The following links caught our attention this past month. Plus, we've got a couple of announcements about new services.

Haptic Device Gives Blind a Helping Hand. Promising new technology to help people without sight to navigate.

Improved Accessibility for Google Calendars.

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library at APH.

High-Tech Tools Help Millions With Low Vision Stay Active.

The Economist is now on BARD

The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) has announced the addition of The Economist magazine to its BARD service. Patrons registered with an NLS library may download this and other magazines through the BARD service. If you are a National Library Service patron and not registered for BARD, you may do so at the BARD homepage (http://nlsbard.loc.gov/). You'll need high speed internet access and an email address to use this service.

From NLS: An audio edition of The Economist is now available for download through the Braille and Audio Reading Download system (BARD).

The Economist is made available to NLS patrons by the kind permission of The Economist Newspaper Limited, and contains the full contents of the print edition, recorded by professional broadcasters in London, England. Except for the addition of standard NLS opening announcements, the publication is presented unaltered.

The Economist is part of a pilot project to increase the availability of magazines to patrons. Subscriptions to The Economist will not be offered on cassette, but the magazine will be available on physical media when the magazine program has transitioned to cartridge.

Digital Bibles Available

Digital Bibles available through Aurora Ministries: Audio versions of the New King James Bible in English that play on NLS standard and advanced digital talking-book machines are available from the nonprofit organization Aurora Ministries, also known as Audio Bibles for the Blind. Bibles produced for use on the advanced player are bookmarked by testament, book, and chapter. Send the cartridge through the U.S. mail—via Free Matter for the Blind or Handicapped—to Allen Decker at Aurora Ministries, PO Box 621, Bradenton, FL 34206. Aurora Ministries cannot supply readers with cartridges at this time. The organization also has audio Bibles on cassette, available in more than seventy languages. For more details, call or e-mail Allen Decker at (941) 748-3031 or adecker@auroraministries.org. Information on acquiring blank cartridges is available at www.loc.gov/nls/cartridges/.