Ike Presley

Ike Claus I was delighted to join the staff at the Atlanta Center for the Visually Impaired BEGIN Program (Babies Early Growth Intervention Network) for their infants and toddlers holiday program last Saturday. We sang songs, ate way too many cookies, and I was honored to don the big guy’s red suit (the beard is my own!). Each child had the opportunity to have their photos taken with Santa. Children this young and some with additional disabilities often do not receive a friendly welcome at…

On the June 6th episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Kimmel featured a skit that involved actor Will Smith playing a blind basketball referee. Before reading on, I suggest that you watch the video— of course, it isn't audio described but hopefully you’ll get the gist regardless. Most of us (who are sports fans) have at some point questioned the eyesight of the officials who oversee games. Personally, I have no problem with people expressing their opinions about the officiating by asking the ref, "Are…

Often I'm asked which screen reading program is best for users who are blind or have low vision. My response is always the same: It depends. It depends on what computer tasks the person is trying to accomplish, and the type of environment in which he or she is working. It has been my experience that all of the major screen readers do a good job of providing access to the three most widely used applications on personal computers. I bet you can guess what those are. If you said word processing…