Listen to Show 62

Lots of good stuff in this episode!

Learn more about J.C. Hutchin's new book, "Personal Effects: Dark Art" at http://jchutchins.net and listen to my previous interview with him at http://disability-411.com/?q=node/60.

Volunteer for the SEDL study if you work in the health care industry and either have a disability, work with someone who does, or supervise an employee with a disability. Email them at dbtac@sedl.org or call 1-800-476-6861.

Visit http://readingrights.com and sign the petition to allow text to speech for ebooks!

And check out the podcast by today's contributor, Day Al-Mohamed, at http://dayinwashington.com.

TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS

You may have heard that as soon as the Kindle 2 came out with text to speech (TTS) abilities, the Author's Guild shut it down, saying that it infringed upon their audio book rights. Well, anyone who has ever listened to TTS knows that it does not compare to a professional author reading a book! But what it does do is allow people with print disabilities -- not just blind and low vision, but learning disabilities, physical disabilities that make it difficult to hold a book, etc. -- to "read" a book without having to reveal personal information, go through a lot of red tape, or pay extra! Authors will not lose a cent because someone who wanted to listen to an "audio book" listened to TTS instead! In fact, they will get MORE money because people with print disabilities will buy their book on the Kindle where they wouldn't otherwise.

This is not just about the Kindle. This is about access to print materials in a much larger sense.

Please go to http://readingrights.com and read more about this. And if you support access to all to print materials, then sign the petition, or write your own letter to the Author's Guild (contact information available on the site). Spread the word. There are lots of ways to support the issue. Just go check it out.

Some places to start:

World Autism Awareness Day
http://www.worldautismawarenessday.org

Autism Society of America
http://www.autism-society.org/site/PageServer

Autism Speaks
http://www.autismspeaks.org/

Listen to Show 61

This episode features a guest interviewer, Ron Graham of the AccessAbility blog. He interviews Stephen Kerr, a blind disc jockey from Austin, Texas.

Be sure to check out Ron's blog at http://accessability.blogspot.com/.

TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS

Listen to Show 60

This episode's content is graciously provided by Day Al-Mohamed of the "Day in Washington" podcast. Be sure and visit her blog and podcast at http://www.dayinwashington.com.

Also mentioned in this episode is www.DeafNation.com.

TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS