Audio Player Blind Bargains Qast 25: Cortana, Earl Gray, Hot!
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- Blind Bargains Qast 25: Cortana, Earl Gray, Hot!
It is finally here! The day many have eagerly awaited, or dreaded as the case may be, has come upon us all with the release of Windows 10. Joe, Byron Lee and Rick Reed discuss thoughts and experiences with Microsoft's newest operating system. And, not just because J.J. is on vacation this week, the news cycle this week is bigger than usual as many celebrate the 25th birthday of the ADA. There are also the little matters of the "Last Word" and your feedback in "sound Off'. So get a pot of tea ready, it is one jam-packed episode of information!
Sponsor: s
This episode is brought to you by HIMS, who would like to remind you that "Your needs are our solutions". Check out the E-Bot Video Magnifier, the Blaze EZ reading solution, the new Smart Beetle Braille Display and more by visiting the HIMS website. Or, follow them on Twitter.
We would also like to thank the gang at Mystic Access for sponsoring our show this week. In this episode, we include some excerpts from their new Victor Reader Stream tutorial. To learn more about Mystic Access, visit http://www.mysticaccess.com
and follow them on Twitter
In The 25th Birthday ADA News:
Most of the links in this section were not discussed on the show, however, we thought them worth a read for those who wanted to know more about ADA and inclusive design.
Five ways we re celebrating the Special Olympics and #ADA25
Silicon Valley vows to improve tech for people with disabilities
From Canes To Closures, Designing With Style For People With Disabilities
7 Myths About the Americans With Disabilities Act
3 lessons from developers who have embraced assistive technology for the blind, autistic and others
Some of the world's biggest tech companies want app makers to consider accessibility a bigger priority
Feeling the internet: how people with visual disabilities surf the web
6 tips for covering people with disabilities
UT to offer disability studies degree beginning in the fall
In The News:
Freedom Scientific Offers Enterprise Accessibility Training
IBM and Freedom Scientific Collaborate to Develop Enterprise Accessibility Training
Window Eyes 9.2 Released
Statement on Acquisition of Q9 from Blastbay Studios by Hartgen Consultancy
From Doug Lee, An Open Letter On the Economics and Morals of Scripting:
From Lainey Feingold, Important victory in #google books OK to scan books for #blind readers
From cool blind tech, Blind Accessibility Keyboard
ViaOpta Nav, mentioned last week, is also out for Android
From Jeffrey Stark, How Android & iOS fails to meet the needs of low vision users:
Happy Birthday to our friends at Apple Vis! Celebrate with them by entering their giveaways or taking part in their festivities. Also, keep a keen ear out for the A.T. Guys portion.
National Federation of the Blind and Verifone Collaborate to Make Taxicab Terminals Accessible
Ethically, is Uber a better choice than a taxi?
British man receives world s first bionic eye implant for macular degeneration
Discussion Topic: Windows 10
Byron Lee recently had a conversation with the gang at the 22 Point blog about Windows 10
And Rick Reed, soon to be featured on next week's show from the NFB A.T. Trainers Division Meeting, has been using the next version of Windows for a while now. not to mention, Joe has been installing the various builds on his Surface Pro 2 since the Windows Insider program began last October. Together these guys have a lot to say about Windows 10 as you can imagine. or read about from this post joe crafted on the many resources out there about Cortana and company.
Sound Off:
We'll cover some fantastic emails in our next in-studio episode, your tweetage too, but for this week we'll concentrate mainly on comments from past episodes and one from a news article at Blind Bargains. Like this nifty comment by Talkback on Nifty GPS.
"For an app that is for virtualization, I think the developers of this app are asking for too much. I don't think I would pay 5-dollars for something of this nature. I thought we have gone pass this type of apps and it surprises me that somebody is asking for money for something like this one! Surprises never cease!"
There is a market for anything or everything we guess. And so Kathy tells us in her remarks from episode 24.
"I am writing to comment on a couple of the things that flew by in Qast 24. 1. When I used Duxbury for the Mac in the mid-1990's, it was great at one thing: turning what should have been a half-hour task into a half-day ordeal. I read directions. I subscribed to the DuxUser list and asked questions. I was ever so glad when the state agency I worked for made the change to Windows. 2. Joe mentioned something about grocery store apps. I wanted to report that the latest update of the H-E-B app for IOS opens with a splash screen that there is no way to get past using VoiceOver, at least that I can find. The reviews in the app store are telling: last time I looked, not many people liked it. And I did submit a review. I think I tweeted H-E-B, too.:
And Greg writes in with his thoughts on browser access.
"Hello everyone, I wanted to make a quick comment about browsers. When it comes to supporting HTML5 accessibility features Chrome is actually at the top of the list, FireFox comes in second and Safari third. Now guess which one comes in last? You guessed it IE. Here is a site which details information about this: http://www.html5accessibility.com/ Where the rub comes in is that FireFox and IE still are the most accessible when it comes to their menus and settings screens. I would like to use Chrome as my default browser but the menu structure and the settings screens are enough to make a person pull their hair out. "
Last Word:
Hodge podge is a kind way of summing up this week's foray into the last words...
Are you petting your dog the wrong way?
Amazon wants to build drive-up grocery stores
KFC s Memories Bucket prints photos from your smartphone because why the heck not?
Did we miss a story? Was there better resources out there for Windows 10? Are you upgrading to Windows 10 or are you just sick of it all until iOS9 comes around to bother you with even more stories of upgrading? let us know in the comments section below or write us: feedback@blindbargains.com
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