Category: News and Views
Dynamic Resource Group Reformats Craft Website For TheBlind
Inside Indiana Business, IN
Monday, February 20, 2006
Dynamic Resource Group Reformats Craft Website For The Blind
By InsideIndianaBusiness.com Report
Berne-based Dynamic Resource Group has reformatted its FreePatterns.com
website to
be accessible to
blind and visually impaired crafters.
Computer technology allows for the translation of information on a computer
screen
into either
speech or Braille. The company made the change after receiving a request
from a woman
who knits but
who is also blind.
Press Release
BERNE, Ind.-Dynamic Resource Group of Berne has reformatted its free pattern
Web
site,
FreePatterns.com, to be accessible to the visually impaired. The new feature
became
available on
Feb. 6, 2006.
According to the American Federation for the Blind, there are at least 1.5
million
visually impaired
computer users, including a large number who are blind. Blind and visually
impaired
persons are able
to surf the Web using technology that translates information from their
computer
screen into either
speech or Braille.
DRG, publisher of books, magazines and pattern booklets in a number of
special interest
areas,
recently received an e-mail from an avid knitter, Eileen Scrivani, who also
happens
to be blind.
Scrivani expressed concern that the company's FreePatterns.com Web site
lacked vision-impaired
access.
As a result, the company researched vision-impaired accessibility and made
the necessary
technological changes. Now, all of its free patterns are tagged to enable
screen
readers to
translate them into audio.
"After exchanging e-mails with Eileen, I realized what a difference it could
make
if we upgraded the
patterns to a version that allowed for text tagging," said Marylee
Klinkhammer, Web
developer and
internet services manager for DRG. "I am very pleased that every pattern on
FreePatterns.com
is now
tagged to enable screen reading. This is a great resource for visually
impaired crafters
because
there are nearly 2,000 craft and needlecraft patterns to download from the
site."
FreePatterns.com is available to the general public at no charge, and
includes patterns
in knit,
crochet, paper crafting, quilting, sewing, tatting, plastic canvas,
woodworking and
general crafts.
Members can download patterns from the Web site at
www.freepatterns.com
.
DRG is headquartered in Berne and owned entirely by the Muselman family. It
is now
in its third
generation and has two major business divisions; one in magazine and book
publishing
and consumer
catalogs, and the other in subscription and product fulfillment. The company
Web
site is located at
www.drgnetwork.com
.
About Dynamic Resource Group (DRG): Dynamic Resource Group is an 80-year-old
family
business,
headquartered in Berne, Ind., and owned entirely by the Muselman family. Now
in its
third generation
as a privately owned company, DRG has two major business divisions; one in
magazine
and book
publishing and consumer catalogs (DRG Publishing), and the other in
subscription
and product
fulfillment (Strategic Fulfillment Group). SFG is located in a
140,000-square-foot
fulfillment
facility in Big Sandy, Texas, 100 miles east of Dallas. It offers clients a
state-of-the-art
unified
database that facilitates the marketing and fulfillment of magazines,
continuities
and products, all
under one roof.
DRG Publishing encompasses leading brands, including Annie's Attic, American
School
of Needlework,
House of White Birches, Clotilde and The Needlecraft Shop. DRG publishes 15
magazines
in the
quilting, crochet, plastic canvas, knitting, nostalgia, woodworking, paper
craft
and cooking fields.
It also publishes hardcover consumer books and instruction books that are
sold direct
to consumers
and through wholesale and trade channels.
Source: Dynamic Resource Group
http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?id=16905