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A degree of accessibility is finally coming to Windows Phone. Code Factory announced that their Mobile Accessibility suite of apps will be available for free in the next version of Windows Phone 8. The apps will provide access to contacts, text messaging, email, web browsing, and settings. They will also have caller ID and access to Voicemail.

This announcement is a long time in coming. The question is, how will the community react. Windows phone is far more popular in developing countries than it is in the US and Europe. Hopefully this means that the blind and visually impaired community in the developing world will be gaining access to technology they've never had. Unfortunately, the access available here may be far inferior when compared with iOS or Anroid. Still,it may be better than nothing for some.

When I was a PC user, some of my favorite games were from Spoonbill Software. All of the games are free of charge and do not require a screen reader to play. Ian has just released six new titles in his Blind Gamers series. There are three new word games and three new card games.

The three word games are Word Jumble, Word Builder, and Word Solitaire. the Word Jumble and Word Solitaire sound like games I would really enjoy. Word Solitaire is like Boggle, only backwards. You're given the 25 letters and you have to place them in the 5 by 5 grid to form as many horizontal and vertical words as possible.

The three new card games are all versions of Solitaire. In Eleven's Solitaire, your goal is to discard as many cards as possible. You can discard cards if they add up to eleven or if they are a set of three face cards.

Descriptions of all of the new titles, as well as the many other games available in the Blind gamers series, can be found by visiting the Blind Gamers section of the website.

Games can be ordered by following the How to Order instructions. I hope everyone gets as much enjoyment out of these games as I did.

October 15 is National White Cane Safety Day. There will be events around the country celebrating the use of the white cane. If you're participating in a White Cane Safety Day event, share your experiences in the comments section.

Along with White Cane Safety Day, President Obama has also declared the day as Blind Americans Equality Day. The presidential proclamation is posted below.

A designer and an Ophthalmologist have teamed up to create a new way for children to learn braille. Fittle puzzles allow blind children to practice their braille while giving them a better understanding for what the word means. An example would be a puzzle in the shape of a fish with the braille letters that spell fish. The goal of the company is to use 3-D printers to make the puzzles so that they can be made cheaply and with different materials. The Fittle website will post the designs for the puzzles so that anyone with a 3-D printer can print them out. In order to make this goal a reality they need funding. The company has set up an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds. Check the link on this post to learn more and support.experience braille.

I have been playing complex strategy based board games for years. Many might know them better as Euro games since most of them are developed in Europe. These are not the type of games where you role a dice, land on a square and have something happen to you. They are much more complex and fun. The inherent problem with all of these games though is that they're not accessible. In some cases I've added braille to cards or modified the board, but the reason I'm able to play the games is because I have sighted help and I memorize everything.

Since I love board games, I was excited to learn about a new company called 64 Ounce games, because they are committed to making their games accessible to the blind. The husband and wife team are both teachers. Richard teaches science and has been designing games for years, and Emily Gibbs is a teacher of the visually impaired.

If you're looking for a compact braille display that will work with a variety of devices, then the BraillePen 12 Touch may be a good option. The newest version of Harpo's 12-cell BraillePen has two new features. It now has Optical Routing keys which differ from other braille displays because they are not mechanical buttons, the idea being there are less parts that can go back. The other new feature is the Clipboard. You can now write with the BraillePen without being connected to a device. Once you connect to a device, you can then copy what you've written to the device. The BrailePen Touch is selling for $1,095 until the end of 2013, at which point the price will go up to $1,195. By comparison, the original BraillePen 12 sells for $995.

The United States Congress has until the end of September 30 to pass a budget or the government will go into a partial shut down. The shut down will effect a number of agencies, including access to their websites. The National Library Service will close their doors on October 1 if the budget does not pass, according to an official. Users of the NLS Braille and Talking Book program will likely be effected and will need to make book requests or download books from the BARD website prior to the shutdown. This nearly happened during a similar situation in 2011 though this shutdown was avoided at the last moment.
If Congress doesn't come to an agreement, access to NLS books will likely be restricted starting on Tuesday, and services will not return until congress passes a budget. While no official statement has been made from BARD administrators specifically, we anticipate loss of download functionality for the BARD mobile app as well. Books that have already been downloaded should still play. Government aid programs including Social Security and Food Stamps will not be effected as they are considered essential services. New applications for benefits would not be processed however.

If your streaming video needs aren't being met by Amazon, Netflix, iTunes, or any
of the other options, then you now have one more to choose from. On Wednesday, Target announced the availability of <a href=\"
http://www.targetticket.com">Target Ticket after months of beta testing.
\"> Target Ticket is very similar to Amazon or iTunes since there is no monthly
fee. The over 30,000 titles can either be rented or bought and then watched on many
different devices. I decided to try out the service to see if it was accessible and worth the money.

Before 2012, there was no television coverage of the Paralympics. Then, in 2012, NBC showed 5.5 hours. Now, they've just announced that the 2014 Winter Paralympics and 2016 Summer Paralympics will have over 100 hours of television coverage. The US olympic Committee will also be airing live coverage on their website, TeamUSA.ORG . This perhaps could mean much greater exposure for sports such as goalball which are largely unknown by the mainstream.

In one week, Apple has come out with two new iPhones, a new version of iTunes, and now new software for the Apple TV. The 6.0 released actually came out last Friday but then was pulled after some users were experiencing some major usability issues. There are a number of new features in this update. Users will now be able to stream music, photos, and videos from iCloud, use the new iTunes radio, and buy music from the iTunes store.

Imagine if you could use your voice to request a 3-D printed object. Thanks to Yahoo! Japan, students at a school for the blind are able to do just that. The 3-D printer accepts voice commands. Students can ask for anything they want and the system then searches the database of 3-D printer plans and then prints out the object. If the object requested is not available, Yahoo Japan puts out a request for help in designing the desired object. Perhaps someday, all classrooms will have this technology.

The much anticipated BARD app is finally here. For me, this means I no longer have to carry more then one device, which in my opinion is huge. I can now access all of my books on my iPhone. So what's the new BARD Mobile app like, and what should you expect?

One important part of setting up VoiceOver is choosing what will be included in the rotor. The rotor options change depending on the app that you're in, but each setting can be very useful for navigating quickly. To change what rotor settings you will have access to, visit the Rotor menu within the VoiceOver menu in settings/General/Accessibility. One of the new rotor settings in VoiceOver is called handwriting. As with many features, there is no explanation of what this does or how to use it, but that's why we have this tutorial.

In June we learned about the 200 new features that would be coming in iOS 7. Most of the announced changes though had nothing to do with accessibility. With this in mind, we wanted to bring you a list of the changes that would be coming for VoiceOver users. To begin let's start with how you set VoiceOver to the settings you want.

In an effort to attract new customers, Sprint is offering $100 off the cost of certain smart phones including the new iPhone 5C and 5s. This means that you can get the iPhone 5C for free and the 5s for $99. The offer only applies to customers who are switching from a different carrier and who sign a two year agreement.

Fedora Outlier is coming out with a new version of their Old Hat Guide to iPhone Accessibility. The new version will cover iOS 7 and all of the new features. You can pre-order the book through October 15th for $4.99. According to the website, some of the topics that will be covered include: accessibility settings and how to adjust them, voiceover gestures with tricks on how to master them, techniques of how to browse the web using Safari, and how to use Siri and dictation. The book also comes with video tutorials and voiceover tips.

A team of researchers at the University of Washington who design technology for the blind are interested in learning what barriers the blind and visually impaired face with technology and what strategies they use to overcome these barriers, as well as what technology they use. The survey should take about 20 minutes to complete and participants will have the option of being entered into a drawing to win one of five $20 gift cards to Amazon.

The Center on Disabilities at California State University Northridge has opened the call for general session papers today. Those that are interested in presenting at the 2014 CSUN conference will have until October 11th to submit their paper. The CSUN website lists all of the rules and regulations on what the paper should include as well as other important information.

GPS apps can be a great asset to the blind, but most of them will only get the person close to their destination. One solution for this problem is to allow the user to set their own points of interest (POI). A new app developed in Australia, called Point Finder, allows users to do just that. The app, which can be purchased for a dollar allows users to set their own POI's and get navigation instructions to reach their POI. If the destination is on a map, the user can interface with Google Maps to get turn by turn instructions. The app uses a continuous sound as the person moves toward the chosen POI. As they get closer, the pitch of the sound gets lower.