Accessible Surveys from Survey Monkey?! Really!

Woohoo! Survey Monkey recently announced that they have made their web survey templates compliant with Section 508.

Why is this such a big deal? Well, most survey tools are not designed for accessibility for people using assistive technology. In fact, most make it darn difficult to complete a survey using AT, especially using screenreaders. By actually gaining 3rd-party certification of their compliance (from RampWEB Accessibility Consulting group), Survey Monkey has demonstrated a commitment to hear from everyone, not just people without disabilities.

Again, woohoo! And thanks to Sean Keegan and Jayme Johnson from HTCTU for the heads-up.

This means, my friends, you have no excuse for ignoring those survey invites in your student email from Student Affairs and other groups on campus that really do want to hear from you. You now have access to a voice and a vote as to what happens on campus. Don't let them pass you by!

Electronic Holiday

For the past week, I've been on vacation. My family and I went camping in beautiful Morro Bay, California. My father-in-law proposed the radical rule for this week that we go non-electronic... no cell phones, no iPods, no laptop.

We mostly did it. I claimed a bit of an exemption, since I'm taking an online class an needed to be able to access my class and do homework, and my sister-in-law, mother-in-law and I did go online to find the destination for our traditional yarn shopping expedition.


Unplugging was good for me. Didn't have to worry about keeping the various devices charged. Didn't have to continually pull little white cords out of my kids' ears so I could talk to them (although my daughter and I continue to have short conversations in ASL, headphones or not). I kept the times that I was online incredibly focused, with no extra surfing. Made me think carefully about the technology that I use just because and the technology that really serves a purpose for me. I'd recommend the electronic holiday- just pulling back to the absolute essentials rather than the optional stuff - to anyone looking to find a little more space, both literal and figurative, in their lives.

Of course, you'll notice I'm right back blogging, and later this week I get my new Mac and an iPod Touch.

Zac Browser for Autistic Children

Why on earth would a blog designed for college students be posting about a browser designed for children with autism? (The link leads you to an article from the Seattle times laying out the whole story.)

Because this is one of those seemingly small, but potentially landscape-shifting, innovations. It's just one software company exec's attempt to make the Web more available to his grandson. But instead of trying to make it work for all children with autism, or trying to corner a niche market with it, he makes it just for Zac, and he makes it available to anyone else for free.

Makes you think. As you put together your life using assistive technology, how can you share that experience to help someone else? Did you write a script that makes your world more accessible? Share it! Did you find a way to solve a problem using common household items in a new way? Describe it! Would love to see your comments.

Way to go, John LeSieur. Thank you for loving your grandson. Thank you for adding to the AT world.

Introducing... Robobraille!

Looking for a quick way to get a Braille or audio document? Don't have immediate access to Duxbury or text-to-speech software? Have no fear, Robobraille is here! I'm pretty quick on the short document conversions most of the time, folks, but this is way faster. Get your accessible file in just a few minutes. I sent a file of about 10 pages and got the MP3 back in 4 minutes. Your time will vary based on server traffic.

Completely free to non-commercial users (that's you, students!), simply send the document you want converted to sixdot@robobraille.org (for Braille) or usspeech@robobraille.org (for MP3 audio). For a more...unique... experience with audio, send it to britspeech@robobraille.org and receive a British English audio file. Other Braille language files are also supported. It's a good idea to read through the instructions, as it contains ways to tweak your files to fit you, such as the audio speed.

Currently, MS Word documents, plain text, and RTF files are supported. They anticipate supporting PDF files (woohoo!) in the near future.

This nifty service was formed by a partnership of a number of European agencies. If you like the service, send them a donation to keep it free for non-commercial users.

An update for you Macaholics out there

Yes, I love the Mac. I've got four of them at home (and a new one coming in as soon!) and my desk in my office sports one, too. With the news that 40% of college students say their next computer purchase will be a Mac, it's apparent that students love them, too!

With that, here's 5 free, cheap or built-in applications on the Mac that you might want to consider.

1. GhostReader: easy text-to-speech I posted back in January 2007 about ConvenienceWare's TextParrot. Since then, they've gone through an overhaul, re-introducing the product with the same great Acapela voices and making it even easier to create iTunes audio tracks from your documents. Fast, clean, and simple to use. Did I mention it's easy?
2. Stop-It!: timer Widget Need someone standing over you to help you keep on track? Tend to get lost in a task and need help getting to class on time? This handy little Dashboard Widget can do that for you in simple, customized ways!
3. TextEdit: language support in a plain brown wrapper Don't be fooled by it's simple interface; TextEdit has some incredibly advanced features that can hugely benefit those who struggle with written language. Even better, TextEdit is built in to every Mac and has been for years and years. It's stable as a rock, too. Need text to speech? TextEdit can Speak your document. Need word prediction? Start typing a word, then press Esc - you'll get a list of words from which to choose. No, it's not flashy... but it's there, all the time.
4. Skim: make PDFs your friend Research shows that most people read 20-40% slower when they read digital text than when they read print. In addition, you read more shallowly, focusing less on the details and reading with less retention capability. Make some changes to that trend with Skim! Annotate, highlight, snapshots, and much, much more. Best of all, it's open source and free.
5. Premier Literacy goes Mac: a plethora of tools The great tools that SOU students have been enjoying on the PC for the past couple of years are now available on the Mac. Previously known as Premier Assistive Technology, Premier Literacy offers Etext Reader, Talking Word Processor, Universal Reader, and all their pals. Fabulous.