Blind Bargains

Audio Player Blind Bargains Qast 28: The Cheapest Hits We Could license

J.J. and Joe reconvene to discuss the news of the week, bring you an interesting interview about live audio description and J.J. has a tip that can assist you with those hard to make decisions. We also have "Sound Off" and the "Last Word" on deck. so tune in to see if lightning strikes twice and knocks Joe off the line in midsentence this week.

Sponsor:

This episode is brought to you by HIMS, who would like to remind you that "Your needs are our solutions". Check out the E-Bot Video Magnifier, the Blaze EZ reading solution, the new Smart Beetle Braille Display and more by visiting the HIMS website. Or, follow them on Twitter.

In The News:

A Taste of what's new in KNFBReader 2.0

Latest NVDA Release Candidate Includes Windows 10 Support; Preliminary Support for Edge Browser

Aipoly Puts Machine Vision In The Hands Of The Visually Impaired

Windows 10, Workflow and more featured in the latest issue of Access World

Researchers Seeking Participants to Study the Use of Smart Glasses for Shopping

Blind Athlete Featured in Uber Promotional Video

AI Squared Publishes Two-part Video Series on Upgrading to Windows 10

Got to collect them all, 400 keystrokes for JAWS users

Interview: David Lepofsky: Audio commentary of Live Sports

Attendees of the recent Parapan Am games in Toronto were offered a new way to access the events as they were unfolding, courtesy of live audio description for three sports including goalball and wheelchair basketball, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.
David is an accessibility advocate in Canada and also attended the games and experienced the audio described narration first-hand. In this interview, he talks about the coverage and how it differed from audio description one might hear on television. Perhaps we'll hear expanded coverage in Rio in 2016.
Here's the accessibility page from the Parapan Am games in Toronto.
David is the chair of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Alliance and can also be found on Twitter at @davidlepofsky

Tip: Eat This, Not That

J.J. talks about this website which includes articles and recommendations on healthy food choices.

Sound Off;

We asked listeners to post their comments on episode 27 in order to be considered for a giveaway promotion. And we may have gotten more than we expected as there are some great insights in these posts. Like this first one from John.

"Hey guys, I don't want to be entered in the drawing; but I want to comment on the banter about candy corn near the end of the show when Patrick filled in for Joe. You haven't lived until you've mixed a bag of candy corn with a jar of peanuts in a large bowl. Try it. It's to die for. You can't stay out of it. I'm not kidding. "

Neither J.J. or Joe had tried this, however, we'll keep it in mind with the candy corn season nearly upon us soon. next up, Lewis talks notetaking devices.

"It's interesting to me that APH is halting development of the Braille Plus and that braille notetakers are going through a time of turbulence. Although I hate the expensive price of notetakers as much as anyone else, and the trend of mainstream tech being accessible out of the box is great, there is an efficiency of a braille notetaker that an iPad or other tablet paired with a braille display can t reach. Sometimes I just need to jot down a quick note, or read a file of personal information quickly. I suppose displays like the Braille Edge and Vario Ultra can allow for that, but I personally have gotten accustomed to having braille and speech in a small mobile package. It would be awesome if a simple notetaker with 20 braille cells and speech with basic apps that people have become familiar with was released by one of the major AT companies. Leave out the BookShare download and the internet features to cut down the price, and I think something neat can be created to fill a void between the braille displays without speech capabilities and traditionally expensive notetakers. I m sure lots of folks would disagree, but my productive needs and opinions are just as valid as theirs are. I m frankly tired of the condemnation of folks who might prefer a traditional notetaker for basic tasks rather than trusting completely to a mainstreamed device. And lastly as an aside, Mike Calvo of Serotek fame was someone who railed against traditional notetakers for being out of date technologies and belonging in a blind ghetto. However, in a recent podcast on the SeroTalk network, he mentioned that he is a user of the Braille Sense U2 Mini. Take that bit of info as you will. "

Here's Russ with his wish for gaming....

"I just wished someone would develop the Jim Kitchen games for iOS!"

kach2tobs had a comment about scripting and specific use cases.

"I downloaded your app for the iPhone and love listening to BBQ on it. I know that free screen readers are a great boon for the blind community but I have concerns about the employment future. My office uses a document management program that is not accessible without JAWS scripts. As far as I know many similar document management programs and call center programs are not created with accessibility in mind. Without the ability to write scripts for JAWS I would have a great deal of trouble doing my job. I've had other technical challenges as well with excel spread sheets that are extremely complex, PDF documents that are searchable but not accessible etc. I worry about Freedom Scientific and other developers not being able to put enough money into R &D to make their screen readers flexible enough for scripts having a negative impact on employment. As far as notetakers go, I miss my Braille 'n Speak 640 as the mainstream devices I've been using (netbooks, laptops, Iphone) don't' have the instant on and off I had with the BNS. They aren't to pulling out a pad of paper and jotting down a note. "

Thanks for that one. There is a reason why universal access solutions never quite work out universally. Having options allows others to be flexible on the job or at home. Next, Jeff provided us with a little more info on his tax access.

"Clarification: I use Intuit's Tax deluxe to do my business taxes, I don't think this is available as an online experience. It uses graphical representations of the forms to fill out. I haven't been able to do much more than get a few lines off any screen which may contain a dozen, If this content is available online, I will be on it this year. Thanks."

Greg left us this comment in the A.T. Trainer's episode page.

"Greetings all, I recently upgraded my PC to Windows 10. I am liking it so far. One pain point though is that you cannot use first letter navigation in the all apps list in the start menu. I was doing some testing and found a little trick to use in the all apps to make it a bit easier to navigate. Here it is: Tip: Navigating the all apps list quicker 1. Open up the start menu 2. Shift tab to the all apps button and press enter 3. Once in the all apps you should be on the recently added section. As this sections name suggests, this is a list of recently added apps. 4. When you are on the list of all the apps, you can press shift tab to move to a list view of sorts. This list contains: Recently added, &, 0-9 and then all the letters of the alphabet. 5. When in this list you can move up and down using your arrow keys. 6. When you are on one of these items, the letter C for example, and press shift tab you will land on the first app that starts with that letter. Using this tip will hopefully make navigating this list a bit easier since you cannot use first letter navigation. Regards, Greg Wocher "

Great tip Greg! Kevin writes in to let us know his opinion about the same episode.

"After listening to the latest edition of the podcast I am shocked. Shocked and disgusted by Joe Steinkamp's behavior during Marc Solomon's talk. Joe interrupted and simply hijacked Marc's talk. Joe, you have a podcast; if you cannot keep yourself quiet during someone else's time then go outside and talk to a wall. In my opinion you owe Marc, and everyone in that audience, an apology. However, I don't expect one. Kevin Barry "

And here are a few tweets we discussed on the show.

@jaybird110127: Is anyone still selling any of the talking microwaves aside from the $349 one?
@RickAlfaro: I'd love to hear a good demo of using a windows tablet with JFW, NVDA, and Narrator using their respective touch support.
@mandojanny: maybe cooking demos or how to do everyday things we should already know how to do but may not.

@scottrut: Keep up the great work with the podcast guys. Really enjoying it immensely.

Sadly, in regards to the microwave, there aren't really any options left other than the ones from Cobolt. joe had the Hamilton Beach unit from years ago, he got it out of the Wal-Mart clearance isle for $40, but he notes that it was limited in features when compared to other units. The size of objects you could cook was also kind of a problem as well. heating It was bigger than a microwave you would have in a dorm room, but it wasn't great for heating up larger leftovers.

Last Word:

Auditory goodness, confusion and sadness for an iconic service are all here in this week's edition of what we saw on the web.
Testing out the acoustics of a singing cave
The audiophile s dilemma: strangers can t identify $340 cables, either
Columbia House, the Spotify of the '80s, is dead

Have an audio gem of your own to share? Feel free to tell us about it, or anything else in this episode, below in the comments section.

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