We once again had a very lively and entertaining GTT meeting in Ottawa on December 15.
Our topic was entertainment.
We first enjoyed pizza and thanks to Heather and Wayne for the drinks and Mary for the lovely shortbread.
We welcomed Louise Gillis (CCB National President) to our meeting.
We talked about the rapid growth of GTt in other parts of Canada and how exciting that is.
We reviewed the past GTT conference calls that were held nationally and upcoming calls.
If anyone has topic ideas for conference calls, please let Kim know at
gttprogram@rogers.com
(613) 567-0311
1-877-304-0968
We updated people on local programs coming in the new year.
These are yoga, dance, radio workshops, and more.
Find posts about them on the GTT blog at
https://gttprogram.wordpress.com
An app for Iphone for CNIB library is coming soon.
This will allow you to download books directly to your phone from your direct to player bookshelf.
An android app is expected soon too.
We found out about Itunes University.
It is called Itunes U as well.
There are hundreds of courses you can access for free.
They also have some paid courses.
When you sign up, you can listen to audio recordings of lectures and also download power point notes.
The courses are very accessible.
There is an app for itunes U.
You can also access it on itunes itself.
Someone is looking for Beginner’s spanish courses to download.
Some people found them on audible.com
If anyone knows how to find pimsleur language courses, they are supposed to be excellent.
There are also podcasts that are 15 minutes long for learning languages.
The one that has been tried is called “coffee break french”
We discussed apps including songza, acuradio, tune in radio, ootunes, and more for accessing music.
Someone reminded us that there is a special phone number at OC Transpo to call if you are blind and want very specific directions.
The people answering that phone are wonderful and provide directions in great detail.
The number is (613) 842-3627
Lorne showed off apple tv which is totally accessible with voiceover.
It has a small box and a tactile remote.
Several people in the room use it to stream music and podcasts from their devices, to watch movies from netflix and other services.
You cannot watch traditional TV channels with it.
There is also an accessible app to control apple TV from your I device.
One member called apple and they plan to have more audio described programming available through Itunes.
We had a discussion about how to get more audio described programming in movie theatres and on TV.
Here is a link to a list of accessible movies with DVS.
http://acb.org/adp/dvdsalpha.html#b
Someone also mentioned finding the DVS audio tracks at
blindytv.net
Serotek also has audio tracks of described movies.
AMI has an accessible player on their web site at
You can only watch what is on live.
They also have a youtube channel with small local clips and stories.
Someone suggested we lobby for public libraries to have at least one copy of each movie they lend that is audio described.
Some movie theatres have descriptive video but we need more of these.
We also discussed live description at theatres and other events.
This is not too common although the Stratford Festival has some of this.
We will talk to the local theatre companies to try to get some live described theatre here.
The pick up and drop off movie service Red Box has some DVS movies.
How do we find all of the DVS titles available on the CNIB Library site?
Someone demonstrated the KNFB reader app for the iphone.
This allows you to take pictures and read print with your phone.
The app costs $100 but those who have it think it is well worth the price.
One person was able to scan and read a description from a pop can.
Jaws 16 has much improved voices in languages other than english.
We were told of two apps in Germany that allow you to go into a movie theatre and bring up the DVS track on your I device.
Our next meeting is on January 19.
We will have presentations about facebook and twitter.
This may lead to workshops in how to set up your accounts.
We are also going to talk about any accessible income tax software that is available.
Thank you to everyone who participates so enthusiastically in GTT.
Have a wonderful holiday season.
GTT Program blog and resources 