Welcome to the twenty-sixth episode of Access On, the National Federation of the Blind's Technology podcast.
Episode
Listen to the twenty-sixth episode of the Access On podcast (Browser).
Or listen on your preferred podcast platform.
Timestamps
The show is segmented by chapter, making it easy to move between segments of the podcast if you have an app or player that supports chapters. Below is what's on the show this week, and when you can hear it.
- Register for our indoor wayfinding boutique 0:00
- The National Federation of the Blind and Innosearch announce partnership 2:02
- A guide to hosting and attending Webex meetings 8:38
- It would be nice to have DecTalk on the iPhone 47:35
- The Facebook website is still problematic 48:54
- Impressed with Android 15 50:07
- Appliance accessibility 50:55
- Hearing aid battery life 53:39
- Be aware of hearing aid model variations, and devices to help blind wheelchair users 55:27
- Tech tip, if your iPhone's messages stop automatically speaking while in a conversation 58:44
Transcript
Automated Voice...: Live the life you want.
Jonathan Mosen: Welcome to Access On, the Technology podcast of the National Federation of the Blind. Coming up, the National Federation of the Blind and Innosearch announce a new strategic partnership, learn about hosting and participating in online meetings held via the WebEx platform. A listener seeks advice about what options exist to assist blind wheelchair users with travel, and in our tech tip, how to fix it when your iMessage conversations don't speak automatically anymore. It's Jonathan Mosen at the Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, Maryland welcoming you to episode 26 of the podcast.
And this is the final opportunity that I have to remind you of our boutique on indoor wayfinding technology. It's going to be happening on May the 27 at two o'clock Eastern via Zoom. The indoor navigation technology field has expanded greatly in recent years with the advancement of beacon, laser mapping and smartphone technology.
Finding your way around a large and complex indoor space like an airport or office building as a blind person has become much easier. And in this boutique, we're going to be covering the different types of indoor navigation, smartphone applications, and the future of indoor navigation. You can register for the indoor navigation software boutique today by heading to nfb.org/cena. That's nfb.org/cena and then you can click on the boutique and training link and you'll be able to find the registration process there.
We will be giving you an abridged version of the boutique here on Access On, but the advantage of actually attending in person is that you can ask questions about what you're hearing and there's a lot of value in doing that, so we look forward to seeing you there. Now we had a busy Global Accessibility Awareness day here at the National Federation of the Blind on the evening of Thursday, May the 15.
We had our presidential release live where President Riccobono and I talked about a number of things pertaining to accessibility. One of the key things I wanted to draw to your attention, in case you haven't heard about it yet, is the partnership that was announced between the National Federation of the Blind and Innosearch. I'll read you this media release now in case you haven't seen it yet.
It says The National Federation of the Blind NFB, the Transformative membership and advocacy Organization of Blind People, is proud to announce a formal partnership with Innosearch AI, an innovative AI-powered accessibility and shopping platform. This groundbreaking collaboration aims to transform the digital experience for blind and low vision users by combining Innosearch's cutting edge technology with the NFB's deep expertise in advocacy and community empowerment.
Together, Innosearch AI and the NFB are committed to building a more accessible internet where shopping, travel, and digital services are designed with everyone in mind. "We are thrilled to join forces with the NFB, an organization with a long-standing legacy of advocacy and empowerment," said Patrick Long, CEO and co-founder of Innosearch AI, our shared commitment to independence, innovation and access for all makes this partnership a natural fit.
The strategic partnership will develop meaningful community-driven initiatives that make digital services more accessible and helpful for blind and low vision users. The National Federation of the Blind has always been at the forefront of ensuring that blind people are on the cutting edge of new tools for accessing information.
And this is especially crucial in digital shopping spaces. "We're not just waiting for solutions. We are helping shape them, through our collective experience and expertise. We provide valuable insights about what works and what doesn't for blind consumers said," Mark A. Riccobono, president of the National Federation of the Blind. This partnership with Innosearch AI demonstrates that the collaborative approach into new high-impact areas of technology and commerce can truly meet the needs of blind consumers and the broader market.
Making a great impact, together, Innosearch AI and the National Federation of the Blind will work together to establish the following, roundup to donate feature. Innosearch AI will implement a Roundup donation feature at checkout, allowing shoppers to round their purchases to the nearest dollar. With the change going directly to the NFB, this small action will generate recurring support for critical programs and advocacy efforts. Welcome credit for new users. The partnership includes a 10 dollar welcome credit for new Innosearch users who sign up via a unique referral link. This promotes digital inclusion and encourages users to explore the growing suite of services offered through the Innosearch platform.
Shaping the platform's development, the NFB will engage in quarterly strategy sessions with Innosearch leadership to share feedback, guide accessibility improvements, and identify future collaboration opportunities. Real users will help shape the platform's development so it continues to serve the community's evolving needs. Promoting to the nation's blind. The NFB will promote Innosearch AI throughout our national networks and channels such as digital communications, physical publications and events, ensuring that the nation's blind are informed and empowered to benefit from this next generation platform. Advancing digital accessibility and features, the two organizations will collaborate on training, outreach and service programs to empower users with the tools they need to navigate the online world independently.
This includes, joint workshops on how to use Innosearch's accessible features with popular screen readers and magnification software, as well as continued exploration of ways to embed Innosearch's services into the NFB's outreach and support work. The National Federation of the Blind and Innosearch AI are excited to promote and improve digital literacy. Together we are transforming dreams into reality. Now we have talked here on Access On about Innosearch, but if you haven't been there before, you can go to Innosearch, that's I-N-N-O-search.AI and you can also phone Innosearch and engage with them over the phone and that technology is improving all the time. And the number to get in touch there is 855 dash SHOP GPT.
That's 855-746-7478. Now the Roundup technology is in place right now. If you don't have an Innosearch account and it is possible for you to make purchases if you don't, every time you make a purchase, you'll be invited to enable the roundup feature so that that particular purchases change will be rounded up to the nearest dollar and the change donated to the National Federation of the Blind.
If you have an Innosearch account so you're logged in when you make a purchase, once you enable the Roundup feature, it stays enabled until you disable it again and we hope that you won't do that because all these things really add up and help. So that's the way it works and it is up and running now. So next time you make a purchase with Innosearch, do be sure to enable that roundup feature and make a small contribution to the programs, the valuable advocacy efforts of the National Federation of the Blind.
Automated Voice...: Make a difference with the National Federation of the Blind's Lead and Drive give 25 dollars in 25. When you give 25 dollars or more between May 15th and July 11th, you're entered into the drawing. Your support helps us continue to lead courageously and drive lasting changes for blind people across America. You could win prizes like round-trip transportation for two to the 2026 NFB national convention, hotel accommodations, registration, banquet tickets, or 2025 dollars cash. To enter, visit nfb.org/give25donate. Call 410-659-9314 extension 2430 or send a check to National Federation of the Blind and mention hashtag Give 25 and the fund in the memo. The winner will be announced July 13, 2025. Thank you for your generosity.
Jonathan Mosen: Online meetings are such a big part of most of our lives, aren't they? And that's why we devoted an extended webinar to them a few weeks ago. We're going through some highlights of that webinar here on Access On. We're now up to WebEx, which is a platform that we don't hear as much about, particularly since during the pandemic. It wasn't really in the best shape from an accessibility perspective, but as we'll hear, it appears to have come a long way and Karl Belanger from our center of excellence in non-visual accessibility takes us through that.
Karl Belanger: WebEx was one of the early juggernauts in the online meeting space. They were around well before the pandemic and were used by a number of companies for online meetings back in the mid 2010s. They historically were not great with accessibility and I had some opportunity to go explore the accessibility of WebEx early on in the Covid days and it was not great. There were many issues, many unlabeled controls, many things labeled weirdly, but things have changed.
WebEx, like Zoom, is a full-featured meetings, messaging, calls, etc. platforms. They have their own AI assistance now and can do a lot of things that Zoom can do. They do offer a free plan, which is 40-minute meetings for up to a hundred people. If you buy their monthly tier, it's like 13 bucks, that offers more people longer meetings and I believe it's 10 gigabytes of cloud recording space for your meetings. Or you can do the WebEx phone plan for 25 a month, which has the ability to set up a phone number and receive calls at that number and set up call queues and forwarding and custom greetings and all those business phone type abilities. WebEx works primarily through its desktop app, which we'll get into in a minute, and it also works through, you can join a meeting with your browser if you say, get a meeting link and don't have a WebEx app on your computer or are not able to install one for whatever reason.
WebEx does also have mobile apps, again, iOS and Android. Again, they offer much of the same functionality as far as the meetings are concerned to join. Hosts interact with meetings and again, they're all fully accessible on mobile, so you can go through and do whatever you need to do with a screen reader. Although when I was attempting to do some testing on the mobile apps, there were a few occasions where it said there was a server error and would not let me join the meeting. So the stability of the WebEx mobile app may or may not be quite up to par with how the stability is on the others. So now we're on the WebEx screen.
Automated Voice...: Participants can now.
Karl Belanger: Tabbing through.
Automated Voice...: Help button, expand or collapse navigation menu button show labels, personal room button.
Karl Belanger: Now we're on the meetings tab at first, so by default it will create a meeting using our personal room link. This is a consistent meeting ID that never changes that you can use for quick and dirty meetings. Just spin it up whenever. You can also go through scheduling meetings, which I will go through in a bit and create unique meeting links.
Automated Voice...: Personal room linkage https slash slash [email protected]/meal/.
Karl Belanger: Then it gives the personal meeting url.
Automated Voice...: Copy my personal room linkage, start meeting, meet at my personal room, start a personal room meeting button more options for starting a web.
Karl Belanger: And we can customize this. Let's see what this has.
Automated Voice...: Context menu options, menu, use up and down arrow. Start a personal room meeting menu item, start a WebEx meeting, menu item, start a personal room meeting, WebEx.
Karl Belanger: And it gives us the option to also start a WebEx meeting, which is the type I was talking about that allows you to have a custom generated link in some other session.
Automated Voice...: Enter meeting information to join, join a meeting button.
Karl Belanger: Join a meeting lets you enter the ID of the meeting that you were sent by someone.
Automated Voice...: Schedule a meeting button.
Karl Belanger: Schedule a meeting. We'll come back to this in a minute.
Automated Voice...: Meeting actions expanded button, page catalyst use left slash right arrow key to navigate calendar, tab selected one.
Karl Belanger: And we have a calendar here which lets us see the meetings we have coming up that are scheduled.
Automated Voice...: Previous day, Wednesday, April 16th, 2025. Next day today, Wednesday, April 16th, 2025, button today. Calendar, view, type selector combo box list collapsed. Connect your calendar to see all your meetings right here.
Karl Belanger: And we have the ability to link our Outlook or Google or other calendars.
Automated Voice...: Connect your calendar to grouping, profile and preferences. Active menu button.
Karl Belanger: That's where we can manage our profile, our WebEx account.
Automated Voice...: Set a status, has popup button. Set a status.
Karl Belanger: If you're with other people say, in your organization. If your organization uses WebEx, you can set a status.
Automated Voice...: Click to go back, right click or click and hold or press shift plus F 10 to see history menu button, click to go back.
Karl Belanger: And we have a history screen.
Automated Voice...: Search, meet and call control plus F edit blank.
Karl Belanger: We have a search field.
Automated Voice...: Create new has popup buttons. Start a conversation, call or meet.
Karl Belanger: And we have a create new option.
Automated Voice...: Connector device has popup window button.
Karl Belanger: Connect to a device. There are room controls and speakerphones and various other things that you can connect to control the meeting through those devices.
Automated Voice...: Primary navigation, menu messaging tab, one of seven.
Karl Belanger: Our, and we have seven tabs here in our primary navigation. We have messaging.
Automated Voice...: Meetings, tab, selected.
Karl Belanger: Meetings tab, which is selected.
Automated Voice...: Calling tab three.
Karl Belanger: Calling.
Automated Voice...: Teams tab four, whiteboard tab.
Karl Belanger: Whiteboards.
Automated Voice...: Tab.
Karl Belanger: Vidcast, which is a streaming thing.
Automated Voice...: More options button has popped.
Karl Belanger: And more options, which just allows a few reporting issues and going to help and things like that.
Automated Voice...: Vic, white meetings, tap select.
Karl Belanger: Just up our back to meetings, which is where we want to stay for this.
Automated Voice...: Upgrade button.
Karl Belanger: We're on the free plan, so of course there's a button to upgrade our plan.
Automated Voice...: Settings, button.
Karl Belanger: Settings, which we'll go into in a bit.
Automated Voice...: Help button.
Karl Belanger: Help.
Automated Voice...: Expand or collapse navigation, menu button, show labels, personal room button, personal room, copy my, start meeting, more options, enter meeting information, schedule a meeting button.
Karl Belanger: And I just kept tabbing around. Back to schedule a meeting. WebEx has a very nice meeting scheduling interface, which we'll get into now.
Automated Voice...: WebEx window, schedule a meeting, dialogue grouping, topic, text input field edit, Karl Belanger's meeting.
Karl Belanger: And it brings up a topic which defaults to just personal account owner names meeting, which is fine for our purposes, I'll press tab.
Automated Voice...: Clear input button.
Karl Belanger: Every field here will have this clear input button. Once there's data in it, I'll keep tab.
Automated Voice...: Meeting templates, WebEx meetings, default combo box collapse meeting.
Karl Belanger: So because we're on the free plan, we only have the default template, but you can create other custom templates to set up different settings. So you could have one for your personal meetings with very low security and not a lot of stuff. You could have one for public meetings that requires a waiting room or other features. I'll keep tabbing.
Automated Voice...: More information from meeting template button.
Karl Belanger: And more information if I press space bar on this.
Automated Voice...: Meeting templates include custom scheduling settings so you can reuse the same settings for future meetings. Meeting templates aren't supported for meetings that use your personal room link.
Karl Belanger: And so again, it gives you just a nice little description and that's not a pop-up window that you need to close or anything like that. It just displays the text on the screen and the screen reader reads it, which is very nice. I'll press tab.
Automated Voice...: Month four, start date spin button four slash 60.
Karl Belanger: And we're setting our start date now. So we're on the month field.
Automated Voice...: Day start date, day, start date 17.
Karl Belanger: And it will start on 16. I just changed it to tomorrow.
Automated Voice...: Year. Start date 2025.
Karl Belanger: 10 years 2025. I do want to have this meeting sometime soon, so I'll tab.
Automated Voice...: Hour 16, start time, spin button 16.
Karl Belanger: And I am using a 24-hour time, so 16 or 4:00 PM and you can set your start time.
Automated Voice...: Zero minute start time.
Karl Belanger: And we have the hour and minute dropdown.
Automated Voice...: Meeting. Start time button, hour, 16th down and third minute end time, 30 spin box, meeting and time button.
Karl Belanger: And that will set the meeting end time.
Automated Voice...: Month four and set day and date, year, end date to time zone combo box UTC zero.
Karl Belanger: We have our end date and our time zone that our meeting is in.
Automated Voice...: Recurrence. You can click to schedule recurrence meeting. Checkbox not checked.
Karl Belanger: And recurrence. Do we want to make this a meeting that happens at a set pattern?
Automated Voice...: Meeting link combo box, generate a one-time meeting, link collapsed.
Karl Belanger: And meeting link, we can choose to have it generate a link or to use our personal meeting room.
Automated Voice...: More information for add a space button, create a space with all the invitees for this meeting. Checkbox not checked.
Karl Belanger: I would explain what this create a space is.
Automated Voice...: More information for. Prepare for the meeting by starting a conversation and sharing files with meeting invitees using a link space, create a space.
Karl Belanger: So a space is essentially just like a chat room or instant message chat with all the meeting attendees where anyone who has the link can join and share comments, post documents or other files for the meeting or generally go through it in that way and work with what we have. I'll press tab.
Automated Voice...: Description, edit blank.
Karl Belanger: Description is just, you can put a summary of what we're going to be talking about.
Automated Voice...: Advanced settings button.
Karl Belanger: Advanced settings has a lot of cool features in it. We'll get back to that.
Automated Voice...: Invitees one. Add by name or email, edit, add by name or email blank.
Karl Belanger: And here's where we can invite specific people.
Automated Voice...: Remove all invitees but, schedule button.
Karl Belanger: And we're at the schedule button.
Automated Voice...: Remove all attendee list, attendee list. Karl Belanger, organizer, the state.
Karl Belanger: And then it shows that the only attendee we have right now is me as the organizer. Now this is not integrated with our Outlook or anything because here at the NFB we don't use WebEx, but if it were, you'd be able to get at your company's contacts and things like that as needed.
Automated Voice...: Invite advanced settings button.
Karl Belanger: So let's go back to advanced settings.
Automated Voice...: Advanced settings, screen grouping, back to basic settings, button, back to basic settings.
Karl Belanger: All right, that'll take us back to as it says, the basic settings. I'll press tab.
Automated Voice...: More information for meeting type button. Meeting type combo box WebEx meetings. Pro three, free collapsed. Security tab selected one of three selected security use, left, right security widget, grouping security, scroll area grouping security, scroll area widget, contents, grouping, meeting password, edit, must contain requirement.
Karl Belanger: And it says a meeting, password.
Automated Voice...: Refresh, password button, refresh password.
Karl Belanger: And we can hit refresh. Which changes, will change it.
Automated Voice...: Exclude password from email invitation checkbox not checked. More information for auto admit button. Choose what happens for people who aren't on the invite or who aren't signed in, they can join the meeting. One of three radio button checked.
Karl Belanger: And so people who aren't explicitly invited, do we want to let them join the meeting?
Automated Voice...: They wait in the lobby until they're admitted to a three radio button checked.
Karl Belanger: Wait in the waiting room.
Automated Voice...: They can't join the meeting. Three of three radio button.
Karl Belanger: Just lock them out.
Automated Voice...: They wait. They can join the meeting.
Karl Belanger: They can join the meeting is fine for this.
Automated Voice...: More information for auto lock button, auto lock. Automatically lock my meeting after my meeting starts. Checkbox not checked.
Karl Belanger: Auto lock is once the meeting starts, you want to ban other people from coming in and out.
Automated Voice...: Join before host. Attendees can join the meeting before the meeting starts. Checkbox checked minutes, select combo box five collapsed. Update using WebEx back to basic setting.
Karl Belanger: And there's a minutes for how long the meeting will lock.
Automated Voice...: More information for meeting type combo box. More security, audio connection tab unselected, audio connection, widget grouping, audio. Audio. More information for audio connection type button, audio connection type combo box use VoIP only collapsed.
Karl Belanger: By default. WebEx on the free plan only lets you use computer audio. It is possible to set up calling numbers if you are on a paid plan.
Automated Voice...: More information for mute attendees button Allow attendees to unmute themselves in the meeting. Checkbox checked.
Karl Belanger: Do you want to allow everyone to unmute themselves?
Automated Voice...: Always mute attendees when they join the meeting. Checkbox not checked.
Karl Belanger: Should everyone be muted when they join?
Automated Voice...: Update using WebEx site button. Back to basic. More information for meeting type meeting type audio connection tabs, scheduling options tab, unselected scheduling options tab unselected. Enable breakout sessions. Checkbox not checked.
Karl Belanger: Do we want to have breakout sessions enabled? Some of these you can change once you're in the meeting as well.
Automated Voice...: More information for meeting options button, edit meeting options, button edit meeting options, update using WebEx. Back to basics, schedule.
Karl Belanger: We'll go back to the basic settings.
Automated Voice...: Invite, remove all in schedule button, cancel.
Karl Belanger: And that is scheduling a meeting. There's a lot there.
Automated Voice...: Cancel.
Karl Belanger: It's all nice and accessible. We're not actually going to schedule the meeting though, so I'm just going to hit cancel.
Automated Voice...: Discard and save changes. Discard button.
Karl Belanger: Yes, we want to discard.
Automated Voice...: WebEx window. Schedule a meeting.
Karl Belanger: And there goes that scheduling attempt.
Automated Voice...: Enter meeting for more options, start meeting. Copy my personal room link personal expand org.
Karl Belanger: So now I'm just shift tapping back to settings because there's a couple of things in there you might want to take a look at.
Automated Voice...: Help button settings button. Level one general tab.
Karl Belanger: Now we have a tree view of settings that has a number of different things. There's a ton of settings here you'll likely want to take the time to go through on your own time and personalize this to your heart's content. Everything from application behaviors to video features, audio. WebEx does have spatial audio as well, just like Teams. And then you can set a bunch of different options. There's a section for messaging and various things. We're going to explore two categories today, accessibility and keyboard shortcuts. So I'm just going to down arrow here.
Automated Voice...: See others WebEx event, sign in level one.
Karl Belanger: I was not on the general tab. Let's try down Arrowing again.
Automated Voice...: Level one audio tab collapsed. Press enter slash space bar to select.
Karl Belanger: And it says audio tab is collapsed. You can expand the tabs with the right arrow.
Automated Voice...: Level one video tab collapse, level one, sharing content tab. Press enter level one, notification's tab, level one, appearance tab, level one, accessibility tab, press enter.
Karl Belanger: All right, we're on the accessibility tab. I'm going to press enter.
Automated Voice...: Tab selected.
Karl Belanger: And it says tab selected. I'll press tab.
Automated Voice...: Font size, regular default, slider.
Karl Belanger: We can set the font size.
Automated Voice...: Read the following notifications. When screen reader is on check box checked.
Karl Belanger: Read the following notifications when screen reader is on. And this is where you can control all your in-meeting, chat notifications, messages, things like that. So I'll keep tabbing.
Automated Voice...: Participant raises or lowers hand, host only, check box checked.
Karl Belanger: Raise your lower hand.
Automated Voice...: A participant starts or stops sharing content. Check box checked.
Karl Belanger: Starts or stops sharing content.
Automated Voice...: Chat messages, check box checked.
Karl Belanger: Chat messages.
Automated Voice...: Post mutes, audio check box checked.
Karl Belanger: Post mutes, your audio.
Automated Voice...: Post stops, video check box checked.
Karl Belanger: Stops, video.
Automated Voice...: Reactions, check box checked.
Karl Belanger: Should it read out different reactions that are being sent.
Automated Voice...: Reset to default button.
Karl Belanger: And the reset to default button. Not as comprehensive as the Zoom screen reader settings and notifications. But there's a decent number of them here and that should definitely let you customize and navigate the WebEx settings to be able to customize what things you want to hear through your screen reader. Going to keep tabbing.
Automated Voice...: Settings dialog. Save button, cancel button, level one accessibility tab. Press enter slash spacebar to select level one keyboard shortcuts tab, press enter.
Karl Belanger: We have keyboard shortcuts. Now press enter.
Automated Voice...: Tab selected. Learn more about keyboard navigation link. You can use the default shortcuts or you can customize shortcuts by selecting them from the list and pressing the preferred key combination. Starting with the control, option, command or shift key, edit search shortcuts, blank.
Karl Belanger: We have a search box.
Automated Voice...: More information for global button.
Karl Belanger: Let's see what this says.
Automated Voice...: Global lets you use WebEx shortcuts when the app is minimized during the background, disabled shortcuts cannot be made global general. Section collapsed. Use up and down arrow key.
Karl Belanger: Now the number of categories, general.
Automated Voice...: Messages, section collapsed, use up and down.
Karl Belanger: Messages.
Automated Voice...: Formatting section, collapsed, meetings and calls section expanded meetings in general section collapsed.
Karl Belanger: So those are our categories. We'll go into general first.
Automated Voice...: General section, expanded search, shortcut, control plus F, global checkbox not checked, disable the shortcut can't be made global. To begin interacting with the contents of the list item, press arrow, keys use up and down arrow.
Karl Belanger: So again, we hear a search global and then with unchecked and it says this cannot be made global.
Automated Voice...: Go back in history, shortcut out, plus left arrow. Global checkbox not checked. Disable the shortcut. Go forward in history, shortcut, go to messaging, go to Teams. Shortcut, control plus two, global. Go to calling shortcut, go to meetings. Shortcut, control plus five, global checkbox not checked, disable the shortcut can't be made global. To begin, go to personal insights, go to whiteboards, go to WebEx, help center, open WebEx settings, open or close, open WebEx settings, shortcut control plus global checkbox.
Karl Belanger: Now this is open settings. My punctuation isn't reading to me, whatever this is, but I could use my review commands or change the punctuation to know what the character is that it's saying for open settings.
Automated Voice...: Open or close Cisco AI, assistant, open diagnostics shortcut.
Karl Belanger: And there's AI assistant for paid plans. There's some diagnostics you can view.
Automated Voice...: Expand or collapse. Navigation menu shortcut out plus shift plus Q, global open keyboard shortcuts, shortcut control plus slash global. Checkbox not checked. Disable this open context menu shortcut, shift plus F 10. Global checkbox not checked. Sign out shortcut quick WebEx shortcut. Minimize the window, maximize the window shortcut, close the window shortcut. Messages section.
Karl Belanger: And so we had a bunch of different other things there.
Automated Voice...: Formatting section.
Karl Belanger: I'm going to go down to meetings.
Automated Voice...: Meetings and call. Meetings and call. Leave a meeting or call shortcut control plus L.
Karl Belanger: And here we have more shortcuts Control L to leave a meeting.
Automated Voice...: Answer call shortcut. Control plus shift plus C, global.
Karl Belanger: We have some shortcuts here for calls. This would be if you're using the WebEx phone plans, that doesn't really apply to our stuff here, so I'm just going to skip through these.
Automated Voice...: Decline call, toggle calling doc, hold slash resume call. Decline call highlight to call transfer call mute or unmute video or unmute yourself. Shortcut control plus M.
Karl Belanger: So control M is mute or unmute.
Automated Voice...: Start video on a call shortcut, control plus shift plus V, global checkbox not checked.
Karl Belanger: Control shift V is for video on a call.
Automated Voice...: Switch smart audio mode.
Karl Belanger: There's a smart audio which can do some things with noise-canceling and other things. We're not going to get into that here, but you can change that with the keyboard shortcut.
Automated Voice...: Share content shortcut, control plus shift plus D, global checkbox.
Karl Belanger: Share content is control D. We'll show that off later.
Automated Voice...: Show or hide the video of you while sharing shortcut control plus L plus global checkbox checked.
Karl Belanger: Enable the video preview.
Automated Voice...: Share a file.
Karl Belanger: Share a file.
Automated Voice...: Pause or resume. Sharing sharing. Hide or share WebEx controls and panels while sharing content. Shortcut control plus shift plus Q global.
Karl Belanger: This is one nice feature if you're trying to share the WebEx client in a WebEx meeting in Zoom, you have to go into settings and find the checkbox to enable Zoom controls. In the WebEx here you can just toggle it with this one. Keyboard shortcut.
Automated Voice...: Show or hide meeting controls shortcut, control plus shift plus H.
Karl Belanger: Similar for the meeting controls. This is mostly visual.
Automated Voice...: Start annotation, shortcut.
Karl Belanger: And there's a bunch of other stuff here.
Automated Voice...: Edit shortcut out plus shift plus Z button.
Karl Belanger: Pressing right arrow, we can edit the shortcut.
Automated Voice...: Global checkbox checked.
Karl Belanger: Check whether it's global.
Automated Voice...: More options button start annotation and.
Karl Belanger: We have a more options.
Automated Voice...: Edit short, global more options menu, remove menu, edit menu.
Karl Belanger: And we can edit or remove it.
Automated Voice...: Start annotation.
Karl Belanger: All right, we're not going to mess with any of these shortcuts. They're all fine for what they are. And there's audio in general and all those other things in settings that have a bunch of different commands. As I was saying, that is definitely worth digging into in some depth because there's a lot there. For now, I'm going to escape out of settings.
Automated Voice...: WebEx window of settings button, expand personal room button.
Karl Belanger: And tab to the start meeting button.
Automated Voice...: Personal room, link it, copy my press. Start meeting, meet at my personal room. Start a personal room meeting button, enter meeting information to WebEx. Get ready to join dialogue.
Karl Belanger: All right, and so it just went through a bunch of screens. Now we're on a get ready to join. I can tab through.
Automated Voice...: Mute control plus M. We're removing all background noise so no one will hear.
Karl Belanger: We have a mute option.
Automated Voice...: Audio options button, start video control plus shift plus V button.
Karl Belanger: Start video.
Automated Voice...: Video options button. Get ready to join dialogue. Header window. Header window, minimize button, close window button. Get ready to join dialogue. WebEx went mute. Control plus M, start meeting. Computer audio.
Karl Belanger: And we have our start meeting button. We could hit any of the audio or video options if we needed to change our microphone or camera or set up other things, but we're all good, so.
Automated Voice...: Connecting, waiting for others to join.
Karl Belanger: Now again, it's saying waiting for others to join because I'm the only one in this meeting. And very similar to Zoom. We have a number of controls that I'm going to tab through.
Automated Voice...: Control bar, window, audio options, button start video button, start video control plus shift plus.
Karl Belanger: We have our audio and video options.
Automated Voice...: Video options, share button share content control plus shift plus D.
Karl Belanger: We'll come back to sharing.
Automated Voice...: Record button. Record the meeting. Cloud-based recordings will include AI-generated summaries and chapters.
Karl Belanger: You can record the meeting and if you have a paid plan and record to the cloud, it says here it will include AI summaries and chapters.
Automated Voice...: Raise, button raise, hand, light skin tone.
Karl Belanger: Raise hand.
Automated Voice...: Reactions.
Karl Belanger: You can send reactions. And the first time you do that, it will prompt you to select a skin tone that you want to use for your reactions. Otherwise, it will just say no skin tone.
Automated Voice...: More options button.
Karl Belanger: There's some other options here.
Automated Voice...: And meeting control plus.
Karl Belanger: We're done. We can end the meeting.
Automated Voice...: Apps button apps panel.
Karl Belanger: Cisco offers a number of integrations with various apps and here's where you get at that that you can add to your meeting.
Automated Voice...: Participants button, hide participants panel.
Karl Belanger: Participants, it's just me.
Automated Voice...: Chat button, show chat, new.
Karl Belanger: Chat again, we can open that up. I'll do that later.
Automated Voice...: More panels button.
Karl Belanger: And we can access some more panels.
Automated Voice...: Show closed captions button.
Karl Belanger: We have closed captions.
Automated Voice...: Closed caption options for manual captioning button.
Karl Belanger: And we can set up manual captioning.
Automated Voice...: Hide meeting controls, control plus shift plus H button.
Karl Belanger: This is a visual. You can still tab through them, but you can hide the meeting.
Automated Voice...: Karl Belanger's meeting dialogue, video and content window. Karl Belanger video. Step away from meeting button. Step away from the meeting.
Karl Belanger: So now we're in the participants panel. Step away is, it will disable your video, mute your audio and show you as a status that you have stepped away from the meeting.
Automated Voice...: More options to manage Karl Belanger button.
Karl Belanger: Let's see what more options I have for myself.
Automated Voice...: WebEx window, edit change, virtual, edit display name, button.
Karl Belanger: One of four. I can change the name.
Automated Voice...: Change virtual background button.
Karl Belanger: Here's where I can change my virtual background.
Automated Voice...: Video settings.
Karl Belanger: Direct shortcut to video settings.
Automated Voice...: Self view, location, edit, display name displaying right.
Karl Belanger: I can change where on my screen, my pictures.
Automated Voice...: Karl Belanger, waiting for others to join.
Karl Belanger: It still says waiting for others to join because obviously there isn't anyone else here.
Automated Voice...: Invite people button.
Karl Belanger: Invite people, gives you the ability to type in email addresses and generate an email or copy the meeting link. Pretty standard fare.
Automated Voice...: Copy meeting information, button.
Karl Belanger: Copies the meeting URL and ID.
Automated Voice...: Invite and remind button.
Karl Belanger: Invite and remind a different invite thing.
Automated Voice...: Search button.
Karl Belanger: We have a search button here.
Automated Voice...: Sort button, participants group one, participant mute all button. Unmute all button.
Karl Belanger: We have controls to manage, we can mute or unmute everyone.
Automated Voice...: More options button.
Karl Belanger: And have some further customization.
Automated Voice...: Pop out panel button.
Karl Belanger: We can pop out the participants panel.
Automated Voice...: Close participant.
Karl Belanger: Or just close it directly.
Automated Voice...: Karl Belanger's meeting dialogue header, window meeting info button. You are securely connected to this meeting with strong encryption. Click meeting info to see more meeting and security information. Your network connection and CPU usage are good, allowing you to have the full experience button.
Karl Belanger: So here we get a couple of updates. One telling us that we're secured, the other telling us that our network strength is good, our CPU usage is good, so we're good there. I'll press tab.
Automated Voice...: Layout, check and adjust layout settings.
Karl Belanger: Layout mostly applies to the video controls for how the people are displayed on your screen or do you want to spotlight someone? Do you want to have the gallery view? Various things like that.
Automated Voice...: Minimize button, maximize close window. Karl Belanger.
Karl Belanger: And we have a minimize, maximize and close button.
Automated Voice...: Audio options button start, video share, button share.
Karl Belanger: And we're back to the audio and video controls. We'll go into the share controls first.
Automated Voice...: Share content dialogue, share content dialogue, optimization options, combo box item screen, application tab. Selected one of four, use the left or right.
Karl Belanger: So we have four tabs here. Screen application.
Automated Voice...: Loading, upload, share content dialogue, get file tab selected.
Karl Belanger: We have a file tab.
Automated Voice...: Loading WebEx window. Camera is used by another application. Make sure.
Karl Belanger: It doesn't like that Zoom is using my camera so we can't explore that one.
Automated Voice...: Camera is used by okay button. Karl Belanger Logi webcam. Scene share content dialogue. Advanced tab selected four of four.
Karl Belanger: And we have an advanced tab.
Automated Voice...: Optimization options combo share, computer change sharing, prefer share computer audio checkbox not checks, advanced.
Karl Belanger: Which we're not going to get into too much detail. So let's go back to.
Automated Voice...: Loading. Loading screen application tab.
Karl Belanger: Screener application.
Automated Voice...: Optimization options, combo box, automatically optimized.
Karl Belanger: Optimization. You can choose to optimize for video or text or just leave it as is on automatic, which is probably going to be just fine for most people. Most of the time.
Automated Voice...: Share computer audio check box, not check. Start sharing your computer.
Karl Belanger: Share computer audio again, do you want to share the sound with whatever screen or application you're sharing?
Automated Voice...: Show me in front of presentation. Check box, not check when this option is checked. Your video appears in front of your presentation or share content for an immersive sharing experience. Change sharing preferences button. Share screen. Use arrow keys to navigate screens or tab to share individual application, grouping. Screen list item selected one of one.
Karl Belanger: So we're on our screens. This is where if you had multiple monitors, you'd get to pick the one you wanted to share.
Automated Voice...: Share application, use arrow keys to navigate.
Karl Belanger: And now we're on our applications
Automated Voice...: Zoom meeting. WebEx, a meeting window list item, not selected, one of two. Use the Zoom meeting, share screen use.
Karl Belanger: And we have only a couple of things open. So we have either the WebEx window or the Zoom.
Automated Voice...: Share application.
Karl Belanger: Window.
Automated Voice...: Show my WebEx app. When this option is checked, your WebEx app stays visible to others while you share your screen. Uncheck it to hide your WebEx app while sharing the rest of your screen, check box checked.
Karl Belanger: Do we want the WebEx controls to be visible? This is similar to when I was talking about in the settings mode where you could choose to have a keyboard shortcut set up to toggle this.
Automated Voice...: More information for show my WebEx app button, share button, cancel button screen or application.
Karl Belanger: And we have a share and cancel. So that is.
Automated Voice...: Cancel button.
Karl Belanger: Screen sharing. So next.
Automated Voice...: Record button, record raise button raise reactions, control plus shift.
Karl Belanger: Oh, I should just demonstrate briefly if I raise my hand.
Automated Voice...: You raised your hand, let's.
Karl Belanger: You know, we get a notification.
Automated Voice...: You lowered your hand.
Karl Belanger: And if someone else raised their hand, I would get that notification as well.
Automated Voice...: Reactions, control more options and meeting apps, button apps panel participants button chat button. More panels button.
Karl Belanger: Let's go into chat.
Automated Voice...: Chat button. Show chat. New chat. Chat panel. Karl Belanger's meeting dialogue. Write a message to everyone. Press shift plus enter for new line edit blank.
Karl Belanger: As with any chat program we can just, I'll just type hi and enter. Message sent.
Karl Belanger: And it says message sent.
Automated Voice...: Seen by zero group use left and right arrow keys to navigate you. Cancel you, 15:22. Hi dot. You are currently in a group.
Karl Belanger: And it just says you know that I sent the message Hi at 3:22.
Automated Voice...: Cancel button messages to everyone will be saved After the meeting dot learn more secondary button button messages to everyone will be saved. Karl Belanger's meeting dialogue, close chat panel button.
Karl Belanger: And we can close the chat panel and we could also send, if we had multiple participants in here, we could send direct messages and things like that.
Automated Voice...: Messages. Karl Belanger out panel.
Karl Belanger: I will.
Automated Voice...: Close check.
Karl Belanger: Close the chat panel.
Automated Voice...: More panels button, more panel menu expand.
Karl Belanger: So now we have more panels.
Automated Voice...: Top blank.
Karl Belanger: And there aren't any for us to show
Automated Voice...: Karl Belanger's show closed captions button.
Karl Belanger: Again we have our closed caption options.
Automated Voice...: Closed caption, hide meeting controls. Karl Belanger's meeting dialogue, video on content window. Karl Belanger, step away from meeting, more options, waiting for others to join. Invite people button. Copy meeting information. Karl Belanger, your network connection, layout. Minimize button max, click Karl Belanger. Audio options, start video share button share record button raise button. Reactions, more options. More options. You're using your computer for audio, meeting, lock meeting switch button off one of 10.
Karl Belanger: And now we get into our host controls. We can lock the meeting.
Automated Voice...: Invite and remind menu item.
Karl Belanger: Again, invite and remind people about the meeting.
Automated Voice...: Copy meeting link menu.
Karl Belanger: Copy, meeting.
Automated Voice...: Link whiteboards, menu item.
Karl Belanger: Just as with teams, WebEx does have whiteboards and again they're mostly visual so those may not be the best option for blind users.
Automated Voice...: Enable breakout sessions. Switch button off, five of 10.
Karl Belanger: Breakout sessions is a feature that we haven't discussed yet. If you're running a meeting and say you want to break up for group discussions, you can enable breakout rooms and choose which attendees will go to which breakout room. This will enable you to provide separate spaces where they won't be stepping over each other, where you can have smaller discussions or group presentations, things like that. And you'll be able to discuss with them, engage, generally the organizer can jump back and forth between the breakout rooms, things like that. And then you can bring everyone back into the main section for debriefing or the next topic or whatever like that.
Automated Voice...: Enable sign language interpretation, switch button off six of 10.
Karl Belanger: Do we want to enable sign language interpretation?
Automated Voice...: Step away from meeting menu item seven of 10.
Karl Belanger: Step away. We've seen a couple of times.
Automated Voice...: Meeting options. Menu item eight of 10.
Karl Belanger: Meeting options. We'll come back to that.
Automated Voice...: Report an issue. Menu item nine of 10. Statistics, menu item.
Karl Belanger: Report an issue and statistics. Let's go back to.
Automated Voice...: Meeting options.
Karl Belanger: Meeting options.
Automated Voice...: Karl Belanger's meeting, dialogue, meeting options, dialogue is opened. Window, apply button cancel, allow for everyone. Start video checkbox checked.
Karl Belanger: And here's where you can customize your controls of what you want people to do. So do we want to allow everyone to start their video.
Automated Voice...: Chat whether this option is checked or unchecked, any existing chat history will be available After the meeting ends. Checkbox checked.
Karl Belanger: We can disable chat as it says that any chat history that already is there will be around after the meeting ends.
Automated Voice...: More information for chat button, participant privileges button.
Karl Belanger: Participant privileges.
Automated Voice...: Allow for everyone. Send reactions. Level one checkbox checked. More information for chat button, WebEx window, WebEx, host and co-host checkbox checked everyone. Checkbox checked, back button.
Karl Belanger: And we can choose whether we're modifying things correct.
Automated Voice...: Everyone checkbox checked.
Karl Belanger: Everyone.
Automated Voice...: Host and cohost checkbox checked.
Karl Belanger: Host and cohost.
Automated Voice...: Presenter checkbox checked. Other participants. Checkbox checked.
Karl Belanger: Presenter. Other participants.
Automated Voice...: Meeting options dialogue is opened. Window. Apply button, cancel window, everyone check. Host presenter, checkbox. Other part meeting, cancel button, WebEx window, everyone checkbox, host and cohost. Checkbox checked, everyone not checked. Check back button meeting.
Karl Belanger: And we'll go back.
Automated Voice...: Apply button. Cancel. Allow for all attendees. These settings don't affect the host, cohost and presenter because they always have them on start [inaudible 00:42:29], polling and Q and A. Checkbox checked all plus A.
Karl Belanger: So now we have some more options whether participants can do some of these things to start polling.
Automated Voice...: Annotation checkbox checked.
Karl Belanger: Start annotation.
Automated Voice...: Remote control. Checkbox checked.
Karl Belanger: Use remote control. I know someone was asking about that in Teams earlier, so WebEx does have that as well.
Automated Voice...: Share content. Checkbox checked.
Karl Belanger: Whether they should be able to share content.
Automated Voice...: View participants list. Checkbox checked.
Karl Belanger: Whether you can hide the participants list from the non-host attendees. If you want.
Automated Voice...: More information for raise hand button, allow for everyone, raise hand when this option.
Karl Belanger: We're back to the whether it should be allowed or disallowed for everyone.
Automated Voice...: Show display. Everyone reaction. Participant more information for chat. Allow for every. Start video. Karl Bel- [inaudible 00:43:10] and meeting apps. Button apps. Tab participants. Button participants panel.
Karl Belanger: I will go into the apps and show that real quick.
Automated Voice...: Apps, button apps. Apps panel Karl tab control, my apps tab. Select suggestions for you. Tab control tab selected, not checked, close app panel button, edit search app tab control. My apps tab selected one of two. Tab select selected, not checked, favorite an app and it will appear in my apps. Close popup button. Discover 3D frame.
Karl Belanger: And so we have all these different apps here that you can add to your meeting. From games to 3D, drawing.
Automated Voice...: Discover Atom.ie.
Karl Belanger: I'll just go through a few of these.
Automated Voice...: Discover Atom.ie. Easy meeting management. Three of discover agendas made easy with Sesh. Dine, discover AI meeting assistant, Lexis. Discover AI meeting facilitator by. Discover Alio. Better to get, discover any live anonymous live feedback, discover animations with show master discover app reward, reward your attendees 10 of eight, discover arranger. Flex, discover A the teleport. Teleport Now. Discover Avoma embedded app by Avoma 13 of 82.
Karl Belanger: And so there's 82 different apps here that you can go through.
Automated Voice...: Header window.
Karl Belanger: And add to your meetings.
Automated Voice...: Network connect layout.
Karl Belanger: And these are just the featured apps. So what I'm going to demonstrate last is that you can have with WebEx, it has a really nice actual web-based client as well. So what I've actually done while we've been taking questions is remotely connected to another system here in the building and gotten the meeting link up for that computer. So we may get some double screen reader speech. I will try to keep that to a minimum.
Automated Voice...: Remote session. Karl Belanger. Remote session document Jaws 20 25.250039400 is running on the remote machine.
Karl Belanger: So as we just heard, we have a copy of Jaws running on the remote system.
Automated Voice...: Link graphic, Cisco WebEx blank head in level one, Cisco WebEx vertical bar. Join your WebEx meeting, download the WebEx app button.
Karl Belanger: So this is the page you'll get to if you click a join link and don't have WebEx installed. If you do, you'll just get a prompt to open WebEx.
Automated Voice...: Join from this browser button.
Karl Belanger: What we're interested in is this, join from this browser. I'm going to press enter.
Automated Voice...: Enter Cisco WebEx document. Link graphics. Get ready to join middle meeting dot WebEx, get ready, link graphic blank head in level one, start your meeting link skip to main main region head in level two. Enter your name and join. Name left parent required, right parent. Get ready to join middle C blank CTBI.
Karl Belanger: Because I was doing this earlier and testing, I called it IBTC because this is one of the computers in our international Braille and technology center, which is still fine. I'll press tab.
Automated Voice...: Clear input, name left pair, parent required, remember me checkbox checked to clear check mark.
Karl Belanger: And you can decide whether you want it to remember your name.
Automated Voice...: Terms of service, link privacy. Join meeting Karl Belanger's personal room button to.
Karl Belanger: And it's just saying if you join, you agree to the WebEx legalese and privacy and all that. Let's just join.
Automated Voice...: Space, heading level one, starting your meeting link, skip to main heading level one, start starting your link's, main avatar of Karl Petting level one, Karl Belanger. Thanks for waiting. We'll start the meeting when the host joins.
Karl Belanger: The WebEx online browser meeting shows a very similar interface to the actual meeting, but it is in a web browser so you can navigate through with your HTML controls and move by button and form field and things like that. You have access to most of the same controls including sharing, accessing, chat and all that and it works really well. All the controls are labeled, all the interfaces work well, so it's definitely, if you don't want to put the WebEx software on your computer or you're just joining the occasional meeting, don't be scared off by the join in browser option because that definitely does look like a viable service for if you need to just join a one-off meeting and don't want to have software cluttering up your computer.
Jonathan Mosen: We have some time for some listener comments and Lachlan Thomas is bringing back some memories for me. He says it's wonderful that the DECtalk voices are available on the BT Speak products, but I personally would like to see DECtalk on the iPhone even if it requires downloading an app from the app store to use the voices, just as you currently do for eSpeak NG. Brian Blasey told me that DECtalk is now owned by Human Voice LLC.
It seems that Human Voice LLC is a very small operation. I can't even seem to find a website for them to contact them. Regarding DECtalk on the iPhone, I remember back in the main menu days you used DECtalk Access 32. If a modern version of DECtalk were available for Windows, would you or anyone else want to use it? Certainly if DECtalk existed on the iPhone, I'd use it.
Thanks Lachlan. Well, it's good to have that choice, isn't it? I mean, DECtalk used to be the gold standard and I remember that they were very expensive pieces of hardware and a lot of people aspired to own one. So when DECtalk became available in software, it was quite the big thing. Whether there'd be a lot of demand for it or not. Now I don't know, but it would be nice I suppose, to have that choice.
Rick Roderick says, "How are the talks with Facebook going? The website on the desktop with Windows 11 is still a mess. The empty block quotes are still there. The constant refreshing is causing me to lose my place. I tried turning refresh off in Jaws and I saw fewer posts when I tried to react in another way than like, I am moved to another part of the page and I can't react at all.
Facebook has known about these problems for some time. Facebook took down the basic mobile site and has not explained what the alleged security problems were." Thanks very much, Rick. Well, I can tell you that discussions between the National Federation of the Blind and Meta are ongoing. We don't have a lot of progress to report in terms of fixes to the Facebook website.
There have been a number to the iOS app, but undoubtedly we are getting a steady stream of people concerned about the quality of the Facebook website. As it stands at the moment, we are meeting with meta developers and conveying those concerns. We believe these are serious and we do hope that there will be some action in the near future, particularly given the deprecation of the Mbasic site.
This next email says, "Hi Jonathan. It's Chris Westbrook from the Jigsaw chapter of the NFB of Pennsylvania. I recently got a Google Pixel tablet because I am doing some app development and wanted an Android device to test with. I am impressed with Android 15 Braille support seems improved from when I last remembered it and I am getting much less cutting out with my cochlear implant than before. I know this is a result of Android 15 because my tablet had to update and I noticed the changes after the update. I think Android may be a valid choice for my next cell phone. I just wanted to share my experiences and encourage others to give Android another look." Thank you, Chris. That is most helpful feedback. Tina Hansen writes, "I've noticed a trend, fewer devices offering physical controls.
Instead, we're seeing more and more devices with touchscreens or touch sensitive areas. While this can be good, it can also be bad. One area where I've noticed this is devices that are not just Bluetooth speakers but also essential oil diffusers. I've tried a couple of these devices and since I like to enjoy relaxing music through the night, I've needed to keep an iPad nearby if I want to change the selection or control the playback. Many speakers don't have separate transport and volume controls, but only have controls that do one thing when pressed and released quickly and another when you press and hold them. While that doesn't bother me, I know some probably would have dedicated controls much like those on CD players, but those controls are also still common on devices like the Victor Reader Stream.
I also have never seen a numeric keypad, which would allow for direct track entry on commercial MP3 players, but it's still on the Victor Reader Stream and devices like it. This background prompts a question. Is there a need to restore physical controls to make electronics or appliances accessible? Should physical controls be abandoned and replaced with voice controls? Should the numeric pad be a part of the touchscreen interface and include voice output? What about a remote control? Before I got to know the iPhone, I absolutely had to have physical buttons. I'm not so insistent on that now, but I still like the value of a physical interface. I can also see both the benefits and drawbacks of everything done via a voice interface. Some would like it, but others would feel uneasy. Plus, a voice interface might be more difficult for those who are deaf/blind."
Tina, the manufacturing industry has got itself into a position now where these touch interfaces, be they touch surfaces or full touch screens are cheaper to manufacture and they also last a bit longer in many cases because there are no physical buttons to wear out and that is why we're starting to see them in many places. I think the key to the future is this concept of multimodality, which means that you'll have a number of ways of controlling the same thing.
We are seeing this with smartphone apps that control appliances and also voice interfaces for some of those appliances as well. It is important that we are involved at the conception stage of these products and that our requirements are taken into account when they're built. Paul Hopewell writes in and says, "Hello, Jonathan. I have just listened to the 7th of May edition of the Access on podcast. I was intrigued by your comment that you get about eight days of battery life from your Phonak hearing aids despite using Bluetooth streaming most of the day.
I believe that I have the same model of hearing aid as you do, but I'm lucky to get four days of battery life. I'm using the batteries which came with the hearing aids. Do you have some longer life batteries? Are there any ways to increase battery life without stopping streaming? For example, does reducing hearing aid volume increase battery life?" Well, Paul, you wouldn't want to reduce the volume or you might not be able to hear what you need to hear. I think a lot of this depends on how much power the aids are putting out. So it could be that the power required for you is different from the power required for me. So a lot of this will vary depending on the features that are enabled in your particular hearing aid, the programs you're using regularly.
A lot of the time I'm in a quiet environment like this, in a studio or an office or something like that. So the hearing aids don't have to work particularly hard to try and filter out background noise in an environment like this. And I suspect that is playing a part as well, that the more time you spend in busy environments where the aids are making calculations regularly about what is noise and what is not will have some impact on battery life as well. It may be that certain batteries last longer than others as well. Just like with the batteries for your appliances, you can get longer life batteries out there.
A place like Amazon has a lot of hearing aid batteries to choose from and certainly some of them do claim longer life. "Hello, Jonathan. This is Jeremy in Germany. I have two topics today, hearing aids and devices that detect drop-offs like curbs and steps, which would be a game changer, especially for wheelchair users like me. On the topic of hearing aids, I bought a pair of Oticon aids a bit over a year ago, partly based on the app's, good accessibility and just days after I got them, the app was updated and has been inaccessible ever since.
Even with screen recognition, the company's response to my concern was that they would pass it along and subsequent app updates haven't addressed the issue. I am however delighted with the hearing aids themselves. Oticon intent one. That one in the model name is important because I learned that there are several sub-models of the same hearing aids, each one numbered, and the difference between them is how well they pinpoint the direction a sound is coming from.
There's also a painful price difference between them. Some other hearing aid manufacturers use a similar system of having various sub-models or levels of the same hearing aid based on features like this. And having had the opportunity to try both the standard level three and the impressively spatial aware level one, I wanted to let other listeners know that such differentiation within the same model exists so that they know to ask a hearing aid specialist about it. I'm grateful to live in a place and in life circumstances where I was able to afford this option.
My second question is whether you know of a technology that detects curbs and steps going down. I have very low but still useful vision and use a manual wheelchair. And while I always have a folding white cane with me and stop and set my brakes to use it in situations of uncertainty, I've always dreamed of having a hands-free device that scans the ground ahead of me for drop-offs.
The white cane and guide dog are the gold standards of mobility, but there are many people who, for various reasons, like being manual wheelchair users or having hand or wrist issues, find that a supplement or alternative is necessary. I've followed innovations like the Vector and the Glidance with interest, but most of these excellent ideas require a free hand and don't address drop-off detection. Does anyone know of anything in development or even of a contact point for other blind and low vision wheelchair users where we can share strategies? Thank you for sharing such useful information with your listeners and thank you especially for being so inclusive and respectful of people with varying levels of technology experience and proficiency. All the best from Germany."
Thank you very much, Jeremy. That's a very good question. If you have some thoughts on Jeremy's question there, relating to something that detects drop-off points for wheelchair users [email protected] is the email address. You can attach an audio clip to that email. You can just write an email down and if you're coming in from a chapter of the National Federation of the Blind, be sure to tell us that so we can give a shout-out to the chapter. And a quick tech tip before we go. I had this one coming through a few days ago and thought that it might be useful to others. We had someone give us a call who was experiencing an issue where suddenly their iMessage conversations weren't speaking anymore.
So typically what happens is that when you're in your iPhone's messages app and you keep a conversation open, you can send a message, you can wait, you can hear when someone is typing, and then when they've finished and they've sent their message, it's automatically spoken. And for this user, it suddenly stopped doing it. The reason it stops doing it is that there is an item which can be enabled on the iOS rotor, which is called toggle live regions and announcements. And if that gets switched off accidentally, that's going to stop your messages from speaking automatically. So if that happens to you, move through the rotor using the rotor gesture like you're turning a dial on a radio, a good old-fashioned analog radio, and you'll eventually find toggle live regions and announcements. Flick down to make sure that it is on and you should your automatic speaking back of your iMessage conversations.
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 Masterdon, Access On at NFB.social. That's Access On at NFB.social on Masterdon. 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 phone us 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.