Maria Rueters, VIBUG President, called the meeting to order at 1:20 p.m. After introductions, Dennis Brady, VIBUG Clerk, read the minutes of the January 8th VIBUG meeting. The minutes were accepted as read.
Under announcements, the President indicated that the feasibility testing of the Fidelity website for persons with low vision seemed to be successful, and she hoped that something could be developed for those individuals who use screen reading speech software. The fidelity representatives couldn’t make this meeting today due to other commitments.
Microsoft is in the process of testing anti-spy software for its windows operating system. We received information from another computer newsletter read by many adaptive equipment users indicating that the anti-spyware software is currently not accessible. Steve Dresser felt that VIBUG should come up with suggestions for Microsoft on how to make this software accessible. He explained to the membership what “spyware” is and how companies use it to monitor sites you may access, number of keystrokes you use, and the websites you frequently use. They use this information to try and sell you products and services, and it also slows down your computer. Up until now, you had to buy anti-spy software separately from independent vendors. Anyone interested in this project should contact Steve Dresser by phone at 781-944-4044, or by e-mail at s.dresser@verizon.net.
The president said that Joanne Becker, (scheduled meeting speaker), was unable to speak at the meeting due to unexpected business commitments. Joe Lazarro will demonstrate a cd identifier at the March 12th meeting. Since this will be a short presentation, Maria will also demonstrate mp-3 players. At the April meeting, Barry Scheurer will demonstrate some of his products.
Last year, it was decided that we would not hold a meeting in August because traditionally, it had little attendance. The officers had suggested that an informal meeting be held then; Steve and Marcia Dresser offered to host a VIBUG pool party at their house in August. The members were asked to think about this suggestion.
Members were also asked to think about what computer applications they would be interested in learning more about since we are going to resume computer training workshops for members, now that we have our computer. The old VIBUG computer would be given to Cheryl Cummings who would donate it to a nonprofit organization or the President would donate it to a company that would recycle the computer parts.
After a good round of computer questions, there were three demonstrations. Steve Dresser demonstrated some of the features of the new Portico computer purchased by VIBUG. Dennis Brady demonstrated accessible products on the IRS website http://www.irs.gov including how to use the employee withholding calculator. Finally, Jeanette Kutash did a follow-up demonstration on the accessible cell phone put out by Verizon.
The meeting was adjourned at 4:00 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Dennis Brady, VIBUG Clerk.