Blind Bargains: Articles, Tips, and Tutorials

Nearly three out of four people are unable to use Google’s audio CAPTCHA service, according to research conducted by Blind Bargains. The audio CAPTCHA is intended for use by persons who are blind or visually impaired and is a requirement for accessing several areas of Google’s website, including creating accounts on the Gmail service and resetting account passwords. Read more

A press release from a Canadian distributor for Olympus came across our screen earlier today which included a lot of hype but perhaps even more false information about the upcoming release of the DM-4. This makes us question the integrity of the distributor and any other statements they may make. So we would like to ask our readers if overblown or partially false press releases will cause you to not buy from a particular distributor, or if this is just an accepted part of the game. After the jump, we first reprint the original press release and then our comments and corrections. Let us know what you think in the comments. Read more

We read with excitement of a new service from Openlibrary.org which aims to offer accessible DAISY titles to the blind, low-vision, and print-disabled communities. While services like Bookshare have provided a library of thousands of titles in electronic format for the past decade, the new offering has the potential to put the necessity for accessible books in the forefront of many who may not have realized the need previously. While the site has potential, it will need to expand greatly to become relevant. Luckily, a donation drive is helping to jumpstart the collection. Read more

Most people would argue the time machine has not yet been invented and offer plenty of arguments to back up that claim. While they may be correct in a physical sense, one need only look at some of the assistive technology companies and their system of sales territories to find plenty of examples of philosophies that should be left in the past. We contend that companies that still rely on territories to protect their dealers in 2010 are engaged in a backwards and outdated line of thinking. Read more

APH is presenting two workshops in San Diego in the days leading up to the CSUN conference. Among these is a half-day presentation on how to use and operate the new Book Port Plus. Available on both Monday and Tuesday, the seminars will be held at the nearby Braille Institute offices in San Diego. As for the release of the player, the announcement states, "Please bring your Braille+ and/or Book Port Plus with you if you have one." This indicates to us the unit will be available before this time.

I have become increasingly frustrated with the lack of reception on my FM radio. If you ask just about any radio enthusiast, they will tell you a tuner that comes as a part of an amplifier generally does not pick up as many stations. With this in mind, I picked up the Sony XDRF1HD HD Radio Tuner for $79.99, shipped free from Amazon.com. The reviews lauded the unit's selectivity and reception, and I must say I'm generally pleased so far. Read on to see my initial thoughts. Read more

It's time for our audio recap of the festivities at ATIA 2010. Listen in as J.J. Meddaugh and Matt McCubbin discuss the high and low points of the conference and some of the new products on display.

It could be de described as the biggest botched software release of the past five years. Oratio, Orator, or whatever they're calling it these days has finally been released by Humanware with a price tag of $449. Promised since 2007, the software brings access to Blackberry smart phones. Correction, make that one AT&T Blackberry smart phone. If you bought any Blackberry phones, including some we listed as deals last summer because of the planned screen reader compatibility, you can toss them right out the window. The Blackberry Curve 8520 from AT&T is the only currently-supported phone. The Verizon Wireless or Sprint 9630 Tour, or the T-Mobile 8520 Tour are not on the supported phones list. There's also some lively discussion over on the Accessible BB website about the lack of Humanware involvement in their mailing list. No official Blackberry mailing list is known to exist at this time, other than an announce-only update stream. Still interested? orders are being taken now. If you have comments or thoughts on Oratio for Blackberry, please post them. Here's a quote from a message on the Accessible Blackberry list from list owner Carlos Palomino: "No matter what has taken place from July until today, one thing has remained constant, and that is Humanware's shady business practices and abhorrent public relations methods. So, whether we waited patiently for news or attempted to gather info from the company itself, we were ignored. And being the largest collection of potential customers, it seems aweful inconsiderate and blatantly stupid to take such a stance against us." Other things to note about Oratio are after the jump. Read more

This is it, the number one story on our year-end look at the most influencial, ground-breaking, or otherwise important stories of 2009. In addition to our own staff, we consulted with some industry experts including ACB Radio Main Menu's Jamie Pauls, the Blind Geek Zone's Rick Harmon, Ranger from the Ranger Station Blog, and the Fred's Head Companion's Michael McCarty to help create our list. Now, here it is, number 1. You can hear more commentary, as we count down the top 11 live along with Jamie Pauls on Main Menu, repeating for the next 24 hours and then available on-demand on ACB Radio Mainstream. Read more

We're nearly through our year-end look at the most influencial, ground-breaking, or otherwise important stories of 2009. In addition to our own staff, we consulted with some industry experts including ACB Radio Main Menu's Jamie Pauls, the Blind Geek Zone's Rick Harmon, Ranger from the Ranger Station Blog, and the Fred's Head Companion's Michael McCarty to help create our list. Now, we present number two in our list, leaving just the top story of 2009, which we'll post later today. Number two is the biggest product launch of the year from an assistive technology company. You can hear more commentary tonight when we count down the top 11 live along with Jamie Pauls on Main Menu, at 8 PM Eastern, 5PM Pacific on ACB Radio Mainstream. Read more

We're almost through our year-end look at the most influencial, ground-breaking, or otherwise important stories of 2009. In addition to our own staff, we consulted with some industry experts including ACB Radio Main Menu's Jamie Pauls, the Blind Geek Zone's Rick Harmon, Ranger from the Ranger Station Blog, and the Fred's Head Companion's Michael McCarty to help create our list. We'll present one item every day through New Year's day, when we'll reach number 1. Today, Rick Harmin, from the Blind Geek Zone blog and podcast, provides commentary and his opinion on our number 3 story, the most controversial story of the year. You can hear more from Rick when we count down the top 11 live along with Jamie Pauls on Main Menu, Friday night at 8 PM Eastern on ACB Radio Mainstream. Read more

We're over halfway through our year-end look at the most influencial, ground-breaking, or otherwise important stories of 2009. In addition to our own staff, we consulted with some industry experts including ACB Radio Main Menu's Jamie Pauls, the Blind Geek Zone's Rick Harmon, Ranger from the Ranger Station Blog, and the Fred's Head Companion's Michael McCarty to help create our list. We'll present one item every day through New Year's day, when we'll reach number 1. Today, the fate of the SMA> Read more

We're over halfway through our year-end look at the most influencial, ground-breaking, or otherwise important stories of 2009. In addition to our own staff, we consulted with some industry experts including ACB Radio Main Menu's Jamie Pauls, the Blind Geek Zone's Rick Harmon, Ranger from the Ranger Station Blog, and the Fred's Head Companion's Michael McCarty to help create our list. We'll present one item every day through New Year's day, when we'll reach number 1. Today, Amazon's Kindle promise. Read more

We're continuing our year-end look at the most influencial, ground-breaking, or otherwise important stories of 2009. In addition to our own staff, we consulted with some industry experts including ACB Radio Main Menu's Jamie Pauls, the Blind Geek Zone's Rick Harmon, Ranger from the Ranger Station Blog, and the Fred's Head Companion's Michael McCarty to help create our list. We'll present one item every day through New Year's day, when we'll reach number 1. Today, it's all about Windows 7, baby. Read more

We're continuing our year-end look at the most influencial, ground-breaking, or otherwise important stories of 2009. In addition to our own staff, we consulted with some industry experts including ACB Radio Main Menu's Jamie Pauls, the Blind Geek Zone's Rick Harmon, Ranger from the Ranger Station Blog, and the Fred's Head Companion's Michael McCarty to help create our list. We'll present one item every day through New Year's day, when we'll reach number 1. Today, we focus on braille literacy. Read more

We're continuing our year-end look at the most influencial, ground-breaking, or otherwise important stories of 2009. In addition to our own staff, we consulted with some industry experts including ACB Radio Main Menu's Jamie Pauls, the Blind Geek Zone's Rick Harmon, Ranger from the Ranger Station Blog, and the Fred's Head Companion's Michael McCarty to help create our list. We'll present one item every day through New Year's day, when we'll reach number 1. Today, we look at a new breakthrough in the world of free books. Read more

We're continuing our year-end look at the most influencial, ground-breaking, or otherwise important stories of 2009. In addition to our own staff, we consulted with some industry experts including ACB Radio Main Menu's Jamie Pauls, the Blind Geek Zone's Rick Harmon, Ranger from the Ranger Station Blog, and the Fred's Head Companion's Michael McCarty to help create our list. We'll present one item every day through New Year's day, when we'll reach number 1. Today, we look at potentially the biggest letdown of 2009. Read more

We're continuing our year-end look at the most influencial, ground-breaking, or otherwise important stories of 2009. In addition to our own staff, we consulted with some industry experts including ACB Radio Main Menu's Jamie Pauls, the Blind Geek Zone's Rick Harmon, Ranger from the Ranger Station Blog, and the Fred's Head Companion's Michael McCarty to help create our list. We'll present one item every day through New Year's day, when we'll reach number 1. Today, we look at a popular new online colaberation tool. Read more

Today, we begin our year-end look at the most influencial, ground-breaking, or otherwise important stories of 2009. In addition to our own staff, we consulted with some industry experts including ACB Radio Main Menu's Jamie Pauls, the Blind Geek Zone's Rick Harmon, Ranger from the Ranger Station Blog, and the Fred's Head Companion's Michael McCarty to help create our list. We'll present one item every day through New Year's day, when we'll reach number 1. Read more

The holidays will certainly bring us lots of presents and tidings of comfort and joy. But in the spirit of Christmas and dreaming big, there are some things I’d love to see from companies and groups serving the blind and visually impaired. So, I present to you my Christmas wish list. Read more

With the release of Window-Eyes 7 and GW Micro’s support for a versatile scripting language, the need has come for classes to teach potential programmers how to make the most of the new features. This isn’t to say that one couldn’t learn to script without taking a class, but for those needing a refresher or who learn better by hands-on teaching, the two-day class offered is a godsend. I was quite impressed with the Window-Eyes script writing class, which I was a part of last month. Read more

If you're like us, you've avoided updating to the latest and most bloaded version of Windows Live Messenger and stuck with the original and cleaner interface of the original Windows Messenger. But recently for many, an annoyance has popped up, asking for a display name every time you sign in. If this happens to you, read on for the simple steps to fix the problem. Read more

Last month, we began our countdown of the 25 most popular websites serving the blind and visually impaired. We analyzed data from Alexa Internet’s online website rankings to present our list. The ranks given are the overall site rank amongst the entire Internet. If you missed the first two installments, they’re linked on the bottom of this post. Read more

Today, BrailleNote mPower users and the public at large received their first view of Humanware’s new breed of PDA devices. While many are quick to discount the Apex as overpriced, outdated, and meaningless, we can’t hardly blame Humanware for the new release. And while users are quick to scoff at the price, the machine brings some welcome competition to the blindness-specific PDA market which I’m glad to see. Read more

One of the biggest challenges faced by a blind traveler is obtaining a concept of their surroundings. The availability of Braille maps has been rare if not nonexistent. Thanks to a partnership between the Tactile Map Automated Production (TMAP) Project and the San Francisco Lighthouse, one can now obtain hard copy maps for any address in the United States for a small fee. After seeing the results for an area near our home, we were quite impressed. Read more

Earlier this week, we began our countdown of the 25 most popular websites serving the blind and visually impaired. We analyzed data from Alexa Internet’s online website rankings to present our list. The ranks given are the overall site rank amongst the entire Internet. Read more

There are hundreds of websites on the Internet with information, products, news, or other services for the blind and visually impaired. But which are the most popular? We analyzed data from Alexa Internet’s online website rankings to present the top 25 most popular websites for the blind and visually impaired. While no single site had a ranking of less than 100,000 (the lower the ranking, the better), nearly two dozen sites are within the top one million most popular websites on the Internet. Read more

All this week, we’ve been covering some of the basics of EBay, the world's most popular auction service. Links to the other articles in this series can be found below. We’ll wrap up this series by discussing some of the best categories to shop on EBay as well as some to avoid. Read more

All this week, we're covering some of the basics of EBay, the world's most popular auction service. Links to the first three articles in this series can be found below. This time,, we’ll talk about how you can be more careful in choosing a reputable seller. Read more

All this week, we're covering some of the basics of EBay, the world's most popular auction service. Earlier, we talked about Buy It Now and shipping prices, and links to those articles are below. This time,, we’ll talk about the art of sniping. Read more

All this week, we're covering some of the basics of EBay, the world's most popular auction service. While many terms and features may be old hat to some of you, we feel it worth the time to explain some of EBay's most used features to new users or those needing a refresher. Today, we’ll talk about prices and shipping. Read more

All this week, we'll be covering some of the basics of EBay, the world's most popular auction service. While many terms and features may be old hat to some of you, we feel it worth the time to explain some of EBay's most used features to new users or those needing a refresher. Today, the Buy It Now option. Read more

There are two types of blind people in the world. Those who own a Victor Stream and those who don’t. The decision on whether or not to purchase the new Book Sense from GW Micro may largely fall on which of these groups you come from. Read more

Well, the day has finally arrived. It's been an unprecedented 14 months since the release of any version of Window-Eyes, and now users around the world will get to decide if the wait was worth it. Follow the link to read the entire article.

It's been awhile since All-in-Play, the company known for its online multiplayer card games, has released anything new. But the outcry from many users for "something else" has finally been answered in the form of a game that has nothing to do with cards. Follow the link to read the entire article.

A new kind of checking account has been introduced that provides unlimited refunds of surcharges from automatic teller machines, allowing blind people to use any talking ATM free without fee or extra charges. Kelly Pierce explains how to do it and which banks offer this very useful service.

So the Assistive Technology Industry Association conference has come and gone, leaving memories of sunny days, palm trees, a talking parrot, and, oh yes, lots of new technology. After sifting through the press releases, the interviews, the hype, and the looming credit card bills, we are happy to report of a genuine shift in the market for technology for blind and visually impaired consumers. Check the link to continue reading the article.

These days, blind computer users are gaining more and more options for free access to technology. But in our latest article, we discuss some of the reasons that one should consider paying for a screen reader compared with downloading one for free.

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.

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.

The advancement of accessible cell phones has sparked a lot of interest in the blind community. We've written an introduction to cell phone access for new and advanced users alike. Read it to learn more, or send it to a friend who is curious about how a blind person can use a cell phone.

We've written a detailed explanation on how to get around the sell an item form on EBay. Selling on EBay is actually a relatively simple process, and this guide will hopefully help in simplifying it.