Dear AccessWorld readers,

Last month AccessWorld celebrated the birthday and life's work of Louis Braille. I hope everyone had a chance to visit the Louis Braille Museum on the AFB website and had a chance to read Braille, the Magic Wand of the Blind, Helen Keller's essay on Louis Braille. If not, I encourage you to read this great work.

For February we move from celebrating the achievements of Louis Braille to recognizing February as Low Vision Awareness Month. "Low vision" is a term commonly used to mean partial sight, or sight that isn't fully correctable with surgery, medications, contact lenses, or glasses. In the United States, the most common causes of low vision are age-related macular degeneration (AMD), glaucoma, cataracts, and diabetic retinopathy. Some people are born with conditions such as albinism or optic nerve damage that can result in low vision. People of all ages, from infants to seniors, can experience low vision, most often due to eye disease, but also due to eye injury.

The largest population of Americans who experience low vision is seniors over the age of 65. Therefore, for the month of February, AccessWorld is focusing, so to speak, on topics and technologies that may be especially relevant to seniors or those of any age who are new to vision loss. At times, seniors may be hesitant to adopt the use of technology, especially access technology, and in this issue of AccessWorld, our intention is to break down barriers, remove the uncertainty of what technology and access technology can do, and demonstrate how access technology can help improve independence and daily life.

People with low vision can use magnification devices, electronic devices, computer-access software, and other access and mainstream technologies to maximize their remaining vision, or they can learn alternative ways of doing things, such as using their senses of touch and/or hearing. As our regular readers know, AccessWorld regularly reports on many technologies used by people with low vision. For additional information on living with low vision, please visit the VisionAware Low Vision resources page. There you will find additional information about low vision, as well as vision simulation photos, which can help people who are fully sighted understand how people with various eye conditions see the world.

We at AccessWorld are, once again, very pleased to be partnering with the National Research and Training Center on Blindness and Low Vision (NRTC) at Mississippi State University to bring you this special AccessWorld issue on aging. The NRTC received a grant from the Rehabilitation Services Administration to provide training and technical assistance to programs serving older adults with blindness and low vision. This aging issue is part of our joint emphasis to encourage and prepare service providers to introduce seniors to technology they can utilize in their everyday lives. We also intend for information in this issue to be useful to people who are themselves aging with vision loss.

In observance of Low Vision Awareness Month, I strongly encourage everyone to have a complete eye exam from a licensed ophthalmologist or optometrist. Getting a yearly exam increases the chances of early detection and diagnosis of conditions that may lead to vision loss. If you or someone you know has experienced significant vision loss, I encourage you to have a comprehensive low vision examination.

A low vision examination is quite different from the basic examination routinely performed by primary care optometrists and ophthalmologists. A low vision examination includes a review of your visual and medical history, and it places an emphasis on the vision needed to read, cook, work, study, travel, and perform and enjoy other common activities. The goals of a low vision exam include assessing the functional needs, capabilities, and limitations of your vision; assessing ocular and systemic diseases; and evaluating and prescribing low vision therapies. Education and counseling of family, providing an understanding of your visual functioning to aid educators, vocational counselors, and employers, directing further evaluations and treatments by other vision rehabilitation professionals, and making appropriate referrals for medical intervention are all part of a low vision evaluation.

The low vision examination takes much longer than a typical eye exam, but the information gained can be invaluable. No matter what your visual acuity, it is important to understand any diagnosis you may receive and to keep your eyes as healthy as you possibly can.

In addition to articles addressing technology for seniors, this issue also contains an article covering highlights from the recent Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) conference. In the conference highlights article by Aaron Preece, there are links to podcasts from Blind Bargains that include interviews with product developers and dealers, and guidance on how to gain more in-depth information about the new technologies on display in the conference exhibit hall. For our readers who may be deaf or hard of hearing, these podcasts have been transcribed.

In closing, I would like to take this opportunity to remind readers of the "Comment on this article" link at the bottom of each article. This link allows you to provide direct feedback on an article to the author and me. We want to hear your thoughts, questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions. Being responsive to you, our readers, is our priority.

Sincerely,

Lee Huffman

February 2020 Table of Contents

Bill Holton

I recently bought myself an acoustic guitar after a 35-year hiatus from playing. The long lapse was due to a variety of reasons. I didn’t have any close friends who played guitar to show me the way, and I couldn’t afford private lessons. Nearly all of the available books and other instructional materials weren’t accessible. If I wanted to learn a particular song, I had to buy the sheet music or songbook and have someone read me the chords. And guitar tablature, which is the standard method for notating guitar music using string and fret numbers instead of musical notes, was completely visual and thus inaccessible. I grew frustrated, and like many who take up an instrument, I gave up and “sold my axe.”

When the musical bug bit again and I decided to give the guitar another try, I was heartened to discover a growing number of more or less accessible resources to help me on my journey. I also learned that I am not the only baby boomer with the time and money on my hands to pick up the guitar for the first, or second, time. Many of —us are hoping to relive a little bit of the “glory days.” Others, especially the retired, are finding that playing the guitar is a relaxing and satisfying new hobby. I believe this holds especially true for us seniors with new, or long standing, vision issues.

From lathes and bandsaws for woodworking, to putters, drivers, and a club membership for golf, hobbies often involve a lot of gear and mobility. Learning a musical instrument, like learning to sew, crochet, cook, or garden, can be done mostly at home. For the musically minded, the guitar is a bit less costly and also easier to transport than some other instruments, like a piano,especially if you play an acoustic model that doesn’t require amps, pedals and other gear. If you want to take lessons, Skype, FaceTime and other real-time video applications have allowed many guitar teachers to offer remote learning, which is certainly a lot less cumbersome than trying to arrange transportation to and from the local Guitar Center for lessons. And if you’re a self-starter your first lessons may be as close as your smartphone, tablet, or Talking Book player.

Accessible Online Resources for Learning and Playing Music

The Library of Congress, Music Division

The National Library Service (NLS) includes an entire division dedicated to music education and appreciation. Most of their materials focus on musical notation and such, but the collection also features an impressive catalog of recorded instructional works for both piano and “strum and pick” instruments including guitar, banjo, bass, and ukulele.

Phone your regional library, or log into the BARD searchable catalog and you will discover a separate “guitar” category including nearly 700 downloadable titles appropriate for beginner to advanced players. NLS is still actively converting many of their old titles to the BARD digital format, but due to copyright restrictions many of their older music titles may never be available as digital downloads. One such title is Guitar Method for the Blind, by Donald Hoffer (DBM00697). Another is 24 Great Licks (DBM03380) from music instructor Bill Brown, who has several hundred other recordings available for BARD download.

Bill Brown

For this article I spoke with Bill Brown, whose materials are also available for purchase at GuitarByEar.com and PianoByEar.biz He told me how his own music teacher had refused to use musical notation, insisting students learned better when they learned to play by ear.

“When I began teaching music I did the same,” Brown says, “and instead of writing down homework assignments I would send students home with a cassette tape to work with.” Brown noticed his blind students especially enjoyed this way of learning, and when his wife suggested he explore this further he recorded Intro to the Guitar(DBM01719) and put a notice in the Matilda Ziegler magazine. “I began receiving orders from around the world,” recalls Brown. “And then the Library of Congress called. They ordered one copy, then called back to order another 25.”

Brown then produced Intro to the Piano (DBM01409) and with NLS support commenced work an ongoing series of other instructional recordings. Some of them, such as Guitar Theory 1, 2, and 3 (DBM 02233, DBM 02234, and DBM 02235, respectively) and Acoustic Delta Blues (DBM 02230) are theory or genre based. But Brown has also produced several hundred instructional recordings of individual songs, creating note-for-note, string-and-fret-by-string-and -fret, finger-by-finger guides to works running the gamut from traditional folk, spirituals, and blues, to classic hits from Garth Brooks, Nirvana, the Beatles, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.

Accessible Chords and Scales

Another useful resource for the vision impaired beginner guitar player is Accessible Chords and Scales for Guitar, Mandolin, Banjo and Ukulele. This website offers combo boxes to select the desired tone, A flat through G sharp,along with the mode, major, minor, 7th, minor 7th, etc.,you wish to play. As on the piano, most guitar chords can be played using multiple finger positions. Once you've indicated the chord you want to play, press “Submit” and you will be presented with a string-by-string, fret-by-fret description of each possible chord shape, including detailed instructions on which finger to use for each string. The site also offers the option to hear each chord, which worked well on my PC, but not on my iPhone.

You can also use the site to learn scales, and not just the major and minor scales, but all seven music modes, along with Arabian, minor bebop, and a number of other less common scales.

Accessible Written Music

When I originally tried to play guitar the only way to learn the chords of a song was to have a friend teach me or obtain the sheet music or guitar songbook that included the song. Today, all you need to do is go to the Web and perform a search for the song's name and "guitar chords." You can almost always find the music for any song, broken up with a series of chords followed by a line of the lyrics. Some of these include strum patterns, such as down, down, up, down, up. Be warned, however, that some of these chords sheets are more accurate than others. True, you are not going to learn how to play a song you have never heard this way, but I’m guessing you’ll be spending most of your playing time with familiar oldies, anyway

YouTube Guitar

These days, whenever the goal is to learn something new, a frequent first thought is, “I wonder if there’s a YouTube video about that?” For the guitar, the answer is yes, yes, a few hundred thousand times yes. Unfortunately, like most YouTube videos, the quality varies considerably and so does the accessibility. At worst, a video claiming to be a lesson in how to play a specific song will include a fretboard image that displays successive chord shapes as the music plays behind it. Occasionally, however, you will strike gold and stumble upon a personable expert who takes you step by step through a piece of music, noting every string and finger position along the way. Most lie somewhere in the middle. For example, I found a great video describing how to play "Greensleeves." The going was excellent until about three-quarters of the way through when the presenter did a bit of showing without telling. Luckily I was able to figure things out from what I’d already learned, but I will admit most times when this happens I do become rather frustrated.

“In my experience YouTube videos are best when used to learn chord construction, strumming, fingerpicking and other guitar fundamentals and techniques,” says Cameron Strife, a blind musician/composer/producer who has taught guitar in the Youth Music Program of the Filomen M. D’Agostino Greenberg Music School in Manhattan, which is part of Lighthouse International. “Others may lead you down the wrong path, playing chords and notes that are actually wrong. And there’s no feedback mechanism to tell you what you’re missing and how to improve your playing.”

That said, I personally have found a lot of useful materials on YouTube. A few of the best channels I have found include Justin Guitar and Marty Music. Some YouTube guitar instructors use the platform to advertise their free or paid course work or their remote lessons. Most of the initial freebees I sampled were pretty much inaccessible.

Accessible Smartphone Apps for Learning and Playing Music

Accessible Tuning App

All of Bill Brown’s books, indeed nearly all of the NLS guitar instruction titles, begin with a pluck of each individual guitar string to help the user tune their instrument. These days most players use electronic tuners, which attach to the guitar’s headstock and signal when a string is in tune. I've never found tuner accessible enough to use, but there is an app called Talking Tuner available from the iOS App Store for $.99 that speaks its status, such as “Note D is in tune,” or “Note G is 15 cents flat, (or sharp)” which means the string needs to be tightened or loosened respectively.

Accessible Metronome App

Guitar teachers usually encourage their students to practice using either a drum track or metronome. While there are any number of metronome apps to be had, either free or for a dollar or two, many are inaccessible. I settled on a free app called Pulse-Metronome & Tap Tempo, which has a simple interface with buttons to slow, speed, and start/stop the metronome. The buttons are unlabeled, but it was a simple matter to use VoiceOver’s double tap and hold “Label Buttons” feature to label the needed controls.

Of course the gold standard of guitar music is tablature, often shortened simply to tab. This is a listing of string and fret numbers that describes the music’s chords and notes exactly. Unfortunately, tablature is still mostly inaccessible. Many guitar instructors and players who compile tab do so using inaccessible PDFs. Others use Guitar Pro, which creates .GP files. These files are usually opened using various apps, such as Guitar Pro and Ultimate Guitar, where they display as inaccessible images. However there is an Android app called Lunar Tabs from Project Possibility that reformats these files to make them accessible to the blind. To use Lunar Tabs, follow these steps:

1. Locate a .GP file online and download it either to your Android device or to Google Drive. The Guitar Pro website is an excellent place to start. You can also use Google to search for the song's name and "GP3."

2. Launch the Lunar Tabs app and locate the “Load Tab File” button.

3. The app separates the song or piece of music into individual measures, and turns the tab instructions into text, which TalkBack can voice.

The app displays four directional navigation buttons. The Left and Right buttons move focus one note or chord at a time through the measure. The Up and Down buttons advance the display forward and backward to the next and previous measure.

The tab can be toggled between chord and string modes. At the beginning of "Hotel California," for example, the display shows “B minor chord, eighth note.” Toggling to String Mode switches the display to a description of which strings to hold at which fret numbers.

At any time you can instruct the app to sound the individual measure. You can also adjust the length of the measure of music that is displayed and played in increments from a single bar to the entire work.

Other features include a hands-free mode, which advances the tab display each time it senses a vibration, such as a foot stomp. It’s also possible to connect a MIDI device between your guitar and your Android device and have Lunar Tabs listen to you play and automatically advance to the next note.

The app is Android only, but if you’re an iPhone user this may be all the motivation you need to buy an inexpensive Android tablet. You may also want to use a hardware keyboard with the app, which will make tab navigation considerably easier.

Remote Music Instruction for People with Visual Impairments

If you're considering remote video lessons, here’s an excellent video describing one instructor’s process and method. Your lessons may be even easier to negotiate, since the video stream likely only needs to go one way. Google “guitar lessons via Skype or FaceTime” to get started, and be sure to ask if they have ever taught blind students, either remotely or in person.

Strife reports he has taught many blind students. He offers all of his course materials in accessible formats, and teaches both directly via Skype or FaceTime, or via back-and-forth recordings of lessons and assignments.

Beyond Music: More Accessible Hobbies

Perhaps you have no interest in strumming a guitar. If that’s the case, I hope you will still come away from this article with the sense that no matter what hobby piques your interest, there are likely accessible resources out there to support your interest.

Interested in fishing? Perhaps start out at the Blind Captain's Fishing page. The Blind Mice Mall offers a nice selection of braille cookbooks, and crocheting and knitting books and patterns. Miss hitting the slopes and think it’s no longer practical? Check out this YouTube video, or for a real thrill, this posting from the Blind Cook: Blind leap of faith: How the Blind skydive.

If card and board games are more your speed, you’re, shall we say, “still in the game.” Braille-marked playing cards can be found at Amazon.com and nearly every accessible products marketplace, as can magnetic chess and tactile checkers sets. Braille Scrabble and Braille and Low-Vision Monopoly are also available. You can even drive yourself crazy with a Rubik's Tactile Cube.

If you are interested in a braille version of a lesser known game, you may be able to find a kit to make it accessible using braille through 64 OZ games, which we have previously covered in AccessWorld Your favorite game not mentioned here? Simply do a web search for “braille” followed by the name of the game you wish to play. Or try (game name) plus “for the blind.”

Is it possible to resume your old hobby, or start a new one? You’ll never know unless you try.

This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.

Comment on this article.

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February 2020 Table of Contents

Deborah Kendrick

One of the most heart-wrenching misconceptions still all too present in our collective consciousness is the notion that loss of vision equates loss of independence. With tools, techniques, and a dose of imagination blended with persistence, there have always been solutions to performing ordinary tasks without the benefit of 20/20 vision. Today, in the year 2020, that is more true than it has ever been. What follows is a round-up of some favorite low-tech and no-tech solutions aimed at guiding older people losing vision down the path of continued independence. Most range in price from free to $100, and the few that cost more than that definitely warrant inclusion.

Communication Solutions for People with Low Vision

Reading your favorite newspaper or magazine, looking up a recipe or phone number, writing down your grocery list, or calling to make an appointment—all of these forms of communication are essential elements of an independent lifestyle. Traditionally they require vision, but there are alternative tools and techniques for all of them.

Staying On Top of Current Events

A few decades ago, people with visual impairments could not have dreamed of the abundant access to up-to-the-minute news information available to us today, whether we can read conventional print or not. The hardest part, in fact, may well be choosing which methods to use and not losing yourself in a 24/7 news immersion!

If you have a land line phone or mobile phone, NFB NEWSLINE is a free service offering access to over 500 publications, localized weather alerts, TV listings, job listings and more. You can read publications such as Time, The New Yorker, Family Circle, or your own local newspaper using only the keypad on your telephone. For the more technologically inclined, there are NFB NEWSLINE apps for smartphones as well, but you can read just as much with an old-fashioned landline phone. Read local and national news, editorials, feature articles, and breaking news headlines, find out what’s on sale in many retail stores, or what’s on TV tonight. You can adjust the pace and content just as you would when holding a printed publication.

Access is free for anyone who is blind, low vision, or otherwise has a print-related disability. Contact your regional network library of the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled or call NFB-NEWSLINE at 866-504-7300 to apply.

Speaking of telephones, for those who just don’t want to let go of the familiar land line phone but are struggling to see the buttons or hear the conversation, here’s a phone that addresses both. The Serene CL30 Cordless Phone ($79.95) has large buttons that announce when pressed, amplification on calls, and talking caller ID. Available from LS&S.

If you want a mobile phone with features like texting and email and some Internet access, but don’t want to learn to use a smooth touch screen, the BlindShell Talking Cell phone is a perfect blend of the simple cell phone and a more high-tech smartphone. You can dictate text message and emails, listen to books and music, hear who’s calling, and find out the weather or your own GPS location. Tactile buttons and voice input and output make this phone fun and easy for anyone to use. It has a headphone jack, SD card slot, and Bluetooth capability. $349 from A T Guys. You can also find a review of the Blind Shell in this issue of AccessWorld.

Voice Assistants

By now, most people know about the Amazon Echo (Alexa), Google Home (OK Google), and Apple Home Pod (Hey Siri) products and the many ways in which these voice-activated assistants can simplify daily tasks. You can buy most of these products for under $100 (often under $40) and can enjoy a myriad of useful and entertaining skills using only your voice. Find out the weather, the news, sports scores, TV listings, or book and movie reviews—all just for the asking. You can set timers and alarms, call your friends and family, play games, do calculations, request millions of songs, and much more. There’s a bit of finesse involved in phrasing your questions a particular way, but trial and error can be a great teacher. If you want more structured guidance, Mystic Access offers fun and entertaining audio tutorials for learning the various voice assistant products. You can purchase and download immediately or, if you aren’t comfortable with downloading, order a tutorial to be sent on USB flash drive or SD card. Visit Mystic Access for details. We have reviewed the Amazon Echo tutorial here.

Talking to Yourself

Communicating with yourself is a challenge when you can no longer read your own handwriting. You can use Alexa to remind you to do something or keep a list, but a much more convenient method is a personal recording device. The Micro-Speak talking digital voice recorder from A T Guys is a perfect no-frills, reliable device. Turn it on and immediately hear an onboard recorded user's guide. Six buttons, easily identified by sight or touch, make recording, pausing, and playing back messages a snap. Audible beeps confirm that the desired buttons have been pressed. Files are recorded in .wav format, but the device can play both .wav and mp3 files. Connect the device to a computer and it acts as a mass storage device, enabling you to store recordings you have made on your computer and load files from other sources onto the Micro-Speak. The rechargeable battery lasts up to 20 hours. A headphone jack allows for private listening. For those who also have hearing difficulties, the Micro-Speak has plenty of volume! Available for $59.95 from the A T Guys or call 269-216-4798.

Cooking and Kitchen Devices for Cooks with Low Vision

With or without normal vision, most seniors are happy to simplify their cooking styles. You want to eat tasty, healthy meals, but anything that makes it easier to prepare them independently is welcome.

With one or more of these accessible countertop appliances, you may never feel the need to fire up the stove again!

Instant Pot: When the Bluetooth-enabled Instant Pot was released a few years ago, blind and low vision cooks were delighted at the accessibility gained by pairing this device with a smart phone. The bad news is that the Bluetooth model is no longer available, but a wireless version is! If you have an Amazon Echo, your wireless Instant Pot can be controlled with help from the Echo. Just say, “Alexa, cook rice” or “Alexa, pressure cook 15 minutes” and your dinner starts cooking.

Amazon has also released a small microwave oven that is Alexa-controlled. Again, you need to have an Amazon Echo to enable the Alexa feature. The Amazon Basics Microwave ($60) has a 0.7 cubic feet chamber and operates at a lower 700 watts. To learn more, see the AccessWorld review.

Setting up either an Instant Pot or microwave with the Amazon Echo may require sighted assistance for the initial pairing. Once paired, however, Alexa will continue to “see" the other device, thus enabling you to set cook times and more without pressing buttons.

No Alexa, no problem. A number of kitchen products have built-in speech and tactile buttons. The Black & Decker Talking Toaster Oven ($339) can broil, bake, toast, or warm your food, enabling you to prepare everything from your breakfast bagel to afternoon pizza or a chocolate cake. The tactile buttons and clear male voice take all the guess work out of setting timers and choosing functions. Available from Blind Mice Megamall, 866-922-8877 and Maxi Aids, 800-522-6294). For more details, see the AccessWorld review of this toaster oven in this issue of AccessWorld.

Another product modified by Blind Mice Megamall is the Magic Chef Talking Microwave Oven ($329). Slightly larger and more powerful than the Amazon microwave, the 1,000-watt unit has a 1.1 cubic feet chamber. Its built-in speech enables you to time and cook food completely independently.

Several other kitchen products are available from Blind Mice Megamall, such as a Talking Cooking Thermometer ($29), for testing that the chicken really is cooked to desired temperature. This thermometer takes two AA batteries, and announces temperature in either Celsius or Fahrenheit. Visit Blind Mice Mega Mall online to order or browse.

Low Visions Solutions for Radio and TV

For those folks rooted in tradition who love listening to a favorite AM or FM radio station, the Sangean PR-D17 Talking Portable Radio ($83) is a sleek and unique entertainment tool. This baby boombox-style radio delivers amazingly powerful sound and is 100 percent accessible. Plug it in and it starts talking. It tells you it is powered on and that the current language is English.

All buttons are distinctly tactile. On the front, there are two rows of five buttons each, the top row for changing the mode from FM to AM to auxiliary, and buttons for setting alarm and sleep timer, checking the time, etc. The bottom row has the braille numbers 1 through 5 and are used for the 10 preset stations (five for AM and five for FM). As you turn the tuning knob, each click announces its frequency.

When a preset is recalled, the frequency of the station is announced. All functions are announced in a clear female voice, whose volume can be set separately from the volume of the radio itself. Operates on AC power or with six C batteries. available from Amazon and elsewhere. For more information, see the AccessWorld review of the radio, which is also in this issue.

If TV is more appealing to you than radio, the 32” Toshiba Fire TV ($129 at the time of this writing; usually $179) allows you to watch any of your favorite streaming services—Netflix, Disney Plus, Prime Video, etc. —and control everything with your voice. Press the Alexa button on the remote to tell the TV to play the next episode of “Bosch” or “Pick of the Litter” and wait for your show to load. Tell Alexa when you want to rewind, go forward, pause, play or change programs. This is the smallest and lowest priced in a line of talking Fire TVs. You can find our review of a Fire TV-equipped television here.

If, however, you already have a TV you love, but it’s difficult to operate the controls without sight, the All-New Fire TV Cube ($119) can turn any TV into a hands-free model. Tell Alexa to turn on the TV, and launch your favorite streaming service, cable channel, or specific program. You might say, “Alexa, play Season 3, episode 4 of The Crown” and just wait for the show to begin. When the TV is turned off, the Fire TV Cube can provide other information when asked, such as the time, weather, word definitions, synonyms, brief bio of your favorite celebrity, etc. in the style of other Echo products.

Low Vision Lighting

For those with some usable vision, sometimes having just the right light can make all the difference in managing the task at hand. This sleek, color-changing desk lamp allows you to adjust the color of light to suit the time of day and situation. Rotate the switch to adjust from warm light to natural, hyper white to incandescent yellow. $49.95, model 401119, from LS&S

What sort of lighting will be beneficial to you will depending on your sort of vision loss. The above desk lamp, with its color changing features, should allow most users to find a style of lighting helpful to them. In addition to the above, LS&S offers other lighting options. Many blindness product companies will have lighting options available, but it is worth highlighting the company Magnifying Aids. This company has a range of products specifically aimed at those with low vision including a large selection of lighting options. If you would like to learn about low vision lighting in more detail, see this page on VisionAware.

Back to Basics

Sometimes, the simplest solutions are the ones most needed and valued.

Adhesive dots (called Loc Dots or Bump Dots) come in a variety of forms,from tiny clear dots the size of a braille dot to large brightly colored foam bumps half the size of a pencil eraser. Use a variety of them to mark buttons on appliances, keys on computers, or buttons on a standard land line telephone. Locator dots are available from most of the companies mentioned in this article, as well as from the Independence Market of the National Federation of the Blind, (410-659-9314, or online)

While on the NFB website, be sure to take advantage of the free white cane offer. A long white cane, after all, is one of the most basic keys to unlock an independent lifestyle for anyone who is blind or low vision. If you still have vision sufficient for moving about in an unfamiliar environment, consider the long white cane as a tool for communicating to others that you don’t see well (thus avoiding impressions that you might be clumsy or clueless!)

Finally, the tools mentioned in this article are just the beginning, the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The best path to learning to live a full and independent life with low vision is often found in the company of others. If you can find peer groups—low vision support groups, rehabilitation training centers, and consumer organizations of blind and low vision people—your knowledge tips and techniques will grow.

This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.

Comment on this article.

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• Solutions For Seniors with Age-Related Vision Loss: Products under $100 by Deborah Kendrick, Aaron Preece

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February 2020 Table of Contents

Aaron Preece

As in past years, AccessWorld is here to bring you the latest from the Assistive Technology Industry Association Conference (ATIA). The conference was held from January 29-February 1 at the Caribe Royale Hotel and Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. There were fewer announcements than in years past, but some companies did announce updates or new products at this conference. We'll review these announcements and take a look at some of the blindness companies and technologies showcased at the conference that may be less familiar to AccessWorld readers.

This year, AccessWorld sponsored the Blind Bargains ATIA conference podcasts. Where available, these will be linked when discussing the findings from the exhibit floor.

HumanWare Buddy: A Free Educational Resource for Teachers.

Instead of the hardware releases announced at previous ATIA conferences, HumanWare unveiled a new app that aims to assist teachers in instructing their students in the use of HumanWare products. Based on feedback from teachers, HumanWare has discovered that many Teachers of the Visually Impaired (TVI) have so many demands on their time that it's difficult to learn about new products sufficiently in order to demonstrate them to students or assist students with specific features.

The app will take specific device tasks and break them down into steps to make them easy to learn quickly. When the user selects the "How To" item in the app, they will be presented with a list of product categories such as Braille Displays or Video Magnifiers. When viewing products, in addition to the product name, a picture of the device is also displayed in case the user does not know the exact model used by their student.

It is possible to scroll through a list of tasks, but a user also can search for a specific task for the given device. HumanWare has also made it possible for a user to mark specific tasks as favorites. This is intended to make it easy for a user to learn a task beforehand, but then also have the guide easily available for reference when working with a student or client. It's also possible to mark a task as complete once the task has been taught to the student or client.

The app will be available for both iOS and Android free of charge. At the time of this writing, the app was in the Apple App Store review process, so may be available by the time of the publication of this article at the earliest. When asked how educators will be made aware of this new offering, HumanWare noted that methods for bringing the widest awareness to the app as possible were still being formulated.

HIMS: The Braille Sense Polaris Sees a Major Update

In addition to a recent update for the HIMS QBraille, a 40-cell braille display that includes QWERTY-like function keys, HIMS announced a significant update to their BrailleSense Polaris. The QBraille update, announced prior to the conference, includes the addition of mass storage mode, the ability to activate sticky keys as you can on a Windows computer, and the ability to change the function keys from a Windows layout to an Apple layout.

The Polaris update contains several new additions that should significantly improve productivity for users. The new update brings greater integration between Google Drive and the operating system. This means that it is possible to save a file directly to your Drive and also copy files between Drive and the system itself. Through its math editor, the Polaris supports graphing in braille. In addition, as a user constructs a graph while connected to a display or sharing their screen, sighted individuals can see the graph being constructed in real time and in color. It is also now possible to link an exchange email account on the Polaris. In simple terms, exchange mail is any mail account that uses Microsoft's email servers including offices and many universities. This capability could make the Polaris much more viable for many in university or the workforce.

For more information on HIMS offerings at ATIA, listen to this Blind Bargains podcast..

Westminster Technologies: An Introduction and the WeWALK Smart Cane

Westminster Technologies is a company AccessWorld readers may be unaware of. The company is a reseller for many different assistive technologies, including those for people with low vision or blindness. In addition to selling products, the company also provides training and consulting. At ATIA, the company displayed a range of assistive technologies. Two of interest to those with blindness or low vision were the Sunu Band and the WeWALK Smart Cane. The Sunu band is a smart watch for people with visual impairments that contains a navigation component. The watch includes a sensor that aims to detect obstacles in front of you up to 15 feet away. The watch also uses haptics to provide other traditional watch functions and a companion app can be used to adjust settings and update the Sunu Band firmware. The product retails for $299.

The WeWALK is a new player in the navigational aid arena. The device covers the grip of a standard white cane and provides several features for navigation. The cane has an ultrasonic sensor that aims to detect obstacles at chest height and higher in front of you. When you hold the cane, the sensor faces in front of you at an angle and will vibrate when it detects an obstacle. The device also can be paired with a smartphone to allow access to navigation features on a built-in screen on the WeWALK device. In addition, the device is integrated with Google Maps and Google Assistant. I had a brief chance to test the basic features of the cane and found it easier than expected to hold and use with the attachment covering the grip. The weight and balance were different from a traditional cane because of the attachment, but it seemed that it would be fairly simple to become accustomed to the changes with a bit of practice. The WeWALK currently retails for $499.

BlindShell Classic Available in the United States

The BlindShell Classic is a simpler candy bar-style phone that is completely accessible to those with visual impairments. The phone has highly tactile buttons and has speech output and magnification features for people with vision loss. In addition to phone basics such as contacts, a call log, and text messages; the phone also has some advanced features such as a book reader, color identifier, and Internet radio. Even with these advanced features, the phone has been designed so that it is easy to learn and use. The BlindShell Classic retails for $399 and can either be purchased from the BlindShell or from A T Guys for $349. You can also find a full review of this device in this issue of AccessWorld.

Dolphin: Dolphin Guide Connect and SuperNova Updates

You may remember Dolphin Guide, a simplified interface for interacting with a computer for people with visual impairments from Dolphin. Dolphin has now released Guide Connect, a revamped and updated version of the software. Instead of using a keyboard, you now can use the Guide Connect Remote for all commands, making it easier to learn and use for someone new to computer technology. The software provides access to common computer tasks including email, word processing, and a Web browser. The remote also supports voice commands and dictation, so that you can use your voice in many areas where you would normally need a keyboard. The software also includes a book reader with native access to various accessible libraries including the National Library Service's BARD, Bookshare, and NFB Newsline.

Even though the interface is simplified, it's still possible to perform more advanced tasks easily. For example, it's possible to set a favorite quickly using the "Action" button on the Guide Remote. The program also interfaces with your Google account, allowing access to contacts and the Google Calendar. The software itself retails for $895 in the United States. There are packages available on the Dolphin website that provide Guide Connect installed on various devices from a TV compatible microcomputer, to a desktop computer with various monitor sizes. It seems that these packages may only be available in the UK at present, but you can contact Dolphin for further details. If you are only interested in reading books from various accessible libraries, the Guide Reader is a similar device intended for streaming books from various accessible libraries on a computer or on a TV.

If you are unfamiliar with the software, SuperNova is Dolphin's suite of a screen reader and magnifier. Version 19 has recently been released, bringing several new features. Historically, SuperNova had difficulties smoothing fonts when using Google Chrome due to some security features of the browser. Now, the company has found a workaround called Bold Text. This feature allows you to make text bold for greater visibility and will also recognize when text is already in bold. The ability to sharpen text and add increased contrast should also aid in legibility. If a user uses SuperNova to scan hardcopy print, they can now append pages to scanned documents to make reading quicker and create a multi-page document. Dolphin provides a full feature list online.

Learn more about Dolphin in this Blind Bargains podcast.

Angel Eyes: Two Head-Mounted Devices for Navigation and Recognition.

The company Next VPU has created two head-mounted devices called the AngelEye Reader and AngelEye Smart Glasses.

The AngelEye reader allows a user to take an image of text and have it read aloud using OCR technology. The user hears the text through a speaker on the arm of the glasses. The device can also guide the user to be sure the document is centered to assist in a more accurate capture.

The smart glasses provide navigation assistance for people with vision loss. In addition to detecting upcoming obstacles, the glasses also attempt to recognize what sort of obstacle has been detected, such as a door or stairs. Again, speakers on the arms of the glasses relay the information to the user. A power cable extends from the back of one of the arms of the glasses and connects to a power supply. The developer is still seeking a United States distributor. Based on the prices in Europe, the reader is estimated to cost around $2,500; no price was provided for the smart glasses.

Patriot: Updates to Patriot Pro and Patriot Viewpoint

Many of the Patriot line of magnifiers provide a desktop video magnifier that uses an iPad or Android tablet as the hardware. Recently, the Patriot Pro, the iPad powered magnifier, has seen several updates and bug fixes. Now, the custom patriot software is not in conflict with Apple VoiceOver. For example, in the past if you used OCR to capture text, both the Patriot software and VoiceOver would attempt to read the document. With the latest update this is no longer the case. It's now also possible to pair the patriot Pro with a wireless external camera for distance viewing. Being wireless, the camera can also be moved and placed away from the user and the Patriot Pro. As an example, a student could place the camera on the teacher's desk to better see the whiteboard, while viewing what is being seen by the camera at their desk with the Pro.

The Patriot Viewpoint is a head-mounted video magnifier that uses existing virtual reality technology with custom software. In addition to traditional video magnifier features such as magnification and color filtering, the Viewpoint also can capture images and recognize them with built in OCR software. New to the Viewpoint is an "Edge Mode," which aims to increase contrast for low vision users. It was described to me by someone with low vision as if everything being viewed was a sketch, outlines of people or objects without color. For more information on the range of patriot products, see the Magnifying America website.

If you would like to learn more about Patriot offerings, see this podcast.

IrisVision: Voice Commands and Included Alexa

We have previously mentioned the IrisVision head-mounted magnifier, which is another head-mounted video magnifier using mainstream virtual reality technology. The device is constantly being updated with fixes and new features. Recently, a feature was added that aims to make it easier for those with retinitis pigmentosa to see images. The feature simulates the act of moving what is being viewed away from the user in order to facilitate the viewer viewing the image with the best parts of their vision. More recently, the device has been equipped with voice commands for its various features. With the voice commands also comes access to Amazon's Alexa service. Recently, IrisVision announced a partnership with Samsung, the manufacturer of the hardware that the IrisVision uses. For more information on this development, see this month’s AccessWorld News.

American Printing House for the Blind and HumanWare Partner for New Braille Displays

The American Printing House for the Blind (APH) has partnered with HumanWare to bring two new braille displaysto the market. The Chameleon 20 is a 20-cell braille display that is intended for classroom use. In addition to several color choices, students can complete assignments in braille using the display, and send their work to an instructor in print. It will also be possible to edit traditional text formats, such as DOCX and TXT, on the device itself. The display will also be able to access downloadable content from sources such as Bookshare. The other features announced include those common to modern displays including multiple host devices and various applications built into the display including a file manager and calculator.

The Mantis Q40 is a 40-cell braille display but instead of a traditional braille keyboard, the device includes a traditional QWERTY style keyboard. The keyboard on the device looks similar to that of a laptop and from my brief experience with the device, the keyboard was very usable and comfortable. The device will have similar features to the Chameleon 20, with the added ability to switch from QWERTY input to braille input. Even with the QWERTY keyboard, the device is still relatively compact and light; it reminded me of a very small QWERTY Pac-Mate from yesteryear.

The Bottom Line

Compared to 5 years ago, far fewer blindness technologies were exhibited at ATIA 2020. Increasingly, the exhibit hall plays host to technologies for other disabilities, including physical disabilities and autism. That being said, all of the major players still maintain booths at ATIA and are still using it as a platform to announce product updates. Mainstream technology companies including Sprint, Microsoft, and Google also attend the conference and demonstrate their wide range of accessibility features.

This year, the ATIA announced that the conference venue will be moving from the Caribe Royale to the nearby Orlando World Center Marriott. If you would like to attend an assistive technology conference and funding is a concern, remember that access to the exhibit hall is free. In addition, you may be able to volunteer in some capacity for a reduced rate on conference registration. For example, sighted individuals can volunteer as a sighted guide for the conference for a reduced rate.

Conference season is in full swing, so stay tuned to AccessWorld for the latest updates.

This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.

Comment on this article

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February 2020 Table of Contents

Steve Kelley

Some of us have been looking for alternatives to desktop video magnifiers for years. They can be expensive, take up a lot of room on your desk, and most models aren’t very portable. Many of us have different tricks we’ve tried with our tablets, phones, Web cameras, and computers to cobble together a video magnifier that is cheaper, more portable, or more flexible, with somewhat limited success.

Without targeting the low vision video magnifier market per se, a document camera manufacturer, IPEVO has developed a model, the VZ-X, that looks like it was developed specifically for use as a low vision device! Imagine for a moment a stand-mounted camera that weighs less than 3 pounds, can connect to virtually any display, and has many of the controls you’d expect to find on a video magnifier built right into the stand.

The VZ-X Stand

The VZ-X is a stand-mounted camera that can connect to an HD monitor, computer, tablet, or phone, using a USB cable (provided), HDMI cable (not provided), or WiFi. Several features immediately stand out about the design of the stand. The stand weighs about 2.6 pounds, and much of the weight is in the circular base. The base is about 4.5 inches across and holds a battery which will power the unit for 9 hours. Because of the weighted base, this stand sits solidly on the desk—no tipping.

The stand is 12.7 inches tall and has an arm that folds out and up with a camera on the end. Everything about the stand feels solid and durable. The camera housing is also jointed so it folds up and down and left to right. The flexibility of the camera makes it very versatile for tasks other than document viewing.

The VZ-X camera is an 8-megapixel HD camera that can also be used for capturing video as well, with a resolution of 3264 x 2448 when connected to the USB cable. The images from the camera are sharp, focus quickly in autofocus, and there is minimal lag time when moving printed text beneath the camera.

Controlling the VZ-X

One of the really unique features of the VZ-X is that at its most basic, it can be plugged into an HD monitor or TV using an HDMI cable, turned on, and used with just the controls on the camera arm. IPEVO offers free downloadable software called Visualizer, available for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android, which has additional features, but is not necessary to use the camera.

Nearly all of the basic controls are on the lower arm of the stand, as well as USB and HDMI input. The controls are labeled in high contrast white-on-blue, but in small print. The buttons, however, are each slightly different to the touch, so between their location on the arm and the feel of the button, after a short period of time it's easy to find the right button for the control you want.

Starting at the bottom and going up the stand, users will find the following controls:

• Power button clicks up and down.
• Focus/Auto Focus button is slightly elevated. By default, the focus is set to continuous automatic. A single press of the button will refocus the camera, and a longer press will unlock the continuous auto focus.
• Exp- will decrease the exposure if the image appears too bright.
• Exp+ will increase the exposure if the image appears too dark. (Note that these exposure settings can make a significant difference in image contrast and quality).
• Zoom Out designated with a recessed button. Each push of the button decreases the magnification of the image.
• Zoom In designated with an elevated button. Each push of the button increases the magnification of the image.
• Rotate by 90 degrees with each press of the button.
• Filter, often called the “Mode” on video magnifiers, which changes the foreground and background setting. For example, the image of black text on white paper might be filtered so that the text is white on a black background. (Note that when used with the Visualizer software there are more filter options than those available when using just the hardware controls connected to an HD monitor or TV).
• Light button turns on an LED light in the camera housing.
• Above the light button is an LED indicator light that appears green when the unit is powered on, amber when connected by WiFi, and white when in use and an image is being provided.
• Above the LED light is a small microphone that can be used for other Web camera functions.
• Opposite these controls, on the other side of the stand, are the HDMI and micro-USB inputs, a frequency toggle from 50 Hz to 60 Hz (60 Hz is what is commonly used in the U.S), and a toggle for the input mode, WiFi or USB/HDMI.
• There are two additional controls found on the base of the stand, an Action button and battery indicator button. The Action button works with the visualizer software when connected by WiFi or USB. When connected to an iPad running Visualizer, for example, this will take a picture of the image. When the battery indicator button is pressed, as many as 5 LED indicator lights will shine to indicate remaining battery level.

VZ-X on HDTV or HD Monitor

The simplest way to use the VZ-X is to connect it to an HDTV or HD Monitor using an HDMI cable you’ll need to purchase separately. Use the TV menu to change to HDMI input, connect the VZ-X to the monitor, and turn both on. Place an object or printed text beneath the camera, and it will be projected on the monitor. Use the camera arm to raise and lower the camera on the document or object you’re looking at, and the zoom buttons to get it to a magnification level you want. Cycle through the filters by pressing the filter button to find the right one for you. Be sure to experiment with the exposure buttons to adjust the brightness of the image.

VZ-X Stand Filters

One of the most useful features on the VZ-X, in addition to the screen magnification using the Zoom buttons, is the filter option for images on the screen. Like a standard video magnifier, for many users this may make reading easier by changing the foreground and background colors to eliminate glare and increase contrast. The VZ-X offers several filters to choose from, just using the button on the stand. By default, the initial filter is full color filter when it first comes on, and pressing the filter button will cycle through the following filters:

• inverted color
• yellow foreground on black background (so printed text will appear as yellow text on a black background)
• black and white
• white foreground on a black background
• black foreground on a yellow background
• return to the full color mode

When the VZ-X is connected to a computer, tablet, or phone running the Visualizer software, there are additional filter options through the software. For example, the software contains a filter that changes black text on a white background into red text on a black background.

VZ-X Connected to USB or WiFi

The VZ-X camera will connect to a computer using the USB cable provided or WiFi. Tablets and smartphone connection is primarily WiFi. To connect by WiFi, power on the camera and make sure the input mode button is toggled to WiFi. The camera will then appear in the WiFi options on your device as an open source. During this review, the VZ-X connected quickly to both a Windows PC and iOS iPad.

When connected to the Windows 10 computer, the VZ-X worked with other software, like the Windows Camera App, Office Lens, and even ZoomText. In these apps, the VZ-X worked with the software controls available in the various software applications and the hardware controls on the stand. For example, in the Windows Camera App, there are no software controls for magnification or color filters, but both could be used from the VZ-X’s buttons. With ZoomText, the camera image responded to the built-in ZoomText commands of up and down keyboard arrows to increase and decrease magnification, as well as the VZ-X’s buttons. Just using the Windows Camera app, it was clear how useful this might be for taking notes from a printed document. The magnified camera image of the text could be open in one window while the word processor was open in another, with the user tabbing between the two, without the need for a second monitor, as you might have with a more conventional desktop magnifier setup.

IPEVO Visualizer Software

To take full advantage of all the features of the VZ-X when connected to a computer, tablet, or phone, IPEVO offers a free application, called Visualizer, available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.

The Visualizer software is full of features that are useful for low vision video magnification as well as document capture and presentation. Most notable among these features for the low vision user are the Zoom and Filter options that appear on the left as a sidebar menu. With the Zoom button, you can more precisely designate a specific magnification power from 1X-12X. It’s worth noting here that each time the hardware button on the stand is depressed for Zoom In or Zoom Out, it also increases or decreases magnification by 1X, to a maximum of 12X.

As mentioned earlier, the filter options in the Visualizer software are greater than those available through the hardware buttons on the stand. The Filter software button includes 12 modes:

• no filter (full color)
• inverted color
• black and white
• inverted black and white
• grayscale
• sepia
• white on blue
• yellow on blue
• red on black
• sketch
• outline

Both “sketch” and “outline” appear more as filters that might be used during presentations. Another great feature available on the Mac and Windows version of the Visualizer software is the Masking feature in the Reading Aids. This opens from the icon shaped like a book in the bottom right of the application window. With masking a translucent line can be used to highlight text in a line across the page or all text can be covered on the page except for a line or two. This can be a very helpful feature for some readers that is not always found on more standard video magnifiers.

The Visualizer software also will capture both photo and video images, freeze an image, and add display features like a vertical or horizontal line, or a grid pattern, which may be very helpful for reading on the display. For reading, one of the interesting features observed on the iPad Visualizer was that when the image was magnified, dragging a finger across the screen would move you to other parts of the image. So, the camera could be positioned to include a page or column within the window. The image can be magnified using either the zoom control on the stand or within the software, and then dragging a finger across the iPad screen acted nearly as efficiently as using a standard XY table on a desktop video magnifier to reposition the magnified document.

Text-to-Speech on the VZ-X

Text-to-speech (TTS) is built into the Visualizer software. Take a picture of the document, select the image in the bottom left corner of the application and the image opens with several menu options in the top right corner including TTS. Select the TTS icon (a megaphone over document) and the image opens on the left side of a split screen, with the converted text on the right side, after processing. Press the play button to hear the text read out loud. Text recognition was quite accurate, and processing took only a second or two.

TTS is also available with other applications, using the VZ-X as the camera. In Office Lens, for example, the text recognition was very accurate when converting a page of serif type from an older printed book.

VZ-X Accessibility

After reading above that the VZ-X buttons are also differentiated with tactile differences, it will come as no surprise to learn that the Visualizer software, at least the version for iOS, worked very well with VoiceOver. One menu button was labeled as “button,” but all the others used during the testing were labeled correctly. Available on the IPEVO website are “Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates” for both the camera and Visualizer software. These are located beneath the Support tab and were assessed by third party vendor, Accessibility Partners, LLC. Both reports demonstrated how hardware and software stacked up to the various accessibility and usability standards. Bravo! Wouldn’t it be great if more manufacturers did this?

VZ-X vs. Desktop Video Magnifier

At $299 retail, the IPEVO VZ-X costs less than most handheld video magnifiers, and far less than standard desktop models. When connected to an HD monitor or HDTV, it has many of the standard features for magnification and color modes you’d expect on a video magnifier. The one notable exception being that you will find some desktop video magnifiers offer screen magnification as much as 70X, while the VZ-X offers a maximum of only 12X.

If most of your reading is from printed book or magazines, you may really miss the XY table that many desktop units come with, but the total flexibility offered with the VZ-X, in terms of the devices it can be used with and the portability, might outweigh that missing feature. The IPEVO VZ-X wasn’t designed as an alternative for a low vision video magnifier, but it packs enough features into both the hardware and software that it really is worth taking a look at if you’re looking for video magnification solutions. The bottom line is that the IPEVO VZ-X is a well-designed, sturdy document scanner with more than enough features to make it a serious contender in the low vision market, at a very reasonable price.

Product Information

Product: VZ-X Wireless, HDMI & USB 8MP Document Camera

Manufacturer: IPEVO

Price: $299

This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.

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February 2020 Table of Contents

Steve Kelley

Imagine for a moment a cell phone that combined the best features of a smartphone with the best features of a flip phone. You know, a dial pad you can actually feel, with widely spaced buttons, and, for those of us with low vision, bold, large print numbers. How about some serious large print on the display for text and menu items? And text-to-speech everywhere, without having to drill down through the settings to find it? While we’re creating this wish list, let’s add a user guide that’s built right in, so you don’t have to first complete a tutorial on using the Web to find and read the user guide on some remote website…now we’re really dreaming big here aren’t we?

Not at all! Such a phone arrived from Europe mid-November 2019. It's called BlindShell Classic, and currently works with GSM network providers like T-Mobile andAT&T.

One of the things you’ll notice very quickly about this phone is that it functions like it was built from the ground up with user accessibility in mind, not as a feature that was bolted on as an afterthought. When you unbox the phone, install the battery, and long press the Back button, the phone starts with text-to-speech and an interactive tutorial. The tutorial is quick and gives new users the opportunity to learn what each button on the phone does. While exploring the phone, you’ll discover that out of the box, the BlindShell offers 4 female voices and 3 male voices in the Settings > Sounds > Voice Output menus. In addition to 10 voices, there are 4 levels of speech intonation and 5 levels of voice rates, to make speech output very customizable.

Physical Dimensions and Orientation

The phone is 5.3 by 2.3 by 0.5 inches and is what some might call a “candy-bar style” phone, with the keypad beneath the 2.8 inch color screen. Centered above the screen you will find the speaker. The keyboard is a very standard layout of 4 rows of 3 numbers, with 5 keys above the number pad. In the center of these keysis a square directional pad that contains 5 button functions—center, left, right, up and down. To each side of the center directional square are two buttons, one above the other. On the left, the top button is Volume Down with a short press, and Voice Control and Dictation using a long press. Beneath that is the Confirm button, also used for answering a call. To the right, the top button is Volume Up with a short press, and Voice Control and Dictation with a long press. Below this is the Back button, which navigates back through menu levels, or deletes a text entry with a short press. If the phone is turned off, a long press on the Back button will turn the phone on. When the phone is on, a long press of the Back button will navigate right to the Call menu.

The back of the phone contains a 2-megapixel camera with a flashlight, a speaker grill and a tactile button that is a speed dial button, called Emergency/S.O.S., that can be associated with a contact for quick use in an emergency. At the top edge of the phone is a standard micro USB input for charging and file transfer and a headphone jack. On the bottom edge you'll find the microphone and charging port for use with the included charging cradle.

Calling Made Simple

Although the BlindShell offers a range of functions, at its most basic the device can quickly make calls using either the dial pad or voice control. At virtually anywhere on the menu, a long press on either the top left Volume Down button or the top right Volume Up button will get the Voice Control prompt, “I listen after a beep.” After the beep, you might say, “Call xxx-xxx-xxxx,” or “Call [a name listed in contacts].” A second or two later, the phone says “Dialing,” or requires a press of the Confirm button to start the call. It's that simple! Of course, pressing Confirm on the Call menu and dialing the number on the spacious dial pad is also an option.

With a list price of $349 from A T Guys or LS&S, it’s certainly good news to know that placing a call with the BlindShell Classic is easy enough, but what about other functions? The BlindShell includes features you might expect, like email, messaging, alarms, and a calendar, to name a few. It also has some really innovative features built in, like Internet radio and FM radio in the More Applications > Media menu, Weather in the More Applications > Tools menu, and GPS Localization, Object Tagging, and Color Indicator, all in the More Applications > Vision Aids menu.

The BlindShell Menu

Before digging deeper into a couple of these applications, let’s explore the navigation on the BlindShell. Using the Center Left and Center Right buttons will move you through the top level menu items:

• Call
• Messages
• Contacts
• More Aplications
• Settings
• Status Information
• Manual
• Notifications
• Turn Off the Phone

Each menu item is numbered, and when it is read, you hear both its number and the number of menu items in that level. So, for example, the second item in the main menu is Messages. When we get to the Messages menu item we hear, “Messages, two of nine.” As a shortucut, to jump to any menu item,simply press its number. So, pressing 2 when you're on the main menu will open the Messages menu item.

You can also select a menu item by pressing the Confirm button or the Center button. Doing so will open the submenu for that item. Like the main menu, once in a submenu, the Left Center and Right Center buttons move through the menu items. Continuing to press either button will move through the menu again continuously. When in a submenu, the Back button will move back up a menu level. So, in the submenu for Messages, the Right Center and Left Center buttons will move through the six Messages submenu items, and pressing the Back button will return navigation to the main menu item, Messages.

While this menu structure is linear, it did take some practice to use, because many menu items had multiple submenus. Again, a long press of the Back button returns focus to Call in the main menu. A long press on either the Volume Up or Volume Down button will open the Voice Control where you can say, “Open…” followed by whatever menu item you'd like to open.

For new users, a great place to begin is with the Manual from the main menu. The Manual menu contains the Interactive Tutorial which the phone automatically begins the first time it is turned on, and other menu items including User Guide, Getting Started, Operating the Phone, Safety Information, and more. Navigating through these menu items and their submenus will give you plenty of practice with menu navigation along with comprehensive information about all the features of the phone and the many included applications. BlindShell Functions (menu item 4), provides detailed information about the many applications.

Two Cents About Text Size

One observation here about the large print text on the display. In Settings > Display > Text Size > there are only two settings, Normal Text Size and Huge Text Size. With Huge Text Size selected, the text on menu items was approximately the size of newsprint headlines. When opening a screen full of text in the manual, the text size remained bold, but smaller. Of course, all the text on the screen was read as soon as it opened, but there was no way to magnify the text. As far as the option of Huge Text Size, I wondered, “Huge” compared to what? “Larger Text,” or “Largest Text,” might be a more accurate label here.

BlindShell Functions

For many users, having a tactile number pad and navigational buttons will make this phone easier to use than a conventional touchscreen smartphone, with perhaps one notable exception: the need to type in text using the number pad, a skill many of us have forgotten or never learned in the first place. This issue aside, BlindShell offers a great deal of functionality. In the More Applications menu, you'll find a range of applications that make the BlindShell every bit as useful as a touchscreen smartphone. In addition to common applications like Email, Messaging, Calendar, Alarms, Timer, Stopwatch, Voice Recorder, Calculator, Weather, and Dictionary, there are several applications in the More Applications > Vision Aids menu that are worth mentioning. The Color Indicator is a handy color identifier. Hold the camera over an item and press the Confirm button to hear the color described. It seemed the accuracy of the Color Indicator was about 50%, probably due to the limitations of the 2-megapixel camera. For the casual user, having this application built into the phone is a convenient feature, but if you need more accurate results, a separate, stand-alone color identifier is a better choice.

The Localization application is a very simple GPS application that will give you the nearest address. Select Localization from the menu and the phone responds, “Loading.” A moment later the nearest address is provided. Using the Localization application indoors yielded poor results beginning with the notice, “Warning the obtained results may be inaccurate. For better results try again in an open outdoor area.” Once outside, the results were indeed more accurate and useful.

The last Vision Aid item is Object Tagging. This application works with QR codes printed on adhesive sheets available for purchase from the BlindShell retailer. Peel off one of the codes, which is about a half-inch square, stick it on the object to be labeled, and record an associated voice label. The voice label will be read each time you open the application, select Read Tags, and scan the code. This is a really handy application to have installed on the phone, and very simple to use. Tags can be edited and reused for different items.

Kudos on Voice Control Dictation

One of the really outstanding features of the BlindShell Classic is the accuracy and performance of the dictation function, both on WiFi and cellular data at 4G. With nearly 100-percent accuracy, the correct menu items were opened by using a long press of the left or right Voice Control buttons and speaking the selection. Anywhere an edit field was available—for contacts, in a calendar entry, for dialing the phone—voice dictation worked very well. In addition, in the Note application, using WiFi, dictation was very accurate, responded to commands such as, “new paragraph,” and accepted relatively long dictations.

More Functions

Another function worth highlighting is the Internet Radio, found in the More Applications > Media menu. Internet Radio submenus included Popular Stations, Categories, Search, Favorites, and more. Although the Categories menu contained a total of 96 categories, including all types of music genres, sports radio, talk radio, etc., it was a bit disappointing not to find a category and listing for radio reading services.

Also in the More Applications > Media submenu are Book Reader and Camera. The Book Reader application is somewhat limited because it doesn’t support Bookshare directly. Text files may be transferred using a USB cable quite easily. It was easy to download a title from Project Gutenberg then transfer and play it using the Book Reader. The Book Reader will set bookmarks and resume reading from where you left off. Also, any book or podcast available as an MP3 file can be transferred to the Music Player directory, and played with the Music Player located in the More Applications > Media submenu.

The camera on the BlindShell Classic is simply not one of its strong points. It is a 2 megapixel camera, and images may be saved, viewed, and transferred using a USB cable. There is no way to use the camera as a magnifier or to zoom in on pictures.

The BlindShell Classic comes with 4 GB of internal storage so there is plenty of room for music, podcasts, and books. The micro SD slot will hold up to an additional 32GBof storage if you need more.

Display Options

As mentioned earlier, text-to-speech is activated at start-up and can be controlled using the Volume Up or Down buttons. If you have some usable vision, there are several settings in the Settings > Display submenu that can enhance the display, including: Brightness; Color Scheme; and Main Menu Style, in addition to the Text Size mentioned earlier. The menu style offers the options of Only Text, Icons Only, or Icons and Text. If you have opted for huge text, these menu items are bold and fill the screen. Alternative color schemes include: White on Black; Black on White; White on Blue; and Black on Yellow, with bold text and good contrast. The Screen Brightness menu contains 6 levels of brightness and the ability to fully dim the screen so it shows nothing.

The BlindShell Classic has been available in Europe for several years and is only now coming to the US The phone is a great option for those looking for a completely accessible phone with tactile number pad and buttons and a consistent, easy to use menu system. Overall accessibility and usability are excellent on the BlindShell Classic. If you're looking for an excellent feature phone without a touchscreen, the BlindShell is a great option.

Product Information

Product: BlindShell Classic

Manufacturer: BlindShell

Price: $399 (from manufacturer) $349 (from A T Guys and LS&S

This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.

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February 2020 Table of Contents

Bill Holton

If you’re a regular reader of AccessWorld, you probably enjoyed Janet Ingber’s excellent review of the Affordable AmazonBasics Microwave in the December 2019 issue. You may also be familiar with the Talking Microwave available from MaxiAids.com. Microwaves are great, but there are times when what you really want is good old fashion heat. —I'm not a fan of pizza reheated in the microwave. I’d much rather wait while my morning-after slice reheats in the oven. (Tip: Don’t refrigerate that leftover pie—freeze it. Reheat it in the oven and it will come out crisp instead of chewy.)

Perhaps you are cooking for one, and use your microwave more than you’d like because you don't want to taket the time or waste the energy it takes to heat up your conventional oven just to bake a single chicken pot pie, or broil a 6-oz rib eye. With failing vision, perhaps your current oven has become so inaccessible it’s just not worth the effort.

The new Talking Black+Decker Toaster Oven just might be the answer.

Included in The Box

The test unit I received from MaxiAids arrived triple-boxed. Along with the countertop toaster oven itself there was an audio DVD with a recorded manual. Digital text instructions are also available.

Accessories include two mesh oven racks, one baking/broiler tray, and a flat cookie sheet/crumb tray. The final accessory is a pronged rack puller. Picture a wide, two prong fork with a handle at one end and two hooked tines. The tines are designed to grab the tray or rack so it can be removed without reaching in with your hand. For me, using this tool resulted in a lot of needless fumbling. Using a cooking mitt was much more convenient and safer.

Using the Talking Toaster Oven

The Talking Toaster Oven is a custom-modified Black+Decker TO4314SSD Convection Toaster Oven. It draws 10 amps with 1,200 watts of cooking power. Weighing in at 18 pounds, it has a fairly large footprint, measuring 18 inches wide by 12 inches high (including feet), and approximately 18 inches from handle to the rear convection fan unit. The interior cooking chamber is a spacious 12 inches by 12 inches by 8 inches--easily large enough to roast a small chicken or bake a fresh or frozen 12-inch pizza.

To make the Talking Oven voice-responsive, the original touch pad has been removed and replaced with a customized control unit featuring an intelligible male voice and eight volume settings.

The new panel includes five rows of two accessible embossed buttons, ten buttons in total. Each row has a function. The left button cycles up through the various options, the right button cycles down. The new setting is voiced. Quick successive presses do not advance the settings, but holding the buttons down causes them to advance slowly enough thatyou can easily stop at your desired setting.

Row 1, Cooking Mode: Use this row to select which mode you wish to use: toast, bake, broil, warm, or timer. The default startup option is toast; press either the left or right top buttons to toggle through the choices.

Row 2, Temperature: Cycle through a number of temperature settings, depending on the selected mode. For example, you can bake at temperatures ranging from 200 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. There are no Celsius settings. Warming temperatures run from 125-175 degrees. Each setting begins at the lowest temperature. Pressing the right button jumps immediately to the highest and descends from there. Timer mode is not a cooking setting so does not offer temperature settings

Row 3, Cook Times: You cannot run the oven indefinitely, so you won’t have to worry about accidently forgetting you’ve left the oven on.. The maximum cook time is four hours.

Row 5, Start/Stop: The left button starts the cook or timer cycle. The right button stops it. If you open the oven door to check on the food while its cooking, the timer continues to count down. If you want to pause the timer, press the Stop button one time. Press the Start button to restart the timer. If you wish to power down the unit midway through the cook cycle press the right button twice. The oven will audibly confirm it has shut down.

Row 5, Volume Control: There are eight volume settings.The lowest is whisper quiet, but does not turn off voice feedback.

Pressing the Start button during operation will prompt the oven to report time remaining. The unit will announce when it has reached the proper temperature, ding when the timer reaches zero, and then repeat the ding a few minutes later as a reminder if the door has not been opened.

The Talking Black+Decker Toaster Oven features convection oven capabilities. In this mode, the oven fan circulates hot air through the cooking chamber, cooking food faster and crispier. Various cooking resources advise setting the temperature 25 degrees lower than usual and reducting the coking time by up to 25 percent when using the convection mode.

Toggle convection heating on and off by pressing and holding down the Start button for seven seconds. The unit will report the new setting.

Let’s Get Cooking!

I found the oven easy to set and operate even without reading the documentation. You do have to set everything in order. For example, if you set the cook time before you select the cook mode the timer will reset to its default Toast setting. Happily, the order runs in the direction of the buttons. Mode, then temperature, then time, and then start.

The oven does not make accommodations for preheating. When I baked a stuffed chicken breast and set the mode, temperature, and time, it took the oven three or four minutes to reach the set temperature. The oven announced having reached the temperature, but my timer was then off by three or four minutes. Once the oven is running, you can't change temperature or time without stopping the unit’s operation and resetting. It took the oven approximately 4 minutes to reach 450 degrees, so I started adding the extra time to future sessions.

The oven does not come with a cooking guide that tells you, for example, how long it takes to bake a potato, butI did find an excellent online resource:, Everything You Need to Know about Convection Toaster Ovens.

Surprisingly, there is no specific toast setting for light, medium, or dark. The temperature and time need to be set instead, which may require a bit of experimentation. I set the oven to 450 degrees and five minutes, but after only four minutes the toast was evenly browned on both sides. And yes, the oven had enough room to bake that 12-inch frozen pizza, both the round pie and the square one.

Product Information

Product: The Black+Decker Talking Toaster Oven

Available from: Maxiaids

Price: $349, plus $15 shipping

This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.

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February 2020 Table of Contents

Deborah Kendrick

There are more ways to access your favorite news and entertainment sources today than you can count, but some of us, perhaps especially baby boomers who grew up with Motown and top- 40 broadcasts, still have the deepest affection for good old-fashioned radio. But even radios have gotten more complicated to operate in the 21st century.

Have you been unable to operate a radio made, say, in the last ten years? You want to switch from AM to FM, to find your favorite station on each band, or maybe just to scan for the sake of discovering which stations are near you. Like so many other devices and appliances, modern radios often have flat touchscreens or buttons that detectable only by sight. So when I heard about the Sangean PR-D17 radio, reportedly designed for blind and visually impaired people, I was eager to check it out. Anyone who enjoys radio and requires accessible controls will be pleasantly surprised by this sleek product.

The Sangean Radio

Measuring only five by ten by two inches, the Sangean is a small boom-box style radio with a carry handle on top, tucked up against the extendable antenna, that folds flat when not in use. The radio is black with light orange buttons, each of which are distinctly tactilely identifiable. It has an easy to read display for those who can see it.

On the front are two speakers, left and right, about two inches in diameter, with the visual display between them. Near the bottom of the front are two rows of five button each, with the Power button above them. The top five buttons, each bearing a distinct tactile symbol, are for changing from AM to FM, setting the alarm, checking the time, etc., while the bottom row of five, each embossed with braille numbers 1 through 5, are for setting up to 10 preset stations, five AM and five FM.

On the right side of the radio are two round knobs, one for tuning stations, the other for volume. The tuning knob is particularly unique in that it is used to execute commands as well as to rotate from one station to another. On the left side of the radio is a switch to move from stereo to mono, and jacks for auxiliary connectivity, headphones, and the AC power adapter.

The Sangean can run on AC power or, if you want to take it out by the pool, on six C batteries. Plug it in, press power, and it begins speaking to you.

Set Up

Setting up the Sangean radio is fun and intuitive. All prompts that appear on the display are also spoken in a clear, female voice. It first asks you if you want Spanish or English. Turn the tuning knob for choices and press it to select. As you go along, this will be the method used repeatedly for setting the clock, setting an alarm, choosing the band increments for the AM tuner, and more. Voice prompts are there each step of the way.

Press a button to hear its function announced. The first button on the left end of the top row, for example, says "AM" when pressed, "FM" when pressed again, "Auxiliary" when pressed again, and then back to "AM." When you first power on the radio it will announce which band it is currently set to and the frequency of the station. To set the alarm, you press the button that announces that you are setting the alarm. Then, use the tuning knob to choose an hour, press it in to select. Turn it again to choose the minutes, and press it in to select.

When you press each button in the bottom row of five preset buttons, the voice prompt will tell you the frequency currently held on that preset. To choose a different station, first use the tuner to find your station and then press and hold the preset button until you hear the announcement that the station has been stored.

If you've set an alarm and turned the radio off when it was set to a particular AM or FM station, the alarm will play that station when it goes off. Alternatively, if you have tuned the radio to the auxiliary band and set an alarm, a not entirely unpleasant beeping sound will occur. It ascends in volume and pitch for several steps, and then repeats, until you press the Power or Alarm button to turn it off.

Finding stations is a particular treat, since here, too, there are voice prompts to guide you. If you want, say, 92.5 FM, first press the band button until you hear "FM" announced. Then, begin turning the tuning knob. There is a distinct haptic and audible click for each frequency. As you turn the knob, you will hear, "89.7, 89.8, 89.9..." To cover a lot of ground quickly, you can turn the knob rapidly for several clicks, pausing to hear the frequency periodically.

Performance

No matter how sleek it looks or how clearly it talks, a radio isn’t much use if it doesn’t perform its radio tasks. This one definitely lives up to the task!

To scan for stations, press in the tuning knob and you will hear “seek up.” Wait a few seconds and the Sangean voice will announce the frequency of the station it has located, and then the station begins to play. Seeking stations in this manner, I found 15 loud and clear AM stations, moving from 520 to 1710, and 20 loud and clear FM stations moving from 87.5 to 108.0. On the AM band, many more stations were identified than the 15 I am referencing here, but those additional stations did not play clearly so are not included in my count. It warrants mentioning that I executed this experiment with the radio sitting on a kitchen counter, without benefit of being near a window and without extending the telescoping FM antenna. While the sound wasn’t as clean and robust as, say, my Bose Wave system, it was decidedly clear and pleasant.

Bonus Points

The Sangean radio has a 3.5mm headphone jack for private listening as well as a 3.5 auxiliary jack for playing another device (an iPod or Victor Stream, for instance) through the radio’s speakers. It has a built-in AM antenna and a telescoping FM antenna that folds neatly under the carry handle, which also folds flat against the top edge of the radio. For such a tiny package, the Sangean’s sound quality is quite nice. You probably won’t need a user’s manual, but if you do, it's completely accessible when downloaded from the Sangean site.

Simple Pleasures

If you want a simple way to access your favorite news and entertainment, the Sangean PR-D17 is a radio you can put on your nightstand or take to the beach. It's lightweight, sounds good, and is completely and delightfully accessible to users with visual impairments.

Product Information

Product: The Sangean PR-D17 radio for the blind and visually impaired

Available from: Amazon

Price: $89.

For additional information, visit the Sangean website or call 888-726-4326.

This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.

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February 2020 Table of Contents

Janet Ingber

My first response when I learned the name of this book was, “Wow, what a great title!” It immediately made me think about my own experiences with the medical profession.

This book provides a wealth of information including what questions to ask, how to advocate for yourself, what medical devices use accessible technology, and, of course, ways to show that just because you are blind, it does not mean you don’t have a brain. Kendrick describes her own firsthand experiences, discussing how she managed different situations, and providing solutions and recommendations.

Kendrick writes with wit and humor throughout the book's introduction and eight chapters. I strongly recommend starting with the intro, since it lays the groundwork for understanding her approach.

Chapter 1: At the Doctor’s Office

Topics in this chapter include choosing a doctor, where Kendrick gives suggestions such as searching online and asking friends. She mentions useful websites for the search. She explains the concierge medicine model, which is a model of healthcare where a patient pays up-front for medical services.

In the Office Visit section of the chapter, Kendrick gives some strategies about interacting with office and medical staff. She describes her approach, which is friendly and not confrontational. However, she reminds us, “If there is one single guiding principle to keep in mind throughout your journey in health care, it is this: You are in charge of you.”

Chapter 2: Outpatient Tests and Procedures

In this chapter, Kendrick has suggestions for what to do when going to a different facility for a test or procedure. One recommendation is to call the facility and get clear directions for navigating both inside and outside. She talks about knowing which tests are being ordered and describes a few common tests including medical ultrasound and MRI. She discusses asking about the equipment being used and also discusses handling situations where you need to change into a gown or some other garment. How many of us have been asked if we need help undressing? Useful suggestions are made about what to do with your guide dog during tests.

The final part of the chapter is about ambulatory surgery. Kendrick writes about the recent increase of ambulatory surgery (rather than in-hospital) and common procedures. She makes an excellent recommendation for when you leave the facility.

Chapter 3: Emergencies

Emergencies can happen anytime and anywhere. Kendrick begins by speaking about types of emergencies and whether to call 911, go to the nearest emergency room, or go to an urgent care center. If you call 911, Kendrick suggests letting the operator know that you are blind at the very beginning of the call. She gives a personal example from when she broke her femur and nobody else was home.

She makes the important point to ask first responders what they are doing. Some responders may not have much interaction with someone who is blind. She offers suggestions for when an emergency room intake staff member asks, “How much can you see?” and advises preparing a brief answer in advance. Another staff situation discussed is how to manage the range of people who come in take care of you. If they do not introduce themselves, ask who they are and what their job is.

The final section of the chapter is about Urgent Care Centers and Minute Clinics. She gives descriptions of what these facilities can treat and the types of medical professionals staffing these clinics.

At the end of the chapter, we are reminded to have contact information on hand, prior to needing it, on what services are available where.

Chapter 4: Hospital Stays

This chapter begins with questions you might want to ask when admitted to the hospital. She discusses an unplanned hospital stay, such as being admitted from the emergency room. She covers making sure you know your location, including floor and room, and asking someone to orient you to your surroundings. Kendrick reminds us to have conversations with hospital staff and that hospital staff may not have any experience with someone who is blind. Even if someone does have experience with patients with vision loss, you should let them know your specific needs. Suggestions include asking staff to knock before entering and identifying themselves when they enter your room. Kendrick points out that each blind person is unique just as every other patient is unique. She adds, “The extra hurdle for us, regrettably, is the need to move past the misconceptions that are all too often held about our capabilities.”

Kendrick discusses advocating for yourself and having an advocate with you whenever possible. She talks about a sign that a hospital member posted over her bed. You will have to read the book to find out what the sign said. Here is a hint: it was incredibly inappropriate.

Kendrick provides suggestions for what to do prior to being admitted for a planned hospital stay or planned time at a rehabilitation facility. These recommendations are very useful and can help make your stay less stressful.

Chapter 5: For Blind Parents and Grandparents

This chapter focuses on when your child or grandchild has a medical emergency. As she does throughout the book, Kendrick gives excellent anecdotes from her own life. For example, she talks about the time her daughter was in the emergency room. She advises, “Stay with the patient every step of the way until you’re given a scientific reason not to.”

She also discusses the importance of choosing a good pediatrician and things to do if your child or grandchild is admitted to the hospital. She reminds us that although the chapter is about children, these same principals apply when you are a caregiver in any relationship.

Chapter 6: Managing Medications

This chapter contains information about labeling and dosing medications. Kendrick provides many options such as using braille labels and En-Vision America’s ScripTalk. She also provides information about measuring correct amounts of liquid medication.

Chapter 7: Using Technology to Narrow the Gap

Kendrick discusses various forms of technology including websites and apps. For example, WebMD is a website and app that provides a tremendous amount of information. She discusses apps that let you read text and learn what is near you as well. In addition, Kendrick discusses apps and devices for monitoring health at home and provides product information for the devices.

Chapter 8: The Art of Knowing When

In this chapter, Kendrick provides some final tips and reminders. She discusses two additional life experiences, one where she was not allowed to do something because staff mistakenly thought she might get hurt because of her blindness, and the other where staff instructions were correct and unrelated to vision.

Conclusion

This is an excellent book whether you have been blind or visually impaired for your whole life or are new to vision loss. Kendrick provides useful information in every chapter, sharing anecdotes and recommendations. Although there is a lot of material, she presents it in a conversational style, making it easy to read.

Book Information

Navigating Healthcare: When All They Can See Is That You Can’t, by Deborah Kendrick, is published in braille, BRF, DAISY text, and Word by National Braille Press. The book is available in hardcopy braille, DAISY, eBraille, and Microsoft Word formats for $12. To have a digital mailed to you on a USB drive, add $2.50.

This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.

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February 2020 Table of Contents

Jamie Pauls

It might be tempting to think that smartphones and tablets are the exclusive domain of young people, but many seniors are dispelling this notion. Older adults like to travel, volunteer in their communities, and participate in many other activities that keep them active. They want to be able to stay in touch with friends and family, read the latest news headlines, and listen to music without needing to be tethered to a computer at home. But what if a person’s vision becomes less acute, or perhaps gives way to total blindness? Does a device such as an iPhone or iPad become impossible to use? Fortunately, the answer is a resounding: No! Apple has shown a great commitment to making all of its products accessible to people with a variety of disabilities, including vision loss.

Just because technology exists to help people with visual impairments doesn’t mean that those people are taking advantage of it, or even know that it exists. Sometimes, friends or family members come across beneficial technology and pass that information along to the person in need. Information on blindness is often conveyed by those who are totally blind through media such as podcasts, audio tutorials, or books. While blind people themselves may benefit from this information, a sighted person might not be able to make much use of the material because they don’t understand the concepts being discussed. At other times, information is conveyed by sighted people who don’t have the depth of knowledge on subjects of importance to blind people that the blind themselves might have. When a person is able to knowledgeably communicate information in a way that can be understood by those who have vision and those who do not, their contributions are of particular benefit to everyone.

Shelly Brisbin is a seasoned technology writer who happens to have low vision. She has recently released the 7th edition of her popular book iOS Access for All. In light of the many changes and additions to iOS 13, the latest version of the operating system that runs Apple’s line of smart devices including the iPod, iPad, and iPhone, the latest offering from Brisbin is especially significant. In the following paragraphs, I will highlight some of the reasons why I believe iOS Access for All is a great investment for anyone with low vision or no vision who is considering the purchase of an Apple mobile device, or why a sighted person who wishes to help their vision impaired friend or family member enter the world of smart devices might find this book to be an invaluable resource.

iOS Access for All is Thorough and Comprehensive

Brisbin's ability to write intelligently about issues relating to those who have vision and those who do not is evident from the earliest pages of her book. She first discusses the many purchase options that anyone, blind or sighted, must consider when buying a new Apple device. There are ten screen sizes to choose from, something that has not always been the case with Apple products, and the iPad now has its very own operating system. Brisbin gives thorough attention to details when it comes to setting up the various devices, and walks the reader through step-by-step instructions using screen magnification, VoiceOver, a combination of the two, or neither. She provides information throughout the text, as well as an appendix at the end of the book devoted to this discussion.

It is hard to imagine anyone feeling slighted after purchasing this book. A totally blind person using VoiceOver will find Chapter 3 to be a place where they can camp out for days. Likewise, the low vision user will discover plenty of information to keep them happy as well. Even those who consider themselves power users of Siri, Apple’s digital assistant, will likely discover some nuggets of information they hadn’t previously discovered. Siri is an especially important topic because it's familiar to those who know nothing about accessibility and that truly levels the playing field for blind and sighted users alike.

Features either new to iOS 13 or enhanced in this version of the OS are discussed as well, including the ability to use shortcuts to automate tasks, as well as the new voice control feature that allows much of the activity performed on your device to be carried out using the spoken word.

Brisbin showcases Apple’s commitment to users with all disabilities in her discussions of topics including guided access, switch controls, and hearing aid compatibility. She does all of this in a narrative style that is personal, funny, and professionally written.

iOS Access for All Bridges the Gap

A son who has purchased his visually impaired mother an iPhone for Christmas will find this book to be a great resource because he can learn about VoiceOver from the standpoint of someone who knows how screens appear visually and how their appearance changes once assistive technology is turned on. A daughter who is trying to help her dad learn his new iPad using assistive technology will find the quick reference commands at the back of the book to be of great help. The tech savvy senior who is comfortable learning new technology with minimal or no help will also want this book. All concepts are presented logically and in simple terms that make learning less stressful than it might otherwise be. You don’t need to be an older adult to enjoy this reference work. Even the power user of assistive technology will find plenty of useful information to digest. Finally, the chapters that discuss apps that come on every Apple mobile device and those designed either for those with disabilities or with accessibility in mind will give both the new user and the power user plenty of new programs to try.

iOS Access for All is Available for All

iOS Access for All is available in ePub and PDF formats as well as in the Apple bookstore. A single copy of the book is priced at $25, while the ePub and PDF versions of the book can be purchased together for $30. Brisbin publishes the book herself, so it is not available in a physical print copy, although many might find this format to be of great value.

Whether you are a totally blind iPhone user, a partially sighted iPod touch user, an educator who uses an iPad in your special needs classroom, or someone who wishes to help a blind person get up and running with one of Apple’s mobile products, this book is a must-have resource. An audio version of this book, marked up in a format such as DAISY for easy navigation, would be an excellent resource, as would other formats such as hard copy print and braille. It isn’t hard to imagine why Brisbin might not have the resources to make all this happen. The more people who purchase her book, the easier it will be for Brisbin to continue her writing and possibly even expand her outreach.

This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.

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February 2020 Table of Contents

Bill Holton

One of the reasons Amazon is such a retailing behemoth is because of its fast and reliable shipping. Even in the small town where I live, many of my purchases come with one day Prime Delivery, the rest arrive in two. Let’s face it: we like things to be brought to us, even if we have to pay over $100 per year for the privilege. I don’t even remember the last time I bought locally batteries, printer cartridges, cookware, or even socks and underwear. The convenience factor is even greater for people with visual impairments, as it combines the enhanced ability to search and sort products using written descriptions and reviews with not having to travel to a store and browse the racks.

Of course there are items that you still needs to purchase locally. Gas for the family car, for example, and most food items, including those with a limited shelf life and those you wish to consume right away, such as restaurant fare. It’s unlikely anyone will even ship petrol via UPS or FedExbut food delivery has become commonplace, and, as we will see, it’s moving increasingly online. As is the case for many online resources, the accessibility barriers are rapidly toppling.

With this in mind, I took a look at a new eBook from the folks at Mystic Access: Dinner Delivered: Accessible and Easy Ways to Receive Meals Direct to Your Door, by Kim Loftis and Chris Grabowski. The booko is a comprehensive guide to accessibly moving groceries and prepared foods from the local marketplace to your front door. The 33,000-plus word tome is directed at the consumer with a visual impairment who uses a PC with a screen reader or a voice-accessible iOS or Android device. The text is both comprehensive and clearly written, with excellent overviews and, where appropriate, step-by-step instructions using both a PC and touchscreen devices.

Stocking the Pantry

Some local supermarkets and national chains have begun offering proprietary delivery services. These include Kroger, Safeway, and in certain areas, Walmart. These are mostly in-house operations without a national footprint, and thus are not covered by the authors. Instead, the first section of this eBook focuses on the two largest delivery services, Instacart and Shipt, with a brief detour through Amazon Fresh and Amazon Prime Now.

With Instacart and Shipt, the reader is offered comprehensive, step-by-step instructions on how to accessibly accomplish everything from creating a new account to finding local stores to checking out to rating and tipping the delivery person. Considerable care is devoted to guiding the reader through the steps of locating desired items and reviewing product descriptions, then adding the items to a shopping cart. After all, this is the heart of online shopping. Membership and delivery fees are also described in detail.

After reviewing this section, I believe even someone fairly new to using a screen reader or accessible mobile device will feel confident in creating an account and ordering groceries online. Most shoppers with visual impairments will enjoy an increased sense of independence when they no longer have to rely on friends, family, or a store clerk to help find groceries. But as Kim Loftis (seemingly the lead author) so eloquently describes, there is also the matter of the “sighted filter,” which is to say the unintentional limitations placed on the blind shopper when being assisted by a third party.

The example Loftis uses is a blind shopper searching for crunchy peanut butter for a fudge recipe. Her shopper adds it to the cart, but selects a too-small jar, and neglects to mention that white chocolate chips, which would make a great addition, are on sale. Myself, I love sweet plantain, and never thought to look for a frozen version, and my wife never thought to mention she’d seen them in the freezer case until I discovered them on an online store sales list.

Shopping help usually requires the customer with a visual impairment to pretty much limit the list to known items. Grocery shopping online, however, can go a long way toward product discovery and expanding your pantry possibilities.

Dining Out--In!

Of course there are times when you simply don't feel like cooking! Your community may have an extraordinary variety of eateries, from hamburger stands to fine French cuisine, but getting to a restaurant can sometimes be a real hassle. Perhaps you need to take a cab or subway, and you’ll likely wish to have a dining companion. Other times you just want a tasty treat to scarf in front of the TV, and you’re bored with your regular traditional pizza and Chinese delivery options.

The second section of Dinner Delivered covers the four big names in restaurant delivery: DoorDash, Grubhub, Postmates, and Uber Eats. Each of these services feature different restaurants and fast food options. Of course the variety and number of listed dining delights will depend on where you live. Naturally, larger metropolitan areas will offer greater choices. Consequently, you may wish to learn about most or all of these services and determine which one or two you find offer the greatest choice and best match your needs and appetites.

Again, the coverage of the various services is complete and easy to follow, with step-by-step guidance on how to accessibly sign up for the various services, locate your favorite eateries, browse menus,and place and complete orders.

I must admit that about halfway through this chapter my mind drifted and the only solution seemed to be to log onto Grubhub and order a Philly cheesesteak from my favorite diner. My order arrived in less than 30 minutes. The deliveryman handed it over, already paid for with a 20% tip. No fumbling through and identifying currency from my wallet, asking for change for a twenty on a $10.95 order, or wondering if that was really a five he handed me back.

Talk about convenience!

Other Options

The authors end the first section of Dinner Delivered with a discussion of Amazon Fresh and Amazon Prime Now. Both of these services are provided by Amazon.com, and deliver fresh meats, produce, and other perishable grocery items. Their coverage is rather sparse at the moment, limited to major metropolitan areas, so the book’s description is not as detailed. In the last section, however, they offer a few tasty nuggets for those at the far end of the delivery spectrum: people who live in low-population areas not yet covered by the major grocery delivery services. Which is not to say big city readers won’t also benefit from this concluding section, which describes a smattering of food-related Web purveyors that deliver across the country. The focus is on three: Thrive Market, Nuts.com, cheryls.com and ohfudgestore.com. This list is by no means meant to be comprehensive. Instead it’s meant to offer just a taste of the online food shopping possibilities. And believe it: the possibilities are only limited by your imagination and your taste buds. Enjoy rice pudding? Check out Rice to Riches for some gourmet fare. Want some extra spicy sauce for your famous Buffalo wings? You’ll find plenty of heat at Mo Hotta Mo Betta.

Hungry? I know I am.

Product Information

Dinner Delivered: Accessible and Easy Ways to Receive Meals Direct to Your Door, by Kim Loftis and Chris Grabowski is available from the National Braille Press in choice of Braille, DAISY and Word formats

Price: $18.00 for Braille or eBraille, DAISY or Word download . (Add an additional $2.50 for delivery of eBraille, DAISY or Word formats preloaded on a USB drive.

This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.

Comment on this article.

Related articles:

• Shop Independently with Shipt: an Accessible App that Brings the “Store to your Door” by Deborah Kendrick
• A Review of Format Your Word Documents with JAWS and NVDA: A Guide for Students and Professionals, by David Kingsbury by Bill Holton

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February 2020 Table of Contents

Applications Being Accepted for Leader Dog Summer Experience Camp

Summer Experience Camp is a week of fun, friendship, and skill building. The program combines activities like ziplining and tandem biking with independence building exercises and things exclusively Leader Dog—GPS training and spending time with future Leader Dogs. The combination helps increase independent travel skills, interpersonal skills, and leadership skills. The free program is for boys and girls ages 16 and 17 who are legally blind. Leader Dog covers all costs including airfare to Michigan—and everyone receives a free HumanWare Victor Reader Trek GPS device. The 2020 camp dates are June 24–July 1. Applications are due by April 1, 2020. More information is available on the Summer Experience Camp website..

Braille Overlay Available for Amazon Basics Microwave and Amazon Smart Oven

Amazon will begin offering a free braille overlay sticker for both the new Amazon Smart Oven, and the AmazonBasics Microwave. This clear plastic overlay can be installed on top of the existing device keypad to mark key functions and locations for blind and customers with visual impairments. The abbreviated braille overlay will be available at no cost to existing and new customers. It's priced at $0.99 on Amazon.com, but a discount of the same amount will be applied at checkout. Additionally, customers can reach out to Amazon customer service to request a free overlay. Amazon Smart Oven Overlay; Amazon Basics Microwave Overlay..

US Department of Labor Seeks Innovative Ideas to Improve Employment Outcomes for Youth Receiving Supplemental Security Income

The US Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) announced a new competitive initiative to identify and evaluate potential solutions to improve employment outcomes for young adults ages 14 to 24 who apply for or receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

Through the initiative, ODEP is soliciting proposals from subject matter experts for innovative and evidence-based actions, including legislative, regulatory, and policy changes, that can increase labor force participation and economic success among this population. Mathematica Policy Research will administer the initiative through a $1.075 million contract with ODEP.

"Our goal is a workforce that engages all Americans," said Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy Jennifer Sheehy. "This means that young people with disabilities may grow up with the expectation that they can work and have access to opportunities to gain skills and experience. We hope these proposals will increase an overall understanding about what works, and how we can ensure public policy better supports young adults on Supplemental Security Income in their effort to join the workforce and achieve self-sufficiency."

Applications must briefly describe proposed policy solutions, and are due by February 27, 2020. ODEP will announce successful applicants in April 2020, and will then select approximately 10 individuals or teams to receive stipends of up to $20,000 and technical assistance to expand their proposed ideas into detailed white papers. Chosen applicants' final white papers will be due in January 2021. ODEP will use the papers to inform the department, and share them with a broad audience of stakeholders at an upcoming conference in Washington, DC, and widely with local, state, and federal policymakers.

Learn more about the SSI Youth Solutions project, including eligibility criteria and instructions on how to apply.

Applications for the San Francisco Lighthouse Holman Prize for Blind Ambition Due March 15.

Submissions are open for the 2020 Holman Prize for Blind Ambition, which awards up to $25,000 each to three blind people with a dream. Ever wonder how a Holman Prize idea goes from a 90-second YouTube pitch to being put into action? 2019 winner Mona Minkara traveled to six cities around the world and navigated the public transit independently. She’s documented it all in a video series called Planes, Trains and Canes. In the first episode, which includes audio description, watch her navigate three airports on her way from Boston to Johannesburg, South Africa.

Learn more about the Holman Prize and the application..

IrisVision and Samsung Announce Partnership to Bring Clinically Validated Vision Technologies to Over 200 Million Low Vision Patients Globally

Samsung Electronics, Co., ltd. and IrisVision today announced a strategic partnership to roll out IrisVision's technology worldwide. IrisVision's vision correction software platform utilizes the power of Samsung's Galaxy smartphones and XR devices and mobile AI platform to enable people with impaired vision to see clearly and live more independent lives. Launched in 2017, IrisVision received registration as an FDA Class I medical device that same year. Over the past two years IrisVision has run clinical trials with Johns Hopkins, Stanford and UPMC. The company continues to extend its proprietary vision correction science to address more than 16 common eye conditions, including macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and retinitis pigmentosa. IrisVision already has thousands of users around the world and received a CES 2019 Innovation Award recognizing its technology and customer success. Within the partnership, IrisVision will continue to work with Samsung's R&D and alliance partnership teams to further expand the use of Samsung technologies, including 5G mobile phones, Bixby AI platform and XR headsets. Also, Samsung will help IrisVision scale connected healthcare for the visually impaired community.

"At Samsung, we aim to not only build great mobile solutions but also to give our key partners  mobile technology platforms to develop and provide their own innovation. It is amazing to see what IrisVision is doing to enable the large and underserved low vision community to live more independently," remarked Edward Choi, Corporate Vice President of Global Strategic Alliances at Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics. "We will help guide IrisVision on technology integration and market strategy to ultimately help every affected patient."

"Our vision science requires substantial computational power, quality optics, and a platform we can use to securely connect patients to providers and the digital world, all of which Samsung's mobile and XR devices provide today," explained IrisVision CEO and Co-founder Ammad Khan. "With this partnership, Samsung's technology and support, along with its global channels and partner network, will also enable the next generation of IrisVision products to diagnose and treat conditions remotely anywhere in the world."

February 2020 Table of Contents