[Nfbv-historic-fredericksburg] Historic Fredericsburg Crier

[rtbyrne at aol.com]

    Welcome to theHistoric Fredericksburg Crier. Sue and I will put the Crier out to updatemembers about meeting minutes, upcoming events, NFB news, chapter news, technology,and websites and blogs that you might find useful. The format is a work inprocess and will likely change a bit in response to reader input. Please let usknow if there are ways to improve that can be incorperated.

FEBRUARY MEETING NOTES – Meeting opened with election ofofficers as follows:  President – Holly Frisch;  Vice President – Brittany Ingram; Secretary –Sue Byrne; Treasurer – Dick Byrne; Board Members – Chris Erman and JessicaReed; State Delegates to state Board of Directors – Brittany Ingram andAlternate – Holly Frisch.

Guest Speaker, Claudia Soper from Mobility Options discusseduse of FRED and forms needed to obtain half-price fare for disabled persons andwaiver to request pickup at home when too far to access regular bus stop.  Also discussed use of Mobility Optionsservices.

Meeting turned over to Brittany for report of areasaddressed at leadership seminar.  Areasincluded online banking  and support ofGovernor’s budget proposal for DBVI. Membership problems brought up.  Holly has lined up a speaker for next meetingto share ideas on increasing membership. A discussion about partnering with other organizations to have themattend our meeting or our attending one of their meetings to discuss membershipand related issues we have in common followed.

Brittany suggested we look into the best, most common way torun chapter meetings efficiently.

She also mentioned the Chapter Facebook page is up andrunning  and a line has been set up andis ready for conference call meetings.

Dick passed out a sheet about available aps and websites forthe BVI community.

UPCOMING EVENTS- March 16th Chapter meeting,April 13th White Cane Walk, National Convention in Las Vegas in July

TECHNOLOGY / BOSE released sunglasses with Bluetooth. The reviewI heard was from Blind Abilities. The reviewer is an iPhone user and VoiceOverworked well and the sound was great. The review did not try other phones. BOSEis never cheap but $200. Is not too bad. I use EarPods and like them but thesemight be less intrusive.

Another FREE piece of technology is BeMyEYES. This is an APPthat allows a blind person to contact a sighted volunteer and by using thecamera on your phone they will assist you when you are alone and need sightedhelp. There are thousands of volunteers who speak many languages and you areconnected to one who speaks yours. There is also special connection to theApple Help desk and/or the Microsoft help desk when you need computer softwarehelp.

I have used the APP when Sue was gone and I needed help witha medication. A very useful APP.

One other FREE APP is Microsoft SEEING AI. It reads shorttext, entire pages, identifies currency, and  more. Very useful.

WEBSITES- BLINDABILITIES.com – A great site. It is fromMinnesota and the State Services for the Blind. It has several sections thatdeal with a myriad of subjects. Some subjects deal with jobs or school or workor technology or just daily life. There is even a series on learning how to useall the accessible features of the iPhone. Most of the info comes as podcasts.If you have an Amazon ECHO device you can enable BlindAbilities and play any ofthe hundreds of podcasts from the most current back to the first when they werejust learning how to do a podcast. They also have an APP that allows you tolisten to the podcasts.

     I am Dick Byrne.My phone number is 804-238-5608. I know a little about technology. I use aWindows computer with ZoomText. I also use an iPhone and iPad and useVoiceOver. If I can help you with a question or problem, feel free to call meand I will try to answer your question or help you find the answer.

 
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