Date of Meeting: August 12, 2000
The meeting was called to order at 1:00 PM by President Amy Ruell. The
minutes were read and approved without corrections.
Amy announced that John Mattioli is doing segments about using Quicken which are being featured on Acb Radio's Main Menu Program. She also told all present that there was now an email list for using this program. To subscribe, send a blank message to:
Quicken-for-the-blind-subscribe@egroups.com
Amy announced that during the September 11:00 A.M. class she would be discussing tips and tricks for using Internet Explorer with Jaws. She will discuss configuration options, and told people we would be spending time looking at websites that people had been having difficulty accessing.
Amy announced that Marty McCullar from Seti-Searchwould definitely be coming to our September meeting to discuss this search engine.
We were informed that Al Sten-Clanton will be conducting a class in October on creating JFW scripts. At 1:00 P.M., we will convene our Annual Meeting and will hold elections for all VIBUG offices. Attendees were reminded that only FY2000 members would be allowed to vote
Once again Amy encouraged anyone who was interested in serving as an officer to contact the nominating committee. She stated that they will be announcing their recommended slate of officers in September. Committee members are: Ginny, Rhonda, Stosh, and Fred.
Following organization business and reports, Jerry Barrier will demonstrate the use of Excel with JFW.
Amy thanked people for providing her with changes in their email address, stating that she was not receiving nearly as many bounced messages from the VIBUG list, and this has saved her a great deal of time and is greatly appreciated.
Amy stated that the second beta of Jaws was ready for testing. She said that those with current SMA agreements could download it. She also announced that GW Micro was testing Window-eyes beta 3.
Amy told all present that she had sent letters to all children between ages 10 and 16 in MCB Regions three through six. She did say that she had gotten some responses, and some people were interested in learning about accessible games on the market. She stated that she had created a document about accessible games and vendors from which they can be obtained. this will be sent as an attachment to an Email under the name games.doc. She also offered to give people who did not have Email this document on disk upon request after the meeting.
Jeanette told people that as of this month's meeting minutes all URLs listed in the minutes are set up so that by clicking on them the sites referenced will be opened. She further explained that there is a link at the bottom of the minutes which will return you to the top of the VIBUG Minutes List. Also, she stated that some people had asked her about the possibility of running another beginner's Word Class. She indicated that people interested in this should contact her or Amy so that the level of interest could be ascertained.
Amy stated that there were many chat sites available including:
and
She suggested that it might be interesting to spend some time demonstrating some of these programs as well as some of the free phone programs and instant messenger programs which allow the user to make free phone calls if our slow dial-up connection was not prohibitive.
Amy announced that GWMicro and AOL have been working together to make AOL's 6.0 version of their project more accessible and in response to questioning told people that NFB has dropped their suit but reserve the right to reopen the case within a year if AOL HAS NOT made their services accessible.
In our question and answer segment we discussed the problem of always hearing cursor announcements when Jaws is set to "blinking" or "all". We suggested refreshing the screen, or restarting the computer. We also talked some about whether dos files can be "unzipped" if your only "zip" file is Winzip. Don explained that Winzip could be used because the extension ".zip" is not specific to dos, is a type of file like ARG, and the program will know how to handle it. We talked about the fact that the message "out of print range" can often mean that the inputting error was in typing the page range to be printed, and suggested that that field be edited, and printing should then work correctly. One member was told to contact Jeff Turner regarding assistance with Outlook Express. People were also told that Bob Gildea was the coordinator of "Dial help". Finally, we also briefly discussed the concept of "text out delay."
Ginny Alverson introduced us to KChess Elite, an accessible chess game, and Amy Ruell demonstrated several of the games in Betts's eight-pack, including memory, battleship, and a word scramble. She also talked some about the game from Babisoft, Grizzly Gulch. Following this demonstration, the meeting was adjourned at 4:05 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jeanette Kutash
VIBUG Clerk