[nabs-l] blind people in Baltimore

Thu Jan 6 03:41:44 UTC 2011

Josh,

I have done some checking, and Microsoft Project is apparently not very accessible.  However, there may have been 
some changes in the latest version that might make parts of it more accessible.  This might be a good question for the 
Blind Programmers list.  Given your field of study, that would probably be a good resource for you in general.  You can 
subscribe by sending a note with "subscribe" without the quotes in the subject to

program-l-request at freelists.org

I would also suggest that you may not necessarily want to look for other alternatives to use in your classes.  There is 
something to be said for learning software like this even if you need to work with a reader.  First, it allows you to 
concentrate on the software and not the accessibility which can be important because there are some concepts 
about project tracking that you will likely learn.  Second, it is likely you won't start out with a heavy involvement in 
project management, but it is good to know how your supervisor is tracking your work.  Third, there is at least some 
chance that MS Project will be more accessible in two or three years when you are in the job market.  Fourth, I have 
found it can be useful to know software that you can't use well.  In my job, I had to learn a couple of different report 
generators that I could not use.  The reason this was important is that I had to decide which report generator best fit a 
given task as part of my job, but it was someone else's job to actually create the reports based upon the information I 
gave them.  As I have tried to point out to you on the JOBS list, not everything on the job will be as accessible as you 
would like, and you have to know how to deal with getting information using multiple tools.  Some of this would be 
easier to work around if you were not taking your course through an on-line institution, but it is still workable.  Still, we 
need to push Microsoft and the screen reader developers to work on this as MS Project can be very important when 
one gets into management.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Wed, 5 Jan 2011 15:21:23 -0500, Ashley  Bramlett wrote:

>Hi,
>That's right. This is a student's list and most students use typical 
>Microsoft office products such as Word, powerpoint and excell.  So lack of 
>responses just means no one knows or your message was overlooked; people get 
>lots of messages a day and you may get a hundred if you're subscribed to 
>multiple lists.

>I'd also suggest calling the maker of the product to ask about 
>accessibility; if you belong to a NFB chapter ask there too.  People can be 
>real resourceful.
>Someone at NFB headquarters may know; maybe Curtis Chong.
>Good luck.
>Ashley
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "David Andrews" <dandrews at visi.com>
>To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
><nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, January 05, 2011 2:57 PM
>Subject: Re: [nabs-l] blind people in Baltimore

>> Josh:
>>
>> Just because you don't get a response here -- it doesn't mean that MS 
>> Project is accessible, or that it isn't.  People here may not know.
>>
>> I could be wrong -- but I believe I am remembering that it is at least 
>> partially accessible. I would suggest asking on the NFBCS list,
>>
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbcs_nfbnet.org
>>
>> as people there are more likely to have used it.  Other possible lists 
>> where people might know include, gui-talk, trainer-talk, and/or 
>> promotion-technology.
>>
>> Other lists on other servers might include one aimed at blind programmers, 
>> as they may well have used the program.
>>
>> Dave
>>
>> At 01:18 PM 1/5/2011, you wrote:
>>>Hi
>>>
>>>I hope that after I get my degree that I will be able to get a job more 
>>>easily. I'm working on my bachelors in information technology right now. I 
>>>wrote to the nabs-l list about ms-project. nobody responded so I guess its 
>>>really not that accessible so I'm going to have to work with the college, 
>>>capella university online to come up with another way for me to take this 
>>>class or these two classes. I also want to move to baltimore because they 
>>>have an aquarium with dolphins there. I've been interested in dolphins 
>>>since I was little. And I'd like to volunteer there someday soon. Actually 
>>>my son is three years old now but when he turns 18 I want to propose to 
>>>him the idea maybe starting our own aquarium. most aquariums have the 
>>>standard bottlenose dolphin species. but there are other smaller species 
>>>out there that don't get nearly as much attention so perhaps midway in my 
>>>IT career I could find out what it takes to have an aquarium and make it 
>>>profitable by having the less common and smaller more safe and sociable 
>>>dolphin species rather than the common larger species which for some 
>>>reason most aquariums have. Now I have no experience whatsoever working 
>>>with dolphins, but information technology, computers, foreign languages 
>>>and dolphins are my primary interests. I would like to have a pet dolphin 
>>>someday. But you can't have them as pets. So the only legal way for me to 
>>>have pet dolphins would be if I owned my own aquarium someday and had all 
>>>the licenses and stuff. I may need sighted help, at least some. so that's 
>>>where my son and any other kids I may have would come in if they're 
>>>interested when they're older. My wife is blind too. Living in baltimore 
>>>would let her go to bism for 8 months while still being with her family. I 
>>>went out to colorado and missed 8 or so months of my son's life. My wife 
>>>really needs to go to a good quality training program at some point but 
>>>before she does I want to arrange it so she is close and we're in the same 
>>>state same city if possible.
>>>
>>>Josh
>>
>>
>>
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