Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad
I recently rode the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. I always heard it was wheelchair accessible, but I never gave it a try . I was very surprised how accessible the train was for wheelchairs. The train has one car that is accessible and it has two wheelchair lifts so that you can exit on either side of the train depending on what side the station is located. The seats can fold up to make space for wheelchairs. In order to ride the train in a wheelchair you will need to make reservations with the railroad. We went on the scenic limited trip which is a 1 and 3/4 hour trip that goes through the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. You get off from where you started.
Good microphone for speech recognition
Are you looking for a good microphone for speech recognition I would recommend the
Plantronics DSP-400.
Free on-screen keyboard
Many people have trouble using a keyboard or cannot use a keyboard at all. So one way to type is to use a on-screen keyboard. Windows includes an on-screen keyboard but lacks many features. In my search for a better on-screen keyboard I found one called Click-N-Type.
It adds more features than the one that is included with Windows. Some of the features are word completion, macros, auto click, keyboard customization, and many other features. If you want to see a full list of all the features please go to this webpage. The best part is that it is free. Many other on-screen keyboards with the same features costs hundreds of dollars. Why spend all this money when you can find a great free on-screen keyboard like Click-N-Type.
Voice-recognition with Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9.
I have tried using voice recognition in the past. it never seem to work quite right for me, I had tried using NaturallySpeaking in the past. I was at target today and I saw the new version. It was only $39, so I decided to give it a try.I installed the new version for Microsoft Windows Vista. I was surprised how well it worked with very little training. It claims to require no training.It worked so much better than any past version that I have used. Nuance claims that the Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9 speech engine is up to 20% more accurate than version 8. I think they might be correct.
Simple Hands-free Camera Remote Hack
Simple Hands-free Camera Remote Hack
You need to have a canon rebel XT for this to work. I needed to make a custom remote for my new camera. I wanted to use buttons that were easier to push. The Canon RS60-E3 Remote has two functions focus and shutter (but you don’t really need both for most shots). When you press the shutter, the camera focuses first anyway. The remote uses a 2.5-mm stereo jack.
We had an adaptive switch that I was also using to answer my phone (it is plugged into a wireless phone transmitter when not used for my camera - more on the phone project later.
We tried to use a splitter to separate the two functions but were unable to achieve that. We only really cared about the shutter so the other function may or may not be necessary, depending on what you want to do. If you really want to use both functions with your remote, you should see this article for example.
Hooking it all up
Basically, we had a 3.5-mm mono jack on the end of our switch. We didn’t want to cut the end off of our switch so instead we cut the end off of a random audio female cable we had laying around and used that as our 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter. So, basically, we built an adapter because we didn’t feel like going to radio shack. If we didn’t care about the switch, we would have just wired the switch to the one side (seemed like either channel worked the same) of the mini 2.5 mm stereo audio jack (the small size like the cellphone jack size).
Parts need
- 1 Cable with 2.5 mm audio jack
- 1 Y-adapter that will fit your switch.
- 1 Adaptive switch - example TASH (or any switch with an audio style jack end (or else put one on and switch).
Resources
Where to get a switch:
Enabling Devices
TASH - Switchs
Adaptivation
Remote help:
MAKE - Make your own remote
Canon RS60-E3 Remote Pin-Out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_plug
New Van
I am so excited I just got a new Van. We had a 10 year old Ford Full-size Econoline Van with a Crow River Lift. It was getting old, and was also getting hard for me to get on the lift. So getting a mini-van with a ramp made more sense and seemed to be more space, I tired many different side-entrance ramped vans, they were all too small for my wheelchair. So we tired a rear-entry van, and we liked it.
The new van is a Town and Country Touring, with a rear entrance lowered-floor ramp which was done by Viewpoint Mobility. In the old van the wheelchair had to be strapped in, which was hard and time consuming. The new van has the EZ-Lock System which a plate attached to the floor and a pin is attached to the wheelchair. All you do you is drive your chair over the plate and the pin locks the chair in automatically, no more straps. Making life a little easier. If anyone else has a rear-entry or any other type of van, please tell us how you like it.
Recent Comments