Judge's decision is 'on the money'

In either 1999 or 2000, I received a call from Annie Woo of NPR's "Weekend All Things Considered."

She interviewed me because of remarks I had emailed in about the paper currency in America and how irritating it is to handle it and to always try to fold it in different patterns depending on each denomination.

I fold $10 bills in half longwise and than crosswise to get a sort of rectangle, $20 or folded again to make small squares, $5 ar folded in half not longwise but crosswise twice. It's a lot of trouble, it's time consuming, and it's annoying to always have to pay attention as cashiers are handing your change back to you. Some arrange the bills in ascending order from the highest to the lowest while others hand back change in the opposite manner. There are usually people behind me waiting to be served while I futz around with arranging my currency.

Back to that interview. I spoke to Ms. Woo and even changed from my cordless telephone to an older land line because their engineer had trouble getting a voice level. When I listened later that day to the show, I had landed on the proverbial cutting room floor. I could have wished they'd sent me a digital file for my own records. I'm sure the out-takes are not archived at NPR so my witty remarks (she said they were witty--that's how I know) are lost to posterity.

I understand from friends that the UK has had variable sized paper currency for over 15 years. I understand that several other countries use different colored inks to distinguish the various denominations of their paper currency.

It has been said that by asking for this, we send a message to sighted people that we need special accommodations.

Duh. What are Braille, slates and styluses (or is that styli), talking books, SSDI pensions, audio description, service animals, white canes, text-to-speech synthesizers, marked subway platform edges, large-print books, audible street signals but accommodations?

Several of these have caught on with sighted people. Need I mention the billion dollar market in commercial audio books or the usefulness of curb cuts to mothers with strollers or the usefulness of audio description for people who want to follow a TV show but might also like to crochet or knit?

And a New York judge agrees with me on the currency situation.

- Text by David Faucheux

'Baen Enables the Disabled': Leading sci-fi publisher sets example for e-bookdom

E-book publishing isn't the friendliest industry for the disabled, who, even more than others, suffer from the effects of Draconian DRM---all too often a horror for those using screen readers, for example.

Baen Books, a leading sci-publisher, which each month previews its p-books in e-format, earlier set an example through avoidance of DRM. Now it's gone another step by providing e-books free to the disabled. Here's a news release on Baen and ReadAssist, a group working with the disabled:Read more »

How to HEAR David Faucheux--via our voice synthesis

You can still hear Blind Chance even though AudioBlogger is no longer available. Our voice synthesis is not the same as David Faucheux's voice, but the related podcasts are better than nothing at all. Typically you'll simply paste the Web address of the link below into your iTunes or equivalent software. The address is

http://www.talkr.com/app/cast_pods.app?feed_id=11187

-Text by David Rothman

Social networking and the blind

Read an article--on social networking sites and their accessibility--in AFB's November newsletter. I must check out LinkedIn soon. Here is a brief extract from the article.

Until MySpace, Friendster, and Facebook offer an alternative to the CAPTCHA, people with vision loss will not be able to independently sign up for these services. But the good news is once someone gets through the CAPTCHA barrier, becoming a MySpace, Friendster, or Facebook user is possible, since the templates for these three sites are fairly well labeled. LinkedIn, the leading business networking site, is the most user-friendly of all the social networking sites because its pages are well labeled, and it does not include a CAPTCHA in the registration process.

I also checked out the mentor portion of AFB's website. I found a Seattle librarian who is a reader's advisor and emailed to find out if said person finds screen access technology able to work with the library automation software. I'll keep you posted as I am hoping to learn information that I might be able to use should the library position in Baton Rouge come open.

Imagine that!

-Text by David Faucheux