[Ct-nfb] EBay Pilot Program

[Blindhands at aol.com]

EBay and NFB joined together to provide this pilot program.  EBay  provided 
$250,000  to get this program up and running.  They announced  it thru NFB 
lists and places like that asking for people to send in applications  to 
NFB.  We had to provide our back grounds, what and how we would put this  
training to work, if we had any entrepreneurial  experience, etc.  Out  of the 
150 applications they received they chose 16 people to go down to  Baltimore 
for this first Pilot training program.  It was for one week the  end of 
February this year.
 
At this point we are the people that EBay is working with to see what they  
need to do with accessibility  to their website especially in the listing  
of auctions and the areas for selling and reports.  
 
EBay will be present in Florida at Convention to talk with people on their  
plans for this to go forward.
 
You can not get into the pilot program at this point and actually they have 
 pulled people off the pilot program who have not kept up with what they 
want us  to do.  The minimum requirements are to complete 5 auction listings 
per  week, which is not that hard.  There are things that are really easy to  
list and so there is no excuse not to be able to do it.
 
They have offered some prizes to motivate some, like if you had 10 listings 
 by the end of May you got $25 gift certificate from EBay.  
 
My next goal is having listed 100 auctions by June 30th.  It goes back  to 
February when we were at the class.  I have 74 so far and I am working  on 
accomplishing my goal in time.
 
My biggest problem is getting someone to take the pictures of my  items.  
Books and CD, DVDs you don't need pictures. 
 
This is definitely a learning experience.  We have a personal person  from 
EBay that once a week we have about an hour talk with to go over advise  
about listings, help on problems, etc.  Every other week we have a phone  
conversation with the people in the pilot program to trade information back and  
forth.  I have set up a weekly phone conversation with one of the people in  
the program that is a computer trainer from the state of Virginia to help 
people  find out key strokes and stuff like that to help us get around the 
website on  EBay better.
 
I have not heard of when this will be available to more visually impaired  
people, so stay tuned...
 
Joyce  Kane
_www.KraftersKorner.org_ (http://www.krafterskorner.org/) 
Blindhands at AOL.com 
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