TBC Closed July 5, 2010

The Talking Book Center will be closed Monday, July 5 in observation of Independance Day. You are welcome to leave a request on our voicemail at 1-800-531-2063 or email your requests to talkingbooks@athenslibrary.org. We will resume our normal business hours of 9am - 6pm on Tuesday, July 6.

Walt Disney World Unveils New Outdoor Audio Description Produced by WGBH

A press release from WGBH:

Disney Unveils First-of-its-Kind Outdoor Audio Description Technology for Guests with Disabilities

National Association of Professional Engineers Names Handheld Assistive Technology Device "New Product of the Year"

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla., June 22, 2010 – Beginning June 27, guests with visual disabilities will be able to explore Walt Disney World theme parks in a whole new way through an enhanced Disney-designed device that provides detailed audio description of outdoor areas and fits in the palm of a guest's hand.

"Disney Parks have long been at the forefront of providing accessibility for guests with disabilities," said Greg Hale, chief safety officer and vice president of Worldwide Safety and Accessibility for Walt Disney Parks & Resorts. "We are pleased to build on this legacy with new technology that enables us to do something that has never been done before – provide rich audio description in moving rides and outdoor environments."

Link to a demo of the outdoor environment audio description:
http://ncamftp.wgbh.org/disneyareadx/MK_AreaDX_Demo_Short.html

Via an interactive audio menu, the newly enhanced Assistive Technology Device lets guests choose the type of information they would like to receive about outdoor areas, from architectural elements to the location of the nearest restroom. The 7.2-ounce device, which utilizes wireless technology to pinpoint its location and take pre-programmed actions also offers guests at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort:


* Detailed audio description of key visual elements, including action and scenery, for more than 50 attractions;
* Amplified audio for most theater-type attractions for guests with mild to moderate hearing loss;
* Handheld captioning that enables guests to read captions while enjoying specific rides; and
* Activation of closed captioning in pre-show areas where television displays narrate the upcoming experience.



"I know of no other public space in this country – or anywhere else for that matter – that is as welcoming and accessible to people with disabilities as Disney’s theme parks," said Larry Goldberg, director of media access at WGBH Boston, which is considered a pioneer in developing multimedia and new technologies that make media accessible for the disabled. "With their captioning systems for guests who are deaf or hard-of-hearing and now outdoor environmental description for guests who are blind or visually impaired, Walt Disney World is now more inclusive than ever. WGBH is proud of our role in helping make this happen."

WGBH teamed up with Disney to deliver outdoor audio description, marking the latest collaboration between the two organizations, which began with the installation of WGBH's Rear Window® Captioning system in Disney's theater-based attractions in1996.

Disney has patented and licensed the assistive technology, which could serve a wide variety of retail, commercial and industrial applications. The technology is already being used at the World of Coca Cola Museum, The Hall at Patriot Place and the Dallas Cowboys Stadium and will receive the National Society of Professional Engineers 2010 "New Product Award" next month.

"We are particularly excited to make this technology available beyond Disney Parks and extend accessibility where it was previously impractical," added Hale. Softeq Development Corporation is licensed to make the technology available beyond Disney Parks.

Other examples of Disney Parks' services for guests with disabilities include:

* Accessible Experiences – From vehicles at Toy Story Midway Mania! that enable guests to remain in their wheelchair during the ride to American Sign Language interpretation at live shows, the focus is on providing accessible experiences.
* Recreation Devices – Specially designed vehicles, such as an adaptive golf cart and sand and aquatic wheelchairs, enable guests to experience leisure activities throughout the resort.
* Guide maps for Guests with Disabilities – Theme park-specific maps provide an overview of services and facilities available for guests with disabilities. Braille guidebooks are also available to assist guests during their visit.
* Resort Access – Resort hotels at Walt Disney World Resort offer special equipment and facilities for guests with disabilities such as phone text, visual indicator door knocks and sloped-entry pools.



The Handheld Assistive Device is offered at no cost with a refundable deposit at Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort theme parks. Audio description of outdoor areas will be available at Disneyland Resort next year. For further information about services for guests with disabilities, guests should visit the Walt Disney World Web site at disneyworld.com or contact Walt Disney World Information at 407-824-4321 (voice) or 407-827-5141 (TTY).

*U.S. Patents 6,785,539 and 7,224,967 may apply.

Media Contact: Zoraya Suarez, Walt Disney World Manager of Media Relations, 407-828-3814.
WGBH Media Contact: Mary Watkins, mary_watkins@wgbh.org, 617-300-3700

Georgia Council of the Blind State Conference and Convention

The Georgia Council of the Blind State Conference and Convention will be held August 5-8 near Helen, GA. The following is a press release about the event, including how you can be involved:

Conference 2010

The GCB State Conference and Convention will be held from Thursday August 5 through Sunday August 8 at the Unicoi Lodge and Convention Center near Helen, GA. Unicoi Lodge is located in a lovely mountain setting with smooth hiking trails and beautiful Smith Creek within walking distance.

Room rates will be $100 plus sales and hotel tax per room for up to 4 occupants. To make reservations call: 1 800-573-9659 and ask for ext. 271 or 272. Unicoi State Park and Conference Center may be reached directly at 706-878-2201. Reservations must be made no later than July 5th.

There will be a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffet in Unicoi’s famous dining room. Those who wish to have a glass of wine or beer may do so in the dining room.

The Conference will begin with a cookout, hay ride, and sing along to the river bottoms. Four interesting tours will also be offered:

• Tour 1: The quaint little village of Helen.
• Tour 2: For the energetic, there will be a hike (.4mi) to beautiful Anna Ruby Falls. At Anna Ruby Falls, there is also an easy to walk, paved Braille trail that follows Smith Creek.
• Tour 3: Smithgall Woods State Park Nature Center. There you can experience tactile exhibits including fox, bear, beaver, owl and other animals that are native of North Georgia. You can listen to a lecture by a naturalist by a babbling mountain stream.
• Tour 4: Babyland General Hospital, home to the famous Cabbage Patch Kids. Here you can adopt your own baby right out of the cabbage patch. We hope to arrange a personal guided tour.

Tour transportation will be provided by Terry Sims’ Cool River Tubing company at no expense to GCB. For those not interesting in participating in the tours, craft classes will be coordinated by Unicoi’s full time, on-staff activities director who is working closely with the GCB Convention Committee to design activities appropriate for the visually impaired.


We are excited about this conference and look forward to hosting the event. August is the prime tourist season for Helen so make your reservations as soon as possible.




Sincerely,

Hall and Stephens Chapters

Search Engine for Low Vision

Have you tried Good 50? This search engine has been featured in AARP and The Washington Post as beneficial for those with low vision or aging eyes. The site has a larger search box, an on-screen zoom, fewer ads, and has a high contrast. In addition, for every 50 searches done on the website, $.05 is donated to the Charity of the Month.

The site was designed by 16-year-old Sunmee Huh for her grandfather to use after a stroke. Try it out!

www.good50.com/index2.html

Your Next Read

Do you ever have trouble deciding what to read next? Try Your Next Read! This site takes books you like and generates suggestions on titles you might enjoy. You can even save your "book wishlist" or follow a link to purchase titles on Amazon.

Blind Man to Climb Mt. Kilimanjaro

Craig Kiser, a blind man from Venice, Florida, plans to climb the formidable Mt. Kilimanjaro in September. His reasons for doing so are to raise awareness of blindness and to raise money for the Blind Services Foundation of Florida.

Mr. Kiser wants to dispel the stereotype that blind people are unable to travel, have adventures, or live "normal" lives.

He is also taking financial pledges of one penny per foot he climbs, or $190 for reaching the peak. He plans to donate the money to the Blind Services Foundation of Florida, which provides training and equipment for visually impaired Floridians.

You can read more about Mr. Kiser's climb and the Blind Services Foundation of Florida at www.floridablindservices.org/Fundraiser.html.

Aging Seminar to be Held July 1

Dr. Elaine Cress of the University of Georgia will host a seminar at the Athens-Clarke County Library on July 1. The focus of the seminar is aging gracefully and planning ahead to live independently as long as possible.

For more information, please read the article in the Athens Banner-Herald:

www.onlineathens.com/stories/061510/liv_653698651.shtml

or contact Dr. Cress at 706-549-7350.

Classes from Cisco Academy for the Vision Impaired

The following is from the Cisco Academy for the Vision Impaired:

Greetings.

Are you curious about the hardware inside of your computer? Do you want to sharpen your troubleshooting and computer maintenance skills? Perhaps you would like to build a computer or home network of your own. The Cisco academy for the vision impaired is accepting applicants for classes in the second semester of 2010. We Will be offering IT Essentials 1, Discovery 1 and Exploration 1 starting the last week of July.

ITE1 is an introduction to PC repair including: Hardware, installing and maintaining an operating system, Troubleshooting, portable devices, and customer service.

Discovery 1 is focused on home and small business networking. It is the first of four courses that prepare students to take the CCNA certification.

Exploration is a more in depth look at networking, both theoretical and practical for those students who wish to really get their hands into building and designing networks.

Each class runs for a total of six months, with online lectures. The classes are self-paced so you can finish them in a month, or take the entire semester if desired. The cost for each course is $500, however scholarships and discounts are available to eligible students.

Students are required to have good internet access skills and be familiar with their screen reader of choice, or be willing to teach themselves the necessary skills as we go along. Students should be familiar with reading Adobe PDF documents, as they may be encountered while doing research projects. We do not teach basic computer skills. Course content is online, so a broadband internet connection is highly recommended. You will need an internet plan with at least 1 Gigabyte of traffic per month for completing course work, and downloading recorded lectures if desired.

Students should also have a working headset/microphone and be willing to install skype and Ventrilo, in order to attend lectures and communicate with instructors.

Applications will be accepted until 21 July 2010.

The Cisco Academy for the Vision impaired enables blind students to enter the world of Information technology. We provide Diagram descriptions, audio lab recordings, live online lectures by blind and vision impaired instructors, and a community of students and instructors to network with even after you have graduated our course.

For more information on any of our courses please email caviinfo@gmail.com

You can also check out our new website: www.ciscovision.org.

If you would like more information, or to request an application, please email caviinfo@gmail.com.

Regards,

The CAVI Team

Parent 2 Parent Events

The following is from Parent 2 Parent about their upcoming events.

P2P Training Events for June 2010

Supporting Georgia Families of Children with Disabilities


Parent to Parent (P2P) is Georgia's Parent Training and Information Center
and Family to Family Health Information Center. We provide training
throughout the state to help families become better advocates for their
children. The following events are scheduled for the month of June 2010. For
further information about these trainings and upcoming events check out the
training calendar on our website at:

www.p2pga.org or call us at 1-800-229-2038.

Georgia Medicaid Basics and Home and Community-Based Services
7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
June 3, 2010
Winder/ Barrow County

I Want to Do That!" An Overview of Assistive Technology
for Parents and Families of Young Children with Special Needs
11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m.
June 5, 2010
Marietta/ Cobb County

What a Great IDEA! A Brief Overview of Special Education
for Parents and Families
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
June 26, 2010
Alpharetta/ Fulton County

What a Great IDEA! A Brief Overview of Special Education
for Parents and Families
1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
June 29, 2010
Lithonia/ Dekalb County


Parent to Parent of Georgia provides a wide array of services to help
parents advocate for their children with disabilities. If you have questions
about your child's special education services, call us at:

800-229-2038 or visit us at: www.p2pga.org

Parent to Parent of Georgia is the Parent Training and Information Center
(PTI) for Georgia, funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of
Special Education Programs.

Blind Soldiers

MSN recently ran an article about active duty soldiers in the Middle East who have lost their eyesight and continued their miliary service. One soldier, Capt. Scott Smiley, has even earned a degree, climbed a mountain, and gone skiing since losing his eyesight five years ago.

To read about these dedicated soliders, please visit www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37278541/ns/health-more_health_news/

Morgan's Wonderland - the First Ultra-Accessible Family Fun Park

If you are looking for a fun summer vacation destination, keep San Antonio, Texas in mind. San Antonio is home to Morgan's Wonderland, which opened in April. This is the "world's first ultra-accessible family fun park", which was designed specifically for people with special needs and their families.

The 25-acre park features accessible rides such as swings, a water play area, a sand play area, a Sensory Village, a train ride, a carousel, a gym, and an off-road adventure ride. There are extra-wide sidewalks, wheelchair-accessible rest areas, quiet respite gardens, picnic areas, service animal rest areas, and a transit center. The park also features Braille signage, a 3-D park model, and an innovative RFID wristband technology designed to prevent lost family members.

The park is designed to accomdate 1,000 visitors at a time, so reservations are required. Areas of the park are also available for rental for special occasions. Admission is $15 for general admission and free for guests with special needs. Those accompanying special needs guests get $5 admission.

To read more about this new exciting park, please visit their website at www.morganswonderland.com. WalletPop.com featured a story about the park, which can be found at www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/05/06/worlds-first-wheelchair-accessible-theme-park-at-a/?icid=main|main|dl6|link6|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.walletpop.com%2Fblog%2F2010%2F05%2F06%2Fworlds-first-wheelchair-accessible-theme-park-at-a%2F