COMPUTER SCIENCE UPDATE - SUMMER, 1991 Published By National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science 3530 Dupont Avenue North Minneapolis, Minnesota 55412 Phone: (612) 521-3202 Table of Contents CD-ROM: A MEDIA THAT WILL CHANGE OUR LIVES by Robert Jaquis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 HOT DOTS VERSION 3.0 BRAILLE TRANSLATOR by Steve Jacobson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 JAWS VERSION 2: HOW DOES IT RATE? by Cathy Schroeder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE . . . . . . . . 8 VOCAL-EYES by Steve Jacobson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 ARTIC VISION VERSION 3 by Curtis Chong. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 TURBO-BRAILLE TRANSLATION PROGRAM by Steve Jacobson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 MINUTES OF THE 1991 ANNUAL NFBCS MEETING . . . . . . . . . . . 24 ODE TO AN ERROR MESSAGE Copied by Dr. Abraham Nemeth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 MISCELLANEOUS UPDATES. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 CD-ROM: A MEDIA THAT WILL CHANGE OUR LIVES by Robert Jaquis A revolutionary new media is making itself felt in the computer industry and is gaining acceptance in the consumer marketplace. This media is called CD-ROM. CD-ROMs are one of three types of optical disk media now available. The three types of media are: WORM, erasable and CD-ROM. WORM (Write Once Read Many) discs are most often used for large archiving tasks. As the name implies they can be written on once but read many times. These discs come in two general formats. One form looks like a giant 3.5 inch diskette and is about 6 inches square. Like its smaller floppy diskette cousins it has a sliding section that exposes the actual media. These diskettes can be flipped over so they can be written on both sides. They hold between 200MB and 400MB. The second type of WORM disc is sometimes called a "laser disc". It is 12 inches in diameter (The size of a standard LP record.). It is related to the video discs now making a resurgence in the market. The laser discs can contain up to 1.2GB per side. They are used for larger archiving requirements and are sometimes loaded into a jukebox machine that can allow 140 of these to be accessible to a computer. The WORM discs are mainly confined to industrial applications. However, drives are available for a PC. Erasable discs are just beginning to be available. The Next computer uses one, and Panasonic has a 900MB unit available for PCs costing about $7000.00. The erasable discs are a removable media and therefore lend themselves to backing up systems and large archive collections. The optical disc that is making the most impact is the CD-ROM. CD- ROM stands for Compact Disc Read Only Memory. It looks just like the CDs you use in a stereo system. A CD-ROM will hold 672MB of data. This is about 250,000 printed pages or 10,000 pictures. CD- ROMs are mass produced like their music counterparts and are very inexpensive to make. The replication cost is about $2.00 per disc. If you have your data prepared with a special program you can get a master made for less than $1,000.00 and additional copies for $2.00 each. Because of the relatively low costs involved, there are some new and exciting products available. For the consumer market the Groliers Encyclopedia, Oxford English Dictionary, Bible collections, complete works of Shakespeare, stories of Sherlock Holmes and the CIA Factbook are a few examples. Some products oriented toward industrial and business applications include: Books In Print, Patent Abstracts, All About Cows, telephone directories, Guide To Periodic Literature and the Thomas Register. CD drives are a 5.25 inch half height unit that can go into almost any PC that has a hard disk. They usually require an additional slot for a controller card. Depending on where purchased, drive prices range from $400.00 to $700.00. Some suppliers are bundling drives with a collection of CDs to use in them. The newer drives are equipped with an audio interface so you can play music from your computer. The audio capability also allows for multimedia CDs. One such CD is Birds Of North America. This CD shows a picture of the bird, provides data about the bird and plays its song using the audio part of the drive. CD-ROM offers the potential of access to a great amount of printed material. Watch your favorite computer magazines for more information on this revolutionary new media. If you have any questions please call or write Disc Over at the address shown below. Robert S. Jaquiss Jr. Disc Over 1001 Southwest 5th Avenue Suite 1000 Portland, Oregon 97204 Phone: (503) 223-2884 (Office) 626-7174 (home) Toll free: (800) 234-7226 Fax: (503) 228-2058 HOT DOTS VERSION 3.0 BRAILLE TRANSLATOR by Steve Jacobson If you are already confused as to which braille grade II translator you should buy, this article will probably make things worse by describing yet another good one for IBM compatibles. Hot Dots version 3.0 from Raised Dot Computing has been largely rewritten to include many improvements and new features. It has joined the growing list of translators that can convert word processor files directly into formatted grade II braille. One thing that sets Hot Dots apart is that it can handle over thirty different word processors, the greatest number known to us. In addition, Hot Dots 3.0 provides modules for translating, backtranslating, text formatting, global search and replace, and special drivers for some of those hard to handle braille printers, including support for paperless braille devices. A complete manual, including thorough interfacing notes for most embossers, is provided in ink-print, on audio cassette, and on diskette in both text and translated braille formats. A comprehensive 23-page reference "card" is supplied in braille. The price for all of this is $350.00, making it one of the least expensive braille translating systems for IBM compatibles. For more information or to receive a demonstration diskette, write to Raised Dot Computing at 408 South Baldwin Street, Madison, WI 53704, Phone: 608-257-9595. Raised Dot Computing's approach to braille production divides the process into four steps. These are: importing text from a word processor; translating the text; formatting the text; and printing (brailling) the text. As mentioned earlier, there are separate programs that perform each of these tasks, but these steps are also neatly tied together. The user can select which steps to execute from an easy-to-use menu, or batch files are provided that automatically run the required steps in sequence. Although the experienced user will want to understand each step, the beginner can take a document from beginning to end by typing: "DOTS1234 DOCUMENT WORD-PROCESSOR PRINTER-LOCATION" and that's it. The "PRINTER-LOCATION" is simply the desired serial or parallel port name. In this way, Raised Dot Computing has attempted to offer the best of two worlds. One can either feed a document straight through and get pretty accurate formatting, or one can fine tune the process after each step. To make formatting easy and flexible, Hot Dots has numerous formatting commands that can be placed within a document. Some of the formatting functions supported include centering, right justifying, Arabic and Roman Numeral page numbers, print and braille page numbering, headers, footers, tab stops, hanging indent paragraphs, and conditional page break. Anyone working with braille translators has likely found the centered title of a section on the bottom of a page with the body of the text on the next page. One of the Hot Dots centering commands will automatically go to a new page if the last line of the current page is centered. There is, of course, a way to center the bottom line if that is required. Page numbers can be automatically placed at the top or bottom of the page. In addition, page numbers can be placed anywhere in a header or footer line. Although one could type text into an ASCII file along with the desired formatting commands thereby creating a perfect braille copy, the Hot Dots IMPORT program does most of this work automatically. Among the thirty or so word processor types that can be analyzed are several styles of ASCII files. What this means is that a "print image" file can be converted into a file containing Hot Dots format commands, allowing just about any word processor's output to be turned into formatted braille text. Unfortunately, through no fault of Hot Dots, the conversion of ink- print formatting to braille is not an exact science. For example, without intervention, Hot Dots, like several other braille translators, will indent the salutation line of a letter, regarding it as a new paragraph. The point here is not really to criticize Hot Dots. Rather, be aware that the ability to fine tune the formatting is very important, and Hot Dots supports that very well. Much of the formatting work, particularly centering, suppression and skipping of blank lines, indenting normal paragraphs, and underlining usually convert accurately. Also, the Hot Dots manual provides some guidance as to how one can improve automatic formatting by altering one's formatting style. As a test, I brailled documents from WordPerfect 5.1, Microsoft Word 5.0, and Peachtext 5000, and the results were really quite nice without any fine tuning. The braille translation also appears to be very good. I placed a word with an imbedded apostrophe inside single quotes which were, in turn, inside double quotes and the translation was correct. When writing the name Al, and when referring to the ALT key, the letter sign was also used correctly. Even 'tis and "'tis," came out right. Raised Dot Computing recognizes that Hot Dots isn't perfect and has provided commands to insert opening and closing single and double quotes, as well as the apostrophe and letter- sign. The grade II translation table cannot be modified by the user. However, a global search and replace program can be used to correct words and names that are translated incorrectly. This module allows one to store "rules" in files on disk, and these rules can be automatically applied when documents are brailled. Rules files can also be used to handle some additional format conversions saving the user even more work. It should be noted, though, that Hot Dots handles such problem words as "chemotherapy" and "dished," as well as several problem names that are often translated incorrectly. To further insure translation accuracy, a "financial incentive" is offered by Raised Dot Computing to those who find and report errors in translation. A great variety of output options are provided by Hot Dots. Modules to further prepare braille output for fussy printers like the LED-120 make braille production smoother. The manual provides a great deal of specific information on most braille embossers to make the setup process a smooth one. In addition to embossers, paperless braille devices are also supported. In short, Hot Dots worked well. The manual was both clear and complete. It would be nice if the program had the ability to direct output to a second file to automate the production of tables of contents, but it has plenty of company in that regard. Even so, it did a nice job of taking documents from word processor to formatted braille, and it did so fairly quickly even on an IBM XT. Hot Dots 3.0 is a very complete braille translation and formatting system. JAWS VERSION 2: HOW DOES IT RATE? by Cathy Schroeder In the computer world, we, as blind people, are continually faced with new types of speech output software. Selecting the best piece of software for our needs is a tough decision to make. The choices continually vary as the products mature and new companies come onto the scene. Through this article, I hope to inform you of the advantages and disadvantages of one product, JAWS VERSION 2, a screen reading program for IBM PCs and compatible machines that is designed to work with several types of speech output devices. JAWS Version 2 is marketed by Henter-Joyce, Inc., 10901-C Roosevelt Boulevard, Suite 1200, St. Petersburg, Florida 33716, Phone: (813) 576-5658. To begin this discussion, I will explain what type of hardware I am using. I have a Packard Bell 386-SX computer with 1 megabyte of RAM. The hard drive will hold 40 megabytes of data. I have a VGA monitor. In addition, I have a 3.5 inch floppy disk drive, a 5.25 inch floppy disk drive, a mouse running through COM1, a laser printer on LPT1, and a braille printer on LPT2. The speech board that I am using with JAWS is the Accent PC internal board. JAWS does not seem to have any problem with this configuration. I find the Accent speech to be fairly clear. The only real problem I have is that I find it hard to get the speech rate set to a comfortable pace. The fastest settings are almost too fast to understand, while the next lower setting seems to drag. The JAWS software allows much flexibility in adjusting the different speech settings. It is possible to change volume, rate, pitch, and tone, for the keyboard, screen, JAWS cursor, JAWS speech pad, and a global voice, if you do not wish to have separate voices for different functions. There are additional options available for some of the voices including key echo, how numbers are spoken, and many others. This allows for flexibility between users. This type of flexibility is an advantage that allows each user to set the speech differently. JAWS contains all of the functions that I find essential in any screen reading package today. They include: an easy to use set of screen reading commands, an easy to use menu system for changing speech parameters, an independent cursor from the application cursor, the ability to set up windows for reading and monitoring, the ability to search for different screen attributes, and the ability to save a speech configuration for later retrieval. More importantly, JAWS is easy for a beginner to start using but also allows an advanced computer user to change anything he/she wishes. Additional features that make JAWS a more valuable speech package are the extremely powerful macro editor, the availability of trained technical staff if problems arise, and the continual updating of software by a committed staff. JAWS has an easy to use set of screen reading commands. It utilizes the numeric keypad on the right side of a 101 key keyboard. The INSERT key is often used in combination with other keys to allow a wider range of commands. This causes the JAWS screen reading commands to conflict with very few application programs. The only disadvantage to this system is that it causes the user to always remove his/her hands from the keyboard to review the screen. There is a solution to this problem, however. JAWS' Macro system will allow the user to assign new key combinations to these screen reading functions, if desired. This takes some computer knowledge and should be attempted with care. JAWS' menu system allows the user to change voice parameters, load or save configurations, set up or change speech windows (which JAWS calls frames), define or change macros, search for colors or other screen attributes, etc. This menu system is very intuitive once it has been experienced a few times. It is set up very similar to the Lotus 123 menu system. Once the menu system has been entered, pressing the right or left arrow keys will speak the choices and down arrow will select a choice. Typing the letter of the item you wish to choose will also allow you to make a menu choice. The independent JAWS cursor allows the user to review any part of the screen at any time without going into the traditional Review mode. This allows the screen to be read with the JAWS cursor without having the application "freeze" up. Once text has been found with the JAWS cursor, the program has the ability to route the application cursor to the JAWS cursor location. An additional feature that would make the JAWS cursor more powerful is the ability to use the JAWS cursor with the arrow keys that are located to the left of the regular number pad on a 101 key keyboard. Another screen reading program that I use has this feature, and I have found it valuable. The JAWS program contains a very sophisticated windowing system. Windows used in JAWS are called frames. Frames may be set up as active speech frames to be read at any time, frames to be continually monitored for change (after which a macro can be performed), and frames that are specifically designed as quiet areas within which speech is suppressed. This provides the user with a great deal of flexibility and control over how data on the screen is to be spoken. The ability of JAWS to search for colors and other video attributes also allows it to be much more interactive with commercial, off- the-shelf applications. Many applications use colors to denote different features. For example, WordPerfect sets off a misspelled word by using a specific combination of foreground and background colors. The ability of JAWS to search for a given attribute allows it to pronounce the misspelled word without speaking extraneous data. Once you have set up all of JAWS' parameters to work well with a given application, you may save this configuration for later retrieval. This allows the JAWS system to work well with all applications. The staff at Henter-Joyce have designed several JAWS configurations. They include: WordPerfect (all versions), Lotus 123, Symphony, Dbase III+, Avatar mainframe emulation, etc. One of the more widely used word processing packages, WordPerfect, has been given quite a bit of attention by Henter-Joyce. There are configurations available for all versions of WordPerfect that are being used today. I worked with WordPerfect 5.1 extensively. I found a major problem with the predefined set of macro instructions. JAWS does not always use the same commands to navigate around the screen as WordPerfect. An example of this problem is moving one word forward in a document. WordPerfect accomplishes this task by using the CONTROL RIGHT ARROW key combination. A WordPerfect user would naturally want to move the cursor in this manner, as they are told to do by the WordPerfect manual. If you press CONTROL RIGHT ARROW when JAWS is running however, the cursor will move but the next word will not be spoken. Instead JAWS says "CONTROL RIGHT ARROW." To move to the next word and have it spoken by JAWS, you must use the INSERT RIGHT ARROW key combination. I found this to be an unnecessary problem. It would have been much easier if JAWS would have been designed to use the CONTROL RIGHT ARROW key combination to do this task. One might argue that I can easily redefine the macro key definitions. I would answer, yes I can, but I have a background in computer programming. Most computer users are not going to take the time to redefine these keys. An easier solution would be for Henter-Joyce to redesign the key definitions. A blind computer user should not be required to use different key strokes to accomplish the same tasks as their sighted coworkers. This seems like a hair splitting argument, but it is not. I work in an office filled with sighted people and so do most other blind computer users. I learned my computer skills from my sighted coworkers, not someone from an agency that specialized in teaching the blind how to use computers. Every time we as blind people are forced to use different key strokes from our coworkers, it reinforces the stereotypical notion that we are somehow different. Since there is an easy way to fix this problem, I believe that the authors of JAWS should be glad to help. After discussing this problem with one of the JAWS programmers, he agreed that the problem needs attention. He believes that a configuration can be designed to resolve this issue. An additional feature that makes JAWS very powerful is its macro capability. It is possible to define a set of instructions for keys that are pressed in conjunction with the ALT, CONTROL, INSERT, etc. Since the speech keys are all macro defined functions, if there is a conflict with an application that is being used, it is very simple to move the function to a new macro. This allows for much versatility in the program. It also allows for making certain jobs for blind people much easier. If a blind person is continually looking at the same screen all day, it would be very helpful to define macros that go directly to the needed portions of the screen. In this way, a blind user need not read through unnecessary data every time the screen is brought up. The only concern I have is that the majority of computer users today have no desire to even look at macros, much less understand what they can do. For this reason, unless macro definitions are predefined and provided at the time of purchase, it is likely that this feature will be underutilized. In closing, I would say that JAWS version 2 is an excellent piece of software. It is very powerful and will allow blind computer users to meet all of their needs. The problems that I have found are easily overcome. ANNOUNCEMENT FROM THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE Editor's Note: This announcement came to us a few months ago. We print it here not so much to announce a job opening as to demonstrate to discerning minds exactly how much further the IRS has yet to travel before it reaches the end of the long road of equal opportunity for its blind employees. Announcing an advanced training opportunity for persons who are blind or visually impaired. Assembly Language Specialist for the Internal Revenue Service. Lions World Services for the Blind 2811 Fair Park Boulevard P.O. Box 4055 Little Rock, Arkansas 72214-4055 Phone: 501/664-7100 Qualifications Independent mobility, good energy and vitality level, emotional maturity, high school diploma or equivalent, accurate typing ability, twelfth-grade spelling level, reading speed of 100 WPM with good comprehension when reading technical materials, high school knowledge of business math, working knowledge of braille if needed, strong logical reasoning ability. Dates Clients must be on campus by May 28, 1991, to begin thirty-day evaluation. The course starts on June 24, 1991 if selected by the IRS Admissions Committee. Clients will graduate in March, 1992 if they successfully complete the nine month course. For More Information Contact Ramona Sangalli, Director of Vocational Services, P.O. Box 4055, Little Rock, Arkansas 72214-4055, Phone: 501/664-7100 The Job Graduates will be employed as computer programmer-analysts who specialize in the IBM 370 Assembler Language. They will be placed as Assembler Language programmers within Information Systems Management (computer services) of the Internal Revenue Service in the Washington, DC area. Join over 35 other persons who are blind or visually impaired who have already graduated from vocational programs at LWSB and are enjoying the IRS pay checks and white collar working environment in Washington, DC. Many graduates in Washington have gone beyond the non-competitive level of Grade 12. Opportunities There is a higher non-competitive promotion potential in the Washington, DC area than other IRS district offices scattered across the US. Those who successfully complete the course have the potential in Washington to be promoted non-competitively up to Grade GS-12 which pays an annual salary in excess of $35,000. Entry level is at the GS-5 through GS-7 levels. Many vocational opportunities for cross training are available in the Washington, DC area. You can learn other languages such as C once employed. The Washington area within the IRS structure has the capability to offer more potential for upward mobility within the organization. Graduates will have the support of over thirty-five other LWSB graduates working in the Washington, DC offices as well as a strong IRS-organized support system for employees who are blind or visually impaired. Individuals will have the opportunity to enjoy the considerable cultural activities in the power seat of the world--Washington, DC. The Course Participants will learn the IBM 370 Assembler computer language used in the IRS national headquarters mainframe computer systems. They will also learn COBOL programming language, PC/DOS and MultiMate. Hands on experience and personal interaction with the computer is stressed. Each student will log approximately 1,000 hours of terminal and computer time during the training course. Students will be required to develop approximately 50-55 programs of increasing difficulty spanning the fullest extent of the language possible. The course will be of nine months duration. Clients who successfully complete the course will graduate in March, 1992, and go to work with the IRS after that date. Adaptive Aids Available in the Classroom IBM XT's, CRT viewing systems for magnification, video terminals and talking terminals, personal braille terminals, voice synthesizers, Texas Instruments 990 mainframe, ZILOG-130. VOCAL-EYES by Steve Jacobson It seems only yesterday that Vocal-Eyes from GW Micro entered the screen reading software market, but the recently released version 2.0 contains significant improvements and additions. At $450.00, Vocal-Eyes is positioned in the middle of the price range for such software, yet it has many of the features of higher priced competitors. If you are in the market for a speech synthesizer as well, you can get Vocal-Eyes along with the Sounding Board for $795.00, a savings of $50.00 off the total cost. Considering that Vocal-Eyes has a very complete review mode, sixty-one optional and relocateable "hot keys," forty-six cursoring keys, key labels, screen monitoring, character pronunciation dictionary and more, it is surprising that Vocal-Eyes runs in a moderate 46 to 63K. In addition, it can make use of expanded and extended memory taking only 4K from those memory-hungry spreadsheets and word processors. For more information, write to GW Micro at 310 Racquet Drive, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46825, or phone 219-483-3625. Because of the numerous Vocal-Eyes features that can be accessed directly from whatever application you are using, you seldom need the power provided in the review mode. Since many features are controlled from there, though, the review mode is a good place to start. The "review mode" is entered by pressing and releasing the ALT key by itself. This normally is completely transparent to any other software that you are running, since the ALT key is generally used in combination with another key. If this key assignment is not convenient, you can move the review key to the SHIFT, CONTROL, or even the SCROLL LOCK key. Once in "review" a great variety of commands and options to read, examine, and even process the information on the computer screen are only a keystroke or so away. Not the least of these is the ability to move the "review cursor" without moving your hands from the typewriter portion of the keyboard. This is accomplished by using the H, U, J, and K letter keys to duplicate the functions of the left, right, up, and down arrow keys respectively. Up to ten normal and five hyperactive windows can be defined at a time, although even this limit can be overcome by other Vocal-Eyes features. Windows can be defined either by specifying the columns and rows that make up the window's four edges, or the cursor can be used to mark the top left and bottom right corners. One of four modes can be assigned to each regular window: neutral; silent; speak; and float. Neutral windows simply provide information upon request through the appropriate "read window" keys or commands. Silent windows suppress the speaking of information that falls within their boundaries. Speak windows allow information falling within their influence to be spoken when sent to the screen through the computer's BIOS. Float windows will speak lines you designate, but only the parts of those lines that correspond to the horizontal position of a light bar. This feature can be used to read the column heading tied to the highlighted cell on a spreadsheet. The reading of text within a window can be controlled in several ways. One option forces each word to be spoken and then spelled, which is ideal for spell checkers. Also text of specific colors can be selected with the remaining text ignored. A window can also be linked to another so that a single key can initiate the reading of several windows in sequence. Up to five hyperactive windows can be defined to automatically monitor changes on the computer's screen. These windows can be optionally made to react to any changes in the text that is displayed within them, and they can detect the presence or absence of specific character strings as well. In addition, hyperactive windows can be triggered by color in a similar manner, that is, changes in color as well as the absence or presence of specific color combinations can trigger a hyperactive window. When a change has been detected, Vocal-Eyes can be made to beep, speak any defined window, look for and read a box, read another window, change windows, change configurations, or speak a message. As if this were not enough, up to three of these options can be automatically executed sequentially. Since each window is processed in sequence, that is from 0 to 9 and A through E, the user can control how silent and hyperactive windows interact making many useful combinations possible. Such combinations can be used to make off the shelf software speak automatically. Any of the normal windows can be selected as the "current window" thereby limiting what is read by the various reading keys described later. Also, the effect of the current window while in "review" can be temporarily or permanently suspended. In addition, any window can be read directly from inside or outside "review" using the "read window" hot keys. In addition to defining windows, two other features aid the user in getting information from the screen. Markers can be set that allow the user to return to any of up to ten points on the screen with but two keystrokes from review mode. A temporary dynamic window can be used to read any area of the screen, with the user setting the boundaries at the time of the read. This and all windows can be defined using the markers instead of entering coordinates. Searching for text and colors has become increasingly important as software becomes more complex. Vocal-Eyes is very strong in this area as well. While in review, pressing "s" will cause Vocal-eyes to look for a change in color which will likely indicate the beginning or end of a field of data. The "find" command is very fast, searching an entire screen in half a second or less on an original IBM-XT. Text strings can contain "wildcard" characters that match any character, and foreground and background colors can be associated with the entire string or even with each character. A color selection menu can be activated from within the "find" command that allows colors to be chosen without knowledge of attribute numbers. In addition to specific foreground and background colors, such options as "bright" "blinking" "not white" and "not black" give the user great flexibility when constructing searches. Besides all of this, searches can be initiated and repeated in either direction. Several other functions are initiated or controlled from within review mode. "Light Bar Tracking" is a feature that allows the selected menu item, determined by its color, to be automatically or manually spoken. This is very useful when running software that moves the cursor off the screen and uses light bars to indicate what is happening. Though this feature is primarily used outside of review mode, the colors to which Vocal-Eyes responds are set here. You can either find text of the desired color and press the letter B, or you can use the color selection menu mentioned above to pick the colors. Different light bar colors can be associated with each window. A second set of colors, called the "user attribute" can also be specified from "review." A "user attribute" key is provided that will read any text displayed in the "user attribute" color from outside review mode. Commands and phrases can be sent directly to the speech synthesizer, but the power of Vocal-Eyes virtually eliminates the need for this function. Another interesting aspect of the review mode is the ability to copy text from your screen so that it can later be used somewhere else. An address can be captured from a database, for instance, and inserted in a letter. Vocal-Eyes also has what is commonly called "cursor routing," where the real cursor is moved to the location of the review cursor upon request. Lastly, Vocal-Eyes has a good on-line help facility that summarizes all review functions, including a number not covered here, and others that relate to later topics. The user can page back and forth through the help text much as paging through a book. Even though there is no topic search available, the compact yet complete help text makes finding the desired information quick and simple. Although Vocal-eyes has included many powerful features as part of its review mode, its real strength emerges when this mode has been left behind. Built into Vocal-Eyes are sixty-one "hot keys" and forty-six "cursoring keys" that can perform functions from outside of review mode. Before panic sets in, though, not all are activated nor are they all likely to be required, but they are there if you need them. Key labels can also be defined so that pressing particular keys will cause a description to be spoken rather than just the key's name. Hot keys, cursoring keys, and key labels provide the means to accomplish nearly everything normally accomplished with macros. To better understand this, let's take a closer look at "hot keys" and "cursoring keys." Hot keys cause Vocal-eyes to read something or perform some action without the need to enter review mode. The word processor, spreadsheet, or other software you are running doesn't know that a key is pressed. Some of the things that can be done with hot keys include the speaking of the previous, current, or next character, word, line, sentence, or paragraph (fifteen right there). Hot keys can also read any window, the contents of a box, text displayed in the light bar or user attribute colors, as well as blinking, inverse, underlined, or highlighted text. Other hot keys can control the mode of the light bar tracking facility, announce the cursor position, speak the colors and ASCII value of a character, and even change the current window assignment. Finally, there are several provided to both speak and move the cursor. From within many word processors, you can move ahead or backward by sentence or paragraph much like the CONTROL LEFT and RIGHT ARROW keys move word by word. A hot key is also provided to read to the end of your document. Cursoring keys, on the other hand, are passed to the software being run. The cursor movement keys are the simplest and most obvious examples of this category. When the right arrow is pressed, a word processor sees it and moves the cursor one character to the right. Once things have settled down, Vocal-Eyes speaks the character upon which the cursor has landed. There is nothing exceptional here, but let's take it another step. In WordPerfect, the plus key on the numeric pad causes the next screen of text to be displayed. In the WordPerfect configuration, supplied with Vocal-eyes, the plus key has been designated as a cursoring key. The "PLUS" is sent to WordPerfect and the next screen of data is displayed. But in this instance, when things settle down, Vocal-eyes will read the entire new screen. Pressing this key repeatedly allows you to read through documents a screen at a time. Cursoring keys can automatically read the current character, word, sentence, or paragraph. They can speak the contents of any of the ten windows, the light bar, fields of data, and the contents of a box. It is even possible for a cursoring key to change to another configuration in memory. With nearly twenty options for each of up to forty-six cursoring keys, and with the ability to link two commands to each key, you have great flexibility indeed when considering how to make a given piece of software speak automatically. What really ties all of this together is the "Voice Control Panel," an easy-to-use collection of menus. After pressing CNTRL BACKSLASH, whether in or out of review, you simply select the desired option by number or by using the UP and DOWN arrow keys. Most options lead to submenus that work in the same manner. From the Voice Control Panel, hot keys and cursoring keys can be activated, deactivated, or reassigned. Speech parameters for the screen and keyboard can be altered independently, and settings can be saved or loaded from disk files. In addition to rate, pitch, tone, and volume, speech parameters include such things as the pronunciation of numbers, whether keys are echoed by character or word, and whether a character dictionary is to be used. How capitalization, blank lines, spaces, and repeating characters are spoken is also determined here. Other miscellaneous options available from the voice control panel give you the ability to: set right margin warning bell; control generated sound effects; turn voice and/or hot keys on and off; load another character dictionary; specify the amount of delay after cursoring keys have been pressed; determine the type of cursor tracking, and control the state of light bar and color change announcements. If you count cursoring and hot keys, the voice control panel neatly organizes well over one hundred options into categories that are easy to access. Once you get all of these options set to your liking, you can save them in "set" files through the voice control panel for later use. They can be loaded through the voice control panel or by running Vocal-Eyes again. The program is smart enough to know that it has already been loaded into memory, and that only settings are to be loaded. Vocal-Eyes will even try to automatically load the right settings for a particular program. For example, when WordPerfect is run by typing "WP," Vocal-Eyes will look for a file of settings called WP.set. If the file exists, it will be automatically loaded into memory along with any key label or character dictionary files using WP as the file name. Vocal-Eyes will keep track of the last fifteen "SET" files used, so that when you leave a program you will likely get the correct "set" file reloaded automatically. This scheme virtually eliminates the need to have special "BAT" files for each application solely to load and restore configurations. Multiple groups of settings can be loaded into memory at one time permitting the user to switch between them, without accessing the disk, using a hot key or the voice control panel. As mentioned earlier, groups of settings can also be changed automatically by hyperactive windows and even cursoring keys. There are several other features worth mentioning that don't really fit into any of the above categories. A "VE" cursor is provided that, when activated, allows you to move around the screen while outside review mode. On keyboards with two cursor pads, both the "VE" and the applications cursor can be active at the same time. Speaking of cursors, you can also redefine what Vocal-Eyes uses as its cursor. Besides the BIOS and hardware cursors, a specific character or color can be made the reference point for cursoring activities. Even the light bar can be chosen as the cursor. The light bar itself has several options to aid the isolation of the correct text when the light bar color appears in more than one place. You can instruct Vocal-Eyes to use the first, last, longest, or shortest occurrence of the light bar color as the actual light bar. Finally, you can specify that Vocal-Eyes be constantly watching for text boxes that occasionally appear out of nowhere. There are still other features that simply cannot be covered here due to space limitations. The general performance of Vocal-Eyes is very good. Although the manual recommends GW Micro's Sounding Board synthesizer, it worked well when used with an Echo-PC and an Artic 210 board using Sonix and TTS speech software. Drivers are supplied for a variety of synthesizers, and a "generic" driver is included if you should need to use one not yet supported. The supplied drivers permit the use of external word pronunciation dictionaries, even if such dictionaries are not supported on the synthesizer itself. The echoing of keystrokes and cursor movement is very fast, limited only by the software being used and the cursor delay factor. A wide range of possible delay settings allows Vocal-Eyes to be used with telecommunications software that supports cursor movement at slower data transmission speeds. Much attention has been given to the use of computer memory. Vocal-Eyes takes from 46 to 63k depending on the area set aside for the character dictionary, key labels, buffers, and the number of configurations needed in memory at one time. These can all be set by the user, allowing one to find the best compromise between potential power and memory usage. Conventional memory usage can be reduced to about 4K if expanded or extended memory is available. Besides permitting the reassignment or deactivation of hot keys, a bypass key is provided to cause any hot key to be ignored by Vocal-eyes. Speech can be automatically silenced whenever a key is pressed, and this feature worked well. The manual, supplied on cassette and diskette, is written in an entertaining yet informative style. As screen reading software becomes more and more complex, it is less and less possible to cover every nuance. If your favorite option is not discussed here, check with the vendor before making the final decision. When looking for a good medium priced screen reading program, Vocal-Eyes is well worth considering. ARTIC VISION VERSION 3 by Curtis Chong Artic Vision and Artic Business Vision Version 3 have finally hit the market! People who are familiar with earlier versions of Artic Vision and Business Vision will find Version 3 to be substantially different in terms of feature sophistication, memory consumption, ease of use, and support for popular software packages such as WordPerfect. In terms of speed and responsiveness, the program still has all of the features that users of earlier versions have come to know and love. This article is not intended to be an exhaustive review of the functions and features of Artic Vision Version 3. Rather, it is intended to provide the reader with a "flavor" for the program as compared to other screen reading systems for the IBM PC and compatible computers. First and foremost, it should be said that "Vision 3" (as the program is known) represents a revolutionary step forward from earlier versions of Artic Vision. Aside from the fact that the program can now run in less than 30K of system memory, Vision 3 is unique in its handling of screen windows and monitored screen areas (referred to by the program as "Smart Zones"). In addition, in the works but not yet released is the promise of a new and sophisticated key macro capability. Here are some of the changes between Artic Vision Versions 2 and 3: 1. Reduced memory consumption. 2. Multi-Point Independent Tracking System. 3. Docu-Pilot Reading System. 4. Smart Zones (Business Vision only). 5. Improved window management. 6. New Easy-Read keys. 7. One standard sub-directory for all Artic Vision modules and files. 8. Stand-alone Artic Business Vision calculator. 9. Double Click Pass Through. 10. Review Mode now called Control Mode. 11. All Artic Vision functions configured using a standardized menuing approach. All menus visible on screen. Reduced Memory Consumption It is possible to run Vision 3 in what is termed "high memory". This requires a memory manager software package. As of this writing, Vision 3 has not had any problems with a single one of these programs. Vision 3 has a Memory Miser feature which provides considerable savings in the area of memory use. Memory savings are achieved by taking advantage of unused portions of video memory and disk overlays that are swapped in and out of memory as required. Multi-Point Independent Tracking System (MITS) Without going into a traditional "Review Mode," you can use what is called the Artic Cursor to scan any portion of the screen. This cursor, separate and distinct from the system cursor, can be moved about the screen using either the standard numeric keypad or the extended cursor keys (used on an extended 101-key keyboard). If you don't have access to an extended keyboard, you can share the standard numeric keypad between the system cursor and the Artic cursor simply by toggling the Artic cursor off and on with a press of the Alt-Numlock key. Unlike Review Mode, MITS allows your application to keep on running while you move about the screen. For those individuals who still prefer a traditional Review Mode, this feature is still available by entering Vision 3's Control Mode. Easy-Read Keys Vision 3 now provides a variety of keys on the QWERTY keyboard for Easy-Read functions. Using these keys in combination with the ALT or CONTROL keys, you can perform such functions as "read current line," "read previous line," "read current word," "read previous word," etc. Even more significant, these keys can be re-defined or disabled at your discretion. Docu-Pilot Reading System This feature allows you to read a file that is being edited by your word processor from the current cursor position to the end of the file, without regard to the dimensions of the screen. Once invoked, Docu-Pilot reads forward through the file. As the bottom of the screen is reached, the down arrow key is repeatedly passed to the word processor, instructing it to scroll the screen. As you read through the file, you can jump forward and backward a line, paragraph, or page at a time. This allows you to "skim" your file without having to press an inordinate amount of keys. Improved Window Management Vision 3 provides you with 128 speech windows. In addition to the 128 windows, you can define up to 10 quiet zones. These quiet zones can be used to suppress speech for output written to specific parts of the screen. Unlike earlier versions of Artic Vision, the active window does not limit the speaking of output sent to the screen with DOS or BIOS calls, hence the need for quiet zones. Speech windows for Vision 3 are a definite improvement over those used with earlier versions of the program. Any speech window can be read with keystrokes entered from Ap-Track mode. Each window can be defined to have one of three reading styles: text-trax (where text is spoken in words), spell-trax (where text is read and then spelled), and Pop-Trax (where the window is searched for a box and the box is spoken). In addition, each window can be defined with a pre-selected pair of foreground and background colors. Whenever the window is read, only text displayed with the pre- defined color combination will be spoken. Finally, with Business Vision 3, using a feature called window chaining, you can indicate the number of the next window to be read. Defining a series of windows in this way permits you to read a number of windows in sequence. Remember, this chaining feature is only available with Artic Business Vision 3. Another feature available only with Business Vision 3 is called Window Palettes. Up to four window palettes can be defined. A window palette is simply a list of logically related windows through which you may need to move quickly. You might use a palette to quickly search for and speak text with three or four different video attributes. Suppose, for example, that you wanted first to hear text that was displayed with a white foreground and a black background. Then, suppose you wanted to hear text with a red foreground and a blue background. Simply define two windows in a window palette with these attributes: one window with a white foreground and a black background and the other, red and blue. Then, you can quickly jump between these windows using the Window Palette. Smart Zones Perhaps the most sophisticated improvement that users of Vision 3 will notice is the Smart Zone. This feature (available only with Artic Business Vision 3) provides an elaborate set of screen monitoring functions that can (with work) enable your application to speak many prompts automatically. Artic Technologies provides each Business Vision 3 user with smart zone configurations for WordPerfect Version 5.1. You can design up to ten smart zones to monitor ten specific sections of the screen for changes. Here are some questions that you answer to establish a smart zone: 1. Which zone has priority? Assume you are monitoring ten different areas of the screen. Which area should be spoken first if a change is detected? 2. What section of the screen (coordinates) should be watched? 3. Should the trigger be exclusive (no other zone will be allowed to trigger within this zone's area)? The following is a list of options that you can choose as conditions for zone triggering: * Any changes, ignore color match. * Any changes, color match. * Color changes, ignore color match. * Color changes, color matches. * Text changes, ignore color. * Text changes and color match. * Zone erases, ignore color. * Zone erases with color match. * Any of the above conditions with string present. Once a zone is triggered, you have to figure out what actions should be taken. You can read the area monitored by the zone. You can read one or two windows not at all related to the area monitored by the zone. You can execute a macro. All in all, defining smart zones can be a rather complicated affair. Nevertheless, once defined, they are indeed a powerful and time-saving tool. One Subdirectory All Vision 3 files (including dictionary and configuration files) are now located in a single subdirectory: \ARTIC\VISION. When loading or retrieving dictionaries or configuration files, you need only supply the eight character name. Vision 3 will supply the required extensions and subdirectory information. Stand-Alone Calculator Business Vision 3's calculator is no longer accessed from Control or Review mode. Instead, you invoke the calculator by entering CALC from the DOS prompt. Double Click Pass Through To the best of my knowledge, Vision 3 is currently the only program employing this method to pass keystrokes, otherwise recognized by it, directly to your running application. This feature applies to all ALT and CONTROL key combinations normally used by Vision 3. Here is how it works. The ALT-Y key combination, for example, is used by Vision 3 to read the previous line of text. Suppose that you need to pass this key combination to WordPerfect. What you do is to strike the ALT key twice. On the second strike, hold down the ALT key and press the Y. That's all there is to it. Of course, you can always use the CTRL-N key, which is Vision 3's default pass through key, but for my money, the double click works much better and takes less time. Vision 3 Control Menus All Vision 3 options are now configured in its Control (formerly Review) mode. Each menu is visible on the screen, facilitating work with a sighted peer. You move between menu options with the Up and Down arrow keys, and you select an option by pressing the Enter key. Major menu categories are accessed with the PGUP or PGDN keys, depending upon whether you are moving up or down to a major category. This standardization of menu movement is a welcome change. Conclusion Although initially released with a few bothersome bugs, Vision 3 has now remained relatively stable and bug free for a few months. New purchasers of SynPhonix screen technology are shipped Version 3.03. Documentation for Vision 3 is available in print, on cassette, and on disk. Because of its many and sophisticated new features, there is a lot of documentation to read, but not everyone needs to read all of it. Although the new Smart Zone feature provides a tremendous potential for automatically generating speech for programs that write directly to the video buffer, the user is still required to engage in a lot of programming and testing activity before they will work properly. Artic Technologies has provided Smart Zone configurations for the popular WordPerfect program. This move is to be commended. It is hoped that more configurations for other popular software will be forthcoming. For more information about Vision 3 or Business Vision 3, contact: Artic Technologies 55 Park Street Suite 2 Troy, Michigan 48083 Phone: (313) 588-7370 TURBO-BRAILLE TRANSLATION PROGRAM by Steve Jacobson When Kansys Inc. says "Another Sound Alternative," it is usually playing on the fact that its products are designed to speak. Turbo-Braille is an easy-to-use one step braille formatter and translator that can accept WordStar versions 3.0 through 6.0, WordPerfect versions 4.2, 5.0 and 5.1, and ASCII documents. You can either translate and format such documents directly into braille, or use Turbo-Braille's many formatting commands to tailor the output. In addition to the user manual and reference chart, an extensive on-line help facility is accessible directly from the program. At $249.00, this is the least expensive of the braille translators. However, there is a lot of power and flexibility in this economically priced braille translation program. For more information, contact Kansys Inc., 1016 Ohio, Lawrence, Kansas 66044. The phone numbers to call are (800) 279-4880 or (913) 843- 0351. There are two ways you can run Turbo-Braille. First, you can supply all parameters on the command line to take a document from start to finish. This translator will even process multiple files in sequence from a single command line entry. The other mode, probably best described as the interactive mode, allows a braille session to be started much as you might do with a database or spreadsheet. Though there are many uses for the interactive mode, it is most commonly used to load, examine, and save Turbo-Braille configurations (explained later). Turbo-Braille can automatically provide formatting for documents or you can do the job yourself. This is accomplished through the use of "braille intermediate files" denoted by a file extension of BIF. Turbo-Braille can be instructed to produce BIF files instead of or in addition to translated documents. These BIF files contain the original text of the document along with the formatting commands that Turbo-Braille has determined to be appropriate. You can then simply modify these codes as necessary. More often than not, modification of these codes is not required. To accomplish formatting, Turbo-Braille has a complete set of "dot" commands. This name is derived from the fact that each command begins with a period. The program's command set supports running headers and footers, print and braille Arabic and Roman Numeral page numbering, conditional end of page testing to keep titles with the correct text, and all of the tools necessary to handle hanging paragraphs and other varieties of indentation. Turbo-Braille can be instructed to automatically place horizontal dividing lines on each page to facilitate folding. "Spring characters" force surrounding text to the left and right margins separated by guide dots, hyphens, or spaces for quick formatting of tabular information such as tables of contents. Complicated commands or often used text can be stored in any of twenty-six predefined strings and recalled with two keystrokes. An unusual and interesting feature of Turbo-Braille is its ability to use multiple configuration files. Parameters such as page size, margins, and initial formatting instructions can be stored in these files that can then reside in various subdirectories along with other programs. For example, a configuration file that sets parameters to best deal with spreadsheets could be placed in the subdirectory with a spreadsheet program, while another to braille names and addresses could reside with your database program. Then, translating "BIF" files from either of these subdirectories would cause the output to be formatted properly. In our experience with Turbo-Braille, we have found its strongest points to be the speed with which it formats and translates and the accuracy of translation. It handled some of the legendary words such as dished and chemotherapy correctly, but if it were to scramble your name, you can, if you are adventurous, add exceptions to its translation table. However, apostrophes are always brailled as such, leaving the insertion of the two-celled inner quotation marks to you. Automatic formatting was also quite good. Bold and underlined text was accurately converted to braille italics, and centering, particularly of long lines, was handled well. The first line of an inside address and the salutation line of a business letter were indented as paragraphs, but this is common among translators that automatically format braille because of the inconsistent manner of showing paragraphs in print. Neither of the two common methods for producing hanging indented paragraphs in WordPerfect resulted in braille hanging indents, and automatic tables of contents cannot be produced. Yet, correcting these by modifying the BIF file is certainly much faster than doing the entire job unaided, and that is what the BIF files are for. In addition, Turbo-Braille commands can be hidden within WordStar documents as "comments" thereby permitting braille translation and formatting commands to reside in your print document without appearing on the printed page. Turbo-Braille works well with screen reading software. In particular, we found two features worth mentioning. First, have you ever wondered if your braille translator was even running due to long periods of silence? Well, Turbo-Braille provides a periodic count that indicates that progress is being made. Also, you can select the level of "verbosity" to meet your fancy. As you can see, there is a lot of power here for the dollar. Automatic formatting, speed, and low price make Turbo-Braille (to steal a phrase from Kansys Inc.) a "sound alternative" to consider. MINUTES OF THE 1991 ANNUAL NFBCS MEETING The 1991 annual meeting of the National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science was held in conjunction with the National Federation of the Blind convention at the Hyatt Regency hotel in New Orleans, Louisiana. The meeting occurred on Tuesday, July 2. The meeting was called to order by President Curtis Chong at 1:02 p.m. All officers were present. The minutes of the 1990 meeting were read and approved. It was moved/seconded to dispense with the Treasurer's report. The motion carried. President Chong next delivered the Presidential Report. It was announced that (as with last year) a synthesizer had been donated to the NFBCS for fund-raising purposes. A drawing will be held at the banquet. Tickets will be priced at $5 each. Mr. Chong reported that Prodigy Information Services was trying to get publicity from the fact that Ned Johnson's ISOS screen-reading software can now access Prodigy. Mr. Johnson received no help from Prodigy and Prodigy still appears to be unresponsive to screen-reading software vendors and the blind. It was suggested that those wishing to make known their views to Prodigy should call Mike Pepper at (914) 993-8328. Next, Mr. Chong read an announcement from the Federal Internal Revenue Service describing a training program at the World Blind Lions' Center (successor to AEB) for blind persons interested in becoming IBM Assembler programmers. Trainees are ostensibly hired by the IRS after successfully completing the program. The excessive self importance and condescending tone of the announcement and its negative assumptions about the blind elicited comments of disapproval from the audience. Many expressed the view that blind programmers should be hired/trained by IRS through its normal hiring procedures rather than requiring prospective programmers who are blind to go through a special course during which they are not paid. The main program consisted of presentations on two topics: (1) current efforts to make software using a Graphical User Interface (GUI) accessible to the blind and (2) how various screen-reading packages are attempting to deal with unconventional software. Topic 1 consisted of presentations by Beth Mynatt of Georgia Tech on a project to make XWINDOWS accessible through three-dimensional sound patterns, James Thatcher of IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center on the current work to make OS/2 Presentation Manager and its applications accessible to the blind, Ned Johnson of Interface Systems International on his work to make Prodigy accessible with his ISOS screen-reading package, and Mark Sutton of Berkeley Systems on current efforts to make OutSpoken access a wider variety of software on the Macintosh. Topic 2 consisted of presentations by David Mansoir of TeleSensory (purveyors of VERT, VERT+, SoftVERT, etc.); Ned Johnson of Interface Systems International (creator of ISOS); Chuck Oppermann from Henter-Joyce (maker of JAWS); Doug Geoffray from GW Micro, (developers and marketers of the Vocal-Eyes screen reading program); Randy Knapp from Artic Technologies (marketers and developers of Artic Vision and Artic Business Vision); and Steve Smith of Omnichron (creator of FLIPPER). Each discussed how their products attempt to deal with non-conventional software. There was general agreement among the screen-reading software vendors present that it would be helpful if commercial software vendors (most notably MicroSoft) would either (a) provide "hooks" in their software that would make it possible for screen-reading packages to access the output as text or (b) provide sufficient information to vendors of screen-reading software to facilitate interpretation of graphics output. The meeting adjourned at approximately 4:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Mike Freeman, Secretary ODE TO AN ERROR MESSAGE Copied by Dr. Abraham Nemeth Once upon a midnight dreary Fingers cramped and vision bleary System manuals piled up high And Wasted paper on the floor Longing for the warmth of bed sheets Still I sat there doing spreadsheets Having reached the bottom line I took a floppy from the drawer Typing with a steady hand, I then invoked the SAVE command But got instead a reprimand It read: "ABORT, RETRY, IGNORE." Was this some occult illusion, Some maniacal intrusion? These were choices Solomon himself had never faced before. Carefully, I weighed the options. These three seemed to be the top ones. Clearly, I must now adopt one: Choose ABORT, RETRY, IGNORE. With my fingers pale and trembling Slowly toward the keyboard bending, Longing for a happy ending Hoping all would be restored Praying for some guarantee Finally, I pressed a key. But on the screen, what did I see Again, "ABORT, RETRY, IGNORE." I tried to catch the chips off guard. I pressed again but twice as hard. Luck was not in the cards. I saw what I had seen before. Now I typed in desperation, trying random combinations, still there came the incantation: "Choose ABORT, RETRY, IGNORE." There I sat--distraught, exhausted, by my own machine accosted. Getting up I turned away and paced across the office floor. Then I saw an awful sight--a bold and blinding flash of light. A lightning bolt had cut the night and shook me to my very core. I saw the screen collapse and die! "Oh no, my data base!" I cried. I thought I heard a voice reply: "You'll see your data never more." To this day I do not know the place to which lost data goes. I bet it goes to Heaven where the angels have it stored. But as for productivity, well I fear it goes straight to hell. And that's the tale I have to tell. Your choice: ABORT, RETRY, IGNORE. MISCELLANEOUS UPDATES Braille WordPerfect Documentation Available The National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science has produced a braille document entitled Introduction to WordPerfect. Written by Steve Jacobson, our vice president, this document provides beginning WordPerfect users with a quick and easy way to become familiar with the program. Introduction to WordPerfect can be obtained from the Braille Action Lab for a modest ten dollars, payable to NAPUB of Kentucky. For further information, contact the Braille Action Lab at (502) 588-8258. Dues, Dues, and More Dues At the 1991 meeting of the National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science, held in New Orleans, many of you had the opportunity to pay your dues: $5. Others of you did not have such an opportunity. Now is the time to renew your membership in NFBCS. If you have not paid your dues for the 1991-1992 year, send a check for $5, payable to the NFB in Computer Science, to Susie Stanzel, Treasurer, National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science, 11905 Mohawk Lane, Leawood, Kansas 66209. New From Artic Technologies Federationists who had an opportunity to tour the exhibit area at this year's NFB convention were probably intrigued by some new hardware being unveiled by Artic Technologies of Troy, Michigan. For the very first time ever, Artic Technologies displayed a portable, battery-powered external speech synthesizer. A lot of us liked the feel of the heavy but compact prototype case and urged Artic to consider using this sturdy case in the final version of its unit. Initially, the external speech synthesizer is designed to work only with Artic Vision. However, Artic Technologies says that it has plans to provide information that will enable other screen reader developers to provide support for its synthesizer in their software. The second piece of hardware unveiled by Artic is something called a "gismo pad". This device connects to a modified version of the SynPhonix speech card and enables all Artic Vision functions to be controlled from an external keypad. For further information (e.g., price and availability) contact: Artic Technologies 55 Park Street Suite 2 Troy, Michigan 48083 Phone: (313) 588-7370 New Synthesizer From AICOM AICOM Corporation, developers of the well-known ACCENT line of speech synthesizers, this year demonstrated a new battery-powered ACCENT Stand-Alone unit. This latest version of the ACCENT/SA is powered by a rechargeable nickel-cadmium battery and can provide up to fifteen hours of continuous speech output. The price: $995. For further information, contact: AICOM Corporation 1590 Oakland Road Suite B112 San Jose, California 95131 Phone: (408) 453-8251 National Federation of the Blind Bulletin Board At this year's NFB convention, held in New Orleans, Louisiana, it was announced that the NFB has established its own computer Bulletin Board. NFB-NET, as it is called, will enable blind computer users to participate in a variety of computer discussion groups dealing with subjects revolving around blindness. In addition, NFB-NET makes it possible for Federationists to download machine readable copies of the Braille Monitor and other useful Federation material. NFB-NET can be accessed by a variety of modems, including those running at 9600 bits per second. To Logon to NFB-NET and register to be a user, instruct your modem to dial (301) 752-5011. For further information about NFB-NET, contact Dave Andrews, Director, Braille and Technology Center, National Center for the Blind, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230, Phone: (301) 659-9314.