It's not the stations that cause the problem it's accessing them with the player. I guess if you've book marked them in Winamp you've solved the problem. This may work for others.
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of DJ DOCTOR P Sent: Monday, June 09, 2008 12:14 PM To: PC Audio Discussion List Subject: Re: Accessibility Evangelism and Unfortunate News From AmericaOnline(AOL) Radio Hello fellow list members, I am writing this post to you, because this is something that I thought you'd like to know. I have quite a fiew of AOL-XM satellite radio stations bookmarked in Winamp. I know the cut off date is suppose to be today, but all of the radio stations still play for me in Winamp. So at this point, I am wondering if the CBS player will have any affect on these AOL-XM streams at all? My best regards. John. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Darrell Shandrow" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "PC Audio Discussion List" <pc-audio@pc-audio.org>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "NFBnet GUI Talk Mailing List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Wlodkowski, Thomas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 8:20 PM Subject: Accessibility Evangelism and Unfortunate News From America Online(AOL) Radio > Hello Everyone, > > As an accessibility evangelist, of course, I disagree with any and all > those who frequently make statements emphasizing our "smallness" and > insignificance in the world at large as a means to justify doing > little or nothing about accessibility challenges. Yes. We are very > tiny in number in comparison with the rest of the population who is > not blind, but that really has nothing to do with how well we can make > our voices heard in order to achieve positive changes for the better. > One possible metaphore might be to compare us with those who profess > their faith in the Jewish religion here in the United States, which is > an incredibly small minority in number as compared with catholics and > evangelical Christians. Despite their small numbers, the Jewish seem > to experience little or no difficulty making their needs known and > they tend to enjoy great success and wealth in all walks of life. > > I'd like to see something similar happen for those of us who are blind. > We > can't look to others to make this happen, but only to ourselves. It > must start with us! We must decide that we are valuable human beings > deserving of our human rights, of the accessibility and equal > treatment with our sighted peers we must enjoy in order to be able to > fully participate in society on a par with the sighted. Though it > starts with us, a technological world dictates that we have equal > access to information in the information and knowledge age. > Accessibility must ultimately be available if we are to actively and > productively participate in such critical areas of life as education, > employment and leisure. > > We must achieve equality of opportunity through making our own > accessibility solutions where practical and advocating for reasonable > accomodations when accessibility is required in order for us to > participate. The issues boil down to one of these two needs in all > cases. There is no third option of taking the path of least > resistance; not if we want to count ourselves as fully living and > breathing human beings and citizens, possessing the same inalienable > rights and responsibilities already enjoyed by the sighted. > > One excellent example of a project where we are making our own > accessibility is Benetech's Bookshare project available at > http://www.bookshare.org. > Blind people and others with print reading disabilities subscribe to a > web based service where they may download and read from a selection of > tens of thousands of books available in an accessible, electronic > format for use on their computers and portable assistive technology. > This is all made possible by a team of blind and sighted volunteers > who scan books into electronic format and validators who correct > scanning errors and reformat the books for final entry into the > collection. > > Another example of making our own accessibility is the existence of > the blindness access technology industry. We spend tens of thousands > of dollars on screen readers, Braille displays, scanners with optical > character recognition software, specialized personal digital > assistants (PDAs) and a myriad of other high and low technology items > on which we have grown to depend in order to adapt ourselves to the > world. In many cases, government agencies purchase some or all of > this technology under specific circumstances, but this is, by no > means, guaranteed. > > Despite our own efforts, there often remains a wide gap between that > which we are able to make accessible on our own and that technology > which we must use in the classroom, on the job, etc. When we are not > able to close these gaps through our own efforts and assistive > technology, reasonable accomodations on the part of the developer of > that technology are required if we are to be permitted full and equal > participation. Failures to reasonably accomodate our needs often > result in the curtailment of educational opportunities and even the > needless loss of jobs! > > As a blind community, we can take actions such as the following to > improve our accessibility to the world of technology around us: > * Understand that we need equal accessibility in order to participate > in society on a par with our sighted peers. > * Believe and live the concept that accessibility through reasonable > accomodations is a human right and the right thing to do in all cases. > * Check with other individuals and organizations in the blind > community to see if the technology has already been made accessible. > * Write letters to technology developers asking that they reasonably > accomodate our need for accessibility. > * When available, provide suggestions and technical consulting > necessary to improve accessibility. > * Work to have existing legislation covering accessibility enforced > more consistently and frequently. > * Encourage the passage of new legislation to clarify our needs and > mandate increased accessibility in areas not already covered. > > Achieving equal participation in the knowledge age is currently a hard > fought struggle, where we often seem to take a step forward followed > by one or two steps backward. The latest case with AOL Radio > represents a good example. While imperfect, blind people relying on > screen readers have enjoyed access to the company's many radio > offerings. We are talking about listening to the radio, which should > most certainly represent an activity that ought to be inherently > accessible to the blind. > > We have now learned that, as of Monday, June 9, 2008, AOL and CBS are > going to take away from the blind the ability to listen to their > Internet radio streams through the implementation of a player that is > known to be inaccessible to screen reading software. Many blind > people have been enjoying this content for several years. Simply > yanking it out of our hands is a thoughtless act at best. The > director of AOL's accessibility team has informed us that the > inaccessibility of the new player results from technology used by CBS > and tells us that solutions are being investigated for implementation > sometime in the undetermined future. We believe this answer is not > quite sufficient and that temporary alternative listening options > should be made available to the blind until such time as the > accessibility problems with the embedded web based player have been > solved. > If you agree that AOL Radio should continue to allow blind and > visually impaired people to listen to their Internet radio channels, > we urge all of you, including those sighted people who care about what > happens to us, to send a note to [EMAIL PROTECTED] asking that > they continue working to restore accessibility to the AOL Radio player > and, in the meantime, make direct links available to the blind for > listening on other devices and media player software. We also ask you > to visit CBS at http://www.cbsradio.com/contact/streaming.html, select > your radio station of interest and request the implementation of a > more accessible player to accomodate the accessibility needs of blind > and visually impaired listeners. > > As a community, it is both our collective and individual > responsibilities to evangelize accessibility. Simply leaving the work > to others is not going to be effective, especially given our small > numbers. This AOL Radio issue is just one small one among many much > more significant challenges. All the same, let us all take this > moment to remind ourselves that we can and must make a difference! > Now, everyone, let's all go forth and make our voices heard often and > loudly! > > > > Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... > http://www.pc-audio.org > > To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
