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LightHouse News

LightHouse News

Tomorrow! Freedom Scientific Lunchtime Seminar at Adaptations

Discover the benefits of using electronic vision aids and software to improve activities of daily living at home, school, the work place or just about anywhere. Enjoy a free lunch as Adaptations, the LightHouse Store hosts an informative presentation and hands-on demonstration by Freedom Scientific and Access Ingenuity.

Participants will have an opportunity to learn about and actually use Freedom Scientifics’ new TOPAZ and RUBY video magnifiers, MAGic screen magnification software and new MAGic keyboard, JAWS Screen Reader, as well as the brand new SARA CE and PEARL Camera with OpenBook, lightning fast tools to scan and read printed materials.

Where: LightHouse San Francisco Headquarters
When: Tuesday, June 21, 10:00 a.m. to noon, lunch included

This educational seminar is tailored for people who are visually impaired and their families, instructors and trainers, seniors and senior center staff, and vision support groups. Attendees are invited to stay for a free lunch following the seminar. There will also be a drawing for a free RUBY Handheld Video Magnifier!

For more information and to RSVP, call us at 1-888-400-8933 or email us at adaptations@old.lighthouse-sf.org.

LightHouse News

There’s an App for That. Booklet Lists Nifty Picks for Blind iPhone Users.

Alameda resident and longtime LightHouse friend Peter Cantisani has long been a champion of finding off-the-shelf technologies that work for blind people.

Peter has just finished a volume on iPhone apps he’s found that can be helpful and extremely affordable. “Twenty-six Useful Apps for Blind iPhone Users” is available for $9 in Braille, eBraille, DAISY and Word formats. Order it here.

LightHouse News

This Friday – Invitation to Comment on the Accessibility of Technology for People with Disabilities

Accessibility in this digital world is critical – just as are ramps in the physical world. It is impossible to ignore the changes and challenges in technology for persons with disabilities, whether with personal computers, Internet web sites, or smart phones.

The Department of Rehabilitation would like you to know about an upcoming federally sponsored “listening session” where we – as agencies, organizations, individuals and private companies – can share our needs and ideas on what the Federal government can do to improve accessibility of technology for people with disabilities. Participation is in person only. The listening session will be held on Friday afternoon, 1:30 to 5:00 pm on June 17, at Stanford.

Stanford University
Hewlett Training Center
Auditorium Hewlett 200
370 Serra Mall
Stanford, CA 94305

Please click here to RSVP and see more details: http://ssa.gov/open/listening-session.html

LightHouse News

Sendero Group GPS Demonstration

GPS has become one of the essential options in a blind person’s access technology tool box. Learn about all the current GPS solutions available, and the pros and cons of each system.

Jaime Adams of Sendero Group will be at the LightHouse in San Francisco on Wednesday June 22 from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. for this demonstration – she will also be available after the demonstration to meet with you individually. Some of the GPS products that will be on display include the BrailleNote GPS, Sense Nav for the BrailleSense and VoiceSense, Mobile Geo, Sendero Maps for the PC, and the Sendero Lookaround Application for both the iPhone and Android Phones.

Where: San Francisco office of Lighthouse for the Blind
When: June 22, 10:00 to 11:30 a.m.

If you are interested in meeting with Jaime individually, please make an appointment for a half hour segment between 10:00 and 11:30 a.m. To sign-up, please contact Kathy Abrahamson at 415-694-7336 or kabrahamson@old.lighthouse-sf.org.

LightHouse News

Calling All Volunteers!

Calling all volunteers to help this weekend in the Please Touch Community Garden!

When: Sunday, June 12, from Noon to 4:00 p.m.
Where: Please Touch Community Garden, located on 165 Grove Street at Van Ness. Entrance is in the Lech Walesa alley

Help us beautify and spruce up the Please Touch Community Garden prior to our public celebration and Open House on June 18. On that day we will unveil and hang a new mural, the “Beaded Quilt”, on the LightHouse for the Blind building, adjacent to the garden’s entrance.

We will be cleaning the lot, moving mulch, painting decorative wooden cutouts and doing some planting and overall enrichment to the terrain.

For information or to participate, contact Gk Callahan at 415-694-7335 or pleasetouchgarden@gmail.com

 

LightHouse News

Free Information and Entertainment on Your Phone

By Brian McCallen, LightHouse guest blogger

Do you want to find out the latest news but can’t read the paper? Do you want to read a magazine but are frustrated because you can’t see the pictures? Access News is the solution to your problems.

Access News by Phone from the Society for the Blind in Sacramento is Northern California’s premier radio-reading service. All you need is a touch-tone telephone and a free subscription to listen to newspapers, newsletters, magazines and other entertainment and information seven days a week. The best part is that trained volunteers read the newspaper articles and describe the magazine pictures to keep you informed and entertained.

Access News’ most popular programs are actually the Safeway, Raley’s and other grocery store ads. In addition, some of the service’s exciting entertainment fare includes the “CBS Mystery Theater” and “Dragnet” radio dramas.

Using Access News was a fun and welcoming experience. Upon calling the Society for the Blind, I spoke with Joseph Hamilton, the program manager. Hamilton put me on the subscription list and registered my name, address and phone number in the Access News system. Then, he gave me a toll-free phone number, user code and a security number, and I was all set to use the service.

I dialed the toll-free number, listened to the prompt and pressed “1” to jump to the “California Access News Local Content Area.” After punching in my user code and security number, I heard all of the options in the main menu.

I like action-packed, thrilling radio dramas, so I decided to listen to an episode of “Dragnet.” It was fun to hear and visualize how Detective Sergeants Joe Friday and Ben Romero solved an L.A. homicide and caught the suspects.

One idea that might make Access News a little easier to navigate is the ability to use voice recognition. Without having to find which buttons to push, I’d be able to just say my choices into the phone.

I interviewed Tuan Nguyen, a college student and Access News user from Sacramento. I asked Nguyen about his experience with the service, and he said it’s an excellent resource for daily information. Nguyen uses Access News to look up store ads and listen to the day’s news with his cup of morning coffee or nightly drink of vodka.

He also had some suggestions for improvement. He wants “even more magazines that are not currently available, such as scientific journals for enthusiastic college students in the sciences, latest romance novels for active blind readers, and expansion of the library of Old Time Radio Shows for enthusiastic collectors.” Nguyen went on to say that Access News should expand even more to attract blind communities in the U.S., around the world and even on the web.

To subscribe to or provide feedback for Access News, call 916-732-4010. To listen to a demonstration, dial 916-732-4000 or toll-free (in California) 800-665-4667. For more information about the service, click here.

LightHouse News

Mindfulness, Movement and Meditation

Instructor Greg Lewis will lead you in an hour focused on mindful sensations of taste, breath, and body. A great opportunity to slow down from your fast-paced life and recalibrate mind, body, and soul.

When: 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, starting June 14, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
Where: San Francisco Office of the LightHouse
Cost: Suggested donation of $5.00

For more information, call Brandon Young at 415-694-7372 or email him at byoung@old.lighthouse-sf.org.

LightHouse News

Meet Your Mentors – Visit Blind Professionals on the Job

Over the years you’ve probably heard of successful blind engineers, business people, researchers, managers, teachers and a whole galaxy of other professions. Wouldn’t you like to meet them at their job and find out how they do it?

Beginning in June the LightHouse’s new Jobsite Conversation Series will be providing blind or visually impaired jobseekers the real-world opportunity to meet and learn from some of the Bay Area’s most successful blind professionals.

Our intention is to show Bay Area jobseekers how important ambition and dedication are to any successful employee—and more so for blind ones.

Starting June 22, each week we will be coordinating a group of 15 to 20 individuals to meet with their employed counterparts working in the Bay Area’s leading businesses and institutions. There will be 25 visits, mostly on Wednesdays, which will consist of facility tours, an opportunity to hear the triumphs and hardships experienced by each professional, the chance for some Q&A, and conclude with a talk with the blind professional’s supervisor when applicable.

We’ll pick you up in our vehicle from a number of points in the Bay Area or sometimes meet at BART and go together as a group. And just to make it easy, we’ll provide a complimentary lunch to all participants. It’s all made possible through a generous grant from the BlackRock Foundation, which believes in the importance of employment for Bay Area blind and visually impaired residents.

The LightHouse has assembled an all-star cast of people to visit, from wealth managers to architects, from software developers to educators, and everything in between. Our goal is that participants who sign up for the free series attend their choice of at least half of this year’s 25 jobsite visits.

We’ll tie the growing group together with a common listserv, where you can continue to dialog with the employed blind people you meet and the circle of participants you’ll encounter along the way.  More than merely educational, this series will be a whole lot of fun.

To sign up, please contact Rich Russo, LightHouse Community Services Program Assistant at 415-694-7352 or rrusso@old.lighthouse-sf.org.

Space is going to be tight on these popular visits, so we encourage you to sign up for the series today.  Once you’re registered, you’ll receive our emails about upcoming visits, dates and locations.

LightHouse News

BART Rider Alert: Delays on Upcoming Weekends in May, June

There will be major delays on May 28, 29 and 30 and June 4 and 5 for some BART customers traveling through the Transbay Tube. The delays are necessary to accommodate work on the cables that provide power to the track.

Delays for trains in both directions are estimated to be approximately 20 to 40 minutes on lines requiring transfers (trains coming from or going toward Dublin or Fremont) and 5 to 10 minutes on other lines (trains coming from or going toward Richmond or Pittsburg/Bay Point).

For full details, go to http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2011/news20110524.aspx.