glad tidings for chemistry students!

Hallelujah!
It's been a long road, but the destination is nearing as I write.
The journey began in the summer of 2016. I had agreed to teach chemistry during a shortened summer semester, a rare acquiescence on my part. The deciding factor had been the length of the term - eight weeks rather than four or five. That would still be doable, though we would be covering all of the material twice as quickly as in a normal fifteen-week term.
The very first day, I knew I was in for a challenge.
I had never had a blind student before.
However, I knew the Americans With Disabilities Act had been established almost thirty years ago. The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 had been instrumental in bringing that forth. That meant public institutions had been working on bringing accessibility to all for more than three decades.
In addition, I had wanted to better my knowledge in the area. I had taken a day-long workshop in April, 2012, on website and course materials accommodations, for compliance with the Section 508 Amendment of the 1973 law. As Section 508 will soon be twenty years old, everyone should have matters well in hand, right? Especially in educational institutions?
Apparently I was mistaken.
In particular, I was mistaken in my belief that educational materials for chemistry were easily and readily available. The student had to wait for almost two weeks - in an eight-week term - to receive the textbook. When it finally did arrive, it was a slow process for the student to 'read' the book using the JAWS software.
As for any tools outside of that expensive textbook? Days of searching online found very little of aid. The student would have been forced to spend almost four hundred dollars on a Braille Periodic Table. That would not have been of much use, as the student did not use Braille except for finding addresses.
How frustrating for both of us!
Then, inspiration struck! On our fifth class day, I brought in the Periodic Table I had scrapped together - literally - and enhanced with puffy paint and scrapbooking letters. I showed the student how to make sure it was correctly oriented and how to use it to find periods and groups.
By the date of the second test on the sixth class day, I had created my Periodic Table for the Visually Impaired. Starting with a clean folder, I had only included the elements in the first eight groups. After all, those are the ones we most study for molecule formation by covalent and ionic bonding.
The student was allowed to keep the modified Periodic Tables for study at home. I wanted to make sure that if the student wanted to learn chemistry, then every opportunity should be afforded for that to occur.
Was the student successful in passing the class?
Well, by the student's own admission, the Periodic Tables only were pulled from the bookbag when at school. Then, they were quite useful on test days!
During that summer, I was encouraged to patent my invention. By the third time that I was told to do so, I actually went to the US Patent and Trademark Office website to find out if that was a viable option. I enlisted the aid of Montgomery Patent and Design to perform a patent search to see if I truly had something worthwhile.
And I did!!!
As of August 24, 2017 - almost a year after beginning this process - my invention is now patent pending!
Even better, the website for introducing my invention to the world is now up and accessible to all. I have called the site "Elements of Touch Periodic Table" and hope to market my invention by that literal descriptor.
I count that as definite progress toward helping all students.

bobby bumps gets a dog!

Here's the latest word from Tommy Jose Stathes, the man with the plan:

December 2017 Update
Time for our monthly check-in! There is a variety of progress and lagging to report on.
First, I'm happy to note that although it took far longer than expected, the newly-discovered footage I reported on earlier finally made its way to my team in digital scan form and the necessary cleaning/steadying/compositing of that footage is currently being wrapped.
Second, artist friend Josh Latta has finished his new artwork for the packaging. I think it's absolutely charming. What do you think? Here's a preview of Bobby and Fido, and there's also art completed for mother and father Bumps, as well as the family's unnamed black cat.
As far as the new music scores go, I'm still waiting to receive every last one from collaborator Charlie Judkins. An urgent animation gig of his that recently popped up had to be bumped up to the front of his work load, but thankfully he's back at the Bumps scores now.
In short, this is the infamous time of the year where the holidays effectively slow projects like this to a grinding halt. A little of that has been going on lately among most of the collaborators, though thankfully some of the outstanding tasks are still *slowly* being completed. On my end, my usual care-taking responsibilities with my mother and grandmother have been especially augmented for the past month and taxing on me and my work schedule as a result.
From the way this project's status looks right now, I'm very confident that we will be able to turn the materials over to Steve Stanchfield of Thunderbean Animation right after the new year begins, so he can finally start the mastering and authoring process. I look forward to updating everyone further in early January.
In the meantime, here's another exclusive peek at an unrestored version of another cartoon that will be in this collection. This is the first Bobby Bumps film released by Bray Studios, and the third one Earl Hurd had shot. This beautiful element is a 1920s 16mm Kodascope Libraries rental print, and I'm so thrilled that it's in fantastic condition and can be spotlighted in this release. Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/eNeX-mPajgQ
Happy Holidays,
Tommy Stathes



Hahahaha hahaha! I laughed out loud at the antics of this young boy and his dog!
Thanks, Tommy, for brightening my day!
I so look forward to more treats with this mischievous lad!
I know my friend Sam Johnson would have enjoyed these cartoons, too.