Boo! Come on, you know you want to. Check out Audioboo, an audio sharing platform

May 17, 2013 — L. Legendary

What on Earth is Audioboo? Audioboo is a sharing platform that allows users to record and post audio on the fly, from anywhere, using just about any device. Individuals from morning deejays, and random deejay wannabees, to big companies like The Guardian, use Audioboo to post and share their content. you can follow your favorites to hear short installments of audio “boos,” as they are called. The service is free to use for everyone, as long as you are willing to limit the length of your recordings to 3 minutes. If you need more time, you can pay for a monthly subscription, and get 30 minutes per recording. As you browse the site, you can read the show notes and profile info of the person who recorded the boo, and you can subscribe to, or follow, their offerings.

You can also download an app for your IOS device. The original app, simply called Audioboo, can be downloaded from the Apple app store. There is another version of the app, meant to be an update, called Audioboo2, which you will also find in the app store. There seems to be only superficial differences between the two apps, and of the two, I prefer the original, since it seems slightly more straightforward. I have no idea, however, how long Audioboo plans to continue to support the original app.

For my small business, Elegant Insights Braille Creations, (@ElegantInsights), I plan to use Audioboo as a sort of audio catalog. I will provide company news, product descriptions, style tips and vision-related convention and events news. You can follow my boos here:

http://www.audioboo.fm/ElegantInsights

Here’s another fun tip: Do you like to listen to podcasts? If you have an Apple device and like to download and listen to favorite podcasts using Downcast or another podcatcher, you can hear the Elegant Insights Audio catalog, or any of your favorites, as a podcast! In fact, if you are reading this on your Apple device right now, just tap on this link:

http://audioboo.fm/users/1248733/boos.rss

and your favorite podcatcher should recognize the feed URL, open, and subscribe you automatically. Now, whenever I publish a new recording, it will automatically download into your device along with your other podcasts. It doesn’t get much easier than that. Audioboo provides the RSS feed URL, as well as the URL to the user profile page for users who want to follow their favorites on multiple device types and platforms.

If you don’t have an Apple device, and none of the above appeals to you, fret not. you won’t be left out. I’ve attached the Audioboo account to Twitter, so if you follow me @ElegantInsights on Twitter, you’ll see the tweets with the link to the recording in your Twitterstream. Just click the link, and you can hear me right from Twitter. You can also share your boos on Facebook. Audioboo currently does not support FB business pages, but you can attach your own audioboos to your FB profile page for your family and friends.

Randy Rusnak, (@thebigr), long-time audio engineer, co-host and producer of the Accessible Devices podcast (www.accessibledevices.com), has used Audioboo for years. Randy is certified by the State of Minnesota as a technology instructor, and he uses Audioboo to augment his podcasts by offering short tips and reviews of a variety of assistive technologies.

Recently, he posted a terrific boo in counterpoint to the excellent “Siri vs. Google voice” showdown as published by Applevis. You can hear the Applevis podcast here:

http://www.applevis.com/podcast/episodes/siri-versus-google-voice-search-which-better

and then listen to Randy’s satirical version here:

http://t.co/7LnR7C5V82

You can follow Randy’s boos by going here:

http://www.audioboo.fm/thebigr and click follow.

While Audioboo has been around for several years, I only recently became aware of it when I spotted Randy’s uploads on Twitter. Then, I read an article about Audioboo recently published in the Sacramento Bee, describing how Audioboo is rapidly becoming a social platform of choice amongst the blind and visually impaired community. Read it here:

http://is.gd/R6I1zm

A great feature of Audioboo is that you can not only publish to a group of followers, but you can send private direct messages as well. Uploading a recording is easiest when done using an Apple device, but you can record and upload directly on the Audioboo web site. The apss and web site are accessible and support Voice Over on your IOS device.

Hope to hear from you soon!

LL

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Maintain situational awareness while accessing audio input with AfterShokz

April 23, 2013 — L. Legendary

Sometimes, a good sales pitch can begin with a story. What follows is a story about someone I met at the recent CSUN13 conference. If you can stay with me until the end, I will try to make it worth your while.

One morning during the conference week while sitting alone at the Grand Hyatt Starbucks, at a tiny table adjacent to the busy lobby coffee bar, a voice said, “Excuse me, Mind if I join you?”

I looked up. “Of course not,” I answered, hurriedly clearing away the detritus of my coffee and muffin. “Thanks,” he said. “Tables are at a premium here.”

We introduced ourselves, and he asked if I was attending the conference. I said yes, then realized that I had not noticed that he was using a service dog, nor did he seem to have a white cane. “Are you?” I asked. “Are you exhibiting? A vendor?”

“Not exactly,” he explained. “But I’m here to market my product to the blind community. Here. Let me show you.” Then, he placed something on the table in front of me. “It’s a pair of headphones,” he said.

I picked up a feather-light, super-streamlined piece of gear, noticing immediately that it resembled no pair of headphones I had ever seen. “They’re called bone-conduction headphones,” he continued. “Let me put them on you.” He placed the headphones around the back of my neck, placing what would normally be the portion worn over the ears at my temporal bone instead. Then, I experienced a surreal sensation. I was hearing both full volume music coming from the headphones, along with the ambient noise of the crowded coffee shop. I could…feel…the sound, while not only hearing it, but also being fully aware of the activity around me.

Dennis Taussig is the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer VP of AfterShokz, a company that has produced the world’s first open ear bone -conduction headphones for runners, cyclists, sports enthusiasts, and now, thanks to the blind community, an ingenious application for us, too.   
 
Originally, the technology was created by VoxTech, one of the leading companies in the world to supply this technology to the military.  Dennis worked on a number of projects with the principle of Voxtech, and one day Dennis was contacted to find out if a consumer version of this technology was possible.  Within months, a company was formed, and AfterShokz made it’s debut at the Consumer Electronics show )International CES in January, 2012. 
 
AfterShokz bone- conduction headphones are ideal for anyone who wants to maintain situational awareness while still listening to important audio cues, such as that which is provided by text-to-speech GPS navigation devices.  You can travel to your destination while hearing instructions from your iPad or iPhone, listen to music or a podcast while on a bus, or work out at the gym to your favorite motivational guru and still hear the tap of your white cane, the driver call out your bus stop, or your personal trainer counting off the reps.  It’s a fascinating product, and Dennis credits the blind community with providing the ideas that expanded the business. 
 
“I was getting calls from people who are blind,” says Taussig.  “And they kept asking if the headphones could be used with their Bluetooth devices for navigation.” 
 
Since his exposure to the disability community, Dennis has gone “all in” with respect to his commitment to accessibility.  He volunteers at Syracuse University working with disabled students, and he has assisted educators to enable their blind students to learn math by providing the headphones so that the students can hear their screen reader and the professor at the same time.  “They’re not cut off from the teacher, nor the teacher from them,” Dennis explains. 
 
The sonification lab at Georgia Tech has conducted a study on teaching systems for blind students, who are learning math graphing using audio.
AfterShokz is providing equipment for the testing, enabling the students to hear the sonification and teacher at the same time.
 
Dennis wants these headphones to be available to all of us, and he is so emphatic that they should not be financially out of reach that he has permitted me to offer my readers a generous discount towards the purchase of AfterShokz.  Go to the AfterShokz web site at www.aftershokz.com and choose from one of several models.  If you’d like to be able to make/take calls, order the Sportz M2 which features a microphone. If you require a headset that isBluetooth compatible, choose Bluez. Enter LL40 at checkout, and you’ll get 40% off the price.  No, I do not financially benefit, I just want my readers to experience the AfterShokz phenomenon.  Since I know my geek friends love a good technical specifications deck, just write to me using the accessible contact form on the page, and I’ll send you product data sheets on the different models, along with spec info.
 
Don’t forget to enter LL40 when you check out to save some serious coin. 
 
LL   
 

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Help build an inclusive Twittersphere with Easy Chirp 2

April 8, 2013 — L. Legendary

For those of you who follow these things, you already know that Twitter (www.twitter.com), the social media micro-blogging platform, is making changes to its Application Programming Interface (API). For those of you who have no idea what that means, or why it’s significant, allow me to get you up to speed.

According to Wikipedia, An application programming interface (API) is a “protocol intended to be used as an interface by software components to communicate with each other. An API is a library that may include specification for routines, data structures, object classes, and variables.” If you want to read more, go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Application_programming_interface

Twitter has only had a single version of the API in its entire history. Now, they want to make changes, and update to version 1.1. They have announced new developer “rules of the road,” and have outlined the proposed changes here:

https://dev.twitter.com/blog/changes-coming-to-twitter-api

The changes will affect all third-party applications that interact with Twitter, such as those you might use as an accessible alternative to the main Twitter web site. Some of these third-party Twitter clients have already completed the necessary adjustments, while others may not even bother, and may simply disappear. Time is running short, however, because Twitter has announced the “sunset” of version 1.0 of the API here:

https://dev.twitter.com/blog/api-v1-retirement-final-dates

Ever since I first discovered Twitter, I’ve been using the accessible alternative created by Dennis Lembree. Originally called Accessible Twitter, the web-based version now goes by the name Easy Chirp. Due to the changes made by Twitter to the API, Dennis has been forced to reinvent Easy Chirp, soon to be Easy Chirp 2. Dennis needs your help. He has started a kickstarter profile, and needs your pledges. The money raised will be used to compensate the experts Dennis has hired to assist with the project. As usual, when making a contribution to a Kickstarter project, you will receive a thank-you gift commensurate with the amount of your donation. See more info here:

Help build an inclusive Twittersphere: http://tinyurl.com/c9fsj5v

“I created Easy Chirp over four years ago and am touched by the support it’s received from the community. Now it must be rebuilt due to the Twitter API change, and I hope to collaborate this time with a few other developers.” Lembree says.

Dennis plans some new features and additional streamlining to make Easy Chirp 2 even faster and more accessible. It will continue to support keyboard-only users, will work without Javascript, and will be better optimized for mobile devices. Of course, it will still feature the user-friendly interface you’ve come to expect, useable by people who have a variety of disabilities, and who use a variety of assistive technologies.

Says Lembree: “To me, Easy Chirp exemplifies what a web app should be: platform agnostic, accessible, and simple. It provides a unique and necessary service in the social media space.”

There is no shortage of Twitter clients in the market, which can be used with different operating systems and device types. I use Easy Chirp for my own reasons, not the least of which is that I know Dennis, like him, trust him, and appreciate his work. If you have used Easy Chirp in the past, but have never clicked on that “donate” button just below the sign-in link on the Easy Chirp home page, then scrape a few coins out from between the sofa cushions and send them Dennis’s way. We’ll be tweeting at one another again before it’s time to fly south for the winter.

Pledge to the Easy Chirp 2 Kickstarter here:

Http://www.kickstarter.com and perform a search, or go directly to the Easy Chirp 2 project page here: http://tinyurl.com/c9fsj5v

For all things Twitter API, go here:

https://dev.twitter.com/docs/api

You can follow Easy Chirp: @EasyChirp for updates, or you can follow me @Accessible_Info on Twitter as well.

LL

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Novel approaches to icon-based AAC presented by Karl Wiegand

February 21, 2013 — L. Legendary

One can easily argue that few are as keenly interested in the well-being of a person with a disability as is a parent. Expanding from that core of support one can also include siblings, guardians, educators, social workers and health care professionals. One can further include advocates, friends, spouses and co-workers, all of whom are concerned about quality of life. That covers just about everyone, and just about everyone should be in attendance at Karl Wiegand’s presentation at this year’s Conference on Disability, hosted by CSUN.

Mr. Wiegand is presenting some astonishing work in the field of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). His presentation, entitled “Novel Approaches to Icon-Based AAC,” will explore two different methodologies for message construction and input. These two approaches can elevate the quality of communication for a person who has locked in syndrome. “Locked in syndrome” is an umbrella term that describes people who may have paralysis to the degree that the individual is unable to move any major body parts, except for above the neck. Even a person who may be in a full body cast is an example of someone who may have near complete lack of motor function, albeit temporarily.

The choices in alternative and augmentative communication devices now commonly involve the use of mouth sticks, switches or eye gaze input devices that can be cumbersome and fatiguing for the user. The current systems were designed based on an assumption that the user can press a button, make repetitious movements, or is able to maintain movement or body position for extended periods, so as to select letters or short words or phrases from choices on a menu. Using letter-based systems can be time consuming, because a letter-based system is more generative than the icon-based system that some users prefer in face-to-face or real time communication situations.

The challenge for Wiegand and his colleagues was to answer the questions: How can you redesign a screen such that you can display a large number of icons, but not all at once, which can be cognitively burdensome? How can icon-based systems be redesigned for faster and more efficient communication, as well as to accommodate users with upper limb motor impairments?

Together with his advisor and colleagues at Northeastern University, Wiegand is working on initial designs of two new approaches to icon-based
AAC: one using continuous motion and one using a brain-computer interface (BCI). The continuous motion system, called Symbol Path, consists of 120 screen icons of semantically salient words. “Continuous motion” means that a user can touch a word to begin a sentence, and without breaking contact from the screen, swipe or drag from icon to icon, ultimately completing a sentence.

His second approach makes use of a practice borrowed from the field of psychology. It is a system that shows icons to a user that represents a word or small phrase, in a serial fashion. It’s called Rapid Serial Visual Presentation. It allows for more efficient sentence construction, rather than presenting the user with a screen full of icons that must be made small in order to offer the user a full compliment of choices, which may be overwhelming.

This method of presenting information in rapid-fire fashion has been used before. If it sounds familiar, you may have once used this same technique if you’ve ever tried to tackle “speed reading.”

“My goal is to build a star trek computer.” Wiegand declares. He went on to explain. “A computer like the one in the program Star Trek, that can understand anybody, and will do it’s best to fill a person’s desires or needs.”

Karl was gracious enough to patiently explain what essential elements of communication would be required in order to make a “Star Trek computer” possible. First, a computer would have to be capable of parsing, which senses for context and speech recognition. Another element would include learning contexts, whereby a computer would understand how people interact with systems and expected responses from users. Finally, artificial intelligence would have to be achieved, enabling problem-solving with incomplete information, and natural language processing.

Until the point at which Mr. Wiegand has utterly changed our lives, and I do not doubt for a moment that he will, Wiegand says he’d like to work on Siri. To achieve his ultimate ends, Karl has worked in a number of other fields that have led him to this research. “I like AAC.” Wiegand continues. “It is a very focused area that is actually a vertex for four or five other fields.”

At CSUN, Karl will demonstrate the SymbolPath system, a prototype version of which is currently available for free on the Android app store (search for “SymbolPath”), show the BCI system, explain how both systems work, and talk about future directions for both. Wiegand hopes to have a system in place at his CSUN session so that attendees who interact with AAC users, friends or loved ones of AAC users, or AAC users themselves, can help create a corpus — a data set that shows what certain users want in certain times or settings or situations.

“We have revised both approaches based on initial testing and user feedback, and we are currently conducting several iterations of user-assisted design and revision before proceeding to full user testing.” Wiegand notes.

Attendees can help build this database by contributing realistic text, utterances, or phrases that AAC users like to say. If you attend the session, or find Karl throughout the week, you can contribute to the database or ask questions. In exchange, Karl will give you a copy of Symbol Path.

Karl will be presenting on Friday, March 1st at 3:10 pm in the Ford AB room, third floor.
Here is the link to the session page:

http://bit.ly/15yOOND

More about Karl Wiegand:

Karl Wiegand is a Ph.D. student in computer science at
Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. He works in the
Communication Analysis and Design Laboratory (CadLab) under the
advisement of Dr. Rupal Patel. Since joining the CadLab in 2009, Karl
has been working on alternative methods of communication for users
with neurological
impairments and severely limited mobility. His research includes
aspects of interface design, artificial intelligence, and language
theory.

Here are more ways to contact Karl, and help with his corpus gathering project:

Karl Wiegand’s homepage: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/wiegand/
Karl’s lab: http://www.cadlab.neu.edu/
Link to Karl on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/karlwiegand/

Finally, if you know or love an AAC user, you can help get the ball rolling on data-gathering here:

http://www.cadlab.neu.edu/corpus/

Don’t forget to use hashtag #CSUN13 when tweeting about the event. See you in San Diego!

LL

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Anatomy of a Kickstarter project: Photo phobia

January 21, 2013 — L. Legendary

In the first article I posted on my painful climb to kickstart my business, Elegant Insights Braille Creations (www.elegantinsightsjewelry.com), using Kicstarter, I described some of the basics behind posting a project.  As of that article, I had not yet finished the video that is supposed to accompany the business or project profile.  I found the process of video creation to be one of the most painful things I’ve ever done, and in the end, I chickened out. 

Ideally, you are supposed to put your best face forward, blow your own horn, talk up your talents, put it all on display.  You should craft a video showcasing you and your project in a way that is so compelling, your viewers simply cannot resist throwing money in your direction.  after all, who wants to pledge money to a project that does little more than elicit a yawn?  So, you either have to be personality plus, or pitch an irresistible offer.  Some videos are very low production value, just a person sitting and talking about their project in front of their laptop webcam.  Other videos are mini multi-media productions that make one wonder why they need the money in the first place.  Despite my best efforts to be interesting, I succumbed to my fear of being in front of the camera and made my video all about the product.  all you’ll get of me is my voice doing the narration.  it’s quite the cringe-worthy commercial.  But everyone has to play to their strengths, and my otherwise long list does not include being a media maven.  All I can hope for is that my plea for pledges will be appealing enough, and by extension, distracting enough, that viewers will overlook the fact that my face is nowhere to be seen.  I actually think forcing myself to be in front of a camera could be detrimental in the end.  For the life of me, I cannot seem to come across as anything other than a kidnap victim in a ransom demand video.  If I look as though I wish I were anywhere else, how is that going to convince potential pledgers to "feel the passion"?

Uploaded it will be, as is.  In a world where no one seems to be camera-shy, and everyone seems to strive for pseudo-stardom, it’s clear to me I live in the social media celebrity-obssessive stone age.

 

You can read part 1 here: Anatomy of a Kickstarter project:  Preliminary examination

 

 

     

 

LL

 

 

 

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An indoor navigation solution for blind users? Check out Navatar

September 5, 2012 — L. Legendary

This is absolutely fascinating.  Ever wonder why there are no navigational devices suitable for indoor use?  Ever wished to be able to efficiently navigate a mall, a hotel, or other indoor space?  Wonder why, when there is no end to the solutions for auto or pedestrian use, there seems to be no version of GPS for people who are blind to use indoors? 

Take a look at this.  It’s called Navatar.  In its earliest stages, research is being conducted on a device to assist blind users to move around in smaller spaces indoors.  Read more here:

http://eelke.com/navatar-indoor-navigation-blind.html

Dr. Eelke Folmer is an Associate Professor researching Human-Computer Interaction
in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno.  "We are planning to expand our navigation system with a new feature that can help with spatial perception," says Eelke.  "We are currently sending out a questionnaire to potential users of our system to better understand the barriers of indoor navigation."

Want to help with the research?  below is a short questionnaire that you can fill out and send to Eelke.  Just cut and paste the questions into the body of an email, answer as thoroughly as you can, and send off the email to the address at the bottom of this post. 

I hope to have the opportunity to field test the actual device, so you can grease the wheels for me by letting Eelke know I sent you.  Well, now that I think of it, perhaps too many respondents will actually work to my detriment.  Hmmm.  Okay, here are the questions:

1. What type of visual impairment do you have?

2. Do you use a cane to navigate in indoor environments? and if so can
you name some limitations on using a cane in indoor environments?

3. Do you use a cane to explore the layout of a room? if not do you
use other techniques? e.g. hands?

4. Can you describe the process you follow to familiarize yourself
with the contents of a room?

5. When you look for an object in a room (e.g., phone or coffee cup)
what techniques do you use?

6. Do you sometimes use a sighted person to familiarize yourself with
an indoor environment? If so what kind of questions do you ask this
person?

7. If we could build a tool that could help with spatial exploration,
what kind of features would you like this to have?
 
Send completed questionnaire to:  Eelke Folmer -  eelke.folmer at gmail.com

LL

 

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NFB 2012 preview: Digit-Eyes to exhibit at national convention

June 25, 2012 — L. Legendary

Here’s something to look forward to if you’re planning to attend the 2012 National Federation of the Blind conference held this year in Dallas, Texas :.

 

Digit­‐Eyes is exhibiting at NFB this year.
This is your chance to meet the developers behind the product!

Digit-Eyes is a unique application that enables people who are visually‐impaired to identify items using their iPhone or iPad. Digit­‐Eyes reads nearly 27 million UPC and EAN codes and tells you the product name ­‐ and the full description, usage instructions and ingredients ‐ in 10 languages. Using Digit‐Eyes, inexpensive off-­the-­shelf office supplies and a standard inkjet or laser printer, you’ll be able to record audio labels or make text labels that are read aloud by your phone.

At our booth at NFB, you’ll be able to try the Digit-Eyes products that you’ve seen online, let us know what new features you’d like to see in the product and even make appointments to work with one of our master teachers to refine your Digit­‐Eyes skills.

The booth features:

·         Hands‐on experience with the iPhone and iPad.

 

o   Find how Digit-­Eyes can be used to make and play back your own labels

o   Learn how to apply the special washable labels to create talking food containers or to label clothing

o   Use the iDevices to read the manufacturer’s UPC codes to identify all sorts of items. Even find out the product ingredients, usage instructions and nutritional information.

 

·         Opportunities for educators and counselors to get free introductory packages that contain not only sample labels, but also iPhone and Digit-­Eyes information and training materials for low-­vision and non-­sighted students and clients.

 

·         The complete line of Digit-­Eyes products – all at special show pricing:

o   Pre-­printed paper labels

o   Washable Labels

o   QR-­coded Playing Cards you can read with your Android or iPhone

A limited number of spaces for free training are available on a first-­come, first-­served basis. If you’d like to reserve your session, please tweet @digit_eyes or e­‐mail support(at)digit­eyes(dot)com.

 

Look for Digit-Eyes at booth B-31 starting July 1st, 2012

.

LL  

 

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Anatomy of a Kickstarter project: Preliminary examination

May 24, 2012 — L. Legendary

If you are not a regular reader of the Accessible Insights blog, it will not require much poking around here to discover that, along with my pet topics of inclusion, accessibility, disability awareness and assistive technology, I often write about entrepreneurship.  In the spirit of "necessity breeds invention," I have been a solopreneur for years.  Recently, I’ve undertaken a new venture.

 

It is this new venture about which I write today.  Actually, I’m going to write about the process of getting my little project off the ground, with the assistance of Kickstarter.  If you’ve been curious about Kickstarter and how it works, if it would be right for you, or if you are just delighted to have the opportunity to watch a business go down in flames, like the ghoulish fixation people have with another person’s tragedy, then  you’ll get your fill here.  I’ll either be the hero or the goat, and if you like the idea of rooting for the underdog, you just can’t beat the odds that are stacked up against me.

 

My little startup venture is called Elegant Insights Braille Creations.  It is a line of jewelry and accessories that are embossed in Braille.   So far, the business barely qualifies as a hobby.  Still, my plan is to make a go of it, and that’s why I turned to Kickstarter.

 

In  case you don’t know, Kickstarter is the largest of the new "crowdfunding"  platforms growing like wildfire today.  The upshot is that you create a project profile, upload all the relevant info, create a video, post product descriptions, ask for people to "kick in" some cash, promise them a reward for doing so, and hope your project can attract "backers" before the expiration date you’ve set for your project completion.  Piece of cake, right?

  

According to the Kickstarter web site, www.kickstarter.com, just under half of all projects are successful, meaning that they’ve met or exceeded their funding goals in the allotted timeframe.  That’s a bit intimidating.  For those entrepreneurs who have found success, however, many of them have far exceeded their fundraising goals, and have gone on to take up and complete other projects.

 

The catch with Kickstarter is that you cannot post a project that is open-ended.  All projects must propose a finite goal, with a specific end point.  In other words, just saying that "I need money to start my business" is inconsistent with the Kickstarter guidelines, and your project will not be approved.  All projects are reviewed by the Kickstarter staff before they go live on the site.  You must also create and upload a video, wherein you can demonstrate your passion for your project  so as to convince  your hoped-for backers to contribute.  This is where Kickstarter loses me.  Without going into depth regarding my pathos about being seen in any sort of video, suffice it to say I’ll need to undergo some desensitization therapy before I tackle that particular aspect of the task.  Furthermore, this feels just a bit like begging to me.  I guess this is a personal weakness.  I’ve never been  good at asking for money.

 

As I learn the Kickstarter process, I’ll keep you updated.  You can ogle to your heart’s content, especially if you’re one of those fascinated at being witness to a car crash in progress.  Or, you can be in my corner and cheer me on as I blindly (literally and figuratively)feel my way through the minefield of funding a new business.  I’ll also point out any accessibility pitfalls about which to be aware if you are a screen reader user and considering Kickstarter.  Wish me luck, or pennies from heaven, or something. 

 

LL

 

 

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Try this accessible tool to increase blog readership: Subscribe To plugin

May 15, 2012 — L. Legendary

Anyone who wants to build a regular blog readership, or who wants to start their own blog site, knows that attracting and holding onto the restless and fickle eyeballs of the information-seeking public is a challenge.  The content needs to be interesting, of course, but all the experts say that you should probably post updates several times a week.  Further, offering customers a reason to come back, providing some interactivity, as well as some "sticky" content that keeps your readers on your site for more than a split second, also helps.  I suppose the purpose of this last is to encourage those impatient eyeballs to rest upon the ads you have sprinkled around your site.

 

In the case of this blog, however, I have no such ads, and if you are one of my regular visitors, you drop by to absorb the occasional pithy little wisdom pellet dispensed here.  Today I want to alert you to a Word Press plugin I’ve just installed to make that a bit easier.  Why it has taken me this long to offer this feature is beyond me, but if you want to subscribe to alerts about new posts, you can now click on the "Subscribe" link on the page and sign up to get my aforementioned wisdom pellets dropped into your email inbox.  I’m like a one-woman digital Pez dispenser.

 

While the "Subscribe To" Word Press plugin is one of the most popular in the sharing plugin category, I didn’t find it to be the most intuitive I’ve ever installed.  I’ll say this, though, it was mostly accessible, with some decent menu options that allow for some nice flexibility.  I cannot urge you strongly enough, however, to read the readme.txt file included with the download files.  On another of my blog sites, I used one of the suggestions made by the developer to create a "dummy" blog user, set as an administrator.  Give the dummy user a dedicated email account just for sending out new post alerts.  Since most web hosts allow you to create a gazillion email addresses, just set one up that you only use for this purpose.

 

Finding accessible plugins has not been easy.  For me, "accessible" means that I as the administrator must be able to install and configure it myself, without sighted assistance, and that my blog users must also be able to use the features.  Subscribe To, for example, allows you to enable an Ajax style subscribe form, or for visitors that do not have javascript enabled, a choice to use a widget or not.  On most blog sites, many plugins get a test run, then are deactivated and deleted.  Here on the Accessible Insights Blog, you can check out a list of the plugins I’ve used, some of which are currently deactivated.  I had to uninstall a popular sharing button because as of the latest version, it became inaccessible for my screen reader users.  I wrote to the developers of this sharing plugin to ask if they provided an accessible alternative, and I was told that the button does not support screen readers as of the current release, and there are no plans to make the button accessible in the future.  Out    it went.  To see a list of plugins used on this site, just click on the "plugins used" link at the top of the page.  Plugins Used is actually the name of a plugin that creates a page, then deposits on it a list of all the plugins you are running.  All those that I have installed and are currently active should be accessible for all users.

 

So, please subscribe to my blog.  Yes, new posts are tweeted out, thanks to Twitterfeed, but if you aren’t following me (@Accessible_Info), you don’t always know I’ve posted something new.  The Subscribe To plugin makes acquiring content more convenient, because readers need not frequently check for new posts.  Also, a site visitor does not have to register, although if you do, you can make some adjustments to your preferences as to how you want the content delivered.  I’ve selected the text-only option for the email updates I’ll send, since this blog isn’t exactly a multimedia production, anyway.  Subscribing is a simple, opt-in sequence that takes seconds.  You’ll only get an email when I post something new, so fret not that you will be inundated with messages.  My purpose here is to inform, not harass.

 

Click here to go to the Subscribe To plugin page.

 

Thank you, as always, for your eyeballs, text-to-speech engine, or whatever you use to consume my content.

 

LL
 

Posted in AT Reviews, AT tips and tricks, Cool Tools. No Comments »

Read them. Hear them. Quote them. Be inspired by American Rhetoric

January 16, 2012 — L. Legendary

Have you ever heard the Martin Luther King Jr. speech, "I have a Dream" in its entirety?  We’ve all heard the same snippets over and over, but hearing it from beginning to end is a whole new experience.  One of my favorite web sites is called American Rhetoric, and on it, you will find an incredible collection of speeches, audio, and text transcriptions of famous speeches for your review.  You can relive presidential speeches, movie speeches, and speeches inspired by the events of September 11th, 2001.  If you are a blogger, print writer, or just an admirer of a beautifully crafted sentence, you’ll appreciate this web site. 

 

Go here:

 

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/

 

As a speaker, I have repeatedly turned to American Rhetoric for quotes and context.  This site is a fantastic resource for education and entertainment.  You can also purchase some of their offerings.  American Rhetoric is a must for educators and information purveyors everywhere. 

 

To read or listen to the "I Have A Dream" speech in its entirety, click here.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm

 

Keep dreaming…

LL

Posted in Cool Tools, Random Ramblings. No Comments »
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