A video of a blind man piloting one of Google's self-driving cars has swept across the Internet over the last couple of days. In case you missed it, the video is available with audio description here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?src_vid=cdgQpa1pUUE&annotation_id=annotation_979835&feature=iv&v=peDy2st2XpQ

Last night I was reminded of the joy that play can bring.  

In the normal scheme of things, we feel that it is our kids who need to listen to us but sometimes; we need to listen to our kids.  Whenever we think that they are not paying attention then guess what?  They are and much more than we think.  Whenever we think that they are shutting us out, it is we who are doing it, not them.

On March 16th, 2012, I was simply browsing the app store on my iPhone and came across a music application called Garage Band.  While all Mac computers today with OS Lion come with this music app I was curious to see how accessible this app was on the iPhone and iPad.

Lets take some time to describe what Garage Band is.

Garage Band is a simple software which allows a musician to get their feet wet in composing and recording music.  This app is also capable of taking regions of audio, and looping them together to create a simple piece of music.  In the last couple of months an update patch to Lion made Garage Band on the Mac very accessible.

This is the question that I am asking myself as I write this.  I know!  In so many cases, society tends to gravitate much more easily towards the needs of our kids—and rightfully so.  They are our future, and we need to do all in our power to ensure that theirs will be a bright one, nurtured and jealously safeguarded and protected at all cost. 

This topic is very near and dear to my heart.  To put things into perspective:

• Access technology is much more expensive than mainstream alternatives, and much less available on the market.   
• It is extremely challenging to have access technology repaired as opposed to its counterpart.
• There are few manufacturers of access technology hardware and even fewer developers of access technology software.
• The profit to be made for those who develop and sell access technology is much less than for those who do the same for mainstream technology.
• Access technology has to be developed in such a way as to adapt to the mainstream world.

So there is the picture.  Now where do we go from here?

Today I learned about the “Little Free Library Program”.   Little Free Libraries is a grassroots outreach movement to promote literacy, libraries, a love of reading and a sense of community through free book exchanges.  

Todd Bol, from Madison, Wisconsin, wanted to find a personal and unique way to honour his mother after her death.  His mother had been a school teacher, an avid reader, and a believer in sharing her favourite books.  He built a small wooden replica of a library, filled it with books and placed it outside his home.  From that single act hundreds of other Little Free Libraries have sprung up in eight countries.  The web site lists five in Ontario!  

This article in the Minnesota Daily describes an app that could significantly aid blind travellers.

The app could indicate not only what street a person is on, but could tell a person when traffic lights have changed and how much time is left to cross the street.

A legitimate concern raised in the article is that, if such an app becomes very popular, there will be less of an incentive to install audible pedestrian signals. This issue is an interesting one that goes well beyond traffic lights, and it is one we are going to have to grapple with over the coming years.

On March 2, I did some investigating on a free screen reader called NVDA.  Although this screen reader has been discussed in earlier conferences and reviews, I was curious to find out if there had been any improvements to the software.

To my pleasant surprise, I found out that, Sure enough, NVDA, in the last year or so, has made significant improvements when using Microsoft word.

The most noticeable change is that the user now has the option to be able to check if there is bolding, underlining, and tab spacing in their document.  These features do also exist in other screen readers, such as Jaws and Window Eyes; however, there is a reason, which I will come back to later, as to why I am so happy that this has now been implemented in NVDA.