Ms. Kathy's Kids Blog

Monday, June 8, 2009

Blind Access Journal: Twitter Quietly Fixes Broken audio Captcha

http://www.kathyskids.org

Ms. Kathy's Kids Blog: http://mskathyskids.blogspot.com/

Twitter Quietly Fixes Broken Audio CAPTCHA

Posted: 06 Jun 2009 04:32 PM PDT

A blind Internet user has reported that Twitter has corrected issues with its audio CAPTCHA during a one-hour Friday evening maintenance window. Blind Access Journal has confirmed the fix.

On August 22, 2007, Twitter implemented the ReCAPTCHA service to protect the site from abuse while granting a level of accessibility to blind and visually impaired people wishing to sign up for the new social networking service. The enhancement was implemented by Twitter in cooperation with members of the connected online blind community. Twitter received praise for this move.

On December 7, 2008, reCAPTCHA began deploying a new audio playback scheme. "Instead of using spoken digits or letters, our new audio CAPTCHA presents entire spoken sentences or phrases that the best speech recognition algorithms failed to recognize," Luis von Ahn, the project's executive producer, said on the reCAPTCHA Blog.

"For now, if you are using our custom theme option, we ask that you update the instructions for the audio CAPTCHA to say something along the lines of 'type what you hear'", von Ahn told web site developers who implemented reCAPTCHA, signifying the possible need to modify their sites in response to this change.

Reports began to surface of blind people locked out of Twitter's account creation process. Investigating, Blind Access Journal opened the urgent support ticket 329388 with Twitter's technical support team on May 28.

"Please resolve this because, as it stands right now, some people are being locked out solely because they're blind / visually impaired," Darrell Shandrow stated as part of the request for assistance.

On June 3, the support ticket was closed and removed with the statement "Twitter is a free service, and while we try to provide as much help as we can, we can't get to every email". A subsequent request for follow up went unanswered.

On Friday, Twitter underwent an evening maintenance window lasting approximately one hour. Shortly after, an update appeared on the Twitter Status site "The maintenance was successful and we are back up!"

Early Saturday morning, Mika Pyyhkala (pyyhkala) reported "the audio captcha for the Twitter sign up process has been fixed and works now!"

Twitter has made no statement regarding the audio CAPTCHA or any other issues that may have been resolved in Friday's maintenance downtime.

"Unfortunately it was a very frustrating issue for a lot of people who couldn't get beyond it," said Larry Gassman (Lgsinger).

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Technology redefining the meaning of 'disabled'

Posted on Thursday, Jun. 04, 2009

Technology redefining the meaning of 'disabled'

By James H. Burnett III

Before last month, Erik Weihenmayer, 40, had never
seen his young daughter.

But through technology once limited to the imagination

of science fiction writers, Weihenmayer, born

sight-impaired, now catches glimpses of people

and things he previously had only been able

to touch or hear.

The technology is called BrainPort, and this

weekend it will be one of several jaw-dropping

devices on display in Miami at the No Barriers

Festival, an international gathering of physically

limited athletes, wounded soldiers, disabled

kids and hopeful parents, and the scientists

and doctors who develop the technology that

lets them match the able-bodied step for step.

CEC SmartBrief article from: mskathy

Ms. Kathy thought you might be interested in checking out an excerpt from CEC SmartBrief.

Designed specifically for special education professionals, CEC SmartBrief is a FREE daily e-mail newsletter. It provides the latest education news and information you need to stay on top of issues that are important to you.

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	Parent: Speech therapist helped son learn to communicate John Gray's son Jackson was born with dyspraxia, but with the help of speech therapist Catherine Kunz, Jackson learned sign language first, then progressed to words and full sentences. He'll start the fall in a mainstream kindergarten. Record (Troy, N.Y.), The (6/3)

CEC SmartBrief article from Ms. Kathy: Prevent restraint with more positive approaches

Mskathy thought you might be interested in checking out an excerpt from CEC SmartBrief. Sign up for your free subscription today.

CEC: Prevent restraint with more positive approaches
Deborah Ziegler, CEC's associate executive director for policy andNational Public Radio (audio player required) (5/21) advocacy, spoke as part of a National Public Radio "Talk of the Nation" discussion on controversial restraint and seclusion techniques. Schools should adopt more positive motivational techniques to prevent such situations from developing, Ziegler says.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

On-Line Tribute

Here is the link to the on-line tribute to my dad, Lloyd G. Nichols. Go to this link and type the last name in the search:
http://www.legacy.com/theadvocate/DeathNotices.asp?Page=TributeGateway

Here is is obit:
http://www.legacy.com/theadvocate/DeathNotices.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=96746295

and the guest book:
http://www.legacy.com/theadvocate/GB/GuestbookView.aspx?PersonId=96746295

Thursday

The school day went better. I stayed behind a bit later Wednesday to get our little half classroom organized with our charts, posters, seating, etc. for the children.

I reread the one child's student information as I recalled one of them was on medicine for behavior purposes and he was the one. His personality was so very different the day before. I'm thinking his folks were in a hurry to get him to school that morning they forgot to give him the medicine. Sure enough, he was far better, even with the change in rooms. He tried so hard.

I changed the "Chips Club" to a positive reinforcement. To be caught being good earns a check by one's name and earning four checks earns a small bag of chips. Actually he is the highest functioning child and understands this the best.

I've been up on paperwork which I usually stay ahead with for the summer program. But in the move on Wednesday, my lesson plans disappeared so will be spending part of this weekend doing them all over again. I will copy the form so i can fill it out in word and save a copy on my computer or on flash drive next time. I showed it to the lead teacher so she knows I had it done. Before we were told to move she'd suggested I give it to her at the end of the day so they would be available to me for the day. Little did we know that we'd all have to move two hours later. I've not seen the papers since. I'm thinking the teacher who moved into the room accidentally threw them away.

After the children boarded the bus Thursday, we had more paper work to fill out for payroll. I stayed a little after school to get the room ready for Monday.

Meanwhile, one of the teacher's unions sent an email announcing that they will take ideas and publish them for a special newsletter. I think I will do that.

Salif Keita

I found another video of Salif Keita on this site called "AfroMix.org." What I admire about him beyond his music is his using his fame to help others. He has a foundation to help those on the continent of Africa who have albinism. There is a need for those with albinism to be educated with eye and skin care because, as you know, brothers and sisters with albinism often have mild to severe vision problems. There are also some societies which either consider people with albinism as second class citizens and mistreat them horribly or there are others who feel their body parts can be used for magic medicine. Still babies in other African societies were killed as they were born because they were considered to be a curse on the family.The focus of Salif Keita's foundation is to allay these fears through education and assistance.