Dear AccessWorld readers,
Last month, AccessWorld served up great holiday shopping reviews of the Best Buy and QVC websites and apps as alternatives to the stress and inconvenience of brick and mortar shopping at "stores with doors."
In this December issue, Deborah Kendrick provides her suggestions for holiday gift giving in her article, AccessWorld 2016 Accessible Holiday Gift Guide. In this issue, Janet Ingber also offers even more information for reducing the stress of the holiday season by providing reviews of accessible culinary and recipe websites and apps.
There is still time to get the shopping done, so if you missed these articles, you can follow the above links or, as always, you can select the "Back Issues" button to check out any past online holiday issue of AccessWorld.
If you happen to be doing some cooking this time of year, you may also want to revisit Deborah Kendrick's November 2010 review of the Directions for Me website, Website Evaluation: Directions for Me, a Gift to People Who Can't Read the Box. This article may help take the guesswork out of preparing those holiday meals by having package directions available at your fingertips.
If you find yourself needing a break from all the pre- or post-holiday rush or festivities, you may want to consider a stop at the local movie theater. As you know, audio description technology in movie theaters is becoming increasingly available. Relying on a friend or family member or imagining what might be happening in the film is no longer necessary. It's now possible to become completely immersed in the theater experience and enjoy films on an entirely new level. So sit back, relax, and take a break from the holiday rush.
A lot has happened in this past year of technology, from smaller changes to hardware and software, to exciting new accessible apps and advances in vision research. One additional exciting event for the AccessWorld team was receiving its second Honorable Mention Eddie award at the 2016 Folio Awards in the Digital, Non-profit, Standalone Magazine category. For more than 20 years, the Eddie & Ozzie Awards have recognized excellence in magazine editorial and design across all sectors of the industry.
This year, a panel of more than 300 judges narrowed 2,800 entries into a pool of roughly 1,000 finalists. In total, over 250 awards were given out across 33 categories. The awards are broken into four main categories: Eddies and Eddies Digital for the best in print and digital editorial, and Ozzies and Ozzies Digital for the best in magazine and website design. The Folio: Eddie and Ozzie Awards celebrate excellence in editorial and design across multiple markets. This awards program is the only one of its kind to honor both magazine and digital design and journalism in the consumer, business-to-business, association, regional, and non-profit sectors. Winners and honorable mentions were recognized in New York City on October 31, 2016, during a celebratory luncheon at The Folio: Show held at the Mid-town Hilton.
The AccessWorld team works hard to bring information to our readers, and we are honored and humbled by this recognition.
All the while, we here at AccessWorld have done our best to keep you updated and informed in 2016, and the team certainly hopes you have enjoyed reading the publication and have personally benefited from our coverage of the technology and issues most relevant to people with visual impairments.
If you have benefitted from information presented in AccessWorld, we would like to know about it. We would appreciate you sharing how information in AccessWorld has been of benefit to you, your student, or someone you care about. Please send your story to us; we are always excited to receive your feedback, and we sincerely appreciate you reading AccessWorld.
Also, in this season of giving, as the Editor-in-Chief of AccessWorld, I would like to ask for your support. The American Foundation for the Blind and, in turn, AccessWorld, depend, in large part, on private donations from people just like you.
If you read AccessWorld and are in a position to do so, I would appreciate you considering a gift to AccessWorld. Your donation will help us continue our work on behalf of people who are blind or visually impaired.
Each dollar you donate allows us to:
- Review assistive and mainstream technologies, websites, and mobile apps
- Provide technology resources and support for everyone affected by blindness or visual impairment, including senior citizens, parents, families, and friends
- Offer a hub of technology information for professionals in the vision loss field
AccessWorld is here for the millions of people living with blindness and low vision because friends like you are here for us. If you would like to make a donation to AccessWorld, please visit the AccessWorld donation page. I ask for your assistance and also ask that you encourage your friends, family, and colleagues to join in our efforts.
I would also like to thank our generous readers who donated to AccessWorld at this time last year. Your contributions helped us to have our most successful year ever. AccessWorld was able to publish nearly 20 percent more content in 2016 and reach thousands more people needing information about accessibility.
The AccessWorld team wishes you a happy and healthy holiday season. We look forward to bringing you the latest in tech news in the coming year!
Best regards,
Lee Huffman, AccessWorld Editor-in-Chief
American Foundation for the Blind
