1352 What's Under the Hood of Eyes On Success (Dec. 25, 2013)
Show Notes
Several listeners have asked about how we create the show. This week we’ll explain how we do everything from selecting topics and guests to recording and editing to posting the podcasts and maintaining our web presence including the tools and techniques we use. We’ll also give a peek at what’s planned in 2014.
1351 Regaining Vision After Decades of Blindness (Dec. 18, 2013)
Show Notes
Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey speak with Mike May, the subject of “Crashing Through”, a bestselling book about his experiences regaining partial vision through a stem cell transfer and corneal transplant. Having lost his vision initially at age 3, his visual cortex was only partially developed. He had to learn some things he never knew and how to use what new vision he got.
1350 The Seeing Eye GPS App (Dec. 11, 2013)
Show Notes
Sendero Group has been making GPS devices for the visually impaired since 2000. They have partnered with The Seeing Eye guide dog organization to create their newest product, The Seeing Eye GPS app for iPhones. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Sendero Group founder and CEO Mike May about its history and features.
1349 Overcoming Challenges (Dec. 4, 2013)
Show Notes
On this show we often say that nothing is impossible just because you can’t see. Actually, a few things are either impossible or impractical. We’ll hear some heartfelt thoughts from several visually impaired people on the subject and some stories of how they’ve overcome others telling them something was impossible that turned out not to be.
1348 MBraille App from MPaja (Nov 27, 2013)
Show Notes
MBraille is not just a Braille keyboard for iOS devices but a full-featured application. You can use it to type, edit and send text messages and tweets using contracted or uncontracted Braille and much more. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with its creator, Harri Pasanen, about its many capabilities and plans for the future.
1347 Ultra Extreme Sports – Running and Biking (Nov. 20, 2013)
Show Notes
This week hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey talk with “Blind Dave” Heeley, a motivational speaker who raises money for a variety of charities through his participation in ultra endurance sporting events. Learn what it is like to train for and complete multiple consecutive daily marathons and/or 100+ mile bike rides spanning counties, countries or continents.
1346 Music Editing and Creation with Dancing Dots (Nov. 13, 2013)
Show Notes
Dancing Dots offers a variety of accessible tools for creating and reading musical scores, turning printed scores into Braille and vice versa, and editing audio. Hosts Peter Torpey and Nancy Goodman Torpey talk with Bill McCann about his musical journey and the tools that the company he founded has developed for musicians at any level.
1345 ACB Radio and “Cooking in the Dark” show (Nov. 6, 2013)
Show Notes
Hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey talk with Tim Cumings about the “Cooking in the Dark” radio program which he produces for ACB Radio. Tim tells us what goes on “behind the scenes” to make such a show possible and also tells us about the wide variety of programs that can be heard on ACB Radio as well as other sources on the Internet.
1344 Digit-Eyes Digital Identifier and Organizer (Oct. 30, 2013)
Show Notes
Digit-Eyes is a powerful app that enables people who are print-impaired to identify items using their iPhone, iPod or iPad. Hosts Nancy Goodman Torpey and Peter Torpey speak with Jose Tamayo, an enthusiastic user, about using Digit-Eyes to create and read commercial or custom labels in text, bar-code format and/or audio.
1343 BARD Mobile for Reading NLS Books (Oct. 23, 2013)
Show Notes
The long awaited BARD Mobile app is now available for reading NLS books and magazines on your iOS device. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey give an overview and demonstration of this very functional but simple to use app and how it can be used to download and read both audio and Braille material wherever you are.
1342 Being a Blind TV Reporter and Ice Hockey Player (Oct. 16, 2013)
Show Notes
Hosts Nancy Goodman Torpey and Peter Torpey talk with Gary Steeves, a nearly totally blind social worker and TV reporter for Accessible Media Incorporated. He’ll describe some of the pleasures and challenges of both on-air reporting and one of his pastimes, playing ice hockey. He also has some interesting stories about having his seeing eye poodle on the set.
1341 New Accessibility Features in iOS 7 (Oct. 9, 2013)
Show Notes
Apple recently introduced a new version of the operating system used on its iPhones and iPads called iOS 7. Hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey speak about the changes in accessibility features with Jonathan Mosen, author of a book on the topic called “iOS 7 without the Eye”. We’ll also discuss the services available from Mosen Consulting.
1340 Web and Computer Accessibility (Oct. 2, 2013)
Show Notes
As technology advances, screen readers strive to keep up with new ways of accessing information and working with applications. Hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey talk with Leonie Watson about the British Computer Association of the Blind, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), AccessTalk Podcast, Leonie’s blog and other sources of information about computer accessibility.
1339 Blind Piano Technicians (Sep. 25, 2013)
Show Notes
Being a piano tuner and technician can be an excellent career for a person with a visual impairment. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey speak with Jeff Lann and Don Mitchell of the School of Piano Technology for the Blind in Vancouver, Washington about how a blind person can do this job, the training that’s required for it and some challenges it presents.
1338 Prodigi Digital Magnifier System (Sep. 18, 2013)
Show Notes
Humanware’s revolutionary new Prodigi digital magnifier system combines all the features of a desktop system with a portable unit for on-the-go convenience. Hosts Nancy Goodman Torpey and Peter Torpey talk with Sam Adler and Chris Bender about how they’ve incorporated a lot of technology to create an easy to use fully digital magnifier.
1337 Jamming with Other Musicians over the Internet (Sep. 11, 2013)
Show Notes
You’re a musician who wants to play with some other musicians but no one is around right now. No problem! This week we’ll talk with Andre Louis about how you can jam with other musicians in real-time over the Internet. The tool is called Ninjam and Andre demonstrates how it works.
1336 Conditions for the Blind in Southern Asia (Sep. 4, 2013)
Show Notes
Hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey continue their conversation from last week with Karo Caran and Victor Tsaran. We’ll learn about their travels throughout SouthEast Asia and India where they trained blind people and their instructors and also about the conditions for the blind that they found there. We’ll also learn about their healthy cooking app for iOS or Android called Plantiful.
1335 Meeting and Dating across Borders (Aug. 28, 2013)
Show Notes
Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Victor Tsaran who is totally blind and grew up in Ukraine and Karo Caran who has limited vision and grew up in Poland. They met in the US. We’ll learn how they met and managed to make a life together in spite of geographical obstacles. We’ll also learn about their podcast called JoyCast.
1334 Accessible TI-84 Plus Programmable Graphing Calculator (Aug. 21, 2013)
Show Notes
The TI-84 Plus scientific programmable graphing calculator is a powerful tool for both students and professionals. Now this device has been made fully accessible to the blind with voice and haptic feedback. This week hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Sina Bahram who worked with Orbit Research and APH to develop this exciting new product.
1333 Being a Blind Auto Mechanic and Driver (Aug. 14, 2013)
Show Notes
Although blinded in an auto accident, Larry Woody owns and manages an auto repair shop. In his spare time, he is rebuilding a 1968 El Camino and sometimes drives in car races. Hosts Nancy Goodman Torpey and Peter Torpey talk with him about how he’s able to do all that and about some of the accessible computer programs he uses to help him.
1332 Victor Reader Products from Humanware (Aug. 7, 2013)
Show Notes
This week hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey talk with Matthew Janusauskas, Technical Product Manager for Victor Reader Products at Humanware, about the newest Victor Reader products: the portable Stream and the Stratus desktop version. Learn about what’s new in each, the differences between them, and which one might be right for you.
1331 Learning and Teaching Ensemble Music ... and Surfing (July 31, 2013)
Show Notes
There are many blind musicians, but participating in or leading a large ensemble has challenges for the blind. Blind since birth, Alex Krauth teaches music, sings in a chorus, and plans to start her own women’s choir. Hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey talk with her about Braille music, how she shares scores with others, and also about one of her fun hobbies…surfing!
1330 Web Accessibility (July 24, 2013)
Show Notes
Hosts Nancy Goodman Torpey and Peter Torpey will speak with Mike Paciello of The Paciello Group, a long time contributor to the field of assuring that web-sites are accessible to everybody, whatever their disability. He’s helped develop standards, does audits for, advises on and is a strong advocate for web accessibility.
1329 Horseback Riding (July 17, 2013)
Show Notes
Many horseback riding facilities offer programs for people with various special needs including the visually impaired. Join hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey on a tour of the EquiCenter near Rochester, NY which specializes in therapeutic horseback riding. We’ll learn about the program and its benefits, meet the director and an instructor, and follow a student through parts of her lesson.
1328 i. d. mate quest & ScripTalk from En-Vision America (July 10, 2013)
Show Notes
If you can’t read the packaging, it’s still important to know what’s in a container. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Anna McClure from En-Vision America about two products that convert all the information on a label into audio. The ScripTalk uses RFID chips to identify prescription medications and the i. d. mate quest reads bar codes or custom labels for almost everything else.
1327 MaMoMi Initiative to make the visual arts accessible (July 3, 2013)
Show Notes
Andrew Mashigo is a touch-tour guide at London’s Tate Modern Gallery. He started the MaMoMi Initiative to enhance the experience of blind and low vision visitors to art museums. Hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey talk with him about his mission as well as how he uses the Talking Tactile Pen from Touch Graphics to provide audio feedback for the exhibits.
1326 MathTrax Graphing Tools for the Blind (June 26, 2013)
Show Notes
MathTrax is a powerful software tool that combines mathematical analysis, graphing, and sonification to represent complex equations and data. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Robert Shelton, the developer of MathTrax, about its capabilities including demonstrations of it automatically verbally describing graphs of equations as well as creating audio representations.
1325 Home Repair and Woodworking with Little or No Vision (June 19, 2013)
Show Notes
Many blind people avoid using power tools. This week Gil Johnson, author of the Vision Aware Guide to Home Repair, tells hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey how it’s possible for a person with little or no vision to use power tools safely and describes how that can be done to create fine woodworking projects and/or do many common home repairs.
1324 Using Sonar with NVDA (June 12, 2013)
Show Notes
Sonar is a powerful audio and production program that is used by many blind musicians and audio engineers. This week hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey talk with Jamie Teh, co-developer of the free NVDA screen reader, about the tools he has developed to make Sonar more accessible with NVDA. Find out how you can acquire these tools and even help in future development.
1323 Sports and Recreation for the Blind (June 5, 2013)
Show Notes
Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey speak with Andrew Leibs, author of “The Encyclopedia of Sports and Recreation for People With Visual Impairments”. More or less following the structure of the book, we’ll discuss specific sports that the visually impaired can do, interviews he did with experts in adaptive sports and finally some useful resources for people who want to get involved.
1322 Vinux 4.0 (May 29, 2013)
Show Notes
Vinux is a version of the Linux operating system that has been optimized for the needs of blind and low vision users. Vinux provides two screen-readers, screen magnification, many other features and support for USB Braille displays. Join hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey as they speak with Rob Whyte of the Vinux project about what’s new in their latest release, Vinux 4.0 .
1321 Being a Blind Attorney (May 22, 2013)
Show Notes
Professions that require a large amount of reading and paperwork may not at first seem ideal for the blind. This week, John McCann tells hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey how he acquired the skills to pursue a degree in law and now practices law despite being blind since birth. Learn about the tools he used to succeed in law school and the workplace.
1320 Flying Blind and Top Tech Tidbits (May 15,2013)
Show Notes
Hosts Nancy Goodman Torpey and Peter Torpey speak with Larry Lewis, president and founder of Flying Blind. Flying Blind promotes new access technologies, distributes many useful products for people with vision loss and trains educators in using them. In addition, they work with Dean Martineau to produce and distribute the weekly Top Tech Tidbits about what’s new in access technology.
1319 Extreme Travel (May 8, 2013)
Show Notes
Traveling to other countries can be a challenge even if one is sighted. This week hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey talk with Tony Giles who, despite being blind and deaf, travels on his own around the world, including trips to some distant and/or remote locations. He talks about some of the places he’s been, challenges he’s had to overcome, and adventures he’s had.
1318 New Initiatives from Bookshare (May 1, 2013)
Show Notes
This week hosts Nancy Goodman Torpey and Peter Torpey speak with Betsy Beaumon, General Manager and VP of literacy programs for Benetech, parent company of Bookshare. She describes a number of exciting new initiatives and collaborations with mainstream publishers. Hear about Bookshare’s Web Reader, personalized bookshelf, and their impact on the e-pub 3 format.
1317 Going from Pathologist to Potter (April 24, 2013)
Show Notes
This week hosts Nancy Goodman Torpey and Peter Torpey talk with Rodney Roe whose transition to blindness happened suddenly when he was a fully sighted practicing pathologist. Hear how this changed his life and about how he now finds enjoyment and fulfillment through pottery.
1316 New Features of JAWS 14 (Apr. 17, 2013)
Show Notes
This week hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey talk with Jonathan Mosen from Freedom Scientific about some of the new and exciting features in JAWS 14. Jonathan demonstrates the power of “Flexible Web” and also discusses the new Vocalizer voices, improvements to the Text Analyzer and Convenient OCR and more.
1315 Writing and Publishing Your Own Book (Apr. 10, 2013)
Show Notes
Ever wonder how to get a book published? This week hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Donna Hill, an author, musician, and advocate for the blind. She’s written a book whose protagonist is a blind teenage girl. Donna describes the process of writing and publishing the book and support networks she found useful.
1314 Developing Blind-Friendly Human-Computer Interfaces (Apr. 3, 2013)
Show Notes
Sina Bahram is a blind Ph.D. student and computer scientist. Hosts Peter Torpey and Nancy Goodman Torpey talk with him about his research in developing human-computer interfaces that are not only more blind friendly but also enable the blind to work more effectively in the real world.
1313 Services and Conditions for the Blind in Panama (March 27, 2013)
Show Notes
Come to Panama with hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey. Learn what current services and conditions are like there for people with vision loss and hear what Ted Henter and Mauro Avila are doing to improve the lives of the blind. We’ll discuss social, educational and transportation issues, as well as the Virtual Pencil project they’re working on to make mathematics more accessible.
1312 Highlights from CSUN 2013 – part 2 (Mar. 20, 2013)
Show Notes
This is part 2 of a 2-part series featuring highlights from the 28th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference (often called CSUN) held 2/26 to 3/2/13 in San Diego. Hosts Pete and Nancy Torpey speak with several attendees about what’s exciting in access technology including new or upcoming products and research for future ones.
1311 Highlights from CSUN 2013 – part 1 (Mar. 13, 2013)
Show Notes
This is part 1 of a 2-part series featuring highlights from the 28th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference (often called CSUN) held 2/26 to 3/2/13 in San Diego. Hosts Pete and Nancy Torpey speak with several attendees about what’s exciting in access technology including new or upcoming products and research for future ones.
1310 Amateur Radio Technology (March 6, 2013)
Show Notes
Hosts Peter Torpey and Nancy Goodman Torpey speak with Kelvin Marsh (call sign m0aid) about the technology behind ham radio and how accessible it is. He’s a blind amateur radio operator who reviews equipment for accessibility and maintains the Active Elements web-site which contains those reviews and a lot of other information for hams with disabilities.
1309 Extreme Adventures of a Deaf-Blind Man (Feb. 27, 2013)
Show Notes
Bill Barkeley is a self-described deaf-blind outdoor adventurer and storyteller. Join hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey as they talk with Bill about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, running the Boston marathon and leading groups of deaf and/or blind teens through the Amazon. Technology helps, but his successes are mostly due to his can-do attitude.
1308 Progress in Speech Synthesis (Feb. 20, 2013)
Show Notes
Much adaptive technology relies on speech synthesis, which has evolved from humble beginnings to nearly human sounding speech. Hosts Nancy Goodman Torpey and Peter Torpey talk with Andrew Breen, director of innovation for text to speech at Nuance Communications, about the history, current technology and future goals of speech synthesis.
1307 NLS Digital Audio Player & BARD with Demonstrations of Both (Feb. 13, 2013)
Show Notes
This week hosts Peter Torpey and Nancy Goodman Torpey describe and demonstrate both the digital audio player from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) and how to download books and magazines from their Braille and Audio Reading Download (BARD) site. Last week’s show was a general description of NLS’ services.
1306 NLS Services, History & Technology (Feb. 6, 2013)
Show Notes
Join hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey as they speak with Judy Dixon and Steve Prine of the NLS about the services and history of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, which is part of the US Library of Congress. Hear about the evolution of audio and Braille formats through newer technology and plans for the future. Next week will feature demonstrations of both the digital audio player and the BARD web site.
1305 Accessible Forms and Assistance from the IRS (Jan. 30, 2013)
Show Notes
Everybody has to pay their taxes. Learn how the US Internal Revenue Service makes it possible for the visually impaired to do so independently with accessible forms, documents and other types of assistance. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey talk with Darryl Eaton of the IRS about the services they provide their disabled clients and employees.
1304 Accessibility Features of Android’s New Jelly Bean OS (Jan. 23, 2013)
Show Notes
Join hosts Peter Torpey and Nancy Goodman Torpey as they talk with both Mike Arrigo and Access Ana about the improvements to accessibility in the Android smart phone’s newest operating system called Jelly Bean. Many facets of how a visually impaired user interacts with the phone have changed for the better.
1303 Bringing Canes and Independence to Rural People Around the World (Jan. 16, 2013)
Show Notes
Beverly Crook travels the world delivering white canes to blind people in underserved rural areas, often giving them their first taste of independence. Hosts Nancy Goodman Torpey and Peter Torpey talk with her about differences between services available in developed and developing countries and about how you can contribute to this effort.
1302 J-Say Demonstration of hands-free eyes-free computing (Jan. 9, 2013)
Show Notes
J-Say is middle-ware for Dragon Dictate and JAWS to allow speech activated navigation and control with a screen reader and enable hands-free eyes-free computing. Join hosts Peter and Nancy Torpey with Ed Rosenthal, head of Next Generation Technologies, who demonstrates many of its features. Last week’s show was an overview of J-Say and MagniTalk.
1301 Using J-Say or MagniTalk for hands-free eyes-free computing (Jan. 2, 2013)
Show Notes
J-Say and MagniTalk are middle-ware for using Dragon Dictate with JAWS or ZoomText to allow speech activated navigation and control with a screen reader or magnifier. This enables hands-free eyes-free computing. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey speak with Ed Rosenthal, head of Next Generation Technologies, about both products. He’ll demonstrate many features next week.
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