Month: November 2012

In this podcast, the Tech Doctor speaks to the congregation of the Unitarian Church in College Station, Texas.

Dr. Carter discusses the importance of both his family and accessible technology in providing him with access to information, education, transportation, his vocation and most importantly human connections.

Dr. Carter mentions the important work of
Dr. Brene Brown
He explains the significance of
Apple
making all of its products accessible to people who are blind at no additional cost to the consumer.

Finally, the Tech Doctor describes the concept of universal design and explains how it is being utilized in his local Cinemark movie theater. He finishes the talk with a brief discussion of what self-driving automobiles will mean for all of us.

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In this Tech Doctor podcast, Darcy Burnard describes how he and Holly Anderson began podcasting in 2005 with The Darcy and Holly Show. When they both got Macs in 2006, they started
The Screenless Switchers podcast
where they continue to teach us all how to get the most from our Apple products with VoiceOver.

After discussing the early days, Darcy and Robert express their appreciation for the Apple developers who make sure to incorporate VoiceOver accessibility in to their software. They discuss the new social network
App.net
They encourage the Tech Doctor listeners to check out a
blog called
Marco’s Accessibility Blog
to learn about accessible app.net clients.

Darcy and Robert next explore the current line of Apple laptops and explain how one goes about selecting, customizing and purchasing a new Apple computer.

Finally, they talk about the new iPads and speculate briefly about the future of iOS.

It was a pleasure to have Darcy on the podcast. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

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The Tech Doctor is pleased to welcome back Lisa Salinger and Allison Hartley to the podcast.

Both Allison and Lisa recently purchased the Amazon Kindle Keyboard. This is the only model of the Kindle that is accessible to a blind person.

As Lisa and Allison describe their experiences with the Kindle, it becomes clear that while we all wish that Amazon would do more to make all Kindles accessible, the Kindle Keyboard is accessible enough to allow a blind person to independently operate the Kindle Keyboard to successfully read the extensive library of Kindle books that have the text to speech flag enabled.

While we do not have any inside information, we don’t know how long the Kindle Keyboard will be around as it is not a current model. I was unable to find one at my local Best Buy but was able to purchase a Kindle Keyboard online directly from Amazon.

In 2010, Ricky Enger of Serotek did a comprehensive review of the accessible Kindle. The information is still accurate. Here is a link to the review.
An Accessibility Review of the Amazon Kindle 3

Another excellent resource is
The Kindle Accessibility Blog

Finally, Accessible World has published two excellent podcasts on using the Kindle Keyboard.
Accessible World Kindle Podcasts

Thanks to Lisa and Allison for sharing their Kindle experiences. I am confident that you will enjoy this podcast.

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