Category Archive

LightHouse News

LightHouse News

$75.00 Gift Certificate – Enter to Win by Giving us Your Feedback for Transit Mapping Project

Have you ever waited for an hour at a corner for a bus only to be told the bus stop was across the street? Do you wish there could be an easy way for you to know the number of stops there are between one BART station and another station? Would you like to know if there is a bus shelter available at each of the bus stops you’ll be using on a rainy day? Would you like an easier way to find out what buses you can catch at a particular stop? If so, the LightHouse has good news for you.

We are developing, and will distribute, “strip maps” which will present concise information about selected Bay Area transit routes in Braille or large print. The strip maps will be developed for BART, Muni, SamTrans and Caltrain routes.

Help us choose the routes we map. We need your help to select additional transit routes for which we may produce strip maps in the future. Currently, our highest priority will be to make strip maps for Muni and Samtrans routes, particularly routes serving the Market Street corridor or routes linking to BART or Caltrain, but your recommendations about routes throughout the Bay Area are needed.

Just go to this easy online survey to give us your recommendations. All survey respondents will be entered into a drawing to win a $75 gift certificate for our Adaptations store. For more information about this survey and about the strip map project please call Frank Welte at 415-694-7363 or send email to fwelte@old.lighthouse-sf.org.

 

LightHouse News

Letter of Support – Sign before this Thursday, July 12

We wanted to make you aware of the following. U.S. citizens can show their support for the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) by signing the United States International Council on Disabilities’s (USICD) letter of support. They are also asking that people from all 50 states call or email their senators and ask them to please support CRPD ratification.

What is the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities?
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) is a treaty that describes the obligations of ratifying countries to promote, protect, fulfill, and ensure the rights of persons with disabilities. The treaty embodies the American ideals that form the basis of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): empowering persons with disabilities to be independent and productive citizens.

For more information about the Convention click here.

How to write your senators:
The US Senate will be holding a hearing on Thursday, July 12, 2012, on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Hearing from their constituents will make a big impact.
Find contact information for your senators here.

Simply convey this message to your senators: “Senator, I am a constituent of your state and I support the CRPD Treaty #112-7. Please attend the July 12th hearing and support the disability treaty to move it to a vote in time for the ADA Anniversary on July 26th.”

Please remember that contacting your senator is something to do in addition to also signing on to the USICD letter of support for the CRPD. You may
sign on to the letter as an individual US citizen on your own behalf or
an authorized individual may sign on to the letter on behalf of an organization.

LightHouse News

NFB-NEWSLINE® Now Available through iPhone Application

NFB-NEWSLINE ®, a free audible newspaper service for blind and print-disabled people, has just launched NFB-NEWSLINE® Mobile, a free iOS application now available in the Apple App Store, featuring the text of over three hundred newspapers, forty magazines, and wire feeds, plus personalized television listings. This easy-to-learn and use app allows NFB-NEWSLINE® subscribers to view and download their favorite publications with their iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch.

LightHouse Donor Relations Coordinator Lisamaria Martinez uses the app and said, “I’ve been a subscriber to Newsline for nearly two decades. In recent years though, I’ve found that having a phone stuck to my ear to get news just wasn’t what I wanted or how I wanted to access news. It was much easier to read the news online but the downside was that I missed Newsline’s easy access to daily local newspapers. Now that Newsline is an app on my iPhone I am much more informed about local elections, events and news. I finally feel connected to my city thanks to Newsline.”

To learn more about NFB-NEWSLINE®, please visit www.nfbnewsline.org.

LightHouse News

How to Order Walmart Talking Prescription Containers

1 Commenton How to Order Walmart Talking Prescription Containers

On June 8, Walmart announced that it is now providing ScripTalk Talking Prescription Containers free of charge to persons with visual impairments as part of a pilot program. The ScripTalk Talking Prescription program is being offered to customers across the country through Walmart mail order, and also at three Walmart stores.

Information you need to order Talking Prescription Containers from Walmart
To listen to the talking label provided by Walmart, you will need to first get a reading device from Envision America, the company that makes ScripTalk. The device is called the ScripTalk reader (or the ScripTalk machine) and is available free of charge to Walmart customers who are blind. You only need to order the device once: it will work with the Talking Prescription labels you receive repeatedly from Walmart. Contact En-Vision America at 800-890-1180 to order your free ScripTalk talking prescription  reader. Envision America will also be able to answer many questions regarding insurance coverage and costs and discounts for Walmart prescriptions.

After you talk to Envision America, you will need to call Walmart to order your prescription medication. The phone number for the Walmart Mail Order pharmacy is 1-800-273-3455 (1-800-2-REFILL). When you order your prescription tell them you want the Talking Prescription label (also known as the ScripTalk label). There is no extra charge for the label.

For those in the states of Alabama, Mississippi or Colorado, Walmart is currently also offering the Talking Prescription labels in the following three stores. As with mail order, you will need to contact both the Walmart store (for the prescription medication) and Envision America (for the ScripTalk reader (also called the ScripTalk machine)).

*214 Haynes St., Talladega, AL 35160 (256) 761-1681
*2270 W. Main St., Tupelo, MS 38801 (662) 844-4011
*601 Englewood Pkwy., Englewood, CO 80110 (303) 789-7209

If you have feedback about the Walmart Talking Prescription Container pilot, please write to the Law Office of Lainey Feingold at prescription.access@gdblegal.com or call 1-800-822-5000, the number for Linda Dardarian of the Oakland civil rights firm Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen and Dardarian.

LightHouse News

Speaking Out for the Blind

On “Speaking Out for the Blind” host Brian McCallen interviews blind and visually impaired news makers and experts about the curious happenings, factoids, and topics that affect the community. It airs on ACB Radio Mainstream Wednesday’s at 7:30 PM Pacific Time. Visit acbradio.org, click on the MainStream link, then select the appropriate link to listen with the media player of your choice.

  • About Thunder Dog – airs June 20
    Michael Hingson talks about his new book Thunder Dog and how he and his former guide dog Roselle made the courageous escape from one of the Twin Towers during the 9/11 attack. He also gives some important advice to the blind and (their guide dogs) for how to survive major catastrophic emergencies.
  • Audio Reading Services – airs June 27
    Want to read your favorite books and newspapers, but can’t read them in print? Do you want listen to your favorite radio dramas, but have no access to an old time radio station? Well look no further than to your audio reading service. Joseph Hamilton of the Society for the Blind in Sacramento tells about how AccessNews and other services provide the content that informs and entertains the community every day.
  • LightHouse Audio-Tactile Maps – Airs July 4
    Maps are essential to participating fully in society, showing people how to get where they need to go. Greg Kehret, Director of Access to Information Services at the LightHouse for the Blind in San Francisco tells how the agency’s new audio-tactile maps for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) do just that.
  • Scott MacIntyre – Airs July 11
    Scott MacIntyre is a famous singer and songwriter. You may remember him from Season 8 on American Idol. Scott sings a little from his new album Heartstrings and gives insight into his ‘undiagnosed’ blindness for the very first time.

More episodes are coming this summer. So keep listening!

LightHouse News

Secretary Bowen Launches Survey to Assess Needs of Voters with Disabilities

As Californians prepare to vote in the June 5 Presidential Primary Election, California Secretary of State Debra Bowen launched the state’s first online survey to help elections officials assess and address the needs of voters with disabilities.

“Voting is our most sacred right in a democracy and everyone should be able to exercise that right independently and privately,” said Secretary Bowen, the state’s chief elections officer. “While California elections officials offer many resources to voters with disabilities, I want to know if these voters are aware of all the options and services available to them, as well as whether they are encountering unnecessary challenges when voting.”

The Secretary of State’s office established the eight-member Statewide Voting Accessibility Advisory Committee (VAAC) in 2005 to provide guidance to elections officials serving voters with disabilities. Since then, the Secretary of State’s office updated 10-year-old polling place accessibility guidelines and provided training to county elections staff on the federal and state requirements for accessible polling places, all in collaboration with the VAAC and the California Department of Rehabilitation. Now the Secretary of State is asking voters with disabilities to participate in a
brief confidential survey
available through June 29. Survey results will help identify whether there is a need for more training, modified services, or enhanced outreach programs for voters with disabilities.