Internet Odyssey

Internet Odyssey

The Braille Monitor

_July 1997

(next)

(contents)

PHOTO/CAPTION: Peter

and Mary Donahue

Internet Odyssey

by Peter and Mary Donahue

From the Editor: Like other state

presidents I am frequently asked for ideas about what chapters can do as constructive

projects in their communities. Peter and Mary Donahue are leaders in the San

Antonio Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas. Last year

their chapter took part in an ambitious and rewarding project that they think

could be carried out by other chapters around the country. This is what they

say:

The ability to go online with a personal

computer is perhaps the most powerful feature of today's technology revolution.

For a blind person this permits access to information not available by any other

means. The chief method of getting information from a remote computer to your

PC is through a worldwide network called the Internet.

The Internet is different things for

different people in a wide variety of professional, educational, and recreational

pursuits. One could easily observe this at the 1996 Internet Odyssey held at

the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. Several members

of the Greater San Antonio Chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of

Texas demonstrated the way in which blind people access the Information Superhighway

using a personal computer and adaptive technology. We discussed the way the

PC has opened up countless educational and job opportunities for the blind and

expressed our concerns about our ability to achieve unlimited access to the

Information Superhighway in the future.

In addition, chapter members learned

how PCs and the Internet work together to move information around the world.

We even learned how the Internet touches our lives and gained a deeper understanding

of how positive attitudes about blindness among the blind and sighted alike

can help achieve our goals of security, equality, and unlimited opportunity

for all blind people. What follows is an account of the chapter's participation

in this event as told by Greater San Antonio Chapter Secretary Peter Donahue.

Our participation in the Internet Odyssey

began in an unlikely place, the laundry room at the apartment complex where

Mary and I live. I was walking through the laundry room on my way back to our

apartment when I met Mrs. Carolyn Awalt, one of our neighbors and a multi-media

specialist at United States Automobile Association (USAA), one of San Antonio's

largest employers and insurers of military personnel.

Mary and I were looking for an Internet

provider that could provide a shell account which would allow us to access the

Internet using MS-DOS. Ms. Awalt told us about her provider, Texas Net. Several

other chapter members were already on Texas Net, and we eventually got an account

with this provider. While talking to Mrs. Awalt, I brought up our concerns about

the increasing threat to our ability to access the Information Superhighway

because of the graphical user interface and graphical web-browsers. In response

she said, "This sounds like something you need to tell people at the South

Texas Internet Odyssey. Everyone who has anything to do with the Internet will

be there; that would be the place to air your concerns."

Mrs. Awalt explained that, unlike most

computer- and Internet-related shows which spend most of their time razzle-

dazzling their audiences with claims about the latest Internet hardware and

software trying to entice would-be buyers, the South Texas Internet Odyssey

emphasized what the Internet is and the ways many people from many backgrounds

and from a wide variety of educational and vocational callings use it. She said

that until now there had been little participation in this event by members

of the disabled community. She urged us to change that. I told her that it sounded

like a great idea and that, if our members wanted to participate, we would need

to be put in touch with the organizers so we could make arrangements about our

needs. "You make the decision to participate, and I'll see that your concerns

are addressed."

In the weeks that followed the chapter's

board of directors discussed the matter at length and decided to participate

in the 1996 Internet Odyssey. We had many questions about how we would carry

out this project. First was the problem of the computers we would need. No one

wanted to risk transporting their fragile hardware and software or do without

it at home during the entire event. Moreover, there was always the possibility

of theft if the security at the show was lax.

But then it occurred to me that several

of us used both Vocal-Eyes from GW Micro, a screen reader for accessing DOS-based

applications, and JAWS for Windows from Henter-Joyce, a program for accessing

Windows applications. Both of these programs support the Braille 'n Speak from

Blazie Engineering, so we could use the Braille 'n Speak as a speech synthesizer.

This arrangement would be extremely portable, requiring only a simple set-up

and take-down, and we could take the equipment home at night. If we could load

the software onto a PC at the show, we wouldn't even have to worry about carting

computers back and forth every day.

But could show organizers provide the

PC? Mrs. Awalt contacted Richard Wadsworth, a professor of computer science

at the University of Texas at San Antonio. He said he was glad to hear that

we wanted to participate in this year's show and promised to give us all the

help we needed, including a PC and transportation for participating chapter

members. He even saw to it that we had a phone line for the modem and technical

and personal support during the show.

My chance meeting with Mrs. Awalt occurred

in late August, and the Internet Odyssey was to take place in late October.

We had just under two months to put an exhibit together, but we were up to the

challenge. We briefly looked for a personality to increase the attractiveness

of our exhibit, but the notice was too short. We soon discovered that no other

NFB chapter had tried a project like this one, so, though we had encouragement

from Mr. Ring at the International Braille and Technology Center and Curtis

Chong, President of the NFB in Computer Science, we were on our own to do the

best we could.

As the show date drew closer, things

gradually fell into place. We decided to set up our display in the area for

vendors. We shared the location with the San Antonio Express News, our local

newspaper; the International Bank of Commerce (IBC); and Diamond Computers,

to name a few of many. The important thing was that we were taking our message

of hope and a positive view of blindness to the Internet community to help its

members understand our concerns about continued full access to the Information

Superhighway for blind people and our ability to compete for jobs requiring

the use of personal computers.

When we learned that there was to be

a seminar component to the show, we asked to be included in that program as

well. These seminars covered using the Internet;

Real Audio (a program for listening to

radio broadcasts from around the world through the Internet); designing World

Wide Web pages; and video conferencing to conduct business meetings and seminars

from headquarters to field offices around the world on the Internet. Our request

was granted. We would give our presentation on Monday, October 28, at 5 p.m.

In the weeks before the event we worked

out the final details of our participation in the show. Professor Wadsworth

turned transportation over to Mrs. Margaret Halsema, who by herself handled

rides to and from the convention center from all around the city. Lisa Hall

and I went to the convention center on the morning of October 26 to set up the

equipment and to install the screen-reading software and Procomm Plus, the communications

software.

This was the first time that any of us

had used Netscape Navigator since none of us had ever used a Windows Web browser,

but we wanted to show folks that Internet access through Windows was possible.

As soon as our network connection was working, I got a crash course in using

Netscape Navigator. Jaws for Windows has macros that make Navigator more speech-friendly,

so it was not too hard to master. On this trip we brought the literature to

be distributed during the show.

We were not prepared for what awaited

us upon arriving at the hall where the Internet Odyssey was being held. The

scene was more reminiscent of a warehouse rummage sale than a computer exhibition.

When we walked in, we encountered scaffolding, large bags, barrels, boxes, trash,

pieces of plywood, and machinery parked everywhere. It was a hot day, and the

air conditioning was not yet working. The humidity in that room was fierce.

The place smelled of oil, gasoline, and

tar; dust was everywhere. Because we had good travel skills, we traversed this

obstacle course with ease. But there was nothing to do but wait until the mess

was transformed into the setting for a computer show. We decided that I should

come back in the evening to set up the equipment for the next day.

In fact, I didn't get to do anything

in our booth until after 9:00 p.m. that evening when the computers arrived.

Establishing the network for the computer show was an interesting process to

watch, but I had my hands full when I began loading the software that we would

need. I didn't finish the installation until well after midnight. The next morning

we did the final installation of software and made last-minute preparations.

We were ready for the opening of the

show at 12 noon when we heard the unmistakable opening chords to the theme from

2001: A Space Odyssey, indicating that the show was open and ready to receive

the public. As that afternoon passed, we were visited by many persons, including

some teachers of the blind and local business persons and others interested

in what we had to share with show visitors.

In addition to distributing our literature,

we displayed the NFB WEB site and showed visitors the wealth of information

about blindness they could find there. We discovered that keeping the computer

talking was the key to keeping the public coming to our booth. When the speech

stopped, President Sofka would shout: "Come on, Pete, get that speech going!

That's what's got them coming over here, so keep it going!"

Some of those who listened to the speech

complained that they could not understand what was being said. We explained

that understanding synthetic speech, especially less-human-sounding synthetic

speech, requires one to develop an ear for what is being said and how words

are being pronounced. Since we use synthetic speech regularly, our ears are

accustomed to it, and we can understand what is being said. However, even some

blind people can't understand synthesized speech, and for them and some others

large print or Braille access is more desirable.

Several of us worked the computer, taking

turns during the show. Those who weren't computer-literate were put to work

handing out literature and talking to visitors about the NFB in general. Suffice

it to say, anyone who wanted to help had a job to do. The high point of the

show for us came Monday afternoon, October 28, when we gave our seminar on computer

access for the blind. When the announcement was made, people came running from

everywhere. Vendors closed down their booths, and even the workers in the CyberCafe

came over to see what all the fuss was about. Later we were told that there

were fifty to one hundred people at our seminar--the largest number of attendees

at any of the seminars during the entire show.

President Sofka welcomed everyone and

gave a brief explanation of what the NFB was and what we were hoping to accomplish

at the Internet Odyssey. Following his speech several of us demonstrated the

ways we accessed various components of the Internet. Scott Edwards used Gopher,

a program that provides text-based access to various online archives such as

the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped's book

collection. Then Lisa Hall demonstrated Internet Relay Chat (IRC), which allows

one to talk over the Net in real time with folks from around the world. Prior

to the show she had arranged with some of her friends on Genie, one of several

widely-known online services, to meet her in one of Genie's chat rooms. These

are areas where people can meet to discuss matters of specific interest such

as surfing the Internet, for example. Her demonstration was received with much

applause from the audience.

But the climax of the seminar was the

sending of an e-mail message around the world on seven different blindness-related

mailing lists or listservs. Since we wanted to let the blind of the world know

what we were doing to improve access to information and to raise awareness of

the need to protect this access, we felt it appropriate to do this in the hope

that others would be inspired to do what we were doing. The message read in

part:

Blind people of the world,

This message is coming to you from the

Henry B.

Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio,

Texas. We are participating in the 1996 South Texas Internet Odyssey to show

how blind persons can use a personal computer and adaptive technology and to

raise awareness of the threat to our continued ability to access the Information

Superhighway posed by the ever-increasing use of graphical user interfaces,

bitmap-images, and other factors. The members of the Greater San Antonio Chapter

of the National Federation of the Blind of Texas would like to encourage you

to do what you can to promote awareness of these issues, including participating

in events similar to this one. Greetings from all of us, and let's keep the

Net accessible to the blind.

Yours truly,

James Sofka, President

Greater San Antonio Chapter

National Federation of the Blind of Texas

Throughout the week we received responses

to that message, congratulating us on our efforts. Some people even shared information

about what they were doing in their communities or countries to heighten awareness

of the challenges faced by blind computer users. But the highest compliment

we received came from Marti Knight, one of the principal organizers of the Internet

Odyssey. He said, "If we have accomplished anything at all this year, this

is it. Showcasing the use of the Internet by the disabled will more than justify

what we have spent in time, money, and manpower to put on this show. This is

an area we need to expand in the coming years."

The show concluded on October 29, and

all of us were exhausted, but we all felt good about a job well done. I believe

that not only the sighted public but we ourselves took away something important

from this show. For one thing we were the first group of the disabled to exhibit

at this show. In addition, we proved to ourselves that, no matter what the size,

any of our chapters can stage events such as this when chapter members work

together to see the task through.

Some of us also took away something deep

and personal individually. I for one did. Helping to put this event together

for our chapter led me once more to confirm something about myself. I thrive

on challenge, and when challenging situations are absent from my life or when

the outcome is unsuccessful, I tend to turn in on myself. When I was a child

being educated at several residential schools for the blind, students were never

challenged to reach beyond themselves in any way. Experiences like the Internet

Odyssey remind me how much healthier it is to reach beyond and to experience

success. I thank God that today's blind children and their parents have the

National Federation of the Blind to encourage them to stretch and grow.

Since the show a number of things have

happened as a direct result of our participation in this event. For one thing

our chapter now has a World Wide Web site: http://www.txdirect.net/users/sdyer/nfb/

We welcome all you Web surfers to visit us online.

Several of our members are now on the

Internet Odyssey Team, the organization that oversees and organizes the Internet

Odyssey and other events to support this and other Internet-related projects

here in San Antonio. One of these is installing computer networks in local schools

so that the students can have access to the Net for educational purposes.

Our work here in San Antonio has sparked

interest in having a similar show in El Paso. We have already contacted members

of our Greater El Paso Chapter about this proposed event, and they are excited

about participating in a show in their area similar to ours. We would strongly

urge all local chapters and state affiliates to participate in computer shows.

There is a tremendous potential for doing public education of computer professionals

and amateurs through a show such as this. This participation could pay back

big dividends for us in the coming years.

Consider this example. The Internet Multi-media

Academy is an organization that, among other things, teaches school-aged students

how to design and write computer software for educational purposes. We have

requested to be a part of this organization in order to help the kids understand

the necessity for designing their programs so that they are accessible to and

usable by the blind. At a recent planning meeting of the Internet Odyssey team

I heard from a woman who told the group that her son teaches software and web-page

design. As a part of his curriculum his students are now required to design

their projects so that they can be accessed by blind persons. We haven't solved

all of our access problems just by participating in one computer exhibition,

but we have planted the seeds of knowledge and understanding. We are excited

about participating in this year's Internet Odyssey, and we invite everyone

interested to come to this year's show.

It will take place October 12 and 13,

1997, at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas. It is

exciting to know that we have gained some strong allies in our fight to keep

computers and the Internet accessible to the blind. Let's spread the good news

that even in cyberspace we are changing what it means to be blind.