CTEP - Accessibility and Usability Committee

Final Post 2006

2006-09-03T13:44:00.000-05:00

This is our final post from the Accessibility and Usability Committee of Community Technology Empowerment Project in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) Minnesota.

The accessibility and usability toolkit has a ton of resources for those who are challenged in many different ways. We hope the information is informative and helpful for those resources and comments that you may be searching for.

Copies of the toolkit can be obtained by contacting http://www.technologypower.org or the Community Technology Empowerment Project office in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Thank you.

Accessibility and Usability Video - English Subtitles

2006-08-21T17:40:00.000-05:00

The long awaited Accessibility and Usability Committee Video. For information and availability of the toolkit you can contact CTEP at http://www.technologypower.org.

Video Lessons Learned

2006-08-13T21:05:00.000-05:00

Video: equipment checklist

Scheduling, more than one video take
Camera
Batteries
Tripod
Tripod strap or carrying case
Possibly lights or lights with filters in a case
Film is the best quality even if there is a memory card and has more space (CTEP media committee)
Microphone
Microphone batteries (if necessary)
Headphones
Adapter cord (battery recharge)
fire wire (camera input and output)
Camera manual or familiarize yourself with the camera there are a lot of buttons (some maybe for a memory card, some for photograph and some for video)
Try to have the equipment in one place, it will affect time, if you need to travel

Video: taping checklist

Film rewind (if necessary)
Microphone test (remember the camera may have a built in microphone, quality?)
Possible lighting, there are portable lamps you could check with your Public Television station
Tripod lock (make sure the camera is secure in the tripod) or always use the hand grip
Familiarize yourself with the buttons
Light level buttons
Zoom buttons
Focus
Make sure it is on the film/tape setting and begin

Video: transfer checklist

Transferring to the video editor, make sure the computer has an input location for the fire wire
Make sure to bring in the video with the audio, your program should have those settings and you should be able to modify them as you want
Once you hit go the program may do the rest for you including creating clips (there is a manual option)

Video: editing checklist

Working with the video on the computer
Internet Access (for possible import or transfer)
Speakers (volume)
Microphone (narration)
CD or DVD burn capability or a flash drive, for transportability, large enough for your video (NOTE: the project we worked on was 2.3 MB, the video that was placed onto the toolkit was over 90 MB), or the original tape (the video can be transferred back to the tape with the camera and firewire)
If you used a fire wire to capture the film, you can use a flash drive
Adjust the volume on each clip according to how you want it heard
If you leave spaces of non-volume clips and will save the project try to trim the clip in the project itself not where it was captured you may want to reuse section of the same clip
For future editing prior to exiting the program, the software program may sub compress on save or adjust slightly think about adding additional audio right away for open spaces
When adjusting volume, if you have copied the original audio make sure to mute the original to work with the secondary track or narration, it may affect speed of playback for video
If for whatever reason your program will not import additional audio files think of other options, use the microphone with another device
When captioning (for closed captioning) make sure to recheck the video for overlay, separate accordingly
Apply possible fade/transition options to both video and audio
Preset credit length, can be overlaid
Recheck your project to make sure it is in sync, especially if using subtitles
Be sure to recheck clips for trimming, if you shortened a clip without trimming it can affect the speed and synchronization
Play the project as often as necessary
Remember modification will affect the whole project
If you need to retake a section, be sure to give yourself enough time to reinsert and possibly re-synchronize video and audio
If you need to retake and cannot retake think of other options such as a script from that individual or a narration with other video or stills
Labels if possible
Definitely a carrying case for your CD or DVD or Internet access to email or something like Youtube.com or your own vlog

Committee Update August 9th, 2006

2006-08-09T17:38:00.000-05:00

Jesse and I have worked around a few trouble spots. One was no way to import music, the .wav files would keep showing up as empty files. The same thing happened with MP3 files, it has to be the setup. We finally attained volume with a narrator option for the video.

We were working on retaping for Jesse. We had a couple of tries to get the schedules setup and back up plans if anything went wrong. If we could not video Jesse, we would keep the old tape and I would narrate the section for Jesse. We scrambled to locate a microphone and the microphone did not work, we utilized the camera microphone. Towards the end of editing it is a bit of a bear, if you move one item everything else moves also and you spend time then setting everything back in place. This seemed to repeatedly happen everytime I went to open the project to edit. It stopped occuring when every space just about on the volume portion was filled. Since we had introductions of an outside shot along with the major cross streets for each interview there were a few spaces, with four interviews there were a few spaces. Once those spaces were filled it appeared pretty stable.

Our next hurdle was getting the completed video onto a transportable media. Jesse had worked on combining the information with an html shell and the video was to be dropped in the shell.
There were burn CD capabilities on the machine in use, but each time a cd was burnt it would be compressed and not ledgible by the media player. So it would look like the video was there and it was there but it would not open. It would play on the actual machine we used for the editing, but that is not good when it is to be included in a toolkit or on a machine elsewhere. We were back to testing files on two machines. The CD would need to be RW so that Jesse could transfer the toolkit back. With WMM, for some reason although files existed on the CD's some were not readable or indicated empty and now even though the machine has burn capabilities Windows Movie Maker (WMM) would not save a file to a CD. I finally decided with Gina Blankenship (CTEP- Intermedia Arts) to use a flash drive as a tranportable media.

Finally, video finished audio, subtitling, titles, credits, editing, sound....and it was combined with the html shell. Tomorrow is the additional CD cut or burn day. The committee has been fun but going across town in two different cities repeatedly was not exciting.

There is a lot to video editing and alot to html is what Jesse and I both learned. As I explained my problems with the video editing, Jesse was explaining it is the same with the html. If you move one item at times several things with the global would impact the product somewhere else.

Both Jesse and I are relieved with the completion of the toolkit. Jesse will be leaving the state for a new job position and the project wrap up allows us both to wrap up our other work by the end of the month. The biggest thing now for ourselves is the remainder of the CD burn and the handoff. We should complete the project by the end of this week and we are scheduling to give the Accessibility and Usability Committee Toolkit 2006 to those participants who believe their site will benefit along with others for next Friday.

AU Committee Meeting 7/14/06

2006-07-14T14:28:00.000-05:00

Jesse and I met at the CTEP office for a couple of hours.

This week:
Lauree will send Jesse an update on the St Paul Housing Authority and Vision Project,
check with Roxanne about the CTEP video camera, contact Ken about a release for Centro,
contact Marlina about her release, and review the CTEP original toolkit

Jesse will be working on the toolkit: CTEP contact address will be the office along with the telephone, fax, email and website; Internet tools will include MSIE, Firefox, Opera, and Netscape web browsers.

Next week
Lauree will be at Intermedia Arts to update the video for subtitles, credits and add music
Lauree will tape ASL signs to be included in the video.
Jesse will email Lauree with a date of Tuesday or Wednesday for retaping, and obtain a release from the Dayton Bluff Library.

Later Next week:
Jesse will retape his session reasons 1 & 2 for the Accessibility and Usability video.
Lauree will have sizes for the video content of the toolkit.

Jesse and Lauree will check for a tenetative July 24th(Monday) late afternoon meeting at Daytons Bluff to incorporate the video into the toolkit.

Twin Cities Wireless and Broadband Initiatives

2006-07-14T14:19:00.000-05:00

Wireless Minneapolis

Wireless Minneapolis

This page contains information on the City of Minneapolis “Wireless Minneapolis” intiative. The City of Minneapolis is planning on offering all of Minneapolis a wireless network option for the Internet. The idea is to offer it to all the residents no matter what the income levels. The project is still in process with a couple of project pilots beginning.

St. Paul Broadband Initiative

St. Paul Broadband

This page contains information regarding the City of St. Paul Broadband Impact Technology Study. The City of St. Paul is reviewing offering all of St. Paul a Broadband option for connecting to the Internet.

Disabled Minnesota Work Incentives i Connection

2006-07-14T14:17:00.000-05:00

MN Work Incentives i Connection

This website looks useful it helps explain to people with disabilities how working affects their government benefits. They have Information on Social Security, Health Care, Housing, Employment&Training, a newsletter and links to other helpful sights and tools.

Other Housing information, Buying, Rental, Subsidized

2006-07-14T14:14:00.000-05:00

Minneapolis Public Housing Authority(MPHA)

MPHA

This page on the City of Minneapolis website contains general information along with contact information for the MPHA.

Minnesota Housing Finance Agency(MHFA)

MHFA

This website contains information about Single Family and Multifamily homes along with subsidized rental housing and investing.

U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)by State and in Minnesota

2006-07-14T14:13:00.000-05:00

HUD State Index

Minnesota HUD

This website offers information regarding HUD in Minnesota. Whether it is buying, renting, assisted living, affordable living or housing counseling. There are many resources and contacts along with even the option to file a complaint. They have jobs also.

Minnesota Housing Partnership: Affordable Housing

2006-07-14T14:10:00.000-05:00

MHP: Affordable Housing

This website contains information on Affordable Housing for Minnesota and Nationally. The site includes Service Providers, Policy/Legislation, Facts, Loans and Grants, News and Events, even some Jobs and Links. They have a goal of HOMES FOR ALL BY 2012!

Minnesota Vision Project

2006-07-14T14:08:00.000-05:00

Minnesota Vision Project Contact

This project is to supply working lower income adults and family who may be underinsured with affording eye care. Eligibility is determined as follows: 2 years since last eye exam, your medical insurance cannot include eye care, and must have a lower income based on family size and standards. The exam is free, glasses can be obtained with a $25.00 payment for donated frame. Other services are donated by optometrist, eye glass frames and lens services.

June 20th, 2006 Committee Update

2006-06-20T11:19:00.000-05:00

We have the video down to 7 minutes and 20 seconds from over an hours footage.
We are still working on the video and the format of the information for the toolkit.
We hopefully will be able to stay on target of Mid-July.
Jesse and I've been rereviewing our information for the toolkit and there are a lot of RESOURCES.

Everytime I begin to look at a blog page I'm linking to a web page with 20 or 30 links for information. It may take time to filter through some of this information. I did find an educational reference for the captioning speed, which was a question on the test video. Do you caption word for word, in case someone reads lips or do you caption based on reading speed? I wrote a source at the Minnesota STAR program and she wasn't sure, it depends on the content I guess. There were certain things I didn't think about like (door slams), certain other things I would overlook because they are obvious on the screen like (father opens door) suggested in the manuals. Guess it is preferential.

I think some of the websites could be worked on for structure as an accessiblity issue. It took me a while to locate the speed information even on the closed captioning website. Then there were the closed captioning vendors. There are many types of closed captioning for every type of media.

Jesse and I spoke this morning he is sending me an html file in Word.doc and we'll see where we go from there on the toolkit format. I am scheduled to meet with Gina again at Intermedia Arts later this week. I asked her to take a look at the video and see if we can trim some additional time. We had so many good comments from the interviews it was hard to trim and then the visual can't be trimmed too much or you are whipping through frames(just about subliminal level). We still need to:

finalize resource documents for the toolkit
trim the video
overlay the interviews with the example shots
add music
add subtitles

Jesse and I won't meet on this Friday. We will be scheduling our next official meeting in July, but keep updated via email and telephone.

June 9th 2006

2006-06-11T14:26:00.000-05:00

The video project is moving slowly but surely. Editing is going well. June 2nd Corps day had no tape for Jesse. The machine that we are using at Intermedia Arts doesn't have write capabilities. I am working on the video presentation, organization. The organization is a little different than we originally planned. We are primarily utilizing the interviews and integrating the accessibility features of the sites we put on video. There are too many good quotes, to not use them. The sound is going well I tried emailing a copy of the video "project" to Jesse and one to myself, just to find out that the projects don't email well they need to be actually saved as a non-"project" ie. an audio file or a video. Lessons learned about the video thus far with a test run on a small video from the Media Committee.

1. Windows Movie Maker does have subtitle capability.
2. You can not email a project either video or audio.
3. There is a big difference between closed captioning and subtitles.
4. The subtitle is under title and does not go away even when the video file is cut and the
Windows Media Player settings are set to not show subtitles.

We did a trial run with the subtitling on the Media Committee video. The video worked out fine a little trial and error between ticker (if the speed was adjustable this could be a viable option) and subtitle. The subtitle is a little tricky, I am trying to make sure it shows up long enough to be read, but keeping it in synchronization with spoken words.

Jesse has found some good music files that we will be talking about working with. We also have to still get together, our schedules have been altered a little and we have alternative projects that may prove to be useful, also. The deadline will be moved towards mid-July for the toolkit, due to rescheduling and timing.

Committee Meeting Notes: May 26, 2006

2006-05-26T22:18:00.000-05:00

Today we met at the Lexington Library to work more on the video and toolkit. We started the meeting by talking about the video. Lauree has done some checking on closed captioning options, and there is one in windows Movie Maker that we can maybe use. It’s not true close captioning, but it may work. There are a couple things we need to check on though.

We need to find out if we can toggle the captioning on and off.
The text is also a little to high on the screen and might be too distracting, so we’re looking at ways to address this.

The actual video footage has been cut down quite a bit and is about 10 minutes long. There’s still quite a bit of cutting we’ll have to do, but it’s progressing well. We’re also not going strictly by the thematic outline any more because the interviews don’t quite match it as well. Instead we’re using it as a guide, but letting the interviews tell the story more.

We then talked about the music and audio we want to use. I collected a variety of different types of music that I thought may work well for this kind of video. We listened to them all and had a few ideas. For the beginning and end of the video, we’d maybe like something a little more energetic and with a beat. For the bulk of the narration and interviews, we’d use a little slower piece that would blend well into the background.

Heartland – Has a good beat and would probably work well for the intro and/or conclusion.
Red Mustang – Our second choice for the intro and/or conclusion.
Quiet Storm – this would probably be a good piece for the narration and interviews.

One other thing we need to check on for the video is the actual pixel size of the video. For the toolkit version, it will need to fit in a browser well even at resolutions of 800x600. Google Video and YouTube might be good places to look at as examples.

We wrapped up discussion on the video by talking about some still shots right before the credits that would have websites to the various CTC’s in the video.

We then moved onto the toolkit. This past week, I’ve come up with a rough template, which I showed at the meeting. The overall design is good, so I’ll just need to do some minor editing. The toolkit will be in HTML, and work just like a regular website. The majority of the content will be on the CD though. The first page will have an introduction and the video. There’s a left sidebar that will have the different sections and sub-categories of the toolkit. This is the piece we really need to work on. It’s just a matter of going through all the links on the blog, our old toolkit, and past AU presentations and organize them all into a meaningful structure.

So here’s what we’ll be working on for the next couple of weeks.

Lauree:
Bring a rough draft of the video on CD to Jesse at the June 2 Corps day.
Check into a toggle for the captioning and options for making it lower on-screen.
Continue video editing.

Jesse
Contact Jeff about use of the CTEP logo for the toolkit.
Start organizing the various links and resources into categories for the toolkit.
Work more on finalizing the template and start adding content.

Minneapolis Public Library - Biblioteca Central

2006-05-22T20:17:00.000-05:00

You may want to check this site out in person. The newest addition to the Minneapolis Public Libraries, has an Assistive Technology area with approximately 6 terminals. It was explained that they would be able to give you limited assistance with learning to use the equipment. They do have six terminals available with auditory equipment, magnification equipment, easily manipulated trackballs, along with several other hardware items that are available. I wasn't able to get the best look today, but I plan on going back. The best times to go to the library were indicated as during school hours least busy, after school hours busy, evening busy and Saturday very busy. The staff that will assist you are located in the Children's Library section, presently. The new library is located at 300 Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis. The library telephone is 612-630-6000, the direct AT telephone is 612-630-6280. The hours are Monday - Thursday 10-8, Tuesday - Wednesday 10-6 and Friday - Saturday 10-5.

The website for the library isn't even updated yet with the AT information. Minneapolis Libraries

Committee Meeting Notes: May 19, 2006

2006-05-21T14:51:00.000-05:00

During the May 19 Corps day, we had an hour of committee time. We worked more on planning for the video and toolkit. Lindsey has officially resigned from the committee. Lauree now has all of the release forms for the people and locations in the video.

We talked a little bit more about what video format we’d use, and where we’d host it online. The media committee has been using both Google Video and YouTube, free online video hosting services, and they both seem to work well. It’s highly likely we’ll use one of these sites for hosting our video online.

We’re also currently working on transcribing all of the dialog from the interviews to text. This will make it easier to find good sound bites for the video, and make things easier when doing closed captioning. One thing we did find out though was the audio was only coming from the left speaker, so when doing the actual video, we’ll need to make sure it’s coming more from the center channel.

We’ll be meeting next Friday to work more on the video and toolkit. We originally planned to meet at the CTEP office, but this might not be possible.

Lauree will check with Rox to see if we can meet at the CTEP office on Friday at 9:00 AM.
Jesse will check with Lexington Library if we can meet there at the same time should CTEP not work.

This week, we’ll be working more on the video and toolkit.

Lauree will:
Continue video editing, picking the best shots and cutting the ones that we can no longer use or that don’t look good.
Check into different closed captioning tools and resources.
One idea was to talk with Kevin from the media committee and work with captioning one of their videos for practice.

Jesse will:
Transcribe the interview audio to text and E-mail it to the rest of the committee.
E-mail the music site I’ve been using to the committee.
Work more with different template options for the toolkit including finding possible buttons for the navigation area of the page.
Find a few more songs for the video’s background music.

Next Committee Meeting:
Friday May 26, 2006
Location will probably either be at CTEP or Lexington Library
Time: 9:00 AM
We’ll all bring what we’ve been working on for the video and toolkit to the meeting.
We’ll pick the background music for the video.
We’ll also place the interviews into the different topics covered in the video.

Finally, there will be no committee meeting on June 9.

Committee Meeting Notes: May 12, 2006

2006-05-12T16:55:00.000-05:00

Today our committee met at the CTEP office to work more on the video and toolkit projects. The first thing we decided was that we would try to have the toolkit and video done by July 7, so we can show the rest of the corps the final product. We set July 21 as a back-up should we need a little extra time.

We have also decided to put the video on our blog, and provide information on how to get the entire toolkit when it’s done. We’re currently looking at a few different file type options for the video. Real Player, Flash, or MPG’s are the types we’re considering. Both Flash and Real files are nice because they stream well and have a smaller file size. Google Video and YouTube are a couple ideas for hosting the video.

There are a couple of things we need to check on as we’re starting to edit the footage for the video:
We need to get the legal release forms from Lindsey.
We also need to make sure we have all the release forms from Intermedia Arts.

We now have a pretty good idea of how the video footage will fit together. We have a list of shots divided into categories. Each category will show various shots of each location we shot. For example, the physical space section will show the ramp at Intermedia Arts, the adjustable table at Lexington Library, and PPL’s large lab area and work space.

We’ve decided to make the various interviews be the main narration of the video when possible. We’ll add filler narration to help piece everything together, but the interviews will tell the story of the CTC’s and the topics in the video. The next step is to get the audio from each interview, and figure out which theme it best describes, and piece that in with the rest of the footage. The intro and conclusion are the main areas where we’ll need additional narration.

One other thing we found out today was that the audio from Jesse’s library interview didn’t turn out very well. It was rather quiet, so we’ll just re-record the audio as we’re editing the video.

We’ll probably have some committee meeting time on the next Corps day on May 19. Here’s what we should be working on before this meeting.

Lauree:
Get a CD of the interviews to Jesse for the Corps day.
Start editing some of the video footage.

Jesse
Look at the audio and music websites for some good background music for the video.
Start putting together a couple of ideas for a HTML template for the toolkit.
After getting the CD with the interviews, write the transcripts for each one. This will be helpful in picking out what to use for the video and for captioning.
Also come up with some ideas for where each interview will fit into the topics for the video.

We finished up the meeting by talking a little more about the toolkit. The video will be on the first page of the toolkit, and act as an introduction to accessibility. The remainder of the toolkit will provide links, technology demos, and other resources for people on a variety of disability topics. Some topic ideas we came up with were general, legal, assistive technology, financial, training, etc. We’ll know more about what specific topics to include when we look more at our earlier toolkit and the links and resources everyone posted to the blog.

During our committee time on the 19th, we will set deadlines for the various tasks in the video and toolkit.

Committee Meeting Notes: May 1, 2006

2006-05-02T11:31:00.000-05:00

The Accessibility and Usability Committee met at Intermedia Arts on Monday, May 1 to go over the raw video footage shot over the past few weeks. Before getting started on that project, we took care of a few housekeeping things.

Linda’s last day is on May 8th. Lindsey has also resigned as committee head.

It was decided that Lauree is the new committee head during May and June, and Jesse is the new secretary.
During July and August, Jesse will take over as committee head and Lauree will be the new secretary.

We also recently found out that our proposal for the CTCNet conference was rejected. Because of this, we can now slow down on the video project. We decided to make our video part of the toolkit we’re creating for the end of the year. Another thought was to make a shorter video that could become part of the Media Committee’s video project.

We decided that the video would be a good introduction to the toolkit. The toolkit would also follow the overall themes we came up with for the video. We then talked a little about the toolkit format, and so far everyone agrees that an HTML format would work well because this format would work well with any operating system or computer platform.

We’re also no longer presenting to the rest of the Corps on May 19th since we’re slowing down on the video project. Instead, we plan to show a near final version toward the end of July.

We then discussed our roles in the video project.
Lindsey – Legal, subtitles and credits.
Lauree – Video editing and work some on the script.
Jesse – Script and audio, including music and possibly voice overs.
Gina will also help us with some ideas and video editing.
Everyone will get to provide their input during the editing process.

The first step is to review the raw footage, and come up with a script. Once we have a script, we should have a better idea of what shots we want to use and how to arrange them. We decided to plan our May schedule first, and make further plans near the end of May.

May Schedule
May 12 – The AU committee will meet at the CTEP office from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM to work on the video’s script.
May 26 – Meet at Intermedia Arts to start editing the video footage.
Jesse will start looking for background music for the video.
Lauree will let Jeff know we’ll be meeting at the CTEP office on May 12.

We then looked at the raw video footage from the various sites. We had some technical problems, but were able to view most of the footage. We only got about half of the footage recorded because the computer started slowing down. We decided to just watch the rest without recording it so we had a list of all the shots. The rest will be recorded on Tuesday. Ken will also burn the footage to DVD for backup. One interesting thing we found while watching the footage was that LCD screens look much better than CRT monitors. It’s much easier to see what’s on the screen.

That wrapped up our meeting. Before leaving, we found out the next Corps day on the 5th would be at Skyline Tower again, and we’d have committee time right away in the morning. We may be able to start working on the script then. Our next committee meeting is on May 12 at the CTEP office at 10:00 AM. One thing we need to check on is if the computer at the office has a Firewire connection for the camera.

Committee Notes: April 21 & 22, 2006

2006-04-24T22:14:00.000-05:00

Corps Day
Almost the full committee met on Friday April 21 at the beginning of Corps day. We started by having a casual conversation about our video project and how powerful video can be; what point of view do we want to get across with our tone; and what each of us are thinking the video will look like. This turned out to be a loose and fun chat about our perspectives. Soon, we found ourselves talking about food and how it can both alienate and bring people together. I think this was a tangent from talking about murals at Centro, and how they create a welcoming and safe environment for the people who work and visit Centro. In addition we discussed such things as cliches, and use of "well known" phrases that might be associated with stereotypes.

We decided that two members would work at El Centro later in the afternoon to do a video shoot, and two members would do the shoot at Waite House on the 28th. We also agreed that all of us would meet on Saturday for the Lexington Library video shoot, which we did ... read on to hear about it.

Saturday at Lexington
When we met on Saturday it was to get shots of the Accessibility and Usability options in use at the Lexington Library Outreach branch, along with an interview with Jesse. The clips and shots were easy to get done, as we have become accustomed to the camera and familiar with setting up our shots. We got some great footage of Jesse using the assistive software, the accessible mouse, the adjustable table, signage, outside shots of the building and the cross street signs. We remembered to adjust the white balance and change the light settings after coming back inside. The interview went well, Jesse made several very good points, including the free assistive tech software AND training available at the library.

From there, we decided to push on and discuss what our next steps were. We still needed to begin editting, complete shooting, work on the script (narration), credits and even some legal paperwork.

Here's our timeline:

April 28th - Shoot video at Waite House (Linda & Lauree). We'll also interview John about how the computer lab has improved accessibility for clients; challenges to getting this done (or starting it);
May 1st, 1:00 at Intermedia Arts - initial viewing of footage, start identifying shots; practice capturing video (remember to bring all signed waivers to this meeting)
Week of May 8th - editing (Lauree & Linda)
May 12th - preliminary video viewing (committee)
May 19th - we show the Corps our draft to get feedback (can they identify our key messages?); possible demo of Freedom Box

We also assigned roles/tasks:

Sound Clips - Jesse (Linda will get CDs to Jesse)
Legal - Lindsey
Credits & writing subtitles - Lindsey
Narration - Gina? or someone with a good voice who is willing
Scripting - Lauree/Gina/Jesse
Closed Captioning/entering subtitles - Lauree
Director - Gina?

We ended our day by each talking about our thoughts for the finished piece, just to get a feel for how diverse our expectations could be. It seems we have a lot in common:

remember to make it people oriented, not just about technology. Do this by pairing a shot of a person after/before a shot of an object.
highlight both successes and challenges to creating accessible environments/programs
empower the viewer to know that there are changes that can and should be done to make their places more accessible
make it visually accessible
include closed captioning
use music, voice over, and video embedded audio to help create tone
be friendly, not preachy

Remeber, Lindsey will be out starting May 6th and not able to attend the next regularly scheduled committee meeting on May 12th. Committee will review the progress made thus far on the edited video, and talk about next steps. An update should be sent to Lindsey about the results of this meeting. If possible, post a draft of the video on Google Video and send the link to Lindsey.

Committee head's reminders -- week of Apr. 24

2006-04-24T10:15:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone.

Linda suggested I put these notes up on the blog, rather than send them via e-mail, and I think that was a great idea. I couldn't think of a better title than "committee head's reminders", though -- so if you have any ideas, put them in the comments!

First, I'd like to welcome our new committee member, Gina! We've enjoyed working with you and look forward to continuing to do so.

At our Saturday shooting session, we hammered out roles and schedules and talked about our vision of the completed video project. Current schedule is as follows:

Sometime this week -- Linda (and Gina?) interview Marlina
Fri 28 April -- Lauree and Linda shoot (at Waite House). Anyone else who wants to help out at this shoot should coordinate with Linda.
Mon 1 May -- review footage and decide on a preliminary list of shots (at Intermedia Arts) . Please put this on your calendar now. It's important that we all attend.

The schedule for the editing process will depend on the parties involved. Just remember that our goal is to show a rough cut to the rest of CTEP (for feedback) on May 19. As we continue to work on this project, think of questions you'd like the rest of the Corps to think about/answer. It's going to be easier to get useful responses from our fellow members if we provide some guidance!

In addition to the shoot at Waite House and the interview at Intermedia, this week we are also going to decide what kind of blank DVDs we'd like CTEP to purchase on our behalf -- I'll need tech specs from the IA lab, as well as any other committee input (Jesse, do you have any thoughts?), before I go to Jeff and ask, ok? I need this by Wednesday, as I'll be unavailable both Thursday and Friday.

On Saturday, we discussed roles for the remainder of the production process. Here's what we came up with then. (Gina, please feel free to say yea or nay to any of this -- or to jump into another role if you like!)

Editing -- Linda, Lauree
Sound -- Jesse
Scriptwriting -- Lauree, Gina, Jesse
Narrator -- Gina (?? would this be okay? We don't want anyone's voice who is already speaking on camera)
Credits and Subtitles -- Lindsey
Legal -- Lindsey (this means I need your release forms, folks! Please contact me if you have any problems with either individual or location releases!)

On Saturday we also discussed our visions of our completed video project. For details, see Linda's forthcoming fabulous committee notes.

Have a great week!

LMF

Minnesota: Resume or multimedia electronic portfolio

2006-04-23T20:23:00.000-05:00

http://www.efoliomn.com/

eFolio Minnesota, a multimedia electronic portfolio designed to help you create a living showcase of your education, career and personal achievements. All Minnesota residents, including students enrolled in Minnesota schools, educators and others can use eFolio Minnesota to reach their career and education goals.

It's not just fun, like it is indicated on their website. It's easy to use, they have good help assistance and it's free. They even have examples, in case you're shy, of current portfolios on the database. It doesn't matter if you are in business and/or artist. This is a great media to display your achievements with to potential employers. Just take a few minutes and take a look at what is out there right now. It isn't hard and there is assistance step by step.

Educator samples
Career samples
Student samples

Committe Notes: April 14, 2006

2006-04-17T08:59:00.000-05:00

Friday we spent the day videotaping for our access awareness video to be distributed at CTCs.

We started by learning about the video camera and tripod. Each of us took turns taping the shots we had identified for Intermedia Arts (IA) and Project for Pride in Living (PPL). By the end of the day I think we were all fairly comfortable with the equipment. We tested the external mic with Lindsey doing a run-through of PPL's orientation and of Sarah and Lindsey talking about solutions and challenges to access at PPL.

We will include an interview/dialogue from each site, but we need to come up with some questions for the interviewee that focuses on the themes we are working with. For example, at Centro, we will ask Roxanna how the murals have helped to create a welcoming environment; at Intermedia Arts, we will ask Marlina what steps she took to make a performance more accessible.

We have LOTS of footage, and three sites left.

Tentative plans to shoot at Lexington Library on April 21. To do this, we first need to find out if we can have a couple of hours at the end of the day next Corps day for committee work, if so:

Jesse - find out if we can shoot at Lexington Library Friday, April 21 starting around 3:30 PM; also, get a location release from the library
Linda - Check out camera and tripod, get more mini-dv tapes

Other sites to shoot:

Waite House - April 28th Linda and Lauree; Lauree will check out meeting room and get a location release
Centro - Ken and Roxanna get back to us on when and location release esp. for the murals

Editing is going to be fun and a challenge. Remember to check the training link on http://www.current.tv

Audible.com

2006-04-13T16:12:00.000-05:00

Last week I talked a little about an e-book website for people with disabilities. This week I'd like to talk about another e-book resource. This one however is for anyone. This site is www.audible.com. Audible offers a variety of books, magazines, and other publications in audio form. There are a couple of ways to use the service. You can create a free account, and then buy books individually, or join one of their auio listener subscription programs. These programs cost around $20 a month, and allow you to download a couple of books or other content free for that month. Since one book is between $15 and $35, sometimes more, it's worth looking into if you read a lot.

When downloading the books, you can get them in a few different sizes for better quality or smaller file size. The other nice thing is that these files can be played on many current MP3 players, so it's very portable.

To learn more go to the Audible Website .

Social Security Q & A

2006-04-11T16:59:00.000-05:00

What about Pueblo? Government information and benefits?

2006-04-11T16:31:00.000-05:00

Federal Citizen Information Center, Pueblo, CO - Award-winning free federal info. on saving money, investing, getting federal benefits, buying cars and houses, staying healthy, parenting, solving consumer problems and more.

--Americans with Disabilities Act: Questions and Answers. Explains how the civil rights of persons with disabilities are protected at work and in public places.--Guide to Disability Rights Laws. Covers the rights of persons with disabilities regarding education, employment, fair housing, public accommodations, and telecommunications.--Your Right to Federal Records. Use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and the Privacy Act to obtain records from the federal government--Apply Online for Social Security Benefits. Learn how to fill out an online application, how your personal information is protected, who can apply online, and more.--Federal Benefits for Veterans and Dependents. Explains disability, pension, health care, education and housing loans, and other benefit programs for veterans and their families.--Medicare: Protecting Your Personal Information and Yourself from Identity Theft and Fraud. Describes the "Medicare-Approved" seal, and covers what information you should share and under what circumstances.--Request for Social Security Statement. Complete this form and return it to Social Security to get your earnings history and an estimate of future benefits.--Social Security: Understanding the Benefits. Provides details on retirement, disability, survivor's benefits, Medicare coverage, Supplemental Security Income, and more.

Bookshare

2006-04-06T11:19:00.000-05:00

This time I'd like to talk about a very cool online resource for anyone who loves to read, and has a disability that interferes with reading regular print material. Bookshare is a great website that offers a few different types of electronic books for people with disabilities.

Here's how it works. When someone signs up for a membership, they must provide written proof that they are disabled. This could be anything from Blindness, to Dyslexia, to another learning disability. A doctor's note or note from a Disability Services office should work fine. There then is a one time $25 activation fee, and a yearly $50 membership fee. This is still not bad though, and as I'll talk about later, there are ways to save money.

Once someone is varified to have a disability, and finished registration, the entire Bookshare library is available. There are a few different formats of books to choose from. Daisy is a fairly new electronic book format that provides easier and quicker navigation in a book, and is the first type available. Electronic Braille books are also an option. These books can be read in some assistive technology programs like Kurzweil, printed to a Braille printer, or translated to text. Finally some books are available in plain text format. Their library is huge, and growing daily.

The books are mostly scanned by Bookshare members. Members can sign up to be volunteers and scan or varify books. Before books are available to the public, members varify each one. Varifying is simply checking for any glaring errors, and fixing any other problems they find from the original scan. The good news is scanning and varifying books earns members credit toward their next year's membership, and it makes more books available to everyone else.

I've been a member of Bookshare now for over 2 years, and love it. $50 isn't much to pay for the entire library of electronic books. Buying books on CD or tape costs a lot of money.

If this sounds interesting, visit the Bookshare website here.

Committee Notes: March 31 2006

2006-04-03T20:00:00.000-05:00

Our awesome committee met at the CTEP office last Friday.
It was a productive meeting, as usual. Gina joined us for most of our visit and helped us with our media project planning. Ken was there too, for media planning and CTCnet fundraising. At 2:00, the Media Committee arrived and we discussed possible collaboration with our video projects.

Video Project
We started by talking about our 'Factsheet PSA', which has evolved into a 1 to 3 minute piece about how our corps has helped to overcome/address barriers to access at our sites; our success includes technology, physical and programming adjustments/enhancements. (We will also feature things our sites were already doing/had in place before CTEP arrived on the scene).

Our audience for this video is our Corps, and other CTCs. It will also be part of our CTCnet conference presentation.

First we decided to focus on the sites our committee members work at. Next, we brainstormed what imagery (video shots) we could feature according to site. Here's our list:

Project for Pride in Living (PPL):

Star Tribune touch screen kiosk
easy to use web site for PPL users
(need to check my notes)

Intermedia Arts:

The ramp down to the performance theatre, media lab and classroom
Interview Marlina about "Body Image" a performance she curated where artists with disabilties performed; and attention to accomodating people with disabitlies was part of her outreacch strategy

Waite House:

bilingual staff
translated programming materials
(need to check my notes)

Lexington Library

assistive tech station
adjustable computer table
signage for tech station

Centro

murals inside (welcoming, culturally appropriate atmosphere)
WebAdapt
programming offered in Spanish

Our first shooting will be on April 14th. The morning we'll do Intermedia Arts, the afternoon PPL.

IMPORTANT!!
We all need to ask our supervisors how to obtain a location release so we can safely feature these sites in our video. Also, anyone we interview needs to sign a media release (for their image and voice) before we shoot them. Intermedia Arts has forms we should be able to adapt if anyone needs a release template.

I (Linda) will ask if we can check out Catherine's lighting kit, video camera, tripod and microphone for the 14th. We will ask CTEP if they can purchase an external microphone for Corps use--the Media Committee has informed us there is no such mic and it sure would be handy.

Fundraising and CTCnet
Next topic - how do we all get the money to go to the CTCnet conference in July? Our proposal is fabulous, thanks to Lindsey. There is a very good chance it will be accepted, so we need to figure out some fundraising strategies. We did tackle a difficult task, which was deciding who, if we only raise enough money for one or two of us, is going to go. We made a list (very civilly I would say -- see? we do have an awesome committee). Here's the list:

Lindsey
Linda
Lauree/Jesse

Lauree may be funded through her site and -- great news -- my partner is donating some of his frequent flyer miles towards my trip, so I guess my plane ticket is taken care of.

Media Committee
Once the Media Committee joined us the conversation was elevated to bellbottoms, '80s pant cuffs, jumpsuits, Prince, gremlins (or whatever that thing on Rox's water bottle is -- I can't figure it out!). I could barely keep up, the treatises and theories were so HEAVY.

We did figure out that both our committees are in the beginning stages of a video project, and we are both going to shoot CTEP sites/CTEP members working at their sites. HMMM... it did seem like a revelation at the time, but I guess it kind of sounds obvious as I write this down. The important thing is we will share footage when appropriate. And, this committee needs to create a list of guiding questions for the Media Committee to work from as they gather material on their sojourn into ' a day in the life of a CTEP member.'

Please email any interview questions you think are appropriate for the Media Committee to Lindsey by this Wed, April 5th. She will compose a list and forward it to the head of the Media committee.

Next Meeting
We do NOT have a meeting April 7th. Continue to post to our blog and think of ideas you want to share about our media project with the rest of the committee; ideas for scripting, approach, storyboarding, music, etc. Check out www.current.tv, it's a great resource. Also, email Roxanne for feedback -- she has great ideas and is very willing to help.

Next Meeting: April 14th - our first video shoot. We'll meet at Intermedia Arts at 9:00 AM. This will be an all day meeting. Bring a location release for your site, please.

I know I have more in my notes, but they are at work, so I will make adjustments to these notes tomorrow.

Child hearing loss resources

2006-03-31T10:13:00.000-06:00

Family support Connection part of the Lifetrack Resources has a 37 page resource directory available online.

Has your child recently been diagnosed with a hearing loss? If so, this resource directory of organizations may seem a bit overwhelming. There are so many issues and services under the general umbrella of "deaf and hard of hearing" that is it sometimes confusing to know what is relevant for your particular child and family.

We have some good ideas of where you might want to start. Specifically, these four organizations can be especially helpful to parents who have just found out that their child is deaf or hard or hearing.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services (DHHS): page 7
Early Intervention Intake: page 9
Family Support Connection at Lifetrack Resources: page 9
PACER Center: page 20

These organizations have relevant information and services for you and your family whether your child:

• Has a hearing loss that is mild, moderate, severe, or profound;
• Has a hearing loss that is in one ear (unilateral) or both (bilateral).
These groups are also useful to your family whether you:
• Are already knowledgeable about deaf and hard of hearing issues, or have never met a deaf or hard of hearing person;
• Are considering oral communication, sign language, cueing, and/or any other communication systems; and/or
• Want more information, just want to talk with someone about your child, and/or want referrals for places to get additional information.
For information and links to information on specific topics, please see our website at www.familysupportconnection.com. Topics covered there include:
• Understanding hearing loss
• Communication options
• Education resource
• American Deaf culture
• Medical alternatives
• Hard of hearing children

Deaf Child Resource Directory

Family Support Connection

CTCNet Conference Session Proposal

2006-03-29T13:25:00.000-06:00

Accessibility and Community Outreach –- Grassroots Experiences, Best Practices

Session Summary/Abstract:

The digital divide may no longer be making national headlines, but its effects continue to be seen daily in most CTCs. What practices can community technology professionals implement in order to narrow the gap between the technology haves and have-nots? How can we make our centers more accessible to historically disenfranchised populations? This session will explore the outreach and accessibility efforts of the Community Technology Empowerment Project (CTEP), a group of AmeriCorps members working to bridge the digital divide in the Twin Cities. Some of the barriers to technology access faced by immigrant, low-income, and disabled communities will be presented. Practices CTEP has implemented to overcome these barriers will be discussed. Concrete strategies for outreach to these communities will be offered. Presenters will demonstrate and distribute a set of easily-implemented accessibility tools, collected and packaged by CTEP members for use in local CTCs.

Full Session Description:

The digital divide may no longer be making national headlines, but its effects continue to be seen daily – both inside most CTCs and throughout our communities. As more and more information is only available online, but a monthly Internet access fee of as little as $10 is out of the reach of many, what practices can community technology professionals implement in order to promote equal access to information? What efforts can we make to narrow the gap between the technology haves and have-nots? What outreach and education methods best enable members of low-income, immigrant and disabled communities to use technology to improve their lives?

This session will explore the outreach and accessibility efforts of the Community Technology Empowerment Project (CTEP), a group of AmeriCorps members working to bridge the digital divide in the Twin Cities. The various efforts and experiences of a large number of CTEP members –- working at CTCs across Minneapolis and St. Paul –- will form the backbone of this presentation. Some of the barriers to technology access faced by immigrant, low-income, and disabled communities will be presented. Practices CTEP has implemented to overcome these barriers will be discussed. Concrete strategies for outreach to these communities will be offered. Presenters will also demonstrate and distribute a set of easily-implemented accessibility tools, collected and packaged by CTEP members for use in local CTCs. Participants will have ample opportunity to explore and react to CTEP's techniques and resources, as well as to share their own successes and challenges.

The session will be facilitated by CTEP's Accessibility and Usability Committee – AmeriCorps members who, in addition to serving at their local CTCs, have educated local immigrant communities on disability and technology, trained other AmeriCorps members on accessibility issues and promoted the use of assistive technology in Twin Cities CTCs. Curious about grassroots efforts to improve everyone's access to technology? Come and find out how one group is actively working to bridge the digital divide!

Use of Session Time:

The first hour of the session will be devoted to a multimedia presentation, while the final thirty minutes will consist of activities and discussion.

Session Outcomes/Objectives:

Showcase the work of the Community Technology Empowerment Project

Heighten awareness of various barriers to technology access

Discuss methods of improving community outreach and accessibility in all CTCs

Resources and Handouts:

Printed material will include information about CTEP, sample outreach documents, and programming tools. The information and resources available on CTEP's blogs and vlog will be highlighted. In addition, each session participant will receive an electronic (CD) version of our Accessibility Toolkit, which includes software, outreach and presentation documents, multimedia presentations, curricula and annotated online resources. Participants with additional needs or concerns will be invited to continue working with the CTEP Accessibility and Usability Committee via e-mail.

Computer Curricula, Original and Adapted

2006-03-28T15:29:00.000-06:00

Want to teach computer skills to a new user, but don't know where to start? There are free curricula online that will get you (and your client) up and running.

In order to further local efforts at "digital inclusion" across the globe, Microsoft developed the Unlimited Potential Community Learning Curriculum. Designed for use in local CTCs, it includes 8 curriculum packages:

Computer Fundamentals

Using the Internet and World Wide Web

Word Processing Fundamentals

Spreadsheet Fundamentals

Presentation Fundamentals

Web Design Fundamentals

Database Fundamentals

Digital Media Fundamentals

Each package includes student lessons, an instructor's manual, PowerPoint slides, and practice activities and answers. The curriculum is free, but in order to download it, you must e-mail a request to upinfo@microsoft.com.

Given the sometimes-complicated English vocabulary and the level of depth found in the original curriculum, several CTCnet member sites across the U.S. developed and field-tested modified versions of various sections of the Microsoft curriculum. These are freely available for download from CTCnet. The modifications include:

an ELL-friendly English-language basic skill level version of Computer Fundamentals

English-language versions of Computer Fundamentals, Word Processing, Spreadsheets, Presentations and Databases for novice computer users

English-language versions of Spreadsheets, Databases and Presentations for those with intermediate skills

and Spanish-language versions of Computer Fundamentals and Word Processing

Some of the changes made by local CTCs included simplifying instructions, inserting screenshots and graphics, adding examples relevant to local populations, and developing more practice exercises for novice users.

I don't currently use this curriculum at my site, because I don't teach long-term classes and our basic skills class is designed for a particular population. But I'd recommend it as a starting point for those beginning the curriculum development process, or to those who are looking for a few exercises or activities to share with a class.

In addition to the Microsoft curriculum, the St. Paul Community Literacy Consortium has developed a computer curriculum that I found very helpful. The modules they've designed include Very Basic Computer Skills, Computer Vocabulary, Opening and Saving Files, Skills and Activities Practice, MS Word, MS Excel, Internet, and PowerPoint. I use a modified version of their Computer Vocabulary lesson to open our basic skills workshop, and I've incorporated their MS Word exercises into my formatting workshop. Novice users seem to find this curriculum easy to understand, which in turn makes them feel more confident as they pursue improved employability here in our lab.

CSUN conference

2006-03-27T10:23:00.000-06:00

Last week, there was a very cool conference in California I wish I could have gone to. I'm referring to the CSUN conference. This conference is devoted to accessibility issues and assistive technology that's just been released, as well as totally new stuff.

There are several workshops, trainings, and presentations on a wide variety of topics and technology. People also have a chance to see and try some of the newest assistive technology products. This sounds like a blast to me, and I will make it there one year. This year was its 21st anual event, so I don't think it's stopping any time soon.

Committee Notes: March 24, 2006

2006-03-25T07:42:00.000-06:00

We met in Intermedia Arts on Friday. There was lots on the agenda, and we had an interesting time of it. Gina, the new CTEP member at Intermedia Arts sat in on our meeting as she is interested in joining our committee.

So, for starters, Lindsey gave Gina a rundown of our committee's focus and what we have accomplished so far, in addition to our future plans. This took 10 minutes, at least 'cuz we've been doing a lot. Our committee ROCKS!

Fundraisning and the CTCnet Conference
Second topic was about fundraising rules for CTEPs. Unfortunately, our plans for presenting at the CTCnet conference have been foiled (fouled?). Up until a week ago it was certain that at least one committee member was going to CTCnet to present (if our proposal is accepted). Ken has been working VERY hard to find additional resources for the rest of us to go. The idea was that we would point to successfully securing the resources for one of us to go as leverage for fundraising, so all of us to go. It's up in the air now whether any of us will go.

Jeff will check with state headquarters to verify if we can fundraise as a committee for the CTCnet conference. There is still a chance that we can raise enough for one of us to go. He will get back to Lindsey on Monday on this, and Lindsey will continue to hammer out the 500 word description for our session proposal and will submit it Monday. If we can in fact fundraise, then we'll have to spend precious time doing that instead of all our time working on our toolkit and presentation, so this situation is a REAL BUMMER.

One strategy is to use our committee's project manager (from Project Management Institute) to help us balance fundraising and content development & packaging so we can get this done.

Promotional Issues
Jeff has concerns about our committee creating a video that promotes CTEP to show off to a national audience at CTCnet. Such a video should involve Catherine so that the message is accurate and the video is professional. We talked this through and decided to explore the possibiltiy of collaborating with the Media Committee to put together a PSA that reflects best practices for reaching low income and new immigrant communities highlighting the Lexington Library, Intermedia Arts, Project for Pride in Living (PPL) and Waite House. The message being, "Technology is for everyone ..." and showing how we have overcome access barriers at these sites. We'll also tap Roxanne's overarching knowledge of the Corps experiences 'cuz Rox is everywhere and nowhere ... she's the committee queen.

Introduction to Media Lab
We then moved into the media lab and shifted our thoughts to our next project which is creating PSAs about our fact sheet topics.

Ken gave the committee an overview of the tools available in the media lab. All the computers are running Windows XP and are updated with Service Pack 2.
Video editing software:

Basic - Movie Maker
Intermediate - ULead Video Studio 8
Advanced - Pinnacle Studio 8
Advanced Audio - Acid Pro

Our committee will sign up for the lab when we have a script and storyboard outlined.

Fact Sheets in PSA Format
We brainstormed about the topic of our first PSA and decided to start with disabilities in employment, which then evolved into accessibility/public accommodations in CTCs. We still need to work on our idea, so far it looks like this:

Audience - CTC staff, coordinators, volunteers (anyone who works at a CTC)
Message - how to make your CTC more accessible, 'Is your CTC accessible?'
Length - 1 minute

We will continue our brainstorming next meeting. After we solidify our idea, we'll create a script and storyboard and talk about the approach (voice, technique, style, imagery, etc.). A great resource to learn about creating video is at: http://www.current.tv
Roxanne sent us storyboard documents to get started (thanks Rox & Gina for all your good questions during our brainstorm).

MiniTrainings
April 21 training - we're pushing to have the first PSA completed (enough) to incorporate into Lindsey's presentation about disabilities and employment.

Original plans for the May 19th MiniTraining was to focus on learning styles and learning disabilities, with the possibly of incorporating audio and video examples. We discussed changing this training's focus to a final review of what our committee has accomplished, our CTCnet presentation efforts, and our plans for hand-off to the next year's AU members.

Next Meeting
Friday March 31, 11:00 at the CTEP office. Possible piggy-back meeting with the Media Committee after lunch to discuss collaboration on a CTEP PSA. AU committee members remember to bring your own lunch (I'm not sharing mine--I know it sounds stingy but I don't even like someone looking at my food).

Main Menu

2006-03-16T10:22:00.000-06:00

Today I'd like to talk a little about a great resource on the web called Main Menu. I've been following the site now for a couple of years now, and it's had a lot of useful information.

Main Menu is a weekly Internet radeo show that focuses on technology "From a Blindness Perspective." The program runs from 1 to 2 hours each week and covers a wide variety of topics. They often have interviews with companies that make various assistive technology products to discuss new products or new releases of existing products. They have technology demos and reviews, and just informative topics about lots of other accessibility issues. All the shows are archived as well.

Relating to my last post on The Freedom Box, one of their most recent shows is a 2 hour demo of the screen reader part of the program called System Access, and how it works with Windows and many popular programs.

To check out the show, visit the Main Menu On Demand website.

Committee Notes: March 10 2006

2006-03-14T11:39:00.000-06:00

Our committee met at CTEP headquarters. We had lots to cover this meeting!

MiniTrainings pushed back one month.

Our Blog
Our Blog continues to be a main focus for our outreach efforts and for logging possible resources for our Toolkit. We're looking into providing the WebAdapt video on our blog.

WebAdapt
We'll do a WebAdapt Training to Corps this Friday at Centro. (Know your ID so you can help others register and gain administrative access). We will distribute WebAdapt CDs to all Corps members.

CTCnet Conference
Lindsey is writing up our proposal for CTCnet conference. We'll frame our session around the rational for our Toolkit: why was it developed, who was it developed for, how it was developed and the impact it has had. One part of our strategy is to differentiate ourselves from The Alliance for Technology Access's (ATA) session by touting our grass-roots involvement with developing our Accessibility & Usability Toolkit (AUT). We need to gather what Ken calls, "true life quotes" for the impact part, and find an engaging way to present it all--but it's going to be fabulous.

In addition, Ken is working on an eight page tabloid to distribute at CTCnet (our committee will be featured--yippee, we'll be famous!).

Committee Timeline
April & May - focus on surveying Corps about our Toolkit (gather some true life quotes). We'll do this informally and also with Survey Monkey. June will focus on Toolkit organizing and packaging, and also planning our hand-off to next CTEP AU Committee.

Fact Sheets & Outreach
Next meeting is at Intermedia Arts (IA). We will work on IA's new media lab to create alternate formats for our Fact Sheets. We'll start with some basic video capturing/editing tools on Windows XP. We will concentrate on English versions first, and then consider finding talent/expertise to help us create video/audio in other languages.

TWIN CITIES FREE MARKET, they do mean FREE

2006-03-13T19:47:00.000-06:00

Of course you never know what you might be able to find, especially not on FREE MARKET.

http://www.twincitiesfreemarket.org/

The Free Market is a listing service for residents who want to give or get free reusable goods for the home, garage and garden. It is part of an effort to reduce the amount of reusable goods being thrown away.

Please Note: The Twin Cities Free Market does not accept listings for live animals, plants, automobiles, motorcycles, services, firearms, child car seats, garage sales, items for sale, or items for trade. Thank you for your cooperation.

Individual Development Accounts (IDA's)

2006-03-13T19:46:00.000-06:00

Since funding was mentioned there are local Individual Development Accounts.

What are IDAs?

Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) are emerging as one of the most promising tools that enable low-income and low-wealth American families to save, build assets, and enter the financial mainstream. Based on the idea that all Americans should have access, through the tax code or through direct expenditures, to the structures that subsidize homeownership and retirement savings of wealthier families, IDAs encourage savings efforts among the poor by offering them 1:1, 2:1, or more generous matches for their own deposits. IDAs reward the monthly savings of working-poor families who are trying to buy their first home, pay for post-secondary education, or start a small business. These matched savings accounts are similar to 401(k) plans and other matched savings accounts but can serve a broad range of purposes.

IDA programs are implemented by community-based organizations in partnership with a financial institution that holds the deposits, and funded by public and private sources. Similar to 401(k)s, IDAs make it easier for low-income families to build the financial assets they need to achieve the American Dream. Populations that have benefited from participation in IDA programs include former welfare recipients, youth in disadvantaged urban and rural schools, recent refugees, and the working poor.

Hennepin

Center for Asian Pacific American Islanders (CAPI)
3702 East Lake Street
Suite 200
Minneapolis
MN
55406
http://www.capiusa.org/
Phone: 6127210122
Fax: 6127217054
info@capiusa.org

Faith in the City/Lutheran Social Service
2414 Park Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55404
http://www.faithinthecity.org/
Phone: 612/330-1109
Fax: 612/330-1515

Hmong American Mutual Assistance Association
1130 N. 7th St
Minneapolis MN 5411-4067
www.hamaa.org
Phone: 6123742694
Fax: 6123745205

Hmong American Partnership
1075 Arcade St
St. Paul MN 55106
http://www.hmong.org/
Phone: 6514959160
Fax: 6514951699

Ramsey

Ramsey Action Programs, Inc.
450 Syndicate St. N
St. Paul MN 55104
http://www.ramseyactionprograms.org/
Phone: 651-603-5897
Fax: 651-645-2253

State contacts:

DHS – Office of Economic Opportunity
Joelle Hoeft
444 Lafayette Road North
St. Paul, MN 551055-3875
651-284-0570
651-284-0622
mailto:joellehoeft@state.mn.us

Family Assets Initiative of Minnesota
Steve Nagel
West Central MN Communities Action
Elbow Lake, MN 56531
218-685-4486
stephenn@wcmca.org

ATMn*

2006-03-13T19:44:00.000-06:00

http://www.atmn.org/

ATMn* is a nonprofit organization that provides access to life changing equipment for people with disabilities. We create a lifeline to financial assistance, education, information and resources throughout Minnesota. ATMn* helps Minnesotans with disabilities by increasing self-sufficiency at work, home, at school and in the community.

What happens once an individual is provided the tools they need to succeed? In many cases, Assistive Technology makes the difference between being isolated and going to school or work every morning.
Seniors can live in their home longer and postpone a move to a nursing home or assisted facility. Children can learn in the classroom next to their friends. Adults can find employment and transportation, become self-sufficient and retain their dignity.

ATMn* provides the following services:
Information and Referral
Micro Loan
Telework
Eye-link
Education Grants

.pdf Adobe Acrobat Accessibility from Adobe

2006-03-13T18:20:00.000-06:00

If you are not using JAWS 6.0
Adobe Acrobat is a software product for the creation and reading of information, forms and documents on the internet. You may have run across it with a .pdf file extension. Without an Adobe Acrobat reader you will not be able to access the .pdf document. The .pdf files are in highly predominant use. Adobe has a website which has introduced it's accessibility option. The great thing about the reader is that it is FREE.

adobe accessibility main page

Section 508 requires that federal agencies' electronic and information technology is accessible to people with motor, vision, or other impairments. The following Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates (VPATs) detail the accessibility features of Adobe products and help government customers determine their own compliance.

Read PDF content
Learn how to configure free Adobe Reader® 7.0 software to work with the assistive technology you use and obtain greater access to PDF files.

Download Adobe Reader
The full version of Adobe Reader includes features that enhance the accessibility of PDF documents.

Improving access to electronic information for people with disabilities
Adobe helps make electronic information more accessible to people with disabilities including but not limited to: blindness, low vision, hearing, or motor impairments. In partnership with leading technology companies, Adobe can help you:

- Access content using assistive technologies such as screen readers or screen magnifiers
- Create accessible content using Adobe authoring tools
- Use Adobe Acrobat® software to create accessible Adobe PDF files
- Use Adobe tools to generate accessible forms

Freedom with the Freedom Box

2006-03-13T10:29:00.000-06:00

This week I'd like to talk about a cool assistive technology we had demoed at the Lexington Library recently. It's called the Freedom Box.

The Freedom Box is a piece of software that can be ran from a CD, thumb drive, or from a computer itself. The nice thing about the software is that it can be ran from a CD or thumb drive without anything being installed to the computer itself. So this would be ideal for a public computer lab setting where programs can't be installed.

The software is actually pretty powerful but simple to use. It's main focus is to get new computer users online, doing e-mail, researching things on the Internet, and a variety of other things. Freedom Box provides both speech output and a variety of low vision options. There's also an optional keypad that allows a new computer user to just use this keypad to navigate the Freedom Box network instead of using the keyboard and mouse. This is useful for new computer users who might be intimidated with the keyboard right away.

For more information on this software, including a full functioning 30 day demo, go to the Freedom Box Website . You can also find more detailed impressions and thoughts on Jesse's CTEP Blog .

Accessible Content Magazine

2006-03-09T15:51:00.000-06:00

Accessible Content Magazine

This is a very useful resource I just discovered this past week. It's a magazine dedicated to technology and accessibility. The best thing about it is the subscription is FREE. The magazine is fairly new, but has already covered a variety of interesting topics. There's articles on new technology, news in the field, and tips and walkthroughs to creating better accessible electronic content. Some topics already covered have been Flash's accessibility, PDF's, and properly created forms.

The magazine is FREE, and available both on and offline. When subscribing, you can choose to either get a CD, view the online version, or both. The magazine is released quarterly. I've only just discovered this site, but I've already found a lot of useful information here. It's definitely a site worth checking out.

Resources: Accessible Web Design

2006-03-09T10:48:00.000-06:00

Want to determine whether your web site (or a web site you are visiting!) follows general accessibility guidelines? While it is crucial to test a site with actual users to ensure that your content is universally accessible, there are a number of standardized guidelines that you can follow to make a web site more accessible to everyone who uses the Web, and there are a number of tools that can help.

To learn more about accessible/universal web design, check out the Web Accessibility Initiative. They have also developed a Preliminary Accessibility Guide, a short checklist that will tell you if your existing site is relatively accessible to all Web users.

The Accessibility Wizard is a tool for web developers, which breaks down key ideas from the Web Accessibility Initiative into concrete tasks to be completed during the design process. Following the suggestions here will ensure the production of a site that meets WAI guidelines. (Requires Flash.)

The Web Accessibility Toolbar is an Internet Explorer plug-in that will allow you to validate the code of any page you visit, as well as assess it from other perspectives. Read Using the AIS Web Accessibility Toolbar.

The following online tools will measure an existing web site against accessibility standards and generate a very general audit or report. Some will assess one page at a time, others will assess multiple pages.

The ART Guide
Cynthia Says
Hermish also allows you to cut-and-paste source code for evaluation.
Hera generates a visual error report.
Ocawa
WebXACT is an online evaluation tool from the distributors of Bobby.

There are also a number of tools that will assess your web site from the viewpoint of particular user groups.

A number of both desktop and server applications will assess a web site's accessibility. One particularly useful program is LIFT Machine. LIFT Machine, designed by UsableNet, is a server system that will assess an organization's web site for quality and accessibility. A LIFT plug-in is available for Dreamweaver, and tools are also available for mobile devices. LIFT also provides dynamic text transcoding for the visually impaired. Choose the right LIFT product.

Once you have assessed your web site, there are a number of repair tools on the market that can assist you in your efforts to make your web site more accessible. Online free tools, or freeware, that will assist with this process include A-Prompt, freeware that will validate and suggest corrections to your code, and Site Valet, which will provide you with a normalized mark-up of a given page.

Fact Sheets: Word versions

2006-03-02T19:58:00.000-06:00

Word documents of our fact sheets -- General Resources, Disability and the Law, Disabilities and Employment, and Culturally Specific Disability Resources -- are available for public viewing and download on our committee's section of the CTEP message board.

METRO TWIN CITIES AREA CULTURALLY SPECIFIC DISABILITY RESOURCES

2006-03-01T08:45:00.000-06:00

Lifetrack Resources addressing the East African, Somali, Southeast Asian and Hispanic cultures.
Lifetrack Resources' Greater Minnesota Assessment Service provides communication appropriate specialized psychological and social assessments, follow-up, school and family consultation and training to benefit children who are deaf, deafblind, and hard of hearing, ages 0-21 residing in Greater Minnesota, outside the seven-county metro area.

Summer Youth Employment
Transitional Employment
Project with Industry
Job Placement, Coaching, and Follow Up

Providing information and support to families of deaf and hard of hearing children.

LOCATIONS
Lifetrack Resources.
709 University Avenue West
St. Paul, MN 55104-4804
fsc@lifetrackresources.org

Voice:(651) 265-2435
Toll Free: 1-866-DHOHKID

TTY:(651) 265-2379
Toll Free: 1 (866) 857-2379

689 North Dale Street
St. Paul, MN 55103
Phone (651) 205-4261
Fax (651) 205-4192

2001 Central Avenue NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Phone: 612/788-8855
Fax: 612/788-8577

341 Chester Street
St. Paul, MN 55107
Phone: 651/290-0567
Fax: 651/290-0625
TTY: 651/265-3498

Life Track Resources

Minnesota Employment Center for People who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Program Purpose:
Provide comprehensive employment and rehabilitation services which lead to competitive and supported employment outcomes consistent with individualized career plans and goals.

People who are deaf or hard of hearing
Ages 16 and older
Eligible for Minnesota Rehab Services
People who are traditionally underserved deaf /hard of hearing

LOCATIONS
Rise North (Main Office)
John J. Barrett, President
8406 Sunset Road NE
Spring Lake Park, MN 55432-1387
(763) 786-8334 (V, TTY) (763) 786-0008 (Fax)

Rise Central
2003 Central Ave. N.E.
Minneapolis, MN 55418-4531
Phone: 612-781-3114
FAX: 612-781-1288

Minnesota Employment Center (MEC)
c/o Lifetrack Resources Inc.
709 University Ave.
St. Paul, MN 55104
Phone: 651-227-8471
TTY: 651-298-0181
FAX: 651-227-0621

Rise Pathways
2110 Nicollet Avenue So.
Minneapolis, MN 55404
Phone: 612-872-7720
FAX: 612-872-7679

Creative Partnerships South
8908 Wentworth
Bloomington, MN 55420
Phone: 952-884-8330
FAX: 952-884-8371

Adult Day Program/Data Ability
c/o Courage Center
3915 Golden Valley Road
Minneapolis, MN 55422-4298
Phone: 763-520-0457
FAX: 763-520-0577

Minnesotans of any age who are:
■ Deaf
■ Hard of hearing
■ Late deafened
■ Deafblind
■ Parents and family of those with a hearing loss
■ Public and private service providers, including schools
■ Employers and businesses
■ Individuals and community groups interested in hearing loss
We offer Information and Referral
Our regional offices:
■ Provide information about hearing loss and services
■ Assist with finding other services
Services
We assist deaf, deafblind and hard of hearing
individuals and their families to:
■ Identify and help solve problems
■ Help access and coordinate services from other agencies
■ Educate about assistive technology
Sensitivity and awareness training
We offer training on:
■ Deaf culture
■ Working with an interpreter
■ Communication tips
■ Hearing assistive technology
■ Accessibility laws
■ Empowerment
■ Other related topics

They have a 42 page Professional and Consumer Resource Guide for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People for Twin Cities Metro Area

Disability Resource Guides

LOCATIONS
Minnesota Department of Human Services
Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Division
Site address:
130 E. Seventh St.
St. Paul, MN
(651) 297-1316 V
(651) 297-1313 TTY
dhhs.metro@state.mn.us
Mailing address:
444 Lafayette Road N.
St. Paul, MN 55155-3814

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, S.W.
Washington, D.C. 20201
Telephone: 202-619-0257
Toll Free: 1-877-696-6775

Department of Human Services

WAIVERS
While services vary across the waivers, choice is limited to a waiver for which the person is determined eligible. The service menus, or benefits, while similar under each waiver, are different in some regards

Services that have common names may have different definitions and criteria, service parameters and providers qualifications, for example:
• Caregiver/family training and education
• Case management
• Respite care
• Supplies and equipment

Community Alternative Care (CAC) Waiver
The Community Alternative Care Waiver provides funding for home and community-based services for children and adults who are chronically ill. The CAC Waiver is designed to serve persons with disabilities who would otherwise require the level of care provided in a hospital.

Community Alternatives for Disabled Individuals (CADI) Waiver
The Community Alternatives for Disabled Individuals Waiver provides funding for home and community-based services for children and adults, who would otherwise require the level of care provided in a nursing facility. CADI Waiver services may be provided in a person’s own home, in his/her biological or adoptive family’s home, in a relative’s home (e.g. sibling, aunt, grandparent etc.), a family foster care home or corporate foster care home, a board and lodging facility or in an assisted living facility. If married, a person may receive CADI Waiver services while living at home with his or her spouse.

Medical Assistance for Employed Persons with Disabilities (MA-EPD)
Medical Assistance for Employed Persons with Disabilities is a work incentive which promotes competitive employment and the economic self-sufficiency of people with disabilities by assuring continued access to Medical Assistance for necessary health care services MA-EPD allows working people with disabilities to qualify for MA under higher income and asset limits than standard MA. The goal of the program is to encourage people with disabilities to work and enjoy the benefits of being employed.

Mental Retardation/Related Conditions (MR/RC) Waiver
The MR/RC Waiver provides funding for home and community-based services for children and adults with mental retardation or related conditions. Assessed waiver service needs, as identified in the person’s service plan, may be provided in a person’s own home, in his/her biological or adoptive family’s home, in a relative’s home (e.g., sibling, aunt, grandparent, etc.), in a family foster care home or corporate foster care home.

Consumer handbooks
A number of different publications specific to consumers and their needs. As consumer handbooks and other pertinent resources are developed, this page will be updated. Please check back often.

LOCATIONS
Hennepin County Human Svcs & Public Health Dept
Aging & Disability Services,
Public Health Protection
525 Portland Ave / HSB-3
Minneapolis, MN 55415
Todd Monson, Service Area Director General Information 612-348-4111
Director 612-348-4464
Internet todd.monson@co.hennepin.mn.us

Ramsey County Human Service Dept.
160 E Kellogg Boulevard
St. Paul, MN 55101-1494
Monty Martin General Information 651-266-4444
Director's Office 651-266-4429
Telefax Phone Number 651-266-4439
Internet monty.martin@co.ramsey.mn.us
MAXIS E-mail 356

METRO AREA
St Paul
DHHS Metro
130 E. Seventh St.
Downtown St. Paul (site address)
Dept of Human Services (mailing address)
444 Lafayette Road
St. Paul, MN 55155-3814
651-297-1316 (V)
651-297-1313 (TTY)
651-215-6388 (FAX)
Email: dhhs.metro@state.mn.us

General Resources

2006-02-28T14:10:00.000-06:00

General Resources Fact Sheet

The following are some useful resources and organizations to help people in a variety of areas.

Social Security Administration
Toll Free: (800) 772-1213
TTY Toll Free: (800) 325-0778
Website: http://www.socialsecurity.gov

Offers many types of programs & assistance including:
• SSI and SSDI Benefits
• Employment benefits through the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Programs

MN State Social & Human Services
Phone: (651) 582-1858
Website: http://www.state.mn.us

Offers a variety of services to Minnesota Residents:
• Adult Protection
• Birth, Marriage, & Death Certificates
• Children & Families
• Consumer Protection
• Disability & Diversity
• Health & Housing
• Public Assistance
• Senior Services

Ramsey county Human Services
160 East Kellogg BLVD.
Saint Paul, MN, 55101-
Phone: (651) 266-8500
Website: http://www.co.ramsey.mn.us

Offers a variety of services including:
• Food Housing, and Cash Assistance
• Based on household income, age, disability, and other criteria

Hennepin County Human Services
Phone: (612) 348-4111
Website: http://www.co.hennepin.mn.us

Offers a variety of services including:
• Food Housing, and Cash Assistance
• Based on household income, age, disability, and other criteria

Metro Transit
Phone: (612) 373-3333
TTY: (612) 341-0140 – Route & Schedule.
Website: http://www.metrotransit.com/

This is the city bus system for Minneapolis and St. Paul, and some suburbs. Limited Mobility bus passes are also available upon application.

Metro Mobility
Phone: (651) 602-1111
TTY: (651) 221-9886
Website: http://www.metrocouncil.org/transportation/paratransit/intro.htm

Metro Mobility is a door-to-door service for people who are unable to use other public transportation. A special ID is required, and appointments must be made in advance.

State Services for the Blind
2200 University Ave. Suite 240
Saint Paul, MN 55114-1840
Toll Free in MN: (800) 652-9000 Voice & TTY.
Website: http://www.mnssb.org/index.htm

Offers a variety of training and services in a variety of areas including:
• Daily Living Skills
• Mobility Training
• Reading and Writing Braille
• Assistive Technology
• Employment, Education, and Rehabilitation Services
• Assistive Technology Workshops

Pacer Center
8161 Normandale Blvd.
Minneapolis, MN 55437
TTY: (952) 838-0190
Toll Free in MN: (800) 537-2237
Website: http://www.pacer.org

Pacer helps parents and children with disabilities in a variety of areas including:
• Disability related legal and financial help
• Technology Evaluations
• Recreation and Leisure Adaptations
• Workshops and Trainings in Many Other Areas

Courage Center
3915 Golden Valley Road
Minneapolis, MN 55422
Phone: (763) 588-0811
Website: http://www.courage.org/

Offers a variety of services to people wit disabilities including:
• Physical & Daily Living Skills
• Assistive Technology
• Residential & Regional Day Camps
• Community Reintegration Program
• Residential Rehabilitation Program
• Leisure & Recreation
• Driving Training

For a better formatted version of this information, visit the Accessibility and Usability Committee's area of the CTEP message board.

Disabilities and Employment

2006-02-28T09:53:00.000-06:00

Can disabled people work?

Some people living with disabilities are able to work, and some are unable to do so. In the United States, people with disabilities who are able to work have a right to employment. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) protects Americans with disabilities from all forms of employment discrimination. Minnesota has also made it illegal to discriminate against disabled persons who seek employment.

For more on the ADA and employment, see A Guide for People With Disabilities Seeking Employment.

For more information on disability protections in Minnesota, contact the Minnesota Department of Human Rights (MDHR):

800-657-3704 (phone)
651-296-1283 (TTY)
http://www.humanrights.state.mn.us/

What if a disabled person needs help to do a job?

In order to be protected by the ADA, a disabled person must be able to do the job for which they are applying, either with no additional support, or with what is called "reasonable accommodation." Under both United States and Minnesota law, individuals with disabilities are entitled to additional assistance in public spaces and while at school or work. This might mean adding a wheelchair ramp to the entrance of a government building, or allowing a child with a cognitive impairment more time to finish a test at school.

On the job, "reasonable accommodation" means that it is the employer's responsibility to provide any additional support a disabled employee needs in order to perform their duties. The only cases in which this is not the employer's responsibility are when the business has fewer than fifteen employees, or when providing accommodation would be prohibitively expensive. In those cases, the employer can claim "undue hardship" and does not have to provide accommodation for the disabled employee.

Accommodations are decided on a case-by-case basis. One employee with a disability might need a flexible work schedule, while the next might need a wheelchair-accessible workstation, or access to assistive technology.

For more information, read Finding Gold: Hiring the Best and the Brightest.

In Minnesota you may also contact the Minnesota Resource Center, a non-profit organization working to develop employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities:

612-752-8100 (phone)
612-752-8019 (TTY)
http://www.mrc-mn.org/

Can disability-related questions be asked at a job interview?

It is illegal to ask if someone has a disability during a job interview. It is also illegal to ask questions about an obvious disability (such as a mobility impairment) during a job interview. If an employer believes that a candidate with an obvious disability may need accommodation on the job, it is legal to ask the candidate to describe how they might perform the duties associated with the job. An employer does not have to hire a disabled candidate if, even with accommodation, that person will be unable to perform the job.

For more information, see Job Applicants and The Americans With Disabilities Act.

In Minnesota, you can contact the Minnesota Disability Law Center (MDLC) for free assistance with all disability-related legal concerns. They have offices statewide.

800-292-4150 (voice)
612-332-4668 (TTY)
http://www.mndlc.org/

What are some good local resources for individuals with disabilities who are looking for work?

Rehabilitation Services, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED): Provides a variety of services and referrals for job seekers with disabilities. Offices statewide.

800-328-9095 (voice)
800-657-3973 (TTY)
http://www.deed.state.mn.us/rehab/index.htm

Goodwill/Easter Seals Minnesota: Provides employment and training for individuals with disabilities.

651-379-5800 (voice)
http://mnges.easterseals.org/

AccessAbility, Inc.: A Twin-Cities non-profit dedicated to removing barriers to employment for the disabled and economically disadvantaged.

612-331-5958 (voice)
http://www.accessability.org/

What are some good web sites for people with disabilities who are looking for work, or for employers of individuals with disabilities?

The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) has many resources regarding employability and accommodations.

The Work Site provides employment resources for people with disabilities.

Job Seeking Skills for People With Disabilities is a handbook designed to guide the reader through the entire employment process.

The City of San Antonio Planning Department has developed a comprehensive Disability Etiquette Handbook.

Resources: Cognitive Impairments

2006-02-28T09:22:00.000-06:00

Learning about cognitive impairments

WebAIM: Types of Cognitive Disabilities: Provides a comprehensive overview of different kinds of cognitive impairments, with a focus on how individuals with these impairments might use the Web and ideas for accessible design. A useful introductory tool for those new to either cognitive impairment or accessible design issues.

WebAIM: Cognitive Disability Simulation: Requires Flash. An extremely useful tool for introducing the concept of cognitive impairment to an unfamiliar (or possibly even a familiar) audience. This online activity may require guidance from a facilitator to be most effective; WebAIM's preparatory page explains the purpose of the simulation, but does not provide any tools for discussion.

Tools for individuals dealing with cognitive disabilities

AccessHub: Cognitive Disabilities: Provides a brief definition of the impairment, and descriptions of some of the assistive technology someone with a cognitive impairment might use, including:

PEAT (Planning and Execution Assistant and Trainer), an organizational system designed to run on a Pocket PC, which aids individuals with cognitive issues in scheduling, planning, and executing tasks. Originally designed to help NASA robots prioritize tasks, the program is now available as part of a complete hardware and software package (Pocket PC + PEAT application). The package includes additional software for desktop PC and mobile phone. Training and consultations are available, as is certification for healthcare professionals. Currently being tested for usefulness with patients recovering from brain injuries, through clinical trials at a California brain rehabilitation center.

Other resources on this topic

Talking with someone who has cognitive impairment: tips and suggestions for effective communication. A useful handout that may also stimulate discussion.

American Association on Mental Retardation

The Arc Link: Resources for Self-Advocacy

What the Law Says About Disability

2006-02-27T17:03:00.000-06:00

What is a Disability?

FEDERAL LAW: The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) established in 1990 is the federal law that gives people with disabilities civil rights protections in employment, state and local government, public accommodations, commercial facilities, transportation, and telecommunications.

The ADA defines a person as "disabled" if they meet one of the following criteria:

He or she has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of his/her major life activities (such as walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning, working, or taking care of oneself).
He or she has a record of such impairment; or
He or she is regarded as having such impairment.

(An impairment or diagnosis, in and of itself, does not necessarily amount to a disability: it must "substantially limit" these activities).

The ADA is designed to integrate people with disabilities fully into the mainstream of American life. It protects:

people who currently have a disability;
people who have a history of a disability;
people who are regarded as having a disability by others, whether or not they actually have a disability; and
people who are not disabled but who encounter discrimination on the basis of their association or relationship with a person who has a disability—parents of children with disabilities, for example.

STATE LAW: The Minnesota Human Rights Act (MHRA) is a state law that protects people with disabilities. It defines disability similar to the way the ADA does, except that it says that a condition is a disability if it "materially" interferes with a major life activity, instead of the ADA’s requirement that it "substantially" interfere.

The MHRA has had a provision protecting people with disabilities since 1973 and is seen to have a lower threshold than the ADA when defining what a disability is. Both federal and state laws are applied and interpreted on a case-by-case basis, and since it is sometimes hard to define what “substantially” or “materially” means, disability cases can be complicated.

Who has a disability according to the law? Why does it matter?

The answer should matter to all of us because most of us, at one point in our lives, will have a disability. In fact, it is very likely that many of us—if not already disabled—have first-hand experience living or working with a person that has a disability.

Knowing the basics about the laws that protect people with disabilities, whether you are a business owner, a social service provider, or a person with a disability, helps to create awareness about disabilities in general and will hopefully lead to promoting inclusiveness in our communities.

More Information About State and Federal Law

Americans with Disabilities Act

For general ADA information, answers to specific technical questions, free ADA materials, or information about filing a complaint, call: 800-514-0301 (voice), or 800-514-0383 (TTY).

US Dept. of Justice: A Guide to Disability Rights Laws

ADA Watch is a project of the National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR), a nonprofit alliance of hundreds of disability, civil rights, and social justice organizations united to defend and strengthen disability rights.

Minnesota Human Rights Act

Minnesota Department of Human Rights. For information about state law or how to file a claim, call: toll free: 800-657-3704 or TTY: 651-296-1283.

Local Advocates

The Minnesota Disability Law Center (MDLC) addresses the unique legal needs of persons with disabilities. A statewide project, MDLC provides free civil legal assistance to individuals with disabilities on legal issues that are related to their disabilities.

The Minnesota State Council on Disability is an agency that advises, provides technical assistance, collaborates and advocates to expand opportunities, improve the quality of life and empower all persons with disabilities.

Committee Notes: Feb 17 2006

2006-02-23T12:43:00.000-06:00

This is a little late in coming, but here it is anyway.

During our last committee meeting, we debriefed about Jesse's MiniTraining he gave to the Corps that same day; talked with Sue and Amelia about their respective projects at PACER--how we could assist them with their work; and discussed the timeline for completing our Fact Sheets and ensuing outreach.

First of all, we all agreed that Jesse's training very well done. Read his overview about the training in the Feb 21 post

Fact Sheets due the morning of Feb 28th. Email your sheet to Lindsey and she will print copies. DO NOT BE LATE!

No committee meeting Friday Feb 24th.

Remember to post to our blog any resources, relevant thoughts about accessibility and usability issues.

Have a great weekend.

Assistive Technology Presentation

2006-02-21T13:11:00.000-06:00

This past Friday, the Accessibility & Usability Committee did a presentation to the rest of the CTEP group on some different types of assistive technology, all of which is available at the Lexington Outreach Library.

We started out with an activity for the group. This was to get them interested in the topic, and give them a feeling of how someone unable to use the mouse would use a computer. Everyone split into groups of 2 or 3, and tried to perform 5 basic tasks one would often do with the mouse. The catch was, they couldn't use the mouse at all. They could only use the keyboard. I think this was a great way to start the presentation because it made them think of using the computer in a whole new way.

Everyone did well though and completed all of the tasks after struggling a little in the beginning. Surprisingly though, people had trouble with different things than I thought they would. One common question was how to close a program or window. Another was how to get to desktop icons. Overall though I think it was a great activity, and I'll probably do something like this again if I ever have the chance.

After the activity, I demonstrated a few programs available at the library, and that I use every day. I showed JAWS, Magic, and Kurzweil. For more info on these programs, and others, visit my other CTEP blog at www.jessean1.blogspot.com.

I showed how the programs worked, how they worked with programs everyone uses every day like Word and Internet Explorer, and common keyboard shortcuts I often use. I finished the presentation with a rather funny bit. I showed how Jaws can speak Brittish English. Everyone really got a kick out of that, and I admit it still amuses me after all these years.

We ended the day by talking about some quick and easy tips and tricks to make using Windows faster. There were a lot of great questions from everyone too, and I had a lot of fun. All of the hand-outs and activity sheets are available at our Accessibility & Usability Committee section of the CTEP Message Board.

Technology Accessibility Plan

2006-02-21T10:46:00.000-06:00

Access Aware: Extending your reach

The Alliance for Technology Access (ATA) seeks to redefine human potential by making technology a regular part of the lives of people with disabilities.

This project provides a comprehensive resource for individuals and organizations with real world ideas and templates to help you implement a Technology Accessibility Plan for your organization or community.

The introduction to the Access Aware Manual is available for reading online. The complete reference you can be purchased in printed or PDF (formatted for printing) form. Purchasing the PDF or printed manual also enables access to the online version.

Minneapolis' Wireless Broadband Initiative: Community Access and Input

2006-02-20T08:16:00.000-06:00

In the interests of making Minneapolis' wireless broadband initiative truly accessible to the entire community, members of the Community Technology Empowerment Project have developed surveys to assess community needs and interests. Here are the links to those surveys:

Comprehensive survey regarding community needs

For those new to this issue, here is a short version of the survey:

Somali: Sahan Loo samaynayo Minneapolis oo Yeelata Internet aan wayar lahay
Hmong: Misnisaspausliv eevthawsnev tsis muaj hluas txoj kev thawj zaug yuav pib: Zej zog tej lus tshawb faw
Spanish: Iniciativa de Internet Wireless (Sin cable) de Minneapolis
English: Minneapolis Wireless Internet Initiative: Community Survey

For those who are unfamiliar with wi-fi, or with the City's initiative, there are a number of educational documents available in our 4 key languages. E-mail learninglab2@ppl-inc.org for copies of these documents (please specify language).

In addition to promoting this survey, the CTEP A/U Committee will eventually be conducting a test of the pilot sites in North and South Minneapolis. Results will be published to this blog.

For more information regarding the City of Minneapolis' Wireless Initiative, check out the news briefs and links at http://www.digitalaccess.org/ or http://tcwireless.blogspot.com/.

syndication and outreach (test post)

2006-02-16T11:46:00.000-06:00

This blog is now syndicated on LiveJournal.com. Any posts created here will also update at the following address: http://syndicated.livejournal.com/au_committee/. If you are a LiveJournal user you can visit http://syndicated.livejournal.com/au_committee/profile and add the feed to your friends' list for news aggregation, our committee meeting minutes, and super cool links and resources. See http://daharyn.livejournal.com/friends for an example of how this works!

Committee Notes: February 10, 2006

2006-02-11T08:15:00.000-06:00

We met today at Jesse's site, the Lexington Library in St. Paul. Jesse showed us the assisstive tech station and demonstrated three programs: Jaws, Magic and Kurzweil. He also showed us some of the Windows XP keyboard shortcuts that he uses in combination with the three programs.

Questions to answer:

how much does a reasonably equipped accessibility station cost -> possible line item for WiFi benefits agreement.
What are the hardware requirements for an accessibility station? -> possible line item for WiFi benefits agreement.

CTCnet conference in July
Ken is looking for a way through his connections (and supernatural persuasive powers) to find financial help for our committee and the programming committee to present at this conference. We are all excited about this--it's looking like it might really happen.

Our Committee Work: Review & Accomplishments
We discussed a possible presentation that would highlight our accomplishments as a committee: our trainings, toolkit, structure, working styles, etc., and what we can hand off to next year's committee. This could be a multimedia project--maybe presented at the CTCnet conference?

Our Blog
We need to beef our blog up in the next two weeks! Ken will send potential supporters to our blog to show off our work and convince them to help us get to the CTCnet conference in July. That means we need to start putting up annotated--and accessible--links to resources about accessibility and usability. We also need to ask Catherine to update the link to our blog on the CTEP web site and make the Alt tag more meaningful.

Outreach -- how to assist Jesse with his outreach at Lexington Library.
Jesse has made lots of progress already in raising awareness about the assisstive tech station at the library. We had a short brainstorming session to find other ways to reach new immigrant communities. One idea is to start by asking for connections. Rather than approaching a site or group cold, it's best to find out if anyone in our Corps can recommend a contact. We will use the message board as a first stab at finding connections. Jesse is looking for an introduction to the Courage Center.

Tool Kit
We decided to build up our toolkit gradually--rather than in large deadline driven chunks. Each member will bring two resources to every committee meeting, and post them to our blog. For now, we will collect what we find of interest and later in March assess what we have and fill in the gaps from there.

One category we can add is "practice activities," and include Jesse's activity for Feb 17th Corps training.

Mini Trainings
February 17th
Jesse has put together some awesome stuff -- an activity to start, discussion to follow and then a demonstration to the Corps on the tools he showed us this morning.

Preparation:

Lindsey - print copies of Jesse's Shortcuts documents
Jesse - print copies of the activity and answer sheet
Linda - (optional) develop & print handout for Mac keyboard shortcuts

Roles:

Lindsey - introduction; our trainings, where we are headed, expectations
Jesse - presentation
Lindsey, Lauree & Jesse - floaters during activity
Linda - take notes throughout

Ideas for March and April Mini Trainings

March: Employment and Disabilities (disclosure, and other common employment related questions)
April: modes of communication -- audio, video, web, paper, etc., (use one of our Fact Sheets as an example)

Fact Sheets / Handouts
Discussed how our fact sheets are shaping up. Final drafts due on February 28th. We will email our final to committee members the morning of the 28th. In the meantime, share our work in progress and ask for feedback (be specific!) via email. Fact sheets will be shared with the Corps on first Corps day of March.

Formatting standards:

fit on one piece of paper (can be double-sided),
use Times New Roman font, and
include a footer at the bottom of the page that reads,

"Community Technology Empowerment Project (line break)
Accessibility and Usability Fact Sheets (line break)
February 2006"

Font size, margins, header sizes are up to each of us. We can add (relevant) pictures if we like.

---end notes----

Committee Notes: Jan 27 2006

2006-01-30T09:32:00.000-06:00

We met at the Wolf's Den and then moved over to Maria's for lunch. I had what I thought was a cinnamon roll but turned out to be a very airy donut at the Den; I suspect it was a Krispy Cream (I feel tricked, I am not an advocate of things that have no substance). Our discussion was thankfully much more substantial than my morning treat.

Our Blog
We'd like to improve our blog by submitting more postings and resources about specific accessiblity and usability issues, including linking to other blogs that have relevant material. Other improvements discussed:

include audio and video
take advantage of RSS features
usd accessible abrieviations
change the name of our blog so it is no more than two words
research livejournal.com -- should we create a blog there instead, and take advantage of the community building features with this tool?
list our blog on Technorati.com and other blog search sites

CTCnet Conference
We need to know who among us can attend the CTCnet conference so they can represent our committee's work in some fashion. How many of us can go will determine what kind of presence we have; if we can all go, we should seriously think about how we can make the most impact as a team.

Due next Corps day: each member will know if their site can send them (or help send them) to the conference.

Fact Sheets
Drafts due on February 10th. Guidelines for creating an effective Fact Sheet:

try to make it fit on one page
include addresses and phone numbers (not just web addresses and email)
use plain language
start by answering these two questions, "What do I want to say?" and "How do I want to say it?"

Finalized Fact Sheets due end of February.

Outreach ideas for Fact Sheets

Translation help - maybe Intermedia Arts Digital Community Advisory Committee can help with this, and we can help them with accessibility and usability issues and resources
PSAs - partner with the Media Committee to get our Fact Sheet materials on cable access TV, community radio, community-based newspapers
Online - RSS feeds, community web sites, HTML, PDF, audio, etc.
Present - start with Waite House at Basic Needs Networking meeting (2nd Monday in March?)

Jesse's mini training in mid February
Activity (30 minutes) - pair up participants at a computer and have them try to accomplish several tasks without using the mouse.
Demonstration (30 - 45 minutes) - demo accessibility tools that Jesse uses and some common Windows shortcuts and accessiblity/usability options

WebAdapt trainings for Corps
We will discuss a plan for Corps trainings and a pilot plan for Lexington Library outreach at our committee meeting on Feb 10.

Assistive Technology Outreach at PACER
Sue & Amelia will talk to us about their work at PACER (soon)

Committee Notes: Jan 20 2006

2006-01-24T08:03:00.000-06:00

Our Committee met for an hour on Corps day, January 20, 2006 at Project for Pride in Living (PPL).

Blog Formatting
We discussed the recent changes to our blog template -- can we all live with it? YES we can. From now on we will hyperlink web site names rather than web URLs. This makes the linked items on our blog more meaningful for people who use screen readers, and also eliminates the problem we were having with looooonnng URLs spilling out of the main content area.

AU Resources
We will post our resource documents (.doc, .pdf. .ppt) on the CTEP message board for now, and link to the message board thread from our blog (if possible).

Is there a repository similar to Flickr or Creative Commons where we can store (and link to) our PowerPoints and text files? Jesse will research if there is a free online tool for storing such documents and report back on what he finds.

MLK Day Workshop Debriefing
We all thought our workshop went fairly well even though our audience consisted of about five non-CTEP people. Some suggestions for improvement:

our examples could have been a bit more detailed and more closely related to ‘sensitive issues’
perhaps our 10 tips were a bit too obvious—they had more to do about presenting in general, not about presenting around sensitive issues
we could have done a better job with describing what the images in our PPT were there for

BUT, all in all, we did a good job of pulling a workshop together with the Programming Committee, and created a workshop that can be tailored to a various audiences as long as we are prepared with a variety of examples for each tip. We all agreed it was a good thing to have all four of us present in turns, rather than have one presenter.

Next Committee Meeting
Where: at the Wolf's Den on Franklin Ave, in the Maria’s Café plaza
When: 10:30 am
We will attempt to eat and meet simultaneously.

Assignment:
Each of us will spend half an hour researching our fact sheet/hand-out topic, and be prepared to report on our findings at our next committee meeting. (Each of our topics are listed in Dec 9 post).

Committee Notes: Jan 6 2006

2006-01-11T18:42:00.000-06:00

Our First Mini Training
Today was corps day and our committee's first mini-training.
Lauree took the lead on this by preparing and presenting a hearing impairment awareness workshop which started with a game and followed up with a comprehensive list of resources. The resource list will be posted to our blog in the near future. Great job Lauree!

MLK Day Conference Workshop
Our committee is now gearing up to present at the MLK Day AmeriCorps Conference on Monday Jan 16. We will co-present with the Programming Committee on "Training Challenges" (How to present around difficult and/or sensitive issues, such as teaching technology to people who are afraid of technology and discussing disability issues). This Friday each of us will bring our ORGANIZED thoughts on what has worked well in our trainings, and what we think could use improvement, and why. This will help us pull together talking points for our MLK Day training.

Committee Timeline
We now have a timeline for our committee work through August 2006; the first three months listed below:

January

Mini Training -- Hearing Impairment
MLK Day Workshop
Plan spring training schedule

February

Mini Training -- Topic to be determined
AU 101 handouts covering disability issues (Fact Sheets)

Completed drafts brought to end-of-month committee meeting for feedback
Ken: Individualized Education Plans
Lauree: Step-by-step process of accessing local services
Linda: State and Federal laws, specific disabilities if possible
Jesse: Local services available
Lindsey: Employment

WebAdapt Outreach

Brainstorm outreach plan
have Sue come to a committee meeting to talk about her grant

March

Mini Training -- topic to be determined
AU 101 handouts

finished by mid-month
paper copies brought to Corps day, electronic versions posted to message board

WebAdapt outreach

Finalize and begin to implement outreach plan

Toolkit

Each member brings 1-2 resources for toolket to end-of-month commitee meeting--expand upon each member's handout topic

January 6, 2006 Community Resources (Economic Assistance)

2006-01-11T18:27:00.000-06:00

TED Program
(http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/groups/disabilities/
documents/pub/dhs_id_005557.hcsp)

TED application
http://edocs.dhs.state.mn.us/lfserver/Legacy/DHS-4005-ENG

Carelink assisted living
http://www.carelinkusa.com/

211 united way
http://www.211unitedway.org

United Way Twin Cities Beehive
http://www.beehivetwicities.org/

Fare for all (food resource)
http://www.emergencyfoodshelf.org/ffa/whatis.aspx

Individual Development Accounts (IDA) CFED
There is a search engine on this under IDA directory, the IDA program is under FOCUS on the top tabs, then IDA, and on the left-hand side bar of the IDA page is an IDA Directory (they have a few in Minneapolis and St. Paul along with state wide).
http://www.cfed.org/

Accountability Minnesota – Free Tax Preparation Information
Walk-In Tax Clinics, either under individual taxpayer or on the right hand mini side bar
http://www.accountabilitymn.org

Twin Cities Metro Deaf Adult Education Class Sites 2005-2006
This is not limited to deaf only, they do have deaf and sight impaired events also.
http://www.tcdeaf.com/

Minnesota STAR Program - a System of Technology to Achieve Results (Minnesota’s Assistive Technology Act Program)
http://www.admin.state.mn.us/assistivetechnology/

MAC and NAPS
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/fh/csfp/index.html

WIC
http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/

Covering All Families Minnesota’s nine work supports for free or low-cost benefits (Childen’s Defense Fund, Minnesota
http://www.cdf-mn.org/
http://www.covreingallfamilies.org

State of Minnesota – Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP)
(http://www.state.mn.us/portal/mn/jsp/common/
content/include/contentitem.jsp?contentid=536901430)

First Stop
Cold Weather Rule
Energy Assistance Program
Weatherization Assistance Program
Energy Information Center
Other Options are listed and linked to for qualifications and applications.

They are associated with the LIHEAP (Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program) from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
http://www.acf.dhhs.gov/programs/

Minnesota Department of Commerce - Energy Assistance Programs
They have a tab for Heating Assistance
http://www.commerce.state.mn.us/

“Power of You” Program – minority students two year free tuition
http://www.minneapolis.edu/powerofyou/index.cfm

Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe – Urban workforce Center
http://www.millelacsojibwe.org/

Tandem Plus (Practice your language skills and make new friends)
http://languagecenter.cla.umn.edu/tandem

Metro Transit Limited Mobility 31-Day Pass ($21.00)
(http://www.metrocouncil.org/transportation/
paratransit/intro.htm)
Note: To order Mobility passes you must be certified and have appropriate paperwork on file with Metro Transit. If you are not certified your order cannot be filled. Please call 612-349-7415 for certification details. They have applications on the website.

Two programs for both having your own city garden (the city garden can be leased on a seasonal basis) or purchasing garden raised vegetables (the community supported agriculture program has a seasonal fee)
http://www.farminthecity.org/

Committee Notes: Dec 9 2005

2005-12-18T18:41:00.000-06:00

WHAT WENT DOWN ...

Committee meeting December 9, 2005; 9:00 am at the new CTEP office on Univeristy and Raymond. Ken, Lauree, Jesse, Lindsey and Linda present.

First, we reviewed our Dec 2 corps training, and discussed how our exit survey results will inform our our next steps.

NEXT STEPS

After looking through the exit survey it was clear that most corps members want to know more about the legal rights of people with disabilities and more about economic assistance available to them.

Each of us will research an area and report our findings next time our committtee meets (Jan 6 if we have time on corps day, or Jan 13).

Assignments:

Ken: individualized evaluation plans (IEP)
Lauree: economic assistence through local social services, step by step process of how to get it
Linda: basic facts about disabilities and the Minnesota Human Rights Act (expand on existing fact sheet)
Lindsey: disabilities and employment
Jesse: local resources, the big picture (what agencies, where they are, what they offer, languages)

OTHER IDEAS DISCUSSED

Webadapt:
We talked about how we could promote Webadapt at CTCs.
One idea was to develop outreach plans to pilot at the Lexington Library and Waite House. In doing this, we would demonstrate to our corps some specific methods for reaching target groups and how effective those methods were. This is something Ken has lots of experience with, here are some ways he has engaged seniors:

search for recipes online,
online Newspapers + Webadapt,
seniors + AARP web site,
online shopping (catalogues like Sears)

Committee idea: create an idea/resource handout for the corps with some of Ken's tried and true methods, along with any new ones we come up with.

Mini Corps Day Trainings:
These 30 minute mini-trainings could occur monthly on a corps days; one committee member would take the lead to present a topic of their choosing (with committee approval--and help). Our next corps day is January 6.

We also talked about how to safely introduce disabilities in general -- are there resources out there that have been used successfully? (Video, audio, puppets as we saw at PACER, etc. ). What words are appropriate, for example, "mental retarded" or "developmentally disabled"
Our observations and any resouces about this could be added to our toolkit.

Dec 2 Exit Survey

2005-12-01T18:21:00.000-06:00

CTEP Members,

Thank you for your attention and contributions
during our Dec 2 training.
Please take our exit survey.

[Click here to take survey]

Thank you!

Dec 2 Reflection Questions

2005-12-01T14:43:00.000-06:00

What did you learn today that you can apply to
your CTEP site?

What surprised you?

Dec 2 Scavenger Hunt - Hearing

2005-11-30T21:34:00.000-06:00

On the following websites where would you locate

statistics regarding hearing?
a bilingual hearing quiz in English, Spanish and Vietnamese?
Additional resource websites?

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/
Website for National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders

tutorials for using accessibility tools?
video tutorials for XP products accessibility options?

http://www.microsoft.com/enable
Microsoft website

Users guides for assistive technologies, such as iListen with other options?Interactive Sign Language Fingerspelling and Numbers software?

http://guide.apple.com/
MacIntosh Apple website

Who can go to Minnesota North Star Academy?
What is the tuition for students Star School option?
Minnesota DeafBlind Technical Assistance Project?

http://www.mnnorthstaracademy.org
The school is free and is attended by more than deaf learning ASL, check it out.

a TED application?
DHHS office nearest your CTC(Community Technology Center)?
Information on regarding the SKI-HI Deaf Mentor Project?

http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/
Minnesota Department of Human Services
TED-Telephone Equipment Distribution Program

Under what heading would you find,
Captioned Media Program for Learning Word 2000?

http://www.cfv.org/stream.asp
captioned media program, funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education
Administered by the National Association of the Deaf (English/Spanish)

this site has a quite a few tutorials, should be worth checking out.

Having something converted to Real time captioning?

http://www.ncicap.org/
National Captioning Institute Incorporated, The Global Captioning Leader

There are a many captioning options.

What is Rear Windows Captioning and DVS Theater/MOPIX?

http://www.mnocfilms.org/
THE ONLY MINNESOTA'S CAPTIONED MOVIE SITETHE PLACE TO FIND YOUR LATEST UPCOMING CAPTIONED FILM

The standard manual alphabet for American Sign Language(ASL)?

http://www.deafblind.com
A-Z Deafblindness, information, definitions and resources

A couple Minneapolis or St. Paul churches listed for possible outreach?
FREE DHHS Directory Download?

http://www.tcdeaf.com/main.do
Your Free Guide to the Twin Cities Deaf Community - Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN also the site lists events

Dec 2 Scavenger Hunt: Learning Disabilities

2005-11-30T19:21:00.000-06:00

Listed below are the web links for the Learning Disabilties Scavenger Hunt. Have fun!

1. What is a Learning Disability (LD)?

2. Name and briefly describe three common learning disabilities.

3. List some signs and symptoms and then strategies for working with people that have the disabilities you listed in #2.

4. What is “assistive technology”?

5. Name seven assistive technology tools that can help those with learning disabilities be more successful and productive in school, at work and at home.

6. List at least two local resources that offer services/materials for people with learning disabilities. What services/materials do they offer?

7. What funding opportunities are available to people with learning disabilities?

8. There are three laws that protect people with learning disabilities from discrimination. What are they?

National Center for Learning Disabilities

Dec. 2 Scavenger Hunt: Limited English Proficiency

2005-11-30T12:37:00.000-06:00

Greetings CTEP Corps members! Here are links for each question on the Limited English Proficiency (LEP) Scavenger Hunt. These links have also been republished on my personal blog.

1. What is Limited English Proficiency, or LEP?

Limited English Proficiency FAQ [from LEP.gov]
Facts about National Origin Discrimination

2. What are 3-5 useful ideas for working with and/or accommodating LEP clients?

Teaching Limited English Proficiency Students
U.S. Railroad Retirement Board’s Plan to Improve Service to Individuals with Limited English Proficiency [see especially section V]

3. What kinds of free or low-cost technology and language tools are available online for LEP clients?

Internet Skills

Tutoriales Gratuitas de GCF por Internet
Mouserobics [scroll down for language options]

English Language Learning

4. What information about living in the Twin Cities is available online for immigrants and readers of languages other than English?

5. What major Minnesota state agencies have information available online for readers of languages other than English?

Additional Links:
Local and online resources and advocacy for literacy, English language learning, and limited-English proficient clients.

November Committee Overview

2005-11-30T11:30:00.000-06:00

Our initial Accessibility and Usability survey was completed in late October and forwarded for response. They have been returned and the results are in.

1. What type of operating system(s) does your site have on its public access computers?

Response Percent Response Total
Macintosh OS 8.x 5.9% 1
Macintosh OS 9.x 11.8% 2
Macintosh OS X 41.2% 7
Microsoft Windows 95 11.8% 2
Microsoft Windows 98 17.6% 3
Microsoft Windows 2000 47.1% 8
Microsoft Windows XP and upward 58.8% 10
Other (please specify) 5.9% 1
Total Respondents 17

2. What types of accessibility and usability issues do you need or want addressed?

Response Percent Response Total
Left Handed 23.5% 4
Vision Related 64.7% 11
Hard of Hearing 29.4% 5
Deaf 29.4% 5
Limited Mobility 35.3% 6
Learning Disabilities 52.9% 9
Limited English 64.7% 11
Other (please specify) 11.8% 2
Total Respondents 17

3. What do you want to know about usability and accessibility?

Response Percent Response Total
What tools are readily available? 100% 16
What grants are available? 68.8% 11
What organizations deal with accessibility and usability? 87.5% 14
Other (please specify) 0% 0
Total Respondents 16
(skipped this question) 1

We are planning a presentation for Dec 2nd 2005. We have the opportunity to present at Pacer(http://www.pacer.org)which is a wonderful Minnesota resource for learning disadvantaged peoples. We have begun the process with a rough idea.

Present simulation software (get corps thinking about what accessibility/usability actually means)
Hands-on: try to use a mouse with your left hand; only use the keyboard, etc...
Demonstrate Windows & Mac built-in accessibilty features.
Feature a FEW good web sites -- try to provide something for everyone (not all CTCs have the latests OS or processing power)
Come up w/ specific questions to frame a Brainstorming session with corps about how to create access for new immigrants/others who are outside traditional intake of community centers - how do they learn about assistive technology

Jesse Anderson, joined CTEP and the Accessibility and Usability committee in November. Welcome! Jesse we look forward to working with you.

We have our presentation scheduled out and are in the process of working on our presentation. You'll have to wait until the December Notes for how things went with our overall presentation.

Oct 28, 2005 Committee Minutes

2005-10-30T15:30:00.000-06:00

The Accessibility and Usability Committee is from the Community Technology Empowerment Project(CTEP) which is part of the AmeriCorps program for National Service.

In Attendance: Ken Nelson(T4TMN.org), Linda Shoemaker(Chair-protem, CTEP Member, Intermedia Arts), Lindsey (CTEP Member, Project for Pride in Living), L Stolarczyk(Secretary-protem, CTEP Member, Waite House, a Pillsbury United Community), New additions: Jesse Anderson(St. Paul Libraries(Daytons Bluff and Lexington Outreach)

The Accessibility and Usability Committee Meeting Minutes will appear in abbreviated format.

Meeting began at 8:30 a.m. at El Centro in Minneapolis.

Goals:
To complete the survey questionairre which will be sent out to all CTEP members for 2005-2006 via surveymonkey.
To get a basic workplan format together to attain the goals of education and assistance for accessibility and usability with multiple platforms.

The subject of scheduling committee meetings was brought up. There is only one scheduled CTEP day left, although we are to be working 8 hours per week on committee work. A presentation is known to be mandatory, the subject matter of when, where and who needed to be decided.

December 2, 2005 at PACER will be the first Accessibility and Usability Committee presentation.

We talked about the survey which has already been drawn up in a rough draft format and refining the questions. It was decided that "language" could definitely be an accessibility and usability issue and it will be included in the survey. Review of Open Source Code for OpenOffice 2.0 will also be occuring. The survey was finalized on Friday and placed on surveymonkey.

Discussion ensued regarding technologies available for accessibility and usability. It was mentioned that some operating systems already have readily available accessibility tools. A discussion of Operating systems for MAC took place, due to myself knowing only about Microsoft for MacIntosh. The other Operating Systems (OS) were spoken about and will be reviewed.

It was decided that the Accessibility and Usability Committee will detour on our tour of the Minnesota Science Museum to view the Museum exhibit on Accessibility and Usability during our November 4th group CTEP outing.

Lindsey will be contacting Km Mocia of STAR and the group will speak to Katrina of PACER.

Additional familiarization with "webadapt" tools was suggested by Ken of Teaming 4 Technology. Ken will eventually will have a webadapt workship. It was agreed upon that it would be nice for each CTEP CTC to have atleast one "webadapt" IBM packet.

It was decided after Lindsey had gone over to Project for Pride in Living, that a chair or committee head still needed to be determined. We are to all be leaders of the committee on a rotating basis was decided. Linda Shoemaker will be Committee chair to begin with.