all categories Deals, Sales, and News

Darrell Shandrow at the Blind Access Journal compiles accessibility and technology headlines from various blogs and websites and presents them in an RSS feed. It's available for viewing or subscribing on Bloglines, a web-based blog tool. Think of it as a kind of best-of for the blindness-related blogs. Currently, the number of linked posts has reached near 1,000, and new items are added several times a week. View it or subscribe using the link on this post.

Per reader requests, the Kelvin Talking Programmable Thermostat still costs $105.99 at the Patriot Supply EBay store. With about $8 for shipping, it's the lowest price we could find for a new unit. This thermostat gives voice feedback with every button and adjusts the temperature with with voice commands. Program the unit to automatically adjust the temperature for certain days of the week or times of the day. Override these settings if you go on vacation. Many other features are included.

It used to be that Thanksgiving Day would be the day where we sat around the table looking at the Black Friday ads. Those days have come and gone, however. Check out BFAds.net, our favorite of the Black Friday ads sites. As with some other sites, their mobile version is especially screen reader friendly, so we've linked to it instead. Many ads are already posted, with more destined for the site in the coming days.

Much has been written about the inaccessibility of some of the legal services for downloading music. But in the latest in our series of articles, we discuss the ease of use of Amazon's new MP3 offering. The service offers pure MP3 downloads with no DRM restrictions for 99 cents a track or less. Select the link on this post to read our article.

Once again, Blind Mice Mart takes 20 percent off its selection of braille cookbooks. Plus, shipping is free via free matter. Dozens of titles are available. Deal ends November 30.

An EBay seller has listed a Pac Mate 20-cell braille display with a starting bid of $400. With about $20 for shipping, that's nearly $1,000 less than purchasing it new. This display includes many navigational buttons and operates via USB. Auction ends November 8.

An EBay seller has listed a Braille Lite Millennium 40 for a starting bid price of 99 cents. Add about $30 for shipping. The item is listed in excellent condition. This item includes a 40-cell braille display and was the model that was released before the Pac Mate family. Auction ends November 12. Update: the opening bid has skyrocketed to $995, which isn't nearly as good of a deal.

If you're looking to save money or live financially smarter, we've started a new blog that may help you out. Living on the Cheap offers tips and advice as well as ideas and ways to save money. The info is for anyone, not just blind people, and questions and comments are always welcome.

We've had some questions from people looking for our Daily Deals newsletter. If you wish to subscribe, we've added the link under the other features list on the home page. Or, just select the link on this post.

What do you do when you are told your child is blind? What skills are the most important for a newly-blinded person to learn? What adaptations and technology is available? For many of us, these questions may have obvious answers, but for someone new to blindness, they are a mystery. Fred Olver's new book, Dealing with Vision Loss, is said to answer these questions and many more. Olver, who is blind himself, has a Bachelor of Science in Communication Arts and Secondary Education and a Master of Arts in Blind
Rehabilitation Teaching from Western Michigan University. According to the site's home page, "His life
experience as well as his work as a Rehabilitation Teacher and developing
technology and training for individuals in the use of talking computers and
software, uniquely qualifies him to speak to the many questions about vision
loss." In addition, a large list of resources is included. The book is available in many formats, including print, CD, and EBook. The latter, presented in Adobe PDF, is the best value at $15.95. An MP3 version of the book is also in the works.

We've added a new page with information for advertisers. If you represent a company
or organization and wish to advertise on Blind Bargains, check out the new page for
more information.

Bookshare, who has received a $32 million grant to offer increased access to textbooks
for students, has removed the 26-year-old age limit that was formerly listed as a
stipulation for a free subscription. Now, any student who qualifies for Bookshare's
services, regardless of age, may apply for a free membership. In addition, any student
who purchased a membership within the past few months may be eligible for a partial
refund. All of this according to Tiffany Medina, Outreach Coordination Intern for
Benetech. In addition, any student over 26 who purchased a membership after October
1 can ask for a complete refund. More information is available from Tiffany via a
mailing list post linked here.

Searching for the absolute best deal for an item is not
as hard as you might think. In the latest of our series of articles, we detail some
of the methods we use to find the bargains that are posted to the site.

A Spanish talking watch is available on EBay for a BuyItNow price of $6.95. Plus,
shipping is free. It's sold through the EBay store of BrailleBooks.com and has three
alarms and hourly announcement features. There were 4 watches available as of this
post. Learn to tell time in Spanish. Listing ends November 3.

One of the most popular services used to
sort through the millions of blogs on the net is Technorati. You may have seen blogs
with a Technorati link. If you were to select it, you'd add that blog to your Technorati
favorites. The site allows you to search through blogs on just about any topic or
view posts from your favorite blogs. Use the authority rating on a blog to determine
its popularity, or see what other blogs link to your favorite site. The site is quite
accessible, and many of the screen reader navigation commands work well on the pages.
You can start by Adding Blind Bargains to your Technorati Favorites.</
a> If you don't have an account, you'll be able to create one quickly using that
link.

Allegro Medical via Amazon.com has the Reizen Talking Atomic Sports Watch for $53.95.
With about $9 for shipping, it's the lowest price we could currently find for this
item. This watch works in the four major U.S. time zones and has a male voice.

I'm not sure what it is about these classic embossers, but they usually make it to our most popular deals list. So again, an EBay seller has listed a TeleSensory VersaPoint embosser with a starting bid of $49.95 plus about $25 for shipping. The printer is being sold as is, but the seller says the unit powers on and the feeds work.
Auction ends October 31. Spooky.

Today only, Yugster.com has a 5 pack of CD & DVD openers for $5. Coupon code GEN1027 drops the price to $4. Plus, shipping is free. According to the site, the CD and DVD Opener makes it easy to open factory sealed and shrink wrapped CDs
and DVDs. With one quick swipe, the hidden blade slices the shrink wrap and you're listening
to your music or watching your movie in no time.

Newegg.com has the LG 20X Internal IDE DVD burner for $28.99. Plus, 3-day shipping is free, making it one of the best deals we've seen for an internal DVD burner with this speed.

Sendero Group has released a version of Sendero GPS without the GPS. Titled Way to
Go
, the product includes the features of its GPS product without the actual tracking
support. Think of it as the virtual mode portion of navigational software. In addition,
you can attach audio narratives or sounds to specific points of interest, a feature
that we hope will find its
way into the regular GPS product. The cost for Way to Go
is $749 for the download or a bit more for a version shipped to your door. The download
is a better value, even if you choose to buy your own 8GB compact flash card and
download the maps.