iPod Shuffle

Once you have music loaded on your iPod Shuffle, you can play the audio via the small flat controller located along the headphone cable near the earbuds.

The controller feels kind of like a small piece of Trident gum with the middle portion slightly indented, or squished in.

Here is a list of the controller functions:

The iPod Shuffle unit.

There is a small switch on the iPod Shuffle on the same edge as the headphone jack.
This switch has 3 positions. Slide it over towards the headphone jack to turn the unit on.
The middle position enables shuffle mode.
The position closest to the headphone jack turns shuffle mode off.
Slide it to the position furthest away from the headphone jack to turn off the unit.

Note: to find out the battery charge level, turn the unit off and then back on again quickly. Voice over will announce the battery level.

Note: the headphones and USB adapter share the same jack. Only one can be inserted at a time.

Audio tutorial/ demo of iTunes & an iPod with JAWS

Click here to listen to a great audio demo of iTunes accessed by an Irish guy using JAWS.

Note: He is using the jTunes scripts for JAWS. He had better luck with them than I did. I'm sure they are good if they work but they are $80 and when I tried the jTunes demo, a lot of the functionality said "not available".
In any case, this is a great demo to give you an idea of some features of iTunes and it's menus, how to play audio and add songs to your iPod.
He uses an iPod Nano, but it is the same process for an iPod Shuffle.

Of all the songs he searches for in the iTunes store, he had to search for "Europe, The Final Countdown".! Hehehah!
Sorry, I don't know why that's funny.

Note: When he refers to pressing the Home key to get to the Source list, this is only possible using the jTunes script, otherwise you will have to Tab or Shift Tab to get back to the Source list.
Also, he said that iTunes Radio is not accessible without the jTunes scripts for JAWS. This is not true.
Simply use iTunes 8.1.1 with JAWS and you're in there, like swimwear.

Audio buying guide to iStuff, including iPod, iTouch, IPad, and iPhone

Access World has posted a great audio podcast discussion and demo of the Apple line of accessible hand held devices including the iPod Shuffle, Nano, iTouch, iPad and iPhone.
this is kind of long, but once you download the audio file, you can skim through the audio. Also, it sounds like the lady doing the main review of the iStuff is chopping broccoli throughout the discussion. Hehehah! Seriously though, this is a super overview of the stuff from a blind/ accessible perspective. It's really good information.

Click hear to open the Access World Tech Talk page, and then activate the "download audio" link

Creative Zenstone mp3 player

Creative Zenstone mp3 player in blue.
The Creative Zenstone 2 GB mp3 player is a great portable mp3 player for the blind or visually impaired. It is an easy to use drag and drop player perfect for music and audio books. It is USB 2.0 with 2 GB of storage space. Unfortunatley Creative Labs stopped producing the Creative Zenstone in 2010. So, if you can, get ahold of one of these players. Creative Labs have 2 models of mp3 players equally accessible as the original Zenstone player. These are the Zen Stoen 1 GB with speaker and the Zen Stone 2GB with speaker. The way to be sure you are getting the accessible version is by asking if these are the models with "no Screen". The little speaker on these new versions of the Creative Zen Stone are really quite good. You won't be rockin the house with the built in speaker but you can easily listen to some music or an audio book while cleaning up or just relaxing on the couch. These 2 new versions also come with a protective rubber shield that you can rol onto your player to protect it etc. Also, there is a handy little clip that easily allows you to attach the Creative ZenStone player to your shirt or your jacket or shorts.
All Zenstone mp3 players come with headphones and built in rechargeable battery which charges when you plug the player into your computer's USB slot.
Another bonus with this player is that it is only about $40 at your local box store. Note: Only the 1 GB or 2GB model with no screen is truly accessible for people who are blind or visually impaired. The Creative Zenstone models with more storage space have a screen and many menus to navigate which will only lead you back to the store for the screenless models. click here For more informaition about the Creative Zenstone.

Moshi Voice Activated Talking Alarm Clock.

Moshi alarm clock.
The Moshi (pronounced Mo she) interactive talking alarm clock is the first clock of it's kind. Ask Moshi the time, today's date, the temperature, and a clear female voice responds to your commands. You can set the current time, the alarm time and even choose from 3 alarm sounds simply by talking to the Moshi clock.

This clock offers several other features but the bottom line is that if you are blind or visually impaired, you will love this clock. It works and it works well.

You can order this clock from many online vendors including Independant Living Aids. The list price is approximatley $50. For more informaition on the Moshi interactive talking alarm clock, go to the Independant Living product page for the Moshi voice activated talking alarm clock.

Here are 3 audio clips to demonstrate what the Moshi clock sounds like and how easy it is to use.

DVS Descriptive Videos

DVS are movie videos with descriptive audio for the visually impaired. Basically the movie is described by someone so that essential visual elements of a movie can be taken in by a person who can't necessarily see them.
movies are produced with an additional audio track which simultaniously plays the descriptive audio. DVS are usually very well scripted revealing key details without interfearing with the movie.

Listen to a DVS audio sample of Quinton Terantino's Pulp Fiction.

Follow this link to a Web page where you'll find hundreds of new and old popular DVS you can download and enjoy.
Note: The DVS here contain only the movie and accompanying described audio, in mp3 format not the video.
More and more movies are being produced with described audio. Some DVD movies will allow you to watch with an included "descriptive audio" track. Some movie theatres offer headphones that play the described audio as well.

Hot Programs and Utilities.

NEW System Access To Go screen reader & magnificaition.

One of the most exciting new products to come along and virtually revolutionize computer accessibility for the blind and visually impaired is Serotek's System AccessTo Go screen reader. SA To Go has not reinvented the screen reader wheel, but rather it has made accessing a screen reader from any computer free and effortless.

All you need is an internet connection to run this powerful screen reader. Simply access the following Web site www.satogo.com

Once the SA To Go Web page opens, the screen reader will load automatically. There are a couple of easy pprompts to follow to run the program and then you will have screen reader access to the internet, email, MS Office applications such as Word, Excel and Outlook and many more.
The SA To Go Web based application even offers complete screen reader access to the MS Outlook Calendar.

Once SA To Go has loaded, you can try the following:

Many of the JAWS for Windows keystroke commands you might already be used to are mimiked by SA To Go, meaning you will not have to learn new keystroke commands.

You can register SA To Go for free which will allow you to save your preferences for the next time you use it.

What's so revolutionary about SA To Go?
You now have the ability to use a full featured screen reader from any Windows based computer with a sound card. From a friend's laptop, from a computer at the public library, etc. all you need to do is access the SA To Go Web page and you're good to go.

Here is how you can do it even if there is no screen reader installed on the computer:

  1. Press Windows key + R. This opens the RUN command.
  2. Type www.satogo.com
  3. Wait for the Web page to load and the screen reader will be fully functional.
Note: You may have to press ALT R a few times. Be patient it might take a minute to load.
Note: Press Insert + F4 to turn SA To Go off.
Note: SA To Go is not the same as the stand alone thumb drive Systam Access Mobile screen reader discussed above.


Facebook and the Blind?

Of course it's true and it's come a long way too.

In April 2009 FaceBook introduced some new accessibility features. Visit the Facebook Accessibility help page for more informaition including FAQ's and keyboard shortcut commands.

How to change your Facebook profile picture

Now that you're on Facebook, you might want others to see what you look like, or instead, show an image that represents you.
What's the point?
When others see your name in their list of friends, there is also a thumbnail view of your "profile picture".
If you haven't uploaded one, there will simply be a question mark instead of a photo.

To continue, you will need a picture of yourself stored somewhere on your computer. This file should be either a .jpg or .gif file. If you're not sure how to do this, simply have a friend or relative take a digital photo of you, and have them email it to you or give it to you on a memory stick. Make sure it is named something so that you will easily identify it, for example, my pic for facebook.jpg.

Here's how to change your Facebook profile picture:

  1. After you have logged onto your Facebook page, activate the link titled Profile.
  2. Next, activate the link titled Photos.
  3. Activate the link titled Profile pictures.
  4. Now activate the link titled Change Profile picture.
    5. Here you can either choose from existing profile pictures, if you have already uploaded some, or, move to and activate the browse button.
  5. Here you will be presented with a typical route directory of your computer. Tab to the location and file name for the picture you want to use as your Facebook profile picture.
  6. Once you choose the picture you want to use, Tab to the Open button and press ENTER.
  7. Check the bbox with your Spacebar to indicate that you have the right to use the image, and then Tab to the Upload Picture button and it's done.

Accessing the Facebook Wall

The Facebook Wall is a virtual space where Facebook friends can post messages that everyone can see.
The Wall used to be located on your Facebook home page. Now, to access it, you will first have to activate the link of your Facebook name.

A new page will appear with a link to your Facebook Wall. The link is simply titled "Wall". Activate this link and your wall posts will then be further down the page.

Open letter to Facebook

Here is a recent post I made to the American Foundation for the blind (AFB) about the topic of Facebook. (I spell checked the post, and added some pertinatnt links here.
I am blind and use FaceBook. The accessibility of the FaceBook interface has improved since I joined the Book.
For the person who wondered what the purpose of FaceBook would be for the blind and visually impaired since they "can't see pictures" etc. This is a valid question with promising answers:

Facebook is more than just sharing pictures. It is a fun way to communicate with others and keep in touch with new friends and touch base with old friends. Sure, each person on Facebook can post and share pictures but that is just a part of Facebook. You can send and receive messages like you can with email. You can also send and receive event invitations to a wide variety of events to many people at once. With Facebook you can also join several groups that might interest you some are silly and some are more serious in nature.

If you are out of town or even in the comfort of the glow of your home computer, you can keep up with how your friends are doing and read their status updates to find out how they are feeling or what they are planning etc.
It is amazing how many people you will find on Facebook and, how many people will be able to find you and say "hello old friend". The Facebook interface is not perfect for the blind user but it is navigable and with some improvements it will be more enjoyable for everyone. Facebook developers are likely aware of the Web Accessibility guidelines layed out by The World Wide Web Consortium and many other references to making the Web accessible for all.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it is now possible for a blind person to register with Facebook without sighted help. It was so close before, until that is, you arrived at the part in the registration where you had to input the characters hidden within a scrambled image. Since these characters were image based it was impossible for a screen reader, which relies on straight text, to identify the image.
The audio capcha alternative is definitley an improvement and will allow blind and visually impaired computer users to independantly register with the Book. The audio capcha sound, however, is crappy. I don't know why Facebook has to make the audio so garbled, and thus, difficult to hear. I don't think the audio characters need to be almost scrambled like the visual version. I mean, the point of this registration feature is so that automated Web bots can't go sign up a million accounts. In other words, a real life person has to jump through the "identify the characters in the scrambled image" hoop, or, "identify the characters being spoken in the audio captcha".

Audio Capcha.

Visit the official captcha site for more informaition about audio captcha, what it is and how it works. For a video explanation of audio capcha with a live example watch the brilliant audio capcha demo on YouTube.

Accessible FTP Client for the blind.

So you're blind, creating your own Web page, and want an accessible FTP client?
Internet Explorer is all you need.
What? That's it!? yes, forget about CuteFTP, WSFTP etc. All you need is IE.
Just open Internet Explorer and in the address bar type "ftp://" followed by your URL.
for example, "ftp://StacyBleeks.com". You will then be presented with 2 edit boxes. In the first box, simply type your server login name.
Press Tab, and in the second box type your server password.
Now you're in there like swimmwear! A list box will appear where you can paste your Web files to be uploaded for the whole world wide web to see.

Screen readers and the Informaition bar.

If you are using Windows XP with Service Pack 2, Internet Explorer may block some Web content. Most often this includes pop-up windows or active content, such as preloaded sounds or downloads. When Internet Explorer blocks content, you hear a sound and a message appears on the Information Bar. The Information Bar is located below the address bar and provides information about downloads, blocked pop-up windows, and other activities. This helps you avoid potentially harmful files that you might otherwise not want to download from the Internet.

To move to and read the Information Bar, press ALT+N.
If you trust the Web site, you will want to enable the blocked action. You can then press Enter to open the Information Bar menu so you can allow Internet Explorer to display the content.
Press Tab and enable the checkbox with the Spacebar.
To hide the Information Bar, and return to the page you were viewing, press ESC.

Autosizer is a must!

Autosizer will automatically maximize applications for you.
Screen readers, such as JAWS for Windows and WindowEyes, work best when the screen is maximized. Blind and visually impaired computer users might wonder why, although an application is open, it is not reading or behaving properly.
Often times this is due to the fact that the application screen has not been maximized.
Let the Autosizer utility, by South Bay Software, automatically maximize the screen for you so that you never have to wonder if the screen is maximized again.

Download and instal Autosizer here Install Autosizer now! A dielogue box will open where you can run the installation wizard. This small program runs in the background and will ensure that MS Word, Internet Explorer, Outlook and any other application you set will be maximized. It's a must have program for screen reader users and once it's installed you won't have to worry about it again.

Digital Multitrack recording with CakeTalking for Sonar.

If you are blind or visually impaired, and want to record digital multi-track audio,, look no further than CakeTalking for Sonar brought to you by Dancing Dots. For a sample of some music recorded using CakeTalking with Sonar, check Stacy's Audio Zone.

Ordering products for people who ar blind and visually impaired.

Future Aids (The Braille Super Store), is a good place to order talking watches and gadgets, boardd games, playing cards, and braille materials.
Future Aids Home page.

Games.

All in Play.

playing cards revealing a royal flush.
For online playing cards: All in Play is the game!
Interactive and accessible online Poker, texas Holdem, and Crazy Eights are found here AllInPlay.com
With great sound effects and easy instructions to have you up and playing in no time AllInPlay also lets you chat with other players from around the world while you play. It's so good but watch out, it's adddictive.
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