The aim of VICUG-L is to foster the establishment and promote the growth of local Visually Impaired and Blind Computer Users' Groups worldwide. Most of VICUG-L's subscribers are members of blind/VI computer user groups in their local communities. List members pool knowledge and resources to help each other function at their best in this fast-changing electronic age. We exchange educational materials, keep one another apprised of local activities, and discuss strategies for co-ordinated action.
No group in your community? No problem. Like you, most list members are pursuing technology-related activities that impact on the workplace, research, education and the job market. List members explore on-line information networks; hear about developments in the industry, examine new adaptations and test new software; and exchange consultations and training at all levels of expertise--everything from late-breaking news on the latest technological advances to information about local resources which repair and refurbish donated computer hardware.
Unlike most mailing lists, VICUG-L is a dialogue, rather than a discussion or a chat list. This means that the list exists mainly as a means of sharing and exchanging information, news, innovations, trends, and reports on local service, educational programs, organizing efforts, and advocacy activities. VICUG-L is a network--a means of locating resources, finding answers, and developing strategies for learning and mastering adaptive technology.
VICUG-L is predicated upon the belief that blind computer users master adaptive technology quickly and thoroughly when they work collectively--learning from each other, sharing ideas, evaluating products, and advocating for greater access to software and information on the local, the national, and the international level. VICUG-L, therefore, is designed to serve as a catalyst which will help foster the development, and the maturation, of participatory educational/support organizations, comprised of individual blind users, committed to the principles of self-development, mutual aid, cooperative learning and peer mentoring.
Everyone these days seems to be plugged in; everyone and everything is online. And, yet, we, as blind computer users are routinely reduced to roadkill on the information superhighway. The learning curve is steep, yet to whom can we turn to obtain an objective opinion on emerging technology, or for a new insight or strategy in overcoming what has always seemed hopelessly inaccessible? To each other, through VICUG-L.
VICUG-L is the united voice of individual blind and visually impaired computer users who have joined together to form local communities of users. It is a means not only of increasing your personal knowledge of computers and access technology, but the pool of knowledge available to all blind/VI computer users. VICUG-L offers grass-roots alternative to a community too long divided by geography and the limitations of traditional media. Thanks to the internet, for the first time in history, we, as blind individuals, have the capacity to share our skills and expertise with one another; to keep each other apprised of our activities and agendas; to share educational materials and organizational experiences. It is a bridge between the global and the local--in a word, it is VICUG-L.
If you have access to the World Wide Web, you can check out the list before joining. An archive of past posts to VICUG-L can be found at the following URL:
<http://listserv.icors.org/archives/vicug-l.html>
To subscribe to VICUG-L, type:
subscribe VICUG-L firstname lastname
in the body of an emessage--substituting, of course, your actual first and last names--and send it to:
<LISTSERV@listserv.icors.org>
You can also subscribe directly to VICUG-L via the web. Just use the mailto: fields in the hypertext version of this list description, or through the VICUG-L Subscription Form.
And, if you are a member of a visually impaired/blind computer users group or know of a technology access group which is not listed at VICUG NYC's List of Visually Impaired Computer Users' Groups, located at:
<http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/vicug/vicugs.html>
please let us know by sending a message to:
<VICUG-L-request@listserv.icors.org>
We look forward to getting to know you, and the users in your community, as--together--we transform blind people everywhere through technology.
Kelly Pierce, Gregory J. Rosmaita, and Mark Senk
List Owners, VICUG-L
This page was created on February 13, 1997
Converted to HTML4 & CSS2
September 11, 1999
Contents of this page last updated January 17, 2006