Dear AccessWorld readers,

We hope you enjoyed our August issue, which focused on entrepreneurship. We will be providing more employment-related content in October in recognition of National Disability Employment Awareness month. Employment is a major aspect of our mission here at AFB and at AccessWorld. As my predecessor Lee Huffman would say, "employment is the gateway to life." If you want to be able to purchase that new iPhone, travel internationally, and subscribe to all those streaming services you need to be employed.

If you mainly interact with AFB through AccessWorld, you may not be aware of our other projects and efforts. I wanted to take this space to highlight some of the important work we are doing in the field of vision loss.

COVID-19 has obviously disrupted everyone's life, but we were concerned about what additional challenges the pandemic may pose to people with visual impairments. AFB partnered with 15 organizations and companies to study the impact of the pandemic on adults with visual impairments in the United States. The Flatten Inaccessibility Survey launched on April 3, 2020, and was open for 10 days. Over 1,900 people completed the survey, which sought information about many aspects of life during COVID-19, from transportation and food access to access to voting and the impact the virus has had on participants' socialization. The Flatten Inaccessibility report will be released online soon.

AFB also conducted a survey regarding the impact of COVID-19 on the education of children with visual impairments, including those with multiple disabilities and deafblindness. The survey was open to family members and guardians of children with visual impairments, teachers of students with visual impairments, and orientation and mobility instructors, and asked about the provision, receipt, and non-traditional delivery of educational services due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most recently, AFB has been conducting research for a Workplace Technology study and we are currently seeking interested participants for the survey and focus groups. The literature review is in process, and the focus groups will be beginning soon. The survey aims to answer the following questions:

• What are the technology experiences (training, tools used, required job tasks, barriers, wishes) of workers with visual impairments in the focus areas of information technology/communications, telemedicine, and finance/banking?
• What mainstream and assistive technology tools will allow workers with visual impairments to be more successful in the three employment focus areas?

Please visit the Workplace Technology Study survey website if you're interested in participating or would like to know more.

We believe that having people with vision loss in leadership positions in companies and organizations is an important goal in itself, but that doing so is also a major aid to improving employment outcomes for people with vision loss as a whole. In an effort to achieve this goal, we have launched the Blind Leaders Development Program. The program matches individuals with vision loss who are in the early stages of their careers with mentors who have established careers in leadership to provide advice and feedback on what it takes to succeed in the workforce. The inaugural class began in January of 2020.

This is just a sample of the work we are currently doing at AFB. into learn more about our other projects and goals and stay up to date on important and timely issues for people with visual impairments, explore the American Foundation for the Blind website and blog.

I would like to thank all of you for being AccessWorld readers. Last quarter, we had almost 140,000 users visit AccessWorld. Knowing that so many of you find our work valuable is humbling and drives us to produce the best content we can.

We are always interested in your opinions and suggestions. If you would like to send a message to AccessWorld you can email me directly at apreece@afb.org.

Sincerely,

Aaron Preece

Acting Editor, AccessWorld

Janet Ingber

The Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired, previously known as the Hadley School for the Blind, begins its second century with a revamped curriculum and many exciting new offerings, all still at no cost.

In the very beginning, Hadley offered only correspondence courses from their base in Winnetka, Illinois. A student completed lessons and mailed them to their instructor, who would then review the student's work and mail back an evaluation.

Hadley still offers home study courses on how to read and write braille, but now they also use modern technology to present a wide array of additional course offerings in new formats.

A Chat with Julie Tye, President and CEO of Hadley School for the Blind

Julie Tye became Hadley's President and CEO in 2016. She doesn't have a visual impairment but has spent her career in human services. She describes her journey to Hadley this way:

I started off in health care administration where I was responsible for a wide variety of services including acute care, ambulatory care, mental health, aging, and substance abuse. Before coming to Hadley, I ran The Cradle, a child welfare agency. One of the programs we offered was a distance learning program. I think that is what appealed to Hadley's Board of Trustees, that I had distance-learning experience. Also, I've found that there are lessons that different fields can borrow from each other. For example, I ran a smoking cessation program that relied on what is called the Trans-theoretical Model of Change. It was very effective in helping people decide to quit smoking and become non-smokers. When I got to The Cradle, I realized that this model could be applied to couples experiencing infertility in helping them make the decision to stop treatment and move on to the adoption process as a way to form their family. My experience in aging is really coming in handy because the baby boomer generation is where so much vision loss is occurring. But I had a steep learning curve, for sure!

Hadley's new platform went live on July 1, 2020. Tye describes how the Institute approached the overhaul:

We completely reconceptualized how we help people who come to us. First, we moved away from the very academic model that was geared to how children learn, to a model that focuses on giving people practical tips as they learn to live with vision loss. Second, we educated ourselves about best practices in distance learning and incorporated those into our new approach. We want the learning experience to be fun, engaging, and interactive, and the feedback we're getting from the 3,000 people who have signed up with us is that we achieved that goal. So, we think we got the online delivery of content just right. Our next challenge is to incorporate some of the distance learning best practices into the braille and large print versions. We have a great team working on this right now.

Tye encourages everyone to check out the new site and help guide the Institute as it begins its second century:

Hadley is about to begin our second century of service and we're going back to a concept that our founder, William Hadley, was committed to. As he began to offer instruction, he asked people who were visually impaired what they wanted to learn from him. He actually took out an ad in the Matilda Ziegler Magazine asking people to write to him with their suggestions. Today, we're doing the same thing. We are producing content based on what our users tell us they want. In the engineering world, this is referred to as "design thinking" and we take it very seriously. For Hadley, it is all about honoring the user experience. I hope folks will check us out! And give us feedback on how we can continue to improve!

Taking the New Hadley Website for a Spin

I used a 2016 MacBook Pro running macOS Catalina and VoiceOver to try out the new Hadley website. I can also say that the new site worked well on the iPhone. One difference in navigation between the Mac and the iPhone is that there is an Open Menu button on the iPhone that opens a list of navigational links.

The Home page has 11 links, 3 headings, and 6 form controls. It is not cluttered, which makes for easier navigation. The three headings are Home, Make this site your own, and Need some help? The form controls are Log in, Help, Get started, and Search. It is very important to know what sort of help is available and which screen customizations are offered so I will be describing those form controls first.

Help and Screen Customization

Selecting the Help button opens a new page. At the top is Hadley's phone number, 800-323-4238. Help is available Monday through Friday from 8am to 6pm, Central Time. There is also a Chat option. The final help component is a link for Frequently Asked Questions.

On the home page are two buttons labeled "Get started." VoiceOver told me that each was a button. With sighted assistance, I learned they brought me to the same place. When either of the two buttons was selected, a new screen loaded with a heading to choose contrast. Just below the heading were instructions for screen reader users to skip the contrast setup. Navigate to the Skip button that is clearly labeled and is at the end of contrast setup. Under the screen reader information were four text contrast radio buttons. The Skip button was below the contrast options. When I activated the Skip button, a new screen loaded with text size radio buttons and another Skip button.

Signing Up and Search

When the Log In button is activated, the next page has a Log in heading. Next is an option to sign up and create a profile. Below this are options to sign in with Gmail, Facebook, and Yahoo. I chose to set up a profile so I activated the Sign up link.

After activating the Sign up link, the new screen informed me that I was on step one of four. Using forms navigation, I found the edit box for an email address and password. The final control was a Next button.

When the new screen loaded, I was informed that I was now on step two. This page had edit boxes for my first and last name and another Next button. Step three was to choose my relationship to visual impairment. I chose Personal. There were other options including friends & Family and Professional. The final page was how I heard about Hadley. Options included Online, Doctor, and News. Once the choice was made, I activated the Let's Go button. On the next screen was a congratulatory message informing me that I am now logged in to Hadley. Though the registration process is simple, it could have been done over one or two pages instead of four.

After registering, I received a welcome email that included Hadley's phone number and links to their home page, discussion groups, and podcasts.

The search form consists of an edit box and a Search button. I entered "Apple" in the edit box. When I executed the search, results were below the search form and there were many to choose from.

Exploring Navigational Links

With VoiceOver, I recommend navigating the home page with Tab and Shift + Tab or with VO + Left Arrow and VO + Right Arrow. There were times where VoiceOver said a link was text when navigating with the Up and Down Arrow keys.

The Home link brings you back to the Home page. Next is a link labeled "About Us." Activating this link loads a new screen with information about Hadley's mission, beginnings, affiliations, and much more. It is definitely worth reading. This information is under the heading, "Welcome to Hadley."

The next link is Learn. After activating the link, the new screen will display information about Hadley's offerings. Instead of long courses, Hadley now uses short workshops. Instead of having to read or listen to a book about using the iPhone, the topic is broken down into several workshops. This lets the user choose which information they want to hear. For example, if I just wanted to learn how to use VoiceOver with entertainment apps, there is a workshop for that. The workshops are presented as videos. Everything is very clearly described. There are series that contain several workshops on a particular topic. For example, there is a cooking series that has several workshops.

Choosing a Topic

Under the heading "What Would You Like to Learn Today?" are five radio buttons: Daily living, Recreation, Technology, Braille, and Working. Once a radio button is chosen, a button labeled "Go to Results" will appear. Selecting this button brings up the results. Use headings navigation and you will hear VoiceOver say, "Workshops." There will be an option to search the entire catalog. Next will be the results for the specific radio button. Headings navigation works here to get you to the title of each workshop. The catalog has a very, very extensive list. If you are new to vision loss, there are many helpful workshops.

Results can be navigated by heading or link. Just below the name of each workshop is a brief description of it.

The Daily Living workshops include Cooking Series, Cleaning Your House Series, Clothing Series, Women's Personal Care, and Men's Personal Care.

When I activated the Cooking link, the next page gave me a list of all the workshops in the series. I learned that the content was also available in large print. Under the list of workshops in the series was the heading "Ask the Experts," with options to call or email Hadley experts.

I selected Stovetop and Oven from the Cooking Series. When the new page loaded, I used forms navigation to find the Play button for the video. All links and controls on the video player were clearly labeled. When I started playing the video, it stopped after about a minute. A different voice came on talking about signing up with Hadley. I could not play the rest of the video. Once I logged in I was able to hear the entire video.

After the video, there was a heading labeled, "Did you find this workshop helpful?" Below the heading were Yes and No buttons. Below this form was a link to explore more of the series and a button to get a transcript of the video. VoiceOver read these buttons as headings, but they can be reached with form navigation. The "Ask the Experts" information was also on this page. Toward the bottom of the page is a form to suggest a workshop. Use form navigation to find the button labeled "Suggest your idea."

Since I had logged into the site, Hadley kept track of which workshops I had completed. Under the Learn options, a new radio button appeared: Adjusting to Vision loss, below the Daily Living button. When I activated this button, I was taken to a section labeled Audio Podcasts.

If you are interested in technology, Hadley has many offerings. There are workshops available for iOS, iPad OS, Apple Watch, Android, Windows, Narrator, Outlook, and much more. I checked out some of the Narrator screen reader videos and they were excellent.

Discussion Groups

Hadley offers discussion groups on specific topics. For example, there's a "Tech It Out" discussion for people interested in technology. There's a "What's Cooking" discussion group for people who like to cook. There's an "All Groups" link that displays a complete list. Underneath the title of each group is a brief description.

Activating the title link brings up a new page with a brief video about the group including when it meets. Below the video is information about the next session, followed by ways to connect to the group.

Tye describes the importance of discussion groups this way:

For a number of years, Hadley offered weekly seminars on a variety of topics. We took those to a new level with topic-based Discussion Groups. We have about ten of them addressing things like Technology, Cooking, Writing, Braille, Crafting, Exercise, and Travel. For some Discussion Groups, we have 30 attendees; in others, we have 200! Hadley's staff does an amazing job of giving people the opportunity to fully participate. And, I'll tell you, this came at such an important time. As the pandemic has caused even more isolation for people who are visually impaired, the Discussion Groups are serving as a lifeline for people who want to connect with others.

Podcasts

Hadley offers podcasts related to blindness and visual impairment. Information appears below the discussion group's information. The podcast series is called, "Hadley Presents: A Conversation with the Experts." Activate that link and a page will load with a list of episodes. Some of the topics are COVID-19 and Vision Loss, Traveling the World Without Sight, and Nuts and Bolts of Home Repair.

My Hadley Story

In 1994, I lost the little bit of vision that I had had my entire life. Until then, I could read print with strong magnifying glasses. I realized that I needed to learn braille and contacted what was then the Hadley School for the Blind. Their course materials were easy to follow and my instructors were great. I learned to read Grade 2 braille and braille music. The best thing about my learning braille is that I was able to read print/braille children's books to my daughter, who was born in 1996.

Conclusion

Hadley is an excellent resource if you'd like to learn a new skill, interact with people who have interests in common, or find informative podcasts. The new website is easy to navigate and they offer easy phone, chat and email access when you need live help. I recommend exploring Hadley's many offerings including workshops, discussion groups, podcasts, and braille instruction.

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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• Hadley Rediscovered: A Conversation with Joan Jaeger, Chief Marketing Officer, Hadley Institute for the Blind and Visually Impaired by Steve Kelley
• Employment Matters: Chris Grabowski and Kim Loftis of Mystic Access by Deborah Kendrick

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• Ramona Rice: Using Her Abilities to Help Others
• A Review of Navigating Healthcare: When All They Can See is That You Can't, by Deborah Kendrick

September 2020 Table of Contents

Jamie Pauls

I am someone who has enjoyed using technology for as long as I can remember. I wasn't as adventurous as some blind people I know—I never set up a home-grown radio station in my bedroom for example—but I did play with cassette recorders, mixing my voice and music together. I'm sure the result would make me cringe today, so I'm glad I don't have any existing tapes lying around to embarrass me some day.

When HumanWare introduced the Victor Reader Stream back in 2007, I remember being enamored with this cool little device. It supported many different types of text-based and audio content, was fairly portable, and was very easy to operate.

When the New Generation Victor Reader Stream came out a few years later, I purchased one even though my original Stream hadn't missed a beat in all the years I used it. The second generation of the Stream allowed me to download content directly from the Internet, play Internet radio stations, and easily read magazines, including AccessWorld.

Even as the iPhone took over the world, I still had a soft spot in my heart for the Stream. I couldn't help noticing, however, that my old friend from HumanWare stayed in the desk drawer of my office more and more. BARD, Audible, Voice Dream Reader, and any number of music streaming apps made it possible for me to go through my day without ever needing to use any device other than my phone.

The day came when work slowed down for me and I found myself needing a bit of extra cash, so I started looking through my home office to figure out what I no longer needed. I had foolishly neglected to take the battery out of my first generation Stream when I stopped using it, and I also did not remove it from its Executive Products case. It eventually stopped working and, presumably, oil from the leather case created a sticky residue on the unit. Tough lesson learned there. Fortunately, my second-generation device was in good working order. I advertised it on a list and got a fair price for it. I was a bit nostalgic when it left my hands for the last time, but I figured since I was now firmly in the Apple ecosystem I didn't need it any more.

I didn't give much thought to my dearly departed friend for many months, though I did notice that my phone's battery took a serious hit from all the tasks I threw at it. Also, breaking news alerts, text messages, and phone calls—yes, the iPhone really does make phone calls—kept pulling me away from what I was reading or listening to. I could listen to an audiobook with my phone locked and stashed in my pocket, but I found myself constantly pulling the phone from my pocket, unlocking it, stopping the audiobook I was reading, attending to the task at hand, restarting the book, locking the phone and placing it back in my pocket again only to be notified of a supposedly urgent breaking news event that caused me to go through the process all over again. Let me add as a side note that I am not a fan of breaking news alerts telling me the name of some famous celebrity's new poodle!

In addition to the annoyance of constantly needing to juggle my phone and making sure it was always charged sufficiently, there were times when I wanted to listen to a piece of audio that I didn't intend to keep around for long. I might also want to set multiple bookmarks in that audio and quickly move between marks while taking notes on what I was hearing. This was certainly possible on my phone, but I noticed that I was beginning to wish for my Stream again. If I had a Stream, I could let my phone recharge and use a device dedicated to reading and listening to audio if I desired. The 15 hours of battery life on my Stream meant that I could recharge at my convenience rather than at inopportune times. I missed being able to pop an SD card into a computer, load random content on it, and hit the road rather than syncing content through a service such as Dropbox only to discover that the content wasn't always on my phone when I expected it to be. Finally, I missed the feel of physical buttons under my fingers when I was quickly moving through books, music, and other content on my Stream. I consider myself a proficient iPhone user and don't mind navigating using a smooth surface, but I still find physical controls on a device to be more efficient at times.

Eventually, I decided to purchase another New Generation Victor Reader Stream. I have placed several tutorials on my new Stream, including archives of some old CAVI classes on using Reaper, the audio editing software I use on a daily basis. Each MP3 file is quite long, and Voice Dream Reader actually had difficulty loading some of these files. The Stream doesn't even break a sweat. I still use the Audible app on my phone, and I use BARD on both my phone and the Stream. Bookshare content tends to live on my Stream these days. I enjoy NFB Newsline on my Stream, and generally read the latest issue of AccessWorld that way. Using the Stream, I can choose to read AccessWorld directly from the Internet, or move the latest issue to my SD card for offline reading.

One downside to owning a Victor Reader Stream is the price. Depending on where you purchase one, you will pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $350 for the unit. The Stream does a lot and it is a specialized device for blind people, but the price will definitely give many pause. It may be especially hard for some to justify the cost of a Stream if they, like me, already own a smartphone that admittedly can do everything the Stream can.

Totally coincidental to this article, a recent episode of the Double Tap Canada podcast took up this debate in a very lively discussion. There are those in the blind community who see no reason to even consider adding a device like the Stream to their technology arsenal, while others like myself still make a case for keeping it around.

One thing that may ease the sticker shock a bit is the fact that there are many people who are looking to sell both the original and New Generation Victor Reader Stream in good working order for a reasonable price. If you aren’t interested in using a Stream in conjunction with the Internet, the first generation unit may be sufficient for your needs.

There will almost certainly be a lot of passionate opinions on this topic. Some readers will find almost every point I have made to be totally opposite to their own views. Others will feel totally validated by my words. We would love to hear from all of you. Just remember to be kind. There really are no wrong answers here.

Product Information

Product: New Generation Victor Reader Stream

Company: HumanWare

Price: $395 from HumanWare

Phone: (800) 722-3393

HumanWare is based in Canada, but has distributors all over the world. Dealers may sell the Stream at a lower price than that shown on HumanWare's website.

Also, check out HumanWare's Youtube channel for training videos on all the products they sell including the BrailleNote Touch Plus and several popular Braille displays.

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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September 2020 Table of Contents

Steve Kelley

When was the last time you got a PDF file and opened it only to discover that the file was inaccessible? If you could make the text large enough and you have some vision maybe you could read it visually with some extra time. If you use a screen reader, you'd have to dive into your bag of tricks to get it converted into a usable file.

For readers who aren't sure what this is about, here's a simple PDF primer. A PDF can have two basic formats: an inaccessible image or an accessible document. As an image (and the image could be of a document, magazine page, webpage, etc.) any text may be readable to someone with vision, but a computer screen reader will not be able to find the text for reading. PDFs that have been made into accessible documents, where text appears as text and not an image, can be read by a screen reader. Visually, these two formats can look the same. Many apps and applications create PDFs as images, which are not usable by everyone.

As the recipient of many inaccessible PDFs over the years there are several tools to keep handy—apps like KNFB Reader and Seeing AI, websites like zamzar.com which will convert various file formats, or more traditional optical character recognition (OCR) software. There are pros and cons to each method, and there is always room for another conversion tool!

ClaroPDF is a free iOS app that works well with VoiceOver and has been around for several years. It is also available as an Android app and a web application. There is also a ClaroPDFPro version available with added features in the iOS App Store for $9.99.

ClaroPDF has several features that make it stand out from other PDF apps. Text-to-speech is built-in, text is highlighted as it's read, and if a PDF is an image, it can convert the image to text provided there is an Internet connection.

In addition to the accessibility features for ease of reading it has a number of annotation features built-in so notes, highlights, drawings, and more can be added to the document and then saved.

Using ClaroPDF

You can open a PDF in ClaroPDF from directories on your iOS device or cloud services, like Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud, and One Drive. You can also take a picture and save it as a PDF using the camera. If the PDF is already text-based, the document will open in a window with a Play/Pause button located at the bottom center, which controls text-to-speech playback. Within Settings on ClaroPDF, speech preferences like voice and reading speed can be changed, as well as the look of the text being read. The appearance of the foreground text, background color, and the color used to highlight text are all customizable.

In this reading view, text is highlighted as it is read and scrolls automatically across the screen. I did not find a way to change the text size or to have the text wrap within the borders of the window.

Both iOS VoiceOver and Speech can be used to read the text in this view, instead of using the Play button, but text highlighting will not appear, unless the Play button is selected in the app.

The real usefulness of ClaroPDF is when an inaccessible PDF is opened—either from a directory or as an attachment to email. The file can be opened or shared with ClaroPDF. In this case a dialogue box opens and you are advised that the document is an image and contains no text. Options are provided to convert the PDF into an accessible PDF. This option requires a connection to the Internet, and in the free version requires that you have credits available for each page converted. The free version starts with plenty of credits to convert hundreds of pages, so this will not be an issue for the casual user.

During my use of the app, I found mixed results from this feature. Several times the conversion of the PDF took several minutes or reported an "error." Sometimes this error was resolved by just processing the PDF again. Other times the processing time took less than a minute for a 6-page document. I tried at various times of the day, using several internet connections. It is unclear if these errors and delays were just a result of an overloaded server or some other problem.

Once the document is processed, several options become available: you can save the new document, overwrite the inaccessible document with the accessible version, or you can read the new document. One of the advantages ClaroPDF has over other OCR software is that the processed document can be saved as an accessible PDF. Other apps will process a PDF or other image and read the text, but the processed document is usually in a text or rich text (RTF) format.

ClaroPDF will convert a camera image that includes text into an accessible PDF, as well. From the main menu, there is a button labeled "Add," and from the directory listings, a button labeled, "Create Document." Both options have a submenu that includes "From Camera," and "From Library." Choosing "From Camera" opens the camera. Once the picture is taken, two options are available, "Use" or "Cancel." I took a number of pictures while using the app, but it was unclear if they were saved, or in which directory they were saved. After I selected "Use" the app automatically reverted to the main ClaroPDF directory and the image file was not evident in this file folder or in the Photos app, where image files are usually stored in iOS.

An alternative route is to take a picture with the Camera app, which saves to Photos. Then the image will appear as part of the Library selection in ClaroPDF. So, instead of choosing the "From Camera," option from "Create Document," select "From Library," which opens Photos, where you can select the image and convert it into an accessible PDF.

It's worth noting that the "Use Camera," menu option does not offer guidance for centering a page of text in the window, like other OCR apps like Seeing AI or KNFB Reader do. Additionally, the software did not correct a skewed image, so the alignment of the document impacted the accuracy of the text recognition. Overall, when a page of text was aligned well, the accuracy of text recognition was quite good.

One of the handiest features built into Claro PDF is the cloud integration with several of the most popular services, as mentioned earlier. Files may be opened from these cloud directories, read with ClaroPDF text-to-speech, converted to accessible PDFs, and saved to the cloud service file directory. This feature might simplify the process of ensuring PDF files offered on a company or agency's cloud directory are accessible—just convert them first to text-based PDF files and save them to the cloud service.

ClaroPDF worked well with VoiceOver for the most part. During the review, two buttons on the main menu in the top right corner were not labeled. To the right of the "Add" button, the button that opened the most recently used files, and to the right of that, the button that opened the cloud menu options were both labeled simply as "Button."

For iOS users looking primarily for quick text recognition from a print document or an inaccessible PDF, ClaroPDF may not be the best choice. Other apps may be better suited for quickly lining up an image in the camera viewfinder and then consistently processing the image into text-to-speech. However, if it's important to save the document into an accessible PDF format, ClaroPDF becomes a better option. As a free app, ClaroPDF is a good tool for converting image-based PDF files into more accessible text-based PDFs. It's free, simple to use, works well with VoiceOver, and really performs best when converting an existing image-based PDF into an accessible PDF. For more information, be sure to check out the ClaroPDF website.

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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• A Comparison of Speak! and Envision AI, Two Text and Object Recognition Apps for Android by Steve Kelley

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September 2020 Table of Contents

Scott Davert

In the July 2020 issue of Access World, I reviewed the Mantis Q, the result of a collaboration between APH and Humanware. I pointed out that one of the Mantis Q's major highlights is the minimal learning curve for users. A built-in QWERTY keyboard means no longer needing to learn and use a set of braille-specific commands to emulate certain operating system or screen reader keystrokes. Turns out there's another company with similar visions of consumers spending less hands-on time with their command reference materials.

The QBraille XL is the latest 40-cell offering from HIMS, featuring a traditional Perkins-style keyboard, a full function row, modifier keys, and almost anything else not covering text entry. Onboard applications include a notepad, DAISY reader, alarm clock, calculator, and calendar. It supports six simultaneous Bluetooth connections and one USB connection.

Orientation

Orienting the QBraille with the Braille display closest to you, the layout is as follows. Along the right side, the USB-C port is closest to you. Behind this, you will find an SD Card slot. The QBraille XL supports SDHC Cards of up to 32 GB.

Along the back is the recessed Hard Reset button that must be activated by using a paperclip or other small object. The left side of the unit has the Power/Sleep/Wake button. Pressing it for a few seconds will either wake the QBraille up or put it to sleep; pressing it for five seconds will either shut it down or boot it up.

On the top surface and closest to you are 40 braille cells with their corresponding cursor routing buttons. At each end of the display are two buttons for scrolling. Behind the display, you will find the lower row of keys. However, the various keys on the QBraille XL are not in nice rows as a general rule. As such, we will first explore the keys on the far left surface. Closest to you is the Mode button, which allows you to toggle Hybrid Mode, above that is the Pairing key, and above that is Escape. To the right of the Paring Key is a column with four keys. From top to bottom, they are: Shift, Caps Lock, Tab, and F1. To the right of F1 are the rest of the Function keys. Every fourth function key has a tactile marking, with space between every group of four.

To the right of F12 is a traditional six-pack of keys arranged in a three-by-two grid. The left column from top to bottom is Insert, Home and End. The right column is Delete, Page Up, and Page down. Underneath the End key are the directional arrows in their logical positions.

The very bottom row is Control, Function, Windows, Alt, Space, Alt, Applications, and Control (Microsoft layout). For the Apple layout, the order is Function, Control, Option, Command, Space, Command, Option, and Control. Above this row are the remaining 8 keys of the standard Perkins keyboard.

What's In the Box?

The package you receive will include the QBraille XL, a 2 GB SD card, a USB C cable, power adaptor, the first two chapters of the manual in braille, and a protective carrying case with shoulder strap. The case has a solid build with access to all ports and buttons, allowing the device to be used on the go when opened. The cover is secured by a magnetic closure.

Options

After turning on the QBraille for the first time, you may wish to configure how it functions. When booting the device, you will be placed in the main menu, with the first option being the Notepad. To jump directly to Options, press O. Within the Options menu, you can set options for the type of braille for keyboard entry, reading, and your braille table. Ten languages are supported, along with US, UK, and UEB. You can also choose how the QBraille behaves upon startup, specifying if you wish to have it start at the Main Menu, with a newly opened document in Notepad, in Terminal Mode, or in the Calculator. Finally, there are options for Bluetooth, System Message Display Time, Power Saving Mode, One-Handed Mode, Keyboard Layout, Mass Storage Mode, and a few others. Many of these options are self-explanatory, and the manual is very thorough concerning these features.

Notepad

For users of the Braille Edge, another HIMS product, many functions will be very familiar. The Notepad is where you will be able to browse files located on the SD card. You can also copy or paste files to other folders, and view information about the file. If you have the option to view file information turned on in the Options menu, the particulars are available for each file automatically. Unlike the Scratchpad feature on the Focus series of displays, the QBraille also will display keyboard shortcuts for the Notepad and any other application if this option is turned on.

The keyboard command structure resembles that of Windows. To open a file, press Control + O on the Perkins-style keyboard. Control + N will create a new document. This is also the case with several editing commands such as copy, cut, paste, find, selecting text, and many more. There are also Perkins keyboard commands, and the ability to mark blocks of text on which you can then carry out any number of editing actions. Pressing Spacebar + M, or the Alt key, will take you into the Notepad's menu. Windows users will feel right at home as the menu structure closely resembles that of other typical text editors.

The QBraille supports the reading of BRF, BRL, TXT, RTF, DOCX and PDF files. It supports the saving and editing of TXT and BRL files. If you open any of the other formats mentioned and edit it, that file will be saved as a TXT file.

I loaded a text file that was 212.3 KB, which is the size of a small book, and it accurately displayed in contracted braille. The load time was around thirty seconds. Smaller files, such as the text of another article I'm writing that were about 9 KB in size, loaded in less than five seconds. Editing documents in text format is also a pleasant experience, as you can edit the newly translated document in contracted braille and then press Ctrl + S to save your changes. The translation and saving process took about 10 seconds when I made modifications to the 212 KB TXT file. With the aforementioned article, saving back to TXT took about 3 seconds. I opened a 309 KB RTF document and it took about 45 seconds to load. Note that very large text files can be read on the QBraille, but they will take significantly longer. I loaded a 3.45 MB TXT file, and it took approximately two minutes and fifteen seconds. DOCX files also take similar amounts of time to load and save. Regardless of size, BRF and BRL files seem to load nearly instantaneously.

The opening of PDF files takes considerably longer. I opened a document that was 129 pages and it took the QBraille nearly two minutes to load. A 12-page PDF file opened in thirty seconds. Note that even if the PDF document has structural elements such as headings, the QBraille will not carry those over when the PDF files are opened.

Reading without the option of modifying the open file is also done through the notepad. Use Ctrl + R to open the currently selected file in read only mode. This mode also provides a bookmarking feature. If you close the file you have been reading, the QBraille will remember your position.

DAISY Reader

In addition to all of the formats I've covered for reading material, the QBraille comes with a DAISY reader. This reader supports text-only DAISY files, and does not support DAISY audio content.

If you download a DAISY text-only book from Bookshare, extracting all of the files to the same folder allows you to read them on the QBraille. The QBraille supports the robust navigability offered by DAISY, which makes jumping through a book much more convenient if proper markup is used in the file.

Two of my favorite ways to jump through a DAISY book are by either heading or paragraph. While not necessarily useful when reading a novel, this method can make hierarchical navigation of an encyclopedia or textbook much easier. If each article or chapter is divided by heading level, I can quickly jump from heading to heading or in some cases, be even more granular. This is also true of content from NFB Newsline. While direct downloading is not possible from the QBraille, the advantage to using it is that you have shortcut keys that allow you to quickly jump among the available elements and then to jump from, say, paragraph to paragraph. While you can accomplish this through the menu system like you can on the Mantis, doing so is not necessary with the QBraille. Options are also available in the DAISY reader to add and delete bookmarks, find text, and go to a specific page. Load times for books were similar to the text-only version of the content.

Applications

The QBraille has a small set of applications that offer additional features, including a Calculator, Alarm Clock, Stopwatch, Timer and Calendar. A brief discussion about each will follow; details can be found in the manual.

The Calculator requires you use computer braille when typing. It can perform the basic four arithmetic operations, calculate percentages, and perform exponential operations. You can move through the different calculations by using the Arrow keys and delete the entries you do not want. You can then save the file, if you wish. You can also paste the calculations into the Notepad if you want them to be part of a document. If you are not accustomed to using computer braille, the manual has a list of the computer braille symbols that may assist.

The Timer and Stopwatch allow you to count down and add up time, respectively. You can start and stop the time elapsed and clear this as needed. I was hoping the timer would also vibrate when the time is up, but it only made noise. Vibratory feedback would also be helpful for anyone doing a timed presentation. Having the option to set the alert to vibrate only would discretely let the user know that time is up.

The Alarm application allows you to set an alarm to alert you during a designated time. I set three different alarms at different times of the day and they all went off when I left the unit asleep.

The Calendar allows you to create, edit, and delete appointments. You can also search your list of appointments, copy them to the clipboard, back them up, and restore them. I scheduled three different appointments using this application and was alerted when I had specified the alarm to sound. The option of vibration only would be helpful, as it could get the users attention without emitting a noise.

The Time and Date application allows you to set the time and date. All of these applications allow the user to utilize the keyboard commands found on the Braille Edge, but also include equivalent commands using the Arrow and Alt keys.

Connecting to External Devices

The QBraille is capable of connecting up to six Bluetooth devices and one USB connection to a computer. Unlike the Mantis, keyboard shortcuts are available to quickly jump among connected devices. The following evaluation was done using firmware version 2.4 20200702 of the QBraille. The QBraille supports many screen readers on Windows and supports earlier versions of iOS. For a complete list of the screen readers supported, please consult the manual. I do not have access to every screen reader the QBraille supports, but have used my available resources to test as many options as I could.

Windows

Before configuring the QBraille on any Windows device, you will need to first install the USB driver. After the driver has been successfully installed, you should be able to use your screen reader with the QBraille.

JAWS

Using JAWS 2020.2008.24 over a USB connection, I was able to type in contracted braille without issues. For output, I needed to set it up with JAWS after the driver installation. Using the standard installation process for JAWS, I did not encounter any challenges during set up. With some limitations, the QBraille functions as advertised. Most keyboard combinations function as if connected to a standard QWERTY keyboard. One exception is that if you have three windows open and wish to switch to the one most in the background, this does not work. Pressing Alt + Tab will allow you to switch to the window behind the one you are currently in, but pressing Alt + Tab again will take you back to the window from which you came. It doesn't matter how quickly you press the key combination, it's not possible to reach that third window. There are less productive ways to get to that third window, such as pressing insert F10 to pull up a list of available Windows, but Alt + Tab, when it functions correctly, is much more effective for me.

Bluetooth connectivity worked with some further limitations. While I can pan around the text, and edit it using the cursor routing buttons when on USB, this functionality does not work over Bluetooth. I tried with 2 different PCs with the same result. If I were someone who didn't mind being tethered to my computer with a USB cable, this would not be such a concern. However, if you plan to use Bluetooth with JAWS and the QBraille for editing, you can use your arrow keys, but all of those efforts to maneuver the cursor represent a serious efficiency hit. HIMS has indicated that they are aware of this bug, and that they will be issuing an update when it has been resolved.

NVDA

I used NVDA 2020.2 for this section. Though there is a delay between what I write and when it appears on the braille display, none of the input gets lost over either Bluetooth or USB. With contracted braille, there are still some random translation issues when editing, but it otherwise functions well. Just like with JAWS, the Alt + Tab combination does not allow the user to move to a third or fourth window. Unlike JAWS, I did not experience issues panning the braille display or using the Cursor Routing buttons while connected through Bluetooth.

VoiceOver on iOS

I used iOS 13.7 on an iPhone SE 2020 to evaluate the QBraille. if you wish to use the QBraille like a conventional display, you will still go to Settings > Accessibility > VoiceOver > Braille and pair the QBraille like any other display. If you wish to take advantage of Hybrid Mode, you will also need to pair the QBraille through Settings > Bluetooth. This is so that the other keys on the display function as they should. While in hybrid mode, I found that when setting my VoiceOver modifier key to Caps Lock, none of the VoiceOver-specific commands worked. Setting the VoiceOver modifier keys to Control and Option solved this issue. Hybrid Mode is particularly helpful for keyboard commands that are not VoiceOver-specific. If you wish to send an email, you can use Command + Shift + D. If you wish to execute the same command with the Perkins keyboard, you have to quickly press a sequence of three different key combinations.

Inevitably, and regardless of the display in use, contracted braille input will occasionally introduce additional layers of complexity into seemingly routine tasks. For example, I observed that single-letter QuickNav commands for Web documents did not work when using hybrid mode with the entry grade set to "US Contracted." The alternative is mapping my own commands, or performing the equivalent braille-specific commands outside of hybrid mode. Setting the braille entry grade to "Computer Braille eliminates this issue altogether.

The Mac

A MacBook Air 2020 running Mac OS 10.15.6 was used to conduct this evaluation. As with iOS, I found that using Caps Lock as a VoiceOver modifier key presented some challenges. Commands that include Shift do not reliably work. This behavior is only somewhat improved when using the device over USB. However, the Mac responded well when Control and Option were used over both protocols. Writing contracted braille using the hybrid mode presented a delay of a few seconds, but as with NVDA, no characters were missed even when typing rapidly. Operating in the standard (non-hybrid) mode, all conventional braille display commands appear to work as expected. Just like iOS, you must change the entry grade on the display to computer braille for the single-letter QuickNav commands to work.

Conclusion

With a few fixes, I feel that the QBraille could be a great contender for the more advanced screen reader user. HIMS has gone too great lengths to design a product that bridges the gap between paradigms, each with an abundance of idiosyncrasies. However, having to move in slower ways when I have more than two windows open gives me pause to consider the tradeoff. Further, as I am a Windows user who requires the use of JAWS for essential job duties, I would want to utilize the Bluetooth connectivity to its fullest advantage. The battery life of the QBraille seems to be between 16 to18 hours, which is quite impressive. The braille has a bit of a spongy feel to it, but is very sharp. I also appreciate the fact that HIMS continues to design their products with options for those who only have use of one hand. With a few fixes, I feel this device would suit the needs of customers like myself and many other more advanced users. At present, I'm choosing to remain cautiously optimistic that the issues mentioned above will be solved to offer even a more seamless experience.

Product Information

QBraille 40 XL

Manufacturer: HIMS Inc.

Cost: $3,195.00

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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• The BrailleNote Touch Plus: Competitive Technology with a Nostalgic Feel by Deborah Kendrick
• A Review of the Braille Me Braille Display from Inovision by Scott Davert

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• Counting Money: A Look at EyeNote, MCT Money Reader, Cash Reader, and Seeing AI iOS
• iHearit: a Review of MFi-Supported Hearing Aids From a VoiceOver User's Perspective

September 2020 Table of Contents

Bill Holton

Are you still using Internet Explorer (IE) as your sole Windows 10 Web browser? If so, then you are likely also discovering that a growing number of websites just aren't working properly with your favorite screen reader. It's not just screen reader users that are having trouble keeping up. Fewer pages are rendering properly for sighted users, as well. As a matter of fact, Microsoft, the developer of IE has been advising users for years to forgo that browser in favor of other browsers. The most popular of these is Google Chrome. In the March 2020 issue of AccessWorld we reviewed an excellent text and audio tutorial for Chrome, which took an extensive look at using this popular Web browser with JAWS and NVDA. There are two other major accessible Web browsers: Mozilla Firefox and the new Microsoft Edge, which is slated to replace IE at some point. It looks like IE will be available, though not featured, in versions of Windows 10 for the indefinite future, but it's performance will continue to degrade. Consequently, if your only Web browser is still IE, it's time to start previewing, evaluating, and using other Web browsers. After all, it's easier to learn something new when you can instead of when you have to.

So, which non-IE browser is best for running with a screen reader? Let me answer that question with a resounding "it depends."

Chrome, Firefox, and the new Microsoft Edge each have strong points, weaknesses, and accessibility issues. As happens with competing screen readers, each of these browsers vies to be the first to add new features and enhancements, each of which may not play well with your screen reader of choice. Consequently, just as it's wise to become familiar with the basics of at least two of the big three screen readers JAWS, NVDA and Microsoft Narrator—these days it's becoming equally critical to be able to use multiple browsers.

To that end, let's take a look at a new Carroll Center offering, When One Web Browser Is Not Enough: A Guide for Windows Screen Reader Users, penned by Assistive Technology Instructor David Kingsbury.

Kingsbury's book takes a detailed look at the four major Web browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, IE, and the New Microsoft Edge. By "new" we mean the second release. The initial release of Edge came with Windows 10. It was, shall we say, less than successful. It also had some profound accessibility issues. In January of 2020 Microsoft released a completely revamped Windows 10 browser, but kept the name Edge. This new incarnation is based on the Chromium open-source project. Chromium also forms the basis of Google Chrome, so the new Edge acts and responds similarly to Chrome. Meanwhile, Mozilla Firefox has charted a different course, featuring enhanced privacy. This is logical. Google and Microsoft are in the business of collecting and compiling user data, where Mozilla is not.

Productivity! Productivity! Productivity!

As with most mainstream apps paired with a screen reader, to become productive, the novice user must learn twice as much. The first thing to master is the Web browser itself, but you will also need to learn the commands that will enable your screen reader to interact with the browser and voice the app's menus and data. Happily, as Kingsbury states, "Once you are familiar with web navigation with one browser, the learning curve is not steep for becoming comfortable with the others. Most of the navigation keys and shortcuts are identical between browsers when using JAWS, NVDA, and Narrator."

All of the mentioned browsers use the Tab key to accessibly move from link to link, for example, and each of the screen readers uses the quick navigation key H to navigate heading by heading through webpages. The program methods the various browsers and screen readers use to accomplish these tasks can vary, however--resulting in uneven levels of response and accessibility. Encounter an access roadblock with a particular webpage/screen reader combination? The chances are good to excellent that swapping out your browser, screen reader, or browser/reader combination will ease you through the bypass. Which is the whole point of this book: becoming sufficiently familiar with multiple browsers and screen readers so you can pick and choose as needed.

Getting Started

When One Browser Is Not Enough begins with an overview of the various browsers and screen readers, how their popularity has waxed and waned over the years into the current status where Chrome reigns supreme with both sighted and blind users. Meanwhile, NVDA has pulled well ahead of JAWS as the screen reader of choice. The author follows up with a chapter entitled "What is Accessibility?" where he dives into an extensive discussion of the World Wide Web Consortium and their Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, more commonly known as WCAG. I think much of this detailed material would have been better presented in an appendix. It's pretty meaty stuff, and considering the next chapter discusses "Entering and Exiting Screen Reader Programs," we must assume at least part of the market for this book is the newly blind individual who is just beginning their screen reader journey. Such users will want to get started browsing from the get-go.

Veteran Users

Veteran screen reader and browser users may wish to skim Chapter 3, "Keystrokes for Reading and Navigating Web Content Pages," and jump directly to Chapter 4: "Menu Overviews and Switching Between Browsers." For experienced users this chapter is the very heart of the book. Kingsbury himself states that most of the browser and screen reader commands to navigate and speak Web content are similar from combination to combination of browsers and readers. The most noticeable differences are within the menu structures and other command locations and hotkey sequences. Here I agree wholeheartedly. Until recently I rarely used the new Edge, mostly because I am already comfortable on how to find, say, Internet Options in IE and the extensions list in Chrome. It was easier to "go with what I know." If you find your browser use similarly constrained, this chapter will definitely help widen your Web knowhow.

Beginning with menu navigation, When One Browser Is Not Enough goes on to describe the various ways the four browsers handle features such as favorites/bookmarks, downloads, reader views, password saving, browsing history, extensions/add-ons, and more. In short, everything the user needs to know to switch effortlessly back and forth between each browser as needed. Most of these sections include separate subsections offering tips for each of the main screen readers. Kingsbury states that whenever you have an accessibility glitch with a website, your first move should be to unload your screen reader and try another. If that doesn't work, switch browsers to see if one of your screen readers works better with it. Again, it's best to learn these new skills when you can, not when you have to, especially if your job or classwork depend on it.

The Bottom Line

This book is well-organized overall, and the author does an excellent job of taking you through some fairly complex concepts. I was particularly heartened to see sections devoted to JAWS Flexible Web and NVDA's Document Formatting and Browse Mode Dialog boxes, topics that are not often covered, despite their usefulness.

Beginner screen access users will benefit greatly from this book if for no other reason than they will learn from the start not to rely on a single browser or screen reader. Experienced screen access users may also mine a useful nugget or two about their favorite browser/reader combination. Even better, the book may prove to be just the impetus these users need to broaden their browser and screen reader horizons.

Product Information

When One Web Browser Is Not Enough: A Guide for Windows Screen Reader Users,,101 pages, available in MS Word and BRF formats for $20.

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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• Listen up! A Review of When Your Ears Can't Help You See: Strategies for Blind or Low Vision Individuals with Hearing Loss, by Deborah Kendrick by Bill Holton
• 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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September 2020 Table of Contents

The American Printing House for the Blind revamps APH ConnectCenter, Home of FamilyConnect, CareerConnect, and More

In 2018, the American Printing House for the Blind (APH) took over stewardship of several important information resources that connect people who are blind, or losing their vision, to information and resources. Since then, APH has transitioned websites to APH servers, hired the staff needed to move the program forward, and updated and written new content for users. Lots of changes are still to come, including redesigned websites. Here's what APH has been working on:

FamilyConnect

Familyconnect.org is a place parents and professionals can get support and advice on raising or teaching a child with a visual impairment. Through funding provided by the Lavelle Fund for the Blind, Inc., the ConnectCenter staff has been hard at work, connecting with new authors to write more blogs and professional articles. APH has teamed up with parents and professionals who will provide not only expertise and information, but also encouragement. FamilyConnect is also using funding from the Lavelle Fund to offer webinars that provide panels of parents and experts that users can engage with through interactive Zoom meetings.

VisionAware

Visionaware.org is a place for adults who are visually impaired or who are losing their vision, and the people who love and care for them. It's where you'll find information on eye conditions, and blogs about how to use assistive technology, and adjust to life with vision loss. An exciting project coming from VisionAware is "Getting Started 2020: A Guide for People New to Vision Loss." Created with funding provided by the Reader's Digest Partners for Sight Foundation, Getting Started is a resource updated with new information and filled with tips and techniques that will help people learning to navigate vision loss.

CareerConnect

Aphcareerconnect.org is an employment information resource that can help connect job seekers with vision loss to the resources they need to get a job. The APH ConnectCenter is excited to announce the relaunch of CareersWithVision. APH is working with National Industries for the Blind to link job seekers to open positions at NIB associated agencies.

Information and Referral Line

The ConnectCenter I&R line is an 800 number that connects people across the U.S. and Canada with resources in their area. The call line now has expanded hours, taking calls from 8am-8pm EST. Call 1-800-232-5463.

ConnectCalendar

This brand-new calendar can be found at aphconnectcenter.org, but it belongs to the field of blindness. The calendar is a place people or organizations can share information about events taking place across the country.

New Director of the APH ConnectCenter

APH has hired Olaya Landa-Vialard as the new Director of the APH ConnectCenter. As a long-time educator, professor, and author, she has the expertise and energy needed to make the ConnectCenter an even greater resource.

CSUN 2021 Conference to be Entirely Virtual

Next year, the 2021 CSUN Assistive Technology Conference will be an entirely virtual event. CSUN stated that although this was not an easy decision, the Center on Disabilities team, with input from CSUN advisors and conference colleagues were confident that this was the right way forward after considering all options.

The team anticipates that there will be questions about what the 2021 CSUN Conference will look like, and they ask for patience and cooperation as they shift planning and begin to work on this new format.

The CSUN conference website will be updated throughout the coming months as new details are finalized, and the Conference Team encourages you to check back frequently.

Important Note: All Calls for Presentations will proceed as usual. As a reminder, the General Call for Presentations is September 10-29 and the Call for Pre-Conference Workshops is August 20–September 29. Information on procedures for the Calls will be communicated shortly so you are encouraged to check the conference website and make sure you are on the conference mailing list for news specific to the Calls for Presentations.