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Record of proceedings of the Annual General Meeting Saturday, May 15, 2004

Held at 1:30 PM in the Irish Computer Society, Mount Street Crescent, Dublin 2

Agenda

ADDRESS OF WELCOME AND APOLOGIES

The Chairman, Michael Lavin, invited Tony McGinty of Kompass Ireland to officially open the meeting. Michael explained that Compass Ireland, in collaboration with Bert Brown, had just produced an entirely accessible telephone directory, which was being made available free of charge to all VICS members. After a brief statement from Tony the meeting was declared open.

Apologies were received from: Eamonn O'Connor, Anne Greene, Brian Dalton, Michael Brown, Tom Langan and Bob Murphy.

MINUTES OF LAST YEAR'S AGM AND MATTERS ARISING

The minutes of the 2003 Annual General Meeting were adopted.

CHAIRMAN'S REPORT

VICS Committee:

The Committee had met on a regular basis mostly at the Royal Dublin Hotel in O'Connell Street. Arising from last year's AGM, the following working groups were established: Lobbying, Constitution review, electronic school books and web standards. Noel Redmond was co-opted to the Committee to represent the Expert Group. The Chairman wished to thank all those who had worked so diligently on the various working groups throughout the year.

Year of the Disabled:

Having consulted with the members through the mailing list, the Committee had decided to adopt an initiative to have educational material for visually impaired students made available in electronic format, either on CD-ROM or via the internet. The Committee established a working group, headed up by Gus Dorrington to undertake this task.

Mailing list:

The mailing list continues to provide a useful service, with numbers reaching what appear to be their optimum level. Because of technical difficulties with Yahoo.com, the mailing list provider, it was decided to change to Smartgroups.com. Michael wished to Thank Paul Traynor for his research in this area.

Training:

Gus and Paula Dorrington continued to provide training at Colaiste Oide in Finglas, with ten students doing ECDL and nearly as many more taking the pre-ECDL course run by Paula. Paula and Gus also were involved in advising on accessibility issues in relation to the new ECDL syllabus 4, as part of VICS involvement in the ACE Project.

Technology exhibitions:

Tony Murray had attended the Sight Village technology display in Bermingham, in mid July and produced a number of very valuable reports, which were published on our website. In March 2004, three members of the Committee along with some other VICS members, attended the CSUN Conference in Northridge, Los Angeles. This proved very worthwhile and lots of useful contacts were made. The group had returned with much valuable information and interviews for Infovics.

Website:

The VICS web site, which had been completely rebuilt by Tony Murray with some help from Paul Traynor, had moved to its new address at: www.vics-ireland.org. Michael expressed gratitude to the Irish Computer Society who had funded the provision of this domain for the next three years.

Lobby Working Group:

This Group was headed up by Tim Culhane. The Group had selected a number of areas for their attention including accessible ATMs and mobile phones but in the nature of things, progress was slow. However, Michael was very happy to report the production of a totally-accessible talking telephone directory. After so many years of fruitless investigation by VICS, he said, Tony McGinty of Kompass has delivered the goods. And not only that, he has kindly provided a copy to each member of VICS.

Web site testing:

Since VICS regularly receives a number of requests for this service and as the committee is concerned that any work done in the name of VICS should be up to standard, a web testing standards group was set up with Tony Murray as co-ordinator. VICS, in conjunction with the NCBI, are working on establishing a form of web site quality mark which companies and government bodies will have to earn on an ongoing basis.

VICS Open Days:

On Saturday 18th October 2003 VICS through the kind auspices of Tom Langan organised an Open Day in the Corrib Suite, University College, Galway. Attendees from as far away as Clare, Mayo and Leitrim attended not to mention a good representation from Dublin. Demonstrations of accessing the Irish Times, the Telephone directory produced by Compass and online banking proved very successful. Stuart Lawler kindly demonstrated the Nokia Communicator as part of the event.

While we experienced some technical difficulties due mainly to networking problems, everyone agreed that the venture was very worthwhile. We learned a number of lessons not least of which was the idea of having laptops with all assistive software already loaded on them which would overcome problems of installation on the host PCs. A lively discussion ensued in the afternoon with very good opportunities for the interchange of ideas.

Noel Redmond organised a workshop in the HQ of the National League of the Blind to demonstrate the use of the Linux operating system. All who attended were impressed and have requested further workshops on this topic.

A proposal for an Open Day in Limerick did not come to fruition despite the best efforts of both Noreen Meagher and Mike Meaney.

ACE Project:

Michael reported having attended meetings of the ACE Project during the year. A very accessible website had been developed for the participants who are currently carrying out a pilot of both the ECDL and E-Business. The aim of this project is to make e-learning possible over the internet to any blind or visually-impaired person living in a rural setting, thus obviating the need to attend training centres.

VICS And The ICS:

VICS worked closely with Frank Cronin of the Irish Computer Society during the year. He said that VICS could use the ICS conference centre and public relations facilities in the new combined ICS/ECDL premises in Mount Street. He had put out a call to the business community for used PCs which could be given to our members who needed such equipment. Unfortunately this didn't yield much success. Frank himself has left the ICS and his successor Jim Friars is anxious to continue the relationship with VICS.

Constitution Review:

Philip Doyle has been working during the year reviewing the new constitution in order to improve the content and remove any anomalies. He hopes to bring a number of amendments to the AGM.

Expert Group:

The Expert Group, which had ten members, is now in need of re-organisation. Noel Redmond organised a meeting of the group in Dublin during the year in order to tie up some loose ends. The incoming committee has been charged with the re-organisation of this group.

Conclusion:

The Chairman felt that VICS should continue the practice of engaging the help of sighted individuals of a similar interest who would assist the Committee in expanding the role of VICS.

He felt we should also continue the practice of devolving more responsibility to the membership. In the long term, VICS will have to look to its funding if it is to be in a position to take on major projects.

Thanks:

Finally, the Chairman proposed an official vote of thanks to the following:

TREASURER'S REPORT

Paul Spain from Colaiste Oide read the financial statement on behalf of the Treasurer, Paula Dorrington, which showed a balance of E1673.12, an increase of over E500 on last year. The Treasurer's report was approved.

AMENDMENTS TO THE VICS CONSTITUTION

Philip Doyle explained that a number of amendments had been drafted. Some of these were minor but a number of others were more important. He proposed taking the amendments individually. The text on this occasion was read by Paul Lynch.

The main discussion surrounded the proposed introduction of Associate Membership, which some felt should also be open to visually impaired people. There was also a long discussion about the proposed introduction of subscription fees for Associate members and a new category of Life Membership. All the amendments were passed without alteration by the required two-thirds majority.

MATTERS ARISING FROM NOTICE OF MOTION

It was agreed to set an annual subscription of E10 for Associate Members and a Life Membership fee of ten times the full annual subscription. These were agreed after prolonged consideration of a variety of permutations and suggestions of the amounts to be paid.

ELECTION OF VICS COMMITTEE

The Chairman explained that under the constitution there would be an election for: Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer and up to five Committee members. The following were elected:

OPEN FORUM

The Chairman asked the Leaders of some of the Working Groups to speak briefly about there area of responsibility:

Gus Dorrington of the Electronic Schoolbook Working Group said he had formed a committee comprising: Lina Kouzi of the NCBI and Rosie Bisset of the Dyslexic Association. Representatives from St. Joseph's and Feach were also invited but did not attend the meetings. The main problem was the difficulty of agreeing a format with which to approach the publishers. For example, VICS wanted to adopt Daisy while the NCBI preferred DVD Audio. As a result of the lack of agreement, the VICS Committee decided to approach the publishers independently and to recommend Daisy which is internationally recognised as the best format available.

Tim Culhane spoke for the Lobby Group And said the work could be divided into three general areas. to lobby the banks for accessible ATM machines - this work had gone extremely slowly but recently the Group had obtained information from the Bank of America who have instituted a similar service in the US and we are hoping to get the Irish banks to adopt the same system. The second area was to explore the speech to text service provided by eircom. The drawback is that it can only be used on a landline and we are wondering if it can be extended to mobile operators. The final campaign was for electronic voting to allow visually impaired people to become fully enfranchised. Tim had made a submission to the forum for People with Disabilities. The Forum used the submission along with those of other disability bodies as part of their presentation to the Commission on Electronic Voting. Unfortunately however, our concerns have been brushed aside due to time and cost factors. We now know that electronic voting won't go ahead in the June elections for other reasons. Finally, Tim recognised the fine work done by Bert Brown in helping to bring about a fully accessible telephone directory on CD-ROM.

Tony Murray said that the Web Standards Group was now working very closely with the NCBI who had similar plans with regard to website testing. The NCBI would supply the organisation, training and technology, which includes a mobile unit. VICS would provide the testers and so far about ten VICS members had expressed an interest in this work.

Noel Redmond said that he had difficulty arranging meetings of the Expert Group and that, to some extent, it had been superseded by the mailing list. As a result, it had been reconstituted as a Research Group. The Research Group's function would be to evaluate new or developing hardware or software, E.G. Operating Systems, Microsoft Suites, screen reading/magnification applications etc.

Dr. Bryn Holmes explained that ACE stood for Accessible Communities for E-Business. ACE was designed to provide an environment for an e-community, with e-business, e-learning, including ECDL. Stuart Lawler said that ACE was running a pilot programme since November. ACE had done some very exciting things, including a live link-up with Ed harper off the West coast of Cork, as he was unable to come and meet the rest of the group. ACE was also looking for people to join the E-Community on the ACE website.

Paula Dorrington spoke about the courses which take place on Saturdays from 10 to 3.30 in Colaiste Oide. The basic course begins by showing how to turn the computer on. Then advanced to email, printing, Kurzweil, using the Phone Pages and installing software. The advanced course Is the ECDL. The courses are cost free except for the ECDL licence and payment for those who correct the exams.

Philip Doyle said that as a result of a virus on Yahoo and some dubious emails the mailing list would be moved to Smartgroups on 1 June. Paul Traynor, who had researched Smartgroups, would be moving everyone over.

The meeting heard a note read from Eamonn O'Connor who was unable to be present in person. There had been three editions of Infovics during the year and another had been delayed due to conversion problems but would be issued later. He said a dozen members availed of the Windows Basics Tutorial tapes offered by the Access Technology Institute in association with ACB Radio main menu.

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Cearbhall O'Meadhra wondered if we had considered whether the new Education Bill would have an impact on the work of the Electronic Schoolbooks Group. He also said that Michael Gill had been President of European Publishers and wondered if he could be asked to join the Group. Gerry Ellis added that Daisy has an office in Geneva and that he would be able to establish contacts with them for the Group.

Jenny O'Brien proposed the setting up of a group of Braille Lite users under the auspices of VICS. the idea was to allow users to share knowledge and experience and Jenny would be willing to facilitate anyone who wanted to learn the basics.

Gus Dorrington suggested making Tony McGinty of Compass Ireland an honorary member of VICS. This was agreed.

Finally, the Chairman praised the ICS premises in which the meeting and Open Day had just been held and expressed the hope that further activities might be held there in the near future. Bert Brown asked Michael to pass on our compliments to the caterers. The meeting concluded at 4.00 PM.