Dear AccessWorld Readers,
As the summer comes to a close, AccessWorld once again turns its eye to self-employment. For many years we have focused our October issue on employment in recognition of Disability Employment Awareness month, but with the unemployment rate for those with vision loss still being unconscionably high and the benefits that self employment can bring, we decided to shine our August spotlight on this facet of work.
In this month's Employment Matters column, Deborah Kendrick speaks with Casey Mathews, Founder of WebFriendlyHelp, where he provides technical support for people who are blind or have low vision with their technology. Casey's story is an interesting one, particularly considering that he chose to leave his existing employer to begin WebFriendlyHelp. If you are considering starting your own business, his experience may be helpful to you.
If you intend to start a business, you will inevitably contend with forms from various sources. In his article this month, J.J. Meddaugh walks you through the pitfalls and hurdles you may experience while completing business related forms, while also providing tips and advice regarding the formats you will encounter.
The COVID-19 pandemic has derailed almost all large gatherings for the foreseeable future, including the annual NFB and ACB national conventions. Deborah Kendrick explains how both organizations were able to adapt to this situation and host successful conventions.
Having access to refreshable braille can be invaluable in many situations, but if you, like me, prefer and are most comfortable using a QWERTY keyboard, you may find your productivity slowed when using a braille keyboard, or find yourself awkwardly switching between your display and a QWERTY. Scott Davert explains how you can have your cake, and eat it too, with the new Mantis display from the American Printing House for the Blind, which swaps the traditional braille keyboard with a QWERTY keyboard.
Since the advent of the modern smartphone 12 years ago, creating innovative apps for mobile devices has been a popular path for many entrepreneurs. If you are interested in this field but don't know where to start learning how to program, Swift Playgrounds may be an option. Swift is a programming language developed for most Apple operating systems (iOS, Mac OS, Watch OS, etc.) that has a reputation of being easy to learn and use. This month Janet Ingber reviews Swift Playgrounds, a program that teaches the language to complete beginners.
Finishing out the August issue, we have two Book reviews. Though it may seem counter-intuitive at first, becoming a well-regarded photographer when you have vision loss is quite achievable. If you are interested in this field as a hobby or a potential career, Judy Dixon's book on this subject could be quite useful to you, Bill Holton writes.
The iPhone and related devices were a game changer for people with vision loss. What used to take multiple specialized devices to accomplish can now be achieved with a single iOS device and a few inexpensive apps. Increasingly, an iOS device is also the first computer someone encounters. In an act of extraordinary generosity, Michael Feir has made his 250,000-word book on iOS free for all to download and read. In his article, Steve Kelley speaks with Michael on the subject of iOS and his reasons for composing this work while also reviewing the book itself.
At AccessWorld, we are extremely fortunate to have an amazing group of talented and dedicated authors who produce superlative content each month. It's their efforts that make AccessWorld such a success. I would like to sincerely thank them for all of their hard work and dedication.
You may recall AFB's Inform and Connect series that was mentioned in a previous AccessWorld news. To refresh, Inform & Connect is the American Foundation for the Blind’s ongoing series created to foster togetherness and camaraderie within the blindness community through informal storytelling and learning about relevant, interesting topics. Each week, an interesting individual connected to vision loss tells their story, and now those stories are being collected in the Inform and Connect podcast. If you're looking for more information about entrepreneurship, you might find the Inform and Connect podcast of interest as several of the interviewees are themselves entrepreneurs. At the time of this writing, Episode 1 is live with more to come.
We at AccessWorld are always interested in your thoughts, comments, and feedback. If you would like to contact us, you can send me an email. Often, messages we receive are published in our Letters to the Editor section. Do you have a comment on an article? Further questions on something we have covered? Want to express your opinion on a topic we've discussed? We'd love to hear from you! If you would prefer that your comment not be published, please note this in your message. We also generally include the name of each writer when publishing letters, if you'd like your message published without your name, please let us know when you send your message.
Sincerely,
Aaron Preece
Acting Editor, AccessWorld
American Foundation for the Blind
