SVCB Program Segments

Experts, skip to list!

Welcome to the index page for SVCB's meeting program segments. Through links on this page, you can stream or download presentations that occurred during the program segments at monthly meetings of the Silicon Valley Council of the Blind. Roger Petersen, our Program Committee Chair, will announce each program.

Program segments posted here have been approved by their presenters for online availability. Other segments that have not been approved are available to SVCB members by contacting mkeithley@pobox.com. Feedback is welcomed. Send comments to webmaster@svcb.cc. Thank you.

What is streaming and downloading

Each month in the list below has two links associated with it: "stream" and "download." Both links let you listen to your selected program but in different ways.

When you select "stream," your media player starts; and you hear the program almost immediately. Problem is, you can only listen to it, you can't move forward or backward nor do you have a copy of the program on your computer to listen to later. But if you just want to sit back with your favorite "whatever," selecting "stream" is the right choice. When you need to stop the program, exit you media player (typically with the alt-f4 key combination).

Selecting the download link for a program starts the sequence you use to download a file. After the file is downloaded, you start your media player, open this file and begin listening to your program. The difference is that now you can move backward and forward through the program as well as increase the speech rate (on some players). The downside of the download process is that getting the file to your computer can take some time, perhaps two minutes.

Trouble?

Depending on file associations on your operating system, you may have trouble with the audio links. If nothing happens when you click on the "listen" link, try the "download" link as experiments indicate that this may behave like the "listen" link.

If you can only listen to audio, the audio file can still be downloaded. Here's how:

Do the keystroke to stop the audio. This is control-p in Windows Media Player.
Pull down the file menu:, typically with alt-f.
Select the "save as" function.
The name of the audio file will be highlighted so all you have to do is click the "save" button.
You will be returned to your media player after the file has downloaded to your computer.

Program List

Select stream or download on a month below.

2007 programs

January, 2007:
Kenneth Frasse, Executive Director of the Silicon Valley Lions Blind Center, explains the center's functions and services.
stream or download
February, 2007:
Brian Higgins, who works at the VA hospital in Palo Alto, shares his research into all things robotic to help us get around and his business called Intellisight.
stream or download
March, 2007:
Henty Medrano, President Lupe Medrano's brother, describes how bike-a-thons are organized and we had an interesting brainstorming session.
stream or download
April, 2007:
In the first half of this program, Roger Petersen and Others discuss the spring CCB convention. In the second half, Dawn Wilcox describes the Unite for Sight conference held at Stanford University.
stream or download
May, 2007:
Star Keithley directs our group in a fun-filled time of singing and laughter.
stream or download
June, 2007:
Debee Norling Armstrong, Alternate Media Director at De Anza college tells us about her life and experiences in the access technology field.
stream or download
July, 2007:
Tiffany Medina, is an intern at Benetech, where John works, and he says that she is rather adventuresome, taking part in triathlon and other non-easy activities.
stream or download
September, 2007:
Susan Shelter told us about her career as a blind English teacher at San Jose State and West Valley College.
stream or download
October, 2007:
Our speaker at the October 20 meeting was Beth Berenson from the new Vision Loss Resource Center at the San Francisco LightHouse. She sketches the history of the LightHouse, explains what the Vision Resource Center is and how it can serve us here in Santa Clara County. Some of us already receive the weekly bulletins she sends out with the described movies and other current entertainment items. She was eager to talk to us, and you'll find this an engaging presentation.
stream or download
November, 2007:
We celebrated our 20th anniversary. Cathy Skivers, honorary SVCB member and past-President of CCB, highlighted the meeting; and past SVCB President's described how it was during their watches. Introductions are also included--lots of fun!
stream or download

2008 programs

February, 2008:
Sam Chen, our Legislation Committee Chair, tells us about his adventures at the ACB Legislative Seminar in Washington D.C.
stream download
March, 2008:
Paul Raskin, Youth Coordinator, Rehab and braille teacher at the Vista Center talks to us about the youth groups in which he is involved, and we explore ideas to get SVCB involved.
stream download
April, 2008:
Debbie Archuleta, from Outreach, give us a lively and informative explanation of the aspect of the Santa Clara paratransit service. She answers many questions and adroitly handles passionate responses.
stream download
May, 2008:
Roger got it right--the May program was a potpourri of presentations. Kenneth Frasse from the Silicon Valley Lions Blind Center tells us about a new grant and what they plan to do with it. He then announces a new technology company he is involved with--and wants participants. Roger shows us how his accessible thermostat works. Dawn Wilcox gives us a fast-paced version of her Blood Pressure 101 seminar which she gave at the spring CCB convention. Donna Sanchez describes her experiences with the Nokia N85 cellphone she bought through the AT&T plan. And there is even time for some reports from the spring convention. Whew!
stream download
June, 2008:
To begin this program, Cathie Skivers, SVCB's honorary member, bestows the Distinguished Service Award, over her cell phone, on Sam Chen for translating Failing Sight and the Family Plight into Chinese--a wonderful little ceremony.

Next, Jim Bigilo presents aspects of high-speed rail transportation such as the service between San Jose and San Francisco and the proposed service between Los Angeles and the SF Bay Area.
stream download
July, 2008:
To begin this program, Bernice Kandarian describes the very first Hollis G Ligget Award, granted at the 2008 ACB convention, to the Blind Californian as the best ACB affiliate newsletter of 2008.

Then Roger Petersen introduces Casey Kohl from the California Telephone Access Program (CTAP). She tells us about the products CTAP offers to deaf and visually people as well as showing us how to apply for the program.

stream download
September, 2008:
Our September program featured Alice McGrath form the Vista Center. She is Outreach Coordinator there. We learn about about its history, the various facilities it now has and the various things Alice is now doing, such as organize the 2009 Braille Challenge.

stream download
October, 2008:
For our October program, we had a complex, lively and long presentation from the League of Women Voters on the State and local propositions and measures on the November, 2008 ballot.
stream download
October, 2008

The first part of our November program was a tribute to Barbara Rhodes, who passed away on October 24, 2008.

The second part of the program was a presentation by Nicole Torcorini, who is blind and a going to Stanford. She developed a program in the latex mark-up language to translate Nemeth code into properly formatted Mathematical printouts.
stream download

2009 Programs

January, 2009
At our Annual Meeting, the program segment was devoted to a brainstorming of ideas for the future course of SVCB. It was led by Susan Schulter, a blind English teacher at West Valley College. She will summarize ideas into an article for the In Touch newsletter.
stream download
February, 2009
Travis Hyatt, Susan Hyatt's dad, talks to us about sailing on lake Cunningham in San Jose and the programs for youth and adults.
stream download
March, 2009
Lyn Saunders, Systems Change Advocate for the Silicon Valley Independent Living Center, talked to us about her many-faceted career and how System Change advocates work to improve the lives of disabled people.
stream download
April, 2009

In the April program segment, the CCB Publications award was given to Debee Norling Armstrong for the best issue oriented article in 2008, and Jane Corcoran received CCB's 2008 Humanitarian award.

Also, Art Takahara, who was a city council member and mayor of Mountain View, talked to us about his political career and ongoing glaucoma.
stream download
May, 2009
Our May program begins with Kartik Gopal from Stanford University told us about research he is doing with cell phone technology for the blind community.

Gretchen Ehlers is a girl scout leader, along with SVCB member Susan Schulter, and she told us about a Bronze Award Assembly her troop is doing to relate their experiences with blind and visually impaired people.

SVCB member Walter Schinke from Gilroy discussed how to get things done through the ADA in towns and small cities.
stream download
June, 2009
Our June program featured Bay Area Association of Disabled Sailors talked to us about how blind and visually impaired people can learn to sail, even in racing event in the U.S. Para Olympics!

stream download
July, 2009
Our July program consisted of a report by Roger Petersen of his experiences at the 20009 ACB convention. He then conducted a question and answer session concerning a resolution, to be considered at the fall CCB convention in Fresno, of whether to continue with semi-annual CCB conventions or change to annual conventions.
stream download
September, 2009
Our September program featured James Unitis from VTA and Katie Heatley from Outreach. We learned about changes to bus and lite rail routes and what Outreach is doing to help riders deal with restricted service hours.
stream download
October, 2009
This program was dedicated to Employment of People with Disabilities Awareness month. Several SVCB members, who have main-stream jobs, spoke on how they keep them and advance their careers.
stream download

November, 2009
At our November 21 meeting, Scott Blanks, Steve Clark and Silvana Rainey from Adaptive Technology Services in San Francisco spoke with us. They do training, scripting and consultation plus run a program to help blind people prepare for work. They can be reached at 866-564-6650.
stream download

2010 programs

January, 2010
The January, 2010 annual meeting featured Susan Schulter moderating the discussion of an amazing spectrum of educational experiences members of our group have had. From those who attended residential schools for the blind to people who were mainstreamed, their views are all here! And we even heard from members who lost their sight in adulthood and how their educational experiences helped them cope with visual impairment.

stream download

February, 2010
Julie Lovins moderates a spirited presentation on what you're putting into the environment and why you should care.
stream download

March, 2010
April 1 is "Census Day." This is the day when, every ten years, everyone is to be counted according to the US Constitution. Besides the Constitutional purpose of apportioning Congressional seats, the Census is important in determining how a lot of federal money is handed out.

Doris Tse, Partnership Specialist in the local office of the Bureau of the Census, talked with us about how we can best participate in the census and avoid scams from people who say they are census takers and are not.

stream download

May, 2010
We have a tradition of inviting members of the League or Women Voters to tell us about upcoming state propositions. In this case, these are issues in the June 8, 2010 primary election. This SVCB member Julie Lovins and Mary Nichols from the League told us about the Props and measures.

stream download

June, 2010
Mark Messersmith form The Visual Voice tells us about audio description for TheaterWorks and his day-time job at NASA.

stream download

July, 2010
Dawn Wilcox RN, director of the Health Library at Vista Center entertains and instructs us on what happens to light as it travels through the eye.

stream download

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