Present: Bob Brown, Michael Davis, Tom Dekker, David Denniston, Crista Earl, Joe Fagnani, Karen Gourgey, Rachel Graff, Michael Henderson, Pat Holup, Jay Leventhal, Lee Maclin, Mike Mandel, Sarah Morley, Zoraida Morrison, Eva Oser, Gus Oser, Pratik Patel, Joanne Radioli, Mark Ramnauth, Gregory Rosmaita, Janina Sajka, Ruth-Ellen Simmonds, Donna Slivoski, Iris Torres, Myrna Votta, Bob White, Milena Zavoli, Vita Zavoli.
The following officers were elected for the October 1997 - October 1998 term:
President: Tom Dekker
Vice-President: Janina Sajka
Secretary: Peter Altschul
Treasurer: Ruth-Ellen Simmonds
WebMaster/ListOwner: Gregory Rosmaita
Members at Large: Jay Leventhal and Vita Zavoli
The Membership chose, unanimously, to amend the VICUG NYC Bylaws so as to elevate the position of WebMaster/ListOwner to that of a "director".
The membership chose to change the VICUG meeting date to the second Tuesday of each month.
Tom Dekker will be inviting Bill Schiavo to talk about the Linox Operating System at the November VICUG meeting.
For the remainder of the meeting, Sarah Morley, a consultant for the Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) in London, England, gave a presentation on the following topics:
Ms. Morley began her presentation by distributing copies of her book of helpful diagrams which depict the many types of screens, boxes, bars and other elements that one encounters when using Windows. This set of diagrams (in one volume) are available for approximately $9.00 and are extremely helpful in teaching concepts and the layouts screens. An accompanying book called Windows 95 Explained (in three volumes) is approximately $13.00, and is aimed both at trainers and students, as it provides both descriptions and methods. She demonstrated the use of Windows 95 with the JAWS speech software while referring to the diagrams in the book. This included the Desktop, Start Menu, dialog boxes, etc. She explained concepts such as shortcut keys and multitasking. Ms. Morley also pointed the good points of Windows 95 over Windows 3.1 such as the desktop metaphor, extensive menus and the variety of methods for accomplishing most tasks.
The Daisy Playback software is currently being tested in the Windows 95 environment. This software will allow speech users to read a book on CD-ROM with multiple scanning and reviewing features. Efforts are also being made to create a portable stand-alone unit so that CD-ROM talking books will be available to a larger audience. Currently, the system's previewing features include:
The system can also be operated via mouse. Ms. Morley explained that it was initially being designed to assist students in reading textbooks, but is now also being developed with the intention of users being comfortable reading novels as well. Her aim is to make the system as intuitive as possible.
Submitted by Vita Zavoli, October 25, 1997
Encoded by Gregory J. Rosmaita
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this page was created on October 26, 1997
last modified August 13, 1998