Author: Albert Ruel

The Albert A. Ruel Road to Blindness A 21 year old man stood on the beach at the Sproat Lake Provincial Park with friends early in May of 1977, and upon gazing across the lake found the Gulf Oil sign missing from the dock-side filling station there. When this fact was shared with his companions they glanced at him with puzzled looks and said, “No Albert, the sign is still there”. That was the beginning of a road through confusion, anger, isolation, loneliness and discovery for me. It all began with a visit to a local Optometrist who could see that my vision wasn’t right, but that corrective lenses wouldn’t help. He then referred me to a General Practitioner, where I received a clean bill of health and an additional referral. This time to an Ophthalmologist. Immediately upon peering through the dilated pupils, Dr. McKerricher was able to see the problem, Retinal Vasculitis. Now, you would think that all would start to improve at this point, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. You see, CNIB, from 1918 until 1985 only served the needs of people who were “Legally Blind”, a level of vision loss I wouldn’t reach until November of 1979. The words of Dr. McKerricher still echo in my mind today, “Albert, I don’t know what has caused this and nothing we’ve tried is helping to stop it, and you’re not blind enough for me to refer you to CNIB”! In the middle of this transition from 20/20 vision to “Legally Blind” came the Motor Vehicle Branch and it’s rules of the road. On August 3, 1978 I drove a car for the last time as my vision had reached the level at which operating a motor vehicle became too dangerous, further intensifying feelings of fear, isolation and anger. Sadly, through this period the only available guidance and support was through family and friends, but not the experienced professionals I needed at the time. Although these support systems are critically important they can often be smothering and facilitating, rather than encouraging and supportive. With gratitude, and some trepidation I finally was able to access CNIB services in November of 1979, and the world opened up then. There I was able to meet other blind people and receive the daily living and mobility skills required to live independently in this sighted world. I learned elementary braille and began to discover technology as necessary tools of independence. Thankfully, in 1985 CNIB’s National Board altered the course of service to visually impaired Canadians forever. They added a third prong to their Mission Statement, “To promote sight enhancement services”. This opened the door to all Canadians who were beginning to lose sight, as well as those who had a fear of vision loss to access the full range of CNIB Support and Rehabilitation Services. So now, whether it’s someone’s Mother who is experiencing Macular Degeneration, or an Uncle experiencing the affects of Glaucoma, all have the ability to seek information, guidance and support as all involved deal with the fear and anxiety that accompanies such life altering experiences. With the help of professional Rehabilitation Workers and Employment Counselors I was able to continue traveling independently within my own community, and even more remarkably anywhere in the world I desired to go. I managed to attend College in Nanaimo and New Westminster, as well as traveling to the Mayo Clinic and to doctor’s appointments in Nanaimo and Vancouver without assistance. All of this while living with some usable vision, but not yet needing a white cane for travel. During the mid 1980’s I was a stay-at-home Dad and did all that was required of that challenging work, from changing diapers to preparing meals, and from cutting the grass to maintaining our home. I even took a woodworking course through Alberni’s Adult Education program and built and restored several pieces of furniture. Of course the 1958 Chevy Impala in the garage was my pride and joy, and I devised ways to do much of the work it required. I also joined and participated in many community activities, like the local Car Club, and a disability support group that catered to the needs of people with many different disabilities. Of course, continued participation in family life remained of critical importance through this period. In 1989 a secondary condition began to extinguish the vision that remained, which set into motion a new stream of professional rehabilitation services and supports. By the spring of 1990 Glaucoma had turned out the lights completely, and the darkness I had feared so desperately was upon me. Strangely though, I found this to be a great relief rather than the tragedy I had imagined it would be. Through several professional rehabilitation sessions, and by joining peer mentoring and advocacy groups I was able to come to terms with this strange feeling, and to learn additional skills and strategies for living with no visual cues of the world around me. This is also about the time that I decided to explore CNIB as an employer, and to see if I could provide the sort of guidance and support to others that had been my pleasure to receive. Those 14 years were a wonderful experience of ongoing discovery for me, as teaching may be the best way to solidify one’s own learning. In other words, those we assist through this transition in turn help us all as we develop best practices and improved service. Following a 14 year career with CNIB I also served the blind community as the first National Equality Director employed by the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians (AEBC), and as a Basic Computer Literacy Trainer with the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB). Most recently I have enjoyed coordinating the CCB’s newly launched Get Together with Technology Program in Western Canada, which brings to the fore my passion for assistive technology and the power of peer mentoring. Without sight I have continued to travel far and wide, with trips to Conventions of and for the Blind in Anaheim California and Melbourne Australia, as well as to many events and activities in Toronto and Vancouver. Of course my work has taken me to many communities throughout Western Canada, and most particularly nearly all regions of BC and on Vancouver Island. None of which would have been possible without the services and support of organizations like CCB, AEBC and CNIB. For most people blindness generates a fear of extended movement, both within one’s home and community, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Independence comes from personal desire and increased skill. Many community organizations can assist with both through their mentoring and skill development programs. I remember always that life has little to do with what happens to me and 100% what I do about/with it. There is a quote I like to use from the National Federation of the Blind in the USA, “With adequate skill development and opportunity blindness can be reduced to the level of a nuisance”, and nothing could be closer to the truth. Helen Keller said many years ago, “There is nothing more tragic than someone who has sight, but no vision”. She also challenged the Lions Clubs of the world to become the “Knights of the Blind, and to take up the crusade against darkness”. I too joined a Lions Club in 1992 and continue to work on the crusade that Helen Keller began in the 1920-s.

Nanaimo GTT Meeting Notes, August 6, 2015

Nanaimo GTT Meeting Notes, August 6, 2015

A small group met at the 710 Club on Prideaux Street the afternoon of Thursday, August 6 for a meaningful discussion on call announcements for BC Transit busses, as well as scanning stands for iDevices running the KNFB Reader app.

The announcement that BC Transit in Victoria will employ the Trekker Breeze Plus to provide call announcements in each of its 280 busses was discussed with most members in favour and one opposed. The program if successful will potentially be rolled out throughout the Province where BC Transit operates the public transit system. Nanaimo is one of those potential locations so this group will monitor closely the Victoria Regional Transit System roll-out.

The iPhone scanning stand discussed was the Fopydo Stand which is a solution sought by three people in attendance. The price for the device is $12 USD plus shipping. More information can be found at http://www.fopydo.com.

Other topics covered were scheduling and collaboration strategies for the work place versus needs for leisure/social endeavours. Here we discussed the Outlook Calendar and its ability to invite other participants, as well as the iPhone Calendar’s ability to do the same task. OmniFocus was mentioned as a means of organizing the workflow of a task, and for scheduling the completion of each item along the timeline to the over-all task completion.

Because the group was small the meeting broke up early, and the next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 3 which will cover options for independence in the home. Please bring your ideas, strategies and devices you employ for everything from doing laundry to cooking meals, from organizing your cupboards to identifying packages/cans, and from cleaning to shopping. This will include low and high tech solutions. No issue will be too minor for us to consider seriously in this brainstorming session.

Respectfully submitted,

Albert A. Ruel

This is a test

I’m trying to understand how to change from my own blog to the GTT one so please disregard this message.  If you have any tips on where to find a good tutorial on WordPress blogs I’ll be most appreciative if you share such a resource with me at albertruel@gmail.com.

FYI, Twitter Workshop Hosted by AEBC 

http://www.blindcanadians.ca/news/bb/2015-06-workshop-using-twitter-thursday-june-25th-8pm-eastern

article:  The future of braille.

Using Your Screen reader to Extend the functionality of the Windows Clipboard

David Goldfield's avatarThoughts from David Goldfield

Most computer users are familiar with using ctrl-C to copy selected text to the Windows clipboard for later pasting with ctrl-V. Under normal circumstances, pressing ctrl-C overwrites or erases text which was previously placed in the clipboard. Today, screen readers can take this capability and, to quote a popular chef on television, kick it up a notch.
First, let’s discuss JAWS from Freedom Scientific. JAWS includes a rather nifty feature known as the Freedom Clipboard, allowing you to append rather than copy text to the clipboard. Here is how it works.
Find some text you want to copy to the clipboard.
Select or highlight it the normal way, using the shift key along with appropriate navigation keys, such as shift-insert-right arrow to highlight the next word at the cursor.
Press ctrl-C to copy the text to the clipboard, as you usually do.
Now, move your cursor to another block of…

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Victoria GTT Meeting Summary, Jan 7, 2015

On a cool cloudy day in early January the Victoria GTT group met once again at the Knox Presbyterian Church Lounge on Richmond Road. This gathering was for the purpose of hearing a presentation by Allan Carlson from the Ministry of Education, for which approximately 28 blind and partially sighted participants attended. His expertise is in the area of Public Library services, and he was asked to present specifically on the National Network for Equitable Library Service (NNELS) adopted by BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, North West Territories, Yukon and Nunavut.

Allan gave a brief overview of how NNELS came to be, and how print disabled Canadians can access it for the borrowing of the collections over 12,000 audio book titles. NNELS is a member of the BC Libraries Cooperative which has a budget to produce audio books. He further explained how users can request new titles if the book they’re seeking isn’t available, and that NNELS tries to provide those requests in approximately one week. NNELS has a limited budget with which to purchase new titles, however endeavours to add as many voice recorded titles as possible. New requests are mostly scanned and saved as synthesized speech DAISY or MP3 audio books. If the Library customer already owns the book it can quickly be scanned and converted free of charge.

Allan went on to indicate that Open Source software is used to store and deliver the collection via computer and other portable device internet downloads, and that if participants require assistance to search, download or burn to CD a book from the collection those services are, or soon will be available through local Libraries, or the NNELS Help Desk. After all, this service is entirely funded through your tax supported Provincial Public Library budgets, and as such are mandated to be delivered locally. If your Library isn’t currently a member you are urged to advocate to have them become involved.

He provided contact info for NNELS and briefly outlined how people can register even if their local Library hasn’t signed up yet. You will require a Library Card from your local Library in order to sign up for a temporary membership, then you can either request assistance or register online. Use the contact info found below.

National Network for Equitable Library Service
https://nnels.ca/
Email: support@nnels.ca
Phone: 1-855-383-5761, ext. 1017
Follow NNELS on Twitter: @NNELSca

During the second hour of the January 7 meeting a general discussion was undertaken around the use of iPhones verses Android smart phones, as well as a brief chat about accessible phones that might be just used to make phone calls. Some suggestions were offered, and people exchanged business cards in order to follow up after the meeting.

A question was asked about the use of free magnification on Apple and PC computers. Suggestions were offered, and people connected for ongoing support and strategies.

One participant asked whether he should make the move to the computer, or if he can find satisfaction with the DAISY player he currently owns. Albert will follow up to guide him in the exploration of his current device and ascertain his needs as they relate to his existing technology.

The high cost of assistive technology was also raised from the perspective of limited incomes with which to purchase/upgrade in order to keep up with ongoing improvements.

Due to the large number of Victoria residents currently battling the flu people were asked during this meeting to limit the amount of physical contact, however it seems that a couple of people came away with flues/colds regardless. Thanks to all who were so diligent in this regard.

The meeting ended at about 3:30 with several staying around to network and exchange contact info.

Respectfully Submitted on January 15, 2015

Albert A. Ruel, GTT Coordinator

Blaze EZ Dec 17 Demo Summary Notes

Blaze EZ Dec 17 Demo Summary Notes:

The National GTT Conference Call Group were very appreciative to have Steve Barclay, COO of Aroga Technologies on December 17, 2014 lead us in the presentation of the “Direct to Player” audio book downloading, Podcast/Internet Radio Streaming, text to speech and OCR capabilities of the portable Blaze EZ DAISY player.

Steve started the presentation with a detailed explanation of the physical layout of the device and the workings of each button and feature. He then demonstrated the easy with which all aspects of the device can be used, as well as the two voices available in the English model.

The initial demonstration was followed by many questions about the cost, it’s availability through the Ontario ADP, and its size, weight and battery life. For further detailed information on the Blaze EZ please call Aroga at 1-800-561-6222, or info@Aroga.com.
http://www.aroga.com/blaze-ez-daisy-player/

The device appears to function as we’ve come to expect of talking book, OCR and text to speech devices, at a size and weight comparable to the other similar portable devices on the current market. I may have noticed that to scroll across the list of books/Podcasts on the Books Shelves one used the up and down arrow buttons, whereas other devices use left and right arrows. As well, the user accesses alphanumeric characters in a way similar to the Apple TV, which is to use the four arrow buttons to locate the desired character and the Enter Key to select it. The camera for the OCR function is a 5Megapixle unit like many other smart phones on the market. The device ships with a Quick-Start Guide in print and Braille, and it has 12 GB of internal storage.

Steve also indicated that it is being put forward to the Ministry for inclusion as an OCR device through the Ontario ADP, however that it’ll likely be 6 months or more before anything is known about those prospects. In the meantime, it might be possible to acquire the Blaze with the $450 credit allowed for talking book devices under the Ontario ADP.

If those of you who attended this meeting have other recollections, thoughts or ideas to convey regarding this device/presentation please do so in the comments section of this blog.

Respectfully submitted:
Albert A. Ruel
albertruel@gmail.com

GTT Nanaimo, Summary of the December 6, 2014 Meeting

On Dec 6 about 10 Nanaimo GTT members attended with three new people checking us out for the first time. Lori made her way down from Comox, and both Helen and Helena from Nanaimo also joined us. Thanks to all who brought food and coffee, which meant we were blessed with enough Christmas goodies for twice that number. It’s all stuck to the middle of my body now, and likely to remain there into the New Year.

Speaking of the New Year, on behalf of the Canadian Council of the Blind I’d like to extend to each of you a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.

The gathered group started out discussing non-technology games that can be played by blind and low vision players along with their sighted friends and family. Sadly, no one was able to determine whether or not playing cards can be purchased that contain both large print and braille. Most seemed to be of the opinion that cards are sold with one or the other of those access formats. Any additional info in this regard will be appreciated. There seemed to be consciences that the British Braille format is preferred over the American style however.

Games like Bean Bags, Horseshoes and Ladder Golf were talked about, as were many of the standard board games like Monopoly, Clue and Scrabble that are available with both print and braille. Othello, Backgammon and raised-dot dice were also mentioned. We also discussed a variety of accessible games that use some sort of bell or beeper placed inside the ball, like Goal Ball, Beep ball, Showdown etc.

Albert demonstrated his favourite iPhone card game called Cribbage Pro. It’s a free game if you only want to play against the device, and a more advanced version can be purchased so that one can play against online players throughout the world.

Aedan talked about some computer dependent games that can be found at, RSGames.org which are a series of games that can only be played online, either against the computer or another player. There is another series of games that can be downloaded called Kitchen Sink, however these ones are installed to the computer and can be played even if your computer isn’t online. Aedan also discussed an accessible Dart Board that was of interest to many in attendance. Stay tuned for more info on this one.

Donna showed us and discussed some of the games she likes to play on her iPhone called, Where’s My Ducky, Zany Touch and a running/exercise game called Zombie Run. She indicated that some of these games are good for the beginner iPhone user as they help to teach how to use the gestures needed in order to operate touch screen technology.

Donna and Aedan also mentioned that the Apple VIS web site is a great place to learn about some of the blind accessible games for Mac computers and iDevices, as well as all manner of productivity and learning applications.

The next GTT Nanaimo Meeting will be moved to Saturday, January 10, 2015 so that we don’t get in the way of people’s time off during the Christmas Holidays. The theme of that meeting will be to explore and assist with any of the new gadgets that people will have received from Santa and her helpers. I’ll be showing off my spanking new sky blue long cane that is being requested in my Santa letter. That is provided I’m able to remain reasonably good between now and then. The question is, if I use a sky blue cane will I still be able to refer to it as a “white cane”?

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact Donna or me as indicated below:

Albert Ruel
250-240-2343
albertruel@gmail.com

Donna Hudon
250-618-0010
iamdonnahudon@gmail.com