Welcome to the fifty-first episode of Access On, the National Federation of the Blind's Technology podcast.
Episode
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Timestamps
Below is what's on the show this week, and when you can hear it.
- Register for our webinar on staying safe online 0:00
- President Riccobono communicates concerns to the CEO of Vispero 2:24
- Listener feedback on Vispero changes 14:09
- Plenty of enhancements to Microsoft Narrator 20:11
- Enjoying the benefits of Auphonic 36:39
- Improving audio description 38:38
- I am missing the Stream Player Alexa skill 41:50
- I am having difficulty adjusting my iPhone charge limit 43:48
- iPhone key clicks 45:44
- Libre and other continuous Glucose monitors 46:27
- WhatsApp and Facebook concerns 52:59
- Tech tip, Getting an AI summary of a page from Microsoft Edge 57:13
- Closing and contact info 1:01:11
Transcript
Speaker 1:
Live life you want. Access on.
Jonathan Mosen:
Welcome to Access On, the technology podcast of the National Federation of the Blind. In response to mounting concerns, NFB president Mark Riccobono has written to the CEO of Vispero. If it's been a while since you've checked out Microsoft Narrator, it may be worth a fresh look. Users of continuous glucose monitors report excellent results with iOS 26.
And if you don't have access to the JAWS Page Explorer feature, there's a similar function in Microsoft Edge. It's Jonathan Mosen at the Jernigan Institute in Baltimore Maryland, welcoming you to episode 51 of Access On. Let's look ahead to our next training boutique from the National Federation of the Blind Center of Excellence in Nonvisual Accessibility.
This one is happening on November the 18th. It is a 90-minute webinar beginning at 2:00 PM Eastern Time. And the topic is an important one, tools and techniques for staying safe online. Digital security is an important part of doing anything online. There are many ways people can attempt to steal your data such as malware, phishing attacks, fake sites, and more.
Oh my, it's a jungle out there. So, join us to learn about some tools and techniques for staying safe online. We'll cover the types of security threats that you might encounter, detecting phishing attacks and fake websites, as well as password best practices and password management tools. So, a lot to cover in 90 minutes.
Eventually, we will give you highlights of this webinar here on Access On, but as Marvin Gaye and Tammy Terrell so beautifully put it back in 1968, ain't nothing like the real thing. So, why not register while you remember and you can attend?
If by chance you're unable to attend live, registration does give you access to a full recording of the webinar. So, it's worth doing. And you can do that by heading over to nfb.org/cena.
That's nfb.org/C-E-N-A. And if you click on the events and training link there, you'll find a link on that page to register for the webinar. It's worth doing. Nfb.org/cena.
As you'll be aware, if you're a regular listener to Access On, we have been reflecting the concerns expressed to us by some members of the National Federation of the Blind regarding changes at Vispero.
Much of that concern has been around the pricing changes and not just the particulars of those changes which have caused concern for some, but also the confusing messaging or lack of messaging around those changes and why they have happened. There have been a series of other changes at Vispero under new leadership, and we are receiving consistent expressions of concern from National Federation of the Blind members.
To pass on those concerns, the National Federation of the Blind’s President, Mark Riccobono, has written to the new chief executive officer of Vispero, whose name is Rhonda Bassett-Spiers, and I will read you that letter in its entirety. "Dear Ms. Bassett-Spiers.
As you know, the National Federation of the Blind is the nation's transformative organization of blind people with affiliates in every state, as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
As the voice of the nation's blind, we have a duty to alert those who offer products and services to us when there is a groundswell of concern. This is the commitment I have also made to you in the two one-on-one conversations we have held.
Following feedback from many of our members who are raising new issues almost daily, I feel compelled to formally convey to you a series of pressing concerns regarding Vispero's direction and engagement.
As the producer of JAWS, ZoomText and Fusion, Vispero impacts the daily lives and opportunities of millions of blind individuals across the United States and worldwide. With this influence comes a profound responsibility to prioritize the needs, aspirations, and leadership of those you serve. Pricing and licensing changes.
While we appreciate that Vispero must operate in a manner that ensures ongoing commercial viability, we are concerned by the limited and unclear communication around recent changes to JAWS licensing models and pricing structures. These changes have generated significant confusion, anxiety, and frustration worldwide.
The temporary removal of the home annual license option from the website reversed only after public backlash created unnecessary alarm. This decision led many to believe that a product they used daily was suddenly out of their financial reach.
We urge Vispero to provide a clear explanation of the new pricing options and to show respect for its loyal customers by explaining clearly why these changes are necessary. Erosion of home annual license functionality. We are disappointed that JAWS's home annual license holders have been excluded from the new Page Explorer feature.
Vispero highlighted this feature at our recent national convention in July, valuing it sufficiently to produce a video demonstrating the new functionality. It was marketed at that time as an addition to FS Companion. At no time was there any mention that Vispero would create different tiers of JAWS users when it came to cutting edge AI tools.
When the home annual license was introduced in 2018, the National Federation of the Blind applauded the move. We believed it worked for everyone. The unemployment rate among blind people is far too high. The JAWS home annual license allows those who do not qualify for funding to use JAWS at a price they can afford.
They can become familiar with the product, which in turn improves employment prospects. When an annual home license user finds work, Vispero benefits when an appropriate license is purchased for the blind person's workplace. This program has been an investment in the capacity building of blind people.
Depriving annual home licensed customers who have paid in good faith of new core features is a concerning new policy that changes the implicit social contract of this license. We call upon you to reconsider this decision and make Page Explorer along with future AI features available to this category of user. Vispero account. In the United States, JAWS 2026 requires users to create and sign into a Vispero account.
If it eventually becomes possible for customers to return authorizations when upgrading computers and share settings across devices, then users will benefit from this change. However, we are also hearing concerns. Many of these may be addressed with clear, transparent, respectful communication.
Some JAWS users are concerned about the amount of data being collected, such as the name of a person's employer. We seek assurance that all data Vispero is collecting is actually necessary for the operation of JAWS and that users are not being required to provide marketing data, which should be optional in order to use their screen reader.
Additionally, there are concerns about whether a cloud outage such as that which affected Amazon Web Services in October may disrupt JAWS if ongoing use requires verification that users are logged in. We seek further clarity and assurance on these issues.
Technical support. We are hearing from members that Vispero is no longer accepting technical support requests via email. While we appreciate that requiring users to submit a web form may aid Vispero through the mandatory provision of information that can help the technical support process, email is a ubiquitous medium.
Even those who have access to older notes taker products whose JAWS may not be working at all can submit a written technical support request via email. We invite you to reconsider this decision. Blind leadership. We are concerned by the apparent decline in blind leadership at Vispero that has recently occurred.
We believe that one of the reasons JAWS has become the dominant product in the screen reader industry is that the original company that developed JAWS, Henter-Joyce, was founded by a blind person. There were always capable blind people who were users of the product in key positions.
This allowed blind people to mentor people who are not blind, but who possessed the values and curiosity to be successful. In recent days, we have learned of the departure of Glenn Gordon. Glenn is a giant in this industry who developed many of the paradigms that all graphical screen readers subsequently adopted.
Marking the 30th anniversary of JAWS for Windows, we honored Glenn's contribution at this year's National Convention of the National Federation of the Blind in New Orleans by giving him the prestigious Kenneth Jernigan award for his outstanding contribution.
The fact that Glenn felt he must resign from the company not because he wished to retire, but because of a perceived incompatibility of values is of serious concern and one we would expect would cause considerable reflection about the company's direction. We also note that other blind people in leadership roles have been redeployed into positions that appear to have less direct influence on the products and services blind people use.
We are concerned that these changes will result in Vispero making decisions that are not informed by the knowledge and lived experience of blind people. The National Federation of the Blind proudly supports and indeed insists that blind people help direct the products and services intended for our use.
However, multiple recent developments are creating an increasing disconnect between leadership and the people the company exists to serve. We are here to help. It is our hope that Vispero and the National Federation of the Blind can continue to be trusted partners. We remain uniquely placed to provide constructive advice based on the views of our extensive membership across the nation.
We encourage you to engage with these concerns in a spirit of partnership and urgency. We request a comprehensive public response to the issues outlined above and a commitment to ongoing dialogue with the organized blind movement. Your leadership presents an opportunity to set a new standard of access, accountability, and inclusion. We urge you to seize it. I look forward to your prompt and substantive reply.
Sincerely, Mark A. Riccobono President National Federation of the Blind." And to give you further perspective on this, I would like to read to you a post from Glenn Gordon that he published on LinkedIn, and that reads as follows: "Today is a very sad day for me.
Since after nearly 32 years, it's the first time that I'm no longer working on the JAWS screen reader. I voluntarily resigned my position at Freedom Scientific/Vispero because I found myself unable to continue working for a company that's changing in ways that are moving away from my personal values.
As recently as the 2025 NFB Convention, I was thinking that I'd be working on JAWS far into the future. Much to my surprise, a recent influx of new executive leaders and customer-facing product-related changes convinced me that it was time to leave.
I leave behind a group of smart and passionate colleagues and products, which are the best in class. It's been a great journey, and I thank all of you who have been users of Freedom Scientific Software for some or all of that time. Yes, I'm retiring in the sense that I'm of retirement age and not actively seeking another job, but I'm resigning in the sense that I felt I needed to take a principled stand.
I will continue doing my part to improve the state of accessibility. What that will look like will evolve over time." So, ends the post from Glen Gordon on LinkedIn, and obviously the Federation's respect for Glenn's contribution is well known through the awarding of the Kenneth Jernigan Award this very year at our national convention.
So, once again, we thank Glenn for his contribution and wish him well for the future. It is hard to imagine Glenn not contributing in some way, so it'll be interesting to see what precisely Glenn chooses to do next when he's taken a little time for himself. It is our hope that we can bring you a response to the concerns that you are expressing and that on your behalf we have conveyed through President Riccobono's letter to Vispero.
So, stay tuned and we would be delighted to be able to do that, not just to talk about those specific concerns, but perhaps also get some sort of vision for the future from Vispero. Where does its present leadership perceive the company to be heading in the next little while?
Is there some grand plan that is behind some of these changes which are causing so much controversy? And of course, we welcome your perspective on this issue and any other. You can email Access On, that's all one word, at nfb.org, [email protected]. You can write down your thoughts or you can attach an audio clip or send us a link to that audio in a cloud place that we can get to.
We would be pleased to hear your thoughts on this issue. As you can appreciate, we have received a lot of feedback on Vispero related things, both to the access on email address and also generally through the National Federation of the Blinds Center of Excellence in Nonvisual Accessibility.
I am not going to read all the emails because otherwise it will get a little repetitive, but what I will do is read a representative sample that I think captures the gist of the feedback. And we'll start with Jason Stratton, who sent an email in with the subject FS continues the trend of being less consumer friendly.
And Jason says, "The subject is quite subjective, but it is my thoughts after reading the release notes for the just released version of JAWS 2026." In particular, two things stand out. First, beginning with the 2026 release, signing in with a Vispero account is now required to use JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion in the United States.
Not that big of a deal, but making it a requirement after spending so much money is a bit off-putting. And second, and in my opinion, much bigger a deal is the availability of Page Explorer. Page Explorer availability varies depending on your JAWS license type. Here's what's included with each license type. Specifically, home annual, not available.
So, those who choose this version for any reason, i.e., affordability, don't get it at all. I understand at this point the company is going to do what they want to do, but I think at the least, the spotlight should be shown on how the company has changed, in my opinion, to be much less consumer friendly.
This is not even to mention the removal of the public beta to help assure this expensive product much of us rely on will be as trouble-free as possible at the time of release. Based on recent concerns and either poor lack of communication or complete avoidance of addressing concerns, I don't expect Vispero to be addressing any of this, but it sure would be welcomed.
Some may see this as an overreaction and they could be correct, but it is just my two cents. Anil Agadishnu is writing in, and he says, "With the release of JAWS 2026, one thing has become clear to my mind.
After Freedom Scientific joined Vispero, they gradually reduced the number of features released with each new version, including the incremental improvements in the annual update cycle. It is bare minimum now. Coming to JAWS 2026, the feature list tells me that innovation is dead. JAWS development is no longer driven with passion. Vispero is just here to maintain the product.
I used to like Window-Eyes a lot, although I did not prefer it as my primary screen reader. When it introduced features that already existed in JAWS, the experience of using them was more superior. For example, when JAWS introduced JAWS Tandem, it did not have an option to send files.
But when the similar feature was introduced in Window-Eyes, it did. Also, Window-Eyes offered more program usability enhancements through its apps, the competitor to JAWS Scripts functionality."
Thanks very much for writing in, Anil, really appreciate that. And it's certainly not our place to defend Vispero, but in the interests of a bit of balance, I think what they would say in response to this one, because I have heard them say it, is that the product cycle is a bit different.
You used to get this big rush of new features at the beginning of a cycle, which typically comes at around about November every year when a new major version of JAWS comes out.
And what they're saying now is you'll see more innovation throughout the year. I guess this is always a struggle with screen readers, isn't it? Where something that somebody else really wants just doesn't impact you in any way, so you feel left out of the party when that happens.
So, when I think about innovation from Vispero, the thing I think about immediately at the moment is the work that they have done in the last little while on multi-line Braille devices. We believe at the National Federation of the Blind in Multi-line Braille, we think it has potential to enhance employment prospects, particularly in the STEM field.
There are efficiencies to be gained, savings to be made, new opportunities to be explored for students. And it's fascinating to watch the way that students are working with the monarch and how that is changing the way they work and their expectations.
And we're starting to see multi-line brow devices making their way into the employment space. So, there have been some good conversations about and thought gone into how do you make the most of that extra Braille real estate when you are a Windows screen reader?
How can it help in applications like Excel or where there's a lot of tabular data in Word, various other things, what might happen with split Braille? And that has now come to JAWS.
It came to JAWS in the middle of the 2025 cycle. So, when you consider how much change that represented and how much work went into rolling that out, having something like that coming up mid-cycle is an example of what Vispero has been saying, that they can push out something really big like that.
I mean, going from single line Braille to multi-line Braille is, and I try not to use this word too much, but in this case, it is a paradigm shift, right? Once you start using multi-line Braille, it's hard to go back. So, they did roll that out mid-cycle and that is innovation. But of course, if you're not a user of multi-line Braille or you're not a Braille reader at the moment, then maybe that's just not going to resonate.
And that is a perennial problem when it comes to screen reader development. All that said, I'm sure that there'll be many who agree with you at the moment, and the sense of frustration is very real. We are feeling that and we are conveying that, as you've just heard, through President Riccobono's communications with the chief executive officer of Vispero. Thanksgiving is coming up.
That's exciting, isn't it? And what often happens to people like us who are interested in technology, particularly if we have some amptitude in it, is that we become the family fixer at Thanksgiving time and people will thrust their laptops or whatever into your hands and say, "Can you have a look at this? It's not doing whatever it is and you try and fix it."
What do you generally do? Well, for a lot of people, that's when they turn to the screen reader that is built into Windows, Microsoft's Narrator, and they tend to go in there, do the thing, and then exit Narrator and maybe not think about it anymore. Another time that you might use this historically is if you get into a bit of a spot of bother with your third party screen reader and you run Narrator to try and sort that out.
And then when your third party screen reader is up and running again, you get on with your life. And that makes sense because screen reading technology should just coexist with your main applications in the background and do its thing. It should be fairly seamless.
And if you've memorized a string of commands over the years, you can just get on and do those things. Really, it's second nature. But what that means is that there may be many people who have a perception of Narrator's capabilities that is now quite outdated. Certainly, there's no denying that when Narrator was first released and for some years, it was a fairly rudimentary screen reader.
It was like the notepad of screen readers, basic functionality. But over the years, Narrator has been becoming increasingly capable and we continue to talk to Microsoft about what Narrator might look like because obviously it's free and that's great, but it's also on every Windows computer and that's democratizing.
We at the apartment complex that Bonnie and I are just about to move out of this week actually as we move into our highly automated house finally, a business center. And they have Macs there, but the concept is the same. You can go to the business center and get the computer talking and get things done.
We don't actually have a printer in the apartment at the moment. We will have to buy one when we move into the house. So, that's the same concept. You should be able to walk up to a computer, run Narrator, and get really good quality speech and Braille back. In Microsoft applications, you can certainly do just that.
Where it may still be a little weak, I think, is if you require a proprietary application at work, maybe you're in a call center environment and you want to be able to press a key and get specific information spoken or displayed in Braille about the caller. I'm not sure Narrator's quite there yet, particularly if it's not a web-based application.
But if you're working in Microsoft applications, certainly Narrator is quite a viable and an increasingly capable screen reader. They do have these natural voices, and I'll give you a brief example of those in a moment, and that will appeal to a certain part of the audience who cares about quality of speech.
They don't mind about cranking it up terribly much, and maybe they haven't been using screen readers for long, and they're exceptionally good voices. And there is no official way to use those voices with a third party screen reader, but they do work with Narrator, and as you'll hear in a moment, they are pretty good. What we hope will happen is that Eloquence comes to Narrator as well in an official way that it's built in.
As we saw when Eloquence came to iPhone, that was exceptionally well-received, and the reason for that is that Eloquence has been around a long time. People are used to it. People are often used to it at very high speeds.
And for many of us who've used this technology for a long time, the ability to get things done efficiently is more important than whether the voice sounds human or not. So, by adding Eloquence rather than taking anything away that's there now, it would cater to that market.
And I think it would cause people to take a second look at Narrator who are otherwise pretty happy because they're using whatever screen reader they have with Eloquence or even the vocalizer voices and it's working well for them. So, let's give you a quick sample, first of all, before I talk about some of the new features in Narrator of one of these voices.
Sonya:
Hello and welcome. This is Sonya, one of the natural voices that are available through Microsoft Narrator. As you can probably tell, I'm a British English voice.
Jonathan Mosen:
So, a little bit of an interesting pause where there shouldn't be one there, but those voices are very natural and some people certainly prefer that. They are quite responsive too. If you're quickly arrowing around a document, it's pretty good, which was a problem with more natural sounding voices in the past that's largely solved, particularly with CPUs being as fast as they are these days.
I am recording this episode with Narrator running in the background, by the way, and it's working well with REAPER and OSARA, so that's an interesting observation. But let's have a look at some of the changes that have been added recently to Narrator, because there's a pretty steady stream of things that are happening.
And we'll start with Microsoft Word where there's more natural feedback. Narrator no longer raises pitch dramatically when announcing headings or grammar and spelling errors, and that makes the experience smoother and less distracting when using natural voices. Also in Word, there is better footnote navigation.
You can now navigate a document via footnotes and clearly hear the footnote number, and that helps you stay orientated while reading or editing documents with references. Microsoft also improved reliability of continuous reading in Microsoft Word. Narrator will no longer stop unexpectedly during long passages of text. Continuous reading now flows smoothly from start to finish.
There is coherent and consistent announcements when it comes to lists. Narrator now reads lists in a consistent manner across surfaces and navigation methods. Narrator will announce list entities like style and level according to the verbosity you've chosen to ensure users have context about the formatting and their position in the list.
Narrator will no longer cut off when a list item continues onto the next line. It now speaks the entire content properly. You can now navigate up and down from one list item to another using the control up and down arrow keys.
And if you work with tables, there's a lot to report here. Narrator now supports quick navigation and tables to the first or last cell in a row or column, and that helps us to move through tables more efficiently. If you press control alt, you will get to the beginning of a row and control alt and a period will get you to the end.
If you want to get to the beginning of a column, you press control alt shift, and to get to the end, it's control alt shift period. And when you're navigating with the table keys inside an editable table, Narrator now provides an announcement when reaching the last cell. That's handy because it means that you don't accidentally add a row and it's just clearer what's going on.
Narrator will now make clearer announcements as you select one or more cells across rows and columns or both. It also clearly announces when a text selection extends across multiple cells, so you know exactly how much content is selected. Narrator now alerts users if a table is non-uniform.
So, for example, if it's missing cells in certain rows or columns that can be useful information, it gives important context about the table structure. Here's a new feature that could be useful for educators and others as well. Narrator is adding a new feature called Braille Viewer, and that allows you to see on screen textural and Braille representation of the output shown on a refreshable Braille display.
This is a helpful tool for sited teachers, AT trainers, developers, and testers who don't read Braille or who have limited to no access to a Braille display. Teachers of blind children can use Braille Viewer to help improve students' Braille skills or follow along in the classroom as the teachers can visually see the textural and Braille representation on screen while the student reads it on their connected Braille display.
If you want to try this, you can open Braille Viewer. First, of course, you got to be in Narrator, so you start that using Windows Control Enter. And then when Narrator is running, you can press the Narrator key with alt and B.
And that's often caps lock, so Narrator key and alt and B to get into the Braille viewer. A new floating window opens and contents of this window are updated as you continue to use Narrator. The number of Braille cells shown on the viewer depends on the size of your refreshable Braille display.
If you've got an 80 cell Braille display connected, then the viewer shows 80 cells. If no display is connected, the viewer shows 40 cells by default. You can also change the display size and position of the viewer using the settings menu on the viewer itself. For this viewer to work, you've got to make sure that Narrator is set up to give Braille output.
To download and install the Braille package, you should navigate to settings and Windows and then accessibility and under accessibility, choose Narrator and then use a Braille display with Narrator. There's now an official screen curtain in Narrator. There was a thing called Developer Mode for a long time, which I think did the same thing because you could blank the screen.
But now we have this screen curtain feature in Narrator and it's designed to enhance privacy and focus for users who use screen reading. When activated, screen curtain completely blacks out the display, ensuring that only the user hears what's on the screen through Narrator.
While the visual content remains hidden from view, this is especially useful says Microsoft in public spaces or shared environments, allowing users to read and work with sensitive information without revealing it to others nearby. The command to toggle screen curtain when Narrator is running is Narrator control C for curtain.
So, I'm pressing caps lock control C and toggling screen curtain on and off. Just be aware that if you exit Narrator and come back to it does not retain the last state. So, if you've turned screen curtain on and then you quit Narrator and start it again, you will need to turn screen curtain back on again.
And Microsoft advises that sharing your screen over video apps like Teams and recording videos will work as expected even when screen curtain is on. In other words, this is a local thing that just affects what someone sees on the physical screen.
Microsoft tells us that they are improving digital accessibility by adding the ability for Narrator to provide rich, detailed descriptions of images, charts, and graphs using AI on Copilot+ PCs. So, this isn't for everybody. You got to have one of those fancy new Copilot plus PCs you see. In today's digital environment, Microsoft says images are prevalent on websites, apps, and documents.
However, for blind users, many visuals remain inaccessible due to missing or inadequate alt text. With this new feature, Narrator will now generate richer image descriptions on your Copilot+ PC. Another good new monarch. If you do have a Copilot+ PC to try this out on, Narrator Control D for description. And Narrator will provide a contextual description of the image detailing people, objects, colors, text, and numbers from the image.
On non-Copilot+ PCs, the experience will continue to offer basic image descriptions. When you've got your description, you'll find in the window that there are regenerate like, dislike and copy buttons at the bottom of the window.
So, they are monitoring how well you like those descriptions that you're getting and presumably analyzing that data accordingly. When you first try the image descriptions feature using Narrator Control D, Microsoft will download the necessary models. If you want to, you can check the status of that download via settings and Windows update.
It takes time they warn. So, you can get on with your work while it sets all this up for you. It is a one-time process. Let's talk about a new feature in Narrator called Speech Recap. And if you want to try this out, you can press Narrator plus alt plus X. And that opens the Speech Recap and you can view the last 500 spoken strings.
Note that Microsoft refreshes the text in this window every time that Narrator starts. You can use standard reading commands and arrow keys to read the contents of the Speech Recap window and copy text if you need to, so that you can paste it somewhere else.
But if you need to save or share something that Narrator just said, you can copy it instantly without opening the Speech Recap window and to do that, then rather than go into Narrator alt X for the whole window, you can press Narrator Control X and that command will copy the last phrase that Narrator said to the clipboard.
Another new Narrator feature, see, I told you they'd been busy is called live transcription and live transcription of Narrator speech is useful says Microsoft for access technology trainers, teachers of blind kids who support students in class or for professionals who are hard of hearing and want to use Narrator.
To see live transcription of Narrator audio, you use that Narrator alt X command to open the Speech Recap window and then you can snap it to the portion of the screen you want to view it. Once you've got that done, as you perform tasks, you can see real time transcription of Narrator's speech. And by the way, there's another command in this set.
If you just press Narrator with X, then that will speak again what Narrator last said. So, if you didn't quite catch it, you can press that key and Narrator will repeat the last thing it spoke. There are also some more new keyboard shortcuts in Narrator, and let's talk about scan mode.
People spend a lot of time in there, because it's the mode that most of us would be in in Narrator if we're using it for the web, and there are other places where scan mode can be handy as well. You can toggle scan mode by pressing the Narrator key with Space Bar. So, now when scan mode is on, if you press I and shift + I, you'll get to the next and previous list item respectively.
When you're reading long tables or lists, you can navigate to the beginning and end of the element using the comma and the period keys. L will allow you to navigate directly to lists within a document, email or webpage. So, I will move you between items, but L will take you to different lists.
And another one that is new for Narrator is that at N, which will take you past a block of links. And Microsoft concludes by saying that they have improved Narrator performance when you're using it for long periods and also made the auto switching of scan mode and text boxes highly responsive. So, you can type as soon as your focus is on a text box.
I would be interested to find out if you are using Narrator in your work, at home. Are you using it for specific applications? How's it going for you? Is it something that you think about using? Be in touch with your thoughts and your evaluations. We love to get them. [email protected] is the email address.
That's [email protected]. You can attach an audio clip to that email by giving us a link to it stored in the cloud somewhere, or if the file's not too big, you're welcome to attach it directly to the email. You can also just write down your thoughts if you prefer to do that. Katherine Samuel has some positive things to say about Auphonic.
And if you've not been listening to Access On for long, I will explain a little bit about that after we read Katherine's email. It says, "Hi, Jonathan. I found your serialized podcasting webinar and just wanted to thank you for it. It was of tremendous help. I just recorded my second episode and thanks to your recommendation of Auphonic used it to equalize and normalize the audio between myself and my guest.
The mics we were using were pretty different and it did a great job of making it sound as similar as possible. I'll definitely use Auphonic going forward. The free account is plenty for my needs. I just have to delete the jingle they put at the beginning and end of the file. No issues there.
Thanks again," says Katherine. Well, thank you for reporting back, Katherine. I'm glad that Auphonic is working well for you. Auphonic, which is spelled A-U-P-H-O-N-I-C, is a real Swiss Army knife of audio post-production. It equalizes, it levels, it can even now, and maybe you do need the paid version for this.
Remove verbal utterances like ums and ahs and various things like that. It can reduce breathing. It can do all sorts of things and it's an accessible and very effective experience. It's all done in the cloud. There is a free version.
It has some limitations, but you do get two hours a month of that and that may be sufficient, depending on how regularly you publish your podcast and they also have a paid monthly plan where you can buy a set number of hours per month and they have credits as well, which stay in place until they're exhausted.
It works out slightly more expensive overall. But if you're only using it once in a blue moon, it could be the way to go. So, if you're interested in cleaning up your audio, we use it every week on Access On, do check out Auphonic.com. Rod Kahn is talking audio description.
He says, "Hi, JM. When I go to the theater or cinema to watch an audio described play or film, I am so frustrated because I don't want to hear the performance through the headphones. I just want the AD commentary. I want to hear the live performance from the stage or the surround sound in the cinema.
So, I am balancing the headphones off my ears, so that I can combine the AD with the live sound. I don't know if I am just a minority of one or whether anyone else does this sort of thing. However, it came to me yesterday that if the AD was delivered to us via bone conduction headsets, this would be a real light bulb moment.
I don't suppose that theaters and cinemas would want to give up their infrared investment, and so it would need a manufacturer of bone conduction headsets to make them with an overhead fixing fitted with an infrared receiver and whatever is required to turn this signal into sound.
The headset would require a volume control and a switch, so that the user can choose either left or right ear or both. Could be a project for one of your staff." Thank you very much, Rod. Audio description is a complex thing, isn't it? Because people's requirements differ. In my case, for example, one of the problems I have is exactly the reverse of yours.
Sometimes, I go to an audio described live performance. And as somebody who wears hearing aids, I want to be able to hear the performance through the same channel as I'm getting the audio description, because the problem that I often have is that I can hear the audio description really clearly, but I can't make out what the dialogue is saying because it is only coming from the stage.
So, it is important, I think, to cater for a wide variety of preferences and use cases. I think that this may sort itself out. We're pretty excited about the Auracast technology, which is starting to roll out, and there are two things that have to happen, of course. First, we have to see an increase in broadcasts of Auracast.
And second, we have to have an increasing number of devices support receiving Auracast streams. But Auracast is a broadcast form of low energy Bluetooth. It's also low latency, and you can subscribe to the different channels that you want.
So, for example, if you have difficulty hearing the public announcements in an airport, which can often be both echoey and noisy environments, you could subscribe to those boarding announcements and hear them directly in your AirPods or hearing aids or whatever it is that you're using. So, if that technology starts to roll out, it may well be feasible to offer a range of audio description choices.
For example, audio description with the actual soundtrack or audio description without it and various other language tracks. So, hopefully this might take care of it and that there will be a range of devices in the future that receive Auracast. Auracast is a great idea. I think the jury is still out though on whether it's going to reach critical mass. Rick Roderick is missing one of his favorite Alexa skills.
He says, "Hi, Jonathan. One of my favorite skills from Amazon Alexa was Stream Player. I have an Echo Studio. I'm very satisfied with its sound quality. It allowed me to hear the broadcasts of several TV stations, including local newscasts from all over the country and world, including Al Jazeera English.
With Alexa Plus, I am now getting the message that I cannot access the skill on this device. I tried using my iPhone 12 and it can't get the skill either, even though it obviously has a screen. What is going on? Why was this skill taken away from so many devices without explanation?
I have given tons of feedback to Amazon on this issue, but it seems to be going into a black hole. Can you find out what is going on? I consider this an accessibility issue. Thanks for any help you can provide." Well, thank you for contacting Access On, Rick. It's always frustrating when something that you enjoy using gets affected by what you would think might be a totally unrelated upgrade. The Stream Player Skill is a popular skill.
I understand it has about 12 million users around the world, so it's done well. It's developed by someone called Daniel Mittendorfs, but I couldn't find any information specifically about Alexa Plus compatibility. It might be possible for you to search for that developer's name or the skills name, see if you can contact the developer and find out if he is aware of any issues there and whether it's possible to mitigate them.
Certainly, there are some changes going on right now as more devices get upgraded to Alexa Plus, and it could be that this is just a little bit of a glitch that gets fixed. Let's hope so. If you make any progress, let us know how you get on.
Edward is writing in and he says, "Hi, Jonathan. I used to listen to your Living Blindfully podcast before you moved on to this one. The Access On is as great as the Living Blindfully was." Thank you so much. "I am facing a problem adjusting a charge limit with voiceover.
For example, now if I adjust the slider from 100, it says 75, 55, 25, or zero. I tried a double tap and hold to see if it would help, but it didn't. I also tried resetting voiceover settings, but it also didn't work. I tried a hard reset, but it also didn't work. How can I fix it? So, the old option would go back like 195, 90, 85, et cetera." Edward, I am not seeing this.
Now, I am running iOS 26.2 beta right now, but even when I was running iOS 26, it behaved normally for me. So, when I go through that slider that adjusts the charge limit, I can go down in 5% increments from 100 all the way down to 80, which is the way the feature is supposed to work.
I'm afraid I have no idea at all why, given that you took the drastic step of completely resetting your phone, it wouldn't be working the same way for you. One thing you didn't say is what kind of iPhone you have. I don't know if that makes a difference. I am trying this with an iPhone 17 Pro Max and it's behaving as I would expect, but I don't know.
Let's see if anybody else is having this issue and whether they've arrived at a magic fix. Maybe 26.1 is the charm for you, Edward. I hope so. [email protected] if you want to be in touch. And of course, remember, if you're writing in as a member of a chapter of the National Federation of the Blind, be sure to tell us what that chapter is.
We'll give it a shout-out. This email says, "Hello, my name is Carrie Tikman, and I am commenting on the problem that Amanda has with her key clicks not sounding." This issue is not specific to her phone, but a voiceover issue in iOS 26. And there is a workaround. For whatever reason, you must turn off audio ducking to hear the key clicks again, according to Apple Vis.
It worked for me, but I'm now doing without because I like my ducking. Thank you so much for the podcast. Well, thank you for writing in, Carrie, and it will be interesting to know whether iOS 26.1 has addressed this issue for those it was affecting because this email predates the release of iOS 26.1.
Let's return to an important subject we were discussing recently on Access On. And Raymond says, "Dear Jonathan, just thought I'd drop a line here to let the individual concerned about compatibility with the Libre sensor with the new Libre app and iOS 26. Know that there is no cause for concern.
Libra came out with a brand new app a few months ago and the app is compatible and works with all their sensors and it is much more accessible than their original app. Also, it's fully compatible with iOS 46. I'm using the Libre three + sensor myself and have had no trouble with it or the app at all." Great to get a message for access on from Gary Wonder.
I was going to say wonderful, but that's just too bad a pun, so I'm not going to do that. Gary says, "I was asked to update from Libre three to a new app just called Libre. It says it can handle several versions of its sensors, including two, three, and three plus. It works well with the three and three plus. And Wes has a similar thought.
He says there was somebody asking about CGMs in iOS 26. That stands for continuous glucose monitored, by the way. While I am not diabetic and don't use prescription CGMs, I sometimes use Dexcom's non-prescription CGM called Stelo, which is spelled S-T-E-L-O.
And that app works in 26, both betas and otherwise. While we're talking about medical stuff, I have come across a manufacturer of devices that appears to be low cost, but still accessible. Both Walgreens and Best Buy sell a brand of device called OMRON, that is spelled O-M-R-O-N. It uses an app called OMRON Connect. The app isn't pristinely accessible, but I can use it to do what I need. I have one of their units called the BP 7000 series.
It's an Upper Arm unit with only two buttons. Unfortunately, neither the app nor the unit itself will tell you about battery percentage, et cetera. OMRON connects with Apple Health. They have scales, heart monitoring devices, and a range of blood pressure cuffs.
I nearly bought one of their units that has the cuff separate from the monitor unit, but the manual made it sound like there are a lot of buttons and modes, and I wasn't sure how accessible it would be. I thought listeners might like to know about this company, and perhaps we can work with them to make things more usable.
Wes continues, "Regarding JAWS public beta, I'm dismayed they stopped offering this. It was a good opportunity to test and provide feedback. I wish that FS would go to a ring type model like Microsoft where they could offer different update channels, either through Insert J Club or something similar.
I have three big concerns about iOS 26 plaguing me now, and I don't know of any workarounds. First, if I try to use Braille Notes from Braille Access, I get a message stating set up the notes app first." That's interesting. I wonder whether they're referring to the primary notes app, Wes, and whether you've been in there to see if that makes a difference. I have not seen or heard of that error before.
"Second, on iPad iOS26, I can't seem to use the return key to send messages with any Braille displays, nor can I unlock my device with a Braille display alone. Okay, this is really interesting, Wes, because I know of somebody who has this problem where if you press enter, for example, to send a message or to try and insert a blank line, it is not working and this person has iOS 26.
They have upgraded to iOS 26.1 and that has not resolved the issue. If anyone has this issue and has resolved it, I would be really interested to hear what did it. I have tried helping out here. I've tried changing Braille tables.
The only thing I can think of, which is a bit dramatic, would be to try resetting voiceover settings. That does take a long time to recover from, particularly if you've personalized your phone. So, yes, we are seeing this and this is one that I haven't found a workaround for."
This continues Wes, "I have to turn my phone all the way screen side down and back for it to register that I want to do brow screen input with my charging port to the right in tabletop mode." See, once you get it in that mode though, Wes, you should be able to lock the brow screen input so that it stays there.
And finally, says Wes, "I am wondering if you have any ideas on how to break through first level support to report app accessibility issues. I mentioned Stelo earlier. I've been meaning to record a demo of their sensor application and app usage for this podcast, but the app accessibility and their customer service has deteriorated over the past six months.
Support is offered by a chatbot and they have a call center open during the week. Their agents don't seem to understand accessibility. The app has seen a lot of tabs and buttons that had labels lose them and some of the voiceover specific functionality now causes VO to crash.
I've also received a collection of bad sensors, where they either fail early or don't stay adhered." Thank you for a very newsy little email, Wes, and Wes is coming in from the Greater Des Moines chapter of the National Federation of the Blind. Making that breakthrough beyond first-line tech support can be challenging.
The only thing I can think of, Wes, is to put such a detailed bug report together that they take you seriously and you can hopefully get it escalated. Sometimes asking for a supervisor can help.
If you're on the phone with them and you don't feel like you're getting any traction, and you might even want to try using a feature like Deep Research that some of the AI technology has these days to see if you can find the name of an executive for the company and see if you can work out the email syntax to see if you can break through that way. Best of luck. Let's talk a couple of meta things now.
And Charles Heiser writes, "Firstly, I like many of you am disappointed by the new WhatsApp experience rolling out on Windows."
The native app was more usable for assistive technology, easier to write scripts for because the experience was more stable and users could choose whether to update their experience.
The web app will update automatically, requires coders to write scripts in completely different ways and users will not be able to move to the previous experiences they may be more comfortable with. There are arguments to be made for a unified web app, but they mostly boil down to convenience and security for WhatsApp. Those are important considerations in business, but the users are what make or break a product.
And this latest rollout continues a trend of WhatsApp higher ups not listening to feedback from the assistive tech community, unless significant pressure is applied. The last notable example of this is when voiceover Focus on iOS could not find the send button to send a voice message once recording started back in July of this year. If Focus was left on the button, no problem.
If Focus moved anywhere else on the screen, it was as if the send button disappeared. It was still there, but VO Focus could not return to it. This was quickly addressed after many people talked to social media and others rose to executives at WhatsApp and Meta.
However, that bug shouldn't have made it into the public build because several iOS beta testers flagged it during the test phase, similar to the current situation of Windows beta testers pointing out usability concerns and accessibility barriers with the web app experience.
I am part of a group that collects feedback from assistive technology users who also use WhatsApp, beta, and public builds alike across all platforms. The group's admin is a member of the WhatsApp accessibility team and is also blind and a screen ready user. And this group is his way of streamlining the report process to move critical information between users, developers, and the support team.
The conversations in this group indicate that the accessibility team is still committed to providing an easy to use interface for all users, and they're doing their best in the current climate to support the ongoing mission of inclusion. To that end, all accessibility and assistive technology feedback is being asked to be sent via email to support at accessibility.whatsapp.com.
I'm hopeful that while the shift to a web app is not the most ideal for AT users, particularly screen reader users, the accessibility team will continue to call out issues with the product and the internal mechanisms and attitudes surrounding its design and implementation.
I also hope that the NFB, through its ongoing talks with Meta can add insight and validity to this discussion so the blind beta testers may be taken more seriously. Second, Facebook. This part of the message deals with an unwelcome discovery. I share a fair amount of posts and videos to my Facebook friends by sending them through Messenger.
Facebook makes this very convenient by providing your most recently contacted messenger conversations in the share sheet once you activate the share option. Today, October 17th, I pulled up that share sheet and instead of reading names to me, my iPhone's voiceover simply announced button for each conversation.
Facebook has not pushed an app update since October the 11th, but I have been able to read names on the share sheet up until today. Luckily, screen recognition saved me and I found the correct chat. I'm so thankful for the ability to quickly turn screen recognition on and off from the rotor, but it saddens me how often I need it."
Thank you, Charles. We'll check into that and see if it's still there and reach out to contacts that we have at Meta if it still is. Let's end with a tech tip, and this one is for you if you are feeling the absence of the JAWS page summary feature because you've been locked up with the home annual license decision.
Well, there is something else that you might try that could give you a fairly similar response. It's not quite the same thing because it hasn't been optimized for screen reading, but it does give you a similar thing. And this is the ability to get a page summary if you are using Microsoft Edge, which integrates deeply with Copilot.
I am running JAWS for this demonstration with the vocalizer Tom Voice, and right now I'm on the page for the transcript of access on episode 49 from the National Federation of the Blinds website at nfb.org. It is important if you want this to work that you are not focused on a link or a list or anything that will alter the basic context menu that Edge provides just when you're on a page.
So, I've ensured that the virtual cursor in JAWS is just on some plain text and I'm going to press shift F10 context menu. Back alt plus left out, refresh control+R. Save as control+S, print control+P. Send tab to your devices. Five, create QR code for this summarized with Copilot, seven of 17.
And on my particular context menu, yours may vary. This is the seventh item summarized with Copilot. Let's press enter. Leaving menus. Tips on advocating for better technology outcomes. Meta AI comes to point eco and they look at the smart glasses market National Federation of the Blind Microsoft Edge personal.
Tips on advocating for better technology outcomes, Meta AI comes to planner eco and they look at the smart glasses market National Federation of the Blind Microsoft Edge personal page. Microsoft Copilot, your AI companion, Microsoft Copilot, your AI companion, Microsoft Copilot, your AI companion, Microsoft Copilot, your AI companion, frame, main region, edit, blank, placeholder, message Copilot or at mention a tab.
Here's a summary of the main points from the National Federation of the Blinds Access on podcast episode 49. Number, number, number direct hit main topics, covered star star technology self advocacy tool hit star star.
Karl Belanger explains how blind users can effectively report accessibility issues to companies. Key tips include being specific, avoiding vague complaints, and maintaining professionalism. Reports should include OS, assistive tech used, steps to reproduce the issue, and what should happen instead star star low vision, accessibility star star.
Kennedy Zimnik discusses how to identify and report low vision barriers like poor contrast, missing focus indicators, and layout issues when zoomed in. Tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker are recommended star star real world advocacy example, star star.
Jonathan Mosen shares a detailed case study of advocating against Sanas's inaccessible app redesign, emphasizes the importance of tone, persistence, and leveraging collective advocacy through the NFB star star Meta AI in Puerto Rico star star. Meta AI is now available on Ray-Ban smart glasses in Puerto Rico after advocacy efforts, star star smart glasses, market overview star star.
Elijah Massey provides a detailed comparison of current and upcoming smart glasses with cameras and AI features. Models compared include Ray-Ban Meta, Oakley Meta, Echo Vision, and Envision Ally Solos. Key differences include camera specs, battery life, AI capabilities, and pricing star star call to action star star.
Users are encouraged to report an accessible tech via the NFB's bug tracker form HTTPS//nfb.org/cena. The NFB uses this data to prioritize advocacy and engage with companies. Let me know if you'd like a breakdown of the smart glasses comparison, or sample accessibility report template.
It is very chatty to begin with before it starts giving you that very good summary of the page. So, you'd want to silence your speech and little that play out and then perform a say all to get that. Very good summary. There is an edit field here on the page as well, so you can ask Copilot questions about the page.
So, as you hear, not necessarily going to give you a lot of information about structure by default, but you could ask it to give you a summary of the semantic structure of the page that is suitable for screen readers and will do that. So, that is the feature built right into Copilot and Microsoft Edge that will summarize a page for you.
That concludes this episode of Access On, the Technology Podcast of the National Federation of the Blind. To send in a contribution for a future episode, email us, attach an audio clip or just write it down and send it to [email protected]. That's [email protected]. To keep up to date with Access On, follow us on Mastodon, [email protected].
That's [email protected] on Mastodon. To subscribe to an announcement only email list about upcoming episodes, send a blank message to accesson-announce-subscribe at nfbnet.org.
That's accesson-announce-subscribe at nfbnet.org. To learn more about the National Federation of the Blind, visit our website, nfb.org or phonics 410-659-9314. That's 410-659-9314 and be sure to check out the nation's blind podcast right from where you heard this podcast.