Voice of the Nation's Blind Blog

Is Goodwill Tricking or Treating its Contributors?

Since its inception in 1936, the federal Randolph-Sheppard program has become the most effective government employment program for the blind. Today some one thousand blind entrepreneurs operate businesses on federal property throughout the United States, ranging from full-service restaurants and cafeterias to vending machine stocking and maintenance operations.

At Desire2Learn, we really want to make it so that your focus is on taking your classes and learning the material you're in school for, not having to figure out how in the heck you're supposed to use the thing that's standing between you and those materials. So, we've tried to make navigating our stuff as consistent as we can.

Today, with the right resources and in the right circumstances, it is possible for a Braille reader to purchase a book the same day it is released by the publisher, at the same price paid by the print reader, and read it immediately on a mobile device in reasonably good quality Braille.

At Desire2Learn, we care about the user experience of all users, no matter how they are accessing our system. But we know that even when we try to make things as intuitive as we possibly can, there are going to be places along the way that make people raise their eyebrows in confusion. One of them is the WYSIWYG editor.

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (http://www.loc.gov/nls/ ) has provided accessible materials to blind (and otherwise print-disabled) patrons for more than 80 years.  In keeping with trends of technology and the needs of its patrons, it has created and provided these materials in a number of formats over the years.

Q. Are NLS books now available for download?

Most would agree that computers are not inherently user-friendly. Many find using a computer to be painful, while others find daily computer use requires significant effort. These pains and strains of computer use are even more pronounced when the user is dealing with low vision or blindness. 

Tabbed browsing is a feature of Internet Explorer, new in version 7. Tabbed browsing allows you to access multiple web sites by loading each page into "tabbed" sections of one browser window rather than multiple browser windows.

Reading and editing documents with SuperNova/Hal couldn't be easier. As you navigate through the text, SuperNova/Hal reads the text underneath your cursor out loud one letter, word or line at a time, depending on which navigation keys you press.