Release of Making Life More Livable, 3rd Edition
AFB Press is pleased to announce the recent publication of the revised and updated Third Edition of Making Life More Livable: Simple Adaptations for Living at Home After Vision Loss, by Maureen A. Duffy.
Making Life More Livable is an essential resource for older adults experiencing vision loss, their family and friends who support them, professionals who work with older adults, vision rehabilitation therapists, and occupational therapists.?This large-print book provides information?on practical tips and easy modifications that improve the safety and security of the home and give older adults with vision loss solutions to continue living independent and productive lives. This book is 234 pages long and is now available in paperback for $39.95. electronic formats—e-books for $27.95 and online subscription for $23.95—will be available shortly.
Quick Look: A $50 Tablet from Amazon.com
In the March, 2014 issue of AccessWorldwe took a look at the Amazon Fire line of tablets, which operated on a modified version of Android and included both a built-in screen reader and magnifier. Recently, Amazon introduced a new member of the Fire tablet family, and the feature you may enjoy most is the price: $49.99… and they're cheaper by the half dozen. Buy five and the sixth Fire is free.
Like its predecessors, the new Fire has an accessibility quick start. Simply press and hold two fingers against the screen when you first start the device to turn on the screen reader, now called Voice View, or use three fingers to enable the screen magnifier. You will be offered a brief tutorial on the accessibility feature, then you will be prompted to set up your new device. The onscreen keyboard uses touch typing, which is to say when you find the character you want, simply lift your finger and the character is typed. There is no way to change this to the double-tap each character entry method preferred by many.
The new Fire supports most European languages, and offers Australian, British and US English voices. The speech is crisp and clear, but there is only one speaker. It's located on the back surface, so if you wish to use speech with the tablet lying on a table you will need to use headphones, not included.
The Fire features a 7-inch IPS display, a 1.3 gigahertz quad-care processor, built-in microphone, and both front and rear-facing cameras. The tablet only ships with 8 gig of memory, but it does include a micro SD card slot that will hold up to 128 gig of additional storage. To help subsidize the price, Amazon includes adds-mostly for free games—on the lock screen. These are the only place adds appear, though, and you can quickly bypass them by unlocking the device with a two finger slide up. The Mayday video help service is also missing from the new Fire, but email and telephone support are both still free.
Like its predecessors, the new Fire is primarily a consumption device. There are preinstalled home screen apps for shopping, reading, listening to music, and watching videos. The Amazon app store also offers Fire-optimized versions of most of your favorite apps. Additionally, thanks to the work of the Eyes-Free accessible Android news listand the members of Inclusive Androidit is even possible to side load Google Play onto the Fire. Now you can download, install and run most, but not all, of your favorite Android apps which are not yet available on the Amazon app store.
If you own an iOS phone or tablet, but have always wanted to "see how the other half lives," at $50 the new Fire may be just the tablet for you.
Labor Department Signs Alliance Agreement with Families and Work Institute
Collaboration to promote innovative employment strategies for workers with disabilities.
In an effort to promote inclusive workplaces that welcome the skills and talents of workers with disabilities, the US Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy signed an alliance agreement today with the Families and Work Institute, a New York-based non-profit that conducts research to inform innovative solutions to the challenges facing today's workplaces, families, and communities.
"For millions of Americans with complex life situations—including individuals with disabilities and their caregivers—workplace flexibility is essential to managing personal and family needs while also delivering on the job," said ODEP Deputy Assistant Secretary Jennifer Sheehy. "We look forward to working with the Families and Work Institute in the coming years to advance key strategies that foster the workplace success of people with disabilities, strategies that incidentally benefit many workers without disabilities as well."
Since its inception in 2006, the ODEP alliance initiative has been engaging organizations to work with the agency to develop and implement model policies and initiatives that increase the recruitment, hiring, retention and career advancement of employees with disabilities. The new alliance builds on ODEP's past work with FWI, which included informing the development of the 2014 National Study of Employers, a joint effort between FWI and the Society for Human Resource Management as part of their When Work Works initiative. Together, ODEP and FWI worked to add questions to the study about workplace flexibility around job tasks: a proven strategy for increasing the employment of people with disabilities.
"Partnering with the US Labor Department on this critical issue to promote the recruitment, development and retention of employees with disabilities is a dream come true for the Families and Work Institute. It is consistent with our mission of conducting rigorous research that leads to action," said the institute's President and Co-Founder Ellen Galinsky.
ODEP's mission is to develop and influence policies and practices that increase the number and quality of employment opportunities for people with disabilities. In addition to FWI, ODEP has alliances with SHRM, the US Business Leadership Network, the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium, National Industry Liaison Group, Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Society and Youth Transitions Collaborative/Center for Health Care Transition Improvement.
Introducing Dolphin SuperNova Magnifier & Speech—with True Font Technology
Dolphin has made some changes to the SuperNova family, and SuperNova Reader Magnifier is now SuperNova Magnifier & Speech.
It's the same product as before, but now it's easier to understand what it does.
With SuperNova Magnifier & Speech you can magnify the content on your screen to a size that meets your individual vision requirements, as well as add a speech function for those times when your eyes are tired or you have a long document to read.
SuperNova Magnifier & Speech delivers magnification, high contrast color schemes and customizable mouse pointers—allowing you to tailor your experience to your own visual needs. It's compatible with Windows 7, 8 and the newly released Windows 10.
SuperNova Magnifier & Speech can be used on a desktop, latop or tablet so you can send emails, browse the web and read books in a way that suits you.
Ai Squared Announces ZoomText Fusion
ZoomText Fusion is a product designed for users with advanced or progressive vision loss. ZoomText Fusion provides the features and benefits of ZoomText Magnifier/Reader, plus a complete screen reader. Fusion is perfect for individuals who, over time, want a smooth and safe transition from magnification to full screen reading. ZoomText Fusion grows with you, ensuring that you will always be able to use your computer.
ZoomText Fusion's introductory price is $999 for a new, single user CD copy of the product.
For additional information, contact your local dealer or Ai Squared sales at 800-859-0270 or sales@aisquared.com.
Release of Second Edition of Beginning with Braille: Firsthand Experiences with a Balanced Approach to Literacy, by Anna M. Swenson.
AFB Press is pleased to announce the recent publication of the revised and updated Second Edition of Beginning with Braille: Firsthand Experiences with a Balanced Approach to Literacy, by Anna M. Swenson.
Beginning with Braille, 2nd Edition, updated with Unified English Braille (UEB), provides creative and practical strategies, materials, and resources for introducing braille literacy skills to students with visual impairments, including dual-media learners, English language learners, and students who have additional disabilities. This instructional book is an essential resource for teachers of students with visual impairments, students in personnel preparation programs studying to become teachers of students with visual impairments, and other special education teachers. The book is 458 pages long and is now available in paperback for $59.95. Electronic formats—e-books for $41.95 and online subscription for $35.95—will be available shortly.
