Where It's AT – Assistive Technology Blog

What is the Autism Campus Inclusion (ACI) Summer Institute? The ACI Summer Institute is a week-long training for Autistic college students. The training is meant to prepare students to engage in self-advocacy and pro-neurodiversity activism on their college campuses.

Who is eligible for the ACI Summer Institute? Any current Autistic college student in the United States is eligible to attend. Students should have at least one more year remaining in college. Because of the support we are receiving from our partners, we are offering this institute at no cost to the students chosen for the program, including travel accommodations, room and board. The institute will take place August 12th through August 17th in Baltimore, MD.

What will participants learn at the ACI Summer Institute? With curriculum based on our collaboration with the Daniel Jordan Fiddle Foundation in the Empowering Disabled Leaders handbook and materials produced and developed with the help of University of New Hampshire’s Institute on Disability, the participants will learn how to engage in activism and advocacy activities on their college campuses.

Applications are due by March 30, 2012 with accepted applicants being contacted in May 2012. If you feel you would like to participate, please fill out the application and submit it with your responses to the essay questions and your resume to Melody Latimer at  mlatimer@autisticadvocacy.org. All questions should also be directed to Melody.

Do you have a great idea about how to improve access to transportation for people who face mobility constraints? If so, submit your project idea for funding consideration!

The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board is pleased to announce the 2012 project solicitation under the Federal Transit Administration’s Job Access Reverse Commute (JARC) and New Freedom programs. Funds are available for collaborative projects that improve transportation options for low-income commuters (JARC) and individuals with disabilities (New Freedom).  Applications for funding are evaluated and chosen through a competitive selection process. The solicitation brochure (http://www.mwcog.org/tpbcoordination/documents/2012_Solicitation_Brochure.pdf) provides information on the grant programs, the funding available and match requirements. TPB staff has compiled a list of resources including project templates, examples of successful projects and tips on preparing statements of need to assist applicants in developing competitive applications. More information on the solicitation is available at the TPB’s Coordination website  http://www.mwcog.org/tpbcoordination/ including:

– Federal program guidelines and eligibility rules

– The competitive selection process

– Grant resources

– A downloadable application

Please note that applicants must attend a pre-application conference; dates and locations of the three conferences are listed below. If you have any questions or require technical assistance, please contact Beth Newman at (202) 962-3253 or at bnewman@mwcog.org.

Dates for Pre-Application Conferences (Please RSVP for the conference you plan to attend):

–Tuesday, February 28, 2012 Tyson’s Pimmit Regional Library, 2:00 – 3:30 pm, Meeting Room A 7584 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA  22043, 703-790-8088

–Tuesday, March 27, 2012, 2:00 – 3:30 pm, Maryland National Capital Park & Planning Commission, 8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910, 301-495-4605

AT in the news for week of 2/20/2012-2/24/2012

Squag: Social media for teens and tweens with autism

10 Apps for Learners Who Struggle with Reading and/or Writing

A six-dot Braille app for the iPhone on the way?

Braille Labeler Receives Cool Idea! Award from Proto Labs

Gadgets pave the way for learning

NeuroSky to develop iOS assistive technology apps

Oral device could give spinal patients more independence

‘Welcome To The Bionic Age’

RouteShout: An Accessible Mobile App for Public Transportation Riders

RouteShout is a mobile app that can help public transportation riders more easily look up the location of nearby bus stops and track how close their bus is to their stop.  The app is free, available on Apple and Android phones, and (according to MDTAP testers) is fully accessible with Apple’s VoiceOver.

The app uses your phone’s location services to find your location and to generate a list of bus stops near you. When you select a bus stop, it shows you which buses stop at that stop, and how many minutes away each bus is from the stop . If you are not sure which bus route you need to take, the app lets you see route details, which lists all of that bus’s stops on the route. And, if you tend to use certain bus stops more frequently, the app lets you save a list of your “favorite” stops.

Riders in Maryland and the DC area can use the app to track Maryland MTA, UM Shuttle, DC Circulator, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. If you travel out of Maryland on a regular basis, the app lets you search for other transit agencies and switch between the different agencies. The app is available for use with at least 175 transit agencies in the United States and Canada.

Evaluating Alternative Text

When evaluating the alternative text of images, remember that the alternative text (whether in the image’s alt attribute or in adjacent text) should convey the content and function of an image. Asking the question, “If the image could not be used, what text would replace the image?” is often a good way to determine appropriate alternative text. First, view the alternative text along with the image. Is the alternative text equivalent to the content of the image? Second, disable images and view the alternative text in place of the image and consider if the alternative text makes sense in its context and reading position within the page.

Lower-cost and Free Screen Reading Alternatives

If you are buying a new computer and a screen reader to go along with it, be prepared for sticker shock.  The industry standard screen reader products, Window-Eyes from GW Micro(gwmicro.com) and JAWS for Windows from Freedom Scientific (freedomscientific.com) will cost at least as much as the nice shiny new hardware on which they will be running. Suddenly, a low interest loan from MD TAP seems like the only way your dreams of a that new notebook will ever materialize.

However, it turns out, there are inexpensive screen reader alternatives.  Particularly if your computer usage consists of web surfing, sending E-mail and a bit of word processing, these screen readers may be just what you’re looking for.

First, there is NVDA (Non-Visual Desktop Access).  NVDA is developed by NV Access.  It is a free and open-source screen reader.  This means the source code is freely available.  If you enjoy NVDA and would like to help improve it, you can become part of the community actively developing NVDA.  Some users report a better experience using Internet Explorer and Firefox with NVDA than with either Window-Eyes or JAWS for Windows.  NVDA can be downloaded from www.nvda-project.org.

System Access To Go is a free screen reader from SEROTEK.  It requires an Internet connection to use, and is not intended to take the place of a primary screen reader.  Rather, System Access To Go can be easily run on a computer for quick or temporary accessibility.  Some examples of situations in which System Access To Go would work well are when checking your E-mail at an internet cafe or doing research at the library.  To activate System Access To Go, simply point your Web-browser (Internet explorer seems to work best) to www.satogo.com and follow the directions.

SEROTEK also makes System Access, which is their stand-alone screen reader.  It is available in several different configurations and including many different features and speech synthesizer options.  Simply purchasing a license to run System Access on two computers costs $130, which is a fraction of the cost of other screen readers.  There are also monthly subscription packages which give you System Access along with access to the System Access Mobile Network and remote access to your computer. To find out more about System access go to www.serotek.com.

Even if you already own a screen reader and use it every day, one of these screen readers may be handy to have around.  Sometimes an application or a particular Web Site will just work better with a particular screen reader.  There is never one perfect solution to accessibility, so having a few options just might save the day.