Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries

According to Orbit Research promo materials:

Orbit Research recently announced the introduction of the iBill, billed as “the world’s first affordable Talking Banknote Identifier for the blind and the visually impaired.” Priced at $99, the 1.5 ounce iBill is pager-sized. It enables the blind and the visually impaired community to achieve independence in the everyday necessity of using paper currency, which sighted people take for granted.

Measuring just 3 inches by 1.6 inches by 0.7 inches, the ultra-slim and compact design allows it to be carried unobtrusively in a pocket, purse, clipped to the belt or attached to a keychain or lanyard. Among the features that set it apart from other such devices are the extremely high accuracy (better than 99.9%) and the near-instantaneous speed (less than one second in most cases) with which it identifies banknotes.

The iBill is designed with the sole purpose of providing the simplest, fastest and most accurate means to identify U.S. banknotes. Its unique ergonomic design permits easy and intuitive use without the need for any training or practice. Upon insertion of a banknote into the device, its denomination is identified at the press of a button. Based on the user’s preference, the denomination is announced by a clear and natural voice, or by tone or vibration for privacy. The unit identifies all U.S. banknotes in circulation and recognizes them in any orientation. Banknotes in poor physical condition are indicated as unidentifiable and are not misread. The unit is also upgradeable to recognize new banknote designs.

The iBill achieves all of this while operating on a single, commonly available AAA battery which lasts for over a year with typical use. Its durable construction and sealed design ensure trouble-free use. The unit is backed by a one-year warranty from Orbit Research, and toll-free customer support.

Samples of the iBill are available for evaluation now and Orbit Research is accepting orders.

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For further information visit orbitresearch.com

Or call: 1-888-606-7248

Then…

Read other “Total Access” Product Promotions

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Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries

Quoting BBC News:

“A blind man has piloted a £3m passenger catamaran across the Solent to raise awareness for stem cell research, which could one day help restore sight. Colin McArthur, whose blindness is caused by a genetic condition, took the controls for the hour-long return trip. The father-of-five from Sandown, Isle of Wight, said he “enjoyed every minute” of the experience. It marks the launch of a project by the University of Southampton to find a cure for inherited blindness. Mr McArthur, 58, previously flew a Britten-Norman Islander plane and piloted a 130-seat hovercraft to raise awareness of retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited condition which causes blindness, often in later life. He wants to raise money for the research project, which is trying to discover whether stem-cells from the iris and cornea can be re-grown in the retina to restore the sight of people with retinitis pigmentosa. Mr McArthur, who is a trustee of charity RP Fighting Blindness, said: “Luckily enough the captain guided me through and told me which way to steer and how fast to go.” The Wight Link ferry, with passengers onboard, left Ryde, Isle of Wight on Thursday at 10:45 BST bound for Portsmouth and returned at 11:15 BST.”

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Read all Irked posts tagged “blind”

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Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries

Brent A. Gifford aka “The Great Blindini” is what they call a Master Magician. He’s been performing reality-bending, sleight-of-hand magic all across North America for more than three decades.

But here’s the kicker: Blindini started performing magic shortly after he went blind, at age 12. He was intent on proving that he could “do anything a sighted person could do. It was the most ‘visual’ thing [he] could think of doing…”

Furthermore, The Great Blindini thought up one of the funniest taglines EVER to promote his act.

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Find out what it is…after the jump!

Click to continue »

Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries, Bum Deal, Campaign Watch, Irked Videos

Huffington Post:

“After a whirlwind week that saw their family featured on the front page of The Huffington Post (and Irked!) and $30,000 raised to help them pay their overwhelming medical bills, the Stein family is back with a message of gratitude and hope for the HuffPost community. TampaBay.com visited the Steins at home on Sunday morning. They discuss how amazed they are that the [online community] came out in such strong numbers to support them. Gary Stein thinks of them as a symbol of the hardships faced by families across America.

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Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries, Campaign Watch

Quoting The Huffington Post:

On September 28, HuffPost featured the story of Monique Zimmerman-Stein, a mother who shares a rare genetic disorder with her children that causes blindness. Though Zimmerman and her family have health insurance, they are still saddled by astronomical debt from medical bills, which has forced this mother to save her daughters’ sight by sacrificing her own. Many readers, touched by the Stein family’s story, have asked for a way to help them. HuffPost Impact got in touch with Gary Stein, Monique Zimmerman-Stein’s husband, a Hillsborough County health department employee, who reported that the family’s medical bills have continued to amass. A few months ago, Stein had a heart attack scare and his daughter had a playground accident that sent her to the emergency room. After tests and scans came out clear, both hospital visits were deemed medically unnecessary and the family was charged additional co-pays, which have since gone into collection. A few weeks ago, Zimmerman-Stein had a minor stroke, known as a TIA, possibly caused by stress. She suffered no lasting side effects… other than the bill for the three-day hospital stay, which so far is $5,000—after insurance—and mounting. Despite this, Stein says “we find, every day, a reason to be brave because our system is difficult. I have a family to support and we make tough decisions every day on how to move forward and how to be normal.” Stein says they know they aren’t the only ones struggling to remain hopeful in the face of mounting health care debt. ”It just wrenches your gut to think that we live in such a great country but people can’t get the medical care they need and that they have to make decisions on what bills to pay, what things to forgo.” The Steins are acutely aware that their story is just one of hundreds of thousands, and Zimmerman-Stein is adamant in her belief that free clinics need to be supported and that our representatives need to be held accountable. “I don’t care who you are, everyone in this world gets sick,” she said. To help the Stein family, [The Huffington Post has] created a widget (see below) where readers can make a direct impact . . . You can give directly to the Stein family via their PayPal account by clicking on the widget below (the PayPal account should read “Just Dolphins”).

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UPDATE: Due to an “overwhelming response,” The HuffPost is extending the length of this fundraiser and have raised their goal to $30,000 (they were originally hoping to cover the latest round of the Stein’s medical bills—but, thanks to your generosity, they are able to help out with their other outstanding bills). Over 860 contributors have given more than $26,000 since last Tuesday afternoon. Quite an amazing accomplishment for the first day of the Impact section! Gary Stein, Monique’s husband, says the family is absolutely overwhelmed by the response from the online community. “We’ll do whatever we can to pay it forward,” he says. “I hope and pray that this amazing response can be repeated.”

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Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries, Irked Videos

Quoting Julian Hattem, via The Huffington Post:

Monique Zimmerman-Stein has been nearly blind for the last two years from Stickler syndrome, a rare genetic disorder. She recently decided to forego her own treatment to save funds to treat her two daughters, who also suffer from the condition, reports Lane DeGregory of the St. Petersburg Times. The family is covered under husband Gary’s Blue Cross/Blue Shield plan, but that coverage only pays for 80 percent of medical expenses. She will no longer get treatment to preserve that last slice of light. The injections that might help cost $380 after insurance, and she needs one every six weeks. She could be spending that money on her daughters’ care. If forgoing treatment might help them see, she said, “That’s a choice any mom would make.”

Read the rest of this article >>

Read Gary Stein’s beautiful statement >>

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Tampabay.com put together an excellent video to accompany the story:

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According to examiner.com, if you would like to assist the Steins in their struggle, you may contact them at:

Monique Zimmerman-Stein
P.O. Box 7506
Wesley Chapel, FL
33545

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Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries

Quoting guardian.co.uk:

EyesFree, a new interface for Google’s Android mobile phone operating system, provides a perfect illustration of what today’s “assistive technology” researchers are looking for. It provides a way for blind people to use a phone with a touch-sensitive screen, but the corollary is that it also provides sighted people with an easier way to use the phone. In fact, they can make calls without even looking at it. The idea behind EyesFree is that wherever you put your finger on the touchscreen represents the number 5. If you want 1, you move your finger up and to the left, and if you want 8 then you move it straight down, and so on. In alpha mode, your finger is surrounded by letters instead. You get spoken feedback for each selection, and if you pick the wrong number or letter, you can delete it by shaking the phone . . . EyesFree was developed by TV Raman, a blind research scientist at Google in Mountain View, California, and his colleague Charles Chen. Harty says it will be included in the next version (1.6) of the Android development kit, which also includes a text-to-speech engine and accessibility APIs (applications program interfaces). “It’s up to the carriers to ship it,” says Harty, “but users can download it from the Android marketplace, and developers can get the source code from code.google.com.”

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Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries, Irked Videos

Quoting guardian.co.uk:

The RNIB’s PenFriend, launched at [Techshare 2009], looks like a handheld microphone, and lets people use their voices to label things: books or CDs, food packages, medicine bottles, bills that have arrived in the post, or whatever. You start by sticking a small round label to the object, register that using the optical scanner at the PenFriend’s tip, then record your comment. Pointing to the label will then play back the associated comment.

The RNIB’s Mark Prouse, who explained PenFriend to me, pays someone to read his post to tags. He says: “It’ll be a household must, I think.” PenFriend was developed by the RNIB and a London company, Mantra Lingua, and uses optical identification technology (OID) for the re-usable labels. OID is cheaper than RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), and the PenFriend only costs £63.24. It also works as an MP3 player and can store about 70 hours of notes. The audio for a tag could therefore be the type of medicine and the dosage, the name of a food product plus the use-by date, the full text of a letter, or the track-listing for a CD, and so on. Packs of 380 extra labels will cost £11.49, so the system is cheap enough to use for address books and diaries. While it was good to see the enthusiastic reception that PenFriend got at Techshare, it’s disappointing that it takes the RNIB’s involvement to get something like this to market. John Lamb, editor and publisher of Ability magazine, says: “Technology for disabled people still remains a minority sport, and that’s surprising given the cutting-edge nature of assistive technologies such as optical character recognition, eye gaze control and haptic feedback. ”Things are beginning to change thanks to tighter legislation, more awareness of disabled people’s rights, and belated interest from major technology companies. However, it’s an uphill struggle to undo years of indifference,” says Lamb. “Assistive technology is one way for the IT industry to pay society back for the billions it has made from us all.”

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Quoting onlineshop.rnib.org/uk:

No computer required. Use to label: food items, including freezer items, film and music collections, household objects or even to organise letters and other paperwork as well as record shopping lists or leave audio messages. It can also be used as a portable notetaker, record your message and keep track of it by placing the allocated label in a small notebook or in your diary.

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Watch this fascinating YouTube clip:

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Filed under: Uncategorized

A “quantum leap in accessibility” is how Apple described its new model iPhone. BBC reporter Geoff Adams-Spink tests its usability for visually-impaired consumers and finds that, despite the benefits of built-in assistive technology, easy emailing and internet surfing, it falls short in some important areas.

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Click here to listen to the report

Then…

Learn more about accessibility & iPhone

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Filed under: Uncategorized

From disabledcomedytour.com:

The Blue Collar Comedy Tour featured southern, white comedians. The Kings of Comedy—black comedians. Latin Kings of Comedy—Mexican American comedians. The Disabled Comedy Tour follows the same model, producing the next groundbreaking comedy tour . . . The Disabled Comedy Tour is a two hour stand-up comedy show featuring five fantastic comedians with disabilities, supplemented by one of the following, more intimate, events with the comedians:

• Post Show Q&A
• Pre or Post Show Panel Discussion
• Pre or Post Show Private Reception

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Meet the Comics:

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Tanyalee Davis

3′6″ Tanyalee is the Ferrari of comedy—low to the ground and kind of racy!
(A stand-up-on-a-chair comic!)

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Charles Walden

Funny, sarcastic, laid back, fresh and urban—with a splash of Cerebral Palsy!

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Patrick Deguire

Legally blind comic who first ‘discovered laughter as a means of self therapy.’

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Josh Blue

The comedian who puts the cerebral in Cerebral Palsy!

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And…Mr. David Roche

Brilliant author, performer, motivational speaker, and comedian who has a facial disfigurement

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disabledcomedytour.com

Then…

Read all Irked posts by Josh Blue

Read all Irked posts by David Roche

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