UntappedWealth.com - From the Business Desk: August 2007

We are absolutely delighted to present you with a page that will be packed with informative and up to the minute news clips from some very reliable sources as well as potent business ideas that would be of interest to those who wish to stay in the know. Several business experts as well as political and economic watchers along with our own business experts and other stakeholders will be making regular contributions to this page and we would advise you to check this page as often as you can so as not to miss out on up to the minute news.

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Weekly feature on women in business

Good evening! I'm Kerry J Harrison at the business desk and it's time for our weekly feature on women in business.

As more and more women venture into the business world, we are finding that more and more people are taking notice. There was a time when women felt that their place was at home. No more! As women continue to gain in confidence, we're finding that more and more of them are taking the big step to start their own businesses. According to a recent CNN report, about 25% of small businesses in the United States are owned by women. In addition, women small business owners grew by about 23% last year, twice the rate of new business openings. I'd like to see more women take the plunge.

Women have something to contribute and it's time for them to realize it. There's a very buoyant trend presently taking place across our nation these days and experts are calling it "the small business idea for woman." You can read more about this trend by visiting www.untappedwealth.com/business-strategies.html and go to the small business idea for women link.

The small business idea for woman trend is doing really well these days as more and more women are coming to the conclusion that the only way for them to take back their lives is for them to take control and create their own business ventures. I'd like now to hand things over to our associate Donna J Jodhan as she has a special message for you.

Do women have a place in the small business arena?

I have been a small business owner for over 13 years now and I say yes! In a world where men still rule, and there's still a glass ceiling for women, I truly believe that there is definitely a place for us. I am a woman, I am visually impaired, but I've managed to make it!

Did you know that women are the owners of about 25% of small businesses in America today? Did you also know that they are the owners of 10 of the top Fortune 500 companies? Did you also know that women business owners is one of the fastest growing trends in America today? According to CNN news, the growth of women owners of small businesses outstripped the growth of new companies in 2006 by about 23%.

The number of battered women across America continues to increase. The number of women as single parents also continues to skyrocket, but at the same time and despite all of this, women are still making it in the business world.

The challenges for women are many, but it is definitely doable. Persistence is one of the ingredients for success. Another is making sure that our voices are heard on a constant basis. We need to constantly keep reminding the rest of the world that we have something to contribute. We can think for ourselves and we are independent enough to pay our own taxes, earn our own incomes, and live our own lives.

What we need to keep in mind is that we have to keep ourselves focused on the prize. We need to remember that both men and many of our fellow women will always be questioning our abilities both in and out of the boardroom and we have to find ways to keep proving them wrong. I know that it's often hard to keep our cool, but losing our cool will only give them ammunition for more attacks on our abilities.

So, don't give up! As women we have to stick together and help and support each other.

I hope you pay close attention to Donna's message and now I'd like to shine the spotlight on her business. The following is a brief summary of what Donna's company is all about.

They call themselves a "One Stop Writing Shop" and well they should. There are not too many companies around at present that are able to do this and do it so well. The experts call them unique! They offer complete services that can help you do research, write, translate and transcribe your info into multi languages. For absolutely free they can help you to keep abreast of important trends and news items if you're either too busy to search for them or you don't know where to find them. They can help you to increase your revenues, reduce your costs, and expand your customer bases. They can offer you a free online monthly magazine filled with info designed to help you keep abreast of market trends and consumer habits and articles that will point you in the right direction when it comes to finding opportunities that are explosive, lucrative, but above all safe.
To learn more visit them at www.sterlingcreations.ca.

At the business desk, I'm Kerry J Harrison wishing you a pleasant weekend.

posted by Kerry at 6:46 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Important tips for translators (weekly feature)

Hey there! I'm Alix Shadonnay at the business desk and today I'm kicking off a brand new feature.

We've been receiving lots of requests from translators for us to shine the light on what's going on the world of translators and interpreters. There's always lots going on in this arena and with the rapidly increasing growth of global trade, the rising prominence of economies such as China and India, it's time for all you translators and interpreters to come forth and take your rightful places on the global stage. So, without much ado, here now are our first weekly tips.

Hope you find it of interest.

Special Offer For Translators
The True Global Economy · How T. J. Clark Factory Outlet Stores Work · How To Have A Successful Business · Opportunities For Translators ...
For more detail check out:
http://www.sexage.net/health_103/tjclarkco/small_business/translators.htm

The Most Common Complaints about Translation Services
By Jocelyn
By Marian Marcinkowski Within past years modern electronic communication has created extensive business opportunities for freelance translators. They are able to reach clients from all over the world and perform their jobs at their own ...
norel - http://norelfouillard.blogs.friendster.com/norel/
For more detail check out:
http://norelfouillard.blogs.friendster.com/norel/2007/08/the_most_common.html

Verztec Consulting Announces Best Practices for Internet Marketing
Emediawire (press release) - Ferndale,WA,USA
Verztec has invested heavily in web technologies that allow Translators, Interpreters, Voice Talents, Copywriters and other personnel to register themselves ...
For more detail check out:
http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2007/8/emw547714.htm

ProZ.com SDL TRADOS
"This strategic partnership reflects the strength of SDL TRADOS Technologies and ProZ.com's commitment to enhancing professional opportunities for translators and further benefiting the industry as a whole. ...
Vincent's Workspace -
For more detail check out:
http://wilson0603.spaces.live.com/

Lost in Translation
United States - Houston,TX,USA
Some believe that anyone who can speak a foreign language well can excel as a translator but few realise the amount of time translators pour into their work ...
For more detail check out:
http://www.liftedmagazine.com/index-2.asp?ID=161

My Bondage, My Freedom
The Nation. - New York,NY,USA
But unlike these and other giants of European Modernism, and despite the advocacy of Susan Sontag and translators Christopher Middleton and Susan Bernofsky, ...
For more detail check out:
http://www.thenation.com/docprem.mhtml?i=20070910&s=smallwood

"Lost in Translation"
By Percy Balemans
Translation is big business in an increasingly globalised world and the demand for language skills is stronger than ever. The rise of the 'tiger economies' of the Far East have led to greater career opportunities for speakers of Chinese ...
Translating is an Art - http://pbtranslations.wordpress.com
For more detail check out:
http://pbtranslations.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/lost-in-translation/

I'd like to close by giving you another website that you can use as a great reference for obtaining translation services plus much more.

Are you looking for experienced multi lingual translators and writers?
Experienced professionals who can help you to write and translate, proof read and edit, and research plus more?
Are you looking for professionals who can help you to write and speak flawless English?
Having problems getting that right someone to help you proof read, edit, and research the appropriate information?
Then you need to contact the staff at www.translationpeople.com.
You can even download free useful information updated weekly and at absolutely no cost you can also keep abreast of the latest trends and headlines updated daily.

At the business desk, I'm Alix Shadonnay wishing you a peaceful evening.

posted by Editor at 7:26 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Important news round-up of the week

Hi everyone! I'm Heather DeMarco at the business desk and it's time for our weekly feature.

We'd like to thank all of the wonderful emails of encouragement and we hope you enjoy this week's chosen articles.

Here they are. Enjoy!

Table of contents

August 29 2007

1 Web Site Readability for the Visually Impaired
2 A Simple, Low-Cost, Effective Reading Application *- the business desk.
3 Launch of Insight Radio on the airwaves *- the business desk.
4 Sound Rts! New Real Time Audio Stratogy Game. *- the business desk
5 CallBurner: Finally, Fully Accessible Skype Call Recording is Here at Last!*- the business desk.
6 Internet TV Tuner for the Blind
7 The Impressor: Braille Business Card Embosser

Chris.Pirillo.com (Blog)
Monday, July 09, 2007

Web Site Readability for the Visually Impaired

By Chris Pirillo

July 9, 2007 at 2:22 pm

Lin (from the live chat room) has sent me an idea tht will turn into an upcoming video segment:

Friends are always asking me to look at their website and tell them if I like it. What about the colors, the images, how about the spelling, the grammar, the placement of everything? The one thing they seldom ask is; how easy is my site to read?

Many people who use a pc are to some degree visually impaired. They are either nearsighted, have astigmatism or any number of other vision problems that can make reading web pages difficult, annoying, or next to impossible. I often get the feeling the designers are way more interested in impressing people with their cleverness, their technical abilities and their artistic sensibilities, than making a site user friendly.

I am constantly surprised, when I go to huge websites, run by giant companies, even worldwide corporations, to find their websites are virtually unreadable, or give me such terrible eye strain, I lose interest and go elsewhere.

Often, these websites want to sell me something. How anxious do they think I will be to give them my money, if they don't even have the courtesy and good sense to make their site easy to read and easy to navigate through? How much time am I going to spend, trying to find the link I need to click, to see product details, or to pay for something? I am usually not in the mood to be playing Where's Waldo, when I'm shopping online!

Why do so many sites insist on using a font size that would be more appropriate for writing the great American novel on the head of a pin? I see this on very small personal websites, where they have only a small amount of text on each page, so they certainly aren't cramped for space. I see the same on large business websites, I guess because they want to cram as much information onto each page as possible, but what good is that, if everything is so small, half the people who go there cannot easily read or navigate through the site?

When I arrive at a website, I also want to be greeted by font styles where all the letters and numbers are clear as to what they are, without me having to take time to decipher the characters. I don't want an S that could maybe be a 5, or a 5 that could maybe be an S, or an R that
looks nothing like any R I've ever seen before. I like artistic and unique font styles, but not if they are puzzling and somewhat illegible.

Another problem is the combination of colors and images designers use behind the text. Often the background obliterates the text, or makes it at least somewhat difficult to read. Again, do you want it pretty and artistic, or do you want it readable? Pretty is nice, but readable is most important. In my opinion, a designer who can accomplish both is the good designer.

Another readability problem is lines of text that are too close together. Many people have trouble keeping their eyes on one line of text, if it's too close to the line above, and/or the line below it. When I read a book, a magazine or a newspaper, I need to place a 3 x 5 card or a ruler horizontally below the line of text I am reading. There's no easy way to do that on a webpage you are viewing on a vertical, upright monitor.

Bottom line: People of all ages have vision problems, and even though the internet is considered a young person's medium, all those young users, who currently have 20/20 vision are aging, along with the rest of us. At some point, their vision will no longer be 20/20 either and the farther we travel into this technological age, the more visually impaired users there will be.

I have a brother who is six years younger than me. He was born with 20/20 vision. He teased me mercilessly about my 'blindness' all of my life. until he turned 50, and had to give in and get his first pair of prescription glasses. Funny thing about that - he teases me no more. 8-)

Web Site Readability for the Visually Impaired

As Your World Changes (Blog)
Wednesday, July 11, 2007

A Simple, Low-Cost, Effective Reading Application

By Susan L. Gerhart

As Your World Changes
Adjusting to vision loss with class, using technology

Simple Reading Applications

Let's assume you can find your way around a screen through a combination of vision, memory, keyboarding, and mousing but can't read much of the text in documents you access. Is there a low-cost Windows application to read the text for you?

Yes, lots to choose from. Search for the phrase "text-to-speech" and you'll find advertisements and websites for freeware, shareware, and all kinds of products at less than $100. This blog article is for beginner Vision Losers as well as those looking for alternatives to higher cost assistive technology products.

My main reader for years is TextAloud from http://www.nextup.com, which I'll discuss as a representative of this class of desktop applications. Some use cases are:

1) In order to read a .txt file on your disk, you open the file for TextAloud to speak it to you. Ditto for .doc, .pdf, and other standard formats.

2) While browsing you find a page you can't read in screen font form. You click the TextAloud toolbar to read the page in a voice and at a rate you choose.

3) You just do not feel like sitting straight-up with your eyeballs glued to your screen to read a long document. You copy the text to the clipboard, which TextAloud monitors for changes and then reads the text to you.

4) You want a bunch of files in audio form for an MP3 player. Open the files in TextAloud to convert to mp3 format and save in a directory for downloading.

5) You're editing a document and want to hear how it sounds for tone, style, and mistakes. Beyond audio editing, maybe you'd like to compare male and female sounding voices to see how your writing is perceived by gender-wired brains. Open or copy the draft into TextAloud, choose voices, and listen to your writing as if being narrated.

In other words, TextAloud is a simple word processor with special features for reading the text to you or converting text to mp3 (or WAY) format to be read on another device. One piece of Windows magic is the "copy to clipboard" which transfers text to TextAloud for optional immediate reading.

And, it's so helpful to have TextAloud right in your browser. Depending on versions and types of browsers, you can have TextAloud as a up there with Search, Favorites, History, etc.. Simply select text to read, wave your mouse over to the easily seen button, click "Speak", and text is read, even if the desktop application is not loaded. But, wait, there's more, a bonus zoom plus and minus to avoid a trip into the menus to change text size. As long as you can see the toolbar buttons, text-to-speech is just a click away.

Uh, oh, I'm starting to sound like a commercial here, but my point is simple: this particular product in the low-cost text-to-speech application space performs a lot of functions your vision may not be able to handle.

Really, synthetic voices are a miraculous technology that enables your brain to understand text as if human-read. Older, i.e. 1990ish voices, the ones built into Windows, sound robotic while newer voices are "natural" derived from slices of human speech. We'll explore these more in a future posting, including fascinating studies about how our brains are socially biased in their speech wiring. Listen to sample readings on an informative and vision-friendly podcast, Allison Sheridan's NosillaCast at http://www.podfeet.com

TextAloud can be purchased with a bundle of voices which sell individually for around $30. Yes, indeed, buy yourself a choir of male-female, old or young, American-Brit accented voices for a variety of listening experiences. Beware if you are low on GB of disk space as these voice data files are large, upwards of 200 MB to 800 MB. Get to know Kate and Paul, Mike and Crystal, Ray, Claire, Alex, and their developers at RealSpeak, NeoSpeech, ViaVoice, Microsoft, Cepstral, and the home grounds at ATT Labs.

OK, here's the down-sides of this product. It comes with "skins" to change its look, but they are all way too bright for my photo-receptors so only the No-skin look is available, but it can be customized for font size and color. I like Ariel, size 14 or 16. White or Yellow on a Dark Blue background. Another problem is that opening a Microsoft Word file means suffering template and installation messages as Word itself is opened, and, no, I can't take it back to the former employer I got it from .For my eyesight and keyboard skills, a drop-down box listing the currently active files is confusing and hard to use. But none of these are show-stoppers nor any worse than other products.

Other applications I've used with satisfaction for similar tasks, especially the "read from clipboard" function, are CoolSpeech from http://www.bytecool.com and ACE-HIGH from http://www.textreader.net/ Unfortunately, CoolSpeech ran afoul of my virus checking software and lost its clipboard functionality. This blog post isn't a product review but here's one Disability Professional's product assessment from Beth Case at Disability411 podcast #YYY at URL.

As both a visually impaired user and a software developer myself, I've noticed one significant difference among applications in their model of handling multiple requests for readings coming from browsers and other apps copying to the clipboard TextAloud uses a Blocking model, where any request to reads is rejected until the current is done, with an accompanying beep if desired. CoolSpeech uses a sequential reading model where requests are queued and read to completion, one after another. ACE HIGH uses an Interruption model where a read may not completed with new requests starting immediately. Your satisfaction with a product may depend on how well your usage profile matches its read sequencing model.

One final note of warning is that all the voices and applications I've tried are easily over-loaded by multiple requests or voice changes, starting to slow down, stop, or speak at the same time, or otherwise babble. TTS isn't perfect but works amazingly well.

So, here's a type of desktop application, and one particular satisfied customer for one leading product that Vision Losers can consider. In our theme of "As Your World Changes", you may find tools like this necessary and/or sufficient some days, or in some lighting situations. With a modest investment in software and voice data files, you now have a classy interface for reading on your PC or mp3 or CD players. Of course, sighted people can use these tools also, but often seem, in our terminology, to be happy with "their eyeballs glued to their screens", or printed pages, reading the old-fashioned way. Visually impaired people are sometimes the early adopters of technologies like these and go through an evolutionary phase of learning to listen in order to survive in an information-rich world.

Check these out:

Voice samples in NoscillaCast #102 and #103 at http://www.podfeet.com.
Other assistive technology information, also.

Disability Professional's take on many low-cost assistive technology products http://disability411.jinkle.com/show23.htm

TextAloud product from
http://www.nextup.com

CoolSpeech product from
http://ww.bytecool.com

ACE HIGH Text-to-Speech from
http://www.textreader.net.

Future blog articles: "Wired for Speech" book and studies by Stanford professor Clifford Nass; "synthetic voices all around", co-evolving with humans; high-and-low cost screen readers; how applications speak.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 12:51 am and is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

Susan L. Gerhart
Prescott Arizona
July 2007
slger123@gmail.com

http://asyourworldchanges.wordpress.com/2007/07/11/a-simple-low-cost-effective-reading-application/

National Music for the Blind (Blog)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Launch of Insight Radio on the airwaves

For everyone Jul 10, '07 1:03 PM

The Sony Award winning station, already broadcasting world wide on the internet, now broadcasts on 101FM in Glasgow.

Insight Radio, Europe's first radio service for blind and partially sighted people, celebrated its arrival on the airwaves at a reception at the Lighthouse, Glasgow, on 5 July.

Ross Macfadyen, Radio Services Manager, RNIB, said: "Today we are marking the official launch of the radio service on 101FM in Glasgow and our new name, 'Insight Radio'. Since going on air we've had a brilliant first six months winning a Sony Award and great feedback from our listeners. Now we're looking forward to more exciting developments."

Insight Radio is funded by a consortium of organisations led by RNIB Scotland and including Glasgow City Council, British Wireless for the Blind, East Renfrewshire Council and South Lanarkshire

Radio community

John Legg, Director of RNIB Scotland, said: "This is an exciting opportunity. We are creating a very special community of broadcasters and listeners, listening to each other. We're not just providing blind and partially sighted people with information and entertainment; we're enabling them to feel part of the radio station."

Overcoming isolation

Insight Radio provides blind and partially sighted listeners with quick and easy access to information and public services as well as leisure, recreational and social opportunities to help reduce feelings of isolation.

The station currently broadcasts from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, with evening and weekend programmes in the planning stage. Listeners enjoy a varied programme mix ranging from newspaper and magazine reviews through music request programmes to interactive phone-ins and lifestyle and feature programmes, all presented with the blind or partially sighted listener in mind.

Training opportunities

Insight Radio also creates training and employment opportunities. Sixty percent of full-time employees at the station are blind or partially sighted including all its presenters who are assisted on-air by sighted volunteer co-presenters.

The station aims to enhance the service to its listeners by encouraging external agencies who have information or advice for people with sight loss to contribute directly to the output.

Read more at - http://www.insightradio-net.com/

http://music4blind.multiply.com/journal/item/34

AudioGames.net
Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Sound Rts! New Real Time Audio Stratogy Game.

By dark empathy, Super Audio Gamer

Sound Rts! New Real Time Audio Stratogy Game.

It's always fantastic when a game just suddenly appears out of the blue, particularly when it's a game in a genre which I've personally been absolutely aching to play more of. I'm speaking of course about real time Audio stratogy war games.

sound Rts is a free audio stratogy game developed by Jean-luc Pontico, based upon the popular warcraft series of fantasy battle games.

In this game you become the general of an army, commanding peasants, foot soldiers, knights, archers, catapults mages and dragons against enemy forces, and only wise leadership and optimal use of resources will win the day.

You may play against the computer, carry out a number of military missions, or connect to and challenge other players over the internet. the game is also available in French!

So, what are you waiting for! go here to the sound rts page to download the game and begin your campeign of conquest!

LINK:
http://jlpo.free.fr/soundrts/

Please note, that the game is stil a beta version, but is nevertheless incredibly playable. Feel free to discuss the game in our forums.

Now please excuse me, I have troops to train!

Last edited by dark empathy (2007-07-03 06:24:46)

Let your dream begin,
Let your darker side give in,
to the power of the
music that I write.
Help me make the music of the night.

http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?id=1407
Blind Access Journal
Saturday, July 07, 2007

CallBurner: Finally, Fully Accessible Skype Call Recording is Here at Last!

By Darrell Shandrow

The people at Netralia, developers of the Skylook Skype call management and recording application for Microsoft Outlook, have recently released a new Skype call recording product that does not depend on Outlook. The new CallBurner application enables annotation and recording of all Skype calls while providing a clean, simple user interface.

LINK:
http://www.callburner.com/

After learning of the existence of this new product, I downloaded a trial copy of the software. While finding it reasonably usable for basic call recording, I found the call detail window largely inaccessible with any screen reader, including JAWS, System Access and Window-Eyes. I promptly wrote a short note to the company's support e-mail address requesting accessibility enhancements to permit full use of CallBurner with screen reading software. On Thursday, July 5, I was absolutely flabbergasted to receive a response from the company's senior developer offering a beta copy of an accessible version of the software for my testing! This response came in less than three weeks of my initial request!

After downloading the test copy of CallBurner, I immediately began to put it through its paces. After enabling "Screen Reader Compatibility" in the Accessibility sub-menu of the program's System Tray icon, I was instantly delighted to discover extensive keyboard navigation, a tabbed Call Details dialogue box and full accessibility without need of screen reader configuration or scripts. Follow these steps to enable "Screen Reader Compatibility" after downloading and installing CallBurner:

Minimize all running programs and focus on the Desktop by pressing Left Windows+M.

Press JAWS Key+F11, Modifier+F11 (System Access) or Insert+S (Window-Eyes) to open the System Tray menu.

Down arrow to CallBurner and press enter to right click its System Tray icon.

Press enter on the Accessibility sub-menu.

Press enter on "Screen Reader Compatibility". This is the only option currently found in the Accessibility sub-menu.

The following dialogue box is shown: "Screen Reader Compatibility is now turned ON. NOTE: You need to restart CallBurner for this change to become effective."

Press enter on the OK button to accept the change.

Press JAWS Key+F11, Modifier+F11 (System Access) or Insert+S (Window-Eyes) to return to the System Tray menu.

Down arrow to CallBurner and press enter to right click its System Tray icon.

Up arrow to the Quit option and press enter.

Press the Left Windows key or CTRL+Escape to open the Start menu.

Press p to open the All Programs menu.

Down arrow to CallBurner and press enter to open its sub-menu.

Press enter on CallBurner to start the program. The Call Details window opens, presenting a tabbed dialogue box that delivers a fully accessible user interface to all CallBurner functions.

Press the End key to move to the Help tab.

Press the Tab key once to select Browse On-Line Help and press enter to open CallBurner's documentation in a typical web browser window. This help will serve to get you started with CallBurner in short order.

The latest version of CallBurner, incorporating the "Screen Reader Compatibility" enhancement, has been made available as of Saturday, July 7, 2007. I highly recommend CallBurner to anyone, blind or sighted, who needs to record Skype calls. The ability and willingness of the developers to make their software accessible in less than three weeks of such a request demonstrates the commitment of this company to high quality, reliable customer service and technical support. We should all send a quick note of thanks to the CallBurner Team expressing our appreciation for their prompt attention to our accessibility needs and encouraging their developers to continue the excellent work in this area for all their software.

LINK: The Callburner Team email
callburner@callburner.com

Stay tuned to Blind Access Journal and other blind community online resources for demonstrations, reviews, tips and other information covering the use of this excellent application.

posted by Darrell at 12:38 PM

http://www.blindaccessjournal.com/2007/07/callburner-finally-fully-accessible.html

The Fred's Head Companion
Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Internet TV Tuner for the Blind

By Michael McCarty

Internet TV tuners are nothing new. There are tons of programs that claim to have the most stations, best interface and best performance for your computer. The truth is that most of these programs are totally useless by the blind and most of their links don't work.

I have found a program that does what it says. You truly can tune into over fifteen hundred internet TV stations and the links actually work. The program works well with JAWS and Window Eyes and is really fun to use.

JLC's Internet TV is a program for watching free online TV channels. It automatically finds over fifteen hundred channels and has an online updater to keep the channel list updated. This program is completely free of charge and is 100% accessible to people using screen readers and screen magnification programs.

Features:

Watch over fifteen hundred online TV channels for free!

User friendly interface with built-in channel list.

Channel updater which keeps your list synchronized with the list at World Wide Internet TV

LINK:
http://wwitv.com/

Program updater automatically keeps your program up to date.

Powerful search function lets you easily find any channel.

Favorite list to keep a track of your favorite channels.

Absolutely NO spyware/adware or malware included!

Requirements:
Windows Media Player
Real Player or Real Alternative

Click this link to download - JLC's Internet TV.
http://jlc-software.com/index.php?page=internet_tv.html

Posted by Michael McCarty at 11:36 AM

http://fredsheadcompanion.blogspot.com/2007/07/internet-tv-tuner-for-blind.html

The Fred's Head Companion
Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The Impressor: Braille Business Card Embosser

By Michael McCarty

Easily create your own braille business cards! Similar to the stamp used by notary publics. The die which embosses braille on your card is custom-made with your information.

Features

Easy to use: insert a standard 3 1/2 x 2 inch business card into the embosser.

Squeeze - and your card is brailled instantly!

Metal construction

Acrylic base for one-hand operation

Embosses up to 4 lines, 13 braille cells per line

Call us at 800-223-1839 to initiate an order. Then mail us a copy of your business card. We will then call you to confirm your information as it appears in braille.

Impressor:
Catalog Number: 1-03380-00

Message: My office recently found 3 hand-held Braille business card embossers which contain the APH logo, which we did not know we had. We do not currently have a staff member who can read Braille, thus we do not know if the information on the embossers is still accurate. Do you know where I could send their imprints, in order to get a written translation? If the imprints are no longer accurate, do you offer replacements without buying an entirely new embosser? Thanks in advance.
Location: Washington, DC

The easiest and probably quickest way to get a translation of what is on the Impressors you have found is to place a business card in each of them and squeeze firmly. Then, send each of the cards to me and I will translate them and email you the text of each.

So that you know which message goes with each Impressor, you might number both the card and the Impressor that you use to stamp it. It may be that none, one, two or all may be fine.

Once you know your situation, you can have an Impressor modified. You will need to return the entire impressor to us for modification.

Once everyone knows the situation I can give you information about returning any units that may need modifying.

Please send the cards to:

Fred Gissoni
Technical Support
American Printing House for the Blind
1839 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, KY 40206

Impressor Revised:
Catalog Number: 1-03380-01

I hope this gives you the information you need. Note: Impressor or Revision not available on Quota.

Click here to purchase these items through our Quick Order Entry page: http://shop.aph.org/quickentry.asp

If you need assistance, click this link to read the Fred's Head Companion post "Purchasing Products From The APH Website Is Easy".

http://fredsheadcompanion.blogspot.com/2005/11/purchasing-products-from-aph-website.html

Posted by Michael McCarty at 12:01 PM

http://fredsheadcompanion.blogspot.com/2006/02/impressor-braille-business-card.html

At the business desk, I'm Heather DeMarco bidding you a relaxing summer's evening.

posted by Info@Untapped at 6:27 PM | 0 comments

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Companies not paying enough attention to customer service

Good day everyone! I'm Jeff N Marquis at the business desk and I'd like to bring your attention to some companies who seem to be forgetting all about the importance of customer service.

For the past few months we have been receiving emails on a continuous basis about certain companies and the bad customer service that they are presently providing. We've decided to name these companies in the hope that they'll pay attention and do something quickly.

It does not matter the size and type of company. Customer service is o so important to all companies and it could either make or break aa company. Good customer service is the hallmark of a good company but on the other hand, bad customer service is the downfall of a bad company.

Let's take a brief look at the following companies.

First, IBM. Over the years this company has been known for its excellent customer service and customer support. However, since the early 90s when IBM went through a very rough patch, things have changed at Big Blue.

According to our emailers, it appears that IBM presently hires customer reps who are for the most part cocky, discourteous, they lack sufficient product knowledge, and the only way to get any action is for customers to scream at the top of their voices. Not very good for IBM.

Second, a bank North of the border called the Royal Bank. According to many emailers, this bank does not treat its blind and visually impaired customers with much courtesy. It does not present a website that is accessible to the blind, and customers have complained to us that they have to beg, plead, and literally threaten before the Royal decides to provide them with statements that they can read for themselves. Considering the handsome profits that this bank makes each year, why is it that they are unable to accommodate their blind and visually impaired customers? Very sad indeed.

Third, Caribbean Airlines. The successor to BWIA also known as British West Indian airways, this airline has been accused of violating and infringing upon the rights of special needs passengers. According to feedback that we've been receiving, this airline has not been very good at providing special assistance services to those requesting it. I think that CAL needs to pay attention to what's presently going on with Ryan Air in Britain.

I don't like running down any company but when we get hundreds of emails complaining about companies for whatever reasons and the reasons given are consistent across the board, then we have to help by publicly chastising the guilty parties.

Speaking of accessible websites, did you know that accessible websites can convert into more revenue, reduced costs, and expanded customer bases? The info below will help you to improve your websites.

Looking for ideas and opportunities to crack the over 50s market? The baby boomer market? The seniors market? Other niche markets?
Are you seeking opportunities in markets that are explosive, lucrative, but above all safe?
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Then you need to visit www.sterlingcreations.ca and there you'll find a suite of services that can help you to get where you want to go.
From writing to research, and translation to transcription. There is even a free monthly online magazine that is crammed with very vital and valuable information. You can even keep abreast of breaking trends and headlines for absolutely free.
Check it out at your convenience.

At the business desk, I'm Jeff N Marquis wishing you a pleasant summer's evening.

posted by Jeff at 8:01 PM | 0 comments

Monday, August 27, 2007

Baby boomers working later

Greetings everyone! I'm Jayna Sheffield at the business desk and today I'd like to share an article of interest with you.

This article was sent to us by our Ottawa Canada bureau and my comments to this article is that maybe, just maybe, because of the proximity of Canada to the United States, a similar pattern may already be taking place right here in our backyard.

I'll let you be the judge. In the meantime, here's the article.

Increasing number of Canadians working later in life, survey finds; Changing
attitude to aging big reason older people stay in workforce

Shannon Proudfoot
Ottawa Citizen , Aug. 25, 2007

Canadians are working later in life and that may cushion a potential labour
> shortage when baby boomers start to retire, a report shows.

An estimated 2.1 million people age 55 to 64 were employed or looking for
jobs in 2006 -- double the number who were working 30 years before,
according to a study released yesterday by Statistics Canada. Most of their
jobs were in the service sector and the vast majority worked full time.

Older workers made up 12 per cent of the Canadian labour force last year,
while they comprised 10 per cent in 1976. That reflects an aging population
and the fact that more people are working later.

"It's not only more older people -- it's not the same older person as it was
before," says David Cravit, 62, senior vice-president of marketing for the
50Plus Group, the largest Internet portal for baby boomers and seniors in
the country. ''I look and act and think 15 years younger than my
chronological age. I'm not here to be sitting in a rocking chair playing
cribbage for five years waiting for the axe to fall."

Three-quarters (76 per cent) of men age 55 to 59 either had a job or were
looking for one last year, as were 62 per cent of women. In the 60 to 64
group, 53 per cent of men were still in the work force and a record-high 37
per cent of women were in the same situation. The data came from the Labour
Force Survey.

Baby boomers' strong attachment to work, increased education -- especially
among women -- and the near-elimination of mandatory retirement at 65 are
expected to keep more older workers on the job in the future.

"Employment is an important form of validation for this generation. Remember
that the 60-year-olds of today were the yuppies of the 1970s," says Mr.
Cravit.

The financial responsibilities of caring for aging parents or grown children
who haven't flown the nest may also be pushing the "sandwich generation" to
work longer, he adds.

Others may work to finance luxuries their pensions don't cover, Mr. Cravit
says, citing his favourite example of a Calgary man in his 80s who works
part time at a Tim Hortons outlet so he can spend three months in Mexico
each year.

Although his employer recently scrapped mandatory retirement, 60-year-old
University of British Columbia professor David Sanderson plans to leave the
workforce in five years.

That will give him and his wife the financial means and the time to enjoy
their retirement years, he says, even though he's not ready for it quite
yet.

"I love my job, but I like doing things with my wife, travelling, restoring
cars, running, those kinds of things," Mr. Sanderson says.

David Patchell-Evans, founder of GoodLife Fitness Clubs, is about to turn 54
and doesn't foresee himself retiring in the next decade.

He has a good role-model in his 87-year-old mother, who still works for the
company full time, attending every meeting and scrutinizing the balance
sheets.

"Most people still want to get young, we don't want to get old," he says.
"And old is a very relative thing. I'm convinced it's not a state of age,
it's a state of attitude."

I'd like to leave you with some info that you can use to help you decide if you too would like to work later, or maybe you'd like to become your own boss?

How would you like to keep abreast of breaking headlines, latest trends, and up to the minute news and do it all for free? How would you like to save yourself some precious time and energy by going to a website that offers you daily updates by some very hardworking experts and all of this at no cost to you? Would you like to learn how to keep your assets safe and protected from the fast fingers of those unscrupulous scammers, identity thieves, and cyber pirates?
The experts at www.untappedwealth.com can show you how to obtain all of this plus much more and they are offering all of this for free because they are bound and determined to help you stay away from those get rich quick schemes, those scams with broken promises and smoking mirrors, and those pitfalls that could land you in endless trouble. Their fingers are strategically placed on what's going on minute by minute around the world and they bring it to you as it happens. Take advantage of their knowledge and experience and do it at no cost.

At the business desk, I'm Jayna Sheffield wishing you a pleasant day.

posted by Editor at 6:23 PM | 0 comments

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Retirees making noises in the small business world

Good evening! I'm Kerry J Harrison at the business desk and this evening I'd like to focus on a very important group of consumers and innovators. In short, they're among the present leaders in our small business arena.

I'm referring to retirees. within the last few years we have seen a very interesting development re retirees. More and more retirees are choosing to keep working and they're doing this by going into their own business creations. They're using their imaginations and experience to help themselves to lucrative and unique niches in the markets. They're also using their skills to great advantage and they're opening up small businesses to cater to the needs of many types of consumers who have up till now been ignored by larger companies.

For who better than retirees to let us know what retirees are seeking? That's what retirees these days are doing. They are taking their needs and demands and building small businesses to meet these needs and demands. They are also listening very carefully to the needs and demands of their fellow retirees and they are transforming their findings into businesses that are doing quite nicely.

I personally like this type of thinking because it shows that finally, and at last, someone is listening to the voices of retirees. In addition, with retirees working for retirees, we are going to see more and more services and products being developed for retirees. For too long, we have had to put up with companies not paying enough and adequate attention to the needs of this particular group of consumers. Retirees are quickly becoming the largest group of consumers and they are also becoming more and more financially influential. So, why not listen to what they're saying and what they're doing.

You'll notice that in our Amazon picks of the week I have chosen a book that centers on the types of businesses that retirees are going into.

Have a read.

Now for our book talk of the week.

Here are our Amazon picks.

The innovation formula how organizations turn change into opportunity.

Business strategist series

By Michel Robert and Alan Weiss

This is an excellent book for any type of business and any size of company. Turning change into opportunity could easily be applied to situations such as when the economy goes from boom to recession and visa versa.

Retirees provide opportunity for salvage business

By Wayne Board

More and more retirees are going into their very own business and the salvation business is an upcoming one. A very good book for all retirees to read.

Untapped Wealth Discovered

By Jeff N Marquis and Kerry J Harrison

Jeff and I would like to invite you to read our book as we feel that there are lots of great ideas and strategies for you to learn about. You can learn all about four very important markets and why many experts feel that these are the ones that you should be focusing on.

In closing, I'd like to offer you some very important info on how you too can start your own business.

Are you tired of looking over your shoulder because you're so scared of being scammed out of your hard earned savings, your house, and your other assets?
Are you looking for ways to avoid those scams with their broken promises and get rich quick schemes? Are you worried that one day soon someone is going to try and scam you out of your worldly possessions? Do you know what you should be doing in order to combat those seedy scammers, identity thieves, and shady investors?
Now you can take advantage of some very potent info and daily updates plus more in order to help you stay healthy and sleep well at night. All of this info is free for the taking and it will save you thousands of research hours, protect your savings and worldly possessions, and help you to make decisions that are safe, logical, and sound. The experts at www.untappedwealth.com are offering you all of this at absolutely no cost because their philosophy is that if they help you then you will help others and we will become a safer and better country. Check them out! You have absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain!

At the business desk, I'm Kerry J Harrison wishing you a pleasant weekend.

posted by Kerry at 7:42 PM | 0 comments

Friday, August 24, 2007

Women as small business owners?

Good day everyone! I'm Jeff N Marquis at the business desk and this evening I'd like to introduce our weekly feature focusing on women. We've decided to name this feature "Women talk" and so let's talk for a bit about women as small business owners.

Nothing new in this arena but what we're finding as that more and more women are going into business for themselves. The small business idea for woman is a growing trend across the United States these days and I'd like to refer you to www.untappedwealth.com/business-strategies.html and there you can check out the small business idea for woman link.

Women need to be motivated and convinced that they do belong in the small business world and even more in the business world as a whole. Nothing should stop our business women from making their mark. Small business women owners have grown by over 23% within the last year, twice the rate of new business openings. If this is not enough we have to look at other factors such as more and more women becoming CEOs of top Fortune 500 companies.

I know, it's not an easy task to get women motivated but I'd like to help and I'd like to leave you with a message from Donna Jodhan, one of our associates and very successful woman in her own right. Donna is blind but this has not stopped her from running a very successful consulting business. Here now is her message.

Do women have a place in the small business arena?

So, don't give up! As women we have to stick together and help and support each other.

I'd like to end my week by giving you some info on Donna's company.

At the business desk, I'm Jeff N Marquis wishing you a happy weekend.

posted by Jeff at 6:42 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Great investment opportunities awaiting you in Canada

Hi everyone! I'm Heather DeMarco at the business desk and today I'd like to make a plug for Canada.

Our neighbors to the North are really going guns these days. Canada! A small but very dynamic country with plenty of opportunities for the person who is serious about it all. Canada may be known as the frozen North but what many don't know is that this very unassuming country holds the key to tons of lucrative opportunities.

Canada is multi cultural with English and French being the two official languages. It boasts a population of a little over 33 million people and it takes in thousands of new immigrants on an annual basis. Its main industries include: Oil and gas, technology, agriculture, and fishing. However, over the past decade it has developed quite nicely in other areas such as medical and scientific research.

You may be asking yourself then what's so special about Canada? There's lots more to tell. The Canadian dollar has risen quite sharply against our US dollar within the last year and more and more companies are scrambling to get in on a part of the oil and gas exploration and development. Added to this we have the Canadian government encouraging the development of more small businesses.

So what's in it for Americans? Plenty. There is a shortage of certain types of skills in Canada and the Canadian government is very anxious to fill these gaping holes. Skills shortages such as:

Doctors and nurses. Canada needs to fill its coffers with skilled medical professionals.

Skilled researchers. Many Canadian institutions of learning are anxious to attract researchers.

Technology skills. Canada is also seeking to fill its computer cubicles with skilled technology professionals.

In addition, due to the rapid retirement of Canadian baby boomers presently taking place, Canada is presently experiencing a shortage in certain sectors and the experts are predicting that if this issue is not addressed today the situation will become increasingly critical and that by 2008 the boiling point will be reached.

Canada is also expanding its tentacles into such places as South America and Asia and accordingly it is seeking skilled linguists to help with the push. So, if you speak either French or Spanish in addition to English then this may be your chance to get a headstart.

I'll leave you with some info that you can use to make yourself more marketable in Canada.

At the business desk, i'm Heather DeMarco wishing you a pleasant evening.

posted by Info@Untapped at 6:44 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Important news round-up of the week

Greetings everyone! I'm Jayna Sheffield at the business desk and it's time for our weekly news round-up. We'd like to thank the many emailers who have taken the time to give us their feedback and we hope to continue this feature.

Enjoy!

Table of contents
August 22 2007

1 Nokia Licenses Immersion's VibeTonz(R) Tactile Feedback for Mobile Devices
2 GhostReader (Mac) offers high quality text to speech
3 Presto Computerless e-mail service emphasizes accessibility
4 The IT Director's guide to accessible IT
5 Google Book Search Gets Text Layer
6 Email service turns text into Braille for blind
7 PC Access Solution for the Visually Impaired: GUIDE, Easy to Learn and Use, Introduced by EVAS

TMCnet.com (Technology Marketing Corp)
Monday, July 02, 2007

Nokia Licenses Immersion's VibeTonz(R) Tactile Feedback for Mobile Devices

By Press Release

SAN JOSE, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- Immersion Corporation (NASDAQ:IMMR), a leading developer and licensor of touch feedback technology, today announced that Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK) has obtained a long-term, worldwide license for Immersion's VibeTonz(R) tactile feedback system for mobile devices. The license gives Nokia, the world's leading mobile device manufacturer, the rights to use VibeTonz technology to enhance mobile device operation.

"This license with Nokia supports the potential for very widespread use of our VibeTonz System -- and the VibeTonz System supports the potential for a much fuller, more multisensory experience for users," said Immersion CEO Victor Viegas. "With VibeTonz technology, Nokia can very purposefully access the sense of touch and add value throughout the mobile device."

A single implementation of the VibeTonz System can supply several advantages, including off-load dependence on sight and sound, which can enhance safety and ease operation in some situations. Tactile feedback has also been found to improve execution time, error rate, and information capacity.(1) More specifically, the technology allows touchscreen-based mobile devices to provide unmistakable tactile cues in response to touchscreen presses. It can enliven mobile games with touch feedback similar to that found in console games; heighten the music and ringtone fun-factor by "turning up the sub-woofers" with a vibe beat; make operation easier and more intuitive by pairing audio/visual with tactile cues for events such as call dropped, ringing, and busy; and make alerts more discernible and memorable by varying how they feel, from a reverberating gong effect to a subtle tapping.

Under the license, Nokia has the right to use Immersion's VibeTonz Mobile Player in its mobile devices sold worldwide. Immersion will supply its VibeTonz SDK to Nokia's Forum Nokia developer community for creating downloadable applications and content for VibeTonz-enabled products.

(1) The Value of Haptics: A summary of recent published findings on the value of haptic feedback in human-computer interaction. Immersion Corporation, 2007.

http://www.immersion.com/valueofhaptics.php

About the VibeTonz System (www.vibetonz.com)

The field-proven VibeTonz System, comprised of VibeTonz Mobile Player and VibeTonz SDK, delivers a broad range of tactile feedback effects to make user interface features, applications, and downloadable, multimedia content more intuitive and engaging. Embedded in mobile devices, VibeTonz Mobile Player exerts precise, high-speed control over the vibration actuator to produce tactile effects with unprecedented subtlety and dynamics. VibeTonz SDK provides cross-platform APIs and a suite of authoring tools for making development and customization of tactile feedback fast and easy.

About Immersion Corporation (www.immersion.com)

Founded in 1993, Immersion Corporation is a recognized leader in developing, licensing, and marketing digital touch technology and products. Using Immersion's advanced touch feedback technology (www.immersion.com/corporate/products/), electronic user interfaces can be made more productive, compelling, entertaining, or safer. Immersion's technology is deployed across automotive, entertainment, industrial controls, medical training, mobility, and three-dimensional simulation markets. Immersion's patent portfolio includes over 600 issued or pending patents in the U.S. and other countries.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove incorrect, could cause the results of Immersion Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements.

All statements, other than the statements of historical fact, are statements that may be deemed forward-looking statements, including any projections of earnings, revenues, or other financial matters; any statements of the plans, strategies, and objectives of management for future operations; any statements concerning the breadth of and timeline to implement force feedback technology into mobile devices or into games or other content, release of VibeTonz-enabled mobile devices, release of content by service providers, or any change in revenue that may occur from such implementation; any statements regarding consumer response that may occur as a result of having touch feedback in mobile devices or content, or consumer and market acceptance of force feedback products in general; proposed products or services; any statements regarding future economic conditions or performance; statements of belief; and any statement or assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. Immersion's actual results might differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements due to risks and uncertainties associated with Immersion's business, which include, but are not limited to, delay in or failure to achieve commercial demand for Immersion's products or a delay in or failure to achieve the acceptance of force feedback as a critical user experience.

For a more detailed discussion of these factors, and other factors that could cause actual results to vary materially, interested parties should review the risk factors listed in our most current Form 10-Q, which is on file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements in this press release reflect our beliefs and predictions as of the date of this release. We disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements as a result of financial, business, or any other developments occurring after the date of this release.

Immersion, the Immersion logo, and VibeTonz are trademarks of Immersion Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/07/02/2755359.htm

Macworld.com
Thursday, July 05, 2007

GhostReader (Mac) offers high quality text to speech

By Peter Cohen

AssistiveWare and ConvenienceWare on Thursday announced the release of GhostReader 1.1, a replacement for their previously released TextParrot software. It's text-to-speech software for Mac OS X that features high quality, multilingual voices. It's priced starting at $39.95.

LINK:
http://www.convenienceware.com/ghostreader.php

GhostReader converts text to speech which you can use to listen to documents. You can export the content to iPod-ready iTunes tracks, or just use it to speak selected text instead. With some applications (like Safari, for example), you can use Ghostreader to speak text by pointing the cursor at the text.

GhostReader is multilingual (based on the license you purchase), and can be used in English, Czech, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Italian, Danish and many other languages.

Differences between TextParrot and GhostReader include new languages with high and medium-quality voices, German localization, buttons that let you relisten to the current paragraph or sentence, or the next one, other interface and usability enhancements and more.

GhostReader 1.1 is a free update for TextParrot 1.0 users (they utilize the same activation codes).

GhostReader requires Mac OS X v10.4 or later and is a Universal binary.

http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/07/05/ghostreader/index.php

Bryan College Station Eagle, TX, USA
Thursday, July 05, 2007

Presto Computerless e-mail service emphasizes accessibility

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, Associated Press

BOSTON - By offering technology that allows people without computers to read e-mail, Presto Services Inc. took on a bold challenge. Yet Presto and its Internet-connected printer that spits out the e-mails are remarkably well conceived.

I tested this service with my grandparents in California, ages 86 and 87, and thought of it as a dual experiment. While putting Presto through its paces, I wanted to see how people tuned to slower social rhythms felt about becoming more connected to today's constantly firing communications culture.

This is not a complete transformation, because Presto is one-way: Recipients get printed e-mails but have no keyboard or computer screen for responding. For that reason, my grandfather told me he didn't think he'd enjoy Presto.

But it turned out that even being brought part way into the e-mail fold - which meant a steadier stream of photos of their three great-grandchildren - was elating. Ultimately, my grandfather delivered such an effusive verdict that I suspect even Presto would tone his comments down in an advertisement, for believability's sake.
>So let's just put it this way: They liked it so much I'm going to pay Presto to keep them on as customers (it's generally $100 for the printer, plus $10 a month or $100 a year for the e-mail service).

Here's how it works. First someone orders Presto's color printer - probably someone on the Web-connected side of the equation, because this is available mainly online, at least for now. (It also can be ordered by phone.)

The "Printing Mailbox" printer is custom-made for Presto by Hewlett-Packard Co. It is simplified so it has a just a few buttons - including volume controls, because the printer chimes when it has delivered something.

It's pretty easy to get it going. The printer has to be plugged into an outlet and an active phone jack, and fed with the ink cartridge and plain white paper. (Twenty sheets are included.)

I had one ready within 15 minutes of opening the box. My grandfather needed a bit more time when he set his up, because it wasn't clear to him at first where the lone ink cartridge went.

Either before or after the printer is running, the Web-connected friend or relative uses Presto's Web site to activate the recipient's service. In addition to e-mail, Presto can deliver newspaper columns, recipes and puzzles.

The person who sets this all up is the "account manager," who can monitor settings on the Printing Mailbox remotely. As account manager, I selected an e-mail address at Presto.com for my grandparents and assembled a "white list" of people who could send them messages. Anyone not on the list is barred, to prevent spam.

Next, I set five times of day at which the printer would dial a local Presto phone number to retrieve messages (these times can be changed), and chose how the e-mails would be formatted.

Another thoughtful touch is that Presto prints the last page of an e-mail first. That means the stack that greets the recipient is as user-friendly as possible, with the first page on top. And photos sent as attachments are automatically printed following the text.

My grandfather said Presto e-mails are better than a letter, because they are more timely. He also realized that a series of e-mail updates revealed my family's life in more detail than he could glean in weekly phone calls.

When you're 86 and 87, such new sources of joy aren't always easy to come by. That's a huge point for Presto, even if it's not cheap.

http://www.theeagle.com/stories/070507/business_20070705017.php

PublicTechnology.net - UK
Friday, July 06, 2007

Free download: The IT Director's guide to accessible IT

By Posted by: Editor

This was published: 2007-07-06 08:10:00

The Information Technologists' Company has published an important new (and free to download) guide, "THE IT DIRECTORS' GUIDE TO ACCESSIBLE IT". It should be exceedingly useful for all managers and directors in public sector IT roles.

LINK: You can download the document at this link (PDF)

http://www.publictechnology.net/downloads/index.php?IT_Directors_Guide_to_Accessible_IT.pdf

Information Technology (IT) underpins the operation of most organisations in the private, public and voluntary sectors in delivering services to customers and in supporting internal business processes such as email, finance and personnel. For a growing number of organisations good IT can be a source of competitive advantage.

But for some time large companies have been aware that there are a sizeable number of customers and employees who have difficulty or discomfort using off-the-peg hardware or software and have been trying to do something about it. Making IT systems flexible enough to be as useable by as many people as possible is at the heart of accessible IT - the subject of this Guide.

IT has enormous potential to enable disabled people to better integrate within society and the economy through overcoming some of the barriers of communication and physical travel that can prevent them accessing goods and services or getting into or remaining in employment. There are 11 million disabled adults in the UK, 20% of the population, but disabled adults of working age are only 50% as likely to be in work as non-disabled people. Similar statistics of disadvantage are seen in further and higher education.

This represents not only a significant source of untapped potential for workforce talent but also a market for services, estimated by the Institute of Employment Studies to be of the order of £80 bn-a-year. Organisations have been required by law since 1995 to make reasonable adjustments under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) to ensure that disabled employees and customers are not disadvantaged. In the public sector the Disability Equality Duty, introduced December 2006, has strengthened this requirement. The recent Age Discrimination legislation has meant that organisations now need to think about age in combination with disability, as the majority of impairments which are classed as disability under the DDA will be acquired or worsen with age.

Most organisations of significant size have developed diversity policies, recognising the benefits of having a diverse workforce that reflects the diversity of their customer base. The introduction of the new Commission on Equality and Human Rights later in 2007 will mean an increasing focus upon understanding the needs and rights of the individual.

IT Directors and Chief Information Officers play an increasingly pivotal role in the transformation of business through IT. Working with colleagues in marketing, operations, finance and HR, they have the best overview of how IT needs to be integrated with those functions to deliver business benefit. Integrating disability within the organisation's IT policy and strategy is part of this. Arguably, few organisations have done this well mainly because of a lack of information or concern over costs or complexity which usually proves unfounded. They are therefore both missing out on business opportunities and also running the risk of non compliance with legislation.

The purpose of this Guide is to enable IT directors to understand and communicate to colleagues the necessity of taking an integrated approach to disability within IT and to provide some practical guidance on the best way to go about it. In the following pages the Guide looks at the available technology, sources of advice and how to measure and report progress.

There are many ways in which the IT department can help disabled employees and customers access company systems. Sometimes this will involve providing special purpose software or hardware, but in the majority of cases accessibility will be a matter of adjusting mainstream systems so that they are more comfortable to use. Often professional help from the IT department will be required to set up systems, but in many cases users should be able to make changes themselves through accessibility features built into their systems.
The degree of assistance that people need to use IT varies enormously. Users who have difficulties seeing or whose body movements are limited probably need most help. Talking computers that use screen reader software and programs that magnify text or allow users to adjust the appearance of information are invaluable to people with sight problems or who suffer from dyslexia. Solutions need not be complicated - some visually impaired people may just need a bigger screen.

Those with physical difficulties may require other ways of entering data and controlling a system than via a conventional keyboard or a mouse. A variety of alternative devices are available to plug into desktop systems including trackballs, switches, onscreen keyboards and adapted keyboards.

IT departments do not have to make decisions about exactly what adaptive equipment to buy there are specialist assessors who can be hired to advise on what is most suitable for each individual. The important thing is to consider disabled users when systems are commissioned so that accessibility is built into the fabric of enterprise computing rather than bolted on as an afterthought.

An effective policy for accessible IT enables a company to increase its available pool of employees, make the most of the talents of those already working for the organisation and demonstrate its concern for all employees. The testimony of many disabled people in the case studies in the appendix at the back of this Guide is that accessible IT makes it possible for disabled people to have a job and opens the door to more rewarding work.

Employees who are not disabled also stand to gain from an approach to IT that acknowledges the differences between people and makes alternatives to standard systems available.

Related links to this article:
The Information Technologists' Company
http://www.wcit.org.uk/

You can download "THE IT DIRECTORS' GUIDE TO ACCESSIBLE IT" at this link

http://www.publictechnology.net/downloads/index.php?IT_Directors_Guide_to_Accessible_IT.pdf

(Source URL below)

http://www.publictechnology.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=10153

WebProNews.com
Thursday, July 05, 2007

Google Book Search Gets Text Layer

By Doug Caverly

Google Book Search has, up until now, provided images of text; these were fine for reading, but not so great for anything else. So the service is taking a step forward and offering true "text layers" of many of its out-of-copyright books.

"[T]his opens the book to adaptive technologies such as screen readers and Braille display, allowing visually impaired users to read these books just as easily as users with sight," explains Bethany Poole, Google's Product Marketing Manager, on the Inside Google Book Search Blog. T.V. Raman goes into greater detail over at the Official Google Blog.

LINK:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/07/ever-more-books-to-read.html

"But the new plain-text layer also provides access for cutting and pasting, text-mining, and other forms of processing," notes Peter Suber, who continues, "Making these books accessible as texts, and not merely as images, is a breakthrough for all users." If you've ever tried to retype a lengthy quote (perhaps for a book report or something of that nature), you'll heartily agree.

That's not to say that the new text layers are perfect - the "squished" formatting makes for rather slow reading, and something about it actually seems to have given Googlified's Haochi Chen a case of motion sickness. Also, Google Blogoscoped's Philipp Lenssen has spied a pack of spelling errors in one of the Shakespeare texts.

Still, for some applications, the text layers are a big improvement over the old scanned images. If you don't agree, well . . . the scanned images are still available, and remain Google Book Search's default mode.

About the Author

Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/07/05/google-book-search-gets-text-layer

The Irish Independent
Monday, July 09, 2007

Email service turns text into Braille for blind

Monday July 09 2007

PEOPLE with reading difficulties can now translate text into Braille or audio by email.

The innovative email-based translation service is located at St Joseph's School For The Visually Impaired, Drumcondra, Dublin.

Known as RoboBraille, it enables blind, partially sighted, dyslexic, the elderly and other people who find it difficult to read, to send documents as attachments by email and receive contracted Braille documents or audio files by return.

For more information about RoboBraille and how to use the service check out the website www.robobraille.org.

Contact Lina Kouzi at the National Council For The Blind Of Ireland, lina.kouzi@ncbi.ie.

Alternatively, call 01 8642266.

http://www.independent.ie/health/lastest-news/email-service-turns-text-into-braille-for-blind-995708.html

PRweb.com (Press Release)
Tuesday, July 10, 2007

PC Access Solution for the Visually Impaired: GUIDE, Easy to Learn and Use, Introduced by EVAS

GUIDE is an all-in-one software suite with easy-to-learn and easy-to-use applications with built-in speech and large print. GUIDE uses a simplified menu structure for each task. The menus are controlled using the keyboard and displayed on uncluttered screens, overlaying the Windows® Desktop. GUIDE is an award winning assistive technology solution providing access to computers for the blind or visually impaired, older adults and those that have difficulty working in Windows.

GUIDE is unique among assistive technology software in that it requires very little training while still providing access to a full range of computer tasks. This product is also an innovative solution for those who have little or no previous experience with computers. This was confirmed when GUIDE received the Simply the Best Award from the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the UK.

Westerly, R.I. (PRWEB) July 10, 2007 -- Electronic Vision Access Solutions (EVAS) announces its distribution and support of GUIDE throughout the United States. Building on its foresight that the independence and quality of life of people with disabilities can be enhanced by Computer-Based Assistive Technology, EVAS launched its U.S. distribution of GUIDE. GUIDE software is an award winning computer access solution for people with low vision or who are blind. EVAS has formed an alliance with Software Express of the UK to provide national distribution and support of this innovative yet straightforward Assistive Technology.

Adrian Sach, Director of Software Express said "We look forward to working with EVAS to support them as they offer and support GUIDE software throughout the United States. We are pleased to work with a company that has long demonstrated its commitment to serving people with disabilities."

Visit
http://www.lowvisioncomputers.com/

to learn more about GUIDE or request a Trial Version.

Jerry Swerdlick, CEO of EVAS said, "GUIDE is unique among assistive technology software in that it requires very little training while still providing access to a full range of computer tasks. This product is also an innovative solution for those who have little or no previous experience with computers. This was confirmed when GUIDE received the Simply the Best Award from the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the UK."

GUIDE is an ideal solution for the blind or visually impaired, older adults and those that have difficulty working in Windows, or those users who:

Have little or no experience with computer technology
Have little or no technical ability
Lack the motivation or capability to acquire or retain detailed technical knowledge
Have tried other assistive technology but are unable to learn or use them effectively
Want an easy to use set of applications with Large Print/Speech Access outside of Windows

Using GUIDE's well-designed programs, and built-in large print and speech access, documents can be created, e-mails can be sent/received, printed material can be scanned and read, the web can be surfed and much more.

The look and operation of GUIDE can be fully adjusted to suit individual needs. Among other things, users can change the screen background color, text color, and font and select a male or female voice. Magnification and voices can also be independently controlled and menus customized to suit user preferences. Additional interactive features include news reader, internet radio and pod casts, audio and graphic file capabilities, calendar, address book, dictionary/thesaurus and calculator.

"With the simple to use GUIDE software, it will be easier than ever for people who are visually impaired and have no computer technology experience to communicate effectively and gain independence and a better quality of life" said Jerry Swerdlick, EVAS' CEO.

EVAS also announced today availability of its new Value Series Systems. These disability specific systems are fully integrated with application software, peripherals and assistive technology, installed and configured. GUIDE Value Series Systems are based on DellT OptiplexT Computers with 19" Flat Panel Monitors, large print keyboards and all-in-one printers. The systems are covered by Dell's Three Year Warranty and protected by AVG Anti-Malware. Value Series Systems: Quality, Performance, and Prompt Delivery, at an Excellent Price, all in a total solution that runs right out of the box.

"Computer-based assistive technology can go a long way to meet the reading, writing, communication and information needs of people with disabilities", said Jerry Swerdlick EVAS' CEO.

Learn more about EVAS' Computer Access Solutions for people who are visually, physically, hearing or learning disabled at http://www.evas.com/

EVAS, serving people with disabilities since 1979, has teamed with DellT to create Computer-Based Assistive Technology Solutions specifically designed for people who are visually, physically, hearing or learning disabled. These Plug & Play Systems run right out of the box with Application Software, Peripherals and Assistive Technology installed and configured. EVAS' Assistive Technology Solutions are tools that can be used to gain independence - an independence, which can open the doors to further education or employment opportunities and a better quality of life.

Contact Information

Corinne Bergen
EVAS
Visit LowVisonComputers.com
(800) USA-EVAS
(800) 872-3827

http://www.prweb.com/releases/guide/software/prweb538432.htm

At the business desk, I'm Jayna Sheffield wishing you a pleasant evening.

posted by Editor at 6:41 PM | 0 comments

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Helpful tips for budding authors

Hello there! I'm Matt Chadwick at the business desk and today I'd like to start with an apology for the misspelling of an author's name when we gave you our Amazon picks of the week last week. Here now is a reprint of this particular pick.

Bye-bye boardroom

By Rachel Hamman

For all those women who are hesitating to take the bull by the horns and go out there and create their own business? Excellent reading for you. Buy it quick!

Today I'd like to address a few hundred emails that we've been receiving over the last months re the following topic. How can one become an author using the Internet as the main marketing tool?

In answer to this, we can certainly provide you with a few tips.

1 If you're really interested in becoming an author, then choose a topic that people want to read about not one that you want to write about. Topics such as self help books, how to books, books on inspiration and motivation, and books that show you how to do things.

2 Printed copies seem to be selling more than e copies. If you really want to sell an e copy of your book then don't make it more than 50 pages at the most.

3 Best to sell your books through a recognized online publisher such as maybe Authorhouse or Booksurge.

4 It won't hurt for you to develop your own website to sell your book.

5 Best and cheaper to use a merchant company to collect payments for your book if you sell it through your website. It's safer and less work for you at your end.

6 Ideally, you should only sell one book on your website. However, if you have more than 1 book to sell, you could get around this by developing a website dedicated only to selling books.

7 Simple book covers would do just fine. Don't make your book covers too busy.

8 Choose an appropriate title that suitably describes the theme of your book.

9 Sometimes a title with a play on words may be a good idea.

10 Finally, make your chapters short, paragraphs no more than five to six lines, and easy to understand language.

That's it! Over to you now.

I'm going to leave you with some very interesting info for starting up your own business.

At the business desk, I'm Matt Chadwick wishing you a very pleasant evening.

posted by Info@Untapped at 7:34 PM | 0 comments

Monday, August 20, 2007

Airlines need to pay more attention to their special needs passengers

Hey there! I'm Alix Shadonnay at the business desk and today I'd like to put out a call to all airlines to start paying more attention to special needs passengers.

Pay attention or you're going to end up in hot water just like one of Britain's more popular airlines. I'm talking about the recent affair re the Ryanair airline.

Too many of our airlines are still not listening to what's going on and that is: More and more of the travelling public are rapidly becoming seniors and special needs consumers so they need to either take heed, (put up), or shut up. In short, if they are unable to accommodate the needs of these types of consumers, then they need to get out of the travel industry or they are going to end up with huge law suits on their hands.

Take a look at the following article and judge for yourself.

Lovells wins payout for visually impaired Ryanair passengers

Author: Source: The Lawyer
The Lawyer - London,UK
13-Aug-2007.

Lovells has won compensation from budget airline Ryanair in a pro bono
appointment on behalf of some visually impaired passengers. The passengers
were refused carriage on the grounds that their flight had already met its
quota of 'mobility-impaired' passengers.

The group was travelling to Italy for a walking holiday and had already
boarded the aircraft and taken their seats when on-board staff ordered them
to disembark.

The group alleged that Ryanair ground staff then informed them that they had
disembarked voluntarily, meaning that they would not qualify for assistance
or compensation under the European Commission Denied Boarding Regulations.

Although the airline did arrange for the group to be booked onto later
flights as a "favour", four of them were forced to sleep on the floor of
Stansted Airport awaiting an early flight the following day, with no offer
of food or accommodation.

The six passengers were represented by Lovells litigation associate Richard
Brown, who said: "It struck me that the group had been treated particularly
unfairly so I was keen to help them get a settlement."

Ryanair's insistence that the group had not been 'denied boarding' under the
meaning of the Commission's Denied Boarding Regulations surrounded its claim
that the quota of four mobility-impaired passengers per flight was necessary
for safety reasons.

The complainants argued that they were not mobility impaired simply because
they were visually impaired, as all of them had sighted guides. Consequently
they should have been paid compensation and, where appropriate, offered
accommodation under the regulations.

Ryanair claimed that it was within its rights under its terms and conditions
to refuse carriage, although the airline has subsequently changed its policy
towards the carriage of visually impaired passengers.

A settlement was reached before proceedings were issued.

The Lawyer Group is a division of Centaur Media PLC 2007
TheLawyer.com was built by Sift Group Ltd.

http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=127863&d=122&h=24&f=46

At the business desk, I'm Alix Shadonnay wishing you a pleasant evening.

posted by Editor at 7:57 PM | 0 comments

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Learn how to use newsletters to increase revenues

Good evening! I'm Kerry J Harrison at the business desk and this evening I'd like to show you how to use newsletters to increase your revenues, traffic to your website, plus so much more.

If you're seeking more material on this specific topic then by all means visit www.untappedwealth.com/business-strategies.html and go to the business idea newsletter link. There you'll learn about a very rapidly growing trend across America.

I want to share a newsletter with you that comes from one of our associates. Hopefully this newsletter will give you some ideas as to how to take advantage of the newsletter strategy but most importantly you can learn what our associate has to offer.

Here goes!

The Sterling Creations summer 2007 newsletter

Hello and welcome to the Sterling Creations Summer 2007 newsletter which is produced quarterly.

We hope that you enjoy it and encourage you to pass it along to those who may be interested in the types of services that we offer.

Table of contents

1 Accessibility services

2 Writing services

3 Research services

4 Translation services

5 Highlights

6 Special offers

Sterling Creations is a made in Canada for Canadians company. However, we also offer our Sterling services worldwide and at the present time several of our clients reside in Britain, Australia, and the United States. Our suite of services is meant to be inter-related and we are very proud of our one stop writing shop that includes: Writing, research, and translation. Our goal is to help you save long hours at your computer slaving over tedious tasks. Let us do it for you so that you can concentrate on other important things.

Here now is a list of our suite of services.

ACCESSIBILITY SERVICES

We test and evaluate software, hardware, and websites. We work both on-site and off-site and we can help you to become more accessibility compliant with regard to the W3C guidelines, as well as ODA, and Section 508. In addition, we make presentations at conferences, run seminars and workshops, and make guest appearances at events pertaining to accessibility. Our accessibility team can also help you to design and develop usability and technical support documents, assist in the managing of user testing teams, and can even provide you with total end-to-end services when it comes to managing the expectations of your clients.

THE ONE STOP WRITING SHOP

Writing services

Our writing services include: Ghost writing, proofreading, and editing. Our word crafters can help you to enrich your articles, blogs, marketing materials, newsletters, speeches, plus much more. We can produce materials for you on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Or upon your request. Materials can be sent to you via email, by fax, or by mail.

RESEARCH SERVICES

Our research team provides services to help you stay in touch with the latest and greatest happenings, news, trends, plus more. Our services are designed to help you with such things as: Discover avenues of potential opportunities on the Internet. We do this by researching and identifying those relevant persons for you to call and those appropriate websites where you can post your company's marketing materials.

Our research team can also research appropriate and relevant information for editorials, required topics, speeches, plus more.

TRANSLATION SERVICES

Our translators specialize in the translation of articles, blogs, documents, marketing materials, newsletters, and speeches.

We translate to and from English/French and English/Spanish. We also offer language coaching services whereby we can help you to:

Improve your written and verbal skills if English is your second language.

Work with you to improve your electronic and written materials, give you the confidence to carry on phone conversations, make oral presentations, plus more.

HIGHLIGHTS

Visit us at www.sterlingcreations.ca and there you can learn more about our company. Take advantage of our free online monthly magazine which is filled with articles focusing on various aspects of accessibility gathered by our accessibility, editorial, and research teams. Our magazine also contains a new feature! Starting in July 2007 our president Donna J Jodhan will be contributing monthly editorials.

At www.translationpeople.com, you can learn more about our translation and language coaching services. Read our free useful info page and catch up on our weekly blog where we give commentaries on exciting opportunities for entrepreneurs and small business owners, pass on tips for budding and professional translators, and give you top book picks from www.amazon.com.

Our staff also produces daily blogs at www.untappedwealth.com and every Wednesday we publish a news round-up of chosen articles that are meant to keep blind and visually impaired persons and other interested stakeholders in touch with the latest developments in the technology arena. You can visit this page at:

http://untappedwealth.com/businessdesk.html

SPECIAL OFFERS

For the next three months we are offering special rates on the following:

Newsletters, blogs, and user testing.

We're offering a 10% discount on all of these.

If you have any questions or comments then please fill out our form at http://sterlingcreations.ca/contact.html

We look forward to your feedback because through it and with it we can only get better.

Now for our Amazon picks of the week.

The best home businesses for the 21st century

By Paul Edwards

This author has a refreshing outlook on types of businesses for the 21st century. He uses creativity and imagination to get his readers going. Many of his suggestions have merit to them.

Bye-bye boardroom

By Rachel Human

For all those women who are hesitating to take the bull by the horns and go out there and create their own business? Excellent reading for you. Buy it quick!

Untapped Wealth Discovered

By Jeff N Marquis and Kerry J Harrison

A masterful piece of work. These two authors have written two editions to this book and each edition can stand on its own. This book is for anyone who is ready to plunge into the small business economy. The authors give their readers hope and knowledge that they can use to avoid common pitfalls.

At the business desk, I'm Kerry J Harrison wishing you a happy weekend.

posted by Kerry at 7:32 PM | 0 comments

Friday, August 17, 2007

Attention women! Your expertise is needed immediately

Good day everyone! I'm Jeff N Marquis at the business desk and this evening I'd like to catch the attention of all women.

This message is for any woman who's seeking to change their lives in any way. If you're struggling to find the silver lining in the cloud then please don't give up. There are practically hundreds of thousands of opportunities for you ot there. Ranging from small business and entrepreneurial opportunities to opportunities both at home and abroad.

I would now like to publish a message from a very unique woman. One of our chief associates and very dear friends. Read her message and if you are interested which I hope you are, then please accept her offer of help.

Here she is.

Women are still earning less than men in the workplace, but there's hope

Women are still earning less than men in the workplace, but this is not all bad news. It's not a chauvinistic statement because the fairer sex is at the very forefront of an important small business trend. According to CNN news, in the last year women owners of small businesses have grown by 23%, twice the rate of new company openings.

Even though this statistic is encouraging, many still face uphill battles when wanting to start something over which they have direct control. However, this is not always possible because of circumstances that are so stereo-typical, but yet so very true:

Being battered on a daily basis by abusive spouses.
Having to be the single parent of the house.
Caring for elderly parents.
Having to work at more than one job in order to take care of both parents and kids.
Having to deal with discrimination against them because they are female.
Having to deal with discrimination against them because they are either immigrants or of an ethnic background.
Having to face the challenges of being a woman and at the same time being either physically challenged or blind or visually impaired.

I'm here to tell all women that there's hope! Being a woman and wanting to own your own successful business is not easy but I've done it despite being blind.

However, we must not underestimate our willingness to create a better life for ourselves. For those of us who are willing to search deep within our hearts, there is hope. I am speaking from my own experience.

My name is Donna Jodhan and I've been the owner of a successful consulting business for over 13 years. Having published three business books, and being currently actively involved in writing articles, blogs, and newsletters, I plan on continuing to address issues related to women, especially those who face further challenges. You see, I was born blind and had to live through many challenges in my lifetime that are not faced by regular folks.

Here are some examples:

1 Professors at graduate school who did not want to work with me because I was a blind woman and they did not feel that blind women belonged in a graduate business program.

2 Managers who felt that I should be working at an agency for the blind instead of being a systems engineer.

3 Persons who feel that I am not competent enough to be a consultant because of being a woman who is blind.

4 A few years ago my business partner robbed me of over $30,000 but I survived and am still in business.

The hope and reality I wish to convey to women today is that if there is a will, there is a way! This is not cliché. I believe I am proof. My next major challenge is to get this message across to our entire half of the population, and to be a conduit for real change.

You can contact me by filling out the form on the contact us page at http://sterlingcreations.ca/contact.html (to avoid any spam emails)

To learn more about Donna's consulting business please read on.

At the business desk, I'm Jeff N Marquis wishing you a great weekend.

posted by Jeff at 8:04 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Phone scammers on the prowl

Hi everyone! I'm Heather DeMarco at the business desk and today I'd like to put out an alert to be on the lookout for a sharp increase in those phone scammers.

Yes! They're increasing in numbers and they're on the prowl for victims and in this case they're not discriminating which victims they take prisoner. So, it's now up to us to protect ourselves and our loved ones. There was a time when they used the mainstream type of weapons to catch us off guard but now they're employing some very potent methods to lurk us into giving out our most precious and personal info.

According to our spies on duty, they are now using methods such as:

Callers from India asking us to sign up for insurances and credit cards. In the case of insurances, these callers phone their unsuspecting victims offering very enticing insurance packages. Packages containing disability, medical, and life and accidental death insurances. If the person being called is not paying attention they soon fall into the trap of wanting to know more and pretty soon they inadvertently give out their full names along with their home addresses and in many cases their email addresses. The caller then ends the call promising to send out the packages but 9 out of 10 times these packages never arrive because the caller does not have any intension of sending out anything to anyone. Instead, the caller has met their objective of obtaining the necessary info from their victim and now they're going to use this info to start reaping havoc with their victim's. In short, you the victim have just helped the caller to enter your personal domain and now your personal and private life is about to be invaded.

These callers are also making other types of phone calls such as asking you to participate in a survey on behalf of your banking institution. They usually start off their call by asking you if you do business with a certain bank and if you say no, then they attempt to get you to agree to do business with the bank that they have just mentioned. In this case they start asking for some personal info and by the time you know it they've managed to glean the right type of info from you in order to start working on defrauding you of your personal assets. If they are lucky enough to name the bank that you do business with when they call, then they have another plan to put into action and they use their cunning to get you to disclose your banking details and before you know it! Bingo! They've just managed to capture your info and now they're ready to go to work to grab your life right out of your hands!

What's different about this is that instead of using North American or English-speaking callers, they are now employing callers from India with Indian accents. Soft-speaking men and women who are well trained, very cunning, very sharp, and very ready and able to scam you. Who are the behind the scenes big wigs? That's the million dollar question. We're not sure and we're not going to guess. However, the experts have two possibilities to offer.

1 North American crooks using unsuspecting callers from India to do their dirty work and in this case the victims end up being the callers themselves because they are totally naive about the whole affair, plus us the ones who are being pounced upon.

2 Crooks from elsewhere with a well oiled operation and the callers themselves are involved in the scheme.

No matter who it is, it's time now for you to pay attention and be very careful when someone calls asking questions that would entail you giving out any type of info that identifies who you are.

Okay, enough bad news for the day. If you'd like to know more about how you can avoid those scammers and scams then please read the info below.

At the business desk, I'm Heather DeMarco cautioning you to pay more attention to your phone calls from those unknown callers.

posted by Info@Untapped at 7:35 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Important news round-up

Greetings everyone! I'm Jayna Sheffield at the business desk and it's time for our news round-up of the week.

We'd like to thank all of our readers for their positive feedback and we hope you enjoy this week's articles chosen for you.

Table of contents

August 15 2007

1 Fifty Online Accessibility and Usability Tools
2 New Screen Magnifier is Technological Marvel
3 Freedom Scientific Announces the PAC Mate Omni
4 Version 8 for Vista is Released
5 Sony boosts television for the blind with latest Bravia models
6 SA To Go on the go
7 Software602 introduces Print2PDF 7.0

UsabilityNews.com (UK)
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Fifty Online Accessibility and Usability Tools

By Joanna Bawa

Usability and accessibility go hand-in-hand with conversion rates, customer satisfaction, targeted traffic and so on. Here are 50 online tools to improve website usability and accessibility to help achieve just that.

The primary goal of usability is making sure that the intended users are able to interact properly with the website while having a positive and convenient experience. By developing this list avangate has provided a starting point to help you keep customers satisfied.

Associated Link: 50 Online Accessibility and Usability Tools

http://www.avangate.com/articles/usability-tools_83.htm

http://www.usabilitynews.com/news/article3985.asp

Press World, Russia
Saturday, June 30, 2007

New Screen Magnifier is Technological Marvel

By Press Release

Functionality and class are what makes new screen magnifier from Workers Collection a technological marvel. press release

Workers Collection today announces the immediate availability of Magnifying Glass Pro (MGPro), a new screen magnifier that combines a large set of carefully chosen features and ease of use. With this software in place, you can magnify tiny text and graphics displayed on your computer monitor, TV screen connected to your PC, or projected onto a larger media during a presentation. As you move the cursor over a section of the viewing area, the magnifier tracks with it and shows the new enlarged portion, making it instantly more readable and accessible. In addition, there is a wide array of visual effects that you can apply to that display.

Why Install Magnifying Glass Pro?

Many people work for hours each day in front of displays. Not only does it cause tension headaches and neck pain, it also affects your eyesight. If your eyes often get red, itchy or sore after prolonged onscreen reading, be sure to use a screen magnifier like MGPro. It eases strain and minimizes stress to your eyes. As a type of assistive technology, this magnifier is good for visually-impaired people.

There are no restrictions on how you can use MGPro, which is due to its unique feature set. You can adjust the glass size and position (fixed position, under the cursor, angular, etc.), invert or rotate an image, adjust contrast, apply effects to enhance your viewing experience. All this can be done with a few mouse clicks in the pop-up Command Mode, which is a unique method of adjusting parameters on the fly without the need to open dialog boxes or learn hot keys like in similar programs. There is also a unique Auto-switcher technology, which lets you associate individual applications, windows, and screen elements with specific user-defined profiles (group of magnifier settings). When you switch between applications, the Auto-switcher applies the appropriate settings automatically, based on the defined profile association. To show or hide the magnifier, you should simply shake your mouse cursor from side to side. It is much easier than using the keyboard shortcut when your hand is already on the mouse.

LINK: Read the details at
www.workerscollection.com/wcollect/english/html/mg_pro.html

Pricing and Availability

Magnifying Glass Pro v.1.4 runs under Microsoft Windows 9x/Me/XP/2000/2003/Vista and costs $24.95 (USD) for a single-user license.

###

NOTE TO EDITORS: Please, let us know if you have questions or would like any additional information on Magnifying Glass Pro 1.4. Contact us at admin@workerscollection.com to get more information. A registration key is available upon request to all editors considering a review

Product page link: http://www.workerscollection.com/wcollect/english/html/mg_pro.html
Press center link: http://www.workerscollection.com/wcollect/english/html/mg_pro_press.html
Download link: http://www.workerscollection.com/download/wcoll/MagniGlassPro_setup.zip (1.4 Mb)
E-mail: admin@workerscollection.com
Company website: http://www.workerscollection.com

company: Workers Collection
contact person: Vitali Kram
e-mail: glass@workerscollection.com
phone: n/a
site: http://www.workerscollection.com

http://software.press-world.com/v/80167/new-screen-magnifier-is-technological-marvelfunctionality-and-class-are-what-makes-new-screen-magnifier-from-workers-collection-a-technological-marvel.html

The Desert Skies (blog)
Saturday, June 30, 2007

Freedom Scientific Announces the PAC Mate Omni

By Jeff Bishop

I must say that I am pleasantly surprised about the pricing of this upgrade. Good going Freedom. I think this is very much a fair price for existing customers.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Brad Davis
Blind/Low Vision Group
800-444-4443 or 727-803-8000
www.FreedomScientific.com
Sales: Info@FreedomScientific.com

Freedom Scientific Announces the PAC Mate OmniT, the Ultimate Mobile Computing Solution for the Blind

New Software and Enhanced Hardware at Special Prices

(St. Petersburg, Florida - June 30, 2007) Freedom Scientific today announced the next generation of the PAC MateT accessible Pocket PC, the PAC Mate Omni. The PAC Mate series incorporates JAWS®, the world's most popular screen reading software, and Microsoft Windows Mobile® to create the world's first accessible Pocket PC device for the blind. The new PAC Mate Omni is a combination of enhanced hardware with expanded functionality and powerful new software that features the latest advances from Freedom Scientific and Microsoft®.

The PAC Mate Omni is powered by Windows Mobile 6.0, the very latest Microsoft operating system. With Windows Mobile 6.0, the PAC Mate Omni will provide users with a host of innovative features and tools that enable the blind to access virtually every application that sighted users of mainstream PDAs now enjoy.

"Freedom Scientific is very pleased to bring the power and the many features of the Windows Mobile 6.0 operating system to users in a form that recognizes the unique needs of blind people," said Jonathan Mosen, Vice President of Blindness Hardware Product Management. "Windows Mobile 6.0 is the most keyboard-friendly version of this operating system ever. With full support for soft keys in Windows Mobile products, the PAC Mate Omni enables users to install and easily operate a huge variety of off-the-shelf third-party applications that offer keyboard support."

When shipped to customers in the fall of 2007, the PAC Mate Omni will be available in the current PAC Mate models - the BX 400 with a Perkins-style keyboard and the QX 400 that offers a laptop-style QWERTY keyboard for data input. The same 20-cell and 40-cell PAC Mate Portable Braille Displays will also be available with both versions.

The new PAC Mate Omni features expanded flash memory of 128 MB. While a portion of this expanded memory is used for the PAC Mate Omni 6.0 software and the operating system, users will have approximately six times more available flash memory than before. All data is now stored in flash memory. This means that all user files and applications are retained, even if the unit is reset or the battery is fully discharged.

The PAC Mate currently outperforms all competitors in regard to battery life, and the PAC Mate Omni extends the performance even longer.

Other new features of the PAC Mate Omni include:

· Access to the mobile version of Windows PowerPoint®
· Microsoft's Direct Push Technology for real time synchronization of e-mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks
· Smart filtering for rapid location of e-mail messages
· Easy information searches via Windows Live Search
· Support for the Windows Live Messenger voice clip feature providing users with "push-to-talk" functionality in instant messaging
· "Plug and Play" support for popular WiFi and Bluetooth® cards

Current PAC Mate users can upgrade to a PAC Mate Omni for just $699. Users who have a current ASA can upgrade for just $549, and users with a PMA can upgrade to a PAC Mate Omni for just $449. Users who have both a current ASA and PMA can upgrade for only $299.

"We are mindful that while many customers are able to receive assistance for the purchase of blindness hardware, the cost of maintaining that hardware is often the responsibility of those who use the product," said Lee Hamilton, President of Freedom Scientific. "We set our PAC Mate Omni update prices at these unprecedented low levels to ensure that our loyal customers have the opportunity to take advantage of the very latest in mobile computing technology. In addition, anyone purchasing a PAC Mate on or after July 1, 2007, will be entitled to a free upgrade to PAC Mate Omni once it is released."

Posted: Jun 30 2007, 03:59 PM by Jeff Bishop |

http://thedesertskies.com/archive/2007/06/30/freedom-scientific-announces-the-pac-mate-omni.aspx

Dolphin Computer Access
Monday, July 02, 2007

Version 8 for Vista is Released

Supernova - The World's Only Combined Magnification and Full Screen Reader for Windows Vista

Launched today, Version 8 of Supernova heralds the release of the World's only full screen reader with inbuilt screen magnification that supports Microsoft's newest operating system, Windows Vista.

Supernova Version 8 will empower visually impaired users worldwide running any of the 4 Vista editions to chose the speech output, screen magnification, refreshable Braille and colour changing settings that best suit their needs.

Also Released Version 8 of Lunar, LunarPlus & Hal for Vista

Also released are Version 8 of Dolphin's Lunar, LunarPlus and Hal that also include Vista support for the Home Basic, Home Premium, Ultimate and Business editions, alongside the same excellent functionality and product support Dolphin customers have come to expect.

Immediately Available in 14 Different Languages

Are you a speech user looking to access German Windows Vista Ultimate? Need some added magnification for French Vista Home Premium? No problem. Version 8 of Supernova, Hal, Lunar and LunarPlus are all immediately available in our 14 most popular language versions including UK English, US English, Arabic, Belgian Dutch, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and not forgetting Welsh.

Free Upgrade to Version 8 - Register Soon

Over 20 years of developing market leading software has earned Dolphin a loyal group of customers ranging from aging surfers to students, from as far apart as the UK to South America. We are therefore delighted to offer any Supernova, Hal, Lunar and LunarPlus Version 7 user, a free upgrade to Version 8 with support for Vista & XP. Users need simply register their name, email address and serial number with Dolphin or their local Dolphin Dealer by the end of August and will receive their free upgrade by download.

Unlock a Demo - Quick, Easy & Carriage Free

Version 8 also marks the arrival of the unlockable demo, simply download the trial version that suits your needs, put version 8 through it's paces and then then by entering a simple unlock code, your demo is converted into a full user licence with no time restrictions and no limitations. Unlock codes also also come with the added bonus of a £20/$34/?28 discount off the price of your normal Dolphin software.

LINK: Want to know more about Dolphin's Vista solutions? Visit the Dolphin Vista Index page.

http://www.yourdolphin.com/vista

LINK: Download a free version 8 demo and check out Vista for yourself.

http://www.yourdolphin.com/demos.asp

LINK: Register your version 7 serial number with Dolphin or your local Dolphin dealer ready for your free version 8 for Vista upgrade.

http://www.yourdolphin.com/dealer_zone.asp

LINK: Read the free version 8 upgrade FAQs and offer terms and conditions.

http://www.yourdolphin.com/dolphin.asp?id=88

(Source URL below)

http://www.yourdolphin.com/newsitem.asp?id=203

Tech Digest (UK)
Monday, July 02, 2007

Sony boosts television for the blind with latest Bravia models

By (via www.magnifiers.org)

Sony is aiming to improve TV for the blind and partially-sighted people with the introduction of Audio Description to its latest Bravia range.

Audio Description (AD) is an additional narrative soundtrack for people with restricted eyesight. During gaps in programme dialogue, an additional voice explains visual plot points, enabling visually impaired people to follow the storyline more fully. Audio description is available on a variety of television programmes throughout Europe but, until now, has only been accessible through the purchase of a separate set-top box or satellite receiver. Now, all Sony Bravia televisions will include as standard.

That's down to the addition of a more powerful audiovisual processor, capable of decoding multiple audio channels - providing access to AD in addition to other aesthetic benefits. For more details, check with your retailer.

Sony website

http://www.sony-europe.com/

Posted by modculture on July 2, 2007 in TVs

http://techdigest.tv/2007/07/sony_boosts_tel.html

BBC Access 2.0 weblog (UK)
Thursday, June 28, 2007

SA To Go on the go

By Paul Crichton

28 Jun 07, 01:28 PM

The Serotek Corporation has launched a beta version of a web-based screen reader application that can make any computer accessible for visually impaired users without installing software.

LINK:
http://www.serotek.com/

Called System Access To Go - SA To Go for short - this web-based application runs on any computer provided it has an internet connection. This means that if you are visiting a friend and want to show him or her a website you've discovered, or want to check your email in an internet café, all you need to do is logon and activate SA To Go, and the screen reader is up and running. SA To Go enables the person, rather than the hardware.

LINK:
http://www.satogo.com/

The Serotek press release claims that SA To Go is, "the first product to make web 2.0 accessible to the blind and the visually impaired." That is a big, bold statement to make.

LINK:
http://www.serotek.com/SerotekMakesWeb2.0AccessibletotheBlind.html

Web-based applications, like Google's email service called Gmail, are difficult to use with screen readers. These tools depend on code called 'Ajax' to work and update content on a page without re-loading the page. For example, if you look on the Gmail registration page, Ajax is used to check whether an email address is available or taken by another user.

LINK:
http://mail.google.com/mail/signup

It should be noted, however, that Gmail has a basic HTML version that you can click and use instead of the ajax one.

Mike Calvo, CEO of Serotek, confirmed that SA To Go is compatible with some applications like Gmail. They have developed custom templates to ensure that some of these tools work, "right out of the box." He said, "If an SA To Go user visits a website like Live or GMail, they will hear a little sound to let them know that we have messed with the page to make it work better, which we think is kinda cool."

People have expressed concern on mailing lists that it might not work on some computers due to security issues. Mike denies this is an issue as it loads into the temporary internet files and doesn't invade your computer's system.

Here at Access 2.0 we're really intrigued by how SA To Go works with ajax-based applications. If you are a bit geeky like us, and you have tested it out with anything web 2.0, why not drop us a line and let us know about it. If it makes a lot of these websites accessible, this could be really big news. We're prepared to hide your identity to preserve your reputation with your non-geeky friends, of course.

As SA To Go is in beta testing, it is free to try out. Ultimately, it is likely to be a service you will have to pay a subscription fee to use. While you are at it, there are some other screen readers available that provide portability that you might like to check out. Thunder RJ is a screen reader available on a USB, for instance.

LINK:
http://www.rjcooper.com/thunder-rj/

The NVDA (Non Visual Desktop Access) screen reader can also be downloaded and run from a USB.

LINK:
http://www.nvda-project.org/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/access20/2007/06/sa_to_go_on_the_go.shtml

OpenPR.com (Press Release)
Monday, July 02, 2007

Software602 introduces Print2PDF 7.0

By Software602, Inc.

Software602 introduces Print2PDF 7.0 with PDF/A, 64-bit (x64) and Microsoft Vista support

Extract: "Print2PDF 7.0 provides users with the ability to create, merge, and sign PDF documents using a digital signature, while retaining control over document changes and content extraction. PDF security permissions including text access for screen reader devices are supported. "

(openPR) - JACKSONVILLE, FL - July 02, 2007 - Software602 announces Print2PDF 7.0. This professional, easy-to-use PDF (Portable Document Format) conversion software can create an Adobe PDF or ISO 19005-1 PDF/A file from any Windows application that can print.

New features in version 7.0 include: PDF/A-1b support for compliance with standards for long term archive, 64-bit support for Windows Vista x64 Edition and Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, web linearization (fast web view) for effective PDF distribution on the web, integration with the Windows Certificate store provides easy access to digital certificates, custom profiles for frequently used PDF creation rules, embedding of PostScript (Type 1) fonts, CCITT image compression, and more.

Print2PDF 7.0 provides users with the ability to create, merge, and sign PDF documents using a digital signature, while retaining control over document changes and content extraction. PDF security permissions including text access for screen reader devices are supported. The 7.0 version includes 32-bit and 64-bit print drivers in one package to provide support for any current Microsoft Windows desktop operating system. Convert2PDF, the included batch conversion utility, can easily convert hundreds of files.

Adobe PDF documents can be created using the virtual Print2PDF printer, right-click conversion from Windows Explorer, or from the batch conversion utility. Toolbar integration with Microsoft Word 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2007 provides one-click PDF creation with bookmarks, hyperlinks, table of contents, and metadata.

Print2PDF 7.0 for Windows 2000/XP/Vista begins at $39.95 per user. Organizations with more users can gain the benefits of simple software distribution and licensing from a network shared printer using Print2PDF 7.0 Server Edition.

LINK: Learn more and download a 30-day trial, here:

www.software602.com/products/print2pdf/

About Software602

Software602 is an international software vendor providing technology for businesses. Other popular products are 602LAN SUITE - Secure mail server with anti-virus & anti-spam, built-in firewall with NAT and web content filter proxy for controlled Internet sharing, along with 602PC SUITE - An alternative to Microsoft Office. Software602 is based in Jacksonville, Florida with customers in over 200 countries. For more information, visit www.software602.com

PR Contact:
Software602, Inc.
Premysl Pech
+1-904-642-5400

pr@software602.com

http://www.openpr.com/news/23307/Software602-introduces-Print2PDF-7-0-with-PDF-A-64-bit-x64-and-Microsoft-Vista-support.html

At the business desk, I'm Jayna Sheffield wishing you a happy day.

posted by Editor at 8:50 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Wanted! Call centers with qualified English-speaking persons

Hello there! I'm Matt Chadwick at the business desk and today I'm putting out a call for those of you who are willing and ready to work for call centers.

It appears that the back lash is growing and that more and more companies are finally listening to their customers. For the past few years thousands of North American companies found it necessary to move their call centers to India in order to reduce their overhead costs. While on the one hand it benefited companies to do so, it was a definite blow to both consumers and North American workers.

For North American workers it meant the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs especially to those who depended heavily on part-time employment, to those who did not have the right type of skills to gain higher paying jobs, and to those who found it more convenient to work at jobs that enabled them to work shift hours.

For North American consumers it meant having to deal with customer reps who did not speak English very well, who did not have sufficient product or service knowledge, who had difficulty understanding how to answer calls, and who had no idea how to provide service in the North American culture.

It has been a very difficult struggle for North American consumers and workers to convince companies that this was not the way to go but thankfully companies are now seeing the light and are slowly bringing back their call centers to North America. In light of this, there is now a growing demand for the services of call center reps. If you speak English fluently, and also a second language like Spanish, then you should perk up your ears.

Let me clarify:

If you can converse fluently in either English or Spanish, you're interested in shift hours, and you're looking for income to supplement other income, then this may be it for you. In many cases however, a call center job may be just enough of a job for you because the pay may be just enough to cover the bills plus a bit more for other things.

I'd like to warn you however, that this is going to be a slow process so be patient.

If you're seeking other types of part-time or sideline income bearing opportunities then I have some free info for you. Hope it helps.

At the business desk, i'm Matt Chadwick bidding you a pleasant evening.

posted by Info@Untapped at 6:24 PM | 0 comments

Monday, August 13, 2007

Opportunities awaiting those with creative imaginations

Hey there! I'm Alix Shadonnay at the business desk and this evening I'd like to put out a call for those with very special active and creative imaginations.

If you're looking to make your mark in the world of technology then please give this some attention. If you're savvy and skilled when it comes to iPhones, then this message is for you. It appears that the iPhone arena could do with some imagination, skill, and downright brashness and boldness. We recently received this article from one of our readers and after due consideration, we decided to let you have a read. I believe that this article can help to open up some very lucrative opportunities for many budding entrepreneurs and small business goers. For after all! This article points to practically millions of consumers who are not getting the right type of attention and if you were the one to give them the right type of attention, just think of the windfall that you could stand to gain. Especially so when the American government would probably be more than willing to back you to the hilt. So give a read to the following.

iPhones and the Disability Divide

By Edward J. Heaton

August 2007 Column

In all the hype about Apple's new and revolutionary iPhone, it seems that
one segment of the population has been ignored. As usual, it's persons with
disabilities.

The most revolutionary feature of the iPhone is supposed to be its user
interface, which consists of a touch screen. A touch screen interface does
not allow persons with limited mobility in their hands, or persons who are
blind, to use the iPhone. Early sales estimates say that in the first
weekend of sales (June 29 to July 2), up to 750,000 units were sold. The
effect of the iPhone is not just limited to Apple products. According to
Fortune Magazine's David Kirkpatrick, "every other handheld device maker no
doubt will immediately start trying to imitate [the iPhone's touch screen
interface]."

If this is true, then PWDs will really be in a hole. The debate on whether
iPhones should or should not be accessible has already started on Apple user
websites. There are two schools of thought. The first is that if you are
blind, why would you buy an iPhone? The second is that one cannot determine
who wants to use the technology.

The iPhone was introduced in January by Steve Jobs. In the six months since
then, I have seen no disabled organization, such as the National Association
of the Blind, or any ADA-related group come up with a position on whether or
not the iPhone should be handicapped accessible. Given the other serious
issues facing the disability community, I can certainly understand the
oversight. However, given the early and probably ongoing success of the
iPhone, I think this will become an issue as more companies attempt to
either license or come up with their own version of the Apple technology.

According to "Disability and the Digital Divide", a report released in 2006
by RTC Rural, "[t]he most current data (October 2003) show Internet use by
fewer than 30% of those with disabilities over age 15 while more than 60% of
those with no disability used the Internet at
some location." If people with disabilities are already using the
Internet half as much as people without disabilities, the iPhone will only
continue to swing the pendulum in the wrong direction.

What needs to be done? Organizations, such as National Organization on
Disability, and the American Association of Persons with Disabilities, need
to push for accessibility standards for all devices that will use the iPhone
technology. Currently, in America, there are approximately 30,000 ATMs that
are accessible to people with low vision by the use of a headphone jack.
Perhaps a similar arrangement can be developed for the iPhone. This needs
to be done because of the other feature of the iPhone: that it acts as a
true mobile computer that allows consumers to surf the Web as if they were
at home on their own computer. The digital divide is already wide enough.
We need to ensure that it doesn't become the digital chasm.

Now I'm going to leave you with some info for those who are seeking to increase their global presence. This info can help you to find new customers on the international stage.

Are you looking for skilled and experienced translators/writers/researchers to help you craft your articles, blogs, business letters, emails, faxes, newsletters, and proposals in multi languages?
Are you seeking skilled and experienced language coaches to help you learn the English language more quickly and efficiently?
Then you need to visit the folks at www.translationpeople.com. Here you'll find a team that guarantees quick turn around, professional work, and total confidentiality. Prices are extremely affordable and services are offered in English, Spanish, French, Cantonese, and Mandarin.
Check out the free useful information page while you're there and for absolutely free you can also tap into the latest trends and headlines.

At the business desk, I'm Alix Shadonnay wishing you a pleasant evening.

posted by Editor at 6:54 PM | 0 comments

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Pay attention to the business start up idea

Hey there! I'm Alix Shadonnay at the business desk and I'd like to end the week on a note of suggestion and warning.

According to many American gurus, too many small business ventures and entrepreneurial efforts are failing these days because those involved are simply not taking the time to do their research. They are investing blindly, hoping for a miracle, and when things go wrong they don't seem to understand why they did not succeed.

For a few ears now our American government has been trying to change this trend by introducing the business start up idea trend. This trend is finally starting to take off because more and more people are paying attention to it. It's a trend that has the potential to help hundreds of thousands of small business and entrepreneurial investors and it's time for you to take a look.

I can direct you to some free reading material at www.untappedwealth.com/business-strategies.html and there you'll find a link to the business start up idea trend. This all makes sense. For how could anyone expect to blindly start a business without even taking a bit of time to stop, think, and research? Does it not make sense that before you start a business you should do your homework?

Here's some incentive for you to learn more about the business start up idea trend. Statistics for last year have shown that those using this strategy were able to launch successful businesses and compared to those not using it, the success rate was over 80% for those using it as opposed to only 5% for those not using it.

The business start up idea trend is really taking off and is expected to go guns for the foreseeable future. I urge you to take a look at this trend and visit www.untappedwealth.com/business-strategies.html to learn more. Afterall, you owe it to yourself to read this info if you're truly wanting to make a go of your business.

It's time now for our Amazon picks of the week.

Keeping your family close

By Elizabeth M Hoestra

This author has come up with a brilliant idea to keep your family close and that is to involve them in business ventures. In this way, you get to work with them, keep them close, and everyone wins.

Legal way to start and run your own business

By Fred S Goldstein and Ilona M Bray

This book is a good starting point if you're looking for legal ways to start your own business. Too many of us make the mistake of going into businesses that are often either not legal, or maybe bordering on the edge of not being legal.

Untapped Wealth Discovered

By Jeff N Marquis and Kerry J Harrison

If you're seeking ways to get your youngsters involved in the business world then this is the book for you. If you're a woman seeking to make your stamp in the business world then you should read this book.

At the business desk, I'm Alix Shadonnay bidding you a pleasant weekend.

posted by Editor at 7:39 PM | 0 comments

Friday, August 10, 2007

Wanted! More women as small business owners

Hi everyone! I'm Heather DeMarco at the business desk and this week I'm kicking off a weekly feature on women in business. This has all come about because of unexpected numbers of emails that we've been receiving from persons around the world practically begging us to start talking more about how women can become their own bosses. For too long women have been literally pushed to the background in boardrooms, been short changed when it comes to access to business opportunities, and they've been bullied out of the small business arena. However, this picture is quickly changing and now what we're seeing is a sudden growth of women as small business owners. According to CNN news, in 2006 small business women owners grew by about 23%, twice the rate of the opening of new companies.

What we'd like to do is to talk about successful women business owners and to give you the impetus to go out there and become your own success story. For our first feature we're going to shine the spotlight on a very successful woman. She's been in business for over 13 years, she is blind, and a foreign born Canadian. Her story is very unique and I'd like her to tell you a bit about herself. Hopefully, she'll continue to grace us each week with her presence and share lots of war stories.

Here she is!

Women are still earning less than men in the workplace, but there's hope

Being battered on a daily basis by abusive spouses.
Having to be the single parent of the house.
Caring for elderly parents.
Having to work at more than one job in order to take care of both parents and kids.
Having to deal with discrimination against them because they are female.
Having to deal with discrimination against them because they are either immigrants or of an ethnic background.
Having to face the challenges of being a woman and at the same time being either physically challenged or blind or visually impaired.

I'm here to tell all women that there's hope! Being a woman and wanting to own your own successful business is not easy but I've done it despite being blind.

Here are some examples:

1 Professors at graduate school who did not want to work with me because I was a blind woman and they did not feel that blind women belonged in a graduate business program.

2 Managers who felt that I should be working at an agency for the blind instead of being a systems engineer.

3 Persons who feel that I am not competent enough to be a consultant because of being a woman who is blind.

4 A few years ago my business partner robbed me of over $30,000 but I survived and am still in business.

You can contact me by filling out the form on the contact us page at http://sterlingcreations.ca/contact.html (to avoid any spam emails)

If you'd like to learn more about Donna's business, then please read on.

At the business desk, I'm Heather DeMarco wishing you a great weekend.

posted by Info@Untapped at 7:14 PM | 0 comments

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Wanted! More stores that cater to older people plus others

Good day everyone! I'm Jeff N Marquis at the business desk and this evening I'd like to put out a call for those of you who are willing and interested in learning more about a very unique niche that is extremely rich. In short, a niche that is just dying for you to come in and take control.

Ever heard about the phrase "Riches in niches?" Well, this is it! This niche that I'm referring to is yawning for you to take control of it because of now, there aren't many companies that are interested in learning about it, and there are less companies who really understand why this niche exists let alone wanting to take ahold of it.

Now, you're probably wondering how come this is? And why do I know about it and others don't? It's very simple. For years now the experts have been preaching and pleading for businesses to take this growing niche more seriously, but you know most businesses! Their first take on anything is to get into something only if it's going to bring them fast bucks, and only if it is not much trouble to run and support. This niche, is none of the above, and it's right under your noses and not many of you are paying attention.

Here's the picture. More and more older folks are seeking ways to do their shopping more quickly and conveniently. Many of them want the ability to do their shopping independently. Many would love the ability to do it through the Internet but they either don't possess a computer powerful enough to deal with complex websites, or they don't have a computer believe it or not. There are others who would prefer to do it by phone, or even by catalogue but here again, they are running into difficulty because many companies are not adequately training their call center reps as to how to deal with consumers with special needs. Others would prefer to be able to see and feel what they're buying before they actually purchase it.

Let me identify what I mean by consumers with special needs: Those who are technically shy, those who are lacking in confidence when it comes to placing their orders over the phone, those who have difficulty in providing the appropriate info to the call center rep and need help finding the appropriate info, those who are print disabled because they are either unable to read or are blind or visually impaired, those whose first language is not English, those who are hard of hearing, plus much more.

This is a very wide spectrum of consumers and this group is growing by leaps and bounds due to such factors as disabling diseases and age. What exactly are they seeking you say? Stores that can provide services both by phone and through the Internet. Stores that are manned by trained support staff who can accommodate the demands and needs of the group described above. Stores that have websites that are easy to access. Stores that can act as a one stop facility for products that are needed by this group.

Are you getting the picture as yet? Please give this your full attention. This niche will not always be available so hurry now before your competition hears about it.

If you'd like to learn more about how to make your websites accessible, then I have some free info for you. Please see below.

At the business desk, I'm Jeff N Marquis wishing you a pleasant evening.

posted by Jeff at 7:00 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Important news round-up

Greetings everyone! I'm Jayna Sheffield at the business desk and it's time for our weekly news round-up.

We continue to receive positive feedback on this weekly feature and we hope you enjoy the articles that we've chosen for you this week.

Enjoy!

Table of contents

August 08 2007

1 Helping the Blind to See - EyePlusPlus Forehead Sensory Recognition System (FSRS)
2 Company to update its ATMs for blind consumers
3 BBC's iPlayer to launch next month
4 JoeSoft Jax iTunes extension software available now
5 More conveniences for blind people traveling by metro
6 GPS for the blind or visually impaired
7 Vision-e to help the blind participate in e-commerce

dBusiness News, Ohio USA
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Helping the Blind to See - EyePlusPlus Forehead Sensory Recognition System (FSRS)

Cleveland - EyePlusPlus, Inc, a Japanese company, has established their North American Headquarters in the Beachwood Business Development Center, located in Beachwood, Ohio, and has hired local staff.

EyePlusPlus has developed a patented technology for helping the blind and the visually impaired, with proper training, to visualize the world. By utilizing sensory substitution systems involving a lens mounted on eyeglasses, a headband providing tactile sensations to the forehead and a miniaturized battery powered computer controller, the EyePlusPlus Forehead Sensory Recognition System (FSRS) can help the blind and the visually impaired to greater mobility and interaction with the world.

Yonezo Kanno, President of EyePlusPlus said, "Though sensory substitution through electrical stimulation was proposed in the 1960's, using the forehead as a stimulation area is quite a new approach. Furthermore, is easy to put on and take off."

"I was amazed," said Tom Sudow, Executive Director of the Beachwood Chamber of Commerce. "I watched a blind person wearing sunglasses and black head band, with a wire running down to a fanny pack containing a small computer, actually identify shapes. 'Triangle, rectangle' he yelled. This was an OH WOW experience for me. This demonstration showed how an innovation like this can improve the quality of life for blind people."

Launched in June 2004 in a unique collaboration between the Beachwood Chamber of Commerce, the City of Beachwood and the Nance College of Business Administration at Cleveland State University, The Beachwood Business Development Center (BBDC) is a business accelerator for companies who wish to develop a U.S. presence and for local start-ups. Housed within an11,500-square foot office in the heart of Beachwood's business corridor, the BBDC is home to over 20 domestic and international firms from a variety of industries.

EyePlusPlus joins companies from Israel, France, China, and the U.S. in the Beachwood Business Development Center.

EyePlusPlus was introduced to Beachwood by Harlan Jacobs, president of Genesis Business Centers, Ltd., a diversified high tech, for-profit incubator program in Minneapolis. Genesis works with community development organizations looking to recruit high tech companies.

For more information, call Thomas N. Sudow, Executive Director, Beachwood Chamber of Commerce, (216) 831-0003 or (216) 396-4030, by email at tom@beachwood.org.

Beachwood Chamber of Commerce http://www.beachwood.org/
City of Beachwood http://www.beachwoodohio.com
Nance College of Business Administration, Cleveland State University http://www.csuohio.edu/cba

http://cleveland.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=124409&type_news=latest

ABC7Chicago.com, IL, USA
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Company to update its ATMs for blind consumers

By Associated Press

June 27, 2007 (BOSTON) - The nation's largest non-bank owner of ATMs will improve access for the blind at its machines located in malls, gas stations and pharmacies, under an agreement announced Wednesday.

Cardtronics Inc., based in Houston, will make most of its ATMs accessible to the blind by 2010, under an agreement settling a lawsuit filed by the National Federation of the Blind and Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley.
Cardtronics operates about 24,000 ATMs in locations including Albertson's supermarkets, CVS Caremark Corp. pharmacies, Hess Corp. and Sunoco Inc. gas stations, and Target Corp. stores. The agreement also covers another 5,000 ATMs that Cardtronics plans to acquire from 7-Eleven Inc.

"These ATMs are in valuable locations, that's what's going to make this so useful," said John Pare Jr., federation spokesman.

The machines will employ voice guidance technology, which is commonly available at many bank ATMs. It is activated by plugging headphones into a jack on the machines. The National Federation of the Blind will monitor Cardtronics' progress, according to the agreement.

Jack Antonini, president and chief executive of Cardtronics, said in a statement that that his company "will be a leader, not a follower, in improving ATM accessibility."

The federation and the attorney general's office originally filed suit in 2003 against E-Trade Financial Corp.'s E-Trade Access Inc. and E-Trade Bank. Cardtronics purchased the E-Trade ATM fleet in June 2004.

"We live in an age where certain technologies have become integral parts of our daily lives, and it is important that such technology is accessible to all members of society," Coakley said in a statement.

The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act requires ATMs to be made accessible to and independently useable by the blind, Coakley said.

There are 1.3 million legally blind people in the United States and another 10 million with low vision, according to the Baltimore-based federation. Seventy percent of blind people are unemployed or underemployed.

"By making important societal tools accessible, one by one this is going to improve efficiency, so we can solve these problems of high unemployment," Pare said.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=consumer&id=5428855

The Telegraph (UK)
Thursday, June 28, 2007

BBC's iPlayer to launch next month

By Andrew Pettie

Last Updated: 2:10am BST 28/06/2007

Quote: "The BBC also plans to introduce downloadable programmes with subtitles and audio description, and versions of the IPlayer application that are compatible with Apple Macintosh computers and Sony Vista computers."

Television viewers will be able to watch their favourite BBC shows over the internet within weeks, the corporation has announced.

The iPlayer will allow viewers to download BBC TV via the internet
The BBC's on-demand TV service, the iPlayer, is to launch on 27 July, it was revealed.

The iPlayer is a free service available to all UK licence fee payers that will allow viewers to download BBC TV and radio programmes via the internet and then watch and listen to them on their computers.

The BBC's director general Mark Thompson called the launch of the iPlayer "as big a revolution in broadcasting as the introduction of colour television 40 years ago".

After 27 July, BBC licence fee payers will be able to register for the service, download the iPlayer software, and then download BBC TV programmes from the BBC website.

Both the programmes and the iPlayer software application will be free to download.

The vast majority of the BBC's TV and radio output will be available to download for up to seven days after their initial transmission.

After downloading a programme from the BBC website on to a PC, viewers will have a window of 30 days in which to watch it via the iPlayer application before the file automatically deletes itself.

As the iPlayer service expands, the BBC plans to post clips on other websites.

The BBC is currently negotiating partnerships with a number of other media groups, including telegraph.co.uk, YouTube and MSN.

This will allow viewers to watch clips of BBC programmes on partner websites and then click through to the BBC website to download the full programme.

Jana Bennett, the director of BBC Vision, said, "This heralds a new era that gives viewers the freedom to watch programmes from the BBC's TV channels when they want. Now they never have to miss out on their favourite programmes."

Although initial users will have to download programmes by the autumn the BBC hopes to introduce a "live streaming facility", allowing viewers to watch BBC programmes live via the internet.

Viewers will then also be able to download all the episodes from a selected series at any point after they have been transmitted.

The BBC also plans to introduce downloadable programmes with subtitles and audio description, and versions of the iPlayer application that are compatible with Apple Macintosh computers and Sony Vista computers.

The 27 July version of the iPlayer will work only on PCs.

The BBC hopes to launch a commercial version of the iPlayer in 2008 that will allow subscribers to view and download pay-per-view programmes from the BBC's extensive archives.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/27/nplayer127.xml

Pocket-Lint.co.uk (UK)
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

JoeSoft Jax iTunes extension software available now

By Amy-Mae Elliott

27 June 2007 - AM Micro has launched JoeSoft Jax which is both a suite of iTunes extensions and also a software platform that offers developers the opportunity to build "Jacks" for iTunes.

Instead of just playing music, with Jax you can load your iPod with lyrics, YouTube videos and RSS feeds, it can also "speak" your email.

Jax will help you manage album artwork by offering a choice of covers specific to your country. So if you have the wrong album cover for your imported music, Jax can help.

Another feature sure to appeal to karaoke fans is a lyric lookup Jack. Click on your song in Jax, and it will search a number of lyric databases and offer any matching lyrics. If you click the correct one and it will add them to your iTunes and copy them to your iPod so you can sing-a-long in style, or with the correct words at the very least.

Other features include "Music Map" that maps out links from your favourite artists or albums. It shows a cloud of information on related bands and how they relate to others ad infinitum. Like the Kevin Bacon game but for music, it's quite fun and a good way to discover new bands.

Jax also offers a quick way to load your favourite YouTube videos to the iPod, iTunes and AppleTV. It remembers the most recently viewed YouTube videos, then it's just a click to load an iTunes, iPod or AppleTV version.

With the RSS news feeds feature, this can be done either in text form, or Jax can convert the text to speech so you could listen to the news headlines while on the move.

Jax will also do this with email in spoken form (as well as text) so you can also "listen" to your email.

JoeSoft will be releasing the API to developers in the next few weeks. This will let developers to make their own Jax in a similar way to Widgets, which will go live on the site (link below) as they are created and will be available as free downloads to existing Jax users.

Jax is £34.95, available now, visit the site below for more info.

Link - to JoeSoft
http://www.joesoft.com/

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/8403/9427/JoeSoft-Jax-for-iTunes-launches.phtml

News Guangdong, China
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

More conveniences for blind people traveling by metro

In order to provide more guidance and assistance for the blind, based on monitoring the previous facilities, directional plates and help buttons were installed at the entrances of metro Line 1 and 2.

With the help of the plates, blind people are guided to the walking areas established for them as well as the help buttons. If a blind passenger needs help, he can press the button to summon station staff. The new facilities bring more convenience and safety for the sight impared.

The following four plates/buttons were installed on metro line 1 and 2: Plate at entrance showing directions; Plate at side door showing the location of help buttons; Plate showing direction to platform banister and a button for help (auxiliary facility).

The installation of the guide plates for Line 1 and 2 will be completed by the end of July.

Editor: Yan

http://www.newsgd.com/news/Guangdong1/200706260014.htm

NaviGadget.com
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

GPS for the blind or visually impaired

Published on June 26th, 2007 in misc news, gps navigation

Trekker is a GPS system for the blind and visually impaired that uses GPS and digital maps to help blind persons find their way in urban and rural areas.

Trekker which retrofits a Dell PDA as you can tell from the image above is designed to complement existing aids such as white canes and guide dogs but it does not replace them. It provides information in the most natural way possible and allows users to record both vocal and written notes.

LINK:
http://www.humanware.com/en-usa/products/orientation/gps/_details/id_30/trekker.html

Trekker hardware does not contain a GPS receiver but you can use any off the shelf hardware for GPS input and it can be upgradaded, so it can expand to accommodate new hardware platforms and more detailed geographic information which brings us to Maestro Option which allows the use of an agenda, text documents, vocal notes, contact directory, Daisy reader (Victor Reader Pocket), and soon, media player, email manager, calculator, choice of a second language.

Here are main features of Trekker

Real-time information detection (Intersections and Point of Interest)
Real-time/offline map browsing (Route Preview)
Route planning and recording (Guiding Rules)
Flexible level of vocal informationVocal Point of Interest creation
Access to GPS status information
Weight: 600 g (1.3 lbs)
Size 87mm (3.4) x 134mm (5.26) x 27mm (1)
LINK: product pdf
http://www.humanware.com/Site/Files/Shop/f9c496523e750518fbe4cf9fffdd991f/Trekker-EN.pdf

(Source URL)

http://www.navigadget.com/index.php/2007/06/26/gps-for-the-blind-or-visually-impaired/

The Malaysia Star
Thursday, June 28, 2007

Vision-e to help the blind participate in e-commerce

By CHRISTY LEE S.W.

PETALING JAYA: The visually-impaired can now participate in e-commerce, thanks to a community initiative by Acmamall.com Sdn Bhd and the Malaysian Association of the Blind (MAB).

With the support of MAB, Acmamall has launched "Vision-e," a special section in its electronic store that enables visually-impaired Malaysians to sell goods via the Internet.

Vision-e provides a virtual retail space for MAB to promote and sell its homemade products online.

LINK:
www.acmamall.com/vision-e

CAPTION: RETAIL SPACE FOR THE BLIND: (l-r) Ismail, Quek and Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development advisor for community development Datuk Shamsiah Abdul Rahman, checking out the Vision-e section on Acmamall.com during its launch in Petaling Jaya recently.

The products, mostly consisting of containers and furniture made from cane, are handcrafted by MAB members under its home workers scheme.

"The scheme allows the visually-impaired to create income streams on their own through their craftsmanship," said MAB president Prof Datuk Dr Ismail Mohd Salleh.

He said, MAB typically generates sales through contracts with government agencies and door-to-door vending.

It has two retail shop outlets in Mid Valley Megamall and Berjaya Times Square in Kuala Lumpur.

"Frankly, it has not been easy trying to sell our products and services the traditional 'door-to-door' way," he said.

"The lack of financial resources, plus prohibitive costs of hardware and software, has made us reluctant to venture into any form of electronic business," Ismail said.

He said, Vision-e would help transform the retailing business for MAB, by enabling it to set up an electronic store without business or operational risks.

Consumers can now easily log on to the Acmamall electronic store to purchase items by MAB and have it delivered to their doorstep, he said.

Vision-e also enables MAB's handicraft producers to access a much wider market and one that it could not before - Acmamall caters to about 40,000 customers in Malaysia and Singapore.

"MAB makes an average of about RM60,000 yearly," said Ismail. "With Vision-e, we are aiming to hit around RM80,000 to RM90,000, or more by year end."

Independence

Acmamall chief executive officer Christopher Quek said: "Many think that the visually-impaired cannot embrace e-commerce, but Acmamall wishes to break that stereotype and give them an equal opportunity to start building their own businesses."

"Vision-e enables the visually-impaired to focus on what they are good at - crafting products - while our e-commerce model takes care of the rest," he said.

He told In.Tech that all profits generated from sales through Vision-e would be given to MAB.

In addition to operational costs, Acmamall would bear the costs of packaging and delivery as part of its commitment to corporate social responsibility, Quek said.

"However, we are not doing this out of charity - we are marketing MAB's products as part of our range because we believe they are of good quality ... in fact, we are also using the products ourselves," he said.

"We want consumers to buy the products because they need it, and not because they are feeling charitable," Ismail chipped in.

He said MAB has always strived to steer away from depending on public donations. "What we want is to provide ongoing and honest work, and create self-employment opportunities for our fellow members," Ismail said.

He said all items made by its handicraft producers are given quality checks to ensure they meet set standards.

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/6/28/technology/18131353&sec=technology

At the business desk, I'm Jayna Sheffield wishing you a great day!

posted by Editor at 6:44 AM | 0 comments

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

How to increase your revenues through business plan writers

Hello there! I'm Matt Chadwick at the business desk and today I'd like to make a suggestion to you. One which is guaranteed to help you do such things as:

Increase your revenues, cut your costs, and above all help you to build a stronger and better business.

I'm referring to the hiring of professional business plan writers to help you detail and document a roadmap for your business. According to most business experts, more than 95% of small businesses fail within the first two years because of a lack of a proper business plan. Without a proper business plan, it is extremely difficult to chart one's course.

You should look upon a business plan as a tool or technique that can be used to help plan a step by step approach to your business and these days more and more small businesses are using the business plan writers approach to help them become more successful. As a matter of fact, the experts have coined the business plan writers term to describe a growing trend presently rolling across America and you can read more about this trend by visiting www.untappedwealth.com/business-strategies.html.

Too many small business owners and entrepreneurs fail to take the business plan concept into consideration when starting up their businesses and sad to say they don't take the time to plan before starting. As a result, they go head first into their ventures and more often than not they are unable to right themselves because they don't have a plan to help them.

In addition, many or the majority of small business owners don't really know how to write a business plan and here's where the professional business plan writer can help. These skilled persons can help you to reduce your costs both in the short term and long term, they can help you to increase your revenues, and they can help you to streamline your business operations. In short, business plan writers can help you to save hundreds of hours of research, drastically reduce your start-up costs, and show you how to allocate your funds more economically.

Give serious thought to the hiring of professional business plan writers to help you and in the meantime visit www.untappedwealth.com/business-strategies.html to learn more.

I'm going to leave you with some additional info that will help you to discover other avenues of assistance when it comes to running your small business.

At the business desk, I'm Matt Chadwick wishing you a great day!

posted by Info@Untapped at 9:24 AM | 0 comments

Monday, August 06, 2007

A call to Yahoo to change their online access methods

Good morning! I'm Kerry J Harrison at the business desk and I'd like to kick off the week with a call to Yahoo.

I'm going to publish an article that calls on Yahoo to change their online access so that both blind and sighted users can have access to all of their services. At the present time, the blind are unable to gain access to Yahoo's verification process. This is a worldwide call and I encourage all to sign this petition. For both the blind and the sighted stand to gain from this if we can get Yahoo to listen. Let's hope for the best.

Here now is the article with the petition.

Yahoo! Asked to Reasonably Accomodate the Blind by Adding Audio CAPTCHA

An online petition is being circulated worldwide asking Yahoo! to implement
an audio alternative to their graphical CAPTCHA (visual verification)
process
so that the blind and visually impaired will be afforded the same level of
access enjoyed by the sighted. All Internet users are asked to sign this
petition
and support the concept that the blind and visually impaired should be
reasonably accomodated with respect to multifactor authentication and visual
verification
systems.

Tempe, AZ (
PR Web (press release) - Ferndale,WA,USA
August 3, 2007.

An online petition is being circulated worldwide asking Yahoo! to implement
an audio alternative to their graphical CAPTCHA (visual verification)
process so that the blind and visually impaired will be afforded the same
level of access enjoyed by the sighted. All Internet users are asked to sign
this petition and support the concept that the blind and visually impaired
should be reasonably accomodated with respect to multifactor authentication
and visual verification systems.

All blind and sighted Internet users are requested to sign the Yahoo!
Accessibility Improvement Petition at
http://BlindWebAccess.com
asking Yahoo! to make available an audio alternative to their CAPTCHA as a
reasonable accomodation affording blind and visually impaired people the
same
access to the company's resources as that currently granted the sighted.

Right now, Yahoo!'s graphical visual verification prevents full independent
access by the blind and visually impaired computer user to many of the
company's
services. Pictures can't be interpreted or automatically conveyed using
Braille or speech access devices. Until an accessible alternative is made
available,
people with vision loss can't see the code to be entered into the box to be
granted admission.

Signing the petition tells Yahoo! you want them to provide an alternative
way for blind users to verify their human status. If you close your eyes,
don't
get caught by the CAPTCHA! Please visit
www.BlindWebAccess.com
and sign the Yahoo! Accessibility Improvement Petition today.

In keeping with the theme of accessibility to the Internet, I'd like to end my blog with some vital info for you.

At the business desk, I'm Kerry J Harrison wishing you a pleasant day.

posted by Kerry at 10:47 AM | 0 comments

Saturday, August 04, 2007

More and more philanthropists giving grants to start businesses

Hey there! I'm Alix Shadonnay at the business desk and this evening I'd like to tell you about a very healthy trend that has been making the rounds across the United States for at least the last three years.

The experts have nicknamed this trend the grant to start business trend and you can read more about it by visiting the top business strategies page and going to the grant to start business link at this website.

This trend involves more and more philanthropists giving out small to medium sized grants to those who can come up with sound business plans for business ideas that have more than a good chance of succeeding. Now, you may be saying that this may just be a pipe dream. This may be too much hard work and it may not be worth it. You may also be saying that you don't really know where to start. You may also be thinking that who? Who in their right minds would want to give out business grants to someone wanting to start their own business?

All valid thoughts but I'd like to help you get started.

First, let me clarify something. Philanthropists are not merely giving out their money left, right, and center. No! There's something in it for them as well and what they're doing is using their money to invest in you so that you can bring them more revenue and at the same time you get to help yourself.

Makes sense? Sure! Look at it in this way.

Philanthropists usually have more than a bit of money hanging around in their coffers. They believe that they can find better ways of investing their money other than putting it into banks or investing it in stock markets. Philanthropists on the whole are a bit more daring, a bit more generous, and a bit more compassionate when it comes to using their money to help others get on their feet. So, why not use it to invest in you? That is if you can come up with a good enough proposal to convince them that they can expect to make money on the strength

of your business proposal. A win-win situation for both you and your investor but don't for one moment think that you can sit back after receiving the business grant. Not at all.

You need to do your research carefully and diligently. You need to develop a business idea that offers products and/or services to real consumers with real demands. You need to target markets that are real and markets that have a very good chance of being around for at least the next 10 years.

It's doable and if you're looking for funds to start a business that you truly believe has a chance of succeeding, then by all means join the grant to start business trend. You may just surprise yourself.

I'd like to give you some info that will give you a push in the right direction. If you're looking to increase your presence on the Internet then you should read this.

Now for our Amazon picks of the week.

Getting rich in your underware

By Peter I hupalo

I chose this book because the title is very interesting and somewhat gregarious. This author is practical, has many common sense things to say, and the book makes for good reading for the serious-minded business or potential business owner.

The small business bible

By Steven D Strauss

Not sure how to start up your own business? Then buy this book. Not sure what type of business to go into, then this is the book for you.

Untapped Wealth Discovered

By Jeff N Marquis and Kerry J Harrison

Tired of spending too much time away from your home and your family? Then this book may be the answer for you. Looking for ways to get the entire family involved in business ventures, from parents to kids? Then you need to pick up a copy of this book.

At the business desk, I'm Alix Shadonnay wishing you a pleasant summer's weekend.

posted by Editor at 8:07 PM | 0 comments

Friday, August 03, 2007

Pay attention all you budding travel agents! read and follow!

Hi everyone! I'm Heather DeMarco at the business desk and today I'd like to share an article with you that I recently found.

I'd like all you budding travel agents to read this article because it shows how someone has used his talents and imaginations along with his creativity to be extremely successful and I can assure you that this person has found a real niche that is just loaded with lucrative opportunities.

Here now is the article in question.

OPEN SKIES WITH..

Traveleyes

Latest news 12/07/07

Traveleyes, the world's first air tour operator company to specialise in the
needs of blind and sighted world travellers, recently announced a number of
new developments in line with their trail-blazing policy promising 'no
limits in world travel for blind and sighted people'. Their high quality
range of individually packaged holidays centres upon cultural exploration
and savouring the distinctive multi-sensory features of each world
destination.

Recently announced new ventures include eight days visiting cultural and
picturesque cities of Canada, savouring the unique atmosphere, aromas and
tastes of rural Tuscany and an exploration of the sleepy white villages,
great cities and rolling hills of Andalucia. The Traveleyes Travellers this
year have enjoyed a range of attractive, 'hand-made' holidays to such
destinations as Cuba, Crete, Gran Canaria and the Italian city of Sorrento.

Traveleyes take equally balanced groups of blind and sighted travellers to
select destinations and the emphasis is always upon unique and memorable
shared experience. Sighted travellers come from all walks of life, and with
Traveleyes they have the opportunity to explore the world at subsidised
rates. The Traveleyes system builds confidence and provides new scope for
all involved. Blind and sighted travellers alike are empowered to venture
beyond boundaries, defy restrictions and grasp a real sense of independence
and fulfillment.

A recent characteristically 'Traveleyes' escapade occurred when the intrepid
band of fourteen (blind and sighted) happened upon a remote primary school
in the foothills of Morocco's Atlas Mountains. The energetic welcome they
received from the excited children and their teachers inspired the
Traveleyes group to organize a spontaneous 'whip-round' and to return to the
school the next day with the local equivalent of a year's supply of new
exercise books and educational equipment purchased in a nearby town. The
delight on the faces of the children and teachers confirmed their joy at the
unexpected visit.

Among their range of unique services, Traveleyes exclusively offer the
world's first electronic versions of the famous 'Lonely Planet' travel
guides, which are specifically formatted for use by visually impaired
people. The newly-informed blind traveller, coupled with the vision of the
sighted traveller, makes for an unbeatable partnership.

The company's charismatic founder and director, Amar Latif (32) is blind,
but seems never to have allowed this fact to prevent him leading groups of
travellers on expeditions across the world.

He holds the accolade: 'Outstanding Young Business Entrepreneur of the
World', presented by the Chamber of Commerce International (JCI), an honour
he shares with some illustrious former winners, who include US Presidents
John F. Kennedy and Bill Clinton, and, interestingly, Easy Jet founder,
Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

Amar was seen by millions in the BBC2 TV series, "Beyond Boundaries", a
ground-breaking jungle endurance expedition across Central America by
individuals of various disabilities. The series was shown worldwide.

Amar's other media interests have seen recent expansion. He has recently
directed a television documentary for Channel 4, which was broadcast on
April 15th 2007. The programme looked into the motivation and the experience
of visually impaired people who undertake world travel in pursuit of
cultural and aesthetic experiences. In addition, he continues with a regular
programme of inspirational public speaking appearances, addressing major
corporations and charities on a range of themes.

Traveleyes has gained as many keen repeat-customers among their sighted
travellers as they have among those who are blind. The aim of the enterprise
has always been to enable people with a visual disability to enjoy the same
independence, choice of destination and freedom to book on impulse that has
always been the prerogative of sighted people. Previously, blind travellers
had to suffer the dual impediments of having to tag along with family
holidays, and also of being regarded by some travel companies and airlines
as 'special cases, presenting problems'. Amar Latif clearly enjoys
reassuring all-comers that: "at Traveleyes, to be blind is normal.. and
we're also very happy to cater for the needs of sighted people".

Latif, despite enduring teenage onset of 95% sight loss due to a presently
incurable eye condition, has risen from comparatively humble Glaswegian
roots, to a broad range of achievements, including experience as an actor, a
professional singer/guitarist, and a business career which saw him rise to
Head of ICT Finance at BT. Here he had responsibility for multi millions of
pounds worth of business.

In recent months, a steadily growing list of honours has included this
Strathclyde mathematics graduate being invited back to his old university to
receive the award 'Alumnus of the Year, 2006'. In a dynamic and
inspirational speech to graduates, their families and the assembled academic
body, Amar referred to the world as a place "where the sky is high, and the
horizon continually beckons to us." He went on to urge graduates to "Get out
there..and greet that world with heart and with outstretched arms... learn
its languages, unlock its codes, uncover its secrets, set your aim for the
sky.... and hold on tight!".

Living up to its slogan: 'Open Skies with Traveleyes', this young and
vibrant company proudly continues to feature 'the blind' leading both the
blind and the sighted! This is a rare and dynamic example of 'equal access
for the disabled' being achieved in style by positive self-determination
rather than being governmentally imposed by albeit well-intentioned quota
systems.

Blind and sighted travellers with a thirst to see more of the world can
contact 'Traveleyes' for information. Call 08709 220221 or visit
http://www.traveleyes.co.uk/ www.traveleyes.co.uk.

I'd like to round off my blog with some important info that can help you to think more about the article above and see how you can mesh this info with it.

At the business desk, i'm Heather DeMarco wishing you a pleasant evening.

posted by Info@Untapped at 7:17 PM | 0 comments

Teens touching the world with their imaginations

Good day everyone! I'm Jeff N Marquis at the business desk and this evening I'd like to again hammer home the news of a very rapidly developing trend presently sweeping across the United States.

It's being referred to as the teen business idea and after reading my blog you can read more by going to our top business strategies page and taking a look at the link named teen business idea. More and more teens are using their imaginations, creativity, and share boldness to help themselves into the business world. In particular, they're making brash entrances into the small business and entrepreneurial arenas and are doing it in fine style.

This dynamic group of young business professionals is not afraid of anything and they are just gunning to make their marks. Look out you older professionals for here come the young guns! They are venturing into anything and everything from home businesses to entrepreneurial efforts. From Internet businesses to musical ventures. From writing to translating and transcribing. From virtual offices to anything and everything in sight. They're even daring to wander into the marketing and advertising fields and believe it or not, they're actually causing splashes and stirs among some very large corporate giants. In addition, they're making some very important contributions to boardrooms and even acting as advisers and consultants to some industries such as: Video games developers, toy companies, fast-food and breakfast food companies, and fast food chains.

Look out! Here they come and there's no stopping them now. Many parents can take note and if your teens are not yet on the band wagon then it's time for you to hustle them towards the great rush. Does not matter if your teen is male or female! Just get them going!

Now for some info that can help you to get going.

At the business desk, I'm Jeff N Marquis wishing you a pleasant weekend.

posted by Jeff at 7:03 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Important news round-up of the week

Greetings everyone! I'm Jayna Sheffield at the business desk and it's time for our news round-up of the week.

This week we've chosen an array of articles for your enjoyment and we hope that you are continuing to find this feature of interest.

Table of contents

august 01 2007

1 Beta-Test Mobile Magnifier for Windows Mobile Smartphones and Get Free Licenses!
2 Leaveraging Digital Technology for Books in an iTunes World, ArcheBooks Launches the mBook
3 Silent Revolution of Speech I/O in Mobile Phones
4 Omega-3 fatty acids protect eyes against retinopathy, study finds
5 Penn researchers report that gene therapy awakens the brain despite blindness from birth
6 Better than Braille? Computers: Not just for those with sight
7 Survey Of Glaucoma Patient And Those Who Care For Them Underscore Need For Education

Code Factory S.L., Europe
Sunday, June 24, 2007

Beta-Test Mobile Magnifier for Windows Mobile Smartphones and Get Free Licenses!

By Caroline Ragot, Marketing Manager

Code Factory initiates the beta testing program for the first ever full-screen magnification software for Smartphones powered by the Windows Mobile operating system. Free licenses will be given to the most active testers.

(Terrassa, Spain; June 22, 2007) - Code Factory, makers of the most successful line of software products providing the blind and visually impaired with full access to mainstream mobile devices, invites you to take part in beta testing the first version of Mobile Magnifier for windows mobile Smartphones. Testers with high-quality contributions during the test cycle will get free licenses of
this new and exciting product as well as Mobile Speak Smartphone, the leading full-fledged screen reader for devices based on the Windows Mobile standard (Smartphone) edition.

Just like the other powerful Code Factory screen magnification products for Pocket PC and Symbian Series 60 devices, Mobile Magnifier for Windows Mobile Smartphones features:

* Default full-screen magnification on Smartphones powered by Windows Mobile 5 and 6 (Standard edition).
* 10 magnification levels from 1.5x to 16x.
* Font smoothing to improve readability of magnified text.
* Magnification layouts that automatically detect and enlarge different areas of interest on the screen.
* Several color schemes including inverted color.
* Auto-panning with configurable scrolling speed.
* Reliable cursor tracking when reading text or exploring the interface.
* Seamless integration with Mobile Speak Smartphone for speech output.
* Auto-start option to enable magnification on power-up.
* Keyboard shortcuts for important magnifier functions.
* Easy installation remotely from the computer.
* Intuitive and user-friendly interface.

All those interested in joining the private beta team are asked to fill out the online application form at

http://www.codefactory.es/betaform

You must have any of the Windows Mobile Smartphones listed at http://www.codefactory.es/mobile_speak_smartphone/mss_devices.htm
to test this product. Note that Code Factory mobile phone solutions are carrier-independent.

Code Factory is also currently inviting Pocket PC and Smartphone users who own a code factory screen reader or magnifier for their device to become beta testers for the following software products:

* Mobile Speak Smartphone - The first ever screen reader for Windows mobile Smartphones that provides the most comprehensive access through multilingual text-to-speech technology and excellent Braille output for all built-in applications and several 3rd-party programs.

* Mobile Speak Pocket - The most innovative and powerful screen reader for Pocket PC phones and PDAs on which built-in and 3rd-party applications are accessible using QWERTY keyboards, Braille input/output devices, and even the touch-activated screen.

* Mobile Magnifier Pocket - The only full-screen magnification software for Pocket PC devices that features, among other things, font smoothing, a lens mode that can be controlled via the touch screen using the stylus, as well as different zoom levels, magnification layouts, color schemes, and user-customizable cursor properties.

About Code Factory

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Terrassa/Barcelona, Spain, Code Factory is a software company committed to the development of innovative products designed to break down barriers to the accessibility of mobile technology for the blind and visually impaired. Today, Code Factory is the leading provider of screen readers, screen magnifiers, and Braille interfaces for the widest range of mainstream mobile devices including Symbian-based and Windows Mobile-powered Smartphones as well as Pocket PC phones and PDAs, and it is the only one to support phones working on the GSM, CDMA and WCDMA networks. Code Factory's success lies in giving excellent customer support and to respond immediately to the needs of the end users. Among our customers are well-known companies and
organizations like ONCE, and carriers such as TMN, Vodafone,, SFR, Buoygues Telecom and many more. Good partners help us to provide excellent text-to-speech technology for our products and to incorporate support for Braille devices into our software.

For more information, feel free to contact us:

Code Factory, S.L., Rambla d'Egara 148 2-2, 08221 Terrassa (Barcelona), Spain
Tel. +34 93 733 70 66, info@codefactory.es, www.codefactory.es

Media Contact
Caroline Ragot,
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Code Factory
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marketing@codefactory.es
www.codefactory.es

PRweb.com (Press Release)
Friday, June 22, 2007

Leaveraging Digital Technology for Books in an iTunes World, ArcheBooks Launches the mBook

A Prophecy Forgotten is an example of state-of-the-art Text-To-Speech (TTS) technology being utilized to produce a fully digitized computer produce audio book. The advancement of this technology has enabled ArcheBooks to produce one of there most popular novels in a true audio format. The popularity of A Prophecy Forgotten made its selection the best possible entry in the this rapidly advancing marketplace. This epic Young Adult Fantasy/adventure novel is renowned by parents and teachers for its clean nature and great appeal to kids and adults alike.

Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) June 22, 2007 -- ArcheBooks Publishing (www.archebooks.com) announced today the release of its first "mBook," an Audio Book recorded in MP3 file format. However, this MP3 Audio Book isn't simply a narrated novel with audio files compressed from traditional CD format into the MP3 format -- no, the narrator itself is a digital creation. This is an example of state-of-the-art Text-To-Speech (TTS) technology, using natural sounding human voice engines created and commercially licensed to ArcheBooks by NeoSpeech (www.neospeech.com).

ArcheBooks' first mBook title is "A Prophecy Forgotten" by M. B. Weston, an epic Young Adult fantasy/adventure novel, and one of ArcheBooks' hottest selling hardcover titles. "We chose A Prophecy Forgotten to launch this new program for two key reasons," explained Publisher Robert Gelinas, "One, the popularity of the book leverages a fantastic buzz around this first book of The Elysian Chronicles, renowned by parents and teachers for its 'clean' nature and great appeal to kids and adults alike. And two, we believe this kind of Audio Book technology is perfect for the 'iPod Generation,' who has no comfort-zone issues with downloadable entertainment content, organizing playlists and tracks -- in this context a complete novel and its chapters -- and enjoying that content while on the go or anywhere."

Ralph Wolf, ArcheBooks EVP of Sales and Marketing added, "This is a perfect example of the emerging virtual-media entertainment world of today, where the physical media of the CD, the plastic cases, the printed matter, etc. are no longer needed -- just the content, in a conveniently downloadable format for enjoyment on universal digital playback platforms, whether that be an iPod, an iPhone, a Zune, MP3 player, a laptop, whatever. There is no waiting for a book to be delivered by the postman, UPS or FedEx. It's never out of stock or backordered, no shipping charges -- just the instant gratification of immediate enjoyment."

"Immediate Enjoyment" is a relative term, but close enough when you consider that in MP3 format, a 300 page 98,000 word book in hardcover, comprising over 10 hours of audio, now fits nicely in 75 megabytes of uncompressed data, or 64 megabytes downloaded in a compressed Zip file. For the DSL and Cable Internet users, that's a download of five to ten minutes. For the dial-up user, they'd better be prepared for a wait of up to an hour.

"Another serendipitous facet of Audio Books in MP3," said Mr. Gelinas, "is that the dynamic audio range needed for voice is far less than that of high-fidelity music. Music is normally recorded in a 64 KHz spectrum, whereas voice traditionally has been more than adequate with far less, as telephone systems have been for decades. The smallest MP3 sampling rates are able to achieve dramatic compression ratios yet maintain a clean crisp sound. Hence, goodbye 6 to 8 CDs to listen to an entire book--hello eight minute download."

Free samples of mBook MP3 files are available on the ArcheBooks website (www.archebooks.com). Both the Prologue and Chapter 1 of A Prophesy Forgotten are available to sample for free, approximately 40 minutes worth of audio.

Mr. Wolf noted, "Admittedly, a computer generated voice isn't a voice-over professional or actor performing a reading of a novel. Rather, thanks to our friends at NeoSpeech, it's a very natural-sounding human voice that reads in a very neutral, dispassionate manner. For some people it's a voice that takes a few minutes to get used to hearing, but once you do, and the images of the story begin to form in your mind, the voice is no longer the primary stimulus of the entertainment experience, rather the talent of the storyteller who wrote it. And the price of the mBook reflects the distinction from professionally narrated works as well, with complete, unabridged mBooks priced as much as half the price of traditional Audio Books."

ArcheBooks invites everyone to visit its website and experience the mBook for themselves. Mr. Gelinas said, "Good storytelling is good storytelling, whether that be found in a printed book, in an eBook, or listening to an Audio Book. The mediums that serve as the vehicles to share that storytelling content with a wide variety of audiences must be flexible and adaptable to each new communications platform in the ever-evolving digital age we live in."

About ArcheBooks Publishing -- the archetype of 21st century publishing--is an innovator in premium hardcover original fiction and specialized non-fiction works, offering the best in Mystery-Suspense, Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Romance, Historicals, Contemporary, Humor, YA, and Self-Help. ArcheBooks Publishing continues its founders' revolutionary approach towards business development, and their belief in the continuous evolving role the Internet plays in future business models.

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http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/6/prweb534793.htm

Wireless Developer Network
Monday, June 25, 2007

Silent Revolution of Speech I/O in Mobile Phones

By Press Release

Wellingborough, UK, 25 June 2007 - Not long ago, speech I/O was heralded as the "idealistic" way to interact with mobile phones and the next great technology revolution. Like many of the initial technology leaps in mobile phones, the truth did not live up to anywhere near the expectation. This resulted in inefficient I/O, frustration with the technology and a terrible user experience. The reasons for this are manifold, but the initial limitations can be distilled down to a combination of the unrealistic expectations of end-users, the limited memory and processing capabilities of handsets and the speech I/O technologies themselves.

However, speech I/O is coming back to the handset in a big way. Existing I/O techniques are struggling with reducing handset sizes, increased application complexity and unnavigable menus. Speech I/O has matured in unison with this demand for alternative I/O techniques. A large number of companies, such as VoiceSignal, Nuance and Nokia, have spent the last 10 years developing high-quality solutions that are now capable of offering a good user experience, allowing the user to flatten menu structures, dictate emails/SMS and operate mobile phones handsfree as well as enabling/accentuating existing and new applications. As a result, these technologies help to drive new applications and increased ARPU as well as complementing handsfree driving mandates.

Speech I/O in cellular revolves around three self explanatory technologies: automatic speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS) and speech-to-text (STT). In IMS Research's new report, "The Worldwide Market for Speech I/O in Cellular", statistics, market drivers/inhibitors, product comparison and forecasts are provided for each of these individual technologies, providing a detailed overview of the market.

Senior Analyst Patrick Connolly said, "Once end users accept that these solutions are unlikely to be 100% accurate, they offer a more efficient way of interacting with a handsets in certain circumstances. In the future, the end user can easily select the best I/O technique for the application at hand, which in many cases will be speech. IMS Research has forecast penetration rates of 40% and above for these technologies in the near future.

ASR has already seen success in the CDMA space in North America. US Operators have recognised the relative maturity of the technology and the subsequent revenue-generating potential. IMS Research believes that handset vendors will begin to offer speech I/O solution across a variety of handsets. Mobile internet advertising firms, such as AdMob, can also see the long term potential, recently announcing a partnership with VoiceSignal".

If you would like an interview with an expert in this area, please contact Alison Bogle, Marketing Manager, at Alison.Bogle@imsresearch-usa.com or +1 412-441-1888.

About IMS Research

IMS Research is a supplier of market research and consultancy services on a wide range of global electronics markets. The company is supported by headquarters in Wellingborough, UK and offices in Austin, Texas and Shanghai, China. IMS Research regularly publishes detailed research on the GPS, Sat-Nav, Automotive and Cellular markets, among others. For more information, please look at our website: www.imsresearch.com

http://www.wirelessdevnet.com/news/2007/jun/25/news5.html

Eurekalert.org
Sunday, June 24, 2007

Omega-3 fatty acids protect eyes against retinopathy, study finds

Public release date: 24-Jun-2007
Contact: Anna Harper
afh@nei.nih.gov
301-496-5248
NIH/National Eye Institute

Retinopathies may be prevented or lessened by a change in diet
Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids protect against the development and progression of retinopathy, a deterioration of the retina, in mice. This is the major finding of a study that appears in the July 2007 issue of the journal Nature Medicine. The study was a collaborative effort by researchers at Children's Hospital Boston, the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Goteborg in Sweden, and the National Eye Institute (NEI) and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Paul A. Sieving, M.D., Ph.D., director of the NEI, said, "This study explores the potential benefit of dietary omega-3 fatty acids in protecting against the development and progression of retinal disease. The study gives us a better understanding of the biological processes that lead to retinopathy and how to intervene to prevent or slow disease."

The researchers studied the effect of the omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA, derived from fish, and the omega-6 fatty acid arachidonic acid on the loss of blood vessels, the re-growth of healthy vessels, and the growth of destructive abnormal vessels in a mouse model of oxygen-induced retinopathy. The retinopathy in the mouse shares many characteristics with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in humans. ROP is a disease of the eyes of prematurely born infants in which the retinal blood vessels increase in number and branch excessively, sometimes leading to bleeding or scarring. Infants who progress to a severe form of ROP are in danger of becoming permanently blind. There are also aspects of the disease process that may apply to diabetic retinopathy, a disease in which blood vessels swell and leak fluid or grow abnormally on the surface of the retina, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a disease of the macula, the part of the retina responsible for central vision, and a leading cause of vision loss in Americans 60 years of age and older.

The researchers found that increasing omega-3 fatty acids and decreasing omega-6 fatty acids in the diet reduced the area of vessel loss that ultimately causes the growth of the abnormal vessels and blindness. Omega-6 fatty acid contributes to the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the retina.

To further test the apparent beneficial effect of omega-3 fatty acids, the researchers studied mice fed a diet modeled after a traditional Japanese diet (more omega-3 than omega-6 fatty acids) and mice fed a diet modeled after a traditional Western diet (lower amounts of omega-3 fatty acids). In addition, they studied mice genetically altered with a gene which mammals normally lack that converts omega-6 into omega-3 fatty acids. They found that the mice with higher amounts of omega-3 had a nearly 50 percent decrease in retinopathy.

Omega-3 fatty acids create chemical compounds known as bioactive mediators, which protect against the growth of abnormal blood vessels, a condition that characterizes some forms of retinopathy. In part, this occurs because these mediators suppress a type of inflammatory protein called tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha). TNF-alpha is found in one type of cell, called microglia, that can be closely associated with retinal blood vessels.

"The retina has one of the highest concentrations of omega-3 fatty acids in the body," said lead author and NEI fellowship recipient Kip M. Connor, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research fellow at Children's Hospital Boston. "Given this, it is remarkable that with only a two percent change in dietary omega-3 intake, we observed an approximate 40-50 percent decrease in retinopathy severity."

"Our findings represent new evidence suggesting the possibility that omega-3 fatty acids act as protective factors in diseases that affect retinal blood vessels," said John Paul SanGiovanni, Sc.D., NEI staff scientist and the other lead author of the study. "This is a major conceptual advance in the effort to identify modifiable factors that may influence inflammatory processes implicated in the development of common sight-threatening retinal diseases."

These study results, SanGiovanni emphasized, are important because they provide a reasonable biological explanation for findings from a number of human studies on diet and retinal disease, and they identify low-cost and widely available nutrient-based treatment approaches that may show merit in future research on diseases that damage retinal blood vessels and nerve cells.

"The purpose of our study was to discover and describe the scientific basis for any possible protective role of omega-3 fatty acids against retinopathy," said Lois E. H. Smith, M.D., Ph.D., senior investigator of the study and associate professor of ophthalmology at Children's Hospital Boston, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. "By identifying the fatty acids, lipids and growth factors involved in both the disease and protective processes, we hope to translate this work to influence the outcome in patients. Our study results suggest that increasing omega-3 fatty acid intake in premature infants may significantly decrease the occurrence of ROP. This changing of lipids by dietary means may also translate to AMD and diabetic retinopathy. If clinical trials find that supplementing with omega-3 fatty acids is as effective in protecting humans against retinal disease as demonstrated by the findings of this study, this cost effective intervention could benefit millions of people."

The NEI is currently conducting the Age-Related Eye Disease Study 2 (AREDS2) that will, in part, assess the effect of omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA on the progression of AMD. In addition, an upcoming clinical trial at Children's Hospital Boston will test the effects of omega-3 supplements in premature infants.

###
The National Eye Institute (NEI) is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and is the Federal government's lead agency for vision research that leads to sight-saving treatments and plays a key role in reducing visual impairment and blindness. For more information, visit the NEI Website at http://www.nei.nih.gov/.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) - The Nation's Medical Research Agency - includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov/.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/nei-ofa061907.php

Eurekalert.org
Monday, June 25, 2007

Penn researchers report that gene therapy awakens the brain despite blindness from birth

Public release date: 25-Jun-2007
Contact: Jordan Reese
jreese@pobox.upenn.edu
215-573-6604
University of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated that gene therapy used to restore retinal activity to the blind also restores function to the brain's visual center, a critical component of seeing. The multi-institutional study led by Geoffrey K. Aguirre, assistant professor of neurology in Penn's School of Medicine, shows that gene therapy can improve retinal, visual-pathway and visual-cortex responses in animals born blind and has the potential to do the same in humans.

"The retina of the eye captures light, but the brain is where vision is experienced," Aguirre said. "The traditional view is that blindness in infancy permanently alters the structure and function of the brain, leaving it unable to process visual information if sight is restored. We've now challenged that view."

The results support the potential for human benefit from retinal therapies aimed at restoring vision to those with genetic retinal disease. Researchers used functional MRI to measure brain activity in blind dogs born with a mutation in gene RPE65, an essential molecule in the retinoid-visual cycle. The same mutation causes a blindness in humans called Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA. It is the first human eye-retinal disorder slated for gene therapy.

Gene therapy, performed by introducing a working copy of RPE65 into the retina, restored eye function in canines. Yet, it was previously unclear if the brain could "receive" the restored sight.

The team found that gene therapy to the eye dramatically increased responses to light within the visual cortex of the canine brain. The recovery of visual brain function occurred in a canine that had been blind for the first four years of its life, and recovery was found to persist in another dog for at least two-and-a-half years after therapy, suggesting a level of permanence to the treatment.

Penn scientists then studied the structure and function of the visual brain of human patients with the same form of blindness. Young adults with blindness from RPE65 mutation had intact visual brain pathways with nearly normal structure. The Penn team also found that, while the visual cortex of these patients with LCA did not respond to dim lights, the brain's reaction to brighter lights was comparable to that of individuals with normal sight.

"It seems these patients have the necessary brain pathways ready to go if their eyes start working again," Aguirre said.

The results of the current study are critical to these human clinical trials, led at Penn's Scheie Eye Institute by Samuel G. Jacobson, professor of ophthalmology, and Artur V. Cideciyan, research associate professor of ophthalmology.

"Existence of functional potential both in the eye and brain are prerequisites for successful gene therapy in all forms of LCA," Cideciyan said. "In the RPE65 form of the disease, we now have evidence for both, and treatment at the retinal level has the hope of recovery of useful vision in patients."

###
Findings of the study were reported in the journal PLoS Medicine.

The study was conducted by Aguirre and Marc Korczykowski of the Department of Neurology in Penn's School of Medicine; Cideciyan, Tomas S. Alemán, Alejandro J. Roman and Samuel G. Jacobson of the Department of Ophthamology; Brian B. Avants and James C. Gee of the Department of Radiology; David H. Brainard of the Department of Psychology in Penn's School of Arts and Sciences; András M. Komáromy and Gustavo D. Aguirre of Penn's School of Veterinary Medicine; Gregory M. Acland of the Baker Institute of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University; and William W. Hauswirth of the University of Florida's Department of Ophthalmology, who created the vector used for the gene therapy.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Foundation Fighting Blindness, the Macula Vision Research Foundation, The Chatlos Foundation, the Alcon Research Institute, the Ruth and Milton Steinbach Fund, the The ONCE International Prize for Research and Development in Biomedicine and New Technologies for the Blind, the Macular Disease Foundation and the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/uop-prr062507.php

Williamsport Sun-Gazette, PA, USA
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Better than Braille? Computers: Not just for those with sight

By MIKE REUTHER mreuther@sungazette.com

Caption: Brian Buck, North Central Sight Services associate, left, explains software programs that are making it easier for the visually impaired to learn how to use computer programs. DOUG MINIER/Sun-Gazette

Clients and employees of North Central Sight Services may be blind or visually impaired, but they are as dependent on computers as much as anyone else is.

That's why training on software programs for enhancing their lives was deemed so important, according to officials of the city-based social service agency.

"We live and breathe this computer stuff," president and CEO Bob Garrett said. "Like it or not, it's part of life."

Garrett is standing in the middle of the agency's Access Technology Center, tucked away inside its new location at 2121 Reach Road.

Three computers, each equipped with specialized software, will serve as the training site for visually impaired or blind people.

Garrett, who has been blind since age 5, could not emphasize enough the importance of the newest software training.

"From my perspective, the computer is the most valuable tool for a blind person since Braille," he said.

Among the software programs are JAWS, which reads aloud information appearing on the screen, Garrett said. JAWS has been around for quite some time, but it was not until now that the agency decided to begin offering training for people to use the program.

Brian Buck, North Central Sight Services associate, said to understand the concept of JAWS is to think of the index of a book. Once the keystrokes for accessing the JAWS system are learned, it's simply a matter of accessing the desired Web page and having JAWS read it aloud back to the person.

"Screenwriting programs have been around," Garrett said. "The nice thing about the newest programs is they are more affordable."

They also are more easily accessible by the user, he added. "This will open the door to learning more about what's out there."

In addition to JAWS, the agency is offering training on a similar read-aloud program known as Window-Eyes.

"I think we'll figure out early on which works better for people," Garrett said.

ZOOM Text, still another software program, does not read information aloud but rather magnifies it on the screen to enable visually impaired persons to see it.

"I like ZOOM Text a lot better," said Buck, who is not blind, but visually impaired. "You can crank up your magnification to make it gigantic."

The mission of North Central Sight Services is a three-pronged approach:

To provide resources for helping people become independent. It includes home visits for services and education;

To offer services for preventing blindness;

To provide on-site work operations for employees.

The new software training, Garrett said, will do nothing but help everyone involved with or helped by the agency.

"I know it's been important to me to have this access," he said. "I believe we've created a culture here where technology is important."

Improving computer technology is a vital part of growing the agency, he said. But just as important to that growth is taking the leap of faith to commit to a vision.

Part of that commitment involved moving the agency to its new location in the city's industrial park as a means of offering more expanded services.

He credited the board of directors for helping the agency move forward.

"We are delighted to have these new facilities," Garrett said.

http://www.sungazette.com/health/articles.asp?articleID=19751

Medical News Today
Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Survey Of Glaucoma Patient And Those Who Care For Them Underscore Need For Education

Article Date: 27 Jun 2007 - 1:00 PDT

To enhance the dialogue between those diagnosed with or at risk for glaucoma, their family members and eye care professionals, the Lions Clubs International Foundation, recognized worldwide for their service to the blind and visually impaired, in partnership with Allergan, Inc., a global leader in eye care, have developed the All Eyes on the Family program. All Eyes on the Family is a national educational program for glaucoma patients and caregivers. Offering glaucoma check-up and screening events across the country and discussion guides for patients and caregivers to use in conversations with each other and with their eye care professionals, the All Eyes on the Family program has been designed to increase awareness of the importance of early diagnosis and aggressive management of glaucoma in order to preserve sight.

Findings from a national survey of glaucoma patients and caregivers that inspired and guided the design of All Eyes on the Family include:

Resulting Vision Loss

- While people with glaucoma cite the disease as a top health concern, more than half (62 percent) are not concerned about going blind from the disease.
- In fact, 75 percent of people surveyed were not aware of their vision loss, due to glaucoma, before being told by their doctors.

Awareness of Risk Factors

- Although family history of glaucoma increases a person's risk for developing the disease by four to nine times, the majority of caregivers did not rank glaucoma high on a list of health concerns for themselves.
- Reducing elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) is the only treatable glaucoma risk factor, yet nearly half (44 percent) of those with glaucoma surveyed do not know what IOP means.
Impact on Lifestyle
- A disconnect of the impact of glaucoma on lifestyle was apparent between people with glaucoma and caregivers; those with glaucoma are much more confident than caregivers that they can continue to function normally in spite of the disease.
- 73 percent of people with glaucoma see the disease as rarely or never affecting their lifestyle, while the majority (82 percent) of caregivers see glaucoma as sometimes or often affecting the lifestyle of the person they care for.
- 82 percent of caregivers are also extremely or very concerned about loss of independence for the person they care for.

Survey Methodology

In February 2007, TSC a division of Yankelovich, Inc., conducted a survey of 1,000 adults, comprised of 500 people with glaucoma, via phone and 500 people who care for someone with glaucoma, online, in the United States. The survey was funded by Allergan, Inc.

For more information on the All Eyes on the Family program please visit http://www.lehp.org.

The All Eyes on the Family program is an educational initiative, sponsored by Allergan, Inc.

About Lions Clubs International Foundation

Lions Clubs International Foundation is the charitable arm of Lions Clubs International, the world's largest service club organization with 1.3 million members in 45,000 clubs in 200 countries. LCIF provides grants to Lions districts for large-scale humanitarian projects. The Foundation aids Lions in making a greater impact in their local communities, as well as around the world. Through LCIF, Lions ease pain and suffering and bring healing and hope to people worldwide.

http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/content/lions_lcif.shtml

About Allergan, Inc.

With more than 55 years of experience providing high-quality, science-based products, Allergan, Inc., with headquarters in Irvine, California, discovers, develops and commercializes products in the ophthalmology, neurosciences, medical dermatology, medical aesthetics, obesity intervention and other specialty markets that deliver value to its customers, satisfy unmet medical needs, and improve patients' lives.

http://www.allergan.com

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=75263

At the business desk, I'm Jayna Sheffield reminding you to stay out of the heat today.

posted by Editor at 8:39 AM | 0 comments

From the Business Desk

Friday, August 31, 2007

Weekly feature on women in business

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Important tips for translators (weekly feature)

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Important news round-up of the week

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Companies not paying enough attention to customer service

Monday, August 27, 2007

Baby boomers working later

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Retirees making noises in the small business world

Friday, August 24, 2007

Women as small business owners?

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Great investment opportunities awaiting you in Canada

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Important news round-up of the week

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Helpful tips for budding authors

Monday, August 20, 2007

Airlines need to pay more attention to their special needs passengers

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Learn how to use newsletters to increase revenues

Friday, August 17, 2007

Attention women! Your expertise is needed immediately

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Phone scammers on the prowl

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Important news round-up

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Wanted! Call centers with qualified English-speaking persons

Monday, August 13, 2007

Opportunities awaiting those with creative imaginations

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Pay attention to the business start up idea

Friday, August 10, 2007

Wanted! More women as small business owners

Thursday, August 09, 2007

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Important news round-up

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

How to increase your revenues through business plan writers

Monday, August 06, 2007

A call to Yahoo to change their online access methods

Saturday, August 04, 2007

More and more philanthropists giving grants to start businesses

Friday, August 03, 2007

Pay attention all you budding travel agents! read and follow!

Teens touching the world with their imaginations

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Important news round-up of the week

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