Author: The Tech Doctor

In this final podcast of 2012, the Tech Doctor expresses his sincere appreciation for all who have participated by either listening to or appearing on the podcast over the last year.

The Tech Doctor asks the podcast listeners to let him know whether or not they are interested in him doing a detailed review of the state of Android accessibility on the Nexus 7 tablet.

The primary topic of this episode is a discussion of where we are with accessible electronic books in December of 2012.

At the time of this recording, the Tech Doctor uses four iOS apps on the iPhone 5, the Braille Sense, Book Sense and Amazon Kindle for reading Electronic books. The ability to access books in paperless braille, with synthetic speech and human narrators opens up a world of books that have never before been available to people who are blind.

Here is a list of links to the apps and resources that are discussed in the podcast.

Barns and Noble Nook App

Podcast demonstrating Nook app with VoiceOver

Apple iBooks

BookShare

BookShare Read 2 Go app

Hims Home Page

National Library Service BARD site

Amazon Kindle Keyboard

Audible Home Page

Audible iOS app

The Tech Doctor hopes you enjoy this final podcast of 2012. See you in 2013.

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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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In this podcast, Robert shares his impressions and experiences with Apples
iPhone 5

He discusses some
benchmark performance data
and describes what working with the phone is like from the perspective of a VoiceOver user.

Robert then moves on to discuss the major features of iOS 6. He thanks David Woodbridge for providing some excellent podcasts on iOS 6.David’s iOS 6 podcasts can be found on his
Apple and Other Accessible Technology
website.

It is always lots of fun to explore new technology from Apple. Grab some good headphones, a cool drink and enjoy the ride.

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In this Tech Doctor podcast, Robert describes the 1Password password manager and demonstrates how to use 1Password with VoiceOver. To find out all about 1Password, go to the
AgileBits
website.

Robert finishes up the podcast by talking about his approach to Mac security. The Tech Doctor hopes you will develop your own protocol for keeping your passwords and your Mac safe and secure.

If you have questions or comments, feel free to email them to
The Tech Doctor

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In this podcast, Robert talks with Anne Robertson who lives in a delightful village in France.

In addition to working as a translator, Anne teaches blind and visually impaired people to use the Mac. The training can be done in either French or English and is available on sight or via Skype. Further information about various training options is available on Anne’s
website
The site is in French. If you are interested in training in English, contact Anne via
email

In addition to sharing some information about what life is like in France, Anne and Robert discuss funding for technology, the use of braille in France and the popularity and accessibility of ebooks.

Anne purchases most of her ebooks from company in Canada called
Kobo
The Kobo Books are accessible both on the Mac and on iOS devices.

I am confident that you will enjoy this podcast.

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In this podcast, Robert talks with Amy Mason, an access technology specialist at the
International Braille and Technology Center for the Blind
This extraordinary technology center is part of the
Jernigan Institute
located at the headquarters of the National Federation of the Blind in Baltimore, Maryland.

Some of Amy’s job responsibilities include: answering questions about technology for visitors as well as people who telephone the technology center. Amy evaluates technology to determine its accessibility and she prepares internal documents and articles for publication describing her findings.

Robert became aware of Amy after reading her
January 2012 Braille monitor article
regarding ebooks and the extent to which they are accessible on the major platforms. Amy recently reviewed Apple’s new Mountain Lion operating system on the
International Braille and Technology Center’s blog.

Amy and Robert engage in an interesting discussion about Amy’s former employment as a computer repair technician. They describe some tricks and techniques that a blind person might employ when disassembling and reassembling a repaired computer.

Finally, Amy jokingly refers to her iPod Touch as a gateway drug which led to the purchase of an iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air. Robert confesses to having a similar addiction to Apple products.

Grab your favorite beverage, relax and enjoy this stimulating conversation.

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In this Tech Doctor podcast, Robert describes his experience of upgrading from OS X 10.7 Lion to 10.8 Mountain Lion.

Before upgrading, he encourages everyone to read
Take Control of Upgrading to Mountain Lion
He discusses the importance of having a bootable backup and described how he uses backup software called
SuperDuper
to create his bootable clone backups.

Robert describes how to create and use a Mountain Lion bootable recovery USB thumb drive. You need a piece of free software called
Lion Disk Maker Utility
It is completely useable with VoiceOver.

Once you have Mountain Lion up and running, Robert recommends that you listen to the 15 podcasts that David Woodbridge produced demonstrating how to use many of the new Mountain Lion features with VoiceOver. These podcasts are available on the
Applevis
Website.

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In this Tech Doctor podcast, Robert talks with Tonya Engst, co-founder of
TidBITS
and editor-in-chief of
Take Control Books
Tonya describes how her company has gone from writing and publishing printed books about how to get the most from Apple products to producing all books and articles in electronic format.

The Take Control Books are excellent, they are offered at a good price and are frequently updated. These books are completely accessible to VoiceOver users both on the iOS and OS X operating systems.

After Tonya and Robert finish their conversation, Robert demonstrates how to use VoiceOver to read a Take Control Book on the Mac. He uses an epub reader available in the Mac App Store called
Bookle

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