Blind Veterans National
Chapter #1
WEB SITE:
http://www.davbvnc1.com/contents.htm
November/December 2013 Newsletter
Editor: Dennis
O’Connell
"IF I CANNOT
SPEAK GOOD OF MY COMRADE,
I WILL NOT SPEAK
OFFICERS
OF THE BLIND CHAPTER
Commander
Carroll Prosser (SC)
Phone
(843) 997-1981
Email:
heypops43@gmail.com
Senior
Vice Commander James Hogan (CA)
1st
Junior Vice Commander (deceased 12/09/13) Stephen Moffitt (RI)
2nd Junior Vice Commander William
Burgess (FL)
3rd
Vice Commander Rick Calissi (FL)
4th
Junior Vice Commander
Judge
Advocate Dennis O’Connell (NY)
Chaplain Rev. Tony Martino (WI)
Phone 847
736 2111
email: deaconmartino@gmail.com
Adjutant/Treasurer Paul Kaminsky (FL) (also
webmaster)
Phone
904 291-0576
email: pkjax@kaminsky.com
Immediate
Past Commander Richard Bugbee (AZ)
PLEASE,
If you know of any member who is sick or deceased inform one of the officers
whose contact information is listed above ASAPP.
WELCOME ABOARD
Johnnie Hines,
Jose Rodriguez,
R I P
Floyd Britting,
Stephen
Moffitt
MESSAGE FROM THE COMMANDER
To my fellow blind veteran
members and families.
I hope that each of you had a
good Thanksgiving. I am most humbled to serve as your Blind Chapter commander
and appreciate the opportunity to help each of you in any way possible.
I would like to take this
time to wish all of you a wonderful holiday season and hope each of you have a
healthy and happy New Year.
We are looking forward to the
Mid-Winter conference and hoping that some positive action will be forthcoming
from our visits and seminars. Please
continue to contact your representatives and ask them to support veterans
benefits, especially health care.
We look forward to seeing as
many of you as possible at our national convention in August in
If I can assist any of you in
any way please don't hesitate to get in touch.
A LITTLE HISTORY ABOUT NEWER
MEMBER
…and a former BVA employee,
Tom Zampieri
Hi Dennis, When I lived in
I knew two astronauts who
died in the
Anyway all of them are
retired now and space program only mission is the international space station
and we can't get to it without Russians.
A
Message from the VA on Healthcare Law Changes
A message from the Department of Veterans
Affairs regarding the upcoming implementation of the new healthcare law:
"The Department of
Veterans Affairs (VA) is requesting your support to help VA fulfill its mission
to care for Veterans and their family members. Ensuring Veterans receive
quality health care is a fundamental obligation for VA, and VA intends to help
Veterans understand their options as the new health care law is implemented in
the coming months.
Veterans have put their lives on the line
for this country, and deserve to know and understand what this law means and
what choices they have in deciding their health care options. VA has launched
an awareness campaign and a new website, www.va.gov/aca , to let Veterans and
other beneficiaries know what the health care law means for them and their
families.
Veterans and beneficiaries receiving health
care from the Department of Veterans Affairs will see no change in their
benefits or out-of-pocket costs when the requirement to have health care
coverage takes effect next year. VA needs your assistance asking individuals if
they served in the military or are a Veteran and if they and their family
members have health care coverage."
Video Description Goes
Mainstream
by Larry Goldberg
Bloggers and blog readers appreciate good
writing - pithy, to-the-point,
timely. You'll discover some of the best writing anywhere when listening to the
work of a good describer - those masters of language who find just the right
words to fit into the spaces between dialog, describing key visual elements,
and perfectly matching the tone of a movie or TV show. Sometimes only a few
dozen words are used to bring you right into the scene. Here's a sample by one
of WGBH's describers, written for Downton Abbey.
"On a hill blanketed with heather, Nield, Shrimpy and Robert make their
way toward a crest overlooking a few deer grazing. Mountains loom in the
distance and heavy clouds darken the sky. Each stag has tall, branching
antlers. The men duck down and crawl on their bellies while Nield sets a rifle
in place. He motions for Robert to crawl forward and take up the weapon. Robert
does so. The three men huddle together, keeping their heads down, watching and
waiting."
The feel of the setting and tension are captured just so, enhancing the
program for all viewers who choose to select this extra audio channel.
Video description has been available since 1990, when WGBH launched
"Descriptive Video Service" on PBS. For analog TV, the service was
available on the secondary audio program of stereo broadcasts of many PBS
programs, then spread to a few hours on CBS, Turner Classic Movies and other
networks.
Description next became available in movie
theaters, on DVDs and then
digital TV. But the big breakthrough came with the passage of the "21st
Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act" in 2010, which
mandated 50 hours per quarter of described programming on the top four
commercial broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC) and the top five cable
networks (Disney, Nickelodeon, TBS, TNT, and USA). Now shows like The Simpsons,
Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, Glee, NCIS, Law & Order,
and in theaters.
The American Foundation for the
Blind and the American Council of the Blind both provide described TV
listings and more information. There are also several sites that offer DVD and
in-theater movie listings like WGHB's Media Access Group and
Captionfish.
Even with this abundance of accessible
entertainment now available, video description remains relatively unknown to
general audiences and even to many people who are blind or who have low vision.
That's why the recent announcement by Verizon
that their FiOS-TV
video-on-demand service will now make available described movies for rent
or purchase is such a great leap forward. If you have FiOS-TV, right there on
your VOD menu you will find a collection of major motion pictures – with
description - to choose from. The collection will be growing rapidly and you
can access their latest offerings by pressing the VOD button on your FiOS-TV
remote control, then selecting "Descriptive Video" from the movie
option menu; you may have to scroll down.
With this tremendous new offering to ALL of
its customers,
Verizon is helping bring video description to
a much wider world,
"BARD
The BARD Mobile app provides
access to Braille and talking books directly from the NLS Braille and Audio
Reading Download (BARD). BARD contains nearly 50,000 books, magazines, and
music scores in audio and Braille formats, with new selections added daily.
With BARD Mobile, you can
play the audio materials on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. If your device is
connected to a refreshable Braille display through Bluetooth, you can also read
the Braille materials available on BARD.
Before you can use this BARD
Mobile app, you must be registered with a Braille and talking-book library in
the NLS network of cooperating libraries. If you aren't registered but think
you qualify for this service because you cannot read regular print as a result
of a visual or physical disability, locate your local library for the blind and
physically handicapped at http:/Jwww.loc.gov/nls/find.htrnl or call
1-800-NLS-READ to apply for service.
Once you have an account, you
are ready to begin using BARD Mobile.
Download the free app and
sign in with your BARD user name and password. You'll only need to do this the
first time you use the app. The app contains a user manual that you may access
through the Help feature.
Note:
1. The BARD
Mobile user guide is available from the bookshelf in the app, under Help. It is
also available in an HTML version online at:
https://nlsbard.loc.gov/apidocs/BARDMobile.userguide.iOS.current.html
2. BARD Mobile App
for Android is in development and is expected to be out in about 6 months.
If you have any questions
about this new App email Paul Kaminsky: pkjax@kaminsky.com
GOD BLESS AMERICA!