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January 2000
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January 2000
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Announcements
Blind Radio
For Immediate Release
World Blind Community Linked by Internet Radio
Today, the American Council of the Blind, announced the launch of ACB-Radio, a web-based radio station which will reach any visually-impaired computer-user in the English-speaking world. ACB-radio will be an accessible source for relevant news and entertainment, as well as educational programming, policy analysis, and dissemination of information of particular importance to people who are visually impaired.
Jonathan Mosen of New Zealand who manages the station explains how to find the station on the internet: "just point your browser to www.acb.org and click on ACB on the radio, and you are there!"
Paul Edwards of Miami, ACB President said "This is not just a first for the blindness community, its our place in our time to celebrate who we are!" Radio has always been a boon for blind people. It informs and entertains without the need for video. ACB Radio now offers even a more concentrated programming stream aimed to meet the needs of the blind wherever they may live. ACB Executive Director Charles Crawford of Washington DC, observed, "We now have it within our power to instantly inform ourselves and to build a better world for all blind people."
Although the station is still in its infancy, spokespersons for the American Council of the Blind indicate that ACB-radio expects to carry a variety of programs produced by blind people themselves. "Imagine," says Chris Gray, who brought the initiative to ACB's Board of Directors, "A parent who has sent his child to a residential school for the blind, hundreds of miles from home, being able to hear his or her child, carried live on the net, performing in a show or participating in a debate! The possibilities for bringing people closer together are endless!"
The service expects to grow in popularity and content as more and more blind people log on to the WWW.ACB.org web site and tune in. For now, the internet has already proved its usefulness and as the net grows, so will ACB Radio and the community it serves.
To learn more about ACB-Radio, call the national office of the American Council of the Blind at: 202/467-5081 or between the hours of 2 and 5 PM eastern time, 800/424-8666.
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to listserv@maelstrom.stjohns.edu. In the body of the message, simply type "subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations. VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
More on S*T*A*R*S
High School students' experiments are flown by SPACEHAB, Inc.'s (Nasdaq: SPAB) S*T*A*R*S (TM) Program. The S*T*A*R*S (TM) (Space Technology And Research Students) Program is a commercial education initiative that enables students to fly experiments on Space Shuttle missions.
The S*T*A*R*S (TM) Program is funded by government agencies, corporations, individuals and nonprofit groups that sponsor individual or multiple schools. Sponsors can provide for three levels of student participation: Super Nova, Quasar, and Pulsar. Super Nova schools design and fly experiments, working directly with space scientists and astronauts. Representatives of Super Nova schools may attend the launch of their experiments. SPACEHAB plans to fly S*T*A*R*S (TM) experiments on Space Shuttle mission STS-107, now tentatively set for January 2001. The company also plans to offer a S*T*A*R*S (TM) Program on the International Space Station (ISS) from September through December 2001 and on future Space Shuttle missions.
SPACEHAB, with its Johnson Engineering and Astrotech subsidiaries, is the world's leading provider of commercial payload processing services for manned and unmanned payloads. SPACEHAB is the first company to commercially develop, own and operate habitable modules that provide laboratory facilities and logistics re-supply aboard NASA's Space Shuttles. The company also supports NASA astronaut training at Johnson Space Center, Houston.
For More Information Contact:
Kimberly Campbell
Senior Manager of Marketing
SPACEHAB, Inc.
Phone (281) 853-1031
E-mail: campbell@spacehab.comThey do have a Corporate Office:
D. St., SW Suite 814
Washington, D.C. 20024
Phone: 202-488-3500
Fax: 202-488-3100
Universal Design Project
Leye J. Chrzanowski
Disability News Service
Volunteers Needed for Universal Design Project
Copyright ©1999 The Disability News Service, Inc.The Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University is searching for 60 consumer households from across the country to volunteer to participate in a field-initiated project, Promoting the Practice of Universal Design.
In the first year of the project, researchers developed a set of universal design performance measures based on the Principles of Universal Design. In this, the second year, they are pilot testing the document to evaluate its usefulness and reliability.
Households with and without people with disabilities are needed to accurately assess the usability of the universal design performance measures. Of the 60 households participating in the project, 36 will include at least one individual with an identifiable disability; the other 24 will contain no one with a disability. The Center is looking for diversity in the ages, abilities, geographic location, and socioeconomic status of participants. Researchers are especially interested in recruiting households containing children with disabilities.
Molly Story, the project's principal investigator, hopes to have all project participants recruited and in place by the end of the year.
Anyone interested in participating in the Promoting the Practice of Universal Design project should contact Story, at molly_story@ncsu.edu (e-mail); (800) 933-3308 (voice/TTY); (303) 699-4703 (fax).
Update on Movies
General Cinema Theaters and WGBH present Toy Story 2, The Green Mile and Stuart Little with closed captions for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences featuring the Rear Window Captioning (RWC) system.
Stuart Little will be presented with both closed captions and descriptive narration for blind and visually impaired audiences featuring the DVS Theatrical System.
See list of theaters equipped with the RWC and DVS systems below.
There is no additional fee to use these systems. Simply ask the ticket agent for either a reflector or headset when purchasing your tickets. If you are a first time user, ask for the "How to Use" sheet. Please note, because there are a limited number of both reflectors and headsets available patrons are encouraged to arrive about 30 minutes prior to the start of the film.
We have listed information about which of the equipped General Cinema locations are scheduled to play these films. Check local newspaper movie listings, many of these theaters now add access information in listings. Always call ahead to confirm that the film you want to see is playing in the equipped theater and to confirm showtimes. While the films will debut across the country on the dates listed here, they *may* debut a bit later in the equipped theaters.
Toy Story 2, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, debuted 11/24.
The Green Mile, Warner Bros., debuts 12/10.
Stuart Little, Sony Pictures Entertainment, debuts 12/17.California
General Cinema Sherman Oaks, Cinema 2,
4500 Van Nuys Boulevard, 818 986-3078
(Toy Story 2, The Green Mile, Stuart Little)Georgia
General Cinema Parkway Pointe, Cinema 7,
3101 Cobb Parkway, S.E., Atlanta 770 937-0730
(The Green Mile)Illinois
General Cinema Yorktown, Cinema 7,
Lombard 443 394-0060
Toy Story 2, The Green Mile, Stuart LittleMaryland
General Cinema Owings Mills, Cinema 8,
10100 Mill Run Circle, 443 394-0060
(Toy Story 2)Massachusetts
General Cinema Framingham, Cinema 12,
22 Flutie Pass, 508 875-6151
(Toy Story 2, The Green Mile, Stuart Little)New Jersey
General Cinema Clifton Commons, Cinema 1,
405 Route 3 East, Clifton 973 614-0966
(Toy Story 2, The Green Mile, Stuart Little)Pennsylvania
General Cinema Plymouth Meeting, Cinema 9,
500 Germantown Pike, 610 397-0780
(Toy Story 2, Stuart Little)Washington
General Cinema Pacific Place, Cinema 3,
Seattle, 206 652-8908
(Toy Story 2, The Green Mile, Stuart Little)Wisconsin
General Cinema Mayfair Mall, Cinema 10
Wauwatosa, 414 777-0467
(Toy Story 2, The Green Mile, Stuart Little)Ratings information:
Toy Story 2 - G
The Green Mile - R
Stuart Little - GAll three films were captioned by The Caption Center at WGBH. Stuart Little was described the WGBH's Descriptive Video Service.
The Rear Window Captioning system was made possible by WGBH's Motion Picture Access Project or MoPix, a project of the CPB/WGBH National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM). We are working to make more films available with closed captions and video descriptions in more venues. For more information and answers to frequently asked questions, contact WGBH (see contact info below). We hope you enjoy these films, and we welcome your feedback.
Mary Watkins, Outreach Manager
Media Access at WGBH
125 Western Avenue, Boston, MA 02134
617 300-3400 v
617 300-2489 TTY
ncam@wgbh.org www.wgbh.org/access or www.mopix.org
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