Please share this with others you may know who are attending the upcoming
AFB Technology Odyssey in Pittsburgh.  Also feel free to forward to other
e-mail lists.

On August 2 and 3, those of you attending the AFB Technology Odyssey in
Pittsburgh are invited to attend meetings of the Visually Impaired
Pittsburgh Area Computer Enthusiasts.  More details, including directions
from the Westin Hotel, are in the e-mail below.  I will be meeting groups in
the lobby of the Westin at 5:30PM each night to walk over to the VIPACE
meeting.  Please RSVP with Mike Gravitt at [log in to unmask]  Call Mike at
412-344-2313 with any questions.
**********
IN RECOGNITION OF THE AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR THE BLIND 2001 TECHNOLOGY
ODYSSEY THAT WILL BE IN PITTSBURGH THE WEEKEND OF AUGUST 3 THRU AUGUST 5,
VIPACE IS HOSTING NOT ONE, BUT TWO, MEETINGS NEXT WEEK, ON AUGUST 2 AND
AUGUST 3.  WE WILL HAVE REPRESENTATIVES ON SIX TOPICS!  SEE MORE DETAILS
BELOW.

PLEASE NOTE: As always, everyone is invited to our meetings, member or not.
This time especially, we are extending an invitation to attendees of the AFB
conference.  Feel free to pass this meeting announcement along to others.

The next two meetings of the Visually Impaired Pittsburgh Area Computer
Enthusiasts (VIPACE) will be held on August 2 and August 3, 2001.  Each
meeting will run from 6:00PM until 8:30PM at Centre City Tower, 650
Smithfield Street.  There will be someone in the lobby of the building to
guide you to where the meeting is.  Please plan on joining fellow VIPACE
patrons afterwards each night for social interaction at the Villa Reale
Pizzeria and Restaurant at 628 Smithfield Street.  Please see the section
entitled "TRANSPORTATION AND DIRECTIONS" below for more details.

On Thursday, we will have guests from ALVA Access Group, Sendero Group, and
CrissCross Technologies.  On Friday, we will have guests from Duxbury
Systems, Enabling Technologies, and Freedom Scientific.  More details are
below in the "PRESENTERS" section, outlining more of what you can expect.

The two days will be jam-packed with our fine presenters.  No other VIPACE
business is planned.  However, do plan on buying a ticket or two at a 50/50
cash raffle each night.  This will not only allow one lucky person to go
home with a few extra bucks, but also helps in offsetting the costs
associated with renting the room from Centre City Tower each evening.  If
you are not a member, you may also plan to join.  Dues are $5 for the year.

My thanks go out to Mark Senk for making these contacts.  This was
definitely a lot of work for both of us, and we hope that you will enjoy and
take advantage of this information.  Not often do we get an opportunity such
as this.

Call Mike Gravitt at 412-344-2313 or e-mail [log in to unmask] with any
additional questions.
**********
PRESENTERS:

THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 6:00PM, CHRISTOPHER MCMILLAN, ALVA ACCESS GROUP:
Christopher McMillan, East Coast Operations Manager/Access Technology
Specialist from ALVA Access Group, Inc., offers 18 years of experience
working with Assistive Technology.  Being visually impaired since birth and
training individuals of all ages since 1989, Chris utilizes all of his
skills from his rehabilitation teaching background to deal with the needs of
visually impaired people.

ALVA Access Group, Inc., will be presenting the latest screen access
products for Windows with their Satellite Braille Displays.  Please come and
see the latest private beta screen access products in the industry with
their leading USB Braille displays.  Please feel free to look at their web
site for details on all of their products at http://www.aagi.com.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, BETWEEN OTHER TWO SPEAKERS (15 MINUTES), CRISTA EARL AND
VITA ZAVOLI, CRISSCROSS TECHNOLOGIES: Both Crista Earl, President, and Vita
Zavoli, Sales Coordinator, CrissCross Technologies, will be our guests.
Vita sent me the following information for me to share in this announcement:

"We specialize in learning and training materials for computer users who are

visually impaired.  Are you struggling to learn to use Windows '98, Internet
Explorer, Word,  WordPerfect, Excel or one of the other popular and
essential Windows applications?  Perhps our audio tutorials can help."

New titles from CrissCross Technologies include "Speaking of Microsoft
Access" and "Speaking of Outlook Express".  Learn more at the meeting or
visit http://www.crisscrosstech.com.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 2, 7:10PM, KIMBERLY BURGESS, SENDEROGROUP: Kimberly
Burgess, SenderoGroup's Marketing Coordinator, will be showing VIPACE
patrons GPS Talk and Atlas.

Sendero's GPS-Talk is the first fully accessible Global Positioning System
(GPS) for persons who are blind or visually impaired.

GPS-Talk is designed for the blind traveler to access street and point of
interest information while in a personal car, taxi, bus, train or motor
home.  Instead of relying on a sighted person for information about your
surroundings, GPS-Talk gives you independent access to information about
nearby streets, addresses, cities and hundreds of thousands of businesses
and points of interest. GPS-Talk is well-suited for use in a vehicle, or,
for pedestrian use when configured in a proper carrying case.

The GPS-Talk software includes Atlas talking map software (described below).
It has all the functionality of Atlas plus the benefit of real-time GPS
location information.  You can find:
-  Your direction of travel.
-  Heading and distance to your destination.
-  Heading and distance to a waypoint or turn.
-  Points of interest sorted by proximity to your position.
-  Speed of travel.
-  Nearest address to your GPS position or your Atlas Explore position.

Atlas is a talking digital map consisting of most addresses and street
intersections, in the US and Canada, with a specially designed user
interface to navigate and describe this map data verbally using right/left,
front/back, the clock face, compass or 360-degree headings.  Arrow keys are
used to navigate around the map while a speech synthesizer announces as much
or as little information as the user wants to hear.

Visit http://www.GPS-Talk.com for more information.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 6:00PM, CHARLIE KIEFER, ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES, AND NEAL
KUNIANSKY, DUXBURY SYSTEMS, INC.: This dynamic duo will present to VIPACE
patrons the latest in braille printers and braille translation software,
respectively.

Charlie Kiefer is the Eastern U.S. Product Manager for Enabling
Technologies.  He plans to show us their latest and greatest braille
embosser, the Romeo Pro 50.  Charlie has been in the braille business for
fifteen years, and with Enabling Technologies since 1992.  Visit
http://www.brailler.com for more details.

Neal Kuniansky is the Director of Marketing & Sales for Duxbury Systems.
Duxbury Systems offers braille translation software for over thirty
languages, and has been in operation for 25 years.  Learn more by visiting
http://www.DuxburySystems.com.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 7:00PM, FRANK IRZYK AND JEFF ERMOLD, FREEDOM SCIENTIFIC:
Frank Irzyk, Product Manager, and Jeff Ermold, Regional Sales Manager, will
present some of the latest technology offered by their company, Freedom
Scientific.  The combining of Blazie, Arkenstone, and Henter-Joyce has made
this newer company, Freedom Scientific, loaded with technology.  I am sure
we will here about the upcoming release of JAWS 4.0, as well as other
products sold by Freedom Scientific, including MAGic (screen magnification),
Connect Outloud (web access software), Braille 'n' Speak, Braille Lite, Type
'n' Speak, Type Lite, OPENBook, and VERA.  Visit
http://www.freedomscientific.com for more information.
**********
TRANSPORTATION AND DIRECTIONS:

For ACCESS users who need phone numbers, the number for Centre City Tower is
412-566-2810, and for Villa Reale is 412-391-3963.

For those of you staying at the Westin Hotel for the conference, I will be
meeting people in the lobby near the front desk each night at 5:30PM sharp
to walk with you to the meeting.  However, if you choose to walk on your
own, here is what you do: when you come out of the hotel, you will be on
10th Street.  Take a left, and go one block to Liberty Avenue.  Cross
Liberty Avenue, then take a right.  Go two blocks to Smithfield Street and
make a left on Smithfield.  Go a block and ahalf, and Centre City Tower will
be on your left.

For those of you in Pittsburgh, I hope that helps you out as well.  Centre
City Tower is near the corner of 7th Avenue and Smithfield.  Call Port
Authority at 412-442-2000 for bus information.

Once again, contact Mike Gravitt at 412-344-2313 or [log in to unmask] for
more information.


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