© Valley News, Fallbrook, California — Visually impaired residents of Murrieta will be able to use an accessible computer station at the Murrieta Library, thanks to the local Rotary Club. The computer has a special keyboard and ZoomText software that can magnify text to different sizes, along with a large-screen monitor…. READ ARTICLE
© Bury Times, U.K. — Cyclists saddled up for a 80-mile round trip to Southport to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Bury Tandem Club for the Visually Impaired. And the man who launched the organisation in 1984 was presented with a commemorative souvenir by colleagues to mark the silver jubilee…. READ ARTICLE
© WTVG-TV, Toledo, OH — An accident caused Toledoan Paul Rachow to lose his sight. He says what happened after he went blind is a miracle. In his late sixties, Paul Rachow found himself blind after an accident. Things that he took for granted were gone. He says, “Try putting toothpaste on a toothbrush when you can’t see.” His doctor referred him to the Sight Center of Northwest Ohio…. READ ARTICLE
By Bryce Hoekenga © Kalamazoo Gazette, Michigan — About five months after moving into a bigger facility on Kalamazoo’s east side, a company that employs the blind to assemble calculators for the federal government has started to assemble furniture. Midwest Enterprises for the Blind Inc. began assembling folding chairs and tables on Thursday. Production manager Glen Mackey said the furniture likely will be used in government cafeterias…. READ ARTICLE
© WTVG-TV, Toledo, Ohio — An accident caused Toledoan Paul Rachow to lose his sight. He says what happened after he went blind is a miracle.In his late sixties, Paul Rachow found himself blind after an accident. Things that he took for granted were gone. He says, “Try putting toothpaste on a toothbrush when you can’t see.”…READ ARTICLE
By Amy Wilson© Lexington Herlad-Leader, Kentucky — Last Monday, the management at Central Kentucky Radio Eye, the Lexington-based reading service for those physically unable to access the printed word, was informed that the network which provides the satellite feed for the majority of CKRE’s 7 p.m. to 8 a.m. broadcast was to cease all service Sept. 30. Margarget Chase, executive director at CKRE, immediately sent out letters to her 80 area volunteers explaining how devastating this will be for the blind and disabled across the country who depend on the InTouch Network, a service funded by the Jewish Guild for the Blind for 32 years. Determined not to have any dead air over CKRE’s airways, Chase and her staff created a plan to continue 24-hour service to the 3,000 customers they serve in Kentucky…. READ ARTICLE
By Sean Buckley © FierceTelecom.com — Verizon may be making progress with its West Coast Fiber to the Premise FiOS rollouts, but the fiber distribution boxes that are mounted on telephone poles to carry its data and TV services have come at a cost of endangering Los Angeles-based pedestrians. In response to a local news story that reported how the 300 metal boxes pose a danger to local residents and blind pedestrians walking on public sidewalks, Verizon said during a meeting with Los Angeles Public Works officials and residents that it would move the pole-mounted boxes to a height of 8 feet or higher by December 2010…. READ ARTICLE
By Alie Ward © Los Angeles Times — A silver-haired woman with a doughy, wrinkled face peers through her reading glasses from inside the window of a recording booth. Her rapid hand waving at first appears to be a salutation to our chattering tour group, before it becomes obvious that it’s a plea for silence, a polite shooing away. “She’s been with us a long time,” says Diane Kelber, laughing, communications director for Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. Volunteers here are apparently very loyal and very diligent when it comes to their work. The tour through the Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic’s Hollywood location winds past almost a dozen sound chambers that are stuffed like one-person pods…. READ ARTICLE
By Erica Bennett © KTAL-TV, Shreveport, Louisiana — At Louisiana Association for the Blind, everyone is equal. The 82 year old group provides steady employment to hundreds who are visually impaired…. READ ARTICLE
By Reena Jana © Businessweek — Apple is widely celebrated for making devices as easy to use as they are elegantly designed. What customers probably don’t know is that some of these features aren’t exactly new—they evolved from software Apple created to help disabled people use PCs. Among them: the new iPhone’s voice control option, which allows users to speak to their handsets to prompt an action, such as calling Mom, or to get a spoken answer to such questions as “What song is playing?” And “mainstreaming” tools for the disabled is spreading. Software developer Nuance Communications, for instance, invented voice command technology to help people who are unable to type on a computer. Today, the company’s algorithms are used in products ranging from Amazon.com’s latest Kindle e-reader to cars from Ford Motor…. READ ARTICLE