A Publication of Guide Dog Users, Inc.
President: Sarah Calhoun
Editor: Andrea Giudice
Co-editor and GDUI Immediate Past President: Penny Reeder
Guide Dog Users, Inc. (GDUI)
A special interest affiliate of the American Council of the Blind (ACB) since 1972
Toll-Free: 866.799.8436
From the editor: Hello fellow GDUISters
Alas, my hope for March going out like a lamb has not come to fruition. Well, Spring is officially here so consistently warmer days should be ahead- no joke!
Turning to this issue…, there is a wide range of topics to keep you engaged- including, but not limited to, more audio description on HBO, an opportunity to give your input on autonomous vehicles, Webinars offered in April, words from GDUI’s President and more.
Sending cyber hugs and wags, Andrea and Mr. A
From the President: Hello GDUI members and friends!
Welcome to spring, nice weather and long walks with your guide dog!
It has been a challenging year dealing with the pandemic, isolation, lack of activity and keeping our guide dogs happy, healthy and keen on their training! Now we can grab the harness, leash and start traveling around again!
GDUI will be holding two candidate forums for members to meet the candidates before voting begins in May. The dates, time and Zoom information will be shared on the email lists.
The GDUI program committee is working hard on the 2021 virtual convention! A list of the programs will be announced shortly after the committee has finalized their schedule. I know for sure we will have the Guide Dog School Update! This is one of the favorite programs GDUI has each year. Don’t miss the update, it will be spectacular!
Please share with your fellow GDUI members your thoughts, adventures, traveling tips or anything you and your guide dog happen upon! You can post to the GDUI chat list; If you have a story, poem or a guide dog related article you want to have published in, “Paws for GDUI- News You Can Use” please send it to:
Lakota and I wish everyone very happy holidays and a wonderful spring!
Sarah Calhoun, President
Guide Dog Users, Inc.
Announcement: (short notice) Audio Described Performance
Saturday, April 3 at 4 PM.
The American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) is presenting an of their live, online show, The Conjuror’s Club.
This multi-magician event is presented live, online, via Zoom. You don’t need any special equipment beyond a computer that is Zoom compatible. All description users will gather in one Zoom breakout room, where Cori Couture will provide description. Once you’ve booked your ticket, you will receive detailed instructions via email in the days leading up to the show.
Also, a recorded pre-show description will be available on the A.R.T. website toward the end of the week.
To reserve your spot, visit:
call: 617-547-8300
Tickets are $58 per Household, but to increase accessibility, a limited number of discounted tickets are available for $25 per household!
More About the Show… Join us for an intimate and interactive multi-magician experience, performed live nightly.
For the first time in 100 years, the secretive magic society, The Conjurors’ Club, pulls back the curtain for an interactive experience that redefines the face of modern magic. Take a front-row seat and immerse yourself in the arcane and mysterious with three different magicians. Physical distance can’t keep the amazing mind-reading, reality-bending illusions, and extraordinary transformations from reaching through the screen and directly into your home. As honorary members of the Club, you’ll receive your own secret package for use during your visit that is guaranteed to surprise and delight all of your senses—but you must promise to keep the secrets… (Visual details of the secret package and its contents will be included in the recorded pre-show description.)
Learn even more about the show, read reviews, and further explore the world of magic at:
https://americanrepertorytheater.org/shows-events/the-conjurors-club/
Announcement: Dr. Nicholas Giudice and the VEMI Lab at the University of Maine are seeking input on their research to make autonomous vehicles (AVs) accessible and usable for blind and visually impaired people and older adults.
In their ‘AVs for all’ initiative, they will be conducting a range of studies, focus groups, and interviews and are seeking input, feedback, and guidance from blind and visually impaired folks on the research. This user-driven approach is critical to ensure that their work, and future AV development, is based on real needs and addresses actual concerns of blind and older adult end-users. As such, they invite you to become involved and hope you will consider signing up as a potential participant in their research.
More about the Autonomous Vehicle Research Group, which Giudice leads, can be found at: https://umaine.edu/vemi/av-research-group/
If you are interested in participating in future research, you are invited to fill out the information intake survey at the URL below. Your data will be kept confidential and you will only be contacted when openings in experiments, focus groups, interviews, or other types of research become available in the future. We hope you make your voice heard and are willing to give your input. If interested, please fill out the voluntary intake survey at:
https://umaine.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6F44v1o5kyXjvtI
Announcement: HumanWare Live Webinars
We are proud to present our next series of HumanWare Live webinars for the month of April. This month, it’s all about braille. Our experts, Andrew Flatres and Peter Tucic, will guide you through our Brailliant BI X series of braille displays and the benefits of using the BrailleNote Touch Plus for teaching blind students.
A discovery of our intelligent braille displays
Date: Tuesday, April 6th
Time: 8 PM (EST)
Intended for: Braille device users
During this webinar, you will gain an insight into product features and explore the software and hardware that set the new Brailliant BI 20X and the Brailliant BI 40X apart from any other stand-alone braille displays available today.
Register in advance for this webinar
Teaching and monitoring the progress of students learning braille
Date: Thursday, April 8th
Time: 3 PM (EST)
ACVREP approved continuing education hour: 1 CE credit
Intended for: Teachers for the visually impaired, assistive technology specialists, parents, BrailleNote Touch Plus students and users.
This HumanWare Live webinar will focus on the Take Off Unified English Braille (UEB) curriculum that teachers can use to teach braille. Participants will learn how to use this free braille curriculum that is integrated into the BrailleNote Touch Plus via the Duxbury Learning Tables. Participants will then take a tour of the HumanWare Buddy App to learn how to track student progress through personalized and pre-determined lessons.
Register in advance for this webinar
If you have any questions about our live webinars, contact us at:
The HumanWare Team
Announcement: Verizon Media Announces Media Donation for ACB and Other Disability Organizations
On Tuesday, March 23, 2021, Verizon Media announced that they will be donating $5 million in media to a number of disability organizations, including the American Council of the Blind (ACB). ACB is excited to further our mission driven brand and message through the generous support of Verizon Media. Along with other nonprofits committed to expanding opportunity and equality for individuals with disabilities, the advertising grant provided through Verizon Media will allow ACB to amplify the voices of persons with disabilities at a time when the hardships of social isolation born out of the global pandemic have reverberated throughout our community. We wish to thank Verizon Media for their continued support as ACB fosters voice, choice, and community for people who are blind and visually impaired. For more information, visit: https://tinyurl.com/2ev7juyu.
Announcement: ACB Quoted in WSJ Article on Accessible Currency
We thought you may find interesting an article published this Friday in the Wall Street Journal, which announced Britain’s newest tactile currency and reported on the U.S. Department of Treasury’s continued failure to provide accessible currency in the United States.
ACB’s own Executive Director Eric Bridges was quoted in the article, and we think it did an excellent job highlighting the issue we continue to struggle with in the U.S. as other countries move forward with recognizing the value in producing accessible currency for people who are blind and visually impaired.
We hope you, too, will enjoy the article, and please share through your own social networks if possible.
Team ACB
American Council of the Blind: www.acb.org
Announcement: Our Space Our Place, Inc. workshop
How do they do that? How do they audio describe a show?
Please pass along –
A unique opportunity for blind and low vision middle and high school students. Come and learn. For middle and high school students who are blind and low vision, learn a dance from the Nutcracker and the techniques to describe the dance.
Date/time details:
April 20 – 24 from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm(EST.)
Phone number: (617) 459-4084
Register: President@ourspaceourplace.org
Website: www.ourspaceourplace.org
Article: HBO Max Rolls Out Audio Described Content: Customers Who are Blind Will Notice Many New Features, With More on the Horizon
March 26, 2021 – Advocates for people who are blind applaud WarnerMedia’s first delivery date of significant upgrades in the landmark agreement signed last October by WarnerMedia; the American Council of the Blind (ACB); the Massachusetts-based Bay State Council of the Blind (BSCB); and individual claimants Kim and Brian Charlson. These blind individuals and advocacy organizations were represented by Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a national non-profit legal center, and Disability Law Center, the Protection & Advocacy agency for Massachusetts.
WarnerMedia has pledged to increase the accessibility of HBO Max, and in the first phase of delivering on that promise, the streaming platform rolls out major enhancements this week, including:
- Nearly 1,500 hours of audio described content on Web and Mobile platforms including select HBO originals, Max Originals, Warner Bros films, and some acquired content. Audio description is a separate audio track that, when activated, provides a verbal description of visual elements on screen. For more on audio description, visit ACB’s Audio Description Project.
- An Audio Description category will be prominently featured in the navigation menu. This prominent browse location will also increase awareness about the importance of audio description and accessibility.
- Improvements to the accessibility of the HBO Max website and mobile applications for individuals who are blind or have low vision and use screen reader software to navigate and interact with digital content. Screen reader software enables people who are blind or have low vision to access online services by rendering the content displayed visually on the screen as large print, synthetic text-to-speech, or as digital braille on a braille display. Programming for compatibility with these types of assistive technologies is something website and app developers need to keep in mind.
- Addition of articles to the HBO Max help site specifically supporting customers with disabilities, including detailed instructions on how to perform certain tasks that may be unclear for some users.
- Training for HBO Max customer service specialists to help them better support customers with disabilities, including sensitivity training and training on assistive technology.
Providing 1,500 hours of audio described content is a major commitment to access for WarnerMedia. Select programming released in the launch with audio description includes His Dark Materials, Genera+ion, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Dunkirk, Euphoria, Love Life, Sesame Street and many more titles.
WarnerMedia will continue building on these improvements in the months and years to come. Later this year, HBO Max plans to make audio description available across all supported Internet-connected TVs. Furthermore, audio description is now being created for all new HBO and Max Original programming, and customers can expect 3,000 hours of described content to be available by the end of March 2022, doubling again to at least 6,000 hours in total by the end of March 2023.
In addition, over the next few months, accessibility of the HBO Max website, mobile apps, and applications for supported Internet-connected TVs will continue to be improved for individuals who are blind or have low vision and use screen reader software to navigate and interact with digital content. While screen reader users may still experience difficulties with setting up an account following this week’s updates, those problems should be resolved in coming months.
Dan Spoone, President of the American Council of the Blind, commented, “This process has been extremely positive, and will open many doors for individuals who are blind or visually impaired to both enjoy what HBO Max has to offer in terms of entertainment and education, while also allowing our community to share equally with family and friends in the truly universal pastime of viewing television and movies. By working together to bring thousands of additional hours of audio description content to HBO Max, along with the improved accessibility of the website, mobile apps, and smart TV interfaces, WarnerMedia and blind advocates are providing meaningful access to a significant aspect of our modern-day world.”
“At HBO Max, our goal is to let storytelling take center stage, and for each and every subscriber to be able to enjoy world-class content, regardless of how they access the platform,” said Sarah Lyons, Executive Vice President, Direct-to-Consumer Global Product Management. “This month’s initial accessibility improvements are only the first of many steps we plan on taking to improve the experience for all users. We encourage continual consumer feedback, as it is critical to evolving the product and supporting all of our valued customers.”
Staff Attorney Meredith Weaver of Disability Rights Advocates said, “We are excited to see the fruits of WarnerMedia’s investment in accessibility over the last year and are encouraged by their demonstrated commitment to creating an exceptional experience for all customers.”
Tatum A. Pritchard of the Disability Law Center, said, “WarnerMedia’s commitment to these improvements is a welcome and significant step towards greater accessibility for people who are blind or visually impaired to streaming content that serves as an important source of both entertainment and information for our society.”
Blindness community members are encouraged to reach out to HBO Max customer service representatives with feedback and questions. The HBO Max Help Center has been made accessible and all feedback about audio description and screen reader access will make its way to HBO Max’s accessibility team to guide them in prioritizing their work.
Contacts
Meredith Weaver, Staff Attorney, Disability Rights Advocates: 510-665-8644, mweaver@dralegal.org
Tatum A. Pritchard, Director of Litigation, Disability Law Center: 617-723-8455,
Kim Charlson, Immediate Past President, American Council of the Blind: 617-501-5752, kimcharlson@acb.org
Article: Exciting News!!
The Helen Keller National Center is excited to announce:
FeelingThrough, the first film ever to star a deafblind actor has made the OSCARS shortlist in the category of best live action short film! It went from 179 films to the top five!
FeelingThrough is written and directed by Doug Roland. Doug worked with HKNC to produce the film. If you have not seen it already we invite you to enjoy the short 18-minute film. It is captioned for persons interested. Just click to watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1CqzntEZZ8&t=2s
Do you need audio description of the film? Use this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM_7_BofpPQ&feature=youtu.be
Finally, “Connecting the Dot” is a short documentary that shares the story behind the scenes, the filmmaking in progress and authenticates the partnership between Doug Roland and the Helen Keller National Center. We invite you to enjoy the documentary, the link and password are below. This film is also captioned.
Connecting the Dots: The Story of FeelingThrough
Link: https://vimeo.com/465975419
Password: CTD_Doc_2020
Finally, more exciting news. Award winning actress and producer Marlee Matlin has partnered with Doug Roland to produce a feature length film of FeelingThrough. More to come on this exciting development. You can find fascinating interviews and discussion every Friday by viewing the FeelingThrough FaceBook page. https://www.facebook.com/feelingthrough
Sincerely,
Sarah Calhoun, President
Guide Dog Users, Inc.
Andrea Giudice, Editor
Penny Reeder, Co-editor and GDUI Immediate Past President
Paws for GDUI News You Can Use
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