Jim V. provides this FAQ from the blindtalk homepage.

   Q: How do I get onto #BlindTalk?

   A: In order to join irc and get onto #BlindTalk you must have two
   things: 1. an Internet Service Provider, and 2. an IRC chat client.

   Depending on the type of connection your internet service provider
   provides to you will determine what kind of IRC client you will use
   and if you will be able to connect to IRC at all. Quick tip: If you
   use speech set your punctuation announcement to some or none when
   using IRC this will save you a lot of headaches.

   If you have a shell account, meaning you connect to your ISP through a
   terminal program such as COMO, Terminate, etc. your ISP provides all
   the internet applications that allow you to access the internet. Your
   ISP will need to provide the IRC client. If your ISP has one it will
   usually be called irc (the lower case is important). In most cases
   these clients are defaulted to connect to the EFnet irc network and
   use your login name as a nickname (for example if your login is buddy
   the irc client will use buddy as your nickname). In order to tell your
   irc client to connect to DALnet you must tell the irc client to
   connect to a DALnet server, here's how to do it, type the following at
   your ISP's UNIX prompt (usually $ or %)

irc NickName irc.dal.net

   changing NickName to a nickname of your choice. NOTE: DALnet has a
   feature which allows people to register nicknames and channels. This
   feature allows people to be assured that their nickname will be
   available for their use and that only they can use them. If when you
   get connected to DALnet you receive a message that says "This NickName
   is owned by someone else, Please choose another." change your nickname
   to something different by typing /nick NewNick with NewNick being
   another nick. If you want a nick that someone else has already
   registered you can make small changes to your nick by adding a dash or
   other character to make a unique nickname of your own. To find out
   more about DALnet's special services visit their web page at
   http://www.dal.net.

   Now that you are (hopefully) connected we'll explore some basic
   commands for using the IRC network. IRC stands for Internet Relay
   Chat, it is a chat system that allows people to communicate in real
   time. In order to organize things a bit IRC has been divided into
   "channels" that you must join in order to chat with people. IRC uses
   nicknames to identify people, this is why you had to select one in
   order to connect to IRC. Many people describe IRC as being very much
   like a CB radio.

   All irc commands are preceeded by a forward slash, this is so the
   program knows that this is a command so just text that is to be sent
   to the currently active channel. Channels can be named almost anything
   and be on any topic. All channel names either start with a number sign
   # or plus sign +. The number sign indicates a channel that is network
   wide, this is how 99% of channels are setup. The plus sign channels
   are channels which only appear on one server and are not commonly
   used. Thus #BlindTalk is the name of a network wide channel for blind
   people to go and talk! So let's get you on the channel, in order to
   join a chat channel you use the command /join with the channel name,
   so to join #BlindTalk you would type /join #Blindtalk The IRC client
   will then report you have joined channel #Blindtalk and give you a
   list of other people that may be in the channel, after that you will
   see the conversation that is going on. You talk by simply typing a
   line of text and press return. Congratulations! You are on IRC!

   Here are some additional commands that you will need:
     * /leave
       Leaves the current channel but does not quit IRC
     * /Quit (message)
       This will totally quit from IRC, if you type a message after /quit
       it will be displayed as part of your quit message
     * /server (servername) (port)
       This will allow you to change to a different server you replace
       (servername) with a valid server name and (port) with a port
       number (you don't have to include a port number if you don't want
       to or know what to put there)
     * /msg (nick) (message)
       This command will send a private message to a particular nickname,
       these messages will only be sent to the person you specify.
     * There is a plethera of additional commands with time you will
       learn to use many other commands, these are just to help you get
       started.

   If you are using a shell account and don't have access to an IRC
   client, you can either ask your ISP to place one online, or if they
   don't want to do this you can sometimes compile your own IRC client.
   For information on how to do this visit some of the IRC newsgroups and
   ask around.

   If you have a direct connection to the internet or are using a PPP or
   Slip connect to the internet you will need to setup and configure an
   IRC client on your own computer, how this is done will depend on the
   type of computer you have. If you are using windows here are some good
   IRC clients, IRC II for Windows, mIRC, and pIRCh. If you have a
   Macintosh some good IRC clients are IRCle, and Homer. Setup and
   configuration of these clients will vary. They should all have
   installation instructions that will help you get started. Most of the
   above information for the shell account also applies to general usage
   of any IRC client.

   I hope this information is of some use in getting you started, if you
   have any additional questions feel free to email me at
   [log in to unmask] if you need help or additional