Listen to SeroTalk Podcast 183: Audio Selfie
Welcome to this week’s edition of the SeroTalk podcast where Jamie, Ricky and Joe discuss the top news stories of the week. Topics covered in this episode include:
News in A T
SeroSpectives: This Year in Tech for 2013
Announcing the AppleVis Golden Apples of 2013
iPad, Not the Most Economical Choice for Blind Consumers
Testing Android Accessibility: I Give Up
App Turns Smartphone Into Virtual Cane for the Blind
Hey iOS peeps! Now you can school your Android friends in SpellStack . Grab us on the App Store!
Digit-Eyes 2.0 has a completely NEW and simplified user interface design plus NEW other New features
Why Do We Fear the Blind? – NYTimes.com
Here’s the Braille Challenge song
Mainstream Matters
CES 2014: Wearables, connected appliances, automated cars, and curved TVs
Yikes! Target’s data breach now could affect 110M people
Snapchat apologizes for leaked user data, updates app to let you opt out of ‘Find Friends’
Windows 8.1 update images pop up online
Why the Kindle Fire HDX is a far better tablet than the iPad
World’s First Commercially Available Self-Driving Car Launches
Here’s What Happens To Your iPhone In The Bitter Cold
Mailbag
From Pam Francis
Hi folks, I am curious to know whether Serotek as a company makes a practice of reaching out to mainstream app developers to educate them on accessibility of their apps &/or web pages. In most cases, as we all know, paying attention to the tech community it can be achieved without disturbing the “pretty” app or website. As a community, we all are, or should be grateful for the strides having been made in accessibility, opening a world to us allowing for more independence & education to current events etc.
As was so eloquently stated in your latest podcast, one truly needs to find a balance between blindness specific apps & mainstream apps to achieve maximum productivity in any area.
While we praise companies such as Amazon for finally allowing us accessibility to their products & library, I think at year’s end, we also need to take note of the apps or sites that have been broken that may have been previously accessible if for no other reason than by accident. If these previously accessible web pages or apps have been broken due to ignorance of the standards, I would think, if done constructively said developers would be open to modification of their app or website to achieve accessibility as was done prior to their upgrade.
I am also curious to know if any of you know of any site that offers any kind of interactive classes, especially dealing with Android. I am part of the eyes free list. Fortunately, there a lot of knowledgeable folks up there. However, I still have questions that don’t lend themselves to an email, not knowing if or when one will respond. There used to be a chat site called we the people. They were recreational while offering classes in many areas, i.e. helping one to learn a given screen reader etc. I am in no way saying the podcasts aren’t helpful, They are an excellent tool. However, other than the emails written commenting on stories, they are not interactive. Please in no way don’t take this as destructive criticism. It is not meant that way. I also heard you mention speakqualizer. I wish to this day there was a hardware equivalent. Speakqualizer was my first interaction with a computer. I had a friend with no vision who allowed me a temporary stint in his home. He used it with a monochrome monitor. I was used to trying to paste my nose to any screen be it TV or otherwise. This thing forced me to listen. It also allowed one to examine the post before DOS launched. If one knew what they were doing, one could make innumerable tweaks to one’s computer with that thing.
Speaking of early speech software, Who remembers Vert? I had to learn that program in Florida & be proficient enough in it for employment. I still have a laptop around here somewhere with a 20 meg hard drive with DOS 3.3 running Vert & Word Perfect 5.0. I also think there is not enough credit given to instructors who deal with us who have partial vision. There ar those of us who want to use our vision to its maximum, at times without considering the safety or lack of productivity in doing so. I say this because the lady who taught me Vert, actually took away my computer monitor, forcing me to pay attention to my headphones & interact with the keyboard. Without her diligence & perseverance I would not have been able to learn voiceover independently. I still use magnification, yet have learned when it is most productive to use one or the other. I know there’s more, yet I think this is enough for one email. Thank all of you for your tireless work. Sincerely, Pam Francis
From Jenine Stanley:
Interesting discussion of a blog post challenging the use of descriptors for our population.
I have to laugh at our CEO at the Guide Dog Foundation. He is one of the biggest supporters of our community and accessibility there is, but he also likes to have lots of lights on in our facility, even when the people he serves say they cause a lot of glare and such. He’s cool about it when told that they are too bright but here’s an example of how he handles it which I find highly amusing.
CEO walks into room where blinds are drawn because of afternoon glaring sunlight. All of the people in the room are sighted. I am on speaker phone.
CEO Opens blinds. “Sorry, we light dependant people need well, light.”
Everyone squints and says it’s too bright. He closes blinds part way.
I note to group that we as human beings are all light dependant. Some of us just can’t perceive it, which breaks us into a discussion about Seasonal Affective Disorder, that is totally off the point of our meeting.
We often tease our CEO that there’s “light dependant” and then there’s “Really light Dependant”. He asks if that’s the same as partials and totals. Uh, yeah.
Jenine Stanley
Blog comment from Rynhardt Kruger:
Are you able to update the version of Talkback on the device? The newest Talkback lets you enable the old gestures for changing reading granularity. Also, did the “focus speech audio” talkback setting have any effect on the ducking issue?
Roundabout
How gaming can help blind people navigate buildings in real life