SVCB Meeting Program Segments

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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 membership@svcb.cc. 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 easily 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 easily 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:


Program List

Select stream or download on a month below after choosing a year.

Choose a year

2007 programs


2008 programs


2009 Programs


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[D[D 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 TheatreWorks 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
  • September, 2010
    After introductions, where a gremlin kept spilling coffee (which got into the sound system), Donna Sanchez, Rose Deterding and Naomi Grubb
    stream download
  • October, 2010
    This program is a presentation from the League of Women Voters. Unfortunately it starts a little bit into the program.

    stream download
  • November, 2010
    Rob Turner and Sam Chen told us about their adventures in Taiwan during a conference they attended.

    stream download

2011 Programs

  • January, 2011
    The program segment of the January meeting featured Todd Teixeira, director of programs, and Sarah Triano, SVILC executive director. They told us about SVILC, what it is and why you should care.

    stream download
  • February, 2011
    This meeting was historic! We presented the first ever Barbara Rhodes Technology Grant Award to Fulton Mah of San Jose. Barbara's brother Frank was also there.

    We heard about CCB's newly constituted Deaf-blind committee, which is working on making the CCB conference and convention accessible to all hearing-impaired people. Then Mike Keithley described his involvement with the Confident Living Program seminar from Jan 10 to 14.

    stream download
  • March, 2011
    At our March meeting, we heard from Steve Mahan from the Santa Clara Blind Center.

    stream download
  • April, 2011
    Frank Welte, CCB's Director of Governmental Affairs, told us about ACB and CCB 2011 legislative agendas. In addition, we lengthened our introduction period so those who wanted to could say more than just their names. stream download
  • May, 2011

    May program featured those who went to the spring conference and convention.
    stream download

  • June, 2011
    The June program featured David Hoffman talking about his interesting adventures with the Ski for Light organization and Vanda Pharmaceuticals about their ongoing sleep study.
    stream download
  • July
    Ken Becker was our guest speaker. He does tours of Nob Hill, and his stories of the history of the place are truly amazing.

    We also shared many stories of the "funniest thing that happened to you this month." Give it a listen!
    stream download
  • September
    Mike Ju, John Nemec and Terry Palmer from Berryessa Design, a company in San Jose that produces quality lighting products for low-vision people, explained and demonstrated their new LED lamps.
    stream download
  • October
    Sharon Hudson, mobility instructor and Assistant Director of the Vista Center, told us about the history of White Can Safety Day and sketched the current challenges to independent travel.
    stream download
  • November
    Lucy Sirianni is attending graduate school at UC Berkeley. She comes from Minnesota and a supportive family.
    stream download

2012 programs

  • January
    Susan Glass presents an informative program on "birding" along with audio samples.
    stream download
  • Our own Brian Higgins told us us about his on-going activities in developing a self-driving car.
    stream download
  • David Strauss and his business group from Sanford University garnered feedback for a start-up product for their business. We were in focus groups most of the time, so this program is shorter than most.

    stream download
  • At our April meeting, Karina Pikhart from 6dot Innovations, a start-up company in Palo Alto, demonstrated its first assistive-technology product: a labeler that embosses braille on 1/2 inch dymo tape using a 6-dot braille keyboard. It's very close to market, and orders are being taken. No more squeezing and turning a wheel to get fuzzy braille!

    stream download
  • In the program segment of our May membership meeting, Kari Kelly, once Kari Fox and receptionist at Telesensory, brought us up-to-date with events in her life. She's back to school, married and is starting her own business as a life coach. I'm hoping she'll be an SVCB member soon.



    stream download
  • Stan Messmer, a former Tech Support worker at Telesensory, described his new business of mastering CDs with hard-to-find songs, complete with examples.

    stream download
  • At out July meeting, Diane Harms, the first visually impaired court reported in California, described her career in Santa Clara County.

    stream download
  • At out September meeting, Peter Stahl and Julie Lovins of the League of Women Voters presented pros and cons of state and local propositions in the November elections.

    stream download
  • At our October meeting, we had an informative program from Abilities United, which has a swim program with free swimming and various kinds of rehabilitation classes. SVCB member Amy Shao goes there and was instrumental in getting the presenters to come and talk to us.

    listen
    download
  • November, 2012
    At our November meeting, we held a short celebration of SVCB's 25th anniversary. Also, Michelle Klein and Peter Gordon from Jasper Ridge Inc., a company that offers small, portable LED lights that people with low vision can use for reading, talked to us about their bright, sharply-focused light source, mounted on glasses, for comfortable reading. Jasper Ridge markets these lights under the name "VisionEdge" from its base in San Mateo, and its email address is info@jasperridge.net

    listen
    download
  • December, 2012

    We had our Christmas party on lieu of this meeting.

2013 Issues

  • January, 2013
    The January meeting was not recorded on request of the presenter.
  • February, 2013Lauri Rubin, a blind mezzo soprano sang a track of her upcoming CD and described her career.
    Listen
    Download
  • href="http://www.svcb.cc/psaudio/ps0213.m3u">Listen
    Download
  • March, 2013
    John Glass and Rob Turner, along with Dawn Wilcox and Mike Keithley, present Amateur (ham) Radio and how blind people participate in it.
    Listen
    Download
  • April, 2013
    Dawn's daughter-in-law Wendy presented her book Tight wads an the Loose: a seven-year sailing adventure around the Pacific Occasion.
    Listen
    Download
  • May, 2013
    Our program segment featured interesting discussions of the spring CCB convention by those who went there.
    Listen
    Download
  • June, 2013
    The June program featured disabled realtor Stephen Beard, who discussed with us how a person with low income like SSI or SSDI can purchase a home with a very low down payment.

    Listen
    Download
  • July, 2013
    Our July program, led by Susan Glass, was a commentary on the ADA in support of the Silicon Valley Independent Living Center's Disability Pride Parade.

    Listen
    Download
  • September, 2013
    Our September program featured Susan Glass discussing the WIPO Treaty, what it is and what it hopes to do.

    Listen
    Download
  • October, 2013

    There was no meeting in October dues to the fall convention.
  • November, 2013
    To start the program, we had a nice phone call from Cathy Skivers wishing us well. Next, there were several reports from people who attended the CCB convention.

    Listen
    Download
  • December, 2013

    There was no meeting in December as it was deferred by the Christmas party.

2014 Programs

  • January, 2014

    Susan Glass, our new program chair, facilitated an amusing and helpful program discussing the best adaptive technologies people have used in 2013.

    Listen
    Download
  • February, 2014

    Our February program was unique: it was done solely over the phone! Speaker Judy Wilkinson couldn't attend our meeting, so Bev Clifford contributed her iPhone in hopes that we could talk to her in her living room. It was connected to the sound system, and we found that not only could everyone hear her, she could hear people talking on the mics. And there was no feedback either. As this experiment was so successful, we'll be doing it again.

    Listen
    Download
  • March, 2014

    Our March program featured Dawn Wilcox and Roger Petersen talking about the Health Library at Vista Center, where you can get important information on your eye condition. Lynnette Kursey described the Braille Project at the Silicon Valley Blind Center and what goes on there.

    Listen
    Download
  • April, 2014

    Our April program featured a great presentation from Dinesh Desai (a long-time SVCB member), who described walking adventures like trekking in Death Valley in 128 degree heat, and walking from the Oregon border to Baha.

    Listen
    Download
  • May, 2014

    We had a nice, relaxing program conducted by Ms. Nancy Portugal Jamello, who helped us through some sitting-down yoga exercises.

    Listen
    Download
  • June, 2014

    Listen
    Download
  • July, 2014
    Our July program garnered many experiences and comments about what we're doing for our summer vacatations, especially how we make them good and viable.
    Listen
    Download
  • August, 2014
    We didn't have an Ausust meeting--picnic time!
  • September, 2015

    Our September program speaker came recommended to us by Naomi Grubb. We heard from Ken Pealmon of the American Red Cross, who will talk with us about measures that we can take as blind people to be prepared for emergencies.
    Listen
    Download
  • October, 2015
    Our October program speaker was Mr. Riza Ladchartabi, who is designing a navigation system specifically tailored to the needs of blind travelers. The system uses Google Glass technology, and some of our chapter members have already tried it. Mr. Ladchartabi spoke briefly about the navigation system at our June meeting, but this time he'll spend a full hour with us, explaining and demonstrating the navigation technology.
    Listen
    Download
  • November, 2015
    One of the realities of growing older, as all of us are, is that we often acquire disabilities in addition to blindness. Not least among these is hearing impairment, and a few of us have been blind and hearing impaired for much of our lives. Our November program will feature a panel discussion led by Roger Petersen, Mike Keithley, and Donna Sanchez on coping with issues faced by those of us who are blind and hearing impaired.
    Listen
    Download
  • Decomber, 2014
    Holiday party time!

2015 Programs

2016 programs

  • January, 2016 Our January 16 program was exciting, as our own Brian Higgins updated us on progress that he's making on his guide robot. Who knows! Maybe some of us will even get a chance to try it out. I hope the dogs won't be too jealous!

    Listen
    Download
  • February, 2016
    Many of you are already familiar with our February program speaker, Ms. Cathy Cassetta, Artistic Director of the Tabard Theatre in San Jose. Ms. Cassetta founded Tabard 15 years ago, and she describes it as a performing arts family that embraces audience participation. Speaking to a newspaper reporter back in 2011, Ms. Cassetta said, "I wanted a name for the company that had history and depth, something that had substance. Nothing that sounded trendy or fly-by-night. Tabard resonated with me because it was the name of the inn where pilgrims gathered on their way to Canterbury, and aren't we all on a journey? Together? And at the Tabard Inn, the innkeeper gave a free meal to whomever told the best story. What an inspired innkeeper he was!" Come to our February 20 program and let Cathy Cassetta entertain you with stories of Tabard's rich history and journey.

    Listen
    Download
  • March, 2016
    Sorry, no program!
  • April, 2016

    Our April Program speaker was Janet Ghanem, director of Seniors Breathe Easy at Breathe California. She talked about the benefits of Exercise and how it motivate us to move more and maintain independence as we age.

    Listen
    Download
  • May, 2016

    SVCB member Julie Lovins from the league of Women Voters told us about the state and local propositions on the June primary ballot.
    Listen
    Download
  • June, 2016

    Our June program featured SVCB member Sudha Rajagopalan, who introduced her space with a Katha chant.
    Listen
    Download
  • July, 2016

    We held a forum on the hobbies we like.
    Listen
    Download
  • August, 2016
    We didn't have an August meeting--picnic time!
  • September, 2016
    We spent the entire hour in groups discussing what SVCB ought to be doing.
    Listen
    Download
  • October, 2016

    Are you ready for the November 8 election? No? Well, check out SVCB's October program to hear a summary of all state (and some local) propositions on the ballot.
    Listen
    Download
  • November, 2016
    Our November program featured new member Mark Elinsky, who works at the Lawrence Livermore labs. He's written a book about his journey with RP.
    Listen
    Download
  • Decomber, 2016
    Holiday party time!

2017 programs

  • January, 2017 Our January program speaker was Mr. Jeff Thom, CCB's Director of Governmental Affairs. Jeff joined us by phone to fill us in on pending state and Federal legislation that's relevant to the blind and visually impaired community, and suggested ways in which we can advocate for the passage of that legislation. He also told us about ACB's midyear legislative seminar and Capitol Hill activities. And there was plenty time for questions and dialog.

    Listen
    Download
  • February, 2017
    The February meeting was dogs, dogs, and a few cats. Ken Becker, our inveterate storyteller from the Silicon Valley Blind Center, was there, and many of us had at least one pet story to share. Listen
    Download
  • March, 2017
    Ms. Contessa Lunn was the March program speaker, and she talked about the California Telephone Access Program, sometimes known as CTAP or California Phones. She had some new phone gadgets to show us. Contessa was 45 minutes late so we conducted part of the business meeting. So this file is the complete March meeting.
    Listen
    Download
  • April, 2017

    Most of you may know that our own Dawn Wilcox is a sailor, and she's passed her love of sailing down to her son Garth and daughter-in-law Wendy. Wendy has written two books about sailing: Tightwads on the Loose (2012), and now, Sea Trials Around the World with Duct Tape and Bailing Wire. She was our April speaker and shared parts of Sea Trials with us.
    Listen
    Download
  • May, 2017

    Ms. Jennifer Garten, representative from Breathe California (which has given several talks at the Blind Center), talked to us about the importance of air quality and how you can protect your home. She also led us in deep-breathing exercises.
    Listen
    Download
  • June, 2017

    The speakers from Project Hire for the June program didn't show, so we had our normal chapter business meeting.
    Listen
    Download
  • July, 2017

    The speakers from Project Hire for the July program didn't show again, so we had our normal chapter business meeting.
    Listen
    Download
  • August, 2017
    We didn't have an August meeting--picnic time!
  • September, 2017
    Sorry, recording wasn't available.

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