[Photo: Jocelyn Hunter, manager of community development, poses with Paul Rothenburg, chairman of the board.]

On May 1, 2008, CLB held a volunteer reception to honor its volunteers and community partners. Each year our volunteers and partners provide thousands of hours of service through work with our consumers, support at events and partnerships. Their time and dedication is a priceless gift to CLB.

The volunteer reception serves as one of the ways that volunteers interact with each other during the year. I enjoyed the opportunity to put names with faces and thank people in person for their efforts.

Rachel Leurs, who coordinated project Fit-See as part of her Gold Award project for Girl Scouts, received the CLB Community Service award.

Our volunteers received a gift bag containing a thank-you letter and our volunteer t-shirt. In addition, partners received an American Flag crafted by individuals at Alabama Industries for the blind who are blind or visually impaired.

Several members of CLB’s board attended the event including Dun Scott, secretary, Peter Buchanan, chairman of programs and operations, and Paul Rothenburg, chairman of the board.

Photos of the event are available on CLB’s Flickr Account.

A major retailer has begun testing a robot that can guide visually impaired consumers through store aisles and help them find products. The robot, called the RG or “Robotic Guide” can communicate with consumers through a Braille directory attached to its handle. Read more

[Photo: attendees of Project Fit-See pose for a group photo]

CLB worked with Rachel Luehrs, a high school student from Virginia, to complete her senior Girl Scout project. She developed and organized Project Fit-See, a nutrition and fitness event for children and teens who are visually impaired. She guest blogged about the event:

Saturday April 5th marked the day of the first annual Project-Fit See. Teens and kids came to from across the DC area to join in a day of fun, food, and fitness. Everyone had a lot of fun learning basic yoga and relaxation techniques from Art of Living. Even Bruce, the guide dog, in attendence joined in the fun. Colleen Carty, a guide dog instructor with Leader Dog came with Bruce. She provided everyone with information on the independence and freedom guide dogs can bring. Davida Luehrs demonstrated an alternative to guide dogs and said had personally learned to use a cane as a guide to give herself greater mobility. After that we all had fun learning about how easy it is to eat more nutritious foods. Representatives from the DC Action for Healthy Kids Campaign brought fun interactive activities illustrating healthier eating options for everyone. It was tasty as well as educational! Olympic marathon hopeful Susan Graham Gray ended the event with a video recording spreading a message of hope to all. Susan like many of the attendees has Stargardts, a degenerative visual disease. Her achievements were an inspiration to all attending and a good closing message for the first annual Project-Fit See. Don’t ever let having a visual disease stand in front of your dreams!

Thank you, Rachel!
For additional photos of this event, please check out CLB’s Flickr Page.

Nancy keeps a blog of her experiences with her son Jack, who is 11 years old and legally blind. She calls her blog “a resource for parents who don’t know what they don’t know…but want to find out.” It is a mix of her personal stories and information on activities, resources, toys and technologies she has found useful. This mix keeps her blog informative, heartfelt and interesting. She accepts information and feedback. Check out her blog here: Jackslists

Tony, CLB’s president and CEO, was interviewed by Kelly Knight from 94.7 The Globe for her show “Washington One-on-One. The interview was an overview of CLB’s history and services. It is scheduled to air sometime next month.

[Photo: Tony, on the left, poses with Kelly Knight, on the right, in the studio.  Kelly is 8 months pregnant]

Last week I went to Riverdale to check out the new Digital Data Scan (DDS) space. I’d heard that the DDS staff was doing a practice run of the DDS services using CLB accounting documents. I had an opportunity to see the new office space, learn what DDS is for and meet some of CLB’s newest staff members. The practice run is to prepare for the DDS late-April opening.

The space CLB bought for DDS runs along the side of CLB’s Riverdale office, facing the road. Large windows on the far side run the height and the length of the space, giving it a bright, airy feel.

When you first walk into the space, immediately on the left is CLB’s vault. Right now it is used for storage, but DDS is working for a way to utilize it as part of their services. Vincent Willis, the production lead says the vault is a great selling point because it can hold sensitive material.

[Photo: Vincent holds open the door of the vault]

On the far left of the space is the staging area where boxes will be organized, files will be inventoried for entry into the DDS system.

[Photo: The left side of the DDS space.  An unpainted wall is in the background.  In the foreground are a stack of fluorescent lights and a platform for painting]

The next area is the document prep area. It runs along the back wall. It is where documents will be prepared to be fed through the scanner.  Also seen in this photo is the scanning area.  The scanning area is centered around a column in the middle of the workspace. Workstations and scanners will circle the column.

[Photo: Drywall is on a cart in the foreground.  In the middle ground is a pillar.  In the background are wall-to-wall windows]

The far right corner is where cubicles will seat the customer service and sales departments. Lucie Groeger has been hired as the DDS sales representative. She will lead the sales team in promoting DDS services.

[Photo: The far right corner of the glass.  In the foreground on the left is pink insulation.  On the right is a painting platform]

Around the corner from document scanning is the waiting area. It will have the CLB DDS logo as well as a logo in Braille.

[Photo: A chair sits in front of the curved wall where the reception desk will go]

The office is laid out so that the cubicles and preparation tables hug the walls and columns. This way there will be plenty of open space for people to move around with canes.

When DDS opens, there will initially be four staff members: Vincent, the production lead, Lucie, the sales representative, and two document preparation specialists, Herbert “Troy” Troy and Anjeanette Bowman.

In the Riverdale conference room, Troy and Anjeanette work to prepare documents for scanning. Before the items can be fed through a scanner, all obstructions like staples, paperclips and binder clips must be removed. Smaller items like receipts and sticky notes are taped to a piece of letter-size paper. Anjeanette and Troy run their hands along the edges of the page to feel for staples of paperclips. Then they feel down the page for notes or receipts that may be stuck to the page. Touch is an important part of the process because Anjeanette and Troy both have visual impairments.

[Photo: Vincent works with Anjeanette to train her to prep documents.  Anjeanette site in the foreground.  Vincent stands on the opposite side of the table.  A stack of documents in folders are between them]

After a document is “prepped,” it is placed face-down. A yellow legal-sized sheet with a barcode on it is placed over the document. This sheet makes the scanner recognize that an individual document has completed scanning. The yellow legal-sized sheets are designed to be longer than the letter-sized paper so that the spaces between documents can easily be identified by touch for reassembly.

[Photo: Anjeanette holds a folder that has been prepped.  The yellow legal-size papers stick out of the side of the letter-size folder.]

DDS works to digitally archive a business’s paper documents. It is growing more popular as businesses want the ability to access their older documents on the computer. DDS was created through a partnership with NIB.

“Progression to DDS has been slow,” said Vincent. “People were resistant to moving away from paper. But now because of the need to access data more quickly, and to be in one point and access data from across the country, the need for these services has grown.”

I had an opportunity to see what the scanning set up would look like when Vincent did a test run of the documents. The software used to scan is called Digitech Paperflow. Most employees will be using it with Zoomtext, a screen magnification software. Vincent says that Zoomtext works very well with Paperflow.

During the first step, the document gets scanned. This scanner, a Canon 9080, can scan 100 pages a minute.

[Photo: A canon 9080 scans documents.  Yellow legal-size papers sit in the tray]

In addition, the Paperflow software will adjust the contrast of the document and turn pages right-side up if necessary.

As the documents are scanned, they fly by on the screen. Each document is visible only for a second. People who work in the scanning department will be expected to quickly view each document and check for bad images. Bad images are times when documents have lines through them or appear smudged. This is caused when dust and dirt from the paper accumulates on the optical parts of the scanner. It is remedied by scanner maintenance and a watchful eye.

The next step is quality control. The document is rechecked before it is submitted to the client. On-the-spot rescanning is done on the flatbed sitting here.

[Photo: In the foreground a flatbed scanner site open.  In the background is a document prep workstation]

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so we view all images for consistency and make sure they’re clean,” Vincent said. “Any step between you and the client that is good for the client is always good. A little double checking never hurt anyone.”

Every year, weather permitting, CLB is invited to an Easter Egg Hunt for children who are visually impaired. The event is hosted by the Verizon Telecompioneers of the Alexander Graham Bell chapter. CLB is the largest participating blindness organization that attends the event and we also recruit CLB volunteers to support the Telecompioneers.

I met my co-worker Jocelyn at the Smithsonian metro on the day of the hunt so we could walk to Hains Point Park where the event is held. Rain was forecasted, but it turned out to be a lovely morning.

[Photo: the view from the entrance/exit of the Smithsonian metro.  A large building is in the foreground.  The Washington Monument is in the background]

[Photo: the sun reflecting off of the water near Hains point park]

Jocelyn and I arrived at about the same time parents began to sign in. Volunteers were taking names and preparing to start the hunt.

[Photo:  The sign for the easter egg hunt. It sits on the ground in the grass and reads: Easter egg hunt for the visually imapired sponsored by Verison Telecompioneers, Alexander Graham Bell Chapter.

[Photo: parents and children preparing to hunt for eggs. A car is in the foreground, and in the background a child with a cane can be seen]

Along with volunteers, siblings of the participants placed the eggs. The eggs were place in an open space which was surround by volunteers and parents to create a safe environment for the hunt to take place.

The most special thing about this Easter Egg hunt is that the eggs beep. The eggs were created by a telecompioneer volunteer. According to the AT&T website, they were intitally crafted from egg-shaped pantyhose containers. The telecompioneers national site has a how-to on creating the eggs. The eggs beep at all different pitches and with different frequencies. They are really loud. Some of the noises reminded me of a cow’s moo.

The eggs had different symbols on them that represented different dollar aounts the eggs could be exchanged for, ranging from 25 cents to one dollar. Prize money was doubled during the final round.

The Easter bunny explained the rules (1 egg per child, go to the money table after collecting an egg, there will be three rounds of hunging) and then counted down from three with the children.

[Photo: The easter bunny is in a white costume and is wearing a colorful vest. She is preparing to explain the different eggs to the children. The eggs are in the foreground of the photo.]
Then they were off! Each child was paired with a sighted volunteer or sibling. Their partners did not guide them to the eggs, but helped to keep them steady in the grass.

[Photo: Children walk in an open field hunting for eggs. Children are partnered with parents and siblings. A father and his son are in the foreground]

After the first round of egg hunting there was a brief musical interlude. One of the participants sang “Amazing Grace” and played some other songs.

After the music, siblings of hunt participants had the chance to wear blindfolds and try hunting for eggs with sound alone.

[Photo: a smiling child wears a blindfold]

Then the final round took place. Prize money was doubled and the grand egg prize- a beep ball - was hidden. Beep balls emit a sound and are used to play sports like baseball and softball. There is a national beep baseball organization, as well as organizations in the Washington metropolitan area for people of all ages.

[Photo: a child in the foreground holds a flourescent yellow beep ball]

Each participating child received an easter backet with toys and candy. Siblings received a basket, too. Coloring pages and easter cards were provided by GWU’s Delta Gamma Sorority, one of CLB’s supporters.

[Photo: a CLB staff member holds textured coloring pates and Easter cards. The raised line of string helps the child to find the border of the image.]

Parents and children enjoyed themselves during the event. I’m glad I had the opportunity to go. Here’s a photo of our President and CEO, Anthony J. Cancelosi, with the easter bunny. She was a very popular lady!

[Photo: CLB’s president and CEO, Anthony J. Cancelosi, poses with the Easter Bunny]

Additional photos of the event can be found on CLB’s Flickr Photostream.

There has recently been a lot of coverage about the dangers hybrid cars pose to individuals with visual impairments. When hybrid cars run in electric mode, they are nearly silent.

NFB, the National Federation for the Blind, has a page addressing hybrid/silent car concerns.

There are some suggestions on how to reduce the danger. One suggestion is to have the cars emit a high-pitched noise to notify you as they approach. Another suggestion is to have the car emit an ultrasonic wave that will cause a sensation as the car approaches.

Some people believe that the responsibility to avoid cars rests with the individual and that car manufacturers making accommodations is unnecessary. The comments at the bottom of the article “Blind People: Hybrid Cars Are Too Quiet” might be offensive to some, but they show that people are unaware that assistive technology benefits many outside of the target group. Children and seniors would also benefit from enhanced notification of approaching hybrid cars. So would those distracted by a cell phone conversation or an mp3 player. Link to comments (warning, insensitive)

A British organization called Sound Foresight Ltd has created a device they call the UltraCane. The cane uses ultrasonic echoes to give a person an idea of their surroundings. Bats use this method to navigate. When they emit a screech the sound waves bounce off the objects nearby. The speed at which the sound bounces back is affected by what is in the envornment, and bats use this information to discern where things are. The UltraCane does this electronically, which is why it is sometimes semi-jokingly referred to as “The Batcane.”

The person places their thumb over two buttons on the handle of the device. One button vibrates to let you know of things on your left or right. The other button vibrates to let you know of things up and down in space. The frequency of the vibrations increases as you approach an object. All of these things work in conjunction to paint a picture of where you are. I had a chance to try it at CSUN to navigate around a conference room. The cane vibrated at all sorts of frequencies and I had a difficult time discerning what it was telling me, but I was told that it comes with practice. It did a good job of letting me know where the chairs and the walls were without me having to tap them.

[In the photo, a woman presents the UltraCane, which she holds in her left hand.]

UltraCane creators say the UltraCane is safer than a regular cane because it can tell you about items above you and at head level. It also lets you know about objects while they are relatively far away. It can also notify you about things you can’t hear, like hybrid cars. My concern would be growing accustomed to the extra information the UltraCane provides and becoming lax in my navigation skills.
At about 995 dollars, the UltraCane isn’t for everyone but it could prove beneficial for commuters who have to cross a lot of crosswalks with no signals.

Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind was featured in a Voice of America segment entitled “Technology Helps Blind Workers Advance.”

You can watch the video at the site:

Technology Helps Blind Workers Advance

The transcript is after the jump.

(Oh there is more…)

I had the opportunity to attend the CSUN Technology and Persons with disabilities conference in Los Angeles, California from March 10-15. CSUN has technology for people with many types of disabilities, but the largest presence is made up of those who provide services and products for people who have visual impairments. There are courses and events the entire week of the convention and it’s a great opportunity to put your finger on the pulse of the assistive technology community.

Thursday was the first day the exhibit halls opened. Companies from all over the world, and of all different sizes, came to show their products. The floor was packed and full of many exciting things. I had the opportunity to try all sorts of new devices. Instead of describing what I saw booth by booth, I have broken it into the different types of technology I saw while I was there.

PROMOTING LITERACY

What I found most interesting about the conference was although there was a very large presence of digital technology like screen readers and devices that capture printed text to read it aloud, there were a good number of companies there promoting Braille literacy and the use of analog devices to make Braille, like Perkins Braillers and the slate and stylus. About 12 percent of people with a visual impairment read Braille. Some people think Braille literacy is no longer necessary since there is technology that makes printed materials accessible.

I visited the Perkins School for the blind table, where a gentleman was showcasing the new electric Perkins Brailler. The electric Brailler needs less force to depress the keys, which makes it possible to type Braille faster than with an analog Perkins Brailler. The keys are easier for children and the elderly to press.

[The photo is of a man at the Perkins booth demonstrating a blue electric Perkins Brailler. The cord can be seen sticking out of the back]

I mentioned CLB’s push to promote Braille literacy and how we offer Braille instruction and have a Braille book club for school-aged children. He said that some people had asked him why people still use Braille if there was technology out there that made it unnecessary.

He said, “People today use computers for tasks we used to do by hand, but what do we do when we want to jot something down?” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a pen.“We write a note.”

Writing notes and reading in Braille teach literary and grammatical skills that screen readers don’t. Used in conjunction, screen readers and Braille literacy can help to provide independence to those with visual impairments. This topic is addressed in detail in an article called “Fewer blind Americans learning and using Braille.” One of my favorite quotes from the article is “If technology was literacy then we could throw away all print books and everyone would just be listening to technology. But sighted people certainly find print to be valuable.”

LOWERING THE COST OF MATERIALS PRINTED IN BRAILLE

Because Braille books are specially transcribed and printed in limited runs they can be expensive. Many providers subsidize the cost of Braille books through grants so that the price of Braille books is comparable to printed ones. Without subsidies, Braille books run anywhere from 40 dollars to 100 dollars.

American Printing House provides print and Braille children’s books from their “Chrissy’s Collection” for 10 dollars each through a grant from duPont. The books are text with a clear Braille overlay.

Here the cover of the copy of Curious George I saw. The book is in what looks like a binder and it’s got spiral binding.

[this is a photo of the braille/print copy of Curious George. Both the print and the Braille can be seen]

The colors are really vivid and the Braille sheets are sturdy. Here is a link to the site, where you can purchase any of the books in the collection.

Some companies are trying to cut prices of Braille books by printing on demand. I visited the booth of an Austrailan company called Read How You Want that will print the book of your choosing in the style you wish. Here is an example of the different types of print they offer. Some of them I’ve never heard of, like word pattern printing and character pattern printing. They also have Braille and different types of audiobooks.

[The photo is of a sheet of paper with many different text styles on it]

The goal is to work directly with the publishers to have books in different formats from the get-go. Services like this could potentially increase the number of titles available to people with visual impairments.

Currently most of Read How You Want’s books are in the public domain, and the prices start from the low 20s.