Audio Describe International

I had to share this. So inspirational and it proves that losing your sight is not the end.

I am blind. But I still fight. South Africa’s first black MMA champ MMA fighter Ronald Dlamini lost his sight to meningitis. Holding on to his fighting spirit, he designed a self-defence course for the blind.

To all my old and new friends out there, I am sorry to inform you that this will be my last post to this page as administrator as I am parting ways with the company. I shall, however, remain active in accessible media, and we'll meet again some place, some time in the future. All the best, Harriet.

We sighted folks really have no idea what persons with visual disabilities go through and how they cope. I just hope that more Audio Description in film and television will make life easier and more enjoyable for those who cannot see. Broadcasters, we're coming to demand AD on more local programming!!!

Things I learned by pretending to be blind for a week I’m a full visually-able user and I love looking at websites. I know though, that not everyone experiences websites in the same way.

I know I've published an article on Daniel Kish before, but this man just carries on doing the incredible. He has so finely tuned his hearing that he can navigate his bike through heavy traffic, climb trees, camp alone and dance perfectly, and now he's teaching. Hats off to this man!

A human type of echolocation helps the blind The space before the blind man was a riddle he needed to solve. Was he facing a house, a car, a hedge, a fence, a tree or open space?

This is an incredibly helpful blog by Sheila Rousey, a visually impaired person:

Are You Afraid to Take Up New Smart Phone and other iDevice? - Visually Impaired: Now What? -... Are You Afraid to Take Up New Smart Phone and other iDevice?

Anybody heard more about this or actually tried this new local computer specifically designed for the blind and visually impaired?

http://www.sanote.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=101

SAnote. The portable talking computer for the Blind Welcome to the South African talking computer, SAnote. SAnote is a fully functional portable talking computer for the Blind. It is designed, developed, manufactured and distributed in South Africa. It is multilingual, user-friendly and affordable. SAnote is ready-to-use out-of-the-box, but its softw…

Very interesting article...
http://boldblindbeauty.com/

Bold Blind Beauty Style concepts for the visually impaired

Picture of blue and red fireworks with a yellow writing saying 2016 Happy New Year. Below that, Happy New Year is written in Braille.

From all of us at ADI, we wish you a wonderful holiday season and a safe and successful New Year. Click on the picture to go to YouTube.

Bob Dylan - Little Drummer Boy Music video by Bob Dylan performing Little Drummer Boy. (c) 2009 Sony Music Entertainment

Come on, Jozi, Durbs and other Societies for the Blind around SA. Talk to Vodacom and provide this great service for all.

Blind smartphone users get a boost from Vodacom Visually impaired people are set to benefit from a new partnership between the mobile network and the Cape Town Society for the Blind.

Laura Perna from Pen 2 Paper has come back to me and we will definitely have a chat about working together. In the meantime, you can check out their winning stories on http://www.txdisabilities.org/pen-2-paper.

I asked her if there were any audio versions for our visually impaired persons, and her response is below. Enjoy.

We do not have audio versions of the winning entries, I'm afraid. What I can offer is this: we hold a monthly open mic here in town and announce the contest winners each year there. This time around, we got a video of me making that announcement, a judge reading the grand prize winning poem (Joyce Frohn's "Foggy Morning"), and a local author reading his own grand prize winning non-fiction entry (David Borden's "It Will Be More Beautiful"). The audio isn't great, but it's perceptible. Here's the link, with the winners announcement starting at 3:50, the poem at 7:40, and the non-fiction at 8:55: https://youtu.be/lM0Br7g1rpk

VSA & P2P: The Lion and The Pirate Unplugged 10/24/2015 pt. 3 K K Marshall Pen 2 Paper 2015 Writing Contest Winners Taylor Pate reads poetry grand prize "Foggy Morning" by Joyce Frohn David Borden reads his prose grand ...

I've just picked up on Pen 2 Paper, a disability-focused creative writing competition. We've just missed entry for it this year, but there's always next. Details are below and I will keep you up to date so everybody can enter next year. If we could find a sponsor, wouldn't it be great if we could do something like this here as well? If you know anybody who could be interested in supporting a competition like this, please drop me a line on this page.

About the Pen 2 Paper Creative Writing Contest

CTD's annual Pen 2 Paper (P2P) creative writing competition seeks pieces of fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and comics that treat the topic of disability. Whether or not you have experience as a creative writer; whether or not you have a disability, we want to hear your voice!

P2P is the ONLY disability-focused creative writing competition in Texas (correct us if we're wrong!). Our goals are to:
• give writers with disabilities a forum where they can share their work.
• bring awareness to disability issues through the arts.
• challenge all people of all ages to think, rethink, and express their stories, perspectives, fears, and discoveries about disability.

While P2P is based in Texas, people from other states or countries are welcome to enter.

Each year, entries are evaluated by a panel of volunteer judges, and prizes are awarded to the top entries in each category. Winners and finalists will be posted on P2P's website and given opportunities to share their work in public settings.

Local and state sponsors and volunteers help make the competition possible by contributing their time, expertise, products, services, and energy