Does your guide dog take high blood pressure medication or eye drops that are human medicines altered for canine use? Wal-Greens has a prescription savings club that covers pet prescriptions. For an annual fee of $20 for an individual or $35 for a family membership (which includes yourself, a spouse, children under 23 years old, and pets), you can save a significant amount of money on over 5,000 brand name and generic prescriptions, including pet prescriptions. Members also get ten percent rewards on Wal-Green brand items and photo-finishing services.
One member of the National Association of Guide Dog Users says she used to pay $25 for one mont’s supply of her retired guide dog’s high blood pressure medication (a human prescription altered for canine use). Now, she pays $11 for 2 month’s supply. After the $20 annula fee, that’s a savings of $214 on just that one prescription! Now that’s true savings.
For many prescriptions, you can get 90 days’ supply for $12, less than a dollar a week.
The only drawback is that people who get Medicare, Medicaid, or Tricare (military insurance) or excluded from the program for their prescriptions, because federal law forbids it. However, these individuals can still get an individual membership for their guide dog, as the guide dog doesn’t receive Medicaid, Medicare, or Tricare…just the person! So you can still save on your guide dog’s prescriptions, as the NAGDU member does. Signing up your guide dog as an individual is a $20 annual fee, and will cover only that dog’s prescriptions.
To learn more, go to Wal-Green’s Prescription Savings Club Overview or visit your nearest Wal-Greens’ pharmacy and ask about the Prescription Savings Club.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
BlindSoftware.com: Two Very Helpful Tools
As I’ve said, I’m a research geek. Even my Vocational Rehabilitation counselor knows this. When we first met, I told him that I love to research, and offered to help him with anything, should he have any problems to research. Well, just my luck, he did! As a counselor, he has many appointments and also goes out into the field to meet with people, taking his laptop along with him. However, he didn’t have a reliable planning calendar that he could take with him wherever he went, and he was having trouble figuring out how to use Outlook Calendar to its full potential. I found him a tutorial for Outlook Calendar, but now I’ve found something even better!
BlindSoftware.com has a planning calendar called Day by Day Professional. This program is created by a blind programmer, and all the features are fully accessible via screenreader. He even has some really easy-to-remember hotkeys programmed in, such as CTRL+A for adding a note for an appointment and CTRL+N or P to go forward and backward in the calendar by day, week, month, or year. And you can always press CTRL+t to go back to today. This calendar has a great reminder system that is quick and easy, and also acts as an address book. Plus, you can download four audio tutorials created by the programmer that give step-by-step directions for using Day by Day Professional. At $40, this program is an inexpensive way for students to keep track of classes, study groups, sport events, and homework assignments, for families to keep track of who has what activities when and who’s turn it is to do what chore, and for professionals to keep track of employee meetings, appointments, and due dates for projects. Speaking of families, by the way, purchasing a single copy of Day by Day Professional gives you the ability to create multiple accounts. Thus, each family member can have their own planning calendar and their own reminders, and each person can have a password for access to that calendar. With a 15 day trial, there’s nothing to lose, but I bet once you try it, you will wonder how you survived without it; I know I do! I’m getting my copy very soon.
A complimentary program is called Talking Clock. This program works like your standard talking watch that announces each hour, except for one thing…it can also announce half hours or every fifteen minutes. I have been a lot more aware of how long I spend on the computer since I started using this program. My favourite option is the Big Ben mode. I always wanted a grandfather clock that chimed the hours, and with this program, that’s just what I have! The extra advantage to having this program over a real grandfather clock (other than the lower price of $20 and the lack of upkeep requirements) is that when you don’t want to be interrupted by the chimes, you can just turn it off and presto, no more clock. This program is also on an atomic clock, so keeps perfect time. It will even change for daylight savings time. I never realized that my clocks were all five minutes off; not any more!
Both of these programs can be downloaded as a 15-day demo or purchased via the website, 3 comments:
BlindSoftware.com has a planning calendar called Day by Day Professional. This program is created by a blind programmer, and all the features are fully accessible via screenreader. He even has some really easy-to-remember hotkeys programmed in, such as CTRL+A for adding a note for an appointment and CTRL+N or P to go forward and backward in the calendar by day, week, month, or year. And you can always press CTRL+t to go back to today. This calendar has a great reminder system that is quick and easy, and also acts as an address book. Plus, you can download four audio tutorials created by the programmer that give step-by-step directions for using Day by Day Professional. At $40, this program is an inexpensive way for students to keep track of classes, study groups, sport events, and homework assignments, for families to keep track of who has what activities when and who’s turn it is to do what chore, and for professionals to keep track of employee meetings, appointments, and due dates for projects. Speaking of families, by the way, purchasing a single copy of Day by Day Professional gives you the ability to create multiple accounts. Thus, each family member can have their own planning calendar and their own reminders, and each person can have a password for access to that calendar. With a 15 day trial, there’s nothing to lose, but I bet once you try it, you will wonder how you survived without it; I know I do! I’m getting my copy very soon.
A complimentary program is called Talking Clock. This program works like your standard talking watch that announces each hour, except for one thing…it can also announce half hours or every fifteen minutes. I have been a lot more aware of how long I spend on the computer since I started using this program. My favourite option is the Big Ben mode. I always wanted a grandfather clock that chimed the hours, and with this program, that’s just what I have! The extra advantage to having this program over a real grandfather clock (other than the lower price of $20 and the lack of upkeep requirements) is that when you don’t want to be interrupted by the chimes, you can just turn it off and presto, no more clock. This program is also on an atomic clock, so keeps perfect time. It will even change for daylight savings time. I never realized that my clocks were all five minutes off; not any more!
Both of these programs can be downloaded as a 15-day demo or purchased via the website, 3 comments:
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Jim Kitchen Games: Five Stars and Two Thumbs Up!
Growing up, we didn’t have much money for video games, but we played lots of board games and interactive games. Monopoly and Battleship were among the most popular, though I loved to play Mastermind, if I could find anyone to play it with me. BopIt! And Memory were also favorite of my siblings and me. Nowadays, though, everyone plays computer games, and physical board games are almost a thing of the past, especially the expensive Braille editions of board games. I mean, who has the $150 to just throw out there for a Braille copy of Monopoly when they are on a fixed income, like many blind people are.
Okay, okay, I’ll get right to the point. Don’t want to pay for those expensive Braille board games, but want to play them in an accessible, enjoyable way? Jim Kitchen has made some amazingly awesome games! I have seriously spent hours playing the Monopoly game he created with my friends, and have created three boards of my own with the cool board maker. Yes, there are already nearly forty board games to choose from, but I wanted a Holiday board that went from “Happy New year! (Go) through Christmas in July (Free Parking) to Christmas (Boardwalk). The most enjoyable board for me and my friends has been the Harry Potter 2 board. I edited it to make Jail “Azkaban” and Income Tax “Decree 121: Everyone must pay room and board” and it has turned into great fun for hours of “I’m paying rent at the joke shop; you better give me some fizz bangers and canary custards!” and “You must have murdered your duel partner; you just got a Duel (Chance) card that says Go to Azkaban!”
But Monopoly is only one of his great games. There is also Yahtzee, which has a really easy scoreboard that you can check at any time in your turn. Yahtzee also includes Double Yahtzee and Triple Yahtzee. Mastermind and Battleship are great versions of those childhood favorites, and Simon Says will test your hand-ear coordination as you try to remember if the pattern was Dog-Cat-Lion-Lion or Dog-Cat-Lion-Cat. I got to level 32, but I got lucky and had seven dogs in a row!
Other classic games include:
Concentration- can you remember if the match was at A6 or D6?
, Hangman
Snakes and Ladders
The Game of Life, changed to ease of use on a computer and with realistic inflations
Skunk- a dice game where the ones on the dice are replaced by skunks, and you have to get to a designated score, but if you get a skunk, you lose that turn’s points, and if you get two skunks, you lose all of your cumulated points
Star Mule- a Galactic drug dealing game
Trivia, with categories ranging from astronauts to the World Series. You can also create your own trivia files. I think this will be an awesome studying tool for when I tart college.
Pong, an audible version of the very old game
Admittedly, sports games don’t really interest me, but I tried out the football game for ease and coolness factor. A quick hint that I wish I had known: hit F5 to hear the special keys (Function keys, mainly)). The background crowd was too loud for me to hear the beginning speech very well, but that was quickly fixed once I learned how to lower different voices. I don’t know how to play football, and never was good at it, but this game seemed simple enough. My team gained 29 yards after two turns, but the other team intercepted, and it went downhill from there. I’m sure football fans would do much better. Other sport games include golf (with a huge number of courses to choose from) and baseball.
There are also a few adult games. One I won’t describe, as I find it too vulgar for the blog, but the other is not too bad. It’s called Spanker, and you have to listen to where the girl’s voice is coming from (left speaker, right speaker, or right in the middle), and hit the corresponding arrow key to “spank” her. It is an adult version of BoppIt!, which is also available. This is also a great hand-ear coordination tool. Not trying to brag, but my highest score is 103 swats. If you get higher, leave a comment with your high score! There is a rumor that Jim Kitchen is working on a version of Spanker with male voices for us girls, and maybe even a mixed male and female voices. Just a rumor, of course.
There are other programs, like some racing games, a few clock and timer programs, and a Braille reference that will tell you what that contraction you can never remember is.
Overall, I have found that the games are enjoyable, easy to play, and require very little reading of instructions if you already know the basic concept of the game. Even if you don’t, you will very quickly. There are three types of games: Windows Sapi5 text-to-speech, self-voicing, and screen reader-friendly. I like the Sapi5 text-to-speech games, because they are put into a menu listing that makes it easy to go through all the programs available to run. It uses the Sapi5 that nearly all PCs have these days. They are great for people who don’t have a more advanced screen reader, too, and I find the Sapi5 voices easy enough to understand (you can choose from five different voices). The self-voicing games are great for people who don’t have a screen reader, too. I’m not particularly joyful about the screen reader-friendly DOS games, but they do work, and they aren’t bad. I just had trouble getting them to run, as I don’t know how to work DOS very well.
All of Jim Kitchen’s games are *free* and can be downloaded at his website:
Kitchens, Inc. .
If you enjoy the games, be sure to e-mail Jim Kitchen and thank him!
Look forward to many other reviews of accessible computer games, including PCS Games and VIPMud.
Okay, okay, I’ll get right to the point. Don’t want to pay for those expensive Braille board games, but want to play them in an accessible, enjoyable way? Jim Kitchen has made some amazingly awesome games! I have seriously spent hours playing the Monopoly game he created with my friends, and have created three boards of my own with the cool board maker. Yes, there are already nearly forty board games to choose from, but I wanted a Holiday board that went from “Happy New year! (Go) through Christmas in July (Free Parking) to Christmas (Boardwalk). The most enjoyable board for me and my friends has been the Harry Potter 2 board. I edited it to make Jail “Azkaban” and Income Tax “Decree 121: Everyone must pay room and board” and it has turned into great fun for hours of “I’m paying rent at the joke shop; you better give me some fizz bangers and canary custards!” and “You must have murdered your duel partner; you just got a Duel (Chance) card that says Go to Azkaban!”
But Monopoly is only one of his great games. There is also Yahtzee, which has a really easy scoreboard that you can check at any time in your turn. Yahtzee also includes Double Yahtzee and Triple Yahtzee. Mastermind and Battleship are great versions of those childhood favorites, and Simon Says will test your hand-ear coordination as you try to remember if the pattern was Dog-Cat-Lion-Lion or Dog-Cat-Lion-Cat. I got to level 32, but I got lucky and had seven dogs in a row!
Other classic games include:
Concentration- can you remember if the match was at A6 or D6?
, Hangman
Snakes and Ladders
The Game of Life, changed to ease of use on a computer and with realistic inflations
Skunk- a dice game where the ones on the dice are replaced by skunks, and you have to get to a designated score, but if you get a skunk, you lose that turn’s points, and if you get two skunks, you lose all of your cumulated points
Star Mule- a Galactic drug dealing game
Trivia, with categories ranging from astronauts to the World Series. You can also create your own trivia files. I think this will be an awesome studying tool for when I tart college.
Pong, an audible version of the very old game
Admittedly, sports games don’t really interest me, but I tried out the football game for ease and coolness factor. A quick hint that I wish I had known: hit F5 to hear the special keys (Function keys, mainly)). The background crowd was too loud for me to hear the beginning speech very well, but that was quickly fixed once I learned how to lower different voices. I don’t know how to play football, and never was good at it, but this game seemed simple enough. My team gained 29 yards after two turns, but the other team intercepted, and it went downhill from there. I’m sure football fans would do much better. Other sport games include golf (with a huge number of courses to choose from) and baseball.
There are also a few adult games. One I won’t describe, as I find it too vulgar for the blog, but the other is not too bad. It’s called Spanker, and you have to listen to where the girl’s voice is coming from (left speaker, right speaker, or right in the middle), and hit the corresponding arrow key to “spank” her. It is an adult version of BoppIt!, which is also available. This is also a great hand-ear coordination tool. Not trying to brag, but my highest score is 103 swats. If you get higher, leave a comment with your high score! There is a rumor that Jim Kitchen is working on a version of Spanker with male voices for us girls, and maybe even a mixed male and female voices. Just a rumor, of course.
There are other programs, like some racing games, a few clock and timer programs, and a Braille reference that will tell you what that contraction you can never remember is.
Overall, I have found that the games are enjoyable, easy to play, and require very little reading of instructions if you already know the basic concept of the game. Even if you don’t, you will very quickly. There are three types of games: Windows Sapi5 text-to-speech, self-voicing, and screen reader-friendly. I like the Sapi5 text-to-speech games, because they are put into a menu listing that makes it easy to go through all the programs available to run. It uses the Sapi5 that nearly all PCs have these days. They are great for people who don’t have a more advanced screen reader, too, and I find the Sapi5 voices easy enough to understand (you can choose from five different voices). The self-voicing games are great for people who don’t have a screen reader, too. I’m not particularly joyful about the screen reader-friendly DOS games, but they do work, and they aren’t bad. I just had trouble getting them to run, as I don’t know how to work DOS very well.
All of Jim Kitchen’s games are *free* and can be downloaded at his website:
Kitchens, Inc. .
If you enjoy the games, be sure to e-mail Jim Kitchen and thank him!
Look forward to many other reviews of accessible computer games, including PCS Games and VIPMud.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
An Alternative to Print Phone Books
Since the phone book is in such tiny print that most people with low vision can’t read it, let alon blind people, the only good alternative is 411 directories. Can you imagine a Braille phone book? Oh dear…that would be hundreds of volumes that would have to be reprinted every year…a blind person would come home to find a pile of Braille as tall as their door waiting for them! And sighted people thought they had it bad with the multiple copies of phone books they get constantly…
So, if phone directories are the best alternative to a phone book, you should expect to pay for each 411 call through your phone provider, right? Wrong! In this post, I will talk about free 411 phone directories, as well as the ones provided by such phone companies as AT&T and Verizon. Let’s first look at the 800 numbers you can call for phone directory services.
The first phone directory number I learned is called Free 411. It can be reached at 1-800-FREE-411. For those of us who can never remember what number stands for what letters (like myself), that’s 1-800-373-3411. This 411 service provides easy access to phone book directories at the touch of a finger. They provide directories for residential numbers (your famiy, friends, and neighbours), businesses (the local store or mall), and government (your public library, Social Security office, or Human Resources office). They also offer weather reports, movie listings by movie and theatre, humour and gossip, horoscopes, a contest for a $100 Wal-Mart gift card, and a free call option for a 5-minute phone call to anywhere in the world. The drawback of this service is all the advertisements. Between each step of the service, there is a approximately half-a-minute to one-minute advertisement for companies like Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Wal-Mart and other sponsors of the service. This is the company’s way of providing this free phone directory.
The second phone directory that I use and enjoy is called Tell me! It can be reached at 1-800-555-TELL (1-800-555-8355). This phone directory does not have the advertisements that Free 411 has, but they do not have many options for phone number searches. This phone service only provides business phone numbers. The other services available at this phone number include traffic reports, stock quotes (which does have an advertisement), a news center that has a few articles each day with real people’s voices, not synthesized speech) provided by ABC News, sport updates (also has advertisements), entertainment (including a free Blackjack game with a Sean Connery-synthesized voice), travel (connections to airlines, hotels, taxi companies, and more), and a list of popular shortcuts. It even has a time function in case you forgot your talking watch at home. If you find a business you want, it will give you the phone number, address, and step-by-step directions from any address.
I love Tell Me! And its voice-activated menus, but I use Free 411 to access residential and government directories. Between the two, I can always find the phone number or address I need. Now if only they had a bus service directory of similar proportions in my area!
So, if phone directories are the best alternative to a phone book, you should expect to pay for each 411 call through your phone provider, right? Wrong! In this post, I will talk about free 411 phone directories, as well as the ones provided by such phone companies as AT&T and Verizon. Let’s first look at the 800 numbers you can call for phone directory services.
The first phone directory number I learned is called Free 411. It can be reached at 1-800-FREE-411. For those of us who can never remember what number stands for what letters (like myself), that’s 1-800-373-3411. This 411 service provides easy access to phone book directories at the touch of a finger. They provide directories for residential numbers (your famiy, friends, and neighbours), businesses (the local store or mall), and government (your public library, Social Security office, or Human Resources office). They also offer weather reports, movie listings by movie and theatre, humour and gossip, horoscopes, a contest for a $100 Wal-Mart gift card, and a free call option for a 5-minute phone call to anywhere in the world. The drawback of this service is all the advertisements. Between each step of the service, there is a approximately half-a-minute to one-minute advertisement for companies like Verizon, Time Warner Cable, Wal-Mart and other sponsors of the service. This is the company’s way of providing this free phone directory.
The second phone directory that I use and enjoy is called Tell me! It can be reached at 1-800-555-TELL (1-800-555-8355). This phone directory does not have the advertisements that Free 411 has, but they do not have many options for phone number searches. This phone service only provides business phone numbers. The other services available at this phone number include traffic reports, stock quotes (which does have an advertisement), a news center that has a few articles each day with real people’s voices, not synthesized speech) provided by ABC News, sport updates (also has advertisements), entertainment (including a free Blackjack game with a Sean Connery-synthesized voice), travel (connections to airlines, hotels, taxi companies, and more), and a list of popular shortcuts. It even has a time function in case you forgot your talking watch at home. If you find a business you want, it will give you the phone number, address, and step-by-step directions from any address.
I love Tell Me! And its voice-activated menus, but I use Free 411 to access residential and government directories. Between the two, I can always find the phone number or address I need. Now if only they had a bus service directory of similar proportions in my area!
Monday, March 8, 2010
NFB-Newsline: News at the Touch of a Button
When I first became blind, I found it very hard to keep up with the news each day. At the time, I could use a handheld CCTV (closed-circuit Television that magnifies print) to read the newspaper, but because of formatting and the strain on my eyes, I rarely read the daily paper. In fact, the only time I can remember being really interested about something in the newspaper was when a friend wrote a Letter to the Editor and wanted my opinion on it.
These days, though, I read the Raleigh News & Observer nearly every day, along with a number of others...the Washington Post, New York Times, the Economist, Science News, and newspapers that I would never have access to otherwise, like the Anchorage Daily News and Lexington Herald Leader. Why would I read these, you might ask. Sometimes, the most fascinating news come from local newspapers. I have read articles about a huge variety of topics, from a man who is blind and paralyzed who got a new leash on life through the use of a foreheaad mouse to the problems that Alaskans have with bears wrecking the inside of their cars looking for food...who ever knew? I have never been so informed about the news and interests of people all over the United States and all over the world (the Economist writes news from all over the world, as does the New York Times and several other national magazines).
The NFB-Newsline, sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind, along with state sponsors that vary by state, is a news-by-phone service available to the print disabled (people who are blind, dyslexic, or otherwise unable to read regular print). To get access to the phone service, you must first register. You can call the NFB-Newsline office at 1-866-504-7300 or go to the website www.nfb.org/nfb/Newspapers_by_Phone.asp for more information. It is free to register. Once you are registered, you can access the service at 1-888-882-1629 (there are also local numbers that vary by state). The first time you access Newsline from a phone, you will be required to enter your user ID number and PIN. After that, however, you can simply press 1 on the number pad to login.
When you login, you can access any of the newspapers available. My suggestion is first to press 9 from the main menu, which will take you to the tutorial articles. This will give you a thorough tutorial of what numbers to press when, what features you can access, and how to change the voice type, pitch, volume, and speed. There is also a new feature that allows you to e-mail a single article to your inbox by pressing the pound sign and 9 in rapid succession. You have to have your e-mail address registered with NFB-Newsline, but you can do this when you register for the service.
There is also a way to access NFB-Newsline on the Net. The website is www.nfbnewslineonline.org. I have not tried this service yet, but I was told it is the same as the phone service, except that you don’t have to use the phone to access it (Duh!). So, if you try NFB-Newsline Online, be sure to let me know if you like it!
There are some downsides to NFB-Newsline, though. It's only available to people in the United States and Puerto Rico, and not all newspapers are available. Puerto Rico, for example, has no newspapers on NFB-Newsline, for lack of funding. Puerto Ricans have access to the newspapers from the states, as well as national magazines, but there are no local newspapers available.
NFB-Newsline is a great supplement to other methods of reading the news, such as listening to the news on TV, reading on-line articles, and listening to local reading services. in my area, Triangle Radio Reading Services reads articles from the newspaper and magazines, sales papers for grocery, department, and pharmacy stores, and reads from novels. Other resources for news include magazine subscriptions through the National Library Service or other organizations and word-of-mouth news from family and friends.
Check out the NFB-Newsline. It's free, easy, and informative!
Also look forward to these topics:
Magazines in Accessible Formats
News on the Web: What’s Accessible?
Local Reading Services: Who Has Them, and How Do They Work?
These days, though, I read the Raleigh News & Observer nearly every day, along with a number of others...the Washington Post, New York Times, the Economist, Science News, and newspapers that I would never have access to otherwise, like the Anchorage Daily News and Lexington Herald Leader. Why would I read these, you might ask. Sometimes, the most fascinating news come from local newspapers. I have read articles about a huge variety of topics, from a man who is blind and paralyzed who got a new leash on life through the use of a foreheaad mouse to the problems that Alaskans have with bears wrecking the inside of their cars looking for food...who ever knew? I have never been so informed about the news and interests of people all over the United States and all over the world (the Economist writes news from all over the world, as does the New York Times and several other national magazines).
The NFB-Newsline, sponsored by the National Federation of the Blind, along with state sponsors that vary by state, is a news-by-phone service available to the print disabled (people who are blind, dyslexic, or otherwise unable to read regular print). To get access to the phone service, you must first register. You can call the NFB-Newsline office at 1-866-504-7300 or go to the website www.nfb.org/nfb/Newspapers_by_Phone.asp for more information. It is free to register. Once you are registered, you can access the service at 1-888-882-1629 (there are also local numbers that vary by state). The first time you access Newsline from a phone, you will be required to enter your user ID number and PIN. After that, however, you can simply press 1 on the number pad to login.
When you login, you can access any of the newspapers available. My suggestion is first to press 9 from the main menu, which will take you to the tutorial articles. This will give you a thorough tutorial of what numbers to press when, what features you can access, and how to change the voice type, pitch, volume, and speed. There is also a new feature that allows you to e-mail a single article to your inbox by pressing the pound sign and 9 in rapid succession. You have to have your e-mail address registered with NFB-Newsline, but you can do this when you register for the service.
There is also a way to access NFB-Newsline on the Net. The website is www.nfbnewslineonline.org. I have not tried this service yet, but I was told it is the same as the phone service, except that you don’t have to use the phone to access it (Duh!). So, if you try NFB-Newsline Online, be sure to let me know if you like it!
There are some downsides to NFB-Newsline, though. It's only available to people in the United States and Puerto Rico, and not all newspapers are available. Puerto Rico, for example, has no newspapers on NFB-Newsline, for lack of funding. Puerto Ricans have access to the newspapers from the states, as well as national magazines, but there are no local newspapers available.
NFB-Newsline is a great supplement to other methods of reading the news, such as listening to the news on TV, reading on-line articles, and listening to local reading services. in my area, Triangle Radio Reading Services reads articles from the newspaper and magazines, sales papers for grocery, department, and pharmacy stores, and reads from novels. Other resources for news include magazine subscriptions through the National Library Service or other organizations and word-of-mouth news from family and friends.
Check out the NFB-Newsline. It's free, easy, and informative!
Also look forward to these topics:
Magazines in Accessible Formats
News on the Web: What’s Accessible?
Local Reading Services: Who Has Them, and How Do They Work?
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Blind Mice Mart's Movie Vault
www.blindmicemart.com
Are you tired of asking your friends to describe scenes when you get together to watch a movie? Do you want more DVS (Descriptive Video Services)? Check out Blind Mice Mart's movie vault for thousands of recorded DVS movies in mp3 format! There is a wide variety of movies, from black-and-white oldies to modern favourites like Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series (six of seven). Best of all, the movies are free. The only downside is for people with some usuable vision; because the movies are in MP3 format, they are audio only. Therefore, there is no visual. This has not been a problem for me (I'm unable to see what's on the screen anyway), my friend who has some residual vision (he has 20/200 vision), or my sighted friends who "watch" these movies with me. Because it has DVS, which describes all the important visual actions (such as someone gesturing instead of speaking), seeing the movie is not necessary for enjoyment. In fact, a few of my sighted friends have told me that they prefer these DVS movies because it lets them use their imagination more. I think of them as half way between an audio book and actually being there.
Go to the Blind Mice Mart website at www.blindmicemart.com, go down to the heading that says “Blind Mice Movie Vault,” click on that, and you'll go to the movie vault page in a seperate window. It is seperated into headings that are easily navigated by screenreader users. The actual download part takes a little getting used to, though, because of all the advertisements in the download page.
On the Movie Vault page, the next from last Heading gives basic instructions for downloading. I do one thing different, and that is that when I get to the Sendspace popup window after pressing “Regular Download,” I press the N key (for non-link text) until I hear “Note” and arrow up. There is a blank line, then a graphic, another blank line, and the next line is the download link. I find this faster than tabbing up from the bottom.
Another Note: Some of the movies are categorized differently. For example, while Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is under the C Heading, Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is under the T heading (for The). So, if you don’t find the movie you are looking for at first, try it under alternate alphabet headings. So, you might look under the S heading for “The Sixth Sense,” but it’s under the T heading for “The,” and while some of the Agatha Christi movies are under A for “Agatha,” some are under the actual name of the movie (for example, the Number heading for “13 for Dinner”)
If you have any trouble with the DVS movie vault, let me know, and I’ll see if I can help! Enjoy your movies and being able to talk to your friends about the movies you watched and could actually understand.
Look for future posts in this blog about:
The National Library Services’ DVS services
Movie Theatres that have DVS
Organizations’ work toward access to DVS for theatres, DVDs, and television programs
When these posts are added, I will make the above into links.
www.blindmicemart.com
Are you tired of asking your friends to describe scenes when you get together to watch a movie? Do you want more DVS (Descriptive Video Services)? Check out Blind Mice Mart's movie vault for thousands of recorded DVS movies in mp3 format! There is a wide variety of movies, from black-and-white oldies to modern favourites like Lord of the Rings and the Harry Potter series (six of seven). Best of all, the movies are free. The only downside is for people with some usuable vision; because the movies are in MP3 format, they are audio only. Therefore, there is no visual. This has not been a problem for me (I'm unable to see what's on the screen anyway), my friend who has some residual vision (he has 20/200 vision), or my sighted friends who "watch" these movies with me. Because it has DVS, which describes all the important visual actions (such as someone gesturing instead of speaking), seeing the movie is not necessary for enjoyment. In fact, a few of my sighted friends have told me that they prefer these DVS movies because it lets them use their imagination more. I think of them as half way between an audio book and actually being there.
Go to the Blind Mice Mart website at www.blindmicemart.com, go down to the heading that says “Blind Mice Movie Vault,” click on that, and you'll go to the movie vault page in a seperate window. It is seperated into headings that are easily navigated by screenreader users. The actual download part takes a little getting used to, though, because of all the advertisements in the download page.
On the Movie Vault page, the next from last Heading gives basic instructions for downloading. I do one thing different, and that is that when I get to the Sendspace popup window after pressing “Regular Download,” I press the N key (for non-link text) until I hear “Note” and arrow up. There is a blank line, then a graphic, another blank line, and the next line is the download link. I find this faster than tabbing up from the bottom.
Another Note: Some of the movies are categorized differently. For example, while Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is under the C Heading, Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is under the T heading (for The). So, if you don’t find the movie you are looking for at first, try it under alternate alphabet headings. So, you might look under the S heading for “The Sixth Sense,” but it’s under the T heading for “The,” and while some of the Agatha Christi movies are under A for “Agatha,” some are under the actual name of the movie (for example, the Number heading for “13 for Dinner”)
If you have any trouble with the DVS movie vault, let me know, and I’ll see if I can help! Enjoy your movies and being able to talk to your friends about the movies you watched and could actually understand.
Look for future posts in this blog about:
The National Library Services’ DVS services
Movie Theatres that have DVS
Organizations’ work toward access to DVS for theatres, DVDs, and television programs
When these posts are added, I will make the above into links.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Introduction to the Blog
Hi! My name is Jewel, and this is my blog. I'll tell you a bit about me to start, then about my plans for this blog.
I live in Raleigh, North Carolina. I am 25 years old, and am planning to start college in the fall to work towards a degree in Elementary Education, after which I hope to get a Master's degree in Special Education of the Visually Impaired. I have always wanted to be a teacher, and I enjoy working with little ones especially. Couple that with the ongoing need for certified, educated teachers of the blind, and that brings me to my decision to be a TVI (Teacher of the Visually Impaired). I am an avid reader.I read everything I can get my hands on. I really don't like audio books, though...they put me to sleep. I read Braille, and love it. I can read my book on the bus, while waiting for the doctor, sitting around in the living room chatting...anywhere I want! With audio books, I can't do that. I can't listen to someone talking and read an audio book. I know some people can, but not me. And I can't bring my audio books anywhere I want (until I get my Victor Stream Reader, that is). Audio has its advantages, like being easier to get, more affordable, and portable if it's a digital book (not a book on tape from the library), but Braille is so much more fun to read. But I'm not going to go on and on about Braille. Just know that I am an advocate of Braille and teaching Braille to blind children.
At 23 years of age, I became legally blind due to a chemical burn to the face. My vision is now 3/350 in the right eye only (left eye has only a little light perception). Why am I telling you this? Because this blog is for the blind, by a blind person. I have been blind for nearly two years now, and while I am certainly no expert on the matter, I have learned much in the past two years. You see, I am a research geek, for lack of a better name. I love all things research. I love to find new things; I love to learn new things.
So, the whole point of my blog will be telling people about all the great things out there that you may not know about! From games to tutorials to programs and more, I'll tell you about what's out there. That’s why it’s called a Treasure Chest…I want it to be a treasure chest of information. So stay tuned for each exciting new or lesser known product, program, game, or website!
I live in Raleigh, North Carolina. I am 25 years old, and am planning to start college in the fall to work towards a degree in Elementary Education, after which I hope to get a Master's degree in Special Education of the Visually Impaired. I have always wanted to be a teacher, and I enjoy working with little ones especially. Couple that with the ongoing need for certified, educated teachers of the blind, and that brings me to my decision to be a TVI (Teacher of the Visually Impaired). I am an avid reader.I read everything I can get my hands on. I really don't like audio books, though...they put me to sleep. I read Braille, and love it. I can read my book on the bus, while waiting for the doctor, sitting around in the living room chatting...anywhere I want! With audio books, I can't do that. I can't listen to someone talking and read an audio book. I know some people can, but not me. And I can't bring my audio books anywhere I want (until I get my Victor Stream Reader, that is). Audio has its advantages, like being easier to get, more affordable, and portable if it's a digital book (not a book on tape from the library), but Braille is so much more fun to read. But I'm not going to go on and on about Braille. Just know that I am an advocate of Braille and teaching Braille to blind children.
At 23 years of age, I became legally blind due to a chemical burn to the face. My vision is now 3/350 in the right eye only (left eye has only a little light perception). Why am I telling you this? Because this blog is for the blind, by a blind person. I have been blind for nearly two years now, and while I am certainly no expert on the matter, I have learned much in the past two years. You see, I am a research geek, for lack of a better name. I love all things research. I love to find new things; I love to learn new things.
So, the whole point of my blog will be telling people about all the great things out there that you may not know about! From games to tutorials to programs and more, I'll tell you about what's out there. That’s why it’s called a Treasure Chest…I want it to be a treasure chest of information. So stay tuned for each exciting new or lesser known product, program, game, or website!
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