Affordable senior housing vaccine rollout virtual information session

Kes: I'm just reposting the information, I don't know anything more than what's in the announcement.

Affordable Senior Housing Vaccine Rollout Virtual Information Session
Residents and staff of public and private low income and affordable senior housing are now included in the first tier of Phase Two of vaccine deployment in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which we anticipate to begin later in February. Join MassHousing, DHCD, CEDAC, and Elder Affairs for a webinar to learn more about vaccine rollout in these housing properties.

Date: Thursday January 28th
Time: 12PM-1PM
Registration:
• Please register online at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7bU1VzOAS52bpGgVQnf1QA
• After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Questions: Use the "Questions & Comments" box in the registration to indicate any questions you may have.
For more information: go to https://www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-vaccinations-for-senior-housing-settings

The Braille Doodle allows blind users to create touchable drawings

Hear more about this new device being developed from the Blind Abilities podcast:
Braille Doodle: Creating touchable drawings. and the Perfect Solution for Teaching and Learning Braille While Remote Learning
by Blind Abilities Team
http://blindabilities.com/?p=6483#genesis-content

Show Summary:
BlindAbilities presents the team from touch pad pro assistive technology, who is in the process of developing three new and totally innovative products for the blind and visually impaired. Jeff Thompson chats with Kristin Smedley, Chief Communications Officer, Brian Edwards, chief operating Officer, and founder and Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Lubiner
With long term plans to develop the highly technical touch pad pro, the team is first focusing on the loess technical, but equally as important Braille Doodle.
As Daniel comments, "it would be great to offer a device at or around $65.. which we could not only buy for one student, but for all students.”
The Braille Doodle should be about the size of a laptop computer, with hundreds of holes, housing magnetic dots that can be raised using a magnetic stylus to draw pictures, shapes, or other tactile images, or which can be covered with a plastic sleeve to reveal only braille cells which will facilitate teaching young students or others who might not be able to enjoy Face-to-face braille instruction from a TVI, or parent.
Witnessing a unique interest among the blindness community and with a building passion for what they are creating, the team is targeting release of the Braille Doodle in September of 2021. At this point, they are trying to raise awareness of this innovative product and funding to produce it. So if you would be interested in helping the team out, while participating in the mission of a socially conscious start-up company, check out their web site at
https://tppat.com/the-brailledoodle/
.Contact Your State Services
If you reside in Minnesota, and you would like to know more about Transition Services from State Services contact Transition Coordinator Sheila Koenig by email or contact her via phone at 651-539-2361.

The 35th anniversary of the first screen reader is coming up!

And we were there! And do we have the horror stories to prove it--anyone else remember Whispering Wendy? I'm pretty certain she was developed by the male developers so that they could have a sexy throaty female voice, but what they got was a stalker with a meat knife whispering to you in the dark about how she just boiled your bunny rabbit.

Kes: Stanford has a great timeline of the development of accessible technology, which you can find here
https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/2005-06/accessibility/firstwave.html#:~:text=1986%20%E2%80%93%20Jim%20Thatcher%20created%20the,graphical%20interface%20PCs%20(4).

Kes: This event is more of a crash course in screen readers, and there are scholarships available. You can also read the recent entry
A Brief History of Screen Readers
https://knowbility.org/blog/2021/a-brief-history-of-screen-readers/

Webinar from Knowbility
Screen Readers in the Wild. A Celebration of the 35th Anniversary of the First Screen Reader, Released in 1986
January 25th 2021 8AM PT, 9AM MT, 10AM CT, 11AM ET, 4PM GMT

IBM Researcher and Accessibility Pioneer, Jim Thatcher, created the first screen reader in 1986. The IBM Screen Reader worked with the text-based Desktop Operating System (DOS). It was initially only available within IBM. Jim and his team continued development and released IBM Screen Reader/2 to work with graphical operating systems such as Windows 95 and IBM OS/2.
Price: $35
Register here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/screen-readers-in-the-wild-tickets-135342363653

Accessible tech at CES, voice commands on Youtube, new apps and more

Accessibility Devices at CES 2021 Reflect Growing Focus on Inclusive Tech
https://www.cnet.com/health/accessibility-devices-at-ces-2021-reflect-growing-focus-on-inclusive-tech/#ftag=CAD590a51e

Podcast | Blind Tech Guys | CES 2021, BBC Apps And How To Utilise Gestures
January 19th 2021
On episode 69 of the Blind Tech Guys, they went through all that happened at CES 2021, Marco demonstrated two BBC apps and Nimer showed us how to go about setting up and utilising gestures on Android and iOS.
https://www.blindtechguys.com/69

The Intersectionality of Identities with Disability
This resource comes to us from the National Center for College Students with Disabilities (NCCSD), a federally-funded project under the U.S. Department of Education, and provides a range of disability resources for people of different races, ethnicities, cultures, LGBTQI identities, and religions (listed in no particular order). Also includes a collection of self-care and identity resources:
https://www.nccsdclearinghouse.org/intersectionality-of-
identities.html

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