October 16, 2024

ATHEN Quarterly Town Hall: October 16, 2024 – 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST

Table of Contents

Town Hall Agenda Overview

AccessText Network (ATN) Updates

Find Accessible Books

Accessing Higher Ground

Upcoming ATHEN Elections

Upcoming Annual Meeting

Topics of Interest

NVDA use of OpenAI plugins

Whisper AI

MAIDR Library

Question and Answer

Adjourn

Meeting Chat

Town Hall Agenda Overview

  • Updates concerning ATN – Jeff Bishop and Board
  • FindAccessibleBooks – Justin Romack
  • Accessing Higher Ground in-person event – RaLynn McGuire
  • Upcoming ATHEN Elections and Annual Meeting – Natalie Davison
  • Topics of Interest: AI:
    • NVDA opens doors through the use of OpenAI plugins – Joshua Hori
    • Whisper AI – Joshua Hori
    • MAIDR Library and elevating the use of accessibility with visuals and data science – Jeff Bishop
  • Q&A Session from attendees – Everyone
  • Date and Time of Annual Meeting – Natalie Davison
  • Adjourn

AccessText Network (ATN) Updates

  • Create an account at https://accesstext.org/join (linked).
  • You will receive an email indicating “Your ATN membership application has been received, and the agreement is attached. Once we have verified your eligibility you will receive an email from info@accesstext.org with instructions about activating your account.”
  • Your patience is valued as we provide time for ATN to get off the ground again.

Find Accessible Books

  • https://findaccessiblebooks.org/ (linked).
  • Publisher lookup is no longer available, and this is a site you may use to achieve the same purposes.
  • ATHEN members are encouraged to use and review this site, providing feedback or contributing as it is helpful for development of the resource.

ATHEN Membership Updates

  • Justin Romack provided updates on ATHEN website and membership.
  • Developments are being actively made to organize and make best use of the website. Third party tools are being phased out for a more centralized approach. This will increase efficiency of voting, online payments, membership renewals, etc…
  • Members can look forward to an email soon including their username, password, and guidance for using the new webpage services.

Accessing Higher Ground

Upcoming ATHEN Elections

  • President, secretary, member at large up for re-election.
  • Send your interest and nominations to Elections@athenpro.org
  • The interest and nomination window will close 11/4/2024 at 8:00 PM EST.
  • ARTICLE IV–VOTING AND ELECTIONS (linked).
    • Terms are for two years, with elections for President and Secretary occurring in even-numbered years. Terms are for two years for Member at Large representatives, with elections occurring in alternating years.
    • All nominations for Executive Officers shall be distributed to the membership by the Elections Committee at least two weeks prior to elections.
  • ATHEN Board intends to send candidates to ATHEN listserv, conduct election, and inform members of elected Board members at the Annual meeting 12/4/24.

Upcoming Annual Meeting

  • Please mark your calendars for our virtual annual meeting.
    • Wednesday December 4th, 2024
    • 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM EST
  • We intend to discuss ATHEN’s mission and purpose and collect member feedback to inform action items to best move forward aligned on a path that best serves the ATHEN community.

Topics of Interest

Innovative Access Technology Resources and Approaches

NVDA use of OpenAI plugins

  • NVDA opens doors through the use of OpenAI plugins – Joshua Hori
  • Joshua Hori provided a brief overview of how the NCDA OpenAI plugin provides a chatbot assist for items potentially not accessible for a screen reader. Joshua additionally highlighted features that may pose concerns for academic integrity in testing environments.
  • Resources provided: Notion write up for setting up OpenAI and NVDA (linked) – Closed articles, Joshua will grant access to your request.

Whisper AI

  • Joshua Hori provided a brief overview of how Whisper AI is an up and coming resource for media captioning. Joshua additionally highlighted processes, growing edges, and potential for future innovation and usage.
  • Resources provided: Notion write up for setting up Whisper (linked) – Closed articles, Joshua will grant access to your request.

MAIDR Library

  • MAIDR Library and elevating the use of accessibility with visuals and data science – Jeff Bishop
    • MAIDR: multimodal access and interactive data representation.
  • Jeff shared information about the MAIDR project and developments currently underway.
  • Blind Info Tech specialists trained BLV students in Python (140 students). Smith-Kettlewell recruits participants, and selected data science topics this year.
  • MAIDR is a Python library that utilizes sonification, Braille, text, and AI to fully understand and grasp charts and graphs produced.
  • November 7th- ASU Access Day Summit (linked) will include a session on this developing resource.

Question and Answer

  • Questions were asked about the scholarship award recipients for the Ron Stewart and Teresa Haven Scholarships. ATHEN Board members will send information about award recipients, as appropriate, to the ATHEN listserv. Both scholarships were awarded to deserving recipients this year and we are thrilled at the applications and candidates we reviewed.

Adjourn

  • Thank you for your attendance at this Town Hall and for your active engagement as an ATHEN member!
  • A note about membership
  • Look forward to an email coming soon with information on your access to new member benefits and how these work for future member-only features.
  • A reminder – the Annual Meeting will be held 12/4 12PM EST.

Meeting Chat

11:07:31 From Tisha Marzewski, (she/her) to Everyone:

https://findaccessiblebooks.org/

11:13:21 From Robert Beach, KCKCC to Everyone:

Will there be a business meeting as well? If so, will it be virtual?

11:13:54 From Robert Beach, KCKCC to Everyone:

So it will not be at AHG?

11:14:10 From RaLynn McGuire to Everyone:

If you have questions about the ATHEN  meetup at Accessing Higher Ground you can email me at RaLynn.McGuire@utsa.edu

11:14:45 From RaLynn McGuire to Everyone:

Replying to “So it will not be at…”

Correct, we are splitting them up as we know not everyone can attend AHG.

11:24:59 From lucy greco to Everyone:

if you do not need access tech and use mac mac wisper is vary good and much faster

11:26:05 From Joshua Hori (he, him) to Everyone:

Replying to “if you do not need a…”

Thanks for adding that Lucy and Hello!!

11:27:00 From lucy greco to Everyone:

on windows subtitl edit is vary  good as well

11:28:07 From Joshua Hori (he, him) to Everyone:

My Notion write up for setting up Whisper: https://www.notion.so/Setting-up-OpenAI-Whisper-Captioning-10e879c0e33a8005a4abc8b38c126eb3

11:28:39 From Joshua Hori (he, him) to Everyone:

My Notion write up for setting up OpenAI and NVDA: https://www.notion.so/Setting-up-NVDA-with-OpenAI-107879c0e33a8047b805fb1aaf6d38c2

11:29:08 From Joshua Hori (he, him) to Everyone:

Closed articles, I have to grant access to your request.

11:29:21 From Wink Harner to Everyone:

dictation in python is also a flourishing tool. used wth dragonfly. https://dragonfly2.readthedocs.io/en/stable/

11:32:06 From lucy greco to Everyone:

sorry its subtitle edit

11:33:56 From Wink Harner to Everyone:

any news of scholarship & prof growth awards?

11:35:16 From Wink Harner to Everyone:

no news on teresa haven scholarship?

11:36:18 From Robert Beach, KCKCC to Everyone:

I did not see any information on who won those. Can you share that?

11:37:23 From Sean Kugler to Everyone:

Thank you! Love short meetings

11:37:24 From Renee Dixon to Everyone:

Thank you!!