AFBLC registration Is Now Open!

Registration for the 2017 Joint AFB Leadership and Virginia AER Conference is now open! Please register today for the best available rates, and don't forget to make your hotel reservation at the beautiful and centrally located Crystal Gateway Marriott—the special event rate of $190/night is available through our dedicated reservations page. If you prefer to speak with a reservations specialist, please call 888-236-2427 and reference our conference to get the group rate. Rooms available at this rate are limited, so reserve early for the best availability.

Many of you have asked and we are pleased to share the 2017 program! Sessions are still being added, but you can take a look now by day or by topic.

If you are interested in hosting an exhibit booth, advertising in the program, or sponsoring the conference, please take a look at our options and contact Amanda Kolling for more information.

For more information on the conference, please visit our meeting website. We look forward to seeing you in Crystal City!

The American Foundation for the Blind Now Accepting Applications for its 2017 Scholarship Program

The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) administers three post-secondary education scholarships for up to 7 deserving students who are legally blind. The available scholarships for 2017 are detailed below.

The Rudolph Dillman Memorial Scholarship: Four scholarships of $2,500

Requirements:

  • Full-time undergraduate or graduate student
  • Studying rehabilitation or education of persons who are blind and/or visually impaired

The Paul and Ellen Ruckes Scholarship: Two scholarships of $2,000

Requirements:

  • Full time undergraduate or graduate student
  • Studying engineering or computer, physical, or life sciences

The R.L. Gillette, Gladys C. Anderson, and Karen D. Carsel Memorial Scholarship: One scholarship of $3,500

Requirements:

  • Female
  • Undergraduate student
  • Studying music

Visit the AFB scholarships website for further information and to fill out the application

Please direct questions and comments to: American Foundation for the Blind Information Center, 800-232-5463, afbinfo@afb.net

Announcing the release of version 2.5 of Sendero's iPhone GPS apps

  • Seeing Eye GPS (subscription in North America)
  • RNIB Navigator (subscription in the UK, Ireland, France and, Germany)
  • Guide Dogs NSW/ACT (subscription in Australia)
  • Seeing Eye GPS XT (North America, no subscription; upcoming release

Thanks to continued underwriting from Guide Dogs NSW ACT Australia, there are over 10 improvements in the Sendero version 2.5 iPhone GPS apps including collaboration with BlindSquare to generate routes.

Warning from the manufacturer: Before you install the update, share your user points of interest with your email; otherwise, they will be deleted from the app. You can then click on the attachment of the email on your phone to import them into the new version.

What's New in Version 2.5
  1. Ability to select a destination within BlindSquare and be able to select a Sendero GPS app to create a route to that destination.
  2. Ability to create route to an address in your Contacts database.

  3. Simplified the process of adding a User POI with the following changes:

    1. Added a Record User POI gesture, one-finger double tap and hold on the location screen to go directly to the Add User POI screen.
    2. Automatically default to the 'User' category so that users do not have to do the extra step of selecting a category if they are not going to share user POIs.
    3. Create a free-text field for tags so that the user can type their own tags and add further information about the user POI.

  4. Added a shortcut gesture to go directly to a list of nearest points of interest. Perform a one-finger double tap, hold and release on the POI tab, (only available when VoiceOver is on).

  5. Revamp nearest POI search to be more consistent and relative to user's immediate location.
  6. Increased the number of POI's in announced in the LookAround wand.
  7. Added a Submenu screen on the location screen to announce less essential information such as altitude, GPS accuracy and speed.
  8. Added an accuracy filter for Side of Street indication in routes.
  9. Now if the POI has a questionable location, such as in the middle of the street, the app will not announce the side of the street for the route destination.
  10. Fixed bugs introduced in iOS 10 including correcting the background functionality.

  11. User Interface improvements include:

    1. Streamlined User Interface to reduce duplicate announcements.
    2. Fixed the voice over cursor issue.
    3. Fixed low vision contrast issues, border color to all buttons.
    4. Removed irrelevant POI categories, "points_of_interest" and "street_address."

  12. Under the POI tab, the Beacon feature has been temporarily removed.

Countries and regions available as of 2016: USA, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Canada, UK, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and Israel.

The iPhone apps are available in the App Store and on the Sendero website.

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