Author: The Tech Doctor

In this Tech Doctor podcast, Allison and Robert share their excitement about all that was announced at the 2013 WWDC keynote event.

Robert And Allison discuss some of the new features that will be available in OSX Mavericks when it is released this fall.

They describe the new hardware that was announced. This includes a refresh of the MacBook Air laptops, new airport extreme and a totally redesigned Mac Pro.

Finally, they turn their attention to what will be coming in iOS 7. This is a redesign of iOS that is both different and familiar at the same time.

The keynote can be streamed or downloaded as a podcast directly from
Apple’s Web Site
Robert would like to give a special thanks to David Woodbridge who published the notes that he took while watching the keynote at 3:00 A.M. in Australia. The notes were a big help when organizing and preparing this podcast. Be sure to keep up with David by reading his
Blog.

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In this Tech Doctor podcast, Robert and Allison speak with Larry Lewis. We begin with Larry telling us about his background in access technology and how he has gotten to the point where he now owns a company called
Flying Blind, LLC

One important aspect of Larry’s business is helping teachers and parents work with their blind and low-vision children to make the best use of current technology. Larry describes some of the ways that the access technology landscape is changing. He discusses the importance of Apple Accessibility and what it has meant for the direction of his business.

Larry has recently published a new book entitled: “iOS Success: Making the iPad Accessible: A Guide for Teachers and Parents.” The book came about because school systems and parents are providing low-vision and blind children with iPads and need to quickly get up to speed and learn what iOS accessibility is all about.

The book provides parents and teachers with the foundation that they need to quickly begin making use of the accessible iPad. Robert suggests that teachers and parents might want to use Larry’s book in combination with
Take Control of Your iPad
This book covers all important aspects of using the iPad but is not written with accessibility in mind.

Larry’s book is available in multiple formats from
National Braille Press

Finally, we discuss the
AfterShokz Bluez
headphones, the
Bose AE2w
Bluetooth headphones and Tim Cook’s excellent question and answer session at
The All Things Digital Conference

We hope you enjoy this interesting and informative podcast.

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In this Tech Doctor podcast, Allison and Robert speak with access technology specialist Chris Grabowski. Chris has recently launched a new access technology training and consultation business called
Mystic Access

The first product from Mystic Access is a comprehensive Sense Navigation GPS tutorial. Sense Navigation is the GPS software that runs on the Hims Braille Sense family of products.

Prior to starting Mystic Access, Chris worked for many years providing technical support for the Sendero Group which developed the Sense Navigation software for Hims. Chris’s years of experience and thorough understanding of what people need to know to get the most out of the Sense Navigation software is evident in the quality and content of the tutorial. We feel that this tutorial is essential for anyone who owns a Braille Sense and wants to make the most of the Sense Navigation GPS software.

The tutorial is available in mp3 audio format and can be purchased and downloaded from the
Mystic Access home page.

In addition to running the new business, Chris is a fellow podcaster. When you check out the
Mystic Access Podcast
be sure to listen to a recent episode where Chris provides a sample of the SenseNav tutorial. The podcast is available through iTunes or via your favorite podcast listening client. Simply do a search for “Mystic Access.”

In addition to contacting Chris through his website, you can follow
Chris On Twitter

Thanks Chris and best of luck with the new venture.

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In this Tech Doctor episode, Allison and Robert get to know Laura Legendary. Laura is a writer, public speaker, disability advocate and small business owner. Laura tells us the fascinating story of how the idea for her unique jewelry design, manufacturing and marketing business came to be. We explore the challenges and rewards of starting and running a business.

Laura has conquered some of the accessibility challenges by switching from the Motorola Q to the Apple iPhone. We talk, for example, about how the iPhone can be used to accessibly accept and process credit card payments while at a remote location such as a conference or trade show. Laura offered a few creative suggestions on how the iPhone could be improved as well.

Click Here
To learn more about the jewelry that Laura manufactures and sells.

Go
Here
to learn more about Laura’s public speaking and advocacy work.

Keep growing and learn along with Laura by reading her
Blog

Thanks Laura. It was a pleasure getting to know you.

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Imagine a world where a totally blind person has access to over 1.8 million books and magazines. Imagining and hoping is exactly what Allison Hartley has done for the last several years. Until a few days before recording this podcast, much of the Amazon Kindle content was inaccessible. The limited content that was accessible was frustrating and to work with and marginally accessible at best.

In this podcast, you will hear Allison and Robert’s surprise and delight when they discovered that on May 1st, Amazon quietly rolled out an update that makes the iOS Kindle app fully VoiceOver compatible.

Allison and Robert discuss the very polished and highly functional UI. Allison demonstrates how she can read and navigate MacWorld magazine. They explain several ways of purchasing kindle content either from an iOS device or a computer. Fortunately, purchasing is easy and fully accessible.

Robert and Allison discuss the reaction of some of the leaders in the blindness community to the release of this app. Robert and Allison express their disappointment with the tone of the NFB
Press Release
concerning the app. We feel that now is the time for celebrating progress rather than making demands. That said, the NFB Technology Center published a comprehensive review on the
NFB Technology Blog
Allison and Robert feel that giving the app only a “c” grade overall was too low, we recommend the reading of this review to learn a lot about this app.

At the time of this podcast, the most complete and informative demonstration of the app has been published by David Woodbridge and is available as an
Applevis Podcast.

Finally, Robert and Allison are delighted by the coverage that the app becoming accessible is receiving in the mainstream press. Allison and Robert are thrilled to have been guests on
The Unofficial Apple Weblog
Sunday evening Talkcast. We discussed the topic of
Accessibility
in general and the accessibility of the Kindle app specifically.

We encourage every iOS user to download this free Kindle app and join the celebration.

Happy Reading you all.

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In this Tech Doctor episode, Allison and Robert speak with Steve Sawczyn a longtime user, consultant and teacher in the field of access technology. In recent years, Steve has made extensive use of both iOS and Android.

In our roundtable discussion, we explore the idea that your personality type and work habits make a huge difference in whether you prefer Android or iOS. If you are a person who values efficiency and simplicity over having control of what is going on under the hood of your mobile device, then you are likely to be happier with iOS. If, on the other hand, you prefer having control even if figuring out how to make it work takes more time and patience, then you just might have a personality that is more suited to Android. That said, you could be like the three of us and enjoy both depending on the situation.

We prefer the efficiency of iOS for getting our work done but enjoy experimenting with and learning about Android. The podcast concludes with a brief discussion of some of our favorite hardware and software.

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Allison and Robert are in agreement that if the stand-alone Notetaker is going to survive, it will have to provide users with a way to access many of the most popular accessible smartphone apps. In version eight, Hims takes a giant step in this direction by giving Braille Sense users excellent access to Youtube, Dropbox, RSS Excel and more.

Version Eight has two web browsers, the original one and a “quick browser.” The original one is need because the quick browser cannot load all sites but the ones that it does open load amazingly fast. Fortunately, the quick browser works with many of the sites that a Braille Sense user would likely be interested in.

In this podcast, Robert and Allison demo some of these new apps and discuss other highlights of Braille Sense version eight.

We are excited about this advancement and encourage you to learn more by going to
The Hims Website.

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In this podcast, Robert and Allison learn what life is like for an international iOS app developer who lives and works in India. Kunal Sood wanted an RSS reader that would allow him to read his RSS feeds even when he didn’t have a live internet connection. He designed the “Lire” RSS Reader to cache and store the entire text of articles on the iOS device. Like Instapaper, Lire strips out everything but the text which is great for reading on a small screen either with your eyes or with VoiceOver.

When Kunal discovered that Lire and VoiceOver were an excellent marriage, he began adding features to make the app even more customizable for VoiceOver users. At present, the app works great with VoiceOver but Kunal hints that it will soon get even better.

With the pending demise of Google Reader, Lire is a great alternative for reading and managing RSS feeds. The app has the ability to search websites for RSS feeds and feeds can be imported from Google Reader.

We think this app is fabulous and encourage you to
Check It Out.

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In this Tech Doctor episode, Robert and Allison speak with Sina Bahram. Sina is a doctoral student at North Carolina State University.

As part of his work in computer science, he is working with Orbit Research and the American Printing House for the Blind who are partnering to make an off-the-shelf graphing calculator fully accessible to people who are blind. Although currently a prototype, this calculator already provides a blind student with access to both basic and advanced mathematics.

After listening to Sina’s explanation and demonstration of the calculator, I am confident that you will agree that it will be of tremendous help to any visually impaired student wishing to study science, technology, engineering or math.

As we talk, it becomes clear that Sina is a serious thinker who does an excellent job of articulating the potential opportunities that this calculator will open up for future students.

To visit Sina’s home page click
here
To learn more about what Sina is up to,
Read his blog
Sina’s twitter name is @SinaBahram
You can
Click Here
to find all the other ways to contact Sina.
To email someone at the American Printing House for the Blind about the calculator,
Click Here
Click Here
to email someone at Orbit Research.
Finally, to join an email list regarding the development of the calculator,
Click Here
Put the word “subscribe” in the subject line of the email.

We hope you enjoy this podcast as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.

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In this podcast, Allison and Robert speak with Woody Anna Dresner.

Anna graciously visits the Tech Doctor podcast when she publishes a new book. This time she tells us about “iPhone iOS 6 Updates.” Anna explains that this new book is intended to supplement last year’s “Getting Started with the iPhone and iOS 5 for Blind Users.” We discuss the fact that while the book is concise, it is packed with good information and may be sufficient on its own for experienced iPhone and iPod Touch users. Folks who are brand new to the iPhone may want to purchase both books. National Braille Press is offering the iOS6 update and the Getting Started with the iPhone books as both separate purchases and as a bundle.

Click on this
Link
to go to the National Braille Press page where all of the iPhone related books are listed.

Once again, Anna has done an excellent job of providing the information that every blind iPhone user needs. The book is organized in such a way that it can be used as both a complete learning tool and a quick reference.

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