News Deals, Sales, and News

AI Squared has released Window-Eyes 9.3, a free upgrade for the screen reader. This version includes much-improved read to end feature, OCR support for a variety of file types and the screen, support for additional braille displays, and an overhauled spell checker experience for Microsoft Word. It's a free upgrade for users of Window-Eyes 9.2. Follow the link on this post to learn more or to download an upgrade or demo, or read on to read more from AI Squared.

Braille embossers don't often see major changes, but a new feature from Index is believed to be a first for modern braille printing. The forthcoming V5 line of their Basic, Everest, and Braille Box models will support printing directly from mobile phones and tablets. No details are included on which devices will be supported. V5 models will begin to ship in early 2016 starting with the production Braille Box model followed by the consumer oriented Basic and Everest models. Owners of current V4 embossers will also receive some of the new mobile functionality with a 2.0 firmware update scheduled for early 2016.

Researchers are developing a glove that they say will help the blind sense and grasp objects. According to a press release, "The technology will combine vision, tactile, force, temperature and audio sensors and actuators to help the wearer pre-sense an object - telling its location, feeling its shape and size - and then grasp it."

It can potentially be used to help in navigation, or for finding door handles or picking up a glass. Ambitions seem to run further than helping the blind, however. "Not only will this device help blind and visually impaired people, the methods and technology we develop will have great potential in advancing small and wearable robot autonomy with many potential applications in space exploration, military surveillance, law enforcement and search and rescue," Yantao Shen, an assistant professor at the University of Nevada Reno. We've linked to the press release from this post.

A new study is exploring the attitudes of visually impaired people regarding seeking psychological services. The study is being conducted by a graduate student at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education. According to the call for participants, "It is very rare to find research which investigates the attitudes and perspectives of the visually impaired on seeking psychological services."
The survey is listed as taking 45 minutes, though some participants report finishing it in half the time. Those who complete the survey will be entered in a drawing for one of three $25 gift cards. Follow the link on this post to take the survey. More information is included below.

It's still over three months away, but you can begin to plan your CSUN session calendar now. Next year's event will be held from March 21-26 in San Diego. The main conference sessions are on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and encompass a wide array of assistive technology topics. Follow the link on this post to view the over 300 sessions approved for the conference.

After a long delay, an update to Android's default Braille support has been released with a variety of new features. Google's Android Team has released BrailleBack 0.95.1 to the Play Store, it's the first update in two years. This version includes support for Unified English Braille (UEB), support for more braille displays including the Hims Smart Beetle and the Harpo Braillepen 12 Touch, and support for TalkBack custom labels. We've included the complete changelog below. Updated documentation has also been posted to Google's website.

If you have a VarioUltra from Baum, the latest free update fixes some major bugs. Version 1.32 allows you to once again connect to more than two Bluetooth devices at once, one of the major selling points for the unit. A limitation that only allowed for up to two Apple devices to be connected via Bluetooth has also been removed. Check below for the complete list of changes and bug fixed in this release. Thanks to Rich for the tip.

HumanWare has released a free update for the 2nd generation Victor Reader Stream. This release allows you to record Internet radio streams in a variety of sound qualities, supports the mass deletion of podcasts, and includes several additional text-to-speech voices. It's a free update for all current stream owners and can be downloaded wirelessly or manually. You can read the press release or view the changelog below.

With little fanfare, a new FCC ruling that requires emergency information on television stations to be presented in audio form has gone into effect. As of November 30, The Audible Crawl rule requires that information such as weather alerts, disasters, widespread fires and power outages, and other large-scale emergencies be presented on the station's Second Audio Program or SAP channel, interrupting other audio such as descriptive video or Spanish language programming. The rule applies to all television markets, regardless of whether or not they are currently broadcasting descriptive audio content.

Implementation of the service seems to have flown completely under the radar for many, with recent searches finding few examples of television stations advertising the new feature. Some stations, such as South Dakota's KSFY, focused their announcement of the service entirely on how to avoid hearing the spoken messages. An article from TV News Check details some of the troubles that stations have endured in implementing the new service, namely a lack of available technology.

We'd be hard-pressed to find many assistive technology users who love everything about .PDF formatted files. If you have experiences good or bad to share, a new survey seeks your input. The survey, titled PDF and the User Experience, is a means to provide your feedback on the accessibility or lack thereof of PDF files and is being administered by Karlen Communications. Follow the link on this post to take the survey, which closes December 31.

As has become tradition with each new release of iOS, AppleVis has published their list of accessibility bugs that have been fixed or introduced in the latest update. Version 9.2 of iOS was recently released as a free update and includes the ability to open the app switcher by using 3D Touch on the left side of the screen for iPhone 6S and 6S Plus users. In addition, at least a dozen accessibility bugs in a variety of applications including iMessage, News, and Mail among others. Outside of accessibility, iOS 9.2 is mainly a bug fix release. Check the link on this post for the complete list of changes.

Last Thursday, NBC made history by partnering with Comcast to provide an audio description track for the Wiz Live, believed to have been the first time this has been done for a live television event in the United States. Ratings for the musical itself were also quite high for NBC, so they have decided to re-air the musical adaptation of The Wizard of Oz on Saturday, December 19 at 8 PM Eastern. While we are unable to officially confirm, this encore airing is also likely to include the audio described track. It's available from any NBC station which supports audio description, which should include the top 60 television markets and many other affiliates.

Somethin' Else, developers of the highly-acclaimed audio game Papa Sangre, have announced that they will cease to develop audio games for iOS, according to a post on AppleVis. Per a Tweet from the developer, "the next update of Papa Sangre will be our last. The next time it breaks we will take it off the app store." The Papa Engine used to create the game however, will be released as open source, which may enable other developers to create audio games more easily. Thanks to Ka for the tip.

It's pretty common knowledge that Playboy magazine has been available in braille from the National Library Service for over 40 years. But younger readers may not realize that there was a time in the eighties where some members of Congress tried to stop the presses. This recent article from the Washington Post details the events that led Congress in 1985 to withhold money from the National Library Service for publishing Playboy magazine. After a lawsuit from several blindness groups including the American Council of the Blind and the Blinded Veterans Association, the magazine was restored. It's still available today from the NLS or the BARD app. For those not familiar, the braille version of Playboy does not include any pictures, picture descriptions, or advertising, leading to the often-told joke that blind people are the only ones that read Playboy for the articles. For further reading, here's the written opinion from District Judge Thomas F. Hogan.

While we were eating lots of turkey, version 2015.4 of the free NVDA screen reader was released. This release includes support for the rich text editors found in apps such as Firefox and Chrome, several changes for Excel users, and a host of additional changes. Support for the Baum Pronto and VarioUltra are also now included. You can view the complete version history to see what else is new.

Braille Code Inc. is a company which has created a line of clothing especially for blind and visually impaired people. Created by a mother of a legally blind child, their lineup includes shirts and accessories which feature a braille patch which aids in proper dressing and matching of clothes. For instance, on polo shirts, the patch is on the inside of the bottom of the back of the shirt. You can browse their products from their website.
Here's some more information from the company's website. "Braille Code is not just a clothing line; it’s a brand that represents independence, self-confidence and pride. I want the kids to wear the brand and claim it because it was made lovingly for them. My wish is for them to step out and let the world know that they now have a clothing name especially made for them. My goal is to help and give parents like me a way to give our children a sense of pride, independence and acceptance of who they are with Style!"

Accessible Apps, makers of the Chicken Nugget Twitter client and QRead among others, has added to their collection of Windows tools with QSeek, a small program that runs in the background and provides information on demand. It can be used to quickly look up definitions or translate text, obtain stock quotes, or perform simple or complex calculations. Try it for free for 7 days from the Accessible Apps website, or purchase it for $10.

Version 0.80 of TWBlue, a free Windows Twitter client, has been released. This version, the first release in 10 months, includes support for multiple Twitter accounts, long direct messages, quoted tweets, and a variety of other improvements. Check out this blog post for a more complete list of changes.

Researcher and inventor Joshua Miele has launched a collaborative blog to aid in the development of accessible resources based on the Arduino platform. Arduino is an open-source platform aimed at electronics enthusiasts who wish to build digital devices and objects that interact with or control sensors or objects. One might build a robot, thermostat, motion detector, or scientific measurement devices with an Arduino board and programming tools. The blog aims to create a resource which would aid blind builders and tinkerers to accessibly and independently create projects and program the boards.
Here's an excerpt from the initial blog post. "With the advent of open-source, relatively standardized, microprocessor-based project kits like Arduino, the kinds of devices that can be built by the casual maker at home have become quite sophisticated. In fact, Arduino is an ideal platform for creating a variety of accessibility devices which blind makers and users might find useful. For example Arduino would be perfect for building tools like audio and tactile meters and gauges which could be driven by any manner of sensors and detectors. From accessible scales to timers, range finders, multimeters and beyond, Arduino could make it relatively easy to design and share accessible tools which can be endlessly modified, adapted, and improved to meet a wide range of applications and needs."