Terri:

I have brought this up several times with ARRL officials, and, although they 
express verbal support for the idea, they indicate that they don't have the 
person-power to work to make the conversions.

On the one hand, this may well be true, but on the other, I really don't 
think it would take that much to do.

I converted the materials from the earlyer levels 1, 2, and 3 courses into 
text myself, and I don't remember it taking any more than an hour or so per 
course.

Perhaps a more concerted effort on our part to make the needs known, and to 
convince the league that the interest is out there, might be all that's 
required to make this happen.

Just my two cents.

P.S.  Congrats on passing, Terri.

Levels 2 and 3 are really not any harder;  you just have to take the time 
and effort to go through them, and you'll be fine.

73 from Tom Behler:  KB8TYJ

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Terri Pannett" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, December 20, 2009 12:35 PM
Subject: arecc level 1 course


Hi, All,

I promised to let you know what happened with the course.

I was given an abridged copy of the course material a few weeks ahead of
time in rich text format.  I converted the files into Word using a program
called Jarte.  I imported the files into Duxbury, made them more braille
friendly, translated the files and embossed them.  I was told that text in
italics would be on the test, so I "marked" those places so I could find
them again quickly and easily.  The material took 159 interpoint pages.  It
would have taken less than that, but I wanted each learning unit to start on
an odd-numbered page and I put "LU" followed by the unit number as a running
header on each page so I could find them quickly.

The rest of the class had PowerPoint slides and printed handouts to look at.
The teachers read some of the text from the slides aloud and I was able to
follow along with my braille material.  There were questions at the end of
each learning unit, which were read aloud and answered verbally.  My copy
didn't have all of the questions, so I requested the entire correct answer
be read aloud.  I took notes using my BrailleSense Plus.

They had planned to give me a .txt version of the test on a usb drive, but
they copied the wrong one to the drive, so I ended up taking it orally.
Thankfully, I passed, and I give all the credit to God!

I'm not an arrl member, but it would be nice if the ARRL offered its
material in accessible formats for the blind.  Everyone doesn't have the
equipment and software to braille their own material and I know some of you
don't read braille and prefer a different format.

I learned that ARRL is redesigning the Level 2 and Level 3 courses and
eventually they will be one course instead of two.  That's why these courses
aren't offered now.

Do you think ARRL should offer their materials in alternate formats for us?

Terri Amateur Radio call sign KF6CA.