No Limits to Life Blog

June 27 is Deadline for Submissions and ATBC #4 Goes Up on June 30th.

I am excited that the next edition of the AT Blog Carnival is ready to receive submissions. Our topic for Edition #4 is “Grab Bag”. This means that any topic of interest is open in the realm of AT. I have found submissions take on a sort of theme of their own even though we have tried to make the month’s edition be on a certain area. With the loss of the blog carnival network service because of their lack of doing anything about Captcha, we have gone to using our own blogs to share the new topic and deadline - so, if you wouldn’t mind emailing folks about it or putting a post up on it - or better yet, start a small sidebar block with the latest date and submission info , that would be great. The purpose of it is just to network with others that use, teach, train or design assistive technology. My hope is to see a community of bloggers be able to support each other with ideas, information and new friendships - so join us. I think we have had about 12 or 13 people contribute to this point. I know there are lots more out there!

Send submissions to me at: lonthornburg@nolimits2learning.com

All the best to you!

Lon

T.Reid, of the Reid My Mind blog, sent my a kind email today, recognizing that we have steered away from using the blog carnival service to publicize or receive submissions for our blog carnival on assistive technology. You can read his post on this here.

I really didn’t mean to get in the middle of a heated issue - but ever since I got caught up in the blog carnival captcha it has made me more sensitive to what is going on. I spent a good deal of time this past week working with a boy on getting his Braillenote to get on the Internet. He is blind and was wanting to access his own email and get online to download and upload documents. I helped him set up his gmail account and Google docs and calendar so he can work online anywhere - he goes to the Oregon School for the Blind in the summer and does work experience, etc.

He was thrilled. I was glad I could walk him through it because in some step of a process, there was the captcha again. Tonight I went on several blogs and commented and …there it was again - without a disability access alternative. This isn’t only a speed bump but a brick wall and I recognize that now. From now on, every time I see a captcha required, I think, “There’s another place shutting folks out.”

Will you help us and send an email to the blog carnival service (on my sidebar) or any other site you come across that doesn’t provide an alternative and ask them to do something about it?

Thanks…All the best to you,

Lon

The AT Blog Carnival Theme for May is “Synthesized Speech”.
We are now taking post submissions from blog authors on the topic “Synthesized Speech”. Send in your permalink of a post off your blog that you have already written or one you write especially for this edition. Share a story about using synthesized speech, a site or software review, your list of uses for it, humor, gripes and complaints, etc. Let us hear what you have to say about it! If you know someone that has a blog that could contribute, pass this along to them. Because I am not officially using the Blog Carnival service to invite and receive posts, your help in networking the topic, link and getting it to bloggers is crucial. Help us spread the word and build a great network of shared knowledge.

If you want to know why I have discontinued using the main blog carnival home service for our AT Blog Carnival, read Ron Graham’s post from his AccessAbility Blog on it HERE. Also, if you have an idea you would like to see for a future topic, email it or post a comment telling us. Your ideas will help!
Send the permalink of the post you want to submit to me at lonthornburg@nolimits2learning.com by Friday, May 23. The edition will go live on Monday, May 26.
The Assistive Technology Blog Carnival can be found at http://atblogcarnival.blogspot.com
where you can read past issues and read about this months theme.
I hope we hear from you!
Lon

There have been many of us working to present you with our Assistive Technology Blog Carnival Edition 2. You can read it at the AT Blog Carnival Home: http://atblogcarnival.blogspot.com

Read some great posts about:

• Taking students with multiple disabilities to see Les Miserables
• Assistive Gaming
• A boy with CP writes: “My Trip to Space”
• Yahoo’s (non)response to the issue of Capthca
• Leading students out of “The Mystery Spot”
• An online virtual community tool designed for Autism
• Issues on E textbooks for college students
• Wheelchairs, movement and cognitive development for little ones
• itunes University and podcasting in the classroom
• A trip to Wendy’s without AAC
• and more…

Contributors include myself, Kate Ahern, Ricky Buchanan, Ron Graham, Dr. Barbara Boucher, Robert Martinengo, Jason Voiovich and others.

I hope you enjoy the content. It was a joy to edit and put this content together for you. I was overwhelmed by the incredible personal stories of many of these presenters let alone the content in their writing. It is definitely something to sit down with a good cup of something and spend time reading and enjoying!

The next AT Blog Carnival will be taking submissions until May 23 and will be up May 26. If you would like to contribute, send a post to me at: lonthornburg@nolimits2learning.com Ideas for a theme are welcome too!

Also, I will be hosting Dr. Patricia Sublette, the Oregon TBI Coordinator for education. We will be discussing families and adjustments to TBI, treatment and AT for TBI as well as some of her case stories. It should be interesting and informative. No Limits to Learning Live is on Blog Talk Radio and this segment will be live at 10:30 a.m. this Tuesday, April 29th. Tune in and call in or listen to the archive later at: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nolimits2learninglive

All the best to you!

Lon