Minutes of October 2014 VIBUG meeting

Where: MIT, 77 Mass. Ave., Building 5, Room 134, Cambridge, MA
When: October 11, 2014

President Amy Ruell called the meeting to order at 1:00 PM. All present introduced themselves. Officers Bob Resnick, Nora Nagle, and Jerry Berrier were unable to be present and were excused.

In Jerry’s absence, Tim Cumings read the minutes of our September meeting. They were accepted without change.

Amy said David is not here today and will be unable to talk about the commuter rail app referred to in the minutes. She also said he informed her that the app is no longer as accessible as it once was.

Announcements

Amy followed up with the contact at the Cambridge Library given to her by Helen Kobec. It may be difficult for us to reserve space there for training sessions, due to the library’s reluctance to tie up the room for extended periods of time, but Amy is awaiting further information from her contact.

Mikka Pyyhkala presented the nominating committee’s slate of officers for 2015. Election of officers will be held at our November meeting. The committee consists of Mikka, John Smith, Jeffrey Turner, and Amy who served in a non-voting advisory capacity. Before presenting the slate, Mikka said nominations will be accepted from the floor at the November meeting, and he suggested that if you plan to nominate someone, check first to confirm they would accept the nomination.

The slate of nominees is as follows:

Amy reiterated that she will not be running for office, and she asked those who plan to nominate others to let her know so that ballots can be prepared if it seems they will be needed.

Presentations

Following the computer question and answer period, Tom Hlodkowski, Vice-president of Accessibility at Comcast spoke via Skype about progress with their Talking Guide and set-top box.

Amy described and demonstrated some new features on the Victor Stream.

Marco Trugillo marco.trujillo@ustraap.com described a wristband navigational device called Ustraap. It vibrates to inform the user of nearby obstacles, and it also includes an object locator module.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 PM.

Respectfully,
Jerry Berrier, Secretary