Voice of the Nation's Blind Blog

Is Goodwill Tricking or Treating its Contributors?

Since its inception in 1936, the federal Randolph-Sheppard program has become the most effective government employment program for the blind. Today some one thousand blind entrepreneurs operate businesses on federal property throughout the United States, ranging from full-service restaurants and cafeterias to vending machine stocking and maintenance operations.

At Desire2Learn, we care about the user experience of all users, no matter how they are accessing our system. But we know that even when we try to make things as intuitive as we possibly can, there are going to be places along the way that make people raise their eyebrows in confusion. One of them is the WYSIWYG editor.

At Desire2Learn, we really want to make it so that your focus is on taking your classes and learning the material you're in school for, not having to figure out how in the heck you're supposed to use the thing that's standing between you and those materials. So, we've tried to make navigating our stuff as consistent as we can.

Today, with the right resources and in the right circumstances, it is possible for a Braille reader to purchase a book the same day it is released by the publisher, at the same price paid by the print reader, and read it immediately on a mobile device in reasonably good quality Braille.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (http://www.loc.gov/nls/ ) has provided accessible materials to blind (and otherwise print-disabled) patrons for more than 80 years.  In keeping with trends of technology and the needs of its patrons, it has created and provided these materials in a number of formats over the years.

NFB members frequently encounter PDF files that are not accessible. Much as with HTML-based web pages a few years back it can sometimes help to be able to provide pointers to the producer of the PDF document to help them understand how to properly create PDF documents that will offer an accessible and usable experience for all users.

HumanWare's US customers can now use their built-in BrailleNote DAISY book reader to access the more than 100,000 AudioPlus'  books available from RFB&D®. Because these books are password protected, they require special software to play. This software is enabled in KeySoft 7.21 build 54.

With the introduction of the Ribbon in Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word 2007, Microsoft Office made a great change to the user interface of these applications.  To ease the transition of existing Office users to the Ribbon, and to provide an optimized experience for users who are already accustomed to the Ribbon, these applications provide a Quick Access Toolbar

Stream Undo KeyHave you ever accidentally pressed key 4 or key 6 on your Stream and jumped to the previous or next chapter when you did not mean to? Then you had to fast forward or rewind to find your way back to your reading place? Is there a better way?