In last week's blog post, I was extremely upset on how a company like Presonus could make a product so inaccessible to the visually impaired, and how this company was not willing to invest the time to make their products accessible. Well, I did two things to make me feel a lot better.

Melanie Moore, an AEBC member, was recently interviewed on CBC radio concerning parenting with a disability. You can click this link to listen to this excellent interview.

One of the main points I take away from the interview is that disabled parents are faced with the default assumption that they will be unfit parents. It is only after disabled parents prove that they are capable that they are permitted to be parents. Melanie was scrutinized in ways that most parents are not, and she was permitted to leave with her child only after proving herself capable; and all of this despite the fact that it was her third child.

Good day readers. If you remember a few posts ago, I was telling you all about my troubles with a PDF document that I came across while downloading the latest drivers for the v-studio 100 audio card from Roland. Well, I'd like to share with you all today that I finally got an answer from the company telling me that they had replaced the non accessible file, and put up an accessible version of the document. However after testing out the card on the Mac platform, I found that there were other issues that made it impossible to work with Protools a music sequencing software package. "Fine, I can live with that," and decided to trade in the card for another model.

On April 7, 2012 I purchased a new product called the iO Doc from Alesis.

The iO Doc is a docking station that allows the iPad to function as an external audio interface that works with music software such as Sonar and Protools. Further, the docking station can function as a standalone audio recorder and surface control console. These apps can be downloaded from the apple app store, and I can tell you that there are hundreds of software applications available that work in conjunction with the docking station and iPad. Since this is a professional docking external interface, the unit has the best in shielding with regards to noise and audio quality.

The docking station is laid out to make it very easy to locate the volume controls and connections.

Are you interested in trying a new sport and challenging yourself? If so, join a dragon boat team specifically for blind and partially sighted individuals for the 2012 Dragon Boating Season.

Dragon boating is a team paddling sport with roots from the ancient southern Chinese folk ritual of contending villagers held over the past 2000 years. A dragon boat is a long canoe that seats 20 people.

Last week's blog focused on an inexpensive word processor package in the iWorks sweet package called Pages.  In this week’s blog I'd like to focus on a simple text/word processor found in all Mac systems called Text Edit.

As technology continues to travel the tracks on its merry way, we find that more and more, blind kids are struggling to keep up when it comes to being able to enjoy the excitement and fun of modern technology.  With more and more toy manufacturers coming out with nifty ways for kids to learn to read, write, do math, and spell, blind and sight impaired kids need to be given ways to enjoy all of this as well.  Each time I hear those commercials on TV of kids having fun with various learning games, I ask myself how much of this is or can be available to blind and sight impaired kids.

Greetings fellow AEBC members and I hope that all is well with everyone. 

Ah yes!  March is all but gone and soon April will be with us.  I hope that everyone is getting ready to have a wonderful spring. 

I would again like to thank everyone for their feedback and my question at the end of this update is an important one which I am asking you to really give some thought to.  I believe that this question will help your board to better understand what vision you seek for the AEBC.

My quote for this month is:

Getting from place to place can be a huge struggle for the blind. We are forced to rely on public transit, para-transit, or the kindness of a sighted >friend or family member.

Often times, public transit isn't very good, and when you get rides from other people, you have to do it on their schedule. It would be better if the blind were able to purchase their own cars and have those cars take them where they need to go.

Last week, Marc wrote about Google's self-driving car, and I wanted to offer a few more details along with my own thoughts on this technology.