[Blindtlk] McTwit 2.0 released

[Jamal Mazrui]

http://EmpowermentZone.com/mtsetup.exe

McTwit is a powerful, accessible client on Windows for the popular
networking site twitter.com.  As reported widely, Twitter has been key to
the sharing of breaking news by citizens, themselves (e.g., communication
by Iranians about human rights).  McTwit offers nearly comprehensive
access to Twitter capabilities, which are provided, not through a generic
web browser interface, but through a dedicated Windows dialog that is
completely accessible with screen reader programs used by blind people
today.  We can thereby participate fully in a popular communications
medium, and benefit equally from a leading networking technology!

Since the last major announcement about McTwit, it has gained many
improvements from collaborative efforts.  As the author, I am glad to work
with anyone interested in developing an extension that implements
additional features.  Two leading script developers for the most popular
screen readers have developed extensions that are now distributed with
McTwit, as well as available separately.  Jeff Bishop has developed
scripts for Window-Eyes users, available at
https://www.gwmicro.com/Script_Central/Scripts/Script_Details/?scriptid=1244

Brian Hartgen has developed scripts for JAWS users, available at
http://hartgen.org

Recently, the blind community has also produced several audio
presentations about new media, Twitter, and McTwit.  A piece by Erin Edgar
introduces Twitter from a blindness perspective at
http://BlindCoolTech.com

He also appeared on ACB Radio at
http://www2.acbradio.org/mainmenu/shows.php

Michael Lauf podcasted on accessible Twitter tools at
http://serotalk.com/podcasts/TechChat016.mp3

Jonathan Mosen organized a panel on Twitter tools from a JAWS perspective
at
http://www.freedomscientific.com/FSCast/episodes/fscast030-may2009.asp

Rich Cavallaro did an Accessible World training on Twitter at
http://accessibleworld.org/category/site-categories/tek-talk-archives

Mika Pyyhkala made a presentation on new media to blind computer users at
http://www.vibug.org/audio/vbg0609-c.mp3

Feature enhancements in McTwit 2.0 include the following.  Managed tweets
that you bookmark as favorites.  Review a chain of reply tweets.
Temporarily save and then restore a list of items.  Determine whether
someone is following another person on Twitter.  Forward a tweet in an
email message.  Select priority tweets based on criteria you specify.
Exclude junk tweets based on other criteria.  Update your Twitter profile.

Users report that McTwit is working with JAWS, System Access, and
Window-Eyes on both 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows -- including XP,
Vista and Windows 7.  Reports also confirm that McTwit runs on a portable
media device.  McTwit and its script extensions may be conveniently
updated from the software, itself.

The free, friendly, and portable nature of McTwit can play a useful role
at the upcoming conventions of the American Council of the Blind and
National Federation of the Blind.  Let me suggest the "hash tags" #ACBCon
and #NFBCon to help connect conversations about these events!

Jamal
Twitter screen name: JamalMazrui