He was probably the first blind juror to sit on a Denver (Colorado, U.S.) jury. Joe Kovach, 29, recently sat on the jury that convicted gang member Timothy Guy Kemp of first-degree murder after a trial that lasted several days.
For Kovach, serving on the jury tested his senses and tested the ability of prosecutors, defense attorneys and Denver District Judge Morris Hoffman to put aside any beliefs they might have about a blind person sitting on a serious court case.
"It has been a challenge but I wanted to create the relaxed feeling you get when you are on holiday on a beach, and at the same time, recreate the sounds, textures, the scents and even the taste that you get in a seaside garden."
Garden designer Tracy Foster of Leeds (U.K.) has won a gold medal at the Gardeners' World show in Birmingham for her revolutionary £3,000 (approximately Rupees 2,37,000) seaside garden for blind people.
A new system called ‘vOICe’ (as in ‘oh-I-see’), gives the user an auditory ‘picture’ of what she or he‘s looking at.
vOICe includes a laptop connected to a special pair of sunglasses that are fitted with a small camera in the bridge and stereo headphones near the ear hooks. The camera feeds visual data to the computer, which translates the field of view into audible sounds. For example, louder sounds mean bright colours while a higher pitch means an object is located up high.
The England blind cricket team will enter the 2006 World Cup to be played in Pakistan in December. Well, that’s old news.
The English local cricket clubs too, are promoting cricket among the visually impaired people. Old Sharlston Cricket Club would like to hear from any visually impaired person who is interested in playing a blind cricket match at Sharlston on, July 23 2006. The event is aimed at popularising the sport in the country.
How to make textbooks and workbooks accessible to students affected with low vision?
Convert the pictures in the text and workbook to Power Point slides and then show them using a desktop computer, a multi-media projector and a screen. This way, an illustration in a textbook can be enlarged up to 100 times making it clearly visible to students.
Ms Lanka 2005 ‘ Beauty for a Cause ’ was organised by Technique International and co-sponsored by State Pharmaceutical Corporation (Sri Lanka) and other organisations.
“I'm thrilled to have achieved this record, but it will take a while to sink in,” Mark Threadgold said. "I was a bit nervous beforehand but things couldn't have gone more smoothly."
British diver Mark Threadgold has set a new world record for the deepest dive attempted by a blind person after reaching 103 metres in the Egyptian Red Sea.
The 38-year-old former soldier from Brighton beat his previous record by more than 30 metres at the Blue Hole dive site of Dahab (Egypt) on June 16, 2006.
He boldly went where no man has gone before and made history. Dan Barrett is the first blind diver ever to dive in the aquarium at Minneapolis' Mall of America.
"This isn't really about the diving as much as it is about giving a disabled individual, an experience that can empower them to do other things," Barrett said. "It's not about getting into the water. It's about elevating your spirit. It's about taking you to a new level."
In a State policy and plan of action for differently abled persons submitted to the High Court recently, the Government has committed itself to work for the welfare of differently abled people. In the matter of jobs, the policy envisages equal opportunities apart from 3 per cent reservation provided against identified government jobs.
Blind and visually impaired students across the United States and Canada met in Los Angeles for the sixth ‘Annual National Braille Challenge’.
The aim of the event was to build enthusiasm among blind people and celebrate excellence in Braille literacy skills.
The world of the printed word opened to blind people like never before. With ‘The K - N.F.B.’.
It can take pictures of objects, menus, signs, gadget blogs, etc., and then read aloud the captured text. The portable ‘Reader’ combines the latest state-of-the-art digital camera technology with a powerful ‘personal data assistant’ (P.D.A.). These components are housed in a custom-designed vinyl case that also contains internal circuitry to connect the camera and P.D.A .to operate as a single system.
Here’s some good news for over 10,000 visually impaired people who use public transport everyday. Auto rickshaws in Delhi will soon have metal plates bearing the registration numbers in both Braille and embossed form on the sides. The step would enable blind passengers to lodge a complaint if the driver misbehaves or refuses to carry them and will also help friends and relatives track a particular auto.
The recently concluded assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, Assam, Pondicherry and West Bengal saw the debut of ‘Braille-enabled Electronic Voting Machine’ (E.V.M.).
Assam’s Barhampur constituency saw as many as 32 visually impaired voters exercise their franchise independently. State Chief Electoral Officer J.P. Prakash said that this is indeed a welcome development and can be seen as a positive pointer towards the polling in three other states.
‘Nethrodaya’, a Chennai-based non-governmental organisation, has launched a new scheme to provide livelihood for visually impaired people in the villages of Tamil Nadu. Under the scheme, beneficiaries are provided with a Jersey cow each, so that they can earn their living. The animals will be insured.
Nethrodaya has invited a professor from ‘Madras Veterinary College’ who helps the beneficiaries identify good cows. Students of ‘Madras School of Social Work’, as part of their course work, help them deal with any problems.
Pam Boss works as a communications skills instructor at the ‘Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired’ (U.S.). She is legally blind, and so sometimes relies on others to help her pay bills.
Boss' situation is not unique among blind and visually impaired people. The Clovernook Centre hopes to change all of that by offering a financial education programme that would enable people like Boss to handle their finances independently.
FSBraille Coach comprises of 51 pre-developed lessons that include basic tests for beginners and more rigorous exercises for more advanced Braille readers.
FSBraille Coach is a free software download. It is created for use with Freedom Scientific's PAC MateT accessible Pocket P.C.
Students need to use their PAC Mate's 20 or 40-cell Braille display to run through a series of lessons and reading exercises. The leaner gets immediate audio help with any Braille symbol, they encounter by simply pressing a button above the symbol.
In U.S., twelve visually impaired high school students got an opportunity to explore careers in rocketry as part of a partnership between N.A.S.A. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) and the National Federation of the Blind.
The students were part of a weeklong rocket science camp, from July 14-22, 2006, at the federation's Jernigan Institute in Baltimore and N.A.S.A.'s Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, Virginia.
The International Blind Sports Federation (I.B.S.A.) has expressed delight at being awarded U.E.F.A.'s (Union of European Football Association) €650,000 ( Rupees 51,350000) charity cheque for 2006.
In a statement U.E.F.A. said, “Its support confirms the leading role of I.B.S.A. in developing football and other sports for blind and partially sighted people, as well as the federation's position as one of the most active players in sports for people with disabilities."
The ‘Maestro’ consists of a standard Dell P.D.A. with a special tactile overlay, which allows people to enter data via touch, or an optional Bluetooth Braille keyboard. The information flows from the Maestro to the user in audio form thanks to a built-in voice synthesizer.
‘N.F.B.-Newsline’ is a service for legally blind people. It allows users to hear stories ranging from what's going on in their home state - to what's happening around the world.
The National Federation of the Blind (N.F.B.) U.S. has designed this electronic system that receives digital transmissions from publishers on the morning of publication. The system then reformats the data for conversion to synthetic speech, and uploads to the N.F.B-Newsline servers.
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