APH staff are working from home due to COVID-19, but are still available to help in any way they can! Outgoing product shipments to schools and government agencies have been halted at this time. Read our blog for current updates and ways you can learn and engage during this time of social distancing.
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January 2020
Jump for Joy – Code Jumper Available for Sale Soon!
The New Year has arrived and ushers in the availability of a new, accessible computer coding and programming tool for students who are blind or visually impaired – Code Jumper!
You may have read about Code Jumper in last month’s APH News, and you may have also already heard some of the hype that’s been building around this educational toy for the past year. To ensure Code Jumper is first available to students who are blind or visually impaired, initial sales will be available only to APH Federal Quota customers. Stay tuned for a separate “for sale” email announcement to EOTs later this month. Code Jumper will be available for sale to APH non-quota customers a little later this year.
New Products
The following new products are available for sale on the APH shopping site:
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These colorful, tactile sheets provide a simple way to create graphs and adapt games and art projects.
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With Hop-a-Dot, students can learn braille while being physically involved and active – an exciting alternative to routine, sedentary tasks.
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Color Raceway is an exciting board game adapted for children who have visual impairments, including those with a CVI diagnosis.
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BrailleBlaster version 1.1.24-beta is now available. Of particular interest is the new embosser support. We are asking users to help us test this and identify embossers not yet directly supported.
In this release:
Embossing work has been completed on the models listed below. If you have any of these embossers, we ask that you please run a few test pages and contact us with the results. We have done internal testing on many of these models, but feedback is always appreciated.
Before testing, please make sure that you configure your embosser to use the correct Model and Manufacturer. To configure your embosser, go to Settings > Embosser Settings, and select “editing your embosser configuration.”
- Juliet Classic
- Juliet 120
- Juliet 60
- Trident
- Phoenix Silver
- Romeo Pro 50
- Index Basic-D
- Everest 3
Additional Feedback
If your embosser is not listed above and you are still having issues, please contact us by emailing support@tech.aph.org so we can get your issue corrected in a future update. Please tell us what embosser you have and what issue you are experiencing.
APH has invested a great deal of resources into the development of BrailleBlaster because we want to make quality braille available to all. Please consider donating to this effort by clicking on the “Donate” link at http://brailleblaster.org.
Winter Wonderland Closeout!
The following APH products have been marked down, and are almost out of inventory. Get them while they last!
- 1-00090-00 Pocket Braille Slate (now $79)
- 1-04112-00 State Maps Collection: Central Region (now $35)
- 1-04113-00 State Maps Collection: Western Region (now $39)
- 5-87400-00 Nemeth Code Reference Sheet for Basic Mathematics: Braille (now $14)
- 7-87500-00 Nemeth Code Reference Sheet for Basic Mathematics: Print (now $5)
- 7-08941-00 What Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments Need to Know about Lighting, Large Print (now $9)
- 8-75980-00 Step-by-Step (now $239)
- D-03460-ED Teacher’s Pet: Digital Download (now $49)
January is Braille Literacy Month!
What better way to celebrate Braille Literacy Month than with a group of friends in a big circle singing a song about braille? Click here and sing along: https://www.aph.org/songs-to-celebrate-braille-literacy/
APH Emails: New Look, Same Great Info!
In an effort to better manage our electronic mailing lists and newsletters, APH is now using Mail Chimp (email platform) to communicate important information to EOTs and other customers. This causes our emails to appear different from previous communications, and has led some customers to believe these are spam. Rest assured, these communications are not spam and continue to provide the information you’ve come to know and trust from APH.
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If you or your colleagues have used TactileDoodle with students who are blind or visually impaired, we’d love to hear from you to ensure your product needs are met. Please consider taking this brief 15-question product feedback survey by clicking on the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TactileDoodle
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Calling on teachers with students who are braille users or who are learning braille and are ages kindergarten through grade 12 to test the Mantis Q40: a 40-cell refreshable braille display and laptop-quality QWERTY keyboard.
The keyboard connects to a host device (i.e., a mobile phone or PC) via USB or Bluetooth. Field evaluators will work with their student(s) to test the device and provide feedback on all its functions, including its simple editor and book reader apps.
Testing will begin in February 2020, and 3 to 4 weeks will be allowed for evaluation. If you are interested in participating in this field test, please fill out this APH Mantis Field Evaluation Application Form.
Braille/Tactile Embosser
APH is looking for TVIs, teachers, transcribers, and tactile graphics designers interested in reviewing a new braille/tactile embosser. Reviewers must be frequent BrailleBlaster users and available to test the embosser and complete a review survey in February. If interested, please complete the interest form by January 15: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QT3JLH2. Due to the limited number of prototype units, we are only able to select a small number of reviewers. If you have any questions, please contact Rachel Bishop (rbishop@aph.org) or Karen Poppe (kpoppe@aph.org).
STEM Corner – Free K-12 Science Competition for Students and Teachers
The Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision STEM competition inspires K-12 students to envision what technology might look like in the future, while researching current science in an engaging, hands-on way. Show the next generation of inventors what they are capable of creating when they put their minds to it. It’s not too late to register your teams! Deadline for submissions is February 10. Find the registration link here.
APH Travel Center
We’ll be at the following upcoming conferences. We hope to see you there!
CES
Las Vegas, NV
Jan 7 – 10
ATIA
Orlando, FL
Jan 29 – Feb 1
CEC
Portland, OR
Feb 4 – Feb 8
