Ebu Access Cast 23
Jun 24, 2020
Welcome back to EBU Access Cast - podcast about assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people!
We are happy to say that from now on you are able to listen our podcast with the transcript which will bring better inclusion to all the listeners with different dissabilities, so if you want to read what we said, head over to it!
Lockdown measures are being eased further after 3 months of restrictions and most of us have been teleworking in that period. Owning a decent headset with a good microphone is important for virtual meetings. Tanja purchased new headset from MPOW for this purpose and shared with us her impressions.
We talk about the new features in iOS 13.5 and the Apple Exposure Notification System which lets apps from public health authorities and governments worldwide help people figure out if they've been exposed to COVID-19, and if so, what steps to take next to minimize the spread of the virus.
Staying on the same topic we spoke about SODAR - the Google's experimental web app that helps the user measure 2 metres by using augmented reality and keep the distance from other people. None of us managed to make it work on our devices. Mario recommended to use the Sunu band for this purpose as the user can adjust in the phone app the distance of an obstacle to be announced.
Microsoft released the Spring feature update for Windows 10, a.k.a. version 2004
wwith many accessibility improvements for blind and partially sighted people.
What if we could read braille without touching the surface? German researchers have developed an ultrasonic haptic speaker HaptiRead that allows to display Braille dots without contact.
New Art Scanning Method Offers 3-D Image Of Painting’s Brush Strokes This technology could help improve online art lessons and virtual museum tours as well as make paintings more accessible to visually impaired people.
As of May 2020, the alternative text has been enabled by default on the web interface of Twitter as well as iOS and Android apps. This is a great progress for our community and we hope that users will take advantage of it and describe images that they are adding to their tweets.
We take the oportunity to share you the anouncement on the webinar from Be My Eyes on how top companies like Microsoft and google are benefiting from accessibility
Be My Eyes introduces customizable Siri shortcuts for iPhone users.
Paweł presented us the project Hello Emma that uses provisoric Siri setup for the languages that don't support it natively using a system of interconnected Siri shortcuts that respond to commands and perform the usual Siri actions. The languages supported for now are Czech, Slovak and there is a development process going on for Polish and Hungarian.
We spoke about the I-Cane that is a smart cane with navigation via a connected phone app and obstacle avoidance developed through a cooperation of the Lion Club departments in different European countries.
We hope to enspire some of our listeners to start doing workout at home or to continue if they had to stop in their sport centres. We found few resources with audio described workouts.
The first is from BlindAlive where you can download different workouts from cardio, pilates to yoga meditations, whatever you prefer.
Another place to find audio described workoutss is at the website of the British Blind Sport The accessible fitness trackers can help you in monitoring your progress to help you attain your health and fitness goals.
Google Fit is one of them and Mario shared his expirience with us on the accessibility of the application on the Fosil Gen 5 watch.
As always, we look forward to you sharing your comments and feedback with us. Feel free to reach out via our email or Twitter. Until the next edition!