Link: Church's Disability Resources Page

As a father of a disabled child I was grateful to find this link. It's kind of buried so I thought I'd share it.

Welcome to Disability Resources
This Web section on disabilities has been created to offer support, comfort, and an increased level of acceptance toward those with disabilities.
Those individuals who live with a disability, their caregivers, as well as leaders, teachers, and members may find within this site additional understanding of specific disabilities and some of the difficulties faced by those involved.

Check it out at http://disability.lds.org/disability/eng/

Nice. As a STS, I'd like to know what technical aids are available from the church. I've got a deaf group in one ward and a blind sister who I think is a FamilyHistory consultant in another.

For the deaf, I know about the FM transmitter that's part of the stock sound system. I also know about the closed captioning of the broadcasts. Anything else?

Any screen readers for the sister that can be loaded on a FHC computer?

RussellHltn,

I do not know. I was given a heads up about www.ldsability.org by mactoph. It might be a good place to ask about this.

I am working with the Church on specifically this issue: making Church resources more accessible. We have made a lot of improvements over the past few months, but we've also got a long way to go.

I will soon be starting a forum or mailing list of some sort for the discussion of such issues. I'll post an announcement to this forum when that happens.

There are commercial screen readers available that can be installed on Windows machines, but unfortunately, in my experience, the Church's genealogy software is not very accessible. They also tend to be quite expensive (around $800+). Some free alternatives are also available, but I haven't tested them yet.

RussellHltn wrote: For the deaf, I know about the FM transmitter that's part of the stock sound system. I also know about the closed captioning of the broadcasts. Anything else?

Russell- that is great that you already know about the FM transmitter and the closed captioning- those are both great resources that many people are not aware of.

In addition to the closed captioning on the broadcasts, much of the multimedia that the Church provides is available in American Sign Language and/or with captions. Some of those materials are listed in the Distribution Center Catalog.

In addition, many Church publications are available in multiple formats in the Gospel Library including audio files, electronic Braille files and American Sign Language videos.

RussellHltn wrote:Any screen readers for the sister that can be loaded on a FHC computer?

cannona definitely knows this area better than I do, but my recommendation would be to find out what screen reader software the sister is already used to using and then try using that. You can find a comprehensive list of free and commercial screen readers here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_screen_readers.

Good Luck!

I am physically handicapped (MS) and sacrament is delivered to my home. One of the priesthood mentioned today that he thinks I live close enough to the chapel to pick up the signal for the hearing impaired and actually listen to the sacrament service. He was not sure what was required though. Does any one know what materials are needed? I am less than 1/4 mile away from the chapel but sure I would need an antenna/receiver setup plus frequency information. Thanks for any and all help!

frankfair wrote:I am physically handicapped (MS) and sacrament is delivered to my home. One of the priesthood mentioned today that he thinks I live close enough to the chapel to pick up the signal for the hearing impaired and actually listen to the sacrament service. He was not sure what was required though. Does any one know what materials are needed? I am less than 1/4 mile away from the chapel but sure I would need an antenna/receiver setup plus frequency information. Thanks for any and all help!

I think 1/4 mile sounds a little far, but the way to start would be by getting a receiver from the meetinghouse library and trying it out. Ask your home teacher to work with the stake technology specialist, if he lives in your area, or one of the technically knowledgeable brethren in your ward. Perhaps that will be the brother who mentioned it to you today.

Yeah, I think 1/4 mile is a bit much. It's a FM signal in the 72MHz band if I remember right. A good scanner with a outdoor antenna might work.

That's provided the system is still running. Ours broke some time ago and FM has yet to fix it.

The frequency usually used at a Church building is channel "A" which is 72.100 MHz according to Comtek. They are the company that the Church uses in my area (So. California) for the ALS radios. In our Stake center, the transmitter is a "high power" (120mw) unit. I can go all around the property and only encounter a little interference.

The problem you might have with the receivers we use is the antenna is actually the cord on the headphone/earphone. At the distance you are it will be difficult without an outside antenna. There are few receivers for this area with the exception of a scanner as mentioned earlier. It will be more sensitive as well and probably give a better signal.

More frequency info can be had on page 6 & 7 of the receiver manual at http://www.comtek.com/manuals/pr752007.pdf

Hope that helps!

RussellHltn wrote: Any screen readers for the sister that can be loaded on a FHC computer?

I have one blind Brother that I support on his computer for LDS Family Services. He uses a program called JAWS on that computer. The license he has for it lets him do so. So she may already have a screen reader she can use there.

In doing some recent work with a low-vision member, I encountered a freeware screen reader for vision impaired or blind people.

It's called Thunder ScreenReader. You can see more about it at their website http://www.screenreader.net/

The nice part is it's free to anyone or any organization. It can be loaded permanently or installed on a USB drive to be carried with you.

Nice find. We had a blind couple in our Ward a few years back and they used a very expensive package that made the computer accessible to them.

Now I haven't used either program, so I can't compare on features, but I'm saving the link against future need.

Thanks much