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Visually impaired computer society - Annual General Meeting 2006

Draft Minutes

1 Date, Time and Location

Saturday, May 13th, 2006 at 1 PM

Irish Computer Society HQ, Mount Street Crescent, Dublin 4.

2 Present

3 Apologies

4 Agenda and Minutes

The Chairperson, Mr. Tony Murray, read the Agenda. He welcomed members and noted apologies.

5 Chairperson's report

Tony listed several VICS successes during the year. These included:

Tony said that a Training Day for new VICS members planned for April has been postponed, but not cancelled.

Tony thanked the outgoing committee.

Tony stressed the importance of Design for All and hoped it would be a focus for the next year.

6 Minutes of 2005 AGM

The draft Minutes were proposed by Michael Lavin and seconded by Brian Dalton. They were approved.

7 Treasurer’s Report

Joan said the dates covered by her report are April 1st, 2005 till March 31st, 2006. She detailed the opening balance, incomes and outgoings. The closing balance is €2009.92.

The Financial Report was proposed by Tim Culhane and seconded by Albert Brown. It was approved.

8 Reports from Working Groups

8.1 Lobbying Group

Tim Culhane reported.

The group has been promoting talking ATMs. National Irish Bank introduced one in Baggott Street, Dublin on a trial basis. They have said that this will remain active after the trial is completed. All their new ATMs will have the required hardware and the Bank will decide if the software will be added to them as they are introduced.

The group developed a document promoting the benefits of talking ATMs. This has been sent to financial institutions, the Irish Bankers’ Federation and the Irish Bank Officials’ Association.

The group lobbied Dublin Bus to improve the accessibility of timetabling information on their website. A temporary accessible version is now in place, but an appropriate long-term solution is still required.

The group lobbied Irish Rail to improve the accessibility of their web site. VICS and the National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) are now in discussion with them on the subject.

8.2 Research Group

Brian Dalton reported.

The group uses Skype to communicate. This allows people to talk with each other using their computers instead of telephones.

The group investigated Firefox. This is an alternative to Internet Explorer. They feel that it is better at blocking pop-ups when browsing. However, it still has some way to go to work well with voice software.

The group investigated AVAST. This is free anti-virus software. They feel it is more up to date in terms of the viruses it blocks than AVG which is also free. It was tricky to use at first, but the accessibility has been improved as a result of contacts with the developers by the group.

Next year the group plans to investigate the accessibility of Apple MAC computers and new free voice software called Thunder that can be loaded from a pen drive.

9 Contacts with BCAB

Gerry Ellis reported.

The British Computer Association of the Blind (BCAB) has existed for several years. VICS used to have good relations with them when first set up, but these contacts faded over the years. Tony Murray and Brian Dalton met them when at Sight Village in Birmingham last year and rejuvenated contacts.

The two groups have now agreed to work together in three areas:

10 InfoVICS

Stuart Lawler reported.

Stuart has been the Editor for around a year now.

We have moved InfoVICS from being on cassette tape to CD.

It is also available for download from the VICS web site and will soon be available as a podcast.

He restated the importance of our links with the BCAB.

He thanked Liam Dukes of the Drumcondra project who duplicate and circulate the CDs for us.

11 Motions

A motion was received by Tim Culhane to make one member of the committee the Public Relations Officer. This does not increase the overall number of members of the committee. The motion is detailed in the Agenda for the meeting.

The motion was proposed by Gerry Ellis and Seconded by Tim Culhane. It was passed unanimously.

12 Elections

12.1 Chairperson

Tony Murray was proposed by Brian Dalton and seconded by Michael Lavin.

Elected unopposed.

12.2 Deputy Chairperson

Gerry Ellis was proposed by Ulla Quayle and seconded by Suzanne Dalton.

Tim Culhane was proposed by Philip Doyle and seconded by Albert Brown.

Tim was elected by 10 votes to 7.

12.3 Secretary

Gerry Ellis was proposed by Tony Murray and seconded by Tim Culhane.

Elected unopposed.

12.4 Treasurer

Joan Kearns was proposed by Tony Murray and seconded by Brian Dalton.

Elected unopposed.

12.5 P R O

Brian Dalton was proposed by Noreen Maher and seconded by Albert Brown.

Elected unopposed.

12.6 Ordinary Members

Natasha Miskella was proposed by Tony Murray and seconded by Stuart Lawler.

Paula Dorrington was proposed by Albert Brown and seconded by Michael Lavin.

Robbie Sandberg was proposed by Tim Culhane and seconded by Ulla Quayle.

After a vote, Natasha and Robbie were elected.

13 Any Other Business

Tony thanked several people who helped VICS during the year and to everyone who came along to the AGM.

Tony told the meeting that all VICS members are entitled to a vicsireland.org email address.

Willie FitzGerald said he has a problem sending emails to the VICS email list. Brian Dalton said to contact him to get support with this.

Eamonn O’Connor said that Power City is selling a device that will protect a PC and a telephone line if there is an electrical power surge. Brian Dalton said he would get some information on this and circulate it on the email list.

Tony asked where members would like VICS to concentrate efforts. Albert Brown said he would like to be able to purchase assistive technologies directly from the United States. Stuart Lawler said that the NCBI have been addressing this for some time, but that Freedom Scientific simply refuses to sell their products directly to the public. He mentioned a cheap screen reader call LookOUT from Choice Technologies available at www.screenreader.co.uk

Noreen Maher told the meeting that the Aids and Appliances scheme is over subscribed and people can no longer apply for support under it. Stuart Lawler said that the scheme is now regionalised and funds should be applied for locally. Over 65’s are not eligible to get support but the NCBI are lobbying to have this changed.

Marian Nolan commented that people in work can apply for equipment under certain grants but those who are made redundent cannot. Tim Culhane said that if you get the equipment while working, you keep it if you lose the job.

Marian Nolan congratulated the group on how well the AGM was run.

Noreen Maher asked that VICS concentrate on educating potential employers on how visually impaired people can use technology to work effectively.

Marian Nolan said that getting training is a problem in the West. Gerry Ellis said that the Central Remedial Clinic has employed trainers and it might be worth contacting them to see if any are available in her area. She lives in Galway.

Michael Lavin told the meeting the he is using a Human Resources product from a company called peopleSoft and it is fully accessible.

Eamonn O’Connor said that visually impaired people can receive the PC Live magazine in accessible format. He suggested that we send our White Paper to them.

Eamonn also suggested that we set up links from the VICS web site to various other training resources. Tony will contact him to get the addresses of these resources. Tony also said that we would soon have access to BCAB training resources on their web site and on CD.

Noreen Maher asked if there was any movement on VICS members getting access to cheap broadband via ESAT/BT. We said that we have done what we promised, but we are waiting for them to come back to us.