Terms like game-changer, groundbreaking, and revolutionary aren't too readily thrown around in the access technology universe, so when they are, it's time to take notice. As one longtime tester and trainer put it, "GW Micro has turned the access technology industry on its ear."

On January 14, 2014, a collaborative effort between GW Micro and Microsoft Corporation was announced. A well-guarded secret until that date, the announcement was:

Rather than having to pay close to $1,000 for screen access, as most blind and visually impaired computer users have done for years, a completely functional version of the popular Window-Eyes screen-reading software will now be available for free download to any computer user who purchases or already owns Microsoft Office 2010 or higher.

The news spread like wildfire. E-mail lists for teachers, students, deaf-blind individuals, and other special interest groups posted the announcement and a variety of entertaining commentary. Along with a plethora of comments, the news was posted and reposted to websites and was the subject of countless Facebook posts and tweets. And it wasn't only people in blindness circles talking about this astonishing collaboration either. In addition to Microsoft's own blog, the news was spotted on other mainstream sources of technology information as well.

Free Window-Eyes: How it Works

Just in case the podcasts, blogs, tweets, e-mail, and general overall Internet buzz has escaped you, here's the basic deal: If you have Office 2010 or later installed on any computer, you can download a complete copy of the Window-Eyes screen reading program for free. It will work just as the retail version does, enabling you to navigate without sight all popular Microsoft applications and any other popular program you might use as well (such as Mozilla Firefox or iTunes). You don't have to be blind to take advantage of the offer and you may use it for individual or corporate application. If, for example, a college or corporation has used some other screen reading software for its blind constituents, this offer provides an opportunity to try Window-Eyes without financial obligation or site licenses.

Free vs. Paid Window-Eyes

There are a few distinctions between the free version of Window-Eyes and the full retail version, which still sells for $895.

The Voices

The free download installs with the synthesized eSpeak and Microsoft speech platform voices. These will satisfy many customers, particularly those new to the text-to-speech arena. If you want old familiar standbys such as Eloquence, DecTalk, or Vocalizer, however, they are all available for purchase from GW Micro, with prices ranging from $25 to $59.

Tech Support

One question that appeared frequently in the early buzz was, "What about the tech support?"

GW Micro has a long-standing and well-deserved reputation for excellent telephone technical support, a free courtesy extended to all owners of the software. With the free download, the tech support is available, but for a price. The model is one commonly used in the mainstream world of technology, and the pricing seems reasonable. You can pay $25 for one incident or $99 for 12 months or 12 incidents, whichever occurs first. An "incident" in this pricing plan does not refer to a single phone call, but rather, a single problem. So if your braille display doesn't install properly and it takes four consecutive phone calls over several days for the problem to be resolved, GW Micro will consider that a single incident.

Documentation and Guides

If you download the free version of Window-Eyes through the Window-Eyes for Office offer, you won't get an installation CD. If that is important to you, you can order one from GW Micro for a small fee. Similarly, the familiar large print and braille hot key guides won't automatically be included in the free version, but they are available for purchase.

GWConnect

GWConnect, the company's popular application that makes Skype a much friendlier, more accessible environment, is provided without advertising in the full retail version of Window-Eyes; if you want an ad-free GWConnect experience, you can pay for it.

It warrants pointing out that if an individual wanted to purchase all of the above available extras, a CD, a hot-key guide, an additional voice, tech support, and an ad-free Skype experience with GWConnect, the total cost would still be only a fraction of the cost for purchasing Window-Eyes or a comparable screen reader such as JAWS (and remember, Window-Eyes has built-in features to ease the transition from JAWS).

History of the Partnership

As Dan Hubbell, Microsoft's access technology evangelist (and senior manager of marketing), put it at the press conference, the two companies have actually been partners for more than 20 years.

Dan Weirich, GW Micro vice president (and the W of GW) elaborated on the history of partnership in a recent conversation. Microsoft has hosted special workshops throughout the years, inviting access technology companies to participate in sharing and developing access routes to the company's operating system and its upgrades. Historically, Weirich explained, "We would send two or three of our key developers, and would keep them there for the two or three or five days of the workshop. [By contrast] other companies would send one sales person for just one day."

The current collaboration, in other words, was a long time coming, but no one is saying exactly how long this particular launch was in development. Similarly, no one is saying to what degree GW Micro benefits from each download.

Upgrades for all users of the product, whether purchased or downloaded free, will now be free of charge, and, yes, the company is continuing its ongoing work of enhancing the product. A new version of Window-Eyes will probably be released in time for the summer conferences.

There seems to be consensus in the access technology industry that this is a truly positive step forward for everyone. More blind and visually impaired computer users than ever before will have access to software that makes the Windows platform accessible. Others who have difficulty processing print and even people who just want a better understanding of how screen reading software works can now benefit from a free version of this powerful program.

Dan Weirich says that he and others at the company are delighted that feedback has been so widespread and so absolutely positive. Do other companies wish they'd thought of it first? Well, no one is saying that per se, but this kind of innovation is typically the sort of move that makes everyone work a little harder, push a little farther. Thus, the forecast looks bright not only for Microsoft and GW Micro but for all the rest of us in the access technology field as well.

The free download site also includes installation instructions, links to additional voices available for purchase, and more. For information beyond what is found on the site, visit GW Micro, or call 260-489-3671.

Product Information

Window-Eyes for Office Download

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Since our July article reviewing the 4.1 update of the Victor Reader Stream New Generation, HumanWare has added wireless capability for the Stream to access several sources of media. In version 4.2, released in September, HumanWare added support for NFB Newsline and Bookshare. In February, the 4.3 update for the Stream added access to Internet radio stations and Wikipedia/Wiktionary, as well as enhanced support for downloading Bookshare content. For this article, I will review the online content available on the Stream. Earlier AccessWorld coverage is available of the original Victor Reader Stream New Generation and of version 4.1.

NFB Newsline

The Victor Reader Stream can now download content from the NFB Newsline service wirelessly directly to the device. NFB Newsline is a free service from the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), which offers over 300 newspapers and magazines to qualified subscribers. The service can be accessed in several ways including a telephone hotline and an app for the iOS operating system. To learn more about the service, visit the NFB Newsline webpage.

To access NFB Newsline you must first switch the Stream to the Online Bookshelves. You can accomplish this by pressing the Online button, the round button above the 2 button on the keypad. Once you have successfully transitioned to the Online Bookshelves, you must activate the Newsline service on your device. To do this you must press the 7 key twice to open the Online Services menu. The first item in this menu will be the Add NFB Newsline Service option. You can activate this option by pressing the Confirm (#) key on the telephone keypad. First, you will be prompted for your confirmation code. You can enter this using the telephone keypad followed by the Confirm (#) key or the Play/Stop key. You will then be asked for your security code, which can be entered on the telephone keypad followed by Confirm (#) or the Play/Stop key. You will be alerted that your log in was successful and be returned to the Online Services menu.

You will now be on the option to remove your NFB Newsline login. From here, you can press the Bookshelf key, the 1 key, to move to the NFB Newsline bookshelf. NFB Newsline downloads publications that you have set in your pocket favorites on the NFB Newsline Online interface. If you have not established any favorites, your NFB Newsline bookshelf will only contain the option to "Synchronize NFB Newsline Content." If you have content in your favorites, you will not be able to access the bookshelf until your content is synchronized. If you attempt to navigate to the bookshelf before this occurs you will be alerted that synchronization is in progress. NFB publications are read in a similar way as other text-based materials. The materials can be navigated by levels 1 through 3, screen, phrase, line, sentence, word, spell, and character. Level 1 contains the full publication, level 2 the sections of the publication, and level 3 the articles. NFB Newsline automatically refreshes the content on the bookshelf, replacing the items with new releases. You can also use the "Synchronize NFB Newsline Content" to force a refresh of the bookshelf contents. This item appears after the last publication on your bookshelf and it can be accessed by pressing the Go To key twice while navigating the bookshelf. Old publications are removed as new publications are added. As with other Online bookshelf contents, the NFB Newsline publications are saved to the Stream's internal memory. You can save a publication to your SD card by pressing the 3 key while either on the bookshelf or while in a publication. The stream will say "Copy current book from internal memory to SD card." You must then press Confirm (#) whereupon the stream will ask if you are sure you wish to proceed. You can press the Confirm (#) key to continue and copy the book to your SD card. The stream will alert you when this has been successfully completed. Copied publications appear on the Talking Books bookshelf. Because the Stream will delete publications automatically, you cannot use the 3 key to remove publications as you can with other files on the Stream.

Bookshare

To access Bookshare books wirelessly on your Stream, you must first log in. You can do this in two ways. From the Online Services menu, you can select the "Add Bookshare Service" where you will be prompted for your e-mail and password. You can enter this using multi-tap text entry on the telephone keypad. This can become frustrating if, like me, your e-mail contains a symbol appearing many places along on one of the symbol keys. In my case this was the underscore, which is the 13th option on the 0 key. In the Settings menu, you can set the text entry to announce each letter as you come to it before inserting it. This should give you enough time to find your desired character and wait to have it inserted. However, I found that for many symbols the character readout would fall far behind the currently selected symbol and by the time you waited for the voice to catch up, you didn't have enough time to press the key again to move to the next symbol.

Luckily, the other option for logging in to Bookshare allows you to use your computer. You can use the HumanWare Companion software to generate a file with your log-in details. This process is painless and straightforward. You must first connect your SD card to the computer and launch HumanWare Companion. You then can navigate to the Tools menu and select the option labeled "Bookshare Configuration." From here you can enter your e-mail and password. To send it to your SD card, you must press the "Export" button, not the "OK" button. In the Online Services menu on the stream, activate the option labeled "Import a Bookshare Configuration from File." If you confirm this option, you will be asked to wait and then alerted once your credentials are verified. When you first navigate to the Bookshare bookshelf, you will be presented with the option to "Search for Bookshare Books" which can also be accessed by pressing the "Go To" key twice. Selecting this option will present you with a menu of search options. You can navigate the list with the 2 and 8 keys. The first items allow you to search by pre-generated lists. The first is most popular, the second is most recent, and the third is by category. The most popular and most recent items will present results immediately. The browse-by-category item will present a list of categories that you must choose from before results will be displayed. The final three search options allow you to enter search text to find results by title, athor, and full text. You can use the multi-tap text entry method to enter text and submit the search with the Confirm (#) and Play/Stop buttons.

Once you have submitted your search or selected a pre-generated list of results, the Stream tells you the number of results and presents them to you in batches of 100. There is an option to display more results, which will replace the current results with those further along the list. For example, if you are viewing results 1 through 100 and activate "Show More Results," you will be shown results 101 through 200. In addition to the "Show More Results" option, you can access an option labeled "Show Previous Results" to show the previously viewed results. To navigate results, you press the 4 and 6 keys. The 5 key will read the book synopsis. If the book does not have a synopsis, it will repeat the currently selected item. To download a book, press either the Confirm (#) or Play/Stop button. When the book has downloaded, you will be returned to the search results. To leave the results, you can back out of the menus using the Cancel (*) button or jump directly back to the Bookshare bookshelf by activating the 1 key. The Bookshare books on the Bookshare bookshelf act the same as those transferred from a computer; you do have the option on the 3 key to transfer the book to your SD card to save internal memory. You must press the 3 key twice to move, followed by the Confirm (#) key twice to move the book to your SD card. After a successful transfer, you will be placed back on the Bookshare bookshelf and the book will have been removed from the Bookshare bookshelf and placed on the Talking Books bookshelf in the offline bookshelves.

Internet Radio

The Stream offers the ability to listen to Internet radio, which can be accessed from the Internet Radio bookshelf. Initially, you will only have access to the HumanWare sample playlist, which is based on the language of your Stream. For example, I use the UK version of the Stream software (I prefer Graham, the UK voice) so my HumanWare playlist was based in the UK. I was able to change this to the US version by navigating to the Online Services menu and then moving to the HumanWare Playlist option. The 4 and 6 keys can then be used to select the desired playlist region. When you select a playlist with the Play/Stop button, the first radio station in the playlist will begin to play. If you have previously played the playlist and were on another station, this station will resume playback. If you use the Confirm (#) key, you will be taken into the playlist where you can navigate to the desired station then use the Play/Stop button to begin playback. You can search ooTunes for radio stations. ooTunes is an iOS app for listening to Internet radio stations. The Victor Reader Stream has access to the ooTunes database of radio stations which consists of over 32000 streams. To learn more, visit the ooTunes website. The search is similar to searching in Bookshare: the search option appears after the list of playlists and can also be accessed by pressing the "Go To" key twice. OoTunes allows you to browse stations by genre and to search for a particular station. If you select to browse by genre, you will be presented with a list of categories that you navigate with the 2 and 8 keys. Once you select a genre, you will be presented with a list of stations that you can navigate with the 4 and 6 keys. You can play the station from the list by pressing the Play/Stop button. To save a station to your device, you must press the Bookmark key to add the station to your Favorites playlist. You must press the Confirm (#) key after pressing the Bookmark key to add the station to your favorites.

You can also add stations manually by importing them from a file from your computer using HumanWare Companion. The option to create a playlist file is in the Tools menu. You must enter the title of the playlist and the name of the station followed by the URL. You then must press the "Add" button to add the station to the playlist. After the station is added, you will be returned to the add station form with the Station and URL fields blank for further stations. Once you have added as many stations to the playlist as you desire, you can press the "Export" button to send the playlist to your SD card. On the Stream, you will find the option to import a playlist from a file in the Online Services menu. You can delete stations and playlists by using the 3 key. The HumanWare playlist and accompanying stations cannot be deleted and the Favorites playlist cannot be deleted but its stations can. If you delete all of the stations in a playlist, it will vanish from the list. When you are playing a station and it pauses for buffering, the device will alert you that this is why the station has stopped.

Wikipedia and Wiktionary

When you are in a textual book, you can search for words on Wikipedia and Wiktionary. You must press the Go To button four times for Wikipedia and five times for Wiktionary. The last word that was read in the text book will be ready to be searched; you can do this by pressing either the Confirm (#) or Play/Stop button. If you would like to search for something else, you can delete the selected word and use multi-tap entry to enter your own search string. When you search for a word, you will be read most of the beginning of the opening paragraph of the article. You can return to the book by pressing the Play/Stop button or read the entire article by pressing the Confirm (#) key. Any other key will reread the section of the first paragraph that was just read to you. You can save the article to a Reference bookshelf on your online bookshelves by pressing the 3 key. The file will be saved in HTML to your Reference Bookshelf. This shelf does not appear unless you save an article. You can move the article to your Text Files bookshelf by pressing the 3 key twice. You will be able to navigate by the heading levels on the HTML page as well as by screen, paragraph, line, sentence, word, spell, and character.

The Bottom Line

HumanWare has done an excellent job implementing wireless content into the Stream. The media is easily accessed and even with the restrictions of a telephone keypad it does not seem clunky to search for and download content. I was initially skeptical that downloading content on the Stream would be faster than simply using a computer but I was very pleasantly surprised that the process is mostly effortless and that it greatly increases access to content. It would be useful if you could search for Wikipedia and Wiktionary articles without having to be in a textual book and it would be useful to be able to manually delete publications when using NFB Newsline but I was very impressed by the wireless content options on the Victor Reader Stream. Now that it is possible to download content directly to the Stream wirelessly, I would recommend the Stream to those who are considering a talking book player and who do not mind listening to content with Acapella voices.

Product Information

Product: Victor Reader Stream New Generation Software version 4.3
Price: Free Upgrade
Available from: HumanWare

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The Chromecast is a device developed by Google that allows you to stream content from your computer, mobile device, or tablet to your television. The Chromecast itself does not have a user interface, you control it via the device from which you are streaming your content. The device costs $35, about one-third of the price of the somewhat comparable Apple TV. In this evaluation, I tested the Chromecast to assess its accessibility using several operating systems: a Windows computer, an iOS device running iOS 7, and an Android running 4.4 KitKat.

Box Contents, Device Description, and Documentation

When you open the Chromecast box, the Chromecast itself will be situated in a small tray above the other components. Below this tray is a compartment that houses the USB power supply, a USB-to-Micro-USB cable, and an HDMI extension cable to be used if the HDMI port on your TV is too shallow to directly insert the Chromecast. The Chromecast comes with printed instructions, and an accessible version of Chromecast instructions can be found online.

The Chromecast itself is very simple. Physically, it's similar to a large USB flash drive with a round end tapering to a rectangular end. The rectangular end is where the HDMI male connector (similar to a USB connector) is located. A micro-USB female port for connecting the power supply is located at the round end. Next to the micro-USB port is a button for resetting the device.

Setting up your Chromecast

Once you connect your Chromecast to your TV and the USB cable to both the Chromecast and a power source (either the USB power supply or a USB port on your TV) you must change your TV source to the HDMI channel where you inserted your Chromecast. The Chromecast setup screen will be displayed on the TV screen but there is no audio feedback to alert you to this fact. Once your Chromecast is connected to your TV and powered on, you must set it up by using one of the Chromecast apps for Windows, iOS, OSX, Android, or Chromebook.

I will describe the setup process generally as it is similar across devices. I will then describe the accessibility of setting up the Chromecast from a Windows computer using NVDA and JAWS, an iOS device running iOS 7, and an Android running 4.4 KitKat.

1. When you launch the Chromecast setup app, which you have downloaded from the App Store or Google Play, you will first connect to the Chromecast wireless network. This will be how your device communicates with the Chromecast before the device t is connected to your wireless network.
2. You will be asked to match a code consisting of letters and numbers on your device to one that appears on your TV screen. If you are visually impaired and do not have sighted assistance, you will be forced to guess as the code on the TV screen is not read aloud.
3. Next, you will name your Chromecast. Initially, it is named "Chromecast [four digit number]."
4. Finally, you will connect the Chromecast to your wireless network so that it can access the Internet.

Immediately after I set up my Chromecast, it automatically downloaded and installed an update. During that time, my device did not know why it could not communicate with the Chromecast and informed me that I needed to allow devices to communicate on my wireless router. I had no way of knowing without a sighted assistant that the app was wrong and that the device was downloading an update as the information concerning the update is presented in text on your TV screen.

Windows

The Windows Chromecast app is not accessible. When using JAWS, you cannot read the text that explains the buttons that you must choose from. When using NVDA, you cannot read the contents of the combo box that allows you to choose your wireless network so it's not possible to continue the setup.

Android 4.4 KitKat

The Android Chromecast app is very accessible using TalkBack. The buttons are labeled and the text is readable. The app is also very simple so that items are easily found. Google did an excellent job when designing this app.

iOS 7

Unlike the Android and Windows apps, you must manually connect to the Chromecast wireless network when using an iOS device. It's possible to successfully setup your Chromecast using iOS but the iOS Chromecast app is not fully accessible. When instructions are read, the text is doubled. For example if you were at the top of the screen where you must verify the code that appears on the TV screen and flicked right through the instructions, you would first encounter an element that told you to verify that the text on the app and the TV screen match. If you continued to flick right you would see the same text again. In addition to this oddity, the button for selecting a wireless network is not labeled. Overall, it is possible to setup Chromecast using an iOS device but it is not as simple as doing so from an Android device.

Streaming Content from Mobile Apps

The main function of Chromecast is to send content from various mobile apps to your TV, using your mobile device as a remote. There are several apps that take advantage of the Chromecast. I will describe the accessibility of the most popular apps on iOS and Android: Pandora, Netflix, Hulu Plus, and YouTube.

Pandora on Android

On Android, an icon labeled "Media Output" appears in the bottom right corner of the screen. Activating this will launch a dialogue that says "Connect to Device." From here you can select your Chromecast. When your Android device is streaming through Chromecast, the area where the artist and album appear will display the words "Casting to [Your Chromecast's Name]." If you wish to disconnect, you can activate the "Media Output" button where you will find an element labeled "Disconnect Device." When you disconnect, Pandora will start playing a new song.

Pandora on iOS

When using Pandora and iOS, you will find a button in the bottom right corner of the playback screen labeled "Eureka Button." Activating this button will launch an alert screen where you can select the name of your Chromecast to send your stream to the Chromecast. When the stream is established on the Chromecast, you will see the text "Casting to [Your Chromecast's Name]." If you wish to disconnect, select the "Eureka" button and in the resulting alert choose "[Your iOS Device Type]."

Netflix

When using Android, you will discover a button in the playback controls labeled "Play On." This will launch a dialogue where you can select your Chromecast. The controls are accessible and labeled properly. On iOS, you can select a button labeled "Target Selector" to choose your Chromecast. At this point, you lose control of the playback as the controls are not recognized at all by VoiceOver. They do not register at all even if you are able to locate the position on the screen where the controls reside.

Hulu Plus

Hulu Plus on Android is horrendous. The button for sending your stream to the Chromecast is unlabeled. If you manage to connect the device, the playback controls, (play/pause, volume etc.) are also unlabeled. This makes it extremely difficult to operate the app.

To send your Hulu stream to the Chromecast on iOS, you must select a button labeled "CastIconNotConnected." This button lies in the very top corner of any tab that is not the Search tab. When you select this button a dialogue will appear that says "Play On." Below this text is the name of your Chromecast. Selecting it will close the dialogue and connect your device to the Chromecast. The button in the top right corner will now read "CastIconConnected." The controls are somewhat accessible by accident. They are labeled irregularly but the buttons are still recognizable. For example, the play/pause button is labeled "RemotePlayNormal." Some are not as easily identified; the back 10 seconds button is labeled "RemoteTenBackNormal." The volume control is an unlabeled slider. Also, the playback controls overlay the content of the previous screen and VoiceOver can see the elements of the previous page but cannot interact with them. This tends to clutter the page.

YouTube

On Android, there is a "Media Output" button at the top of the main screen in the center that launches the dialogue where you can choose your Chromecast as your output device. When you are playing a video, this button is in the top right corner and it is where you can disconnect from your Chromecast if you are connected to it. The controls are accessible. You must flick to the "Play/Pause" button to activate it; the button does not recognize that you have selected it if you attempt to touch it directly. Otherwise, this app is fairly accessible; there is an unlabeled button that maximizes the video information but everything else is labeled.

On iOS, there is a button in the top right corner of the main screen, to the left of the "Search" button that is labeled "YouTube TV." This button also appears on the video playback screen in the same location. When selected, it launches a dialogue where you can connect or disconnect to the Chromecast. The video controls are accessible but you must touch them to be able to flick through them. If you attempt to flick to them you will move past them without VoiceOver highlighting them for activation.

Screen Mirroring

If you have the desktop version of the Chrome browser on your computer, you can mirror your screen on your TV. First, install the Google Cast Extension. This will place a "Google Cast" button on your screen in the same area where the buttons for "Chrome menu," "Reload," "Bookmark," etc., are located. I used NVDA to access this menu. It required that I use mouse routing keys to access the controls. Therefore, you may encounter varying accessibility based on the ability of your screen reader to access the Chrome Browser. When you send a tab to your TV, Both video and audio will be sent allowing you to watch media in Chrome and have it display on your TV screen.

The Bottom Line

Sadly, the Chromecast is not an optimum streaming device for people who are blind or visually impaired. Accessibility varies wildly from app to app, so your access will depend on your particular arrangement. The information displayed by the Chromecast itself is completely inaccessible. In general, the device is somewhat unstable. For example, when streaming from Pandora can get out of sync, which makes controlling what is happening on your TV difficult if not impossible. At the moment, I would not recommend the Chromecast to people with visual impairments. Apple TV, even though it is close to three times the cost of the Chromecast, provides a much more stable and accessible experience.

Product Information

Product: Google Chromecast
Cost: $35

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iTunes Radio is a new and very accessible music streaming feature for iOS devices or Macs. It lets you create your own stations based on genre, artist, or song. iTunes Radio presents a list of ever-changing, pre-programmed featured stations. iTunes Radio is built directly into Apple's music app so you don't have to download and open a separate application.

iTunes Radio first became available with the release of iOS7. Shortly thereafter, it became available with OS X Mavericks for Mac computers.

One of the main features of iTunes Radio is that stations are synced between your devices and your Mac. There are ads, but you can avoid them subscribing to iTunes Match, a paid music storage service from Apple.

Setting Up iTunes Radio on an iOS Device

When the Music app loads, iTunes Radio is the first tab at the bottom of the screen. Select it with a one-finger double tap. At the top left of the screen is a "History" button. After iTunes Radio is set up and after it has been used, activating the button will bring up a list of some of the previous songs that were played and buttons to purchase the songs from iTunes store. When the History screen is active, there is a "Clear" button on the top left of the screen and a "Now Playing Back" button at the top right.

If you're not sure where you are on your device screen, make sure VoiceOver is on and flick right or left with one finger. VoiceOver will speak everything on the screen.

The "Now Playing Back" button is also available on the main iTunes Radio screen, in the upper right corner. Flick right with one finger to bring you to a list of Featured Stations. These stations are pre-selected by iTunes and they do change. Double tap a station to play it.

When Music is Playing

Whether you are using a featured station or a station that you created, information on the screen will change when music starts playing. There will be a "Back" button in the top left corner of the screen. Next is an "Info" button. Activating this button loads a new screen containing the name of the artist, the song title, an option to view information about the song in iTunes store, a button to buy the song without going into iTunes store, a button to create a station from the artist and a button to add the station to your station list. Next is a button that will either say "one" (to allow explicit content) or "zero" (to prevent it). If you want to change this setting, perform a one-finger double tap. The final control is a "Share" button. Activating this button brings up options for sharing the current song via texting, e-mail, Twitter, etc. Activate the "Done" button in the upper right to get back to the song page.

Flick right and the next item is artwork for the song. Next is the track position, followed by the Artist, and then the song's title. Next is a button that says "Like or Dislike Song." Activating this button brings up several additional buttons: "Play More Like This," "Never Play This Song," "Add to iTunes Wish List," and "Cancel." After the "Like or Dislike Song" buttons are different buttons labeled "Play" and "Next Track." The "Play" button becomes a "Pause" button while music is playing. The final control on the page is Volume.

Your Stations

After the iTunes Featured Stations on the iTunes Radio home screen is the heading "My Stations." You can get to this heading by flicking past all the Featured Stations or just set the rotor to headings and navigate directly there. There will be buttons for each of your stations and then a button labeled "New Station." If you haven't created any stations, only the "New Station" button will be available.

Activating the "New Station" button loads a new page with an edit box to enter an artist, song, or genre. Search results are under the edit box. Add a station by double tapping on its name. The station will contain a mix of songs and artists based on your search query. For example, if you choose an artist, your radio station results will include that artist plus artists making similar music.

Another way to create a station is to flick past the edit box and review the extensive list of genres. Selecting one of the genres will bring up a list of available stations. For example, the Pop Hits option brought up a list of 14 different stations including "iTunes Weekly Top 50," "3 of a Kind: Robin Thicke, Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake" and "Dance Pop." Performing a one-finger double tap on any result will start an audio preview where you'll hear brief sound clips of songs played on that station. Under the selected station's name are two buttons: an "Audio Preview" button and a button labeled "Add Genre as a New Station." If you do not want to add this station, activate the "Audio Preview" button. This will stop the music and the station will not be added. If you want to add the station to your "My Stations" list, activate the "Add Genre as a New Station" button and it will automatically be added.

Skipping Songs

When a station is playing and you don't want to hear a song, you can skip it by activating the "Next Track" button. You are allowed six skips per station. Reset skips by going to a different tab in the music app, such as Artists or Songs, and then re-launch iTunes Radio or close the Music app, wait a few seconds, and re-launch it. Going to a different station will not reset your skips on other stations.

The Edit Menu

The Edit menu is located to the left of the My Stations heading. An easy way to get there is to locate the heading and then flick left. On the next screen will be a list of all your stations and a button to add a new station. Swipe up or down on a station's name to delete or activate it.

At the top left of the same screen is another edit button. Activating this button allows you to delete a station or re-order it in the list. The button to re-order the station is to the right of the station's name. Double tap and hold until you hear a three-note sound. Then slide your finger until you get to the position you want. VoiceOver speaks the station's new position as it is moved. When finished editing, activate the "Done" button in the upper left corner. That will bring you back to the first edit screen. Activate the "Done" button in the upper right to get back to the iTunes Radio home page.

iTunes Radio on a Mac

Navigating iTunes Radio on the Mac is somewhat more complicated than on an iOS device, but it is definitely accessible.

Open iTunes and go to the pop-up menu. If Music isn't selected, open the menu and select it. Then go to the button that says "Radio" and select it. VO+Right Arrow to the "Start Listening" button and select it. There is a chance that this action will bring you to the LCD section at the top of the iTunes window. In that case, close iTunes and re-launch it. This will only happen the first time you use iTunes Radio. If you're not on the pop-up menu when iTunes is re-launched, go there and make sure the Music button and then the "Radio" button are selected.

The My Stations Grid

The area for creating stations and playing featured stations is called the My Stations Grid. It's not difficult to navigate, though the grid can't be set as a list view. You can VO+Right Arrow to it or try VO+FN+Right Arrow or VO+End. Get there the same way as you would get to any other table such as your music library. In order to navigate the grid it is necessary to interact with it.

If you created any stations on the iOS device, they will appear in the grid. Navigate with VO and the arrow keys. When you find the station you want, select it the same way as any other menu item. Once the station is selected, VoiceOver will say the station's name followed by the word "group." Interact with the group. There will be a list of options including Close, Play and Share. There will also be options to Play More Like This and Never Play this. Select the "Play" button to start the music. The "Play" button does not turn into a "Pause" button when it's activated. If you want to skip a song, type Command+Right Arrow. In the group is a button with the station's name. To change the name, activate the button and type the new name.

To the right of all your stations is another group labeled Featured Stations, Add a Station, Settings Group. Interact with the group. The first option is the Featured Stations grid. These are the same featured stations as described in the iOS section above. Interact with the Featured Stations grid to review the choices. Start playing a station by selecting it.

Adding a Station

Next to the Featured Stations Grid option is a button to add a Station. If this button is selected you'll be prompted to add an artist, genre, or song. Type your selection and press the enter key. The search results table will be to the right of the edit box. Review the results and if you find something you like, select it. The new station will automatically be added to your list of stations and the new station will start playing.

The final item in the Featured Stations, Add a Station, Settings group is a button to allow explicit content. It is off by default. Select it if you want explicit content.

iTunes Radio with the LCD Section

The LCD section at the top of the iTunes window provides an accessible interface for playing iTunes Radio. Interact with the section to start using it.

The LCD section will contain information about the song that's playing, including title and artist. There's an "Action Menu" button. This menu offers many options including Play More Like This, Never Play This Song, New Station from Artist, New Station from Song, and Show in iTunes Store. To the right of the Action Menu is the option to purchase the currently playing song without going into the iTunes store or the Action Menu.

The Play/Pause and Next buttons are not located within the LCD section. Move to the right to find them. From outside of the LCD section, VO+Right Arrow to the buttons.

Skipping Songs

As with iTunes on an iOS device, you do not have an unlimited number of skips per station. Even after closing iTunes for five minutes then going to a different station, I was still unable to skip a song on my original station.

Conclusion

iTunes Radio is very accessible and offers the flexibility to create stations based on your choice of artists, songs, or genres. Although it is somewhat easier to set it up on an iOS device, it can readily be used on a Mac. Happy listening!

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In the June 2011 issue of AccessWorld, we reviewed Mobile Accessibility for Android by Code Factory, an accessible suite of Android apps paired with an integrated screen reader. More recently, in September of 2013, Microsoft teamed up with Code Factory to produce Mobile Accessibility for Windows Phone. The software is free through the Ease of Access Center on phones running Windows Phone 8 Update 3 (GDR3) or later. For now, the software is available exclusively in the US, and text-to-speech is English only.

The Nokia Lumia 925

I was given the opportunity to put Mobile Accessibility for Windows Phone (MA) through its paces on a Nokia Lumia 925, which is available with LTE service on T-Mobile and AT&T. The phone was sturdily constructed, and felt both solid and light in my hand, despite its size (approximately 2.78 inches wide by 5.08 inches tall by one-third inch thick).

The Lumia 925 boasts a 4.5-inch, 1280 by 768 AMOLED display with a 15 by 9 aspect ratio. It is powered by a QUALCOMM Snapdragon Dual-core 1.5 gigahertz processer, and comes with one gig of RAM, 16 gig of device storage and an additional 7 gig of free SkyDrive cloud storage. The battery is not replaceable by the user and is rated for a maximum 19 days of standby time and 10.3 hours of 3G talk time. A power adapter and micro-USB charging cable are included. The phone also supports wireless charging with an optional accessory cover.

Taking a brief tour of the Lumia 925, on the top edge, left to right, you will find the SIM card tray, the micro-USB port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The left and bottom edges are smooth, and the right edge, from top to bottom, hosts the device's volume rocker, the screen lock button, and the hardware camera button.

The Lumia 925 has an 8.7-megapixel main camera and a 720p secondary camera for video chats. Unfortunately, as you will see, you can use neither with MA 8.

Installing Mobile Accessibility for Windows Phone 8

You can't install MA without sighted assistance, and I needed a double session with my sighted wife to get the job done.

When you first start a Windows phone you get the usual license agreement to confirm, Wi-Fi to select, etc. You are then asked to enter your Windows Live ID and password. You are given the option to skip this step for now, which we did, figuring I could enter this information myself after I got speech up and running.

The MA instructions provided the following steps: Open Settings, then scroll down to the Ease of Accessibility Center, tap to open, and then look for the Mobile Accessibility options to download and install the software. There we discovered that you could download the software, but you could not install it without first entering your Windows Live ID and password.

My wife entered my Windows Live ID e-mail address and password, but I got a "password not valid" message. A second try yielded the same results. We took a break while I fired up my Windows 8 machine and logged off and back in again. The password worked fine. That's when I found an e-mail from The Microsoft account team with the subject line "Microsoft account Action required for two-step verification on your Windows Phone."

Apparently, when I first set up my Windows Live ID account, I had enabled the two-factor authentication. With this security feature enabled, there are certain instances, such as when setting up a Windows phone, when you have to obtain an app code and enter it when you receive a login password error. I applaud Microsoft for going the extra mile when it comes to security, but I think they should be user-friendly enough to ask for the app code and tell you how to obtain one right there on your log-in screen, instead of making you go looking for the reason your new phone won't accept your password. I never did obtain an app code. I took the shortcut I suspect many users do; I temporarily disabled two-factor authentication.

With this done, my wife and I were finally able to download and install MA, and after a required phone restart, I was set to go.

My journey began with a brief tutorial demonstrating MA touch commands, such as double tapping to activate an item, triple tapping to open an app's Quick Menu, and others we will discuss below. All MA gestures use one finger only.

The Basics

The main MA screen contains a grid of nine apps:

• Phone
• Contacts
• Messaging
• Alarms
• Calendar
• E-mail
• Web
• Location
• Settings

Swiping either side to side or up and down moves you through the various app icons, and a double tap activates the highlighted app.

At the bottom of the Lumina's screen there are three touch-activated soft buttons. From left to right they are Back, Start, and Search. The Back button works normally, returning you one level back, out of menus and closing apps. A touch of the Back button from the MA home screen calls up the message, "Are you sure you wish to exit Mobile Accessibility? Slide left for yes. Slide right for no." If you do accidentally turn off MA, a long press of the Camera button will restart it. Unfortunately, this means anyone who is sharing the phone with you cannot use the physical Camera button to snap photos. They have to call up the camera app and use touch commands.

The Start button has also been redefined. Touching this button causes MA to announce the time and date. A touch-and-hold gesture announces the battery level, along with your Wi-Fi and phone network status.

The Search button has several MA functions, depending on what you are doing. A long press of the Search button prompts MA to repeat the last text utterance. Follow the long press with a second press and the utterance will be spelled character by character.

Settings

Mobile Accessibility uses the Microsoft Zira voice, which I found clear and understandable. The Settings menu offers four voice speeds, but no pitch or punctuation controls.

MA reads all punctuation, which I found a bit verbose at times. Keyboard echo can be set to none, letters, words, or both letters and words, which is the default. MA also numbers any list items it encounters as they are spoken, but you can turn this off in the Settings menu. Spell phonetically is turned off by default. Secret Mode causes MA to speak the characters you enter or delete in a password field, but you can also set this to "Silent," or "Speak stars."

A final setting you can make is to turn on Advanced User Mode. Turning on this setting causes MA to stop offering prompts and suggestions.

MA offers no access to phone settings, such as screen brightness or lock screen behavior. You will need sighted help to make any such changes. I found this more than a little disappointing.

Phone

The Phone app allows you to place calls either via your Contacts list or by entering a phone number. The Contacts list was easy to navigate and use to place calls. The keypad did not allow for touch entry, however, you have to swipe or tap to highlight a digit, then double tap to enter it. The Backspace is at the upper right of the keypad.

You can long press the camera key to toggle between speaker and earpiece. The sound quality on the Lumia 925 was excellent, but there is no speaker phone option using MA When you receive a call, double tapping on the screen offers up the caller ID information. When I called from my iPhone, MA announced the phone number, and after I had entered my data into the Contacts it announced my name, instead. A slide up answers a call, a slide down hangs up or rejects an incoming call and sends it directly to voicemail.

I was unable to change ring or message tones on my own. I also needed sighted help to set up my voicemail box through the main Windows Phone interface. Then, to my utter disappointment, I discovered that I couldn't access my voicemail from within MA or even be alerted that I have a message waiting for me. I left several messages for myself, and for each the call log showed a missed call. I would have thought the Quick Menu would have offered an option to listen to voicemail. It did not.

Contacts

Despite having entered my Google account credentials into the MA e-mail app, Mobile Accessibility did not grab my contact list, or my calendar. I was advised by a Code Factory technician that I needed to log in to people.live.com and link my Gmail contacts and calendar to my Microsoft account. I did this, but neither my Contacts list nor my calendar would update.

I was able to enter contact info manually. Triple tapping any contact calls up the Quick Menu, where you can call or message the contact, view the contact's details, and add, delete or edit a contact. Everything here was well laid out and accessible.

Messaging

The MA Messaging app is rather limited. You can only send an SMS text to one contact or phone number at a time. Selecting a second contact replaces the first. You also cannot send multimedia messages.

When you receive a text, MA announces "New Message." It does not read the text itself, however. I would have thought a double tap on the screen would have voiced the message, much the same way it announces the Caller ID when you receive a call. Instead you have to exit what you are doing and open the Messaging app to do that. Also, if you miss a message, you will not know it is there until you open the messaging app and happen upon it.

Received messages appear in a browser window, one window per contact. You can swipe down the list of received messages, but you can't re-read messages you have sent. The Quick Menu allows you to delete that message thread or to call the text sender. There is also a "Compose Reply" button at the top of the message list.

The onscreen keyboard is a standard modified QWERTY keyboard, but you cannot swipe and double tap. Instead, you enter characters by locating them and then lifting your finger. Holding the key for more than a second or so causes MA to announce the letter in caps, and after a bit longer, a number, symbol, or mark of punctuation associated with the key. I found this extremely useful when typing text, but the options to enter number and symbol modes are also available.

Another keyboard feature I enjoyed was tapping the "Search" button to toggle review mode between character, word, and sentence. This made it quite easy to swipe navigate through already-entered text to make insertions and deletions. Unfortunately, it also made it far too easy to send the message prematurely, as the "Search" button is directly below the Enter key, which sends the text message and which is easily activated by mistake. The "Back" and "Start" buttons are also too-easily activated during data entry. The "Start" button kept me updated on the time. The Back key exited the app, so I had to be extremely careful entering a "Z" or searching for the Shift or typing mode keys.

There is no support for voice dictation.

Alarms

You can set any number of alarms, and choose their frequency: one time, daily, etc. You cannot change the alarm sound through MA, however, and I was unable to find a snooze feature.

Calendar

As mentioned, the MA Calendar app did not import my Google calendar.

I am also told that because of OS limitations, it is not possible to enter new appointments using MA, making this app more or less useless, in my opinion.

E-mail

The E-mail app's Quick Menu offered me the choice of setting up my e-mail manually or choosing one of 19 presets that would auto-complete many of the IMAP server settings. The options included both Yahoo! and Gmail, along with a long list of outdated options, such as CompuServe and Prodigy. Inexplicably, there was no help for users of Hotmail, Live.com, or Outlook.com.

Double tapping an e-mail message started reading from the very top, announcing all of the header information (to, from, subject, etc.), before it began voicing the actual message.

E-mails are displayed in a Web view. See more about webpage navigation in the next section. You can pause reading at any time with a quick press of the phone's "Camera" button; resuming reading required the following steps:

• triple tap to call up the Quick Menu
• navigate the Quick Menu down to the Reading option, then double tap
• navigate the Reading menu until you find either "Read from top" or "Read from this position," and then double tap

Needless to say, I did not spend a lot of time reading emails with MA. I did create and reply to a few messages, and that was when I realized that other than sending text messages, the message editing window is the only opportunity MA offers to compose and edit text. There is no built-in editor. I could not open attachments of any kind using MA.

Web Browsing

Web browsing was a bit more manageable using MA. The Quick Menu summoned the address bar. Alternatively, you can use the "Back" button to toggle off the keyboard and choose from among your bookmarks. Triple tapping at this point calls up options to set your homepage, or add/remove the current page to or from your favorites.

The Quick Menu Settings option included pre-enabled options to "Read whole page on download," "Reset navigation on download," and "Remember last visited page."

The Quick Menu Reading option offered four modes: "Read from current position," "Read from top," "Read summary," and "Read title."

One MA feature I did very much enjoy while surfing the Web was the navigation toggle. Instead of performing a complicated gesture to change between links, tables, headings and other elements, as you must do with iOS and Android, with MA a quick touch of the Search key cycles you through the various modes. You can only move forward through the choices, however. To get to the previous navigation mode in the list you must circle back around.

The Quick Menu Navigation option includes a number of additional modes not included in the Search key rotor, such as jumping by visited links, sentences, and same form element. Use left and right swipes to move forward or backward through the webpage by your chosen element. Then swipe down or up to review the page in greater detail.

Each new page begins with a summary, listing the numbers of links, tables, forms and other navigation units, information useful in deciding how to proceed with page navigation. As with the E-mail app, performing a read to end required far too many touches and taps.

Location

MA location services are extremely limited. Basically, when you open the app, you are given your current location. There is no way to create a route, or receive turn-by-turn directions. You can only instruct MA to announce your changing location. You do this by summoning the Quick Menu and ticking the checkboxes to "Keep screen on" and "Speak location automatically." Also, you have to remember not to lock your phone.

I took the Lumia 925 for a walk around my neighborhood. It performed adequately, announcing the street name and number several seconds after I made each turn, and every few minutes on a long stretch of road. But considering the wealth of other accessible navigation apps currently available, this is not a solution I would consider if I am boarding a bus or venturing into parts unknown.

Conclusions

Ten years ago, Mobile Accessibility for Windows Phone would have been considered cutting edge. Today, the best that can be said is that it is several years behind accessibility solutions for iOS and Android. There is no braille support at all. You can't run Windows Phone apps with speech using MA. You can't access your free Skydrive cloud storage. I was even unable to get a YouTube video to play using the MA browser.

Considering these and all the other limitations I have described in this article, I can see only a single case in which a blind individual might wish to use a Windows Phone running MA, and that is if your employer's IT department insists and your job depends on it. Even then, I would advise carrying a second Android or iOS device for actual productivity.

Microsoft contracted with Code Factory to produce MA and from my discussions with the company I have gleaned that many if not most of the software's limitations are due to the fact that Microsoft did not ask for them to be included.

Technical support for MA is available for free on the Code Factory website. This suggests that perhaps the company might be engaged in ongoing product development, which they cannot discuss. Microsoft recently surprised the access community when it partnered with GW Micro to offer a free full-featured screen reader, Window-Eyes, to anyone using a licensed copy of Office 2010 or 2013. Could they have another surprise waiting for us? I, for one, certainly hope so.

Product Information

Nokia Lumia 925

Available in black, white and grey from T-Mobile and AT&T at the following off-contract prices:
AT&T: $399
T-Mobile: $504

Mobile Accessibility for Windows Phone

Available from: Code Factory

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I was thrilled when the iOS Kindle app finally became VoiceOver accessible last year. There are so many books to buy and read. Later, the Android app was made Talkback friendly, and now, Amazon's tablet lineup, the Kindle Fire HD, Kindle HDX, and Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ are also speech accessible. Recently, I was given the opportunity to put the top-of-the-line Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ through its paces.

Physical Description and Specifications

The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ measures approximately 9 by 6 by one-third inches thick and weighs 13 ounces. The corners are rounded, and the back surface is beveled at the edges, making it feel even thinner than it is. Gripping the device in landscape mode, the top and bottom edges are smooth. The left edge contains a micro-USB power port, and the right edge has a 3.5mm headphone jack. A USB cable and wall adapter are included.

Holding the Fire HDX in landscape orientation, the up and down volume buttons are on the back surface, under your right fingers; the power button is on the back surface under your left fingers. The back also houses stereo speakers and an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash for taking pictures and videos and a 720-pixel front-facing camera for Skype video chat.

The Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ display boasts 2560 by 1600 resolution. The tablet is powered by a 2.2 gigahertz quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor and has 2GB of RAM. The version I tested came with 16GB of internal storage; 32GB and 64GB models are also available. There are also 4G LTE Wireless versions that will connect using data plans from either Verizon or AT&T. The internal battery is not replaceable by the user, but I found battery life to be good to excellent.

The machined-magnesium exterior feels extremely durable, and I found it comfortable to hold in one hand in both landscape and portrait modes. The recessed rear buttons were also a refreshing change of pace. They were easy to access, and their absence from the edges made the device feel much sleeker in my hands.

The Kindle Screen Reader

The Kindle Fire HD and HDX models are voice accessible using a modified version of Android called Fire OS 3.0: Mojito, which includes built-in versions of the Android accessibility suite prosaically renamed Screen Reader, Explore by Touch, and Screen Magnifier.

Turn on Screen Reader by pressing and holding the Power button until you hear a beep. Then place two fingers slightly apart on the screen for about five seconds. The Kindle will start speaking, prompting you to continue pressing your fingers against the screen to complete the installation of both Screen Reader and Explore by Touch, which is enabled automatically along with Screen Reader.

A brief tutorial follows, in which you are given the opportunity to learn and practice several of the gestures you will need to navigate Kindle with speech. The commands mirror the standard Android Talkback command set, including swiping left or right to advance forward or backward by screen element, double tapping to activate an item, sliding one finger down and left to go back and up and to the left to go to the device's Home screen. A two-finger slide left unlocks the Fire HDX screen, and a two-finger slide down from the top of the screen opens the Notifications Bar, where you can set screen brightness, check notifications, open the Settings menu, and activate the "Mayday" button, which we will describe below.

A complete list of Screen Reader commands can be found on the device's Settings/Accessibility/Help menu, or on the Amazon Accessibility Basics page.

By default, the Fire screen reader uses a female Ivona voice, which I found extremely pleasant and easy to understand. A male US English voice is also available for free download via the Settings/Language and Keyboard menus, along with both male and female Australian and British English voices. Text-to-speech is also available for French, Italian, German, Russian, and other languages, but you can't use any of these with Screen Reader—when I tried installing one as the default voice, the check box was activated, but the Screen Reader voice was not changed. For now, at least, Kindle Fire voice accessibility is limited to English.

Screen Reader offers five voice speeds, but no pitch controls. Nor can you set the volume to a different level than the system volume you use to listen to music or videos.

There are two ways to turn off Screen Reader and Explore by Touch. You can access the Settings menu and use the Accessibility menu to turn them off (turn them back on either by returning to the Settings menu or by holding down the Power button until you hear the beep, then holding two fingers on the screen). You can also use the continuous down and then right gesture to summon the Device Menu, where you will find the Pause Feedback option to turn off Screen Reader and Explore by Touch temporarily. To turn Screen Reader back on, simply press the Power button twice to toggle the device off and then back on. I found this latter option more useful when passing the device to my wife for her perusal, although not nearly as convenient as the iOS triple-click home command to toggle VoiceOver off and back on.

Basically, Screen Reader and Explore by Touch are slightly modified versions of Talkback and Explore by Touch for Android. You cannot upgrade either through Amazon, however—you will need to wait for a Fire OS upgrade, which may or may not include new screen access features and bug fixes.

I didn't test Screen Magnifier for this review, but invoking it is similar to invoking Screen Reader. Power on the Fire, wait for the beep, and then hold three fingers instead of two against the screen. Braille users can also install BrailleBack (Kindle Tablet Edition) from the Amazon Appstore for Android, which offers the same Bluetooth braille display support as the version offered at Google Play.

Getting Help

One of the marquee features of the Kindle Fire HDX and HDX 8.9″ is the "Mayday" button. A tap of this button summons live video help, with the representative's image on your screen. Don't worry, the video feed is one-way—the rep can only hear your voice. He or she can, with your permission, take control of your Kindle to troubleshoot problems or walk you through a quick how-to. I tried this feature a number of times while putting the Fire HDX 8.9″ through its paces. The response was usually quick. Only once did I wait more than 30 seconds for a call to be answered, no matter what time of day or night. The representatives were friendly without exception. They were also knowledgeable about the device.

I used the "Mayday" button to help find a video I had transferred into the device's Movie folder via USB. I was able to leave Screen Reader turned on during my support session, and follow along while the rep led me to the file. Strangely, when you add a video via USB it does not appear in the Home screen Videos list, but rather in your photo/video gallery, where it shows up with a thumbnail preview but stripped of its file name.

Every rep I spoke with had a basic understanding of what Screen Reader does, how to turn it off and on, and how to navigate and activate items. And though none mentioned it, when I broached the subject with one rep she confirmed my suspicions and told me that if a customer uses Mayday with Screen Reader enabled, they, the reps, must also use Screen Reader as much as possible throughout the help session, double tapping to activate items, etc. I award Amazon extreme kudos for this.

Reporting Screen Reader bugs was a different matter. During my testing period I experienced two major Screen Reader problems. First, no matter how often I tried, with Screen Reader enabled the Voice Input button on the onscreen keyboard consistently hung up with the message "Processing." Second, while shopping at the Amazon store, when I swiped to the "Proceed to Checkout" button, if I then performed a double tap the app did not call up the payment screen. It chose instead to remove the last item in my shopping cart. In both cases, the rep escalated my call, and in the end I was told a ticket would be sent to the developers and that I would receive a telephone call back in two days. I never received either call.

Granted, reporting accessibility bugs in either iOS or Android can also feel like you are tossing your concerns into a vast, empty void. Still, this does not excuse offering callbacks and then not making them.

Note: The Kindle Fire HD does not have a microphone, so on devices where Mayday is not available, you can still seek help via the device. An Amazon rep will call you, usually within five minutes of your request.

The Amazon Experience

Many have opined that the Kindle Fire is a content consumption device, with a strong emphasis on Amazon content, and I have to agree. Swiping from the top, the very first icon you encounter is the "Shop Amazon" button. The "Music," "Games," "Videos," "Apps," and "Books" buttons also include options to search, purchase, and download Amazon content. If you have too much content to fit on your device, Amazon offers to remove it from your device and store it for you in the cloud, where it is available for re-download anytime and anywhere you have a data connection. Even the "Unified Search" button augments your device and Web search results with Amazon content you can purchase. For example, a search for "Baker" turned up a few e-mails, appropriate Web searches, a Baker Games app from the Amazon Appstore, Bakery Boss from the video store, and a baker's rack from the main Amazon store.

Shopping Amazon on the Kindle Fire was a bit confusing at times. When I searched for vitamin D, for example, I got a list of different brands and sizes. Double tapping one of these called up a product summary along with reviews, but this information only took up a portion of the screen. The rest of the product list was still onscreen, along with related items I might like and items I had supposedly saved for later viewing. Consequently, Explore by Touch was a bit problematic at times, and a lot of swiping was required to get the item I wanted into the cart and to find the "Proceed to Checkout" button.

I was finally able to figure out how to activate this button, with a double-tap-and-hold instead of a simple double tap. But even this did not always work. I experienced any number of focus issues in the various stores. In the Music store the samples would sometimes play with a swipe to and then double tap, other times they needed a double-tap-and-hold. When I tried purchasing a single music track the "Confirm Purchase" button would not work with either gesture. Nor could I explore by touch and then double tap successfully. I had to double-tap-and-hold just above the "Confirm Purchase" button, swipe down, and then double tap the button to get it to work. I never could get the "Play Now" button to activate. I had to return to the main Music Menu, find the track on the cloud and then double tap to begin playback and download it to my device.

I experienced similar focus issues in both the Video and Book stores. Also, if I chose to browse categories and scrolled down more than a few dozen items, double tapping on a title would cause speech to lock up and the only way I could get it back would be to turn the device off and back on.

All that said, I was eventually able to find, purchase, and download content with Screen Reader access. I also experienced no focus issues when shopping and purchasing from the Appstore.

The Onscreen Keyboard

The onscreen keyboard had its own focus issue. The Kindle keyboard is a standard touch keyboard. You slide a finger to the letter or symbol you want, and when you lift your finger the character is typed. The character is re-voiced, accompanied by a confirmation beep. This beep is necessary, in my opinion, since sometimes a character different than the one that was voiced before raising my finger would be entered. I found typing a bit frustrating at first, but as is the case with most onscreen keyboards, the more you use it, the more relaxed you become, and the more relaxed you become, the more accurately you type.

The Fire onscreen keyboard offers predictive text, and it is quite useable with Screen Reader. Type a few letters, then slide your finger up above the onscreen keyboard. A chirp sounds whenever you cross the onscreen keyboard's virtual edge in any direction, which is extremely helpful. You then slide your finger left or right until you find the word you want, then lift your finger and the word is completed for you.

Autocorrect works the same way. After misspelling a word and tapping the spacebar, a row of correctly spelled words appears above the keyboard. There is no audible cue that you have misspelled a word, so unless you know you have erred you are not likely to seek the correction. Hopefully an audible alert is something Amazon will add to a future update of Screen Reader.

Media Play

The Kindle Fire HDX shines when it comes to playing music and videos. Video is sharp and bright, and the sound is the best I have heard to date from any portable device. Playing video was especially enjoyable. The stereo speakers are located a half inch or so in from the left and right rear edges, but when playing a high resolution movie the sound expanded beyond both edges so the soundtrack played wider than the device, creating a 3d experience I found delightfully immersive.

Amazon Prime members get to enjoy a sizeable selection of instant videos for free. Many TV series also offer their first episode gratis to all comers. I was also able to install the Netflix app, which I found among the most accessible Netflix portable interfaces I have used.

The Kindle app was equally accessible, with a voice announcement of basic commands when you first enter the app. You can read continuously with auto page turning, or read by page, with a two-finger swipe left or right to flip pages back and forth. You can also use Android's swipe-up-and-then-right gesture to change reading granularity to paragraph, word, character, etc. Double-tap-and-hold on a word to call up dictionary lookup, bookmarking, highlighting, and other options. It was sometimes difficult to find the exact word I wanted using Explore by Touch, however, and too often the focus would change to a different word after the first tap of a double-tap-and-hold gesture.

Prime members can also borrow books from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, but you can only download and read them on a Kindle or Kindle Fire. Android and iOS devices are not eligible. The Lending Library features over 350,000 titles, and there is no due date. Audible account holders will also find their purchased content automatically synched onto their Kindle. Double tap any title to begin playback. You do not need to install and run a separate Audible app.

Productivity Apps

The Kindle Fire HDX comes with the usual suite of productivity apps for Web browsing, reading and sending e-mail, and managing your contacts and calendar. Basically, these are slightly modified versions of stock Android apps, and for the most part, I found them accessible.

You can transfer documents to the Kindle Fire via either a USB connection or a special e-mail address exclusive to your device. You can't edit these documents without purchasing an additional app, however. You can only read them in Web view. The Amazon Silk browser is similar to the stock Android browser. I found it useable, though more than a little cumbersome, mostly because of all the multi-part gestures I had to perform every time I wanted to change navigation elements or do a read-from-top. I much prefer iOS browsing to Android, but this is a personal choice. You may prefer the Android way of doing things.

During initial setup, I was asked for my Facebook and Twitter credentials. There is no native Kindle app for either social network, so I downloaded the official versions of each from the Amazon Appstore. The Facebook app worked fine with speech, though there were times when certain controls would not activate unless I swung the Fire into portrait mode. The Twitter app did not work at all. The only control I could activate was an advertising link, and if I explored the app for any length of time it usually crashed. The Echofon Twitter app also performed poorly.

Conclusions

With its new and improved line of Kindle Fire tablets Amazon has taken a welcome step toward universal accessibility. Sure, there are bugs that need to be worked out, but this is a first release, and I won't judge them too harshly until they have a few patches and Fire OS updates under their belt.

If you are familiar with using Talkback on an Android device, you already know nearly everything you need to know to operate a Kindle Fire. If you are an Amazon Prime member, you will be rewarded with a significant library of free content, a deal not available to you on either iOS or Android.

Myself, I found reading books on the Fire's Kindle app not as frictionless as it is on my iPhone 5, but I did enjoy purchasing books on the same device I use to read them, and accessing books for free. I also found the Fire HDX 8.9″ music and video experience among the best I have ever enjoyed on a portable device.

If your tablet is your laptop replacement, the Kindle Fire is probably not right for you. But if you enjoy curling up with a good book or video, or if you are a budding shopaholic, check out the feature sets on the various Fire HD and HDX devices. Be sure to factor in the price of an Amazon Prime membership. The free books and videos make it a must have for most Kindle Fire owners.

Product Information

Product: Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″
Available from: Amazon

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Dear AccessWorld readers,

This month, I am sharing the AccessWorld Editor's Page with my AFB colleague Mark Richert, Esq., our Director of Public Policy. His letter below provides information and a call to action for those interested in creating brighter futures for young students with vision and/or hearing loss, specifically H.R. 4040: the Alice Cogswell and Anne Sullivan Macy Act.

Historic Introduction of the Most Comprehensive Special Education Legislation for Blind/Visually Impaired and Deaf/Hard of Hearing Students

H.R. 4040: The Alice Cogswell and Anne Sullivan Macy Act

"We've waited 40 years—we're not waiting another 40!"

Dear colleagues, friends, and fellow advocates for students with disabilities,

Last year, on June 27, the anniversary of Helen Keller's birth, a remarkable event took place. On that day, hundreds upon hundreds of phone calls, e-mails, and text messages came from all across America from parents, professionals, and people with disabilities to the U.S. Congress with one simple call: Our special education system's promise of a truly appropriate education for students who are blind or visually impaired, and students who are deaf or hard of hearing, can only be kept if we commit now to meeting each of our students' unique learning needs.

As a direct result of your call to Congress, the most comprehensive legislation to enhance and reform America's special education system for students with vision loss and students with hearing loss was recently introduced. Once enacted, H.R. 4040 will ensure that:

• Every child who is deaf and every child who is blind, regardless of whether they have additional disabilities, will be properly counted and served.
• Each of a child's unique learning needs will be properly evaluated.
• States will engage in strategic planning to be sure that they can in fact meet each child's specialized needs, and the US Department of Education will do its part to hold states and schools accountable.
• Students who are deaf will be served by qualified personnel, and students who are blind will receive state-of-the-art services and skills supported through a new major national collaborative initiative addressing their unique learning needs.

Introduced by House of Representatives members Matt Cartwright (D-PA), Mark Takano (D-CA), and Steve Stockman (R-TX), H.R. 4040 combines into one bill two pieces of formally draft-only legislation, the Anne Sullivan Macy Act, named for Helen Keller's beloved teacher and advocated by a broad coalition of national, regional and community-based organizations representing vision loss, and the Alice Cogswell Act, named for the first deaf girl to be educated in a school for the deaf in the United States and advocated by America's leading deafness and hard of hearing organizational voices.

Advocates are urged to contact your member of the US House of Representatives to ask them to cosponsor H.R. 4040 today! Tell them that by doing so, they will be helping to make history by ensuring that America's special education system is worthy of the enormous potential of every child who is blind, visually impaired, deaf, or hard of hearing. Tell them that by joining in this campaign, they will help us transform a nearly 40-year-old system from one that has indeed broken down barriers to the school house door, to a system that finally ensures that blind or deaf children will get the education they deserve once they get inside. We've waited 40 years—we're not waiting another 40! Pass H.R. 4040!

Advocates should stay tuned to AccessWorld and to the AFB website's dedicated page for more information and regular updates as the Cogswell/Macy Act progresses. Thank you for your advocacy for children and youth with sensory disabilities!

For further information, e-mail Mark Richert, Esq.,Director, Public Policy, AFB, or you may call him at 202-469-6833.

I hope we can count on your support and action to help ensure the passage of this important legislation.

Sincerely,
Lee Huffman, AccessWorld Editor-in-Chief
American Foundation for the Blind

Dear AccessWorld Editor,

I recently read a past AccessWorld article regarding accessibility of household appliances for people with low vision. I want to thank you for acknowledging that there is a significant difference between an individual seeking appliances who is completely blind compared to those of us with low vision.

My daughter, who is 17, and I (34) both have retinitis pigmentosa and are both at varying stages of progression, and we are progressing differently than one another. My husband and I have been on a "mad hunt" for a new washer and dryer due to our recent inability to see the marker on our current machines. Not only is the marker an issue, but font, color, and the fact that the marker isn't stationary and spins behind a plastic cover, which also provides glare, are additional issues.

I would like to share a product with AccessWorld readers we have found which is the Whirlpool Cabrio Platinum clothes washer, slate/black with white letters. The controls on this machine are simple, and it has a set marker dial. It has a simple on/off button for start/stop, and it is very visually friendly for people who may need reverse contrast coloring. This product is a top loader style and also has an audible ding when selecting a setting. I am on the hunt for a front load style if I can find one, but so far I have not been successful. Many of these styles are illuminated dials, which would be fine if you could read where the dot was located. I am sure I could use tactile dots or puffy paint to mark where certain settings are but I'd rather just find something I can read (at least for now). Many of these models have audible dials as well but if you don't know where you're starting at then it really doesn't do much good. The rote memory seems to be a low vision and/or blind person's best friend.

One model we have considered is the GE Slate/Grey Front Load washer/dryer. I would need to review it again and touch the system plugged in (which they never are in the stores) in order to determine if it would be a true possibility.

Again, thank you for the article.

Sincerely,

Rachel Henson

Dear AccessWorld Editor,

I just read Aaron Preece's February article entitled, An In-depth Evaluation of the BARD Mobile App from the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. This is an excellent, detailed, and clearly written description of a well-designed app. It's too bad more people don't know that at least one segment of the government does their job as well as NLS does!

Regards,

Gil Johnson

Dear AccessWorld Editor,

While I agree with much of February's in depth review of the BARD Mobile app, I have to say that I was disappointed a bug I experienced wasn't mentioned. Some of the books still have the "Turn over the tape." message. As if that weren't annoying enough, after that message, the book goes back to an earlier section. When I contacted BARD, they told me they couldn't replicate the problem and would not look into it further. This is very disappointing.

Sincerely,

Jewel

Dear AccessWorld Editor,

When using the AccessWorld Search tool to search back issues for information on Android apps, I came across J.J. Meddaugh's March 2013 article entitled, A Collection of Accessible Apps for Your Android Device. This was a wonderful article. I found it very helpful. There were some apps I was aware of already, and there were others that I was not familiar with. I suggest that this article be updated periodically so blind and visually impaired users, like me, can keep up-to-date on all the latest accessible Android apps.

Thanks,

Janae L. Miller

Announcing the Release of Dolphin's Guide 8

The new Guide 8 Web browser offers help to make surfing the Web a simpler experience, while maintaining a familiar feel for people who have used the Internet with previous versions of Guide.

New features in Guide Version 8 include: voice instructions from the voice-prompting help feature, a "getting started" home page, hot-key reference guide, and updated search capabilities.

Learn What's New in Guide 8, or visit the dedicated Dolphin Guide website.

Christine Benninger appointed CEO of Guide Dogs for the Blind

Guide Dogs for the Blind (GDB), the largest guide dog school in the US, recently announced Christine (Chris) Benninger's appointment as CEO.

"Chris is a strategic, compassionate, and compelling leader, who is well suited to help GDB fulfill our mission of empowering lives by creating exceptional partnerships between people, dogs, and communities," shared Jay Harris, head of the GDB CEO search committee.

Chris spent 17 years leading the Humane Society Silicon Valley. During her tenure there, she and her team's progressive approach helped save the lives of tens of thousands of animals and greatly reduced pet overpopulation problems in Santa Clara County. Under her leadership, the organization was also able to raise $25.5 million to build The Animal Community Center, the first facility of its kind in the country.

Chris honed her business skills as an auditor with Arthur Andersen & Co. as well as in her 15 years with Hewlett Packard Corporation, where she held managerial positions in the US as well as in Europe. She holds an MBA from Stanford University.

Chris's first day will be April 7, 2014. Interim President and CEO, Bob Burke, will help lead the on-boarding and transition process and will then return to his role as Chair of the GDB Board.

Tax Assistance for People with Disabilities

Another tax season is at our door! The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) website has information about the online tax products and services available for taxpayers with disabilities. Last year more than one million accessible forms and publications were downloaded from the site, in large part because organizations representing people with disabilities actively promoted their availability.

You can go to the IRS Accessibility page to download forms, publications, and other products, and you can check out tax-related videos in English and American Sign Language on the IRS YouTube page. The IRS highly recommends checking the website often as it is continually increasing the number of products accessible to people with disabilities. Please contact Maureen Goulder, 804-916-8850, if you have any questions or need any additional information.

The 3rd Annual M-Enabling Summit to be Held June 9–10, 2014, in Washington, DC

The only global conference and showcase exclusively dedicated to accessible and assistive mobile solutions for seniors and users of all abilities, the fastest growing user group in the mobile market place.

The Summit provides an opportunity to network with over 600 high-level government and industry leaders in an environment dedicated to cutting edge technology, solutions, and the sharing of innovative ideas.

Held in cooperation with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the 2014 Summit is a must-attend event for anyone participating in this quickly expanding market.

In the spotlight at the 2014 Summit:

• Mobile and social media leap forward in accessibility
• Mobile at the center of smartphone development
• The next generation of wearable gear
• Opportunities for users of all abilities with BYOD (bring your own device)
• Adaptive user interfaces
• Market opportunities for new services for seniors and people with disabilities
• How leading corporations promote consumer apps for users of all abilities

The 29^th Annual CSUN Conference

The 29^th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference (CSUN) will be held from March 17 to March 22, 2014, at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Diego, CA. You can visit the Registration Information page for more information about registration policies and pricing. The General Sessions Schedule for the 29th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference is now available.

The conference staff can be reached through one of the methods below:

CSUN Center on Disabilities
18111 Nordhoff St.
BH-110, Center on Disabilities
Northridge, CA
91330-8340

Email: conference@csun.edu
Phone: 818-677-2578
Fax: 818-677-4929

Yahoo!'s Accessible Fantasy Sports App

At the recent AFB Leadership Conference in New York City, attendees heard a great presentation from Mike Shebanek of Yahoo! describing Yahoo!'s new team that is working to ensure the accessibility of its Web tools and mobile apps. During Mike's presentation, he demonstrated the Yahoo! Fantasy Sports app, showing audience members that it was fully accessible and usable with the iPhone's VoiceOver screen reader. He showed a live draft using VoiceOver to do everything involved with researching player stats and selecting players for his team. The app works with fantasy leagues from Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, and the National Hockey League. The app will be a fun tool for those of us that love sports but have been barred from competing with sighted friends in the wildly popular fantasy sports leagues because of inaccessible fantasy programs. It is also a good sign from Yahoo! that it is serious about accessibility.