At first glance, these may seem to be minor fixes, however, as someone who uses a Mac for just about everything these days, they’re a big deal. After all, increased responsiveness translates to greater efficiency whether that relate to VoiceOver, or the faster launching of applications. To me, it also reaffirms Apple’s commitment to the blind in that they continue to work on VoiceOver VS putting it off until a major release.

If you’re using a Mac, have Snow Leopard and want the update, simply go to Software Update located under the Apple menu. Software Update will eventually tell you about the update — it may take a few minutes as everyone is downloading it now — and it should walk you through the installation process. I’d also encourage anyone who thinks Apple should put descriptions, or at least a link detailing VoiceOver changes in its update release notes to Email accessibility@apple.com and let them know your thoughts.

On September 11, 2001, i was working as a tech support specialist providing support to users of a web based telephony service. Although it wasn’t allowed, I took advantage of the fact that I was wearing a headset to keep a German radio station streaming in the background. After all, having something in the background besides the monotony of my co-workers dealing with angry customers probably helped assure my sanity. I remember receiving a call from a woman, but can’t at all recall what she was calling about. At some point during the call, I remember thinking it odd that the German station was reporting a heck of a lot of something about New York. Eventually, try though I might, my mind wandered from the customer’s issue and I found myself listening with incredulity to the German broadcaster. Eventually, it became clear to my customer that I was not paying attention and she rudely asked if I was still on the line. I assured her I was and asked if she happened to be near a TV. She admitted she was and I asked her to please tune in CNN. I don’t know why she didn’t hang up on me, I’d probably hang up if a tech support rep asked me to do such a thing, but she obligingly turned on CNN. After maybe a few seconds, I heard her sharp intake of breath and realized with sudden clarity that I wasn’t misunderstanding the German newscaster.
That particular support call lasted about thirty minutes, way longer than the time allotted by my employer for such calls. My customer kept up a steady dialog describing what she was seeing on the TV, both of us apparently having forgotten her original issue. I don’t know if that particular call was ever monitored for quality assurance, but if it were, the person monitoring it would have heard us both in tears by the end.

As mentioned above, I was providing support for an Internet based phone company and as such, I received calls from all over the world. over the next few days, I received many frantic calls from people desperately trying to contact friends and relatives in and around New York. I received two calls I’ll probably never forget.
The first caller was a man from a country in the middle east. After waiting forever to talk to me, he informed me that he felt so terrible about what happened that he was calling all the US companies with which he was doing business to personally apologize. I remember him tearfully trying to explain to me that such actions are not condoned by Islam and that the events that took place in New York were something he would regret for the rest of his life. I really had the impression the man was sincere, after all, it must have been important to him given the amount of time he had to wait to speak with me, especially given the cost per minute for the call itself. I wondered if I’d feel strong enough to do what he did, personally apologize to people I never met for events I had nothing to do with.
My second call was from a woman who was trying to contact her sister. She knew her sister was fine, but was frustrated that her call wasn’t being completed over our network. I could see that her calls were being routed via one of our data centers in New York, a center that for obvious reasons had gone offline. I tried explaining this to the woman and attempted to reassure her that call capacity would soon be restored. As I was doing my best to calm her, she broke in saying, “oh, does this have to do with that silly bomb thing in New York?” I didn’t know what to say, I mean how can one respond to something like that? Our call was “accidentally” interrupted, I’m not sure if my slamming the button to hang up had anything to do with it, but suspect it might have. How could one guy feel so passionate about what happened that he was moved to call around the world to apologize while someone right here in the US felt inconvenienced by what she termed “that silly bomb thing??

Like everyone, OK almost everyone, the events of September 11 effected me greatly and I came to realize what my father meant when talking about his memory surrounding the Kennedy assassination all those years ago. I remember hoping i’d never have to witness something so traumatic and realize my kids will now undoubtedly be hoping for the same thing. To all those effected by September 11, know that you’re in my thoughts and prayers.

Steve

Certainly, I’m not a patent attorney and haven’t seen the specifics of Freedom Scientific’s filing, but this all doesn’t seem like a thing worth suing over. After all, there are many features the two products share, links lists and access to the system tray just to name a few, and we’ve not seen lawsuits claiming patent infringement from either side.

Sadly, this isn’t the first time Freedom Scientific has filed suit against another assistive technology company for, what to me are silly reasons. In May of 2007, Freedom Scientific sued Serotek Corp. over the use of the word “freedom” in the name of one of their flagship products. Serotek had developed a voice-enabled web portal known as the “Freedom Box.” Using the Freedom Box, blind users and those with motor difficulties could easily gain access to Email and a wide variety of Internet-based content, all via a uniformed interface. For many, the Freedom Box solved challenges posed by needing to learn a web browser, a separate Email client, separate audio players, etc… Freedom Scientific, however, felt that users would confuse the term “Freedom Box” with their own corporate name and hence filed suit. The Freedom Box eventually became the very successful System Access Mobile Network which continues to provide access to information to those that otherwise might not have it.

GW Micro’s blog has a great post concerning this recent lawsuit and I’d encourage everyone to check it out. Like many others, I am appalled at Freedom Scientific’s filing and feel it’s only purpose is to delay the release of GW Micro’s latest version 7 of Window Eyes. Certainly, I respect the fact that Freedom Scientific has the right to protect it’s intellectual property rights, however, being able to mark ones place while reading a web page seems to me to be more of a conceptual thing.

I’ll definitely post any developments resulting from this unfortunate suit and would encourage anyone with comments to post as well.

Steve

More importantly than the announcements list in a way is the fact that I’m no longer sure that I’m receiving all Emails sent to me. Definitely, this is a terrible situation, especially given that much of my business is conducted via Email. I mean how professional do I look if I’m referred a client via Email and I don’t even respond? What about actual client questions that don’t get answered because I simply may not have received them?

Obviously, it’s time for a change. My search for a new web hosting provider continues, however, I’m certainly open to any suggestions any of you may have. Perhaps you use a web hosting provider that offers great service? Maybe you know of someone who does? Maybe you know of someone who knows of someone who … you get the idea. Anyway, please feel free to comment with any suggestions, or call me with them at (207) 512-2387. For the most part, Email is working fine, unless it isn’t, so Emailing suggestions is certainly an option. I’ll definitely keep you posted once a new provider is found. In the mean time, please visit this blog often as new content will regularly continue to be added.

Thanks,

Steve

I want to thank everyone who has subscribed to this blog including all of those using the feedmail service and those reading via an RSS reader. Now that life is calming down a bit, I’ll be posting more frequently.

Thanks,

Steve

Thanks everyone for being so patient with me as I create the new site and thanks for all the supportive Emails I’ve received over the past weeks.

Steve

So, what is a blog anyway? I’ll explain what a blog is, but you may want to click here to read a more advanced definition of blogs and their various components. Basically, you can think of a blog as a journal. It consists of entries, otherwise known as posts that discuss something of interest to the blog author. In the case of this blog, I will write posts on a number of topics, also known as categories. New categories may be added at any time, so check back frequently. For now, I’ll start off by writing, or blogging about assistive technologies and my experiences with various software applications, etc… As a reader, you have the ability to comment on anything I post. Feel free to do this as your comments may be the basis for additional discussion i.e. someone else might comment on your comment, etc…. Also, just because I have a certain view point, or have had certain experiences, doesn’t mean you have to agree with me. In deed, posting comments is a great way to disagree with my views and to make the blog a more diverse resource. Coming soon, I will be creating some tutorials providing step-by-step instructions for posting comments, but for now, just give it a try — it’s easier than you think. Finally, blog entries are organized from newest to oldest, just keep that in mind as you read this blog. Also, if you find a specific category of particular interest, feel free to click that category to see all posts in that specific category. In short, I’d love to think you’ll read everything posted here, but by clicking specific categories, you can more easily read posts of interest to you.

Thanks again for visiting the Assistive Technology Services of Maine blog, welcome aboard.