I don't recall this article being posted here, and thought it would be
of interest.
Jamal
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Blind Computer Users Participate In An Internet Odyssey
By Peter and Mary Donahue
The ability to go on-line is perhaps the most powerful feature of
today's modern computers. For a blind person this means having access
to information not available by any other means. The chief method of
getting information from a remote computer to your PC is through a
world-wide network called the Internet.
The Internet is different things for different people in a wide
variety of professional, educational, and recreational pursuits. One
could easily observe this at the 1996 South Texas Internet Odyssey
held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in
San Antonio, Texas. Several members of the Greater San Antonio
Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas
demonstrated how blind persons access the Information Superhighway
with a personal computer a modem, and adaptive technology. They
discussed how the PC has opened up countless educational and job
opportunities for the blind and expressed their concerns about the
future of our ability to have unlimited access to the Information
Superhighway. In addition chapter members learned how PCs and the
Internet work together to move information around the World. They even
learned how the Internet touches their lives; even to gaining a deeper
understanding of how a positive attitude towards blindness, not just
from the public but among the blind themselves can go a long way
towards achieving our goals of security, equality, and unlimited
opportunity for all blind persons regardless of their circumstances.
Our participation in the Internet Odyssey began in one of the most
unlikely of places-- the laundry room at the apartment complex where
Mary and I live. I had just placed a rent payment in our apartment
manager's mail drop when I decided to pass through the laundry room on
my way back to our apartment. While in the laundry room I met Mrs.
Carolyn Awalt, one of our neighbors and a multi-media specialist at
United States Automobile Association (USAA), one of San Antonio's
largest employers and insurers of military personnel. We were looking
for an Internet provider and wanted a shell account since this type of
account allows one to access the Internet via MS-DOS. She told us
about her provider, Texas Net. Several other chapter members were
all ready on Texas Net and we eventually got an account with this
provider.
While talking to Mrs. Awalt I brought up the concerns we have about
the threat to our continued ability to access the Information
Superhighway. In response she said, This sounds like something you
need to share with those who will be at The South Texas Internet
Odyssey. Anyone and everyone who has anything at all to do with the
Internet will be there and that would be the place to air your
concerns. Mrs. Awalt explained that unlike most computer and
Internet-related shows which spend most of their time dazzling their
audiences with claims about the latest and greatest Internet hardware
and software trying to entice would-be buyers. The South Texas
Internet Odyssey wasn't that type of show. Rather, the emphasis was on
what the Internet is, and how it is used by many types of people from
many backgrounds, and from a wide variety of educational and
vocational callings. She said that up until now there was largely
little if any participation in this event by members of the disabled
community and she urged us to help change that. I told her that it
sounded like a great idea and that if our members wanted to
participate we would need to be put in touch with the organizers so we
could make arrangements concerning our needs. You just make the
decision to participate and I'll see to it that your concerns are
addressed. She lived up to her promise and in the weeks that followed
this chance encounter a number of us on the chapter board of directors
discussed the matter and after much thought we decided to participate
in the 1996 Internet Odyssey.
Over the next few weeks many questions raced through our minds as to
how we would carry out this project. For one thing we would need to
have a computer or two on-site before we could do our demonstrations,
And no one wanted to pack up their PC and bring it down to the
convention center where it could possibly be stolen or something
happen to the adaptive software and hardware. For a while, none of us
could think of a workable solution. But as I tossed the matter around
in my mind, I hit upon some ideas. Several of us use both Vocal-Eyes
from GW Micro, a screen reader for accessing DOS-based
applications, and Jaws For Windows from Henter-Joyce, a program
for accessing Windows applications. In addition to being an
outstanding note taker the Braille-N Speak from Blazie Engineering
can also be used as a speech synthesizer by placing it in a special
Speechbox Mode, and then by connecting it to a port on the PC via a
special cable. Since both of these programs supported the Braille-N
Speak, we could use the Braille-N Speak as our speech synthesizer. It
is portable requiring only a simple set-up and take down, and we could
take them home at night. The software could be loaded on to a PC at
the show and we wouldn't have to worry about carting computers back
and forth every day, but we needed to find out where we could get the
PC.
In the weeks that followed Mrs. Awalt kept her promise and contacted
Mr. Richard Wadsworth, a Professor of Computer Science at the
University of Texas at San Antonio. He told her that he was glad
to hear that we wanted to participate in this year's show and promised
to give us all the help we needed; even to providing transportation
for our members participating in the show. He made good on every one
of these promises and more. Later we were provided with a phone line
in order to access our own providers so we could access the net via
our shell accounts, and persons were available to assist us with both
technical and personal needs during the show. Mind you, my chance
meeting with Mrs. Awalt occurred in late August and the Internet
Odyssey would take place in late October. We had just under two months
to put an exhibit together but all of us were up to the challenge and
we didn't allow anything to hold us back.
Since the Internet was the focus of the show we wanted to invite
someone with a high profile in the adaptive technology field to speak
at our seminar, but due to the short notice, and to other prior
commitments those we invited could not attend. Perhaps the most
unbelievable blow came when several of us met by phone conference with
a local representative of a Nationally-known adaptive technology
company to invite him to participate with us. He turned us down saying
that he did not want to share the stage with The National Federation
of the Blind. I might also add that this gentleman is blind. His
attitude would later cost him a customer. We posted some messages on
nfb-talk and Blind-talk, two of the Federation's Internet Mailing
lists to find out if any other local chapters or state affiliates had
ever participated in a show such as this and what pointers they could
give us, but we got no response. However, we did receive encouragement
from several individuals including, Curtis Chong, President of the
National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science, David
Andrews, Sysop for NFB Net, Richard Ring, Director of the
International Braille and Technology Center, and Tommy Craig our
state President. It became clear to us that we were boldly going where
no local chapter or state affiliate had never gone; participating in a
mainstream computer show. We would have to feel our way, and blaze a
trail never followed before, but since we had made the decision to
participate we wouldn't let these obstacles hold us back.
We would put on the best show with what resources we had within our
chapter rather than look for someone to blame for any shortcoming on
our part and not making excuses on why it couldn't be done. After all,
if we want the general public to believe in our abilities we must
first believe in ourselves and in our ability to get the job done no
matter what challenges were set before us. We were going to do what we
could with what we had to pull this event off and prove that when a
local chapter is strong and has strong leadership it is able to do
many meaningful things to improve the lives of the blind persons in
the community it serves. It was just a matter of following the old
maxim: When the going gets tough, the tough get going!
As the show date drew closer things gradually fell in to place. One
night several of us including Jim Sofka, our Chapter President, Scott
Edwards, Mary, and myself had a pizza party at our apartment to
discuss matters of concern with Mrs. Awalt and to get logistical
matters worked out. She explained some of the areas of the show where
we could exhibit. One of these was an area called the web wall where
various organizations and individuals could display their web sites
and to explain what they had to offer visitors. Another area was The
Electronic Community which is a setup featuring various environments
where PC's could be found, including the kitchen, the living room, the
study room, classroom, offices, and more. One of these was an adaptive
technology area where we would demonstrate our access technology.
However this never materialized.
In the end, we set up in an area for vendors of computer hardware,
software, supportive technology as well as various concerns who use
computers extensively in their businesses. We shared center stage with
such concerns as The San Antonio Express News, our local
newspaper, The International Bank of Commerce, (IBC), and
Diamond Computers just to name a few but there were many more
present.
The important thing was that we were taking our message of hope, and a
positive view of blindness to the Internet Community, to help its
members understand our concerns about our continued ability to have
unlimited access to the Information superhighway, and our ability to
compete for jobs requiring the use of a personal computer in today's
high tech and graphically intensive interface World. About a month
later we gathered here again for another pizza party and to finalize
our arrangements for the Internet Odyssey. Through Mrs. Awalt we
learned about the seminars that would be occurring throughout the
Internet Odyssey and we made a request to conduct a seminar of our
own. These seminars covered everything from The Basics of using the
Internet to such topics as using services such as Real Audio (A
program that allows one to listen to radio broadcasts from around the
World over the Internet), designing World Wide Web Pages, and video
conferencing; the conducting of business meetings and even seminars
from a headquarters site to field offices around the World via the
Internet. Our request was granted. We would give our presentation on
Monday, October 28 at 5 p.m. During this meeting we planned the
program for the seminar and discussed other details. In the weeks that
followed we worked out the final details of our participation in the
show.
Professor Wadsworth turned the transportation matters over to a Mrs.
Margaret Halsema, the wife of Yahn Halsema, a local musician who
specializes in composing midi and New Age music. He is also known for
his work with the electric saxophone. Mrs. Halsema in turn enlisted
one of her associates to help with transportation, but due to a sudden
family illness was unable to assist her. Mrs. Halsema handled
transportation for our participating members to and from the
convention center by herself. This was no easy task as San Antonio is
quite large and our members live on opposite sides of town.
Lisa Hall and I went to the convention center on the morning of
October 26 to set up the equipment, to install the screen reading
software, and to install Procomm Plus from Quarterdeck Software.
This package would allow us to access our accounts via Dos. We did
this as many of our members did not know, or were just learning
Microsoft Windows at that time. And to make things even more
interesting this was the first time that any of us used Netscape
Navigator since none of us knew how to use a Windows Web browser, but
we wanted to show folks that Internet access via Windows was possible.
After our network connection was working I got a crash course in how
to use Netscape Navigator, and to be honest about it. it was not all
that hard to use as it uses the standard Windows interface. In
addition Jaws for Windows has macros that make Navigator more speech
friendly. We also brought down the literature to be distributed during
the show.
But unknown to us, we were in for a few surprises. The first was that
our ride never showed up as the gentleman who was to take us to the
convention center that morning was the same one who had to deal with
the sudden family illness so we took a cab to the convention center.
We were not prepared for what awaited us upon arriving at the north
hall where the Internet Odyssey was being held. The scene was more
reminiscent of a warehouse rummage sale instead of a computer
exhibition. When we arrived we had to thread our way around
scaffolding, large bags, barrels, boxes, trash, broken glass, pieces
of plywood and machinery that were scattered and parked everywhere.
The air conditioning was not running and it was a hot day. The
humidity in that room was fierce. The place smelled of oil, gasoline,
tar, spoiled food, and dust was everywhere. Because we had good travel
skills we traversed this obstacle course with ease. However we sprung
a few unexpected booby traps which sent a shower of packing peanuts
all over us or we nearly ended up knocking over a stack of large
packages. Workers shouted and hollered at each other trying to clean
the place out as quickly as possible so we could move in. From time to
time the building shook with the sound of a forklift that drove right
in to the room, hauling away the junk left from the previous occupant
of this area and bringing in the furniture we would be using. The
noise was so loud you would swear that a tank was driving around the
room destroying all manner of property and life in its path.
Over the next several hours this smelly minefield of debris and trash
would be transformed in to a setting more appropriate for our
purposes. When we arrived the gentlemen who would assist us in setting
up were there waiting and we spent some of the time getting acquainted
as there was nothing else to do but sit and wait while the place was
being cleaned up. We were ready for the Internet Odyssey but it was
not ready for us! It took a team of extremely dedicated and
hard-working volunteers to clean this mess up and to get the place in
ship shape for the show.
As the hours passed new carpeting was laid down and booths were set
up. But it would be a while before we could prepare our PC and exhibit
area for the show. Since Lisa had to go to work that afternoon we
decided to go home and I would come back that evening to prepare for
the opening of the show the next day. Mrs. Halsema drove us home and
she brought me back to the convention center that evening. Upon
returning to the convention center that evening I discovered that the
nightmare of that morning was gone and that the various exhibit areas
and seminar rooms were set up as well. But since some of the computers
had not arrived I would still have to wait until the machine was set
up. Perhaps the most interesting project was the setting up of the
computer network. While they have installed computer networks for
their day-to-day use many of our public exhibition facilities such as
the convention center are not wired for computer shows like the
Internet Odyssey. Thus, it is necessary to install a computer network
whenever one of these shows is held in the convention center. The
Internet Odyssey Team plans to work with the City of San Antonio to
correct this situation in the near future.
As the carpeting was being laid down I observed someone I met from the
Alamo PC Users Group testing the wiring that would be used for
constructing the network. Still other workers were testing such
network components as routers, switches, couplers, and the
all-important network server; the electronic boss of the network. In
addition to lines that supplied electrical power to the exhibit areas
some of the lines for the network were run under the carpeting while
others were suspended from the rafters of the building. In a place
such as an office building they would be run inside the walls much
like telephone or electrical wiring. Getting the wiring through the
rafters was a hair-raising business. A small crane was brought in to
the exhibition area and a person got in to a bucket with some of the
wiring to be installed and was hoisted to the ceiling where he/she
passed the wires over the rafters throughout the exhibit area until
all the supply lines were in place. Lines called drops hung off of the
supply line and were fed in to each area where a computer to be
connected to the network was placed. The exhibitor or a technician
connected the PC to the network by connecting the drop to the PC with
a simple RJ11 connector; the type found on most modern telephones, and
then by entering the information the PC would need in order to
communicate with the network; in this case a Local Area Network or
LAN.
The network topology used for the Internet Odyssey was a protocol
called Ethernet. It is fast and reliable. We can report that Jaws for
Windows worked well on this network and we experienced no
difficulties. When all was said and done we had both a network
connection plus a phone line donated by the Internet Odyssey so that
those wanting to access their own providers via a shell account could
do so since DOS access was not a part of the network configuration for
this year's show.
During this time I met Professor Wadsworth and we discussed our
participation in the show. Finally I was escorted back to our booth
only to discover that we didn't have electrical power to run the PC so
Mrs. Halsema and I set out the NFB Literature that we would distribute
during the show. These included an article called Leveling the
Road Ahead by Judith Dixon of the Library of Congress. It gives
web page designers ideas on how to create web pages so that they are
blind computer user friendly as well as appealing to sighted visitors.
The second article was an article by Dr. Jernigan on Newsline, and
since Newsline would begin operating in San Antonio we felt it
appropriate to disseminate this information as well. We also brought
other NFB articles and brochures.
After many delays and much waiting we were able to install our
software and get things ready, but this operation was not without
flaws. It took several tries at installing Vocal-Eyes before it
finally came up talking. Jaws for Windows on the other hand required a
rodeo before it would work. It took a number of reconfigurations to
the PC before it too decided to work for us, but that was just half of
the battle. This program needed to be installed three times, each time
using an upgrade to the previous version until we were up to version
1.21.23. However, at no time during the show did we lose our speech.
We installed Procomm plus that morning and when noon time came we were
ready for the opening of the show.
After doing the final installations of software and making last-minute
preparations, we were ready for the opening of the show. At 12 noon we
heard the unmistakable opening chords to the theme from 2001: A Space
Odyssey indicating that the show was open and ready to receive the
public. As that afternoon passed we were visited by many persons
including some Teachers of the Blind local business persons, and
others interested in what we had to share with show visitors. In
addition to distributing our literature we displayed the NFB web site
and showed visitors the wealth of information about blindness they
could find there.
We discovered that keeping the computer talking was the key to keeping
them coming to our booth. When the speech stopped President Sofka
would shout: "Come on Pete, get that speech going! That's what's got
them coming over here so keep that speech going!" Some of those who
listened to the speech complained that it was unintelligible to them,
and they could not understand what was being said. We explained that
understanding synthetic speech, especially low-quality synthetic
speech required one to develop an ear for what is being said and how
words are being pronounced. Since we use synthetic speech regularly
our ears are accustomed to it and we can understand what is being
said. However, even among blind persons there are those who can't
understand synthesized speech and for them, and for those who, if
given a choice of computer access methods, large print or Braille
access is more desirable.
When not working the booth some of us took time to explore the many
other exhibits at the show. One area of fascination was the Technology
Time tunnel. This area showcased the development of the PC from the
earliest Radio Shack machines to the modern computers with the Pentium
Processors onboard. Another area of interest was the electronic
petting zoo. Here individuals could see just what makes a personal
computer work in a harmless way. Mary felt a mother board and I
examined a hard drive. Other exhibits included the Island Theater
which introduced show visitors to the Internet, the Odyssey Store
where one could purchase Internet Odyssey Memorabilia, the test drive
area which was a bank of computers loaded with the latest software to
allow show visitors to give these packages a try-out and a silent
auction and a treasure hunt for the children. Our booth was adjacent
to The cybercafe, a place where show-weary exhibitors and visitors
alike could buy refreshments, and take time out for a break from the
show's demands. One could visit with folks to chat about computer or
Internet-related matters, or just carry on a friendly conversation.
During this time I got to know the woman who was asked to help us with
various miscellaneous needs during the show. These included finding a
relief area for one's guide dog to getting something to drink. As was
mentioned earlier, the Internet Odyssey Team saw to it that we had
plenty of assistance during the show. The high point for us came on
Monday afternoon of October 28th when we gave our seminar on computer
access for the blind. Shortly before the seminar began an announcement
went out over the PA System encouraging anyone interested in how blind
persons access the Internet using adaptive technology to come to our
booth. We conducted the seminar at the booth to avoid having to move
the PC around as it was the only one which had the screen reading
software installed on it. People came running from everywhere. Vendors
closed down their booths, and even the workers in the cybercafe came
over to see what all the fuss was about. Later we were told that there
were at least fifty to one hundred people at our seminar; the largest
number of attendees at any of the seminars that took place during the
entire show.
President Sofka welcomed everyone to the seminar and gave a brief
explanation of what the NFB was and what we were hoping to accomplish
at the Internet Odyssey. Following his speech several of us
demonstrated how we accessed various components of the Internet. Scott
Edwards used Gopher, a program that provides text-based access to
various on-line archives such as the National library service for the
Blind and Physically Handicapped's book collection. This was followed
by Lisa Hall's demonstration of Internet Relay chat, (IRC) which
allows one to talk over the net in real time with folks from around
the World. Prior to the show she arranged with some of her friends on
GEnie, one of several widely-known on-line services to meet her in
one of GEnie's chat rooms. These are areas where persons can meet in
order to discuss matters of specific interest such as surfing the
Internet for example. Her demonstration was received with much
applause from the audience. But the climax of the seminar was the
sending of an E-mail message around the world on seven different
blindness-related mailing lists. Since we wanted to let the blind of
the World know what we were doing to improve access to information and
to raise awareness of the need to protect this access even among the
blind population we felt it appropriate to do this in the hopes that
others would be inspired to do what we were doing.
The message read in part:
Blind people of the World, This message is coming to you from the
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention center in San Antonio Texas. We are
participating in the 1996 South Texas Internet Odyssey to show how
blind persons can use a personal computer with adaptive technology and
to raise awareness of the threat to our continued ability to access
the Information superhighway posed by the ever-increasing use of
graphical user interfaces, bitmapped images , and other factors. The
members of the Greater San Antonio Chapter of the National Federation
of the Blind of Texas would like to encourage you to do what you can
to promote awareness of these issues, including participating in
similar events such as this one. Greetings from all of us and let's
keep the net accessible to the blind.
Yours truly,
James Sofka
President, Greater San Antonio Chapter, National Federation of the
Blind of Texas
Throughout that week we received responses to that message
congratulating us on our efforts and some people even shared
information about what they were doing in their community or country
to heighten awareness of the challenges faced by blind computer users.
But the best complement we received came from Marti Knight, one of the
principle organizers of the Internet Odyssey: If we have done anything
at all this year this is it. Showcasing the use of the Internet by the
disable will more than justify what we have spent in terms of time,
money, and manpower to put on this show. This is an area we need to
expand on in the coming years. The show concluded on October 29, and
all of us were exhausted, but we all felt good about a job well done.
I believe that not only did the sighted public, but we ourselves
brought something away from this show as well. For one thing, we were
the first group of disabled to exhibit at this show. In addition, we
proved to ourselves that no matter what its size, any of our chapters
can stage events such as this when chapter members work together to
see the task through; even when the going gets rough, and no one seems
to want to lend a hand. Perhaps some of us took away something deep
and personal. I for one had this happen as helping to put this event
together for our chapter led me to once more confirm something about
myself.
I am one person that thrives on challenge and when challenging
situations are absent from my life or when the outcome is unsuccessful
I tend to turn in to myself for entertainment. This what I mean. When
I was a student at several schools for the blind I was more often then
not discouraged from doing things thought impossible for a blind
person such as rock climbing or studying Animal Science. Solution?
Create imaginary characters who can sleigh the dragons for you so you
can have those opportunities, and some of these imaginary characters
were actual people I had heard about from other students at the
school. The most notorious of these lasted for two long years before
it finally blew itself out. Many times I think to myself that if the
NFB was around back then and we were as strong and influential as we
are now, and someone was their to encourage us to take on challenging
situations rather than discourage us from trying new things and
testing our abilities such runaway imfatuations wouldn't have occurred
or could have been kept under control.
Assuming that someone was willing to believe in the abilities of the
blind and to encourage us to take on challenging tasks such as putting
together an exhibit like the one we had at the Internet Odyssey. My
energies and creativity would have been put to constructive uses
rather than cause me to believe that the only way I could amount to
something in this world is if some super-person change the course of
my life for me. Such notions can be damaging to one's life. It makes a
person very unhappy and causes them to loose their self esteem.
Today I praise God that we now have a strong Parents of Blind Children
Organization that reaches out to parents and their blind children in
those early years to ensure that these kids have the opportunity to
take on challenging tasks, and that they will not have to go through
what some of us went through when we were growing up. As for those
thoughts about super people and all of that since getting involved in
computers and the Internet Odyssey hardly a trace of it can be found
in my mind now. Yes, it helps to have something constructive to do
with your life. The key is finding what interest you and seeing
positive results from the fruits of your labor. As I said before we
all took something away from the Internet Odyssey and felt good that
we were able to make our contribution to this show a success, but it's
only the beginning. Since the show a number of things have happened as
a direct result of our participation in this event.
For one thing Our chapter now has a World Wide Web Site:
http://www.txdirect.net/users/sdyer/nfb/ and we welcome all you
Web Surfers to visit us on-line. Several of our members are now on the
Internet Odyssey Team; the organization that oversees and organizes
the Internet Odyssey and other events to support this and other
Internet-related projects here in San Antonio. One of these is
installing computer networks in local schools so that the students can
have access to the net for educational purposes Our work here in San
Antonio has sparked interest in having a similar show in El Paso. We
have already contacted members of our Greater El Paso Chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind of Texas about this proposed event
and they are excited about participating in a show in their area
similar to ours.
At a recent planning meeting of the Internet Odyssey team I heard from
an individual who told the group that her son teaches software and web
page design, and as a part of his curriculum his students are required
to design their projects so that they can be accessed by blind
persons. I shared this bit of good news with those on several Internet
Mailing lists that Mary and I subscribe to and received a message from
a Federationist named Lynn Schneider. Her message captured the essence
of what we set out to do and what we hope to see happen as a result of
our participation in this event. Here it is:
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 97
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: They're getting the message
Dear Mr. Donahue:
I wanted to write this short note thanking you for sending out a
little good news about teaching young people to make web sites
accessible. I think if kids got into the habit of thinking about blind
and other disabled people when they design their first web pages,
maybe, just maybe they'll get into the habit of doing this, and then
when they grow up to be software developers, we won't have to fight
with them so much to achieve access. It seems that, especially as I
take my first steps to transition to Windows 95, there isn't much to
be optimistic about, but maybe there is some hope after all. Thanks
for the good news, and maybe we'll run into each other at this
summer's NFB convention in New Orleans if you're going. I'm hoping
to meet some of the folks whose posts I see so much in cyberspace, and
this will be my first convention ever. Take care, and have a great
day. Lynn K. Schneider As we all know protecting our access to the
Information Superhighway has been a painful, and sometimes futile one,
but as Lynn says in her message there just might be a light at the end
of the tunnel. Have we in the greater San Antonio Chapter of the
National Federation of the Blind of Texas caused that light to burn
just a little bit brighter by taking our concerns to those who need to
hear them the most? Only time will tell. No, we haven't solved all of
our access problems just by participating in one computer exhibition,
but we have planted the seeds of knowledge, and understanding of our
concerns. We are excited about once more participating in this year's
Internet Odyssey and we invite anyone who would like to come to this
year's show to attend. It will be on October 12 and 13 1997 at the
Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio Texas. We'll get
out more information as it becomes available. It is exciting to know
that we have gained some strong allies in our fight to keep computers
and the Internet accessible to the blind. Let's spread the good news
that even in cyberspace we are changing what it means to be blind.
We would strongly urge all of our local chapters and state affiliates
to participate in computer shows similar to the Internet Odyssey in
their home areas. There is a tremendous potential for educating of
computer professionals and amateurs through a show such as this. This
participation could pay back big dividends for us in the coming years.
Consider this example. The Internet Multi-Media Academy is an
organization that among other things teaches school-age students how
to design and write computer software for educational purposes. We
have requested to be a part of this organization in order to help the
kids understand the necessity for designing their programs so that
they are accessible to, and usable by the blind.
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