The Canadian Council of the Blind Podcast: Recent Episodes
CCB Program staff
During this course, we have discussed what your iPhone can do for you as a totally blind user. We have also discussed how to use your iPhone effectively, the many available accessible apps, and the many features built into your iPhone. Owning an iPhone is as consequential to one’s life as owning a car or house. In this final lecture, Michael Feir will discuss how to live well as owners of these powerful devices. He will point out some of the pitfalls which have proved damaging to individual users and society as a whole. He will share his best advice on how to minimize your chances of falling into these traps. On the other hand, knowing how to do things with your iPhone at the right time can be very empowering and stand us in good stead. We can use it to help ourselves and those with whom we share meaningful connections. Michael will give some pointers on how to be as ready as possible to use our iPhones well when it really matters. He also discusses how to keep your iPhone ready to serve and avoid doing things which make it less capable without good reason.
In this lecture, the focus will be on the personal economics of owning an iPhone. Having a device which can do so much means that you’re likely to save money which you might have needed to spend on other devices. You can also tap into markets of digital goods such as apps, books, and streaming services, among many others. There are unavoidable costs such as the price of the iPhone, accessories and a cellular data plan. We will examine these costs as well as other optional expenses. I’ll be sharing some advice on how to maximize your enjoyment while spreading out or minimizing costs.
The online world offers blind people many extraordinary benefits. However, owning an iPhone also exposes us to all of the spam calls, scams, fake emails, identity theft attempts, and other malicious activity. In this lecture, I will share what wisdom I’ve gained in avoiding becoming a victim of such activities while still participating in online life. We will also cover how your iPhone can protect you from this activity.
We have come a long way in the Unseen Touchscreen course. The focus of this month’s lecture is on using your iPhone to help you navigate and go places in the real world. There is a wide variety of apps which can help you do this. They typically use the GPS receiver in your iPhone combined with constantly updated map information. Some apps are built for absolutely everyone and made accessible to VoiceOver. Others are built specifically with blind users in mind. In this lecture, we’ll cover examples of both kinds of these apps, plus other apps which help with navigation and transportation.
Your iPhone and the right apps can let you participate in social media from wherever you might be. In this lecture, we’ll talk about the dangers and benefits which participating in social media can entail. Rather than attempt to familiarize you with the various apps, we’ll focus more on common elements and the VoiceOver skills you’ll need to get the most out of whatever platform you might choose to explore.
Your iPhone makes a very accessible gateway to all sorts of entertainment, including various streaming services. In this session, we’ll talk about some popular ones like Netflix, Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video. We’ll also discuss what makes YouTube and Twitch somewhat different from other platforms. How to explore content and how to activate described audio on the various services will be covered.
In this session, we’ll cover some of the new features and changes that Apple has introduced in iOS 26. Besides less impactful changes for blind users like liquid glass, there are a bunch of new accessibility features. These include Braille Access mode, updates to VoiceOver, changes to numerous apps, and more. While this won’t be an exhaustive exploration of each feature, the hope is to make people aware of the newly added features and provide enough knowledge to start exploring any that interest you for yourselves.
In part two of our discussion about productivity apps on iPhones, we take a whirlwind tour of possibilities. A wide range of apps to help with everything from task management, cooking recipes, scheduling events, recording music, and many more activities will be briefly covered. While I’ll offer some explanations of how to use various apps, the main goal is to make people more aware of the possibilities for getting things done and managing your work using your iPhone. Beyond apps, we’ll also briefly discuss features included in your iPhone which may prove helpful.
Your iPhone can help you get things done and be productive. In the first part of our look at productivity related apps and capabilities, we’ll get an overview of this. A good grasp of aspects of VoiceOver is vital. We’ll explore those aspects and also take a deeper dive into apps related to writing and office work.
One of the most powerful ways an iPhone has changed my life is through making books accessible and portable. This month’s lecture is all about how to acquire and read eBooks and audiobooks using your iPhone. Accessible digital libraries, small publishers, and large outlets such as Apple and Amazon make books available in digital form. Apps on your iPhone like Kindle, Audible, Voice Dream Reader, and others let you take full advantage of these books. While it’s impossible to cover everything, I’ll attempt to give you an idea how things work and give you an idea of the lay of the land. Just in time for a Summer of portable and accessible reading.
Your iPhone is a great device for listening to podcasts and internet radio. There are thousands of radio stations which broadcast over the internet. Many of them are run by people who are blind. Besides great shows to listen to, you can interact and be a part of a community by using social media and email. Podcasts are another area where blind people have gotten involved. There are podcasts about pretty much everything and most are free to listen to. In this cession, we’ll discuss these forms of entertainment and community. You’ll learn about different apps used to hear internet radio stations and podcasts. We’ll also discuss how you can participate all from your iPhone.
In our modern lives, mental and physical health is an increasing concern. Using apps and sensors on our iPhone and in accessories we can connect it to, there are many ways in which your iPhone can assist you. iPhones can count the steps we take as we carry them with us. Workout apps can offer training and encouragement to keep ourselves fit. They can give us an outlet to journal our thoughts. Recent additions include mood tracking and mental health assessment questionnaires which assess our danger of anxiety or depression. Meditation apps like headspace can provide numerous mindfulness tools. There are also books and podcasts which our iPhones can help us find and access. We’ll take a whirlwind tour of all of these and hopefully provide enough information to get people started.
The first lecture on accessible games focussed on good games for beginners and exploring different types of games. In this second lecture, we look more closely at the economics behind what games are available. We talk about why some great games have disappeared from the app store and what keeps some old favourites viable. I’ll talk about some of the deeper more complex games available and why they’re some of my favourites. Also, we’ll look beyond apps to how your iPhone can help you participate and play other kinds of games like physical board and card games. We’ll also touch on how your iPhone can help you play tabletop roleplaying games with friends both online and in person.
The GTT program is excited to have a representative from Innosearch.ai Visiting us to introduce an innovative accessible shopping page!
This platform brings together products from multiple companies, all designed with accessibility in mind. It offers an inclusive shopping experience tailored for individuals using assistive technology, ensuring a seamless and empowering journey for everyone.
Join us to learn how this cutting-edge tool makes online shopping more inclusive, efficient, and enjoyable for all.
We learn best when we’re busy having too much fun to realize that it’s happening. With their power to engage us, games can teach us lessons about ourselves, each other, and the technology we use to play them. Text adventures built of words, statistics and story can motivate us to learn typing and how to review the screen. Other games might improve our reflexes or show us the consequences of taking risks. Games of chance played with others might help break the ice so those others become friends. This week, we’ll begin a two part tour of the kinds of games which blind people can obtain and play using their iPhones. From story adventures to board games, strategy simulations and arcade audio action, there’s a lot of fun to be had. The lectures will focus on giving people a sense of what’s available. For live demonstrations of some games suitable for beginners, people can join us on the third Wednesday in February and March for cessions focussed on helping participants understand how to actually start playing games particularly good for beginners.
The camera on your iPhone is a tremendously useful addition for Blind users. Combined with the internet, human sighted volunteers and artificial intelligence, the right apps can do a whole lot of good. We’ll discuss the apps which harness these capabilities to help you read printed documents, identify items, find lost things and tell you what is around. We’ll also discuss some of the implications of these tools and the economics making it all possible.
The app store is absolutely essential for anybody who wants to make the most of their iPhone. In this cession, we’ll explore the app store in full. You’ll learn how to get to various areas. From searching for apps, managing subscriptions, checking for app updates, and purchasing or redeeming gift cards, there’s a lot of digital ground to cover. We’ll also touch on why it’s helpful to look elsewhere for accessible app recommendations and discuss the changing economics behind the apps we use.
The Internet in your pocket is a core reason why you want an iPhone with you. Many apps tap into information available via the web. However, the Safari browser or a third party alternative of your choice will serve as your direct gateway to sites on the web which you want to visit. This month, we’ll take a deep dive and explore the Safari browser. It comes on your iPhone as an important part of iOS. You’ll learn how to navigate the web and how to take advantage of resources there through Safari. We’ll also talk about the settings associated with this browser. Third party alternatives won’t be covered in detail but we’ll briefly discuss why you might want to try them out.
There’s a lot which has been updated in iOS 18. This month, we’ll begin our detour from the second edition of the book in order to fill people in on these changes. We’ll talk about the new tutorial for VoiceOver users which is now available right in the VoiceOver settings. We’ll also look at how audio ducking has been updated and is now far more useful. There’s plenty which has changed outside of VoiceOver. The settings for iOS have been rearranged so we’ll go over how that crucial area has changed.
Increasingly, Apple is turning to making revenue through services which it offers. The News app offers a lot of interesting articles which are freely available even without a subscription. People can also search for and follow their own topics of interest. Through the Apple News Plus service available for a monthly subscription, this app will provide access to far more content including full articles, newspapers and over two hundred magazines. Recently, crossword and other puzzles have been added for subscribers. All of this is fully accessible to blind users through VoiceOver. In this first Fall session, we’ll take a tour of what the app and service have to offer while waiting for the arrival of iOS 18.
In the second part of our look at communications apps which come installed on your iPhone, we focus on the two most complicated but empowering ones. These are FaceTime and Mail. The FaceTime app allows for live video and audio conversations with individuals or groups of people. Meanwhile, the Mail app lets you tap into that very popular form of written communication. Both of these apps have their intricacies. In both cases, there are alternative choices for accomplishing the same thing using other apps. We’ll discuss the pros and cons of sticking with what’s there versus looking for alternatives.
Communication is what your iPhone is all about. Several apps come installed on your iPhone to help you connect and exchange information with people in your life. In part one of our tour of these apps, we’ll focus on the Contacts, Phone and Messages apps. We’ll also touch on some additional related topics like emoji characters, stickers, Voice mail, and more.
In this 12 minute podcast, Russell Solowoniuk demonstrates using his LG washer model WM3500CW and his LG Dryer model DLE3500W using the accompanying accessible iOS or Android LG ThinQ app. He describes how a blind person can use the washer and dryer standalone and how accessibility is enhanced using the app on his iPhone. Note that models described have been discontinued and replaced with washer model WM3600HWA and dryer model DLE3600W as of March 2024.
In this session, we will explore the lifestyle apps discussed in the previous session in more detail. We’ll talk about managing recurring events in the calendar. The Notes app is full of features to keep your information organized. Suggestions are at the heart of apple’s new Journal app and we’ll go through how to access these. Apps in this category are simple on the surface, but often have surprisingly thorough capabilities.
Being so portable, your iPhone is an ideal device for helping with many aspects of everyday life. This session will discuss a number of apps designed to come in handy in everyday situations. These include Weather, Reminders, Calendar, Notes, Calculator and Journal. This group of apps is very suitable for use by beginners. Siri works well with all of them. Rather than an exhaustive exploration, this lecture will hopefully give you enough of an idea of the capabilities of these apps as well as how to control them in order to get started using them.
Wayne Antle reviews the features and how to use finder on the mac.
finder is like file explorer for windows. It has many powerful features and uses.
Apple has long been associated with music and creativity. Your iPhone can give you access to millions of songs, curated playlists, radio stations, and even some live events. This month, we’ll dive into the enjoyment of music and go over the Music app and the Apple Music Plus service in detail. This is one of the easiest ways for beginners to start truly enjoying their iPhones.
Your iPhone is constantly checking for new information. Apps running in the background can interrupt you with notifications. So can calls and messages from people. Thankfully, Apple has provided tools to help deal with this effectively. We will discuss notifications settings in detail. These let you decide whether and how apps can inform you of things in normal circumstances. Meanwhile, focus settings let you determine what and who can interrupt you at a given time. Between these groups of settings, you can be in control of interruptions to your daily life from your iPhone.
The Voice Control feature allows people to control their iPhones entirely with spoken commands. Designed with sighted people in mind who have motion difficulties making use of the touchscreen difficult, the system can be used in conjunction with VoiceOver. This final lecture for 2023 will give a basic tour of how Voice Control works. This completes the many different ways there are of controlling your iPhone. In the new year, we’ll begin talking about the many different apps and services which can be used and accessed by blind people through the use of their iPhones.
shubh gives us a demonstration of the glasses. Following is a lengthy Q&A session.
You can reach him at shubh@seleste.co
the website is: https://www.seleste.co/product-page/seleste-smart-glasses
For many blind people, Braille is vital. They prefer to type in Braille and read in Braille rather than using a touchscreen and synthetic speech. This is quite possible using VoiceOver on your iPhone. Apple offers extensive support for using their products with Braille displays. This week, we’ll focus on what’s possible when you connect a Braille display via Bluetooth to your iPhone. We’ll also discuss Braille screen input which lets you type on the touchscreen as if it were a Braille keyboard. We’ll also go over some pitfalls of using Braille with your iPhone.
We store a lot of information on our iPhones. Apple does a lot to help keep that information secure. In this part of the Unseen Touchscreen course, we examine these security measures and the things we can do to safeguard our information while still making the most of our iPhones. The relevant section of the book is called Digitally Defending Yourself.
The topics for this session will include a brief tour of Siri. This digital assistant can be very helpful especially to beginners. We’ll discuss what Siri is designed to do and what it can’t do. Also, we’ll discuss how iOS handles sound. This is an area where iOS can present some challenges for blind people who aren’t aware of sound related decisions that Apple has made.
ScripTalk talking prescription labels help a variety of people who cannot get their prescription information in traditional ways. Talking prescriptions help people with vision impairment, they help people who are print impaired or have other neurological limitations.
The challenge, as we focus our efforts on bringing ScripTalk into more Canadian pharmacies, is to get you to speak with your pharmacy manager and let them know that these labels will allow you to be able to stay safe and independent while taking your medications.
for more information on ScripTalk visit the website: https://www.envisionamerica.com/
The Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) has recently introduced a new option to its talking book player line up. This is the Envoy connect player available for purchase through the CNIB smart life store. In this presentation about CELA’s new service supporting the Envoy Connect audio book player, we will cover the basics of the Envoy Connect player, basics of the associated CELA Connect software, and what the service launch involves.
In part two of our tour of settings, we review the mental mapping of the settings discussed in part one. We then continue our journey through the settings exploring the security, Apple, and third party apps areas. Combined with what has been covered in prior cessions, this should leave everyone in good shape to enjoy and continue to master their iPhones over the Summer break. In the Fall, we’ll proceed to discussions of security, using Braille displays with your iPhone, and much more. If people wish, they can email questions to me over the Summer months. I’ll be happy to help if I can.
The settings app is what you use to configure your iPhone so it best suits your needs. You can do everything from choosing how bright your display is to adjusting security options and enabling accessibility features. There are hundreds of settings inside various branches of options. This cession will be the first of a two part exploration of what settings are available. The focus will be on overall orientation to the Settings app plus deeper dives into some of the branches of options.
In this lecture, we’ll continue our tour of various aspects of the iOS operating system. Topics will include the powerful spotlight search feature, the app library and home screens, how to organize and move apps on your iPhone, how files are stored, when to use the iPhone storage settings area, the files app, the philosophy behind iOS, and current developments.
Now that you understand what the VoiceOver screen reader does and know some basic gestures, it’s time to learn about the iOS operating system. We’ll take a tour of its main points of interaction with users. These include the home screens, notification centre, control centre, dock, status bar, today view, widgets, and spotlight search. We’ll also discuss what iOS does for its users behind the scenes. For a deeper dive, read the section of the guide called The iOS Operating System.
In part 2 of our exploration of Voiceover, Michael Feir will continue discussing various gestures and techniques for getting the most out of Voiceover. We will learn how to reach the home screens and other key parts of iOS. There are also a good many settings which can help you customize Voiceover to suit your particular needs. Features such as navigation styles, quick settings, rotor settings, and more will be covered.
Wayne Antle describes how to move contacts to different apps using drag and drop with voiceover.
The key to a blind person being able to effectively use an iPhone is the Voiceover screen reader. This provides a means of controlling an iPhone without sight as well as feedback via speech or Braille. This lecture will discuss various aspects and concepts of Voiceover. The rotor, navigation by units, screen exploration and important gestures will all be discussed.This course is based on the second edition of Michael Feir’s free e-book, Personal Power: Getting the Most From iOS as a Totally Blind User. This book can be downloaded in several formats from: Michael Feir’s Blog: April 2022People who have trouble downloading the book in the format of their choice should email Michael directly at: Michael.feir@gmail.com
When you start using an iPhone, you’re entering a carefully crafted ecosystem of hardware, software, and services. Apple tries to make its customers feel valued at the same time as they seek to profit from them. There are many implications of this. It’s far easier, for example, to purchase and read books using the Books app included on your iPhone than it is to obtain books from other vendors like Kindle. The same holds true for music, TV shows, etc. We’ll examine the advantages and disadvantages of Apple’s tight control of the app store and by extension, of what you can do on your iPhone. We’ll also talk about the economics of owning an iPhone and getting the greatest possible use out of it.
In this podcast, Wayne Antle walks us through using the powerful voiceover help features available on the mac.
NaviLens is a new and exciting cutting-edge technology which has been developed to provide blind and visually impaired people with more accessibility and autonomy in their everyday lives. Oran McAllister, Client Engagement Officer at NaviLens, gives a presentation about the NaviLens Codes and the amazing features of this technology. He gives a short introduction to the NaviLens code, how it came about and how it works, additionally he speaks about the many use cases of the technology around the world, from transportation infrastructure wayfinding to product packaging, as well as validation from many users and associations from across the globe. Furthermore, Oran speaks about how NaviLens can be used in the home, in associations, and in schools using the free NaviLens kits, in addition to telling us a little more about the future of NaviLens.For more information, http://www.navilens.com/ https://www.rnib.org
November is Diabetes Awareness Month. On this special evening meeting we are pleased to welcome Heather Walkus, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians with Disabilities (CCD), who is a user of the Dexcom 6 continuous glucose monitor system. Heather will present to us her experiences about its accessibility and usability for our community.
More info, https://www.dexcom.com
Using a smartphone with a visual impairment can sometimes be frustrating and difficult. At Hable, we like to make this easier for you. The Hable One is the easiest Braille keyboard to control your smartphone.
Do you use Voiceover or Talkback on your smartphone and struggle with swiping gestures? Or do you find on-screen typing cumbersome and takes up a lot of energy? Then the Hable One is probably of interest to you.
This week, Michael Feir focusses on hardware. He will explain what differentiates one iPhone from another and why it matters to you. From microchips, cameras, memory, and storage, we will talk about what is under the glass. Michael will also discuss accessories you may wish to acquire for your iPhone. From cases to keyboards to chargers, we will talk about how to shop for them and what to be careful of when you do.
Before we pull back and look at the larger picture, this month’s lecture is my attempt to give you the equivalent of a quick start guide. Sighted people will typically have access to enough instructions so that they are able to start exploring and enjoying their iPhones with a minimum of fuss. They are given very basic navigation instructions and directed to the app store among other resources. Blind people lack such resources which take their very different experience into account. This lecture will attempt to provide enough knowledge about key aspects of iPhone use to allow you to start doing things. Topics such as Voiceover, typing on your iPhone, setting up an iPhone totally blind, obtaining the iPhone user guide from the Books app or on the web, and much more. People may wish to read the Quick Start section of the Personal Power eBook before attending the lecture.
the Unseen Touchscreen online course will give the information needed by blind iPhone users to make the most out of these powerful and versatile devices. The course is based on the second edition of Michael Feir’s free e-book, Personal Power: Getting the Most From iOS as a Totally Blind User. This book can be downloaded in several formats from: Michael Feir’s Blog: at http://michaelfeir.blogspot.com/2022/04/ People who have trouble downloading the book in the format of their choice should email Michael directly at: Michael.feir@gmail.com
Wayne gives us a walk-through of the voiceover settings on the Mac explaining what each setting does
Description: Two years and literally thousands of changes later, the second edition of Personal Power is now available. It is an eBook which I wrote and am giving away freely. Basically, the book takes people from setting up their iPhones to thriving in the iOS environment. It teaches how to use Voiceover, the various parts of iOS, and a whole lot of apps.
. The link to the guide is:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-1GAc2-HM1drA0GEj4fEBgQxIh4bHSKC
We all get distracted by our iPhones. The answer used to be to turn on “do not disturb”. This would prevent notifications from being announced and prevent pretty much everyone from contacting you. Apple has improved upon this with a new feature called “Focus”. That is where “do not disturb” went to hide on everyone. It is now one of several different focus modes. You can take far more control over what apps can disturb you. and who can contact you when you are busy. There is more of a learning curve which comes with this increased flexibility. Together, we will explore how to customize and even create your own focus modes. We will also learn how to take control of this new addition to iOS.
Caroline has used both Apple and android phones. She joins us to present on the pros and cons and features and her decision to use an android phone at present.
As a follow-up to our presentation on using Siri a couple of weeks ago, we explore the Siri shortcuts app and show how to create your own shortcuts for Siri to use.
In this 44 minute presentation, Gerry demonstrates using Microsoft Word from the keyboard with no mouse. Gerry explains basic keyboard navigation and screen reader commands by demonstrating various Word tasks including:
- Navigate Word Views.
- Navigate the Ribbons.
- Navigate and Search document text.
- Apply headings.
- Set character attributes.
- Set Text alignment, and font size.
- Make bulleted or numbered lists.
- Copy/paste formatting.
- Insert hyperlinks.
- Add Tables.
Create a table of contents.
Join us for a presentation about Accessibuild, a Canadian building navigation system that empowers users to navigate indoor environments independently using their Android or iOS device. Jeff Godfrey, the lead developer, will be discussing how the app works and provides a demonstration.
Thanks to the CCB GTT Edmonton team who always brings Steve Barclay to present to their group around this time, we are bringing Steve back on a national call to tell us all the exciting news from Canadian Assistive Technology. Come and learn about new products, most popular software, devices, and more. Maybe you will find that perfect gift for yourself or someone else.
A deep dive into the accessibility settings on I devices running IOS 15. Come learn about all of your accessibility settings. Where they are. What they do, and how to customize them.
Wayne gives a great walk-through of how to use messages on the Mac explaining which key commands he is using and giving examples and scenarios as he goes through.
Come and learn about Windows 11 and its accessibility. Dan gives us a peek at some of the differences in the new Windows 11
FROM PRINT TO VOICE: THE MAKING OF AN AUDIO BOOK, Neal walks us through creating an audiobook he talks about things ranging from audio editing to the inflection a narrator might choose to use. He shows us a clip of a book he recorded and several clips of narrators discussing how they choose to narrate
Laurie Davidson, Executive Director at CELA, updates the group on what’s happening with CELA’s work, in the area of collections, partnerships and technology. Lindsay Tyler shares information about CELA services, how to join, find out what books and magazines are available, and ways to read them.
Wayne gives us a great Demonstration on how to use The numbers spread sheet application for the Mac.
We all can use some help keeping track of the stuff of life. The Calendar and Reminders apps are Apple’s current answer to that problem. The Reminders app focuses on tasks and projects in our lives rather than appointments and events. You can set reminders to alert you based on due dates, make them triggered based on where you are, and keep track of which steps in bigger projects have been completed. We’ll examine the Reminders app in detail and go through all of the features it contains for reminding you of what needs doing in your life.
Voxmate is a new Android app with audio-first applications that can be operated with just four gestures. With Voxmate, you can read news, listen to audiobooks, play games, chat on the Audio Forum and more by simply swiping up, down, left, and right. The app was designed from the ground up to focus on a great audio experience rather than describing what’s on the screen, and that makes the whole experience uncluttered, intuitive, and worth your time. Katja, the co-founder of Voxmate, introduces us to the app and talks about future iOS plans.
Using Seeing AI short text, product, and handwriting channels to identify products. Using Seeing AI short text and document channels, as well as Voice Dream Scanner to read documents. Using Tap Tap See to identify colours. Using BeMyEyes and other visual assistance such as AIRA or Facetime video.
Sight Tech Global is the first global, virtual conference dedicated to fostering discussion among technology pioneers on how rapid advances in AI and related technologies will fundamentally alter the landscape of assistive technology and accessibility.
The latest version of iOS has just been released. There are hundreds of changes. Michael Feir will explain some of his favourites so far. For people feeling that rotor frustration, relief is a two finger four-tap away. VoiceOver now has quick settings which make it easy to access a wide range of convenient settings without using the rotor. Notes has gotten a new organization method called tags which helps keep things straight without making lots of folders. The Weather app has gotten a complete makeover and packs more information. Michael will show you how a new VoiceOver feature called group navigation can turn the sprawl into a quick and tidy experience.
Join Stephanie Shingle with En-vision America and learn how you or a loved one can get talking prescription labels for Free from your pharmacy! website: https://www.envisionamerica.com
Learn what to expect in the upcoming federal election. Discuss tips and tricks for voting successfully, what tools and assistance will be available, what technologies might assist you
Wayne gives us a talk on QR codes, what they are and how we use them. He includes two ways to quickly scan a QR code. Many great questions follow including the possibilities of using QR codes for personal use.
Chris tells us all about the 2021 NFB Convention, July 6 – 10, anywhere and everywhere. This conference will be fully virtual. We also get to hear a lot about what attending one of these conferences is like in person during non-covid times. Enjoy For more information visit the website at nfb.org
Darren Burton, former Director of Technology for the American Foundation for the Blind and accessibility specialist at Yahoo, will tell some stories about working with Silicon Valley and other tech companies. He will focus on some of the history around Apple’s development of VoiceOver for the iPhone, including his involvement with the giants that made that happen.
Learn all about a different audio book subscription model libro.fm
For more information visit the website at libro.fm
Diana Brent takes us through the voiceover rotor settings explaining what each rotor option does. Giving examples of how you might choose to use each one.
Sabrina Knappe and Jeff Blum from McGill University’s Shared Reality Lab give an introduction to a new project, being carried out in strategic partnership with Gateway Navigation CCC Ltd and the Canadian Council of the Blind. The goal is to create rich renderings of graphics you encounter while browsing the internet, using audio and touch (haptic) interfaces. Sabrina and Jeff talk about the project’s approach, how it will compare to existing tools, and give some examples of how technology like spatialized audio can help convey information more concisely than ordinary text-to-speech. To learn more about the project or get involved, please see https://srl.mcgill.ca/atp
In a similar format to last week's podcast Kim Kilpatrick gives us a walk-through of the settings pertaining to the mail app. Afterward she gives us a walk-through on how to use the mail application itself.
Kim Kilpatrick gives us a thorough walk-through of the contacts application for iPhone. She also takes us through each setting for contacts located within the settings application, explaining each setting.
Jim and Wayne give us a live demo of Rogers ignite TV using a television as well as the application for iOS. Included about a minute into the recording is Wayne's orientation of the ignite remote.
Kim Kilpatrick gives us a thorough walk-through of the settings for the phone application on iPhone. After that she gives us a walk-through of the phone application itself explaining what each tab is for and what options each tab contains.
Wayne Antle who has had ignite TV for two and a half years gives us a demonstration of the capabilities of this screenreader. He talks through the set up of the product and discusses how visually impaired persons receive a discount with the use of this package.
Bryan and Michelle give a demonstration of the OrCam showing us it's different features. Plenty of informative questions and answers follow their presentation. their emails are: bryan.wolynski@orcam.com michelle.mendez@orcam.com
Wayne gives us a thorough description of what Twitter is and what you might use it for. Many great questions follow with Wayne giving further descriptions and scenarios on what you might use it for and what kind of information you can find on Twitter.
Show Notes Date: April 7, 2021
Theme: Windows Screen Reader Experience
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
In this 43 minute podcast, Gerry will demonstrate the experience of using Windows from the keyboard with a screen reader and no mouse. The presentation is not intended to teach screen readers but rather provide an experience of what it is like to use a screen reader when you cannot see the screen or use the mouse. It is intended for low vision people who are struggling to use Windows with a mouse as their vision loss progresses and they might wonder what the screen reader experience is like. For his presentation Gerry will use the Narrator screen reader since it is part of Windows 10. He will demonstrate:
- Desktop navigation
- Document’s folder navigation
- Editing and saving a document in Notepad
- Using Outlook email
- Using a web browser
José cintron gives us a explanation of what these glasses are and how they look/feel. He gives us a thorough demonstration of the different settings and modes these glasses have. Following the presentation are many great questions.
Shane Lowe gives us a walk-through of the Supersense application which can be found on android and iPhone platforms. He discusses features and the many different cases in which people find this application useful. Following the presentation are several great questions. Shane's e-mail is: shane@mediate.tech
the team who created the Lui assistant gives us a thorough demonstration of the tool. This great demonstration of all Luie's capabilities is done on the android operating system. We also get to hear some applications Luie will support in the future.
Arjun Mali walks us through the many Uses of the buzz clip giving us a detailed description of what and how this proximity sensor works. Website link below: www.imerciv.com information about the detailed map of Toronto link below: www.mapinhood.com you can reach Arjun at : arjunmali@imerciv.com
Jessica and Darcy from the way around team give us a thorough presentation on way around tags. They describe what they are, the many uses they can be put to, how to use the application and the most recent updates to the app. There is an iOS application as well as android. In this demonstration the iOS app is used. To learn more about way around look them up on YouTube, link pasted directly below. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC20nd5nzn8Dof2p1zFPDDTA
Kim Kilpatrick continues her walk-through of the podcasts application for iOS. Also briefly walking us through two other great podketcher applications for iOS.
David Greene gives us a walk-through of the YouTube application for IOS. He explains what YouTube is used for. He walks through how to control the playback of videos, subscribe, and search for videos.
Through Samantha's conversation with her panelist they explore the diversity in blind identity. Discussing similarities and differences. Within the community touching on intersectionality and its relevance in discussion with and about the blind community.
Kim Kilpatrick gives us a description of, what exactly is a podcast? Why would you want them? And how to find them. She explains how to use the application going through each of the tabs and explaining their function.
David Green walks through the tabs in the Facebook application for iOS. Today he is walking us through the profile tab. He takes us through the options giving helpful voiceover user tips as he goes. This is a great introduction to a user who is wondering what exactly is a Facebook profile.
Sam gives us an introduction on Instagram's use. She outlines what Instagram is and why the blind community might be interested in accessing it.
David Green walks us through the RBC banking application showing and explaining the functions of each banking tool. For further questions feel free to reach out to gttprogram@gmail.com
Joseph and Wayne discuss and explain how they do their taxes as low-vision/blind persons. They give out lots of information relevant to persons with disabilities including tax credits. This podcast was recorded on January 13 2021. This information may no longer be relevant depending on when you our listening. To find out more, visit CRA at https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency.html
Samantha Moore gives us a walk-through Facebook privacy settings. In the previous week's show Samantha gave a presentation on Facebook. Everyone agreed it would be prudent to go through the privacy settings more in-depth. if anyone is interested in having individual or small group support in learning and using facebook, please e-mailgtt@ccbnational.net
Samantha gives us an overview of Facebook using the iOS app. She discusses Facebook conceptually as well as taking us through some of the more commonly used features and options. Coming in a follow-up presentation will be a discussion and a walk-through of Facebook's privacy settings to complement Sam's introduction to a few key SETTINGS.
Show Notes: December 16, 2020 Theme: Excel from the Keyboard Intro Presenter: Gerry Chevalier GTT.Edmonton@gmail.com In this 18 minute presentation, Gerry demonstrates the experience of using Excel from the keyboard . Gerry demonstrates building a simple grocery shopping list to show basic keyboard navigation and screen reader commands to operate Excel. It is not an instructional Excel podcast but just a demo of what it's like to use Excel with a screen reader and no mouse.
Kim Kilpatrick gives us a thorough overview of the Apple Store application. She discusses uber eats as well as some of the recent changes in the application. Nolan jenikov gives a quick overview of uber eats newist option, grocery delivery.
KIM KILPATRICK walks us through each 1 of the rotor options explaining the function of each option. Following her presentation we have a great discussion on how people prefer to do the rotor action and what options individuals prefer most on their rotor.
Get Together with Technology (GTT)
Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB), the voice of the blind in Canada.
Show Notes:
October 29, 2020
Theme: Victor Reader Stream Bookshelves Part 2 of 2
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
GTT.Edmonton@gmail.com
In this 68 minute second of two presentations, Gerry demonstrates how to use the Victor Reader Stream online bookshelves to organize and play different types of Internet media. The Victor Stream is a popular digital talking book player for blind people manufactured by HumanWare. This second presentation focuses on managing online content including CELA Library Direct to Player books, Podcasts, Internet radio, and Wikipedia and Wiktionary articles.
You will learn how to:
- Connect your Stream to a Wi-Fi network.
- Configure your Stream to use the CELA Library Direct to Player service.
- Perform Stream multi-tap text entry.
- Download CELA Library Direct to Player Books comparing the Stream’s automatic or manual download modes.
- Use your computer to search the CELA Library for Direct to Player books.
- Navigate the Stream Direct to Player bookshelf.
- Return a Direct to Player book to CELA.
- Navigate the Stream’s Podcast bookshelf and play podcasts.
- Download new podcast episodes and delete episodes.
- Configure the Stream for manual or automatic episode download.
- Move an episode to the SD card.
- Add or remove podcast feeds.
- Backup your list of feeds to the SD card.
- Change the HumanWare suggested podcast feeds.
- Use the Stream’s Internet radio bookshelf to listen to radio stations.
Add stations to your favorites and delete stations you no longer want.
- Select different HumanWare suggested playlists.
- Create your own playlists.
- Backup your playlists to the SD card.
- Use the Stream’s References bookshelf to find articles on Wikipedia and
- Save articles or move them to the SD card.
For more information about the GTT Program including one on one tech training contact: Phone: (613)567-0311 or 1-877-304-0968
Email: ccb@ccbnational.net
Web www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT)
Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB), the voice of the blind in Canada.
Show Notes:
October 22, 2020
Theme: Victor Reader Stream Bookshelves Part 1 of 2
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
GTT.Edmonton@gmail.com
In this 67 minute first of two presentations, Gerry demonstrates how to use the Victor Reader Stream SD card bookshelves to organize and play different types of content. The Victor Stream is a popular digital talking book player for blind people manufactured by HumanWare.
The Stream uses a bookshelf paradigm to manage content. Gerry explains the SD card bookshelves and what kind of content to place on each bookshelf folder of the SD card including DAISY books, Audible books, MP3 books, Podcasts, text files, and voice notes recorded by the Stream. You will learn how to:
- Use Windows File Explorer to create folders .
- Rename folders and place files into them.
- Extract book folders from Zip files that you download from CELA Library and other content providers.
- Unprotect a file downloaded from the Internet.
- Transfer DAISY books and other types of files from your computer to the Stream SD card bookshelf folders.
- Transfer an Access Technology Institute text book to the Stream.
- Organize songs by genre, artist, and album using subfolders on the Stream’s music bookshelf folder.
- Archive Stream recorded notes by moving them to the Other Books and Podcasts bookshelves.
- Navigate different book types on the Stream including Microsoft Word documents and DAISY Text books and use the Stream to search within these text books.
- Search Wiktionary and Wikipedia using the Stream.
- Safely remove SD card media from your computer.
For more information about the GTT Program including one on one tech training contact: Phone: (613)567-0311 or 1-877-304-0968
Email: ccb@ccbnational.net
Web www.ccbnational.net
Peter gives a presentation on the latest in Humanware products and updates. Lots of discussion on braille displays and the Victor trek. Lots of great questions and discussion following the presentation
Wayn gives us an overview of the Mac. Comparing and explaining the learning curve experienced when transitioning to Windows. He explains some key concepts and key commands. Following are some great questions and further explanations by others. Information packed a s always. Please reach out to Kim Kilpatrick for information regarding the book Wayn mentions
Kim Kilpatrick walks us through the benefits of using a Bluetooth keyboard with an iOS device. She discusses different kinds of Bluetooth keyboards as well as the utility of setting the caps lock key as another toggle for theVO keys. She describes where to find important keys on the keyboard and goes through some useful voiceover key commands. She discusses and explains how to reassign the voiceover commands and discusses why this is useful. This is an information packed podcast. To request Kim's notes which she used during this presentation please contact her at gttprogram@gmail.com
Kim Kilpatrick describes each of the iOS gestures and what they do by default. Kim describes how to carry out certain gestures such as using the rotor and how a 2 finger skrub works. Following her presentation are some great questions and suggestions on how people carry out certain gestures. To request Kim's notes on this topic please email her at gttprogram@gmail.com
Kim Kilpatrick explains the different ways one can download books into voice dream reader. She discusses downloading books through Selah within the voice dream app. She discusses downloading books through Bookshare as well. We learn how to create folders invoice stream to organize our books Kim and others discuss how and what they use voice dream reader For.
Kim Kilpatrick gives a walk-through of voice dream reader and answers some of the common questions when it comes to downloading books. A short discussion at the end of the episode about seeing AIand scanning applications
An introduction to using the easy reader app for iPhone. Kim Kilpatrick shows us some of the basic function of easy read or and the basics of navigating the app
Get Together with Technology (GTT)
Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB), the voice of the blind in Canada.
Show Notes:
August 19, 2020
Theme: CELA Library Magazines and Newspapers
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
GTT.Edmonton@gmail.com
In this 15 minute second of two presentations, Gerry presents the magazine and newspaper services offered by the CELA Library from a keyboard user’s perspective. CELA is Canada’s largest nationwide library service for persons unable to read print. It offers materials in alternate print formats such as recorded DAISY audio , digital text, and braille. Gerry shows how to find a magazine in Direct to Player format and apply search filters. He also shows how to subscribe to magazines. He then describes how to find and read newspapers online. His explanations describe keyboard navigation and shortcuts for blind users who cannot use a mouse.
For more information about the GTT Program including one on one tech training contact: Phone: (613)567-0311 or 1-877-304-0968
Email: ccb@ccbnational.net
Web www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT)
Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB), the voice of the blind in Canada.
Show Notes:
August 12, 2020
Theme: CELA Library Overview and Book Search
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
GTT.Edmonton@gmail.com
In this 27 minute first of two presentations, Gerry presents an overview of how to use the CELA Library service from a keyboard user’s perspective. CELA is Canada’s largest nationwide library service for persons unable to read print. It offers materials in alternate print formats such as recorded DAISY audio , digital text, and braille. Gerry explains these formats and service options. Gerry demonstrates how to login to the service and reviews the main page. He shows how to set search preferences, search for a book in Direct to Player format, apply search filters, and browse for books. His explanations describe keyboard navigation and shortcuts for blind users who cannot use a mouse.
For more information about the GTT Program including one on one tech training contact: Phone: (613)567-0311 or 1-877-304-0968
Email: ccb@ccbnational.net
Web www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Show Notes: July 8, 2020
Theme: Microsoft Outlook
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
Gtt.edmonton@gmail.com
In this 31 minute 10th and final episode of the Windows from the Keyboard series, Gerry discusses Microsoft Outlook. He demonstrates some changes to the View settings to make the display less cluttered for keyboard users. He examines the different Outlook views, mail, Calendar, and contacts. He comments on navigation on the folder list and message list. He demonstrates attaching a file to an email and saving a file attached to an email. He notes some very important shortcut keys for JAWS users for reading message headers. He concludes with a quick look at the Calendar and Contact forms. You may find much of the information presented in these 10 episodes in written form as a series of weekly blog posts under the category, Windows from the Keyboard Tips on the GTT Program blog site.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators/Trainers: Kim Kilpatrick 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 513
GTTProgram@Gmail.com
David Green 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 509
AccessibilityTraining7@Gmail.com
CCB-GTT Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Show Notes: July 1, 2020
Theme: Microsoft Backstage View and Save As
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
Gtt.edmonton@gmail.com
In this 24 minute 9th episode of the Windows from the Keyboard series, Gerry discusses Microsoft Backstage view and the standard Windows Save As Dialogue. He explains how to navigate the Backstage view categories and their associated controls. He also comments on differences between the standard Windows Open and Save As dialogues compared to their equivalents in the Backstage View and explains the standard Save As dialogue controls.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators/Trainers: Kim Kilpatrick 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 513
GTTProgram@Gmail.com
David Green 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 509
AccessibilityTraining7@Gmail.com
CCB-GTT Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Show Notes: June 24, 2020
Theme: Microsoft Ribbons
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
Gtt.edmonton@gmail.com
In this 19 minute 8th episode of the Windows from the Keyboard series, Gerry discusses Microsoft ribbons. He explains how to navigate the ribbons and execute ribbon commands. He also shows how to use the Quick Access Tool Bar, and how to search for ribbon commands and get help using the Tell Me What You Want To Do search tool.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators/Trainers: Kim Kilpatrick 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 513
GTTProgram@Gmail.com
David Green 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 509
AccessibilityTraining7@Gmail.com
CCB-GTT Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Show Notes: June 17, 2020
Theme: Internet Browsing
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
Gtt.edmonton@gmail.com
In this 30 minute 7th episode of the Windows from the Keyboard series, Gerry discusses Internet browsing including basic navigation and tab browsing. He covers these topics using the Freedom Scientific Surfs Up web site which he suggests contains an excellent set of self-paced lessons to learn how to browse and use the Internet. Gerry also shows how to copy the address of a web site to another program such as email or MS Word. He then shows how to download a file from the Internet by downloading the installation file for the NVDA screen reader from NV Access. He concludes the episode by showing how to configure the default browser ap using the Default Apps portion of the Windows System Settings.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators/Trainers: Kim Kilpatrick 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 513
GTTProgram@Gmail.com
Albert Ruel 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 550
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net
David Green 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 509
AccessibilityTraining7@Gmail.com
CCB-GTT Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Here is an older episode not previously posted.
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Show Notes: February 20, 2020
Theme: GTT Northern Ontario, Amazon Speakers,
Presenter: Albert Ruel
AlbertRuel@Gmail.com
Here’s an older recording just found for your enjoyment.
List of Amazon Echo speakers: * Amazon Echo Speaker * Echo Studio, with high-fidelity * Echo Dot * Amazon Tap, with battery * Echo Look, with screen and camera * Echo Show * Echo Spot * Echo Plus, a hub for setting up compatible devices
The features of the device include: voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, and playing audiobooks, in addition to providing weather, traffic and other real-time information. It can also control several smart devices, acting as a home automation hub.
Setting up Alexa, use the Amazon Alexa App. Alexa apps to download, Amazon Alexa App and Alexa Skills.
Here's how to set up your brand-new Amazon Echo. 1. Step 1: Download the Alexa App. 2. Step 2: Plug in the Echo. 3. Step 3: Connect the Echo to Wi-Fi via the app. 4. Step 4: Start talking to Alexa. 5. Step 5: Start using your Echo. 6. Optional Step 6: Connect smart home devices or an external speaker.
Setting up Alexa Skills: To enable Alexa skills in the Alexa app:
- From the menu, select Skills & Games.
- Find a skill you want to use, and then select it to open the skill detail page.
- Select Enable Skill, or ask Alexa to open the skill. Tip: Refer to the skill's detail page for examples of things to say and to learn more.
Establishing Alexa Routines: How to set up Routines in the Alexa app
- Launch the Alexa app on your phone or tablet.
- Tap the menu icon in the top left corner of the screen.
- Tap Routines.
- Tap the + icon in the top right corner of the screen. ...
- Select When this happens.
- Choose Voice.
- Type in your desired trigger phrase.
- Hit Save.
Attaching email accounts for calendar, contacts and email messages: Setting up your email account in the Alexa app.
- Open the Alexa app.
- Tap the Menu in the top left corner and select Settings.
- Select Email and Calendar.
- Tap the + button. Select your email provider. ...
- Log in to your email account.
To Learn more about Alexa: Listen to the Dot to Dot podcast, a series of 5 minute podcasts showing you how to access various skills, features and activities with your Echo Speaker. The latest one was posted on February 10 and is numbered 1107. Robin can be reached at thedottodotpodcast@gmail.com. Here are a few I thought might be of interest.
Help me get started with Skills:
Built-in Kindle Book Reading Feature:
Reading Kindle Books Revisited:
An article that could help you get more out of your Echo Speaker: 6 essential Amazon Echo tips you'll use daily
- Connect your Echo to your smart home devices
- Set an alarm from home or while on the go
- Listen to music, audiobooks and podcasts
- Play games with your friends or kids
- Ask for measurement conversions
- Find movies playing in theaters near you
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators/Trainers: Kim Kilpatrick 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 513
GTTProgram@Gmail.com
Albert Ruel 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 550
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net
David Green 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 509
AccessibilityTraining7@Gmail.com
CCB-GTT Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Show Notes: GTT Vancouver
June 6, 2020
Theme: Passwords, Security and iOS Ethernet Connection Presenter: Monty Lilburn
monty@bc.cx
This was the final meeting for the Winter/Spring session with the GTT Vancouver group taking the months of July and August off. Next meeting will be in September, and because the first Saturday in September will be on the Labour Day long weekend the meeting will be bumped to the second Saturday, September 12, 2020.
In this episode Monty talks about passwords, authentication and everything that goes along with it. Six topics were outlined and discussed:
1; Origin of passwords, Monty started with a brief history of password usage, as well as the use of “shibboleths” to identify those who belong, or don’t belong to a group, community, culture or class of people. These have often been used in wartime.
2; Identification and authentication, is when someone shows their user name to identify themselves and a means of proving they are who they said they are.
3; Multi factor authentication, for which there are 3 types, A) the knowledge factor, something you know like a PIN, a secret handshake or a password. Monty went into detail on password strength, which relates to length, complexity and unpredictability, and that humans aren’t good at randomness and tend to use repetitiveness, predictable patterns and dates. For example, the most often used password is 1 through 6 which is used 23,000,000 times in a British Cyber Security study. Other popular ones were 1 through 9, the letters Qwerty, the word password and the number 1 7 times. B) Something you have, or possessions, like a key to a lock, a smart phone or a token generator that generates a random number. C) is something you are, like a fingerprint, retina scan or a body image, relating to biometrics. Two additional factors have since been introduced, location and time. Banks will track time and location if a transaction happens in Vancouver at 10AM, and again in Frankfort Germany 5 minutes later on the same account.
4; Two-step verification, which introduces security questions or something you have like a cell phone. Sym jacking/porting are security risks that make this less foolproof.
5; Password managers, are databases that store passwords, credit card numbers, PIN’s and other items that secure your information and that need only one password in order to get in. Pros are that you only have one password to remember, they can generate strong random passwords and can store other related info. Cons, not all browsers support their use, all your eggs are in one basket and if you forget that one password you’ve lost all your accounts. One other Con is that it gives thieves one location to target. Monty then discussed the Apple Keychain as a password manager, as well as others like One Password, Last Pass. and Password Safe. The latter one is free, open-source and has been around a long time so has a good proven track record. Android smart devices don’t have a Keychain like Apple does, however do use a similar system called Google Smart Lock. Monty then worked through the prediction that passwords will be dead in 50 years or so, and that they are inherently crackable given enough time and powerful enough computers. Biometrics are a longer lasting way of authenticating users. Monty took several questions on the material presented so far.
6; Password viability, which relates simply to biometrics, length, strength and randomness.
Bonus Information: In the next section Monty outlined how he managed to connect his iPhone to a network cable in order to avoid the flakiness of Wi-Fi for conference calls like the Zoom call being recorded today. He was connected to a Qwerty keyboard, Blue Yeti microphone and an Ethernet cable through a Lightening to USB Camera adaptor. The $49 adaptor has a Lightening port and a USB 3 port to which Monty connected a 4-port USB hub that allowed him to connect all the above devices to his iPhone. The hub is powered as the iPhone hasn’t the ability to power that many devices.
For more information, please contact your GTT Coordinators: Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Show Notes: June 3, 2020
Theme: Windows Recycle Bin and Using External Media
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
Gtt.edmonton@gmail.com
In this 20 minute 6th episode of the Windows from the Keyboard series, Gerry discusses how to configure the Windows Recycle Bin to make it easier to use with the keyboard. He also explains how to restore a file from the Recycle Bin that may have been deleted accidentally. In addition to the Recycle Bin, Gerry discusses using external media with an explanation of how to configure the Windows AutoPlay feature and how to safely remove external media from the computer.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators/Trainers: Kim Kilpatrick 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 513
GTTProgram@Gmail.com
Albert Ruel 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 550
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net
David Green 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 509
AccessibilityTraining7@Gmail.com
CCB-GTT Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Show Notes: May 27, 2020
Theme: Windows File Explorer
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
Gtt.edmonton@gmail.com
In this 32 minute 5th episode of the Windows From the Keyboard series, Gerry provides a short story describing a paper file system as an analogy of managing folders an files on the computer. He then suggests File Explorer app View settings and folder options that are useful for keyboard users. Gerry then describes basic File Explorer tasks including: folder navigation, first letter navigation, selecting contiguous and non-contiguous files, copying/pasting files, creating subfolders, deleting folders/files, and renaming folders/files.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators: Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Show Notes: May 20, 2020
Theme: Navigating and Selecting Text in Word and Outlook
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
Gtt.edmonton@gmail.com
In this 4th episode of the Windows From the Keyboard series, Gerry demonstrates how to navigate text using the keyboard in Word and Outlook emails although many of the keystrokes apply to other Windows apps. In addition to navigating, Gerry discusses how to combine the Shift key with the navigation keys to select the text as you navigate. At the end of the episode Gerry comments on the Shift+F3 keystroke to change the case of selected text.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators: Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Show Notes: May 13, 2020
Theme: Task Bar
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
Gtt.edmonton@gmail.com
In this third episode of Using Windows From the Keyboard, Gerry, without touching the mouse, shows how to navigate the Windows Task Bar, how to use Jump Lists, and how to pin icons to the Task Bar. He also illustrates useful keyboard shortcuts such as Windows Key plus number row keys to jump to specific Task Bar icons and Windows Key plus ALT Plus number row keys to open the Jump List for specific Task Bar icons. The podcast concludes with a description of the Windows Run dialogue.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators: Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Show Notes: May 13, 2020
Theme: CELA Library Update
Presenters: Rina Hadziev, Executive Director, assisted by her library service team.
Rina.hadziev@celalibrary.ca
In this regular monthly CCB-GTT National Zoom session guest, Rina Hadziev, provides a brief overview of her background and interests. Rina then gives a talk on the status of the CELA web site and services as of May 13, 2020. Rina explains that the CELA platform will continue to be updated with missing features from the old system such as personal search preferences. She also mentions exciting new functionality that will come soon resulting from the Marrakesh Treaty such as integration of NLS books from the United States into the CELA collection. Also, Rina informed us of another CELA project that will provide the ability to search and obtain books from within Voice Dream, Dolphin EasyReader, and Humanware devices eliminating the need to search for books using a computer or smartphone browser. The podcast comprises a 24 minute presentation by Rina followed by 42 minutes of Q&A.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators: Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Show Notes: May 8, 2020
Theme: Typio Accessible Typing Tutor
Presenter: Steve Barclay
Steve@canasstech.com
In this CCB GTT Zoom open chat session, Steve Barclay demonstrated the Typio Accessible Typing Tutor software sold for $135 by Steve’s company, Canadian Assistive Technology. Steve began by giving information about Accessibyte, the company that makes Typio. He commented about other software for visually impaired people Accessibyte produces such as Arcade (games pack), Card (flash card system), and Power Pack which includes a notepad, calculator, talking dictionary, To Do List and more. These apps are designed by teachers of the visually impaired for use by visually impaired students. The apps run on Windows computers and are also available to use online for an annual subscription of $100. As an offering during Covid-19 sheltering, the online versions of all their apps are available free of charge until the end of June 2020. The advantage of the online versions is they can be used from any type of computer or device with Internet access. Steve demonstrated the Windows 10 version of Typio. It is self-voicing, so no screen reader is needed. It can be configured with different background/foreground colors and fonts for ease of use by low vision learners. For blind students, there are choices for voices and rate of speech. It teaches all the keys of a Windows computer including the numpad with self-paced lessons and skill building quizzes and progress reports. The demo was offered as a response to GTT participant’s who are facing gradual vision loss and need to learn touch typing to transition from sighted computer use to using only the keyboard to operate their computer.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators: Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB-GTT Backgrounder: GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes: May 6, 2020
Theme: Desktop Shortcuts
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
Gtt.edmonton@gmail.com
In this second episode of Using Windows From the Keyboard, Gerry, without touching the mouse, shows how to create desktop shortcuts to a web site, to the documents folder, and to the Microsoft Word app. Two methods are demonstrated: the desktop shortcut creation wizard and how to copy start menu shortcuts to the desktop. Also demonstrated is how to change the shortcut name, assign a hotkey, and specify the target app to run in a maximized window.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators: Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes: April 29, 2020
Presenter: Gerry Chevalier
Gtt.edmonton@gmail.com
In this first episode of Using Windows From the Keyboard, Gerry introduces basic concepts of using Windows without a mouse emphasizing the most important keyboard keys to use instead of the mouse. He also describes the main working areas of Windows: the Desktop, Start Menu, Task Bar, and System Tray. He concludes with examples of the importance of using the Applications key.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators:
Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder:
The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes: April 8, 2020
Theme: Accesibuild Indoor Navigation App
Presenters: Jeff Godfrey, app developer, can be reach through Accesibuild web site.
Brian Bibeault, beta tester
GTT.Northbay@gmail.com
In this regular CCB-GTT national conference call, the presenters demonstrate this new iOS and soon to be Android free indoor navigation app. The app helps anyone including blind and low vision people find points of interest in a building based on a digitized 3D map created by the app developer that is downloaded to the user’s smartphone. The building owner pays for the map development while the app is free for the user.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators: Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes: 13 GTT New Westminster Meeting Show Notes, JAWS and NVDA OCR, November 28, 2018
Presenters: Matthew Alvernaz, matalvernaz@me.com and Albert Ruel, Albert.GTT@CCBNational.net
This is an older recording from November 2018 that we thought could still assist those who are struggling to access PDF and other graphical images from their PCs.
Matthew Alvernaz and Albert Ruel demonstrated the use of the JAWS Layered Keystrokes to scan and read printed documents, convert PDF files to text, and how to access some graphics on the computer screen. These features have been available to JAWS users since version 14.
NVDA OCR features were also discussed and demonstrated by Matthew. NVDA may work better at this task with the OCR Add-on installed in order to provide access to PDF files with the keystroke NVDA/Insert R.
NVDA Download Page:
NVDA OCR Download Page: Important: if you are using NVDA 2017.3 or later on Windows 10, please consider using buit-in Windows 10 OCR.
Performs optical character recognition (OCR) to extract text from an object which is inaccessible. The Tesseract OCR engine is used. To perform OCR, move to the object in question using object navigation and press NVDA+r. You can set the OCR recognition language by going to the NVDA settings panel and selecting
JAWS For Windows Download Page:
JAWS Layered Keystrokes for OCR: Layered keystrokes are keystrokes that require you to first press and release INSERT+SPACEBAR, and then press a different key to perform a function in JAWS. Layered keystrokes are easy to use and remember, and they do not interfere with native keystrokes within applications.
Kurzweil Scan and Read for PDF Conversion: Kurzweil 1000 combines traditional reading machine technologies such as scanning, image processing, and text-to-speech with communication and productivity tools.
Openbook Scan and Read for PDF Conversion: OpenBook converts printed documents or graphic-based text into an electronic text format on your PC, using high-quality speech and the latest optical character recognition (OCR) technology. OpenBook is innovative software designed to enhance success for people who are blind or have low vision who need access to printed and electronic materials. OpenBook and the PEARL document camera create a complete scanning and reading system for work, home, and school.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators/Trainers: Kim Kilpatrick 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 513
GTTProgram@Gmail.com
Albert Ruel 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 550
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net
David Green 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 509
AccessibilityTraining7@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes: November 27, 2019
Theme: Library and Reading Apps for iOS Presenters: Ryan Fleury, Ryan@CanAssTech.com and Albert Ruel, Albert.GTT@CCBNational.net
Apps Demonstrated and Discussed: Voice Dream Reader/Writer Download from the AppStore.
4 Apps in This Bundle
Voice Dream Reader: demonstrated how to download audiobooks from Dropbox, the Files App and CELA Library.
Voice Dream Writer: demonstrated how to create documents and save them to VDR and how to use it for following an agenda during meetings.
Voice Dream Scanner: not demonstrated, however mentioned in terms of scanning on the fly or downloading from previously scanned documents.
Voice Pack: US English
Safari Browser, CELA Search and Favourites: demonstrated how to search for and download audiobooks to iOS devices, and how to set the CELA Library to the Favourites list.
CELA Library, Daisy Zipped and Direct To Player: demonstrated how to search for and send audiobooks to the Direct To Player bookshelf.
Dolphin EasyReader, CELA Library Direct To Player Download from the AppStore: demonstrated how to download Direct To Player audiobooks to this app from the CELA Library website.
Reading app for Dyslexia & VI by Dolphin Computer Access Ltd
Audible.ca/com: demonstrated how to use the app to listen to purchased audiobooks from the user’s Library.
Google Play Books download from the AppStore: demonstrated how to use the app to listen to purchased audiobooks from the user’s Library.
Other Audiobook Listening Apps Mentioned: Amazon Speakers
Google Speakers
Overdrive
Cloud Library
Hoopla
Libby
Kindle
iBooks/Apple Books App
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators/Trainers: Kim Kilpatrick 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 513
GTTProgram@Gmail.com
Albert Ruel 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 550
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net
David Green 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 509
AccessibilityTraining7@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes: GTT Beginners National Conference Call, iOS 13 New Gestures, November 26, 2019
Elmer Thiesen kindly provided this presentation. For questions contact him directly.
Adding The 2-Finger Swipe for Rotor Gesture The following are instructions for adding the 2-finger swipe right/left to turn the Rotor in iOS 13X.
- Scroll to Settings, One finger double tap.
- Scroll to Accessibility, one finger double tap.
- Scroll to Voiceover, one finger double tap.
- Scroll to Commands, one finger double tap.
- Scroll to All Commands, one finger double tap
- Scroll to rotor, one finger double tap.
- Scroll to Next Rotor, one finger double tap.
- scroll to Two Finger Swipe Right, one finger double tap to add.
- Go back two pages by one finger double tapping the Back Button at the top left corner of the screen twice.
- scroll down to previous rotor. One finger double tap.
- Scroll to add gesture, one finger double tap.
- scroll to Two Finger Swipe Left, one finger double tap to add.
- Go back two pages by one finger double tapping the Back Button at the top left corner of the screen twice, or just close the whole Settings page, your newly added actions are now available with a two finger swipe left or right to rotate your rotor.
Adding the 4-finger Swipe Up/Down Gesture to Open the Voiceover Settings Page To those interested, the following is instructions on setting up a gesture that will take you directly to the Voiceover Settings Page.
- Go to settings one finger double tap.
- Go to accessibility, one finger double tap.
- go to VoiceOver, one finger double tap.
- scroll down to commands, one finger double tap.
- scroll down to all commands, one finger double tap.
- scroll down to voiceover, one finger double tap.
- Scroll to open voice settings, one finger double tap.
- Scroll to add gesture, one finger double tap.
- Scroll down to whatever gesture you wish to choose, one finger double tap. I chose a four finger swipe down.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators/Trainers: Kim Kilpatrick 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 513
GTTProgram@Gmail.com
Albert Ruel 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 550
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net
David Green 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 509
AccessibilityTraining7@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder: The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
Show Notes: October 9, 2019
On October 9, 2019 the GTT National Conference Call discussed the above topic with the help of the below presenters, which was followed by a number of spirited questions from the floor. The presenters were asked to talk about 3 of the things they like and don’t like about the version being used on that date, namely iOS 13.1.2. Since then additional updates have been released so depending on the date you read these Summary Notes your experience may be different.
To learn more about iOS 13 visit this Apple Website:
To access many fantastic iOS 13 AppleVis Podcasts follow this link:
Presenters: Michael Feir, Elmer Thiesen, Tom Dekker, Kim Kilpatrick, Brian Bibeault and David Green.
Michael Feir: * Michael expressed frustration over the hang-up bug, and suggested that in iOS 13.1.2 users can use triple click on the home button three times to turn off Voice Over, which always resolves the freeze being experienced. * To set the triple tap on the Home or Side buttons to Voice Over do the following: Go to Settings, Accessibility and select the Accessibility Shortcut to launch Voice Over. * Be careful not to accidently click the button five times in a row without sufficient pause or you can activate the SOS call to 911. * Custom Controls Can Be used to limit or expand the haptic feedback and sounds given off by iOS 13 devices. The user can also re-define existing gestures, and define undefined gestures to functions that are difficult to manage, like the turning of the Rotor dial. * The Reminders app is another area where iOS 13 has made great strides. It is far more customizable and configurable to the needs of the end user. It now boasts some project management features that make it really good to use.
Elmer Thiesen: * Elmer indicated that for him the ability to customize gestures is a really big deal, and the first one he changed was the Rotor gesture to use two fingers sliding across the screen left or right to turn it in those directions. * He also expressed that the Vertical Scroll Bar is a great addition to iOS 13. It allows the user to scroll pages of information far more easily and efficiently. * Elmer likes the ability to establish Activities with desired features like, having a specific voice read emails with no punctuation, and another voice work on word processing apps with all punctuation turned on. These can now be customized to the user’s preference. * One of the bugs Elmer has struggled with is that Siri would get lost in what she was asked to access and keep repeating the same irrelevant thing over and over again until he re-set the Network Settings. Apple Support assisted in getting this sorted out.
Tom Dekker: * Screen Recording is the thing Tom likes most about the upgrade to iOS 13. it never quite worked well before iOS 13, and now works very well with good quality sound. * Commands and the ability to customize them is another of Tom’s favourite things about iOS 13. * On Screen Braille keyboard is better than ever. He can now type more quickly and with more accuracy than before. * Tom thinks that a weird thing is the iPhone User Guide downloaded to the iOS Books app. It only reads the first line or two of each paragraph. It doesn’t track anything correctly. Older Guides work well, but not this one.
Kim Kilpatrick: * Kim agreed that the iOS 13 User Guide doesn’t work well. * As for the hang-up bug, her experience seems to be that it only happens when she uses the microphone button on the wired earbuds. She also indicated that this bug didn’t come up during the beta testing phase, which she has been on since the beginning. * Kim expressed that a great feature of iOS 13 is that Accessibility is not buried in General and that it has its own spot in Settings. * Kim has heard that Low Vision users are liking the Dark Mode offered in iOS 13. * She indicated that there are some good things added to Braille support that allows Voice Over to have more things read back to the user as they type, however a bug seems to have been introduced that creates a disconnect when back spacing to delete errors. Kim also agrees that Braille Screen Input has improved dramatically. * Voice Control is another item Kim appreciates about iOS 13. Although it isn’t a Voice Over specific feature, it never-the-less works well with it, and it will really help those with limited hand function to access even more functions of their iOS devices. Voice Over users must use earbuds when accessing Voice Controls otherwise the Voice Over speech will interfere. The strong point about using Voice Control when dictating in an edit field is that Voice Over will read back what is being dictated periodically. It functions more like Dragon Naturally Speaking in that regard. this should only be used in quiet places otherwise it makes many errors. * Kim told the group that in Activities you can also adjust punctuation for different apps and activities according to your personal preferences, the voice, rate and punctuation can all be set for different apps and tasks.
David Green: * David told the assembled that when inserting passwords and code numbers for voicemail iOS 13 seems to be far faster in echoing the touch screen presses, which leads to increased accuracy in typing those characters. This is especially noticeable in voicemail entry codes. * One bug David noticed is in the Native Mail app. When he tries to move from one account to another focus seems to go into Edit Mode instead of activating the new account. It will also do this in the Messages app sometimes.
- David found that after the upgrade to iOS 13 the speaking voice was changed from his favourite American voice to a British one. The only way to fix this was to set the Location to America in order to get those voices back.
- Slide to Type is one feature that David will have to practice a lot before it will become comfortable, if it ever does.
- Many of the new features and functions of iOS 13 are not of interest to David, so he will likely give them a pass.
Brian Bibeault: * Brian wasn’t going to upgrade yet, however having forgotten to shut off his phone one evening he woke up to an upgraded iPhone. Since this event he has worked at trying to learn its new features and is getting comfortable with them. The first day was a nightmare, but he recommended that anyone intending to make the move go to AppleVis and listen to the many Thomas Domville podcasts about iOS 13. He provides a great set of tutorials and guides to the important features and upgrades. * One glitch Brian found is when using the Bluetooth Keyboard, the focus jumps all over the place unexpectedly. * Brian suggested that if one is going to use Voice Control, turn it off after using it, otherwise it’ll drive you nuts if you answer a phone call with it still turned on. It’ll keep repeating text not relevant to the conversation. * He found that his recent move to Bell Fib Cablevision has improved since iOS 13, whereas the app was not accessible with iOS 12.4.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators:
Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
CCB Backgrounder:
The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes: September 25, 2019
How to use Reader View on the Mac, PC, iOS and Android Browsers
What is Reader/Simplified View, and why does anyone want to explore it? Here’s an article that might explain it, followed by instructions on how to activate it in your favourite, or soon to be favourite browser.
Reader View First posted on July 12, 2018 by Rob Tomlinson
“Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s dictum that “Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away” can be re-deployed most helpfully when discussing Reader View, a topic that touches on web page design and browser behaviour.”…
PC Browsers:
Simplified View for Google Chrome on the PC: Google Chrome Download Page;
- type this into a new tab in Google Chrome
chrome://flags/#enable-reader-mode
press enter.
- A Chrome settings page comes up that you can navigate using headings.
- Press the letter H until you get to reading mode.
- There is a combo box that shows that reader mode is disabled.
- Press enter to go into forms mode if using Jaws.
- Press the down arrow to get to enabled and press enter.
- Go to the bottom of the page with control end and there is a restart chrome button, and Press enter.
- Now visit a page that has news stories such as this article from the Victoria Times Colonist,
- You can try down arrowing through the page and see all the links, controls and advertisements on the page.
- Press the Alt Key to bring up a menu and either up or down arrow to “Toggle distilled page contents” and press enter.
- you will hear your screen reader say, “Simplified View”.
- Now what you have is the news article in its entirety without the ads and other controls.
- To get the page back to normal view, repeat step 11 and press Enter.
- Press the Escape Key to close the menu.
Reader View for Firefox on the PC: Reader View is a Firefox feature that strips away clutter like buttons, ads and background images, and changes the page's text size, contrast and layout for better readability.
Mozilla Firefox Download Page;
- Open Firefox and enter the address of the page you want to visit, let’s use the Victoria Times Colonist article again.
- Examine the page with down and up arrow keys to see that it is cluttered with links, controls and advertisements.
- Press the f9 key to enable reader view.
- If nothing happens then reader view is not available for the current page.
- If reader view is available, the page loads and is clutter free.
Mac Browsers:
Reader View for Safari on the Mac: Safari Browser for the Mac Download Page;
To display an article in Reader on the Mac, do the following:
- Click the Safari icon on the Dock or Launchpad.
- Type in the URL for the website you want to visit.
For example, you might visit The New Yorker at www.newyorker.com.
- Click the article you want to read. You see the article with various advertisements, banners, photos, links, and so on.
- Click the Reader button, or press Command+Shift+R.
- If the article runs over several pages, Reader displays it as one continuous page so you need only scroll down, not click from one page to the next.
- If you need to adjust the size of the text, click the type buttons (the two A’s) in the upper-left corner.
- To exit Reader, click the Reader button, or press the Esc key to exit Reader and return to the normal Safari view of the article. Click the Back button to return to the original site.
- In both Reader and normal Safari view, press ⌘+= or ⌘+– to zoom in or out on the text. If you have a Magic Mouse or Trackpad or a MacBook that recognizes multi-touch gestures, you can also pinch in or out to zoom.
iOS 12.4 Browsers:
Sadly, we could find nothing to say there is a Reader or Simplified View for the Google Chrome Browser for iOS.
Reader View for Safari Browser on iOS: How to enable Reader View in Safari in iOS 12.4:
- Launch Safarifrom your Home screen.
- Navigate to the website you'd like to read.
- Tap the Reader button on the left of the address bar. It looks like a series of stacked lines.
- If the Reader button doesn’t appear it means the page isn’t able to be simplified.
Reader View for Mozilla Firefox Browser in iOS 12.4: Mozilla Firefox Download Page on the App Store for iPad and iPhone;
How to enable Reader View in Firefox on iOS:
- Launch Firefox from your Home screen.
- Navigate to the website you'd like to read.
- Tap the Reader button on the right of the address bar. It looks like a series of stacked lines.
- Double Tap it again to turn it off when you want access to more of the page.
- If the Reader button doesn’t appear it means the page isn’t able to be simplified.
Reader View for Microsoft Edge in iOS 12.4: Microsoft Edge Download for iPad and iPhone;
How to enable Reader View in Microsoft Edge on iOS:
- Launch Edge from your Home screen.
- Navigate to the website you'd like to read.
- Tap the Reader Mode button on the right of the address bar. It looks like a book that is open.
- Double Tap the Done button to turn it off when you want access to more of the page.
- If the Reader Mode button doesn’t appear it means the page isn’t able to be simplified.
Android Browsers: Simplified View for Google Chrome on Android: Google Chrome Browser Download from the Google Play Store;
How to Enable Reader Mode in Chrome for Android?
- Open Chromeon your Android smartphone or tablet and type
chrome://flags
in the address/search bar and hit enter. The Chrome Flags page will open up.
- Hit the three dot button inthe top right corner and tap “Find in page “.
- Once enabled, you will see a “Make page mobile-friendly” button at the end of the webpage.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators:
Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder:
The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes: September 11, 2019
- On September 11, 2019 Gerry Chevalier gave a presentation to the GTT National Conference Call Meeting demonstrating how to search for and download from the new website launched earlier this year by The Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA).
- Gerry used Windows 10 for this demonstration, and the web browser used was Google Chrome. The site also works well with Firefox and Internet Explorer.
- The screen reader used for this demonstration was JAWS for Windows, and both Narrator and NVDA are also compatible with the CELA Library website.
What is CELA: * The CELA accessible library service for print disabled Canadians provides many services including: downloadable recorded DAISY books, downloadable DAISY eBooks, downloadable Bookshare DAISY eBooks, DAISY books on CD mailed to your home, braille books mailed to your home, print-brailled books for kids, over 150 downloadable DAISY e-text magazines, recorded DAISY magazines by download or mail, and over 40 daily newspapers that can be read online. * In early 2019 CELA launched a new accessible website that brings together their collection and that of Bookshare searchable from one place. * Many will recognize these CELA services to be the same as those previously provided by the CNIB Library. CELA took over the CNIB Library in 2014 and now serves all print-disabled Canadians not just those who are blind or vision impaired.
The Players: * In addition to playing CD books the Victor Reader Stratus can also receive direct to player DAISY books over the Internet. The user chooses their book by logging into CELA online and once a book is chosen it is sent directly to the player. For non-computer users, CELA customer service or your local Librarian can set up a reader profile for you and then the CELA computer will choose your books and send them directly to the player or on CD mailed to your home. * It is also suggested some may prefer the pocket sized Victor Reader Stream which can accept the direct to player books and perform other online functions Such as getting Bookshare books and listening to podcasts and radio stations. * CELA Direct to Player audio books can also be played on your iPhone or Android phone using the free Dolphin EasyReader app. * CELA audio books can also be downloaded through Dropbox to iPhones and played using the Voice Dream Reader app.
How much does it cost: * There is no fee for CELA service or Bookshare service.
How do I find CELA: * Visit the CELA web site for information on all their services or call their customer service at 1-855-655-2273.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators:
Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder:
The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes: August 28, 2019
Microsoft Soundscape
A map delivered in 3D sound by Microsoft Corporation
Microsoft Soundscape was recently released in Canada in both official languages, Canadian French and English. You can download Soundscape free for iOS from the App Store here.
Presenting over the Zoom Conference to the GTT New Westminster group were Amos Miller, the Product Manager for Microsoft Soundscape Research in Redmond WA, and Jarnail Chudge, a technology designer and user experience expert on the team.
Microsoft Soundscape uses 3D audio technology to enhance your awareness of what is around you, and thereby help you get around and explore your surroundings.
Soundscape will place audio cues and labels in 3D space such that they sound like they are coming from the direction of the points of interest, parks,
roads and other features in your surroundings.
You will need a pair of stereo headsets that you feel comfortable wearing outdoors. For example, bone conduction headsets, Apple AirPods and in-ear open
headphones have proven to work well.
Soundscape is designed to live in the background and provide you with effortless ambient awareness. Therefore, feel free to use it in conjunction with
other apps such as podcasts, audio books, email and even GPS navigation.
Key features:
-
As you walk, Soundscape will automatically call out the key points of interest, roads and intersections that you pass. These can be adjusted and turned on and off.
-
An audio beacon can be placed on a point of interest, and you will hear it as you move around. You can place an audio beacon on a point of interest that you would like to track such as your destination, a point to return to or a landmark you are familiar with.
-
“My Location” describes your current location and the direction you are facing.
-
"Nearby Markers" describes nearby places you have marked.
-
“Around Me” describes nearby points of interest in each of the four cardinal directions, helping with orientation. Try this out when getting off a bus or leaving a train station.
-
“Ahead of Me” describes points of interest in front of you, for example when walking down the street.
-
The expandable Callout History section lets you review callouts you have heard, repeat callouts, hear more information about them, and more.
We hope you enjoy the experience. We believe that this kind of technology offers a new way to relate to the environment around you and we can’t wait to hear what you make of it.
If at any time you have any questions about Soundscape, please refer to the Help & Tutorials section available on the main menu or if you require further help then you can contact the Disability Answer Desk on
1-800-936-5900 which is a free of charge service.
This work started out in 2010/2011 when Amos was still in the UK. He was involved with the local guide dog organization there, and working with them to try and figure out how technology can integrate into our own independence and mobility when we’re out and about, but in a way that enhances that experience. Some people from Microsoft started working with mobility instructors, and guide dog and cane users. We explored a range of ideas long before we figured out how to solve the problem. We landed on this notion of how important it is to enhance the awareness, but not tell the person what to do in that space. A lot of what orientation and mobility trainers will do with us is to work on a specific route, but especially how to perceive the environment, how we read the cues that the environment is giving us from a sound perspective, echo location, traffic noise, direction of the wind, the tactile feeling of the ground: all of the signals we can get from the environment in order to orient, and make good navigational decisions. The work that we did with Guide Dogs in the early days of Soundscape was really to see how we can build on that. The idea of sound playing a big role in the perception of the space, was really how this idea evolved. Soundscape as an ap, is the first incarnation of that idea.
The ap is free, and available from the Ap Store. It does rely on map data, and so it does need to be able to access that data. For the most part, it will download the necessary data from the environment that you’re in, and from that point forward it’s not using data. So it’s not constantly drawing on your data plan, but it does require one. We’ve tried to optimize it so that the data usage is minimal, and in certain situations, it will also work in areas where there is no data.
Bose frames are a very good way to get the stereo effect, as are Bone conducting headphones. EarPods or standard headphones will work, but they will block your ears to ambient sound. Putting it in one ear to keep the other ear free won’t be effective because you won’t get the signature 3D effect. Amos said that he personally likes EarPods because of their sound quality, and it’s possible to insert them lightly into the ear and still have ambient sound. Some sports headphones are a good solution too, Plantronics for example. This type of headphone rests around the back of your neck, and clips over the ear. They sit in front of the ear canal without blocking it. They’re used commonly by runners and cyclists.
Users can email
soundscapefeed@microsoft.com
and that comes to the Microsoft Soundscape team. There is also a feedback button in the ap itself.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators:
Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder:
The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes: August 14, 2019
WayAround The Smart Assistant for People Who are Blind
Meet WayAround
WayAround is the app for your smart device that provides on-demand details about everyday things. The simple tag-and-scan approach lets you quickly and easily identify things around you. It also provides extra details, like how something works or when it expires.
The result? Doing more of the things you want, with more confidence and more independence.
Get the FREE App!
Download WayAround on the App Store
Download WayAround on the Google Play Store
Canadian Distributor: Canadian Assistive Technologies Ltd:
Check out this Sample Pack of WayAround Tags:
Contact Canadian Assistive Technologies:
OUR MISSION
Because Assistive Technology has been our lives for over 30 years, we understand the importance that any given device or piece of software can have in
our clients' day to day lives. We strive to ensure that every client has the tools and training they need in order to empower them to be able to live the
lives they want through the power of Accessibility.
1-844-795-8324
SALES@CANASSTECH.COM
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators:
Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder:
The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes: July 10, 2019
Windows 10 Accessibility Primer
Following is a summary of the Windows10 accessibility primer Carrie Anton and Lyle Rollaman presented to GTT National Conference Call meeting attendees on July 10, 2019. Although the presentation was focused on low vision Windows access there is information that is also relevant to blind users. There are links to other resources so you can research more commands and tools. The commands provided are for Windows 10. The resource links provided take you to the Microsoft pages where you can choose the version of Windows you are using. Also find at the bottom of this document links to three Microsoft Accessibility Learning Webinar Series episodes hosted by Microsoft staff related to low vision and blind access to Narrator and Magnification features built into Windows 10.
Windows Shortcut Keys Learning Windows Shortcut Keys is important to be Efficient and to be able to perform functions when you cannot use a mouse.
Windows Ease of Access Center This is where all Accessibility related settings can be adjusted.
Scaling This is a setting that adjusts the size and clarity of most items on your screen. The default is 125% but you can also customize it to what you want. Adjusting this to higher settings does require more scrolling of windows. Icons are larger, and text is larger without the stepping pixelating that often happens with magnifying things.
Right click anywhere on the desktop
Go to display settings
Scaling and Layout appear in the middle of the screen.
Magnifier Magnifier allows you to enlarge the entire screen or sections of it. There are 3 viewing modes including full, lens, and docked. Magnifier’s application toolbar appears in the Taskbar at the bottom of the screen. It may also hover a magnifying glass on your screen. Click it and see the tools like plus, minus, zoom percentage, View, and a gear for settings.
TO DO THIS
PRESS THIS
Turn Magnifier on
Windows logo key + Plus (+)
Turn Magnifier off
Windows logo key + Esc
When Magnifier is on, zoom in or out
Windows logo key + Plus (+) or Minus (-)
Zoom in and out using the mouse scroll wheel
Ctrl + Alt + mouse scroll wheel
Open Magnifier settings
Windows logo key + Ctrl + M
Pan in the direction of the arrow keys
Ctrl + Alt + arrow keys
Invert colors
Ctrl + Alt + I
Switch to full screen view
Ctrl + Alt + F
Switch to lens view
Ctrl + Alt + L
Switch to docked view
Ctrl + Alt + D
Cycle through views
Ctrl + Alt + M
Resize the lens with the mouse
Ctrl + Alt + R
Resize the lens with the keyboard
Shift + Alt + arrow keys
Quickly see the entire desktop when using full screen view
Ctrl + Alt + Spacebar
More About Magnifier https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/11542/windows-use-magnifier
Mouse Enhancements As one of the hardest things to find as a visually impaired person, the Pointer’s Size and Color often makes the difference in its visibility.
Also, if you can find your Mouse Settings in Control panel, you can adjust more mouse shapes and effects like pointer trails.
Press WindowsKey+U to open Ease of Access centre.
IN the Search box type, Mouse
Then the mouse panel appears and you can choose to change the look of the mouse, how it looks when moving, and more.
More on adjusting your
mouse settings
Cursor Thickness In the Ease of Access Center, “Other Options” you can change the thickness of the typing cursor by using a horizontal left/right slider from a blinking vertical line to a thick blinking box. This makes finding where your cursor is much easier.
Color & High Contrast There are many ways to change color of THE screens in Windows.
Magnifier’s invert color
Windows color filters – especially useful if someone has color blindness
Windows Themes – is a quick way to adjust all colors in every application for text, hyperlinks, buttons and active or inactive items.
I find that using a Windows Theme presents the best diversity of color especially high contrast. However, the possibility of losing information that is only represented by color is there. Take for example, a web page that is not coded for accessibility may eliminate colored items if a theme is enforced. You will need to be the judge of your own experience. For working with text and email Themes work great. For someone who is always on the web and uses cues from images and color, themes won’t work well.
Use invert colors of Magnifier or similarly the Color & High Contrast Invert setting. Keep in mind certain colors have hard to read inversions like organize and green. Yellow’s invert is blue. White is black.
TO DO THIS
PRESS THIS
Turn your High Contrast Theme on or off
press Left Alt + left Shift + Print Screen
Turn your color filter on or off
press Windows logo key + Ctrl + C
Text to Speech to Read What is Magnified There is a built-in screen reader called Narrator which I’ll mention later. For those of us who just want reading in MS Office documents there is a Speech feature you can activate. It reads aloud any text you select in the document. It can be activated by keyboard shortcut or a button in the Quick Access Toolbar at the top of the application. This feature is available in Microsoft Office 2013, 2016 and of course Office365.
Narrator Narrator is a full-blown screen reading application that does just that, it reads the screen. Again, keyboard shortcuts are handy in controlling and navigating documents.
Narrator has a setting panel that allows you to customize the way narrator acts such as voice, cursor and pointer following. Narrator also lets you “highlight the cursor” which is where it is reading, a red box appears around where Narrator is reading. This is useful when I am trying to hover my mouse over text I want read.
On many keyboards, the Windows logo key is located on the bottom row of keys, to the left or right of the Alt key.
TO DO THIS
PRESS THIS
Open Narrator settings
Windows logo key + Ctrl + N
Turn Narrator On or Off
Windows logo key + Ctrl + Enter for Windows 10
Windows Logo Key + Enter for Windows 7/8
More on Getting Started with Narrator
There are several ways to read text using Narrator. The first and simplest way is to use the arrow keys to navigate text if you’re interacting with a document in a word processor, such as Microsoft Word.
If an app doesn’t support text reading commands, Narrator will say “not on explorable text.” In this case, use Scan Mode to navigate and read text. While in scan mode you need to listen for Narrator saying scan on or scan off, otherwise, the letters or arrow keys you use are actually moving in your document.
Move to the next or previous word
TO DO THIS
PRESS THIS
Turn Scan Mode On or Off
Caps lock + Spacebar.
Read by paragraph in scan mode
Up and Down arrow keys
Read by character
Left and Right arrow keys
To activate an item that you want to use, such as a button in an app, a link in a webpage, or a text box
Press the spacebar
Move to the start or end of a line of text in an app or webpage
Home and End
Move to the beginning or end of text
Ctrl + Home and Ctrl + End
Move to the next or previous word
Ctrl + Left arrow and Ctrl + Right arrow
Move to the next or previous line
Ctrl + Up arrow and Ctrl + Down arrow
To learn more about Scan Mode. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/22809/windows-10-narrator-using-scan-mode
Speech Recognition A great feature for dictating to the computer as well as in documents. The trick to anyone using speech recognition software is to recognize when mistakes are made. You can open programs, control menus, click buttons and dictate text. First be in a quiet environment with a microphone connected to your computer. At the start menu type Speech Recognition or just speech and it will appear in the Start Menu.
More about Speech Recognition
Microsoft Accessibility Learning Webinar Series
Microsoft Accessibility Learning Webinar Series for low vision and blindness on YouTube
Accessibility Learning Webinar Series: Magnifier and Low Vision Features in Windows 10, Feb 27, 2019
Accessibility Learning Webinar Series: Narrator 101, Jan 30, 2019
Accessibility Learning Webinar Series: Narrator 101 for the May 2019 Update to Windows 10, Jul 2, 2019
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators:
Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder:
The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes:
Windows 10 Shortcut Keys:
JAWS Keyboard Commands:
NVDA Keyboard Commands:
Narrator Keyboard Commands:
Google Chrome Shortcut Keys:
Firefox Shortcut Keys:
General Windows, Mac, MS Office Shortcut Keys:
On June 26, 2019 Ryan Fleury and Albert Ruel presented some favourite shortcut keys to the GTT New Westminster group based on the below list.
Ryan’s frequently used Windows keyboard commands: Insert W application hot keys
Insert h jaws hot key info for application
Windows x works like a mini start menu
Windows I quickly jump to windows settings
Windows r opens the run dialogue
Insert spacebar h brings up jaws speech history
Windows E opens windows/file explorer
Windows D to go to desktop
Albert’s frequently used Windows keyboard commands: Insert T, Task Bar
Insert F, Font attributes in JAWS
Insert B, read the pop up window
Control Z, undo
Insert number row 1, keyboard help toggle
Control X, C and V, Cut, copy and paste
Control B, U and I, bold, underline and italic
Windows B, System Tray
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators:
Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder:
The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes:
On June 25, 2019 Albert Ruel demonstrated the use of the Rotor with Voice Over for effectively and efficiently accessing information from websites using iOS devices. A discussion of the Reader View available in the Safari Browser was also undertaken with a view to accessing just the text of articles rather than pages of advertising, links and other navigation controls.
Additional Resources: AppleVis is the main place to find out information regarding voiceover iOS apps on all 4 of the iOS family devices.
Bluetooth Keyboard Commands are listed here:
Logitech Bluetooth Keyboard K380:
Web Browsing using the Rotor with Safari: * Using both touch gestures on the iOS screen and the Logitech Bluetooth keyboard K380. * Voice Over and Safari on iOS, iPod iPad and iPhone with the latest version of iOS 12. * The rotor was used when web browsing to access Headings, Links, Form Fields, Edit Options, Text Selection, Characters, Words, Lines, Buttons and Tables. * To turn the Rotor to the above movement units move two fingers across the screen in opposite directions, or use the thumb and forefinger to mimic the turning of a knob. To do this on a Bluetooth keyboard press both the left and up arrow buttons to turn the Rotor to the left and use the right and up arrow buttons to move it to the right. * Once a movement unit is selected, a one-finger flick up will move to the previous item and a one-finger flick down will move to the next item. To do that with a Bluetooth keyboard press the up and down arrow buttons respectively.
Reader View Button in the Safari Browser: * The Reader View button is located at the very top of Safari on the left-hand side of the page and looks like a button with squiggly lines.
To access it perform a four-finger single tap near the top of the screen to bring focus to the top, or hold down the Control key and press the up arrow button.
- To activate and de-activate the Reader View button one-finger double tap it, or press the up and down arrow buttons together. When the Reader View button is activated it strips out most links, advertisements and other junk from a webpage.
- Voice Over will announce that Reader View is available once a web page is loaded.
- Reader View in Safari can be activated when accessing any website where it is available, or it can be programmed to automatically activate when all web pages are accessed, or just specific websites. To access the Automatic Reader View Menu, from the Reader View button perform a one-finger swipe up or press the up arrow, then one-finger double tap or press the up and down arrow buttons to activate the Menu. Use a one-finger swipe to the right or the right arrow button to examine the menu and one-finger double tap or press the up and down arrow buttons together to activate your desired option.
- Low vision configuration is available once Reader View is activated by one-finger double tapping or pressing the up and down arrow buttons on the keyboard on the Reader Appearance Options button to the right of the Address Bar. Swipe to the right or use the right arrow button to examine the list of options and one-finger double tap or press the up and down arrow buttons together to select desired items.
General Touch Screen Gestures:
- On all web pages, a one-finger swipe to the right, or pressing the Write arrow button will move focus to the next item, and a swipe to the left, or pressing the left arrow button will move to the previous item.
- To have Voice Over read from the top of the page perform a two-finger swipe up, or hold down the VO key and press the letter A. To have Voice Over read from the current position perform a two-finger swipe down or hold down the VO key and press the letter B.
- To pause and resume Voice Over’s reading of any document, email or web page perform a 2-finger single tap, or press and release the Control key. Both of the above gestures will toggle the reading functions on and off.
- Access Heading Navigation by turning to it with the Rotor, or holding down the VO key on a Bluetooth keyboard and typing the letter Q. VO + the letter Q will toggle it off again.
- Navigating by headings is the most important means of examining a web page, and once the desired section is found swiping to the right or pressing the right arrow buttons will move focus to the next item. Using Heading Navigation will avoid much of the junk at the top of web pages.
- Headings are like the chapter markers in a book. They are organized in a hierarchical numbering system with Level 1 Headings above Level 2 and so on. With VO + Q turned on pressing numbers 1 through 6 will move to those respective Level Headings.
- Every time a Google search is conducted in Safari there should be a Level 1 Heading titled: Search Results. Turn the Rotor to Headings then use a one-finger swipe down or press the down arrow button to locate the Search Results area, and eventually each of the results listed on the page.
- forefinger double tap on the iPhone screen will turn on keyboard help, this will enable you to test out key commands on the keyboard or swipes on the phone to hear descriptions of what that action will do when outside of keyboard help.
- To access the Status Bar at the top of the screen in any iOS device using a Bluetooth Keyboard hold down the Control key and the CapsLock key plus the letter M, then perform the same key command again to get out of the status bar.
Quick Navigation Keys: * to turn quick navigation keys on/off use left and right arrow Keys at the same time. * when typing into an edit field quick navigation keys are off. * Having quick navigation keys On enables one to use the Rotor to access headings, Characters, Words, Lines and many other navigation elements. * when the focus is on the address bar and it is clicked on you can assume that the text is selected and if using quick navigation it will turn off automatically so you can begin to type. Typing will replace the highlighted text. * The Rotor elements called Vertical Navigation and Rows will allow you to move up and down columns when in a table rather than swiping right and left to go horizontally across the screen then wrapping around to the next line or row. This is useful on bank statements as an example.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators:
Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder:
The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes: June 12, 2019 Robert Felgar, CEO, Raz Mobility attended the GTT National Conference Call to tell us all about the Lucia talking cell phone that is now available for sale to Canadians.
- Lucia is an Accessible mobile phone for individuals who are visually impaired, blind, hard of hearing or seniors.
- Lucia is a user-friendly cell phone that allows persons who are disabled to remain independent.
- Advanced features such as accessible buttons in different colors and shapes, voice guide to transform the phone into a talking companion, ergonomic design, combined with long battery life, make this high-quality, Swiss-made phone the perfect mobile phone for users who are disabled.
- Lucia has a powerful battery and can operate for more than one week before requiring a charge (up to 7 days standby time and 10 hours of talking time).
- Lucia allows users who are blind to enter their own contacts and move through the contact list to hear the contact names read out loud.
- Low vision users benefit from extra large characters and can choose between various color schemes such as white on black or black on white display.
- For emergencies, the phone has a dedicated SOS button on its back.
- Easy to navigate menus with large and highly tactile buttons. The control buttons are different colors and shapes so that the user always presses the correct button.
- Speech interface guides the user while using the phone. It speaks everything that is on the screen, speaks the keys that are pressed and even prompts the user to perform certain functions. Caller ID, amount of remaining battery power, contacts, list of missed calls and text messages are read out loud by Lucia. The user can select between more than 10 different voices.
- Lucia is 100 percent accessible to individuals who are blind. Its features make it the perfect phone for individuals who are visually impaired, blind, hard of hearing or seniors.
- To assist people who are hard of hearing, the phone has a “sound boost” function that provides additional volume during phine calls with the press of a button. Lucia has premium speakers to maximize clarity and sound experience.
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators:
Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder:
The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Get Together with Technology (GTT) Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)
GTT is an exciting initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind, founded in Ottawa in 2011 by Kim Kilpatrick and Ellen Goodman. GTT aims to help people who are blind or have low vision in their exploration of low vision and blindness related access technology. Through involvement with GTT participants can learn from and discuss assistive technology with others walking the same path of discovery.
GTT is made up of blindness related assistive technology users, and those who have an interest in using assistive technology designed to help blind and vision impaired people level the playing field. GTT groups interact through social media, and periodically meet in-person or by teleconference to share their passions for assistive technology and to learn what others can offer from their individual perspectives.
Show Notes: May 28, 2019
GTT Beginners National Conference Call
Navigating Websites Using Screen Readers with a PC
Kim Kilpatrick, Brian Bibeault and Albert Ruel demonstrated the use of Navigation Quick Keys and other strategies for effectively and efficiently accessing information from the websites we visit using the screen readers available in the Windows environment.
The pages visited were the Get Together with Technology (GTT) Blog and CELA Library pages.
Navigation Quick Keys for JAWS
NVDA command key quick reference
Narrator keyboard commands and touch gestures
For more information please contact your GTT Coordinators:
Albert Ruel or Kim Kilpatrick
1-877-304-0968,550 1-877-304-0968,513
albert.GTT@CCBNational.net GTTProgram@Gmail.com
CCB Backgrounder:
The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).
The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.
CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.
The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.
The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.
As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the "Voice of the Blind™".
CCB National Office 100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6
Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net
Certainly it can be the "most wonderful time of the year", however Christmas can lead to a lot of stress.
Learn some tips on dealing with food, exercise, family stress.
Albert Ruel demonstrates the Aira Visual Interpreter for the Blind Service and the Be My Eyes App to the participants of the GTT New Westminster meeting in the fall of 2018. For price and other detailed information visit www.Aira.io and www.BeMyEyes.org.