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It's not often that as a future reader of a magazine that you get to help shape the content. If you are interested in a new lifestyle magazine for the blind, fill out this survey. The questions ask you to think about things you enjoy doing, activities that you find challenging, and even what you have always wished you could do. All participants will be entered to win a $25 gift certificate for Amazon. If you feel uncomfortable answering the survey questions on the website, send an email to polina.steier@gmail.com and they'll happily do the survey with you over the phone. While the survey lists a February 5 deadline, we checked with the creators and they are still looking for responses, so have at it.

Humanware is continuing to expand the number of services that Victor Reader Stream users can access wirelessly. With version 4.3, users can now access Wikipedia and Wiktionary as well as thousands of internet radio stations. According to the press release, Humanware is planning to expand wireless options in the months to come. Their hope is to make the Victor Reader Stream as powerful a tool as they can.

Researchers at Microsoft are trying to understand the intersection of crowd sourcing with people who self identify as disabled. They estimate that the survey should take no more than 20 minutes, and participants have until February 10 to fill out the survey. All of those who finish the survey will be entered to win a $50 gift card to Amazon.

Back in August, we told you about the Coalition of E-book Reader manufacturers asking the FCC to waive the requirements to make their basic e-book readers accessible. Then in October, we let you know that a temporary waiver had been granted to the Coalition while the FCC reviewed the case. Today, we're sad to announce that the FCC has decided to grant the waiver, granting these companies the right to not have to make their basic e-book readers accessible to people with disabilities. According to the Digital Journal, here are some of the requirements that the FCC laid out for which devices would qualify for the waiver: the device must not have an LCD screen, the device must not have a camera, and the device must be marketed as a reading device. The waiver that was granted will last for one year.

AI Squared has many years of experience helping people with low vision access material on the computer. Now they're going one step further and offering web developers a simple way to add magnification and speech to their website. By adding a line of code, webpages can have these options without the programmer going to the extra trouble of building the feature into each part of the website. It also offers more usability than a person simply magnifying the entire webpage. No pricing is available, though it seems to depend on the size of the business and amount of web traffic served. Those that are interested can try it out for free or read the FAQ.

At this year's ATIA conference in Orlando, Optilec announced the release of their new portable video magnifier called the Compact Touch HD. The touch screen display allows users to change magnification level, contrast color, and pan through snapshots by using simple gestures on the screen. The Compact Touch HD can also be connected to a larger display to make reading easier. This new magnifier can be ordered today for $995.

At this year's ATIA conference in Orlando, HIMS Inc. announced the upcoming release of their new E-Bot portable video magnifiers. The E-bot can be used to read things up close or at a distance. It also can be used with both Apple tablets, Android tablets, Windows PC's, and Mac PC's. The E-bot can be connected either wirelessly or by USB 3.0, displaying the image from the magnifier on the larger screen. Some of the other notable features include: OCR with built-in TTS for reading documents, a rechargeable battery that can last up to 4 hours, and auto brightness that adjusts to the lighting in your surroundings. Two models will be available, with the OCR features and a remote control included in the ADV model. HIMS will start shipping the magnifiers in March. No pricing was available.

Vanda Pharmaceuticals announced today that HETLIOZ™ (tasimelteon) has received FDA approval to treat non-24 sleep-wake disorder. According to the press release, this disorder may effect as many as 80,000 totally blind people in the US. Non-24 disorder is caused when a person's circadian rhythms become misaligned from the 24 hour day cycle resulting in their bodies not knowing when to be awake or sleep. The end result is that many totally blind people suffer with insomnia or find themselves wanting to sleep during the day. Vanda hopes that this medication will become available during the second quarter of the year. This treatment will hopefully be a solution for people who struggle with this disorder. Find the press release pasted below.

Now that GW Micro has partnered with Microsoft to offer anyone who has Office 2010 or later a free copy of Window-Eyes, they're offering people the ability to become Window-Eyes certified. This certification does not certify you as a Window-Eyes trainer, but it demonstrates to either people you're teaching or an employer that you're really knowledgeable about the software, it's features, and how to use it.

The certification exam consists of 100 multiple choice questions. It costs $99, and you need to get 80% of the test right to pass. If you don't pass, you can choose to take it again, but it will cost another $99. The test is also only currently offered in the U.S., but it's possible that they'll offer it in other countries in the future.

One of the biggest challenges of using a touch screen device when you're blind is typing on the on screen keyboard. Solutions like Fleksy and MBraille have addressed many of these issues, but they don't work for everyone. A team in Israel is working on a whole new way of typing. Their app known as the UpSense Super keyboard relies on gestures rather than a standard QWERTY keyboard design. Think of it as being similar to the handwriting feature in iOS 7.

Along with creating a gesture based typing app, the UpSense Super Keyboard will also allow you to type in braille. At this point, the hope is to release the app for Android and iOS this year, but the team needs more funding in order to bring the app to market. If you want to support their efforts, consider contributing to their Indiegogo campaign by following the link in the headline.

Since I wasn't clear on how the UpSense keyboard differed from solutions that already exist, I contacted the developer Nissan Yaron.

Q: How is the UpSense keyboard different from solutions like Fleksy?
A: Our keyboard works entirely different, it's based on making gestures with the fingers rather than pressing on specific keys.
After calibration, hot zones come under your fingers and make it possible to define between your fingers in a way that doing the same gesture with a different finger will create a different character.
The characters are made in intuitive way so it's easy to remember them and you can also customize them according to your comfort.
For example, typing 'V' is made with the Index and Middle fingers together in an upward movement.
If you want, you can switch it for downward movement or to something entirely different.

If you are a high school senior with a disability, and are planning to go to college, consider applying for one of the Microsoft Disability Scholarships. Winners will receive a $5,000 scholarship that will be sent directly to their school of choice. According to the scholarship website, those who apply must be majoring in the following areas: "engineering, computer science, computer information systems, legal or in business that are approved (ie. paralegal, pre-law, finance, business administration, or marketing)." Other requirements include financial need, a passion for technology, leadership, and a GPA of at least 3.0. Applications must be submitted by March 15.

In preparation for the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) Orlando, Freedom Scientific has just announced a new addition to their Ruby line of handheld magnifiers. The Ruby HD uses LED technology to provide crisp images that can be magnified from 2X to 13X. Users can also choose from 20 different high contrast colors. Finally, users can store up to 80 images and transfer them to their computer, making the Ruby a digital camera as well. This version of the Ruby sells for $645.

Today I came across an app that makes me very excited as a future teacher of the visually impaired. Everyware Technologies, makers of iMove and other apps has just released a new app for the iPad called Math Melodies. It teaches math concepts using stories and music. The app is compatible with both Zoom and VoiceOver so it's a great option for both blind and low vision students. It also works with a braille display for kids that want to practice their braille while they play.

Math Melodies teaches math concepts that range from first to third grade. Users will practice counting, adding, subtracting, and patterns. They will also learn how to explore a table, a concept that is an important skill that can be quite challenging for blind children. The music and sounds are fun and engaging.

The developers are always appreciative of feedback. If you have any suggestions for how to make the app better, or you just want to thank them for the app, send and email to: accessibility@ew-tech.it!

Fleksyy has had a number of changes since it's release. Some of these changes have been positive, and for some of us, the changes have been confusing. Now that Fleksy has opened it's SDK to other app developers, they want to make sure that the app is consistent and easy to use for it's users. For this reason, they've just released a new version of the app called Fleksy VO. According to the Fleksy blog: here are some of the changes that you'll notice in Fleksy VO. You can now tap and hold the top of the screen to bring back the menu, manual typing has been fixed, and you can use long presses for punctuation. In addition, your dictionary from other versions of Fleksy will be ported over, and it will always be free.

Google is expanding it's horizons once again. They've just announced that they plan to design a contact lens that will measure a person's glucose level using their tears. This is an important issue to our community since Diabetic Retinopathy is one of the leading causes of blindness in the US today. As it stands right now, people have to check their blood throughout the day using needles and glucose monitors. This process can be quite challenging when you can not see. Also, using a contact lens instead of a needle would remove the painful aspect of the process. Finally, since the plan is for readings to be taken every second, diabetics would likely know sooner that their blood sugar is dropping, hopefully preventing blood sugar crashes that can lead to serious medical consequences.

The Matilda Ziegler publishing company was founded in 1907 to provide a monthly magazine in braille to the blind. Over the past 107 years, the magazine has been distributed to thousands of people around the world. In 2009, the board of directors decided to change the magazine to a weekly publication. They also stopped production of the magazine in braille and audio, and decided to offer the articles exclusively online. After 4 years of running the magazine exclusively online, the board of directors is now stopped production of the magazine all together while they decide what they want the future of the magazine to be.

I was brought onto the writing team of the magazine in June of 2010. Over the past three and a half years, it has been my privilege to write for the magazine and to share it with people who don't know about it. I think that our team of writers is passionate and knowledgeable, and that the content that we provide is a valuable resource for our community.

If you are a fan of the Matilda Ziegler magazine and you feel like the board of directors would be making a mistake if they shut the magazine down, please send them your feedback. You can write to them at editor@matildaziegler.com or you can submit comments by visiting the contact section of the Matilda Ziegler website.

Last year's announcement from AOL that WinAmp was going away was unwelcome news from users who really like the software. For the blind community, WinAmp was a favorite app to use while hosting online radio programs or as an accessible alternative to iTunes or Windows Media Player. These users may be in luck though. WinAmp has just been acquired by a company in Belgium called Radionomy . According to the press release, Radionomy plans to bring Winamp back and to offer it on more platforms including mobile.

For those who are not familiar with Radionomy, it's a place where people can design their own radio stations and share them world wide. Since they offer a mobile app, I decided to check out the iOS version. I'm happy to report that the app is very VoiceOver friendly, and it is my hope that their radio station design tools will be just as friendly.

I recently came across a resource that is a great option for someone who needs to access the internet, but either doesn't have internet at their home or can't afford internet access. TeleTender is a service that allows the blind and visually impaired to access the news, weather, email, webpages, and even Facebook by using their telephones. The organization currently has six different phone numbers that people can use to access the service. If you don't have long distance and want TeleTender to provide a local phone number, send an email to numbers@teletender.org and they'll do their best to get a local number for you.

Even though I have good access to the internet and a computer that is accessible to me, I wanted to test out the service for our readers. My overall impression is that this is a good alternative to accessing the web on a computer. Setting up my email was a bit challenging, but once I got my email address and password entered in correctly, accessing my email was very simple. There is even an option to compose new emails or to reply to emails that are received.

I also tested out the news, internet, and Facebook features. In all three cases, using the features of the service was easy. For screen reader users that like having a lot of control over how they browse, this experience is going to possibly be frustrating, but I feel like TeleTender is not aimed at advanced screen reader users.

Some of the additional features of the service include: being able to speak selections rather than using the phone keypad, ability to increase or decrease the speed of the voice, and ability to change your time zone.

the team at Serotek wants to reward it's customers just for buying their products. Today they announced that people who have a SamNet subscription or one of the Accessibility Anywhere packages will be entered to win prizes each month. This month, they're giving away copies of the book "Out of the Whirlpool" by Sue Martin. Visit the <a href="http://www.serotek.com" Serotek website to learn more.

Access to transportation is a critical issue for the blind and visually impaired. When we don't have access to efficient transportation, our independence can be severely impacted. Researchers at Mississippi State University are studying the transportation issues that the blind and visually impaired face in their daily lives. According to the survey website, the information gained from the survey will be used to help policy makers and other groups that serve our community better serve our transportation needs. Those who complete the survey will have the option to be entered to win 1 of 4 $100 gift certificates.