I'm back for another update. A lot has been happening over the past couple of weeks, which is partly why I haven't gotten around to posting here much lately.
Work at the library is going quite well. I have a couple of people interested in the technology, and I have started some training. I have started training a user on Dragon Naturally Speaking. This is another piece of software on the AT Computer. This allows a user to speak to their computer to type text or issue keyboard or mouse commands. I haven't actually used it much yet either, so I'm learning right along with her. I've wanted to try it in the past, but there's a little hurtle I haven't figured out how to effectively jump yet. Before really using Dragon, you have to train it to recognize your voice and how you talk. You do this by reading a few paragraphs of text. The problem is, it's rather interesting to try and hear some text from Jaws reading it to you, memorizing it quick, and trying to clearly speak it back to Dragon. I haven't found the best way to do this yet. There are some programs that help with this, but they're quite expensive.
I also attended the Digital Junction conference that covered various Digital Divide issues. It was rather interesting, and some of the topics were pretty cool. I was hoping there would have been a little more focus on addressing problems instead of just saying they exist. I don't know really if there is a right or wrong answer to solve some of these problems, but it's still good to get some ideas instead of just acknowledging they exist.
I also found out my new laptop has been ordered, along with some assistive software. I should be receiving it some time in January. I was secretly hoping I'd have it to play with over the Christmas break, but I'm still very excited about it. It will be something cool to look forward to next month. I also just picked up a USB 2.0 Thumb Drive, which is really coming in handy already. Thank God, no more using floppies...
Oh, and the accessibility presentation last Corps day went really well. The Pacer Center was very nice. The only bad thing is, since its main focus is accessibility, it's unfortunate it's not public transportation accessible. The day went well though, and our presentation did too. I think having our session interactive really helped because it was later in the afternoon, and it's hard to stay focused on a Friday afternoon. We had another meeting after the presentation, and the good news is we definitely won't run out of things to cover on future presentations. We have all sorts of ideas, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the final resource CD's at the end of the year.
Finally I've been working on outreach for the library. We have a flier we're giving out now, and I've started working on a more formal letter to start contacts. I'm also getting a lot of good ideas from library staff, my SSB counselor, and friends. After the first of the year, when things get back to normal, I'll be able to get a lot more going. Still things are going pretty well.
Work at the library is going quite well. I have a couple of people interested in the technology, and I have started some training. I have started training a user on Dragon Naturally Speaking. This is another piece of software on the AT Computer. This allows a user to speak to their computer to type text or issue keyboard or mouse commands. I haven't actually used it much yet either, so I'm learning right along with her. I've wanted to try it in the past, but there's a little hurtle I haven't figured out how to effectively jump yet. Before really using Dragon, you have to train it to recognize your voice and how you talk. You do this by reading a few paragraphs of text. The problem is, it's rather interesting to try and hear some text from Jaws reading it to you, memorizing it quick, and trying to clearly speak it back to Dragon. I haven't found the best way to do this yet. There are some programs that help with this, but they're quite expensive.
I also attended the Digital Junction conference that covered various Digital Divide issues. It was rather interesting, and some of the topics were pretty cool. I was hoping there would have been a little more focus on addressing problems instead of just saying they exist. I don't know really if there is a right or wrong answer to solve some of these problems, but it's still good to get some ideas instead of just acknowledging they exist.
I also found out my new laptop has been ordered, along with some assistive software. I should be receiving it some time in January. I was secretly hoping I'd have it to play with over the Christmas break, but I'm still very excited about it. It will be something cool to look forward to next month. I also just picked up a USB 2.0 Thumb Drive, which is really coming in handy already. Thank God, no more using floppies...
Oh, and the accessibility presentation last Corps day went really well. The Pacer Center was very nice. The only bad thing is, since its main focus is accessibility, it's unfortunate it's not public transportation accessible. The day went well though, and our presentation did too. I think having our session interactive really helped because it was later in the afternoon, and it's hard to stay focused on a Friday afternoon. We had another meeting after the presentation, and the good news is we definitely won't run out of things to cover on future presentations. We have all sorts of ideas, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the final resource CD's at the end of the year.
Finally I've been working on outreach for the library. We have a flier we're giving out now, and I've started working on a more formal letter to start contacts. I'm also getting a lot of good ideas from library staff, my SSB counselor, and friends. After the first of the year, when things get back to normal, I'll be able to get a lot more going. Still things are going pretty well.
posted by Jesse Anderson at 8:51 AM
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