Dear AccessWorld readers,

I feel like time flies these days. It seems like just yesterday that I took over AccessWorld in July 2020 but a year has already passed. The summer is also already half over. In just a few short weeks, many of our readers will be returning to school or university. As usual, this month we bring you our Back to School issue of AccessWorld.

If you are someone with a visual impairment, the transition from school to university can seem daunting. Many are going from a school where the state is legally providing all of their books and assignments in an accessible format and where they have access to an advocate in their Teacher of the Visually Impaired (TVI), to a place where they are alone and must advocate for themselves to receive accommodations. That being said, there are numerous resources aimed at preparing the new college student with a visual impairment for university life. I wanted to take this space to provide you with some of these resources.

I always recommend that you check out our previous article on college transition, Educational Resources and Tips from the AFB Information and Referral Center . This article has been periodically updated since its initial publication in 2010; the majority of the information contained in the piece is evergreen and quite useful. I had the opportunity to hear a presentation by Veronica Lewis, a recent university graduate and active accessibility advocate who also publishes a very helpful blog called Veronica with Four Eyes. She has published articles of interest to the new university student and I have collected some of those that I thought would benefit AccessWorld readers below:

• SEEING THE FUTURE: A PROPOSED RESOURCE FOR STUDENTS WITH VISION IMPAIRMENTS
• Ten Questions To Ask When Choosing A Virtual Class
• Online Activities That Help Prepare For College Transition
• Questions To Ask When Choosing A Laptop For College

Veronica also frequently will include related links from her blog under sections of each post. For example, in the first post linked above, she will link posts detailing the topics she describes in her outline of her proposed website.

The Perkins eLearning website contains resources and information for the prospective student. Also, keep an eye on Perkins programs, as they will often host courses and programs to give students or young adults with vision loss experience in college or the workplace. Also I would recommend the APH CareerConnect Transition to College: Program Activity Guide. This detailed guide will take you through the process of preparing for university and is also designed so that it will be useful as a teaching tool for TVIs. CareerConnect is a great resource for anyone attending college or seeking employment. The website is full of thorough information on any topic relating to employment specifically, but also includes college resources. Even though it is focused on employment, this article by former AFB employee Joe Strechay has great information on working with your state's vocational rehabilitation program. Even though they are focused on employment, I found taking part in my state's program was helpful for the possible assistive technology funding that you might be able to receive.

As always, I love to hear your comments. If you attended a postsecondary education program, how was the experience for you? Is there anything you would like to share with other AccessWorld readers that you found particularly important on your journey through college or university? Let us know!

Sincerely,

Aaron Preece

AccessWorld Editor-in-Chief

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Steve Kelley

One of the most painful things to hear from clients with a vision loss acquired later in life is that they stopped using the computer or discontinued a lifelong passion for the newspaper or reading because of vision loss. It's painful to hear because there are so many options for accessing the computer screen or print, with or without sight.

Low-Tech Options

Let's start with a quick look at some devices that don't require a computer or smartphone.

Magnifiers

The simplest and often the most effective is a good handheld magnifier with a glass lens and a light built in. The best magnifiers are not going to be in your local retail store. Instead, you'll find them through a low vision doctor or vision rehab professional, like a vision rehabilitation therapist. These professionals can provide an assessment and let you know what type and magnifying power will be best for your vision. To find a professional, look up your state in the VisionAware Directory of Services. Once you know what you need, purchase through the professional or agency, or order online from a low vision retailer like LS&S Products or Maxi Aids. Another type of magnifier is the video magnifier, an electronic magnifier that is available in sizes from handheld to desktop units. Video magnifiers come with a variety of features and often have user-friendly controls. A video magnifier uses a camera to magnify text on a screen and can change the foreground and background colors to make it easier to read. Many can also convert the text into electronic spoken text and read the documents or text in the camera view. These vary in price from $400 or more for a handheld video magnifier to over $3,000 for a desktop video magnifier. Like the handheld magnifiers, you may want to check in with a vision rehab professional to see which features will most benefit you. These too can be found at both LS&S, MaxiAids, and other low vision retailers.

Reading Services

Other low-tech reading options include the National Library Service (NLS) Talking Books program, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) NEWSLINE, and Radio Reading Services. NLS Talking Books, 1-888-657-7323, is a US federal program for anyone with a print disability, which can be accessed through each state's library service. Books are available in large print, audio, and braille formats. Audio books are mailed to patrons on cartridges that can be listened to on an easy-to-use electronic reader provided at no cost. When the book is finished, the cartridge is sent back to the library in a postage-paid shipping container. For patrons who use a smartphone, tablet, or computer, books can be downloaded and read on these devices using their BARD service. In Canada, the Center for Equitable Library Access (CELA) offers similar services, and can be reached by phone at 1-1-855-655-2273.

NFB NEWSLINE, 866-504-7300, is available in most states, and offers no-cost access to hundreds of newspapers and magazines. Like Talking Books, this service is available to individuals with a print disability. Subscribers can listen to their favorite newspapers or magazines by dialing an access number on their telephone and using the phone's number pad to navigate through the menus. This can be done with a landline or a smartphone. For more tech-savvy users, there are apps and Web services available to allow subscribers to download or get content delivered directly to their computers, pod catchers, or an Amazon Echo.

Radio Reading Services or Audio Information Services broadcast local and national publications over the air, like a radio station, over the internet, or both. The readers are often volunteers. For listeners who live within broadcast distance, a radio receiver might be provided, or the station may be received on your TV's secondary audio channel. Many broadcast over the internet, and are available through a computer, or by knowing how to ask for one on an Amazon Echo. To find an Audio Information Service, check out the directory on the International Association of Audio Information Services. For a list of those available with the Amazon Echo, download a list of Radio Reading Services on a Smart Speaker.

Bookshare is another excellent resource for accessible books and magazines. Books are downloaded to a computer, tablet, or smartphone to read, so users must have some proficiency with these devices. An annual subscription fee of $24-$50 is required for non-students. Students subscribe free. As a subscriber, there is no cost to download books and magazines (up to 100 books per month).

Reading Screens with Low Vision

Whether you are using a computer, smartphone, or tablet, there are most likely several ways to change the text size, magnify the screen, or use text-to-speech to read text out loud. The trick is to find out what accessibility options are on the device and which work best for the task at hand.

In addition to the accessibility options built into each device, there are often other apps or programs that may add more features. For example, a very popular screen magnification and text-to-speech program for Windows is Vispero's ZoomText, and a popular app for the iPhone or iPad is Microsoft's Seeing AI.

Here are some of the accessibility features found right on the devices you might be using.

Reading Print with Windows 10

Microsoft has dramatically ramped up their accessibility features in Windows 10. Microsoft's screen reader, Narrator, has been around for many years, but its updates in the last two years have made it much more robust. Narrator can be opened through the Ease of Access settings by pressing Windows + U, or by turning Narrator on with the keyboard shortcut Windows + Ctrl + Enter. This shortcut is a toggle that turns Narrator off or on.

As a screen reader, Narrator uses a set of commands to enable whatever is on the computer display to be read out loud. The screen reader also permits a high level of audio interaction with computer applications. For example, you can read a document and edit the document using text-to-speech.

While a screen reader may be useful in some situations for a low vision user, magnification with occasional text-to-speech may be a better fit. Like Narrator, Microsoft's Magnifier has undergone some significant changes in Windows 10, with one of the biggest being the addition of a Reading feature.

Windows Magnifier is turned on with the shortcut Windows + Plus Sign (+). With Magnifier on, the display is magnified and the Magnifier settings can be opened from the Task Bar. The Magnifier can be used in different modes, to magnify a rectangular portion of the screen that can be moved around, like a handheld magnifier, a docked rectangular portion of the screen, or full screen mode. Full screen is this writer's preference, but it takes some time to adjust to. The magnified view is of one portion of the screen, and to see other parts of the screen, the mouse pointer must be moved to scroll around the screen.

Regardless of the mode chosen, the magnification can be increased with the shortcut Windows + Plus Sign (+) or decreased with Windows + minus sign. In settings, the increment of change may be customized. By default, the increment moves by a power of one, so pressing Windows + Plus Sign (+) will increase the magnification by 1X.

As a screen magnifier user for many years, I've found that selecting the smallest increment of change, .25X, and using the mouse wheel combined with the shortcut Windows + Alt to increase or decrease the magnification provides the greatest flexibility. I will often change the magnification level frequently depending on the task, and this permits it to be done quickly with just the right amount of magnification.

With the magnifier turned on, text is easier to read visually, but because it is larger, and less is displayed on the screen, scrolling sometimes becomes necessary and there may be some eye fatigue with many vision impairments. This is where the new Reading feature becomes so handy. Unlike Narrator, the Magnifier reader has fewer reading options, but this makes it very easy to use. Ctrl + Alt + Enter will start and pause the reader, and pressing any key will stop it. You can select a starting point to read from by pressing Ctrl + Alt while pressing the left mouse button. By default, while the Magnifier Reader is reading, the word being spoken is highlighted in a blue rectangle.

The Windows Magnifier is not the only way to enlarge text on the screen. Digging into the Ease of Access Settings in Windows will turn up options to change font and icon sizes, customize foreground and background colors—all of which may improve the ability to read print on the screen. Overall, the Windows Magnifier provides the ability to quickly change display size, read text out loud with another shortcut, invert the colors, and add additional contrast. When the Magnifier is on, the keyboard shortcut, Ctrl + Alt + I, will toggle Invert Color off and on, so it can be used just as needed.

Reading Print on macOS

The Apple operating system, macOS, like Windows, has built-in accessibility features for accessing text more easily. To open the Accessibility menu, open the Apple menu, choose System Preferences, then select Accessibility. The macOS Accessibility options are similar to many of those found in the Ease of Access Settings in Windows, and include the screen magnifier Zoom, the screen reader, VoiceOver, and a number of other settings to customize the font size, contrast, and brightness of the display.

Zoom is enabled with the keyboard shortcut Option + Command + 8. Magnification can be increased with Option + Command + Equal Sign (=). Decreasing magnification is done with the shortcut Option + Command + Minus Sign (-). As mentioned above, with the Windows Magnifier, in Zoom settings, this writer set the magnification increments to a smaller setting than the default, and enabled screen magnification increases and decreases using the shortcut of Option + the mouse scroll wheel. This allows for quickly zooming in or out of something on the screen.

Apple's screen reader, VoiceOver, has been a solid full-featured screen reader for many years, with diehard fans. VoiceOver can be turned on using the keyboard shortcut Command + F5 or asking Siri to "Turn on/off VoiceOver." Like Windows Narrator, VoiceOver can be used with or without Zoom for reading, editing, and interacting with applications. While VoiceOver may be a great option for many low vision readers looking for a text-to-speech reader, MacOS contain a simpler text-to-speech feature in the Speech option, in Accessibility. Select the checkbox labeled, "Speak selected text when the key is pressed." The default shortcut is Option + Esc. To use this feature, text is first selected, then read using the shortcut keys. In the Speech settings, various voices may be selected and the speech rate customized.

One of the handiest features for those needing greater contrast on the display, is Invert Colors. This can be enabled in the Display Settings in Accessibility. Some users will find the keyboard shortcut Control + Option + Command + 8 will toggle this off and on, as needed. If this doesn't work on your computer by default, go to System Preferences and open the Keyboard Settings. Choose Accessibility, then enable the shortcut for Invert Colors.

Accessing Print on Apple iOS (iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch)

Like Apple's laptop and desktop computers, Apple's tablets and phones using the mobile iOS operating system have accessibility features built in, and can be enabled from the Settings menu. iOS includes a screen reader called VoiceOver, a screen magnifier, Zoom, and numerous other features to increase the font size and add contrast to the display.

VoiceOver in iOS provides complete access to the device with text-to-speech. Like VoiceOver on the Mac, and Narrator on Windows, there is a bit more of a learning curve because of the many gestures used to operate all these features. VoiceOver can also be used with the Zoom magnifier to provide spoken text for the low vision user who may only need a screen reader from time to time. VoiceOver can be quickly turned off and on using Siri, "Turn VoiceOver on/off," or by pressing the Power button three times quickly (if the phone has a Home button, press the Home button three times quickly instead of the Power button).

iOS also includes two other features for text-to-speech that are very useful for the low vision user. In the Accessibility Menu, open Vision, then Spoken Content. Find Speak Screen and Speak Selection. Both features enable text-to-speech as needed, with fewer features and a shorter learning curve. Speak Selection adds a menu option to those shown when text is highlighted. Choosing Speak from the menu options provided when text is highlighted will read the highlighted text. Speak Screen, when enabled, reads text from the top of the document to the bottom, with a two-finger swipe down the screen. A dialog box opens when speech is started to play or pause the speech, move forward or backward in the document, or change the rate at which the document is read. The dialog box with the controls minimizes after several seconds to a small icon on the side of the document that can be reopened, as needed, to access the controls again.

Both Speak Screen and Speak Selection are ideal if you primarily navigate the phone visually, and prefer a quick text-to-speech option for reading text. Speak Screen and Speak Selection have fewer text-to-speech options and are easier to use in some ways then VoiceOver. For example, VoiceOver has all the features needed for editing a document—reading line by line, character by character, a key echo when typing and so much more. Speak Screen and Speak Selection offer very basic text reading functions, which for many reading tasks will be far more efficient than reading visually.

In addition to the Accessibility Settings in iOS it's worth mentioning the Magnifier app, built into the latest versions of the iOS operating system. This app provides many of the features found on a handheld video magnifier. Text viewed through the camera can be increased or decreased in size, and the colors of the foreground and background optimized for better contrast.

Lastly, third-party apps, like Microsoft's Seeing AI or KNFB Reader make printed text much more accessible. Using the camera, print is converted into electronic text, which can then be read out loud. With these apps, sections of a book, magazine articles, business documents, and more, can be quickly read, in many cases more easily than using a handheld magnifier.

Reading Print with Android

Tablets and smartphones using the Android operating system also have some really powerful accessibility features built in. Because Android is an open source operating system, different phone manufacturers will provide different features on their phones. The full-featured screen reader on Android is TalkBack. Like VoiceOver, it provides text-to-speech features throughout the device and many apps.

For the low vision user needing extra magnification in the screen display, the Accessibility menu in Settings provides Magnification, Magnifier Window, and a variety of other options increase and decrease font size, and enhance color preferences for better contrast. With the Magnifier enabled in Settings, for example, a triple-tap to the screen will magnify the screen, and a pinch gesture will increase or decrease the magnification on the display.

For text-to-speech reading, TalkBack can be enabled, with or without magnification, using the shortcut of pressing both the volume up and down buttons at the same time for about three seconds, or using the Google Assistant to turn TalkBack on, "Hey Google, turn TalkBack on" (it should be noted that this feature stopped working with the last operating system update, and will presumably be fixed at some point in the future). TalkBack, like the other screen readers, has many features and provides full text-to-speech access to the device. All these features, of course, mean a bit of a learning curve for the low vision user, who may just want simple text-to-speech for efficiently reading an email or webpage.

One feature, Select to Speak, may be enabled in the Accessibility Settings. Select to Speak provides a small icon on the lower right corner of the screen, when added to the Accessibility Menu. Touching this icon opens a menu with a Play and Stop icon. Press Play, and the screen is read from top to bottom. The menu can also be expanded to access a Settings icon, where settings may be customized for speech rate and pitch. Keep in mind, Select to Speak has fewer features than TalkBack, so it's of no use for editing. When Play is selected, a menu opens to Pause and Skip forward or backward in the text.

Although it is not built into the Android operating system, the Voice Reading app, when installed, enables more selective reading, much like the iOS Select to Speak feature. Highlight text to read, select Share from the menu, then choose the Voice Reading app from the list (you may initially have to add Voice Reading to the list of apps that text can be shared with). The advantage of Voice Reading over Select to Speak, is that Select to Speak reads everything from the top of the page to the bottom, and Voice Reading lets you choose the text to read by highlighting it.

There are several apps available for Android that can make print much easier to read. Lookout by Google, works in much the same way as Seeing AI, with options for reading short bits of text as the camera is moved over print, or to read an entire document. Speak! too will process and read back a document and reformat it into high contrast large print text on the screen (see AccessWorld's comparison of Speak! and Envision AI](https://www.afb.org/aw/20/8/16738) in the August 2020 issue). Both LookOut by Google and Speak! are free apps.

Reading Print Again

This really just scratches the surface of the many options available for reading with low vision. Reading and using computers, phones, and tablets with a display presents a unique challenge for the user with a vision loss acquired later in life. Chances are, prior to the vision loss, you used few, if any, of the accessibility features or reading services described in this article. In fact, you may not have even heard of any of them. Like any adaptation or new skill, these features may take a bit of practice and some patience, but the bottom line here is that whatever your vision, you can get back to reading print, and to using your smartphone and computer with some of these low vision accessibility features. Best of all, you'll find many built right into the devices you have at home.

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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Judy Dixon

Those of us who are braille readers are keenly aware of what a treasure this skill is. Braille enables us to quickly access information, see how words are spelled, enjoy the structure of a poem, and even read a musical score or a complex scientific formula.

Some beginning or struggling braille readers have not quite gotten to the point where reading a braille document is effortless and enjoyable. Many might like to be faster, more efficient braille readers, but experienced instructors are scarce, and, for many, the way forward is not entirely clear.

If you are such a braille reader, don't despair. With a little effort, braille can become the valued treasure that you hear so much about. It sometimes happens that the process of recognizing characters can take so much of your attention that you have no idea what you just read—that can be frustrating! But developing good finger and hand movement techniques and getting some much-needed reading practice under your belt can go a long way to improving your braille reading experience. There are many strategies that can be used to read faster and more efficiently.

There are several good reasons why a braille reader may want to improve and become a faster, more efficient reader of braille. Apart from the personal pleasure of a very self-contained, private reading experience, studies have shown that employment rates for people who are blind and who read braille are significantly higher than for those who do not read braille.

The process of learning to read braille is similar to learning to read print, with a few major differences, especially for children. Sighted children engage in a great deal of casual, non-structured learning when it comes to learning to read. Print is everywhere—street signs, cereal boxes, kitchen appliances, and even in the books that parents read aloud. But blind children have little access to similar opportunities for incidental learning. Parents of blind children are advised to place braille labels all over the house and I certainly hope that many do this, but even that can't come close to the amount of print that a sighted child sees in the course of a typical day.

As with print, braille can be read on paper or from a screen. For braille, the screen is a refreshable braille display. Reading on paper gives the reader more flexibility in finger positioning and hand movement, but refreshable braille displays can offer electronic means to help increase reading speed and efficiency

Reading Braille on Paper

The mechanics of reading braille on paper are very important. Finger placement, hand movement, and even just how you touch the paper can all contribute greatly to successful braille reading. Research shows that the fastest braille readers use both hands, move across lines with a smooth, fluid motion, and use a light touch.

Finger Positioning and Hand Movement

Learning to read braille involves learning good use of your fingers and hands. It's important to use the right part of the fingers. Braille is not read with the very end of the finger but rather with the more sensitive part just behind the tip of the finger. If you lay your hand flat on a page of braille with all the fingers pointing straight ahead, the part of the finger near the tip that is not touching the paper will be the sensitive pad that is best for braille reading.

Over the years, there have been many different ways of teaching optimal finger position and hand movements for reading braille. Some have been taught to use a single finger, some have been taught to read with two index fingers, keeping their hands together all the way across the line. The two index fingers read the same line together, make the return trip together, and together they find the beginning of the next line. Others have been taught to use multiple fingers.

There has been a great deal of research on best practices for finger placement and hand movement, and the results of these studies are fairly consistent. Generally, braille is read with two fingers, the index fingers. But studies have shown that other fingers are capable of recognizing braille characters. Many braille readers believe that using three or four fingers is helpful.

A technique used by many fast braille readers is called the scissors method. In this way of reading braille, you use both hands to read. The left hand reads the first half or so of the line, then the right hand takes over and reads the remainder of the line while the left hand goes back and locates the beginning of the next line, and begins to read it as soon as the previous line is finished. With this method, you don't lose time locating the next line of text.

Slower braille readers often go back and reread characters and sometimes move their fingers up and down over the same characters, a behavior that educators call "scrubbing." It's critical to develop a fluid motion, moving fingers smoothly across the line of braille. You should be very mindful of any movement of the fingers that is not forward and work to eliminate any scrubbing.

Some teachers also encourage braille readers to read braille with their dominant hand. Many good braille readers actually read braille with their non-dominant hand (a right-handed person using the left hand to read braille, for example). But research has not shown hand dominance to be a significant factor when predicting braille reading speed.

Lightness of Touch

It's understandable to think that when you are having trouble doing something if you just do it harder, it will work better. If you're having trouble recognizing braille characters, you might press harder on the paper, hoping that will help you feel the dots.

Although it may not seem intuitive, it's easier to recognize braille characters when you touch the paper very lightly. Braille reading requires only enough pressure to successfully track straight across a line. To demonstrate this, try running your index finger across something that has some texture, such as a piece of clothing made of corduroy, or a dinner plate with a pattern on it. If you press your fingers down firmly and move them across the texture, it is difficult to feel the shape of the pattern. If you move your fingers very lightly, the pattern of the texture becomes much easier to discern.

A Seemingly Good Idea that Doesn't Actually Work

Let's take a moment and talk about something that many people think would improve braille reading speed and efficiency but, in fact, research has not shown it to be effective: jumbo and large cell braille. Jumbo braille uses larger dots in an oversized cell and large cell braille uses standard-sized dots in an oversized cell. There are braille slates, braille writers, and even braille embossers that are capable of producing these types of braille.

These forms of braille have proven to be useful for people with tactile deficits who use them to read very small amounts of braille, but larger dots and oversized cells have not been found to help those with a typical sense of touch, because the most sensitive part of the finger is not big enough to read the full character. Oversized cells encourage scrubbing, which is a deterrent to good reading habits and makes the reading process take much longer.

Reading Braille on a Braille Display

As computers became widely available in the 1980s and 1990s, it was suggested by many that this would reduce the availability and use of braille. But, as the cost of braille displays has dropped dramatically and braille displays have become more widely available, this has not proven to be the case.

More and more braille is being read on an electronic braille display. In many situations, a braille display can offer some unique opportunities for increasing braille reading speed and efficiency.

Those who use a braille display with a computer or smartphone can use a feature called auto-scroll or auto-advance, where braille characters are advanced automatically at a rate that is controlled by the user. This feature is available in JAWS and NVDA for Windows and also in VoiceOver running on iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers.

Let's have a look at the auto-advance feature in iOS. By default, there is no shortcut key to turn on auto-advance. In iOS, it's possible to define braille commands for Enable Auto Advance, Increase Auto Advance Speed, and Decrease Auto Advance Speed. You can do this once you have paired your braille display. Go to the braille display under Braille in VoiceOver settings, swipe down with one finger, double tap on More Info, double tap on Braille Commands, and then double tap on Braille. Here you will find many commands. Some of these will already have gestures assigned and some will be available for you to set a gesture for their use. After you assign a gesture to enable auto advance, you can turn it on any time you are reading text.

The default auto-advance duration is 5 seconds, which will keep the same line of braille on the display for 5 seconds before advancing to the next line. This may be long for many people. If you are a reasonably experienced braille reader, you might start by setting this to 2 seconds for a 40-cell display and 1 second for a 20-cell display. After reading at an auto-advance speed you are comfortable with, you can begin to decrease it slowly to get yourself more used to reading faster.

This same feature is available in the BARD Mobile app both for iOS and Android. In BARD Mobile, it is called auto-scroll. You can enable it by going into the app's settings and selecting Braille and Display Settings, where you can change Braille Auto-scroll from off to on. Once turned on, you can set the time per line (the default is 1,500 milliseconds) and Time per Character (the default is 50 milliseconds). The time for the total number of characters on the line is added to the time per line amount.

Increasing Your Reading Speed

In the world of print reading, speed-reading courses are a multi-million dollar industry. The infamous Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics course became popular in the 1960s and, since then, hundreds of similar courses have exploded onto the scene. Mark Seidenberg, a leading cognitive scientist who has spent his career researching reading, discusses the claims of speed reading courses in his excellent book, Language at the Speed of Sight. Even though he is talking about print reading, there are similarities to braille reading in his discussion. He concludes that although most people are able to modestly increase their reading speed, they did so because they focused their attention on reading, set aside time for it, and eliminated distractions. These are all good things to do when trying to improve reading skills.

While he concludes that the claims that such courses can teach people to read thousands of words per minute are bogus at best, he does say that a primary technique taught in these courses, skimming, can be a very useful strategy to cover certain types of material where you don't necessarily need to understand every single thing but just need to get the gist of what is being said.

In the 1970s, Dr. Vearle McBride, a braille teacher at the Utah School for the Blind, developed a curriculum for teaching braille speed reading. He conducted ten-day workshops at several schools around the country and his claims at the time were fairly impressive.

The basics of his approach were to have participants begin by moving their hands very rapidly over braille pages. They could move in any direction without regard for recognizing words. Then they refined this to scanning lines but were instructed to do this very rapidly without regard for recognition. Then they began recognizing words, only a few words at first, just to get the overall idea of the content of the document. Then they were instructed to recognize more and more words, while continuing to move their hands rapidly across the text.

Through all of this, they were encouraged not to verbalize the words they were reading, a practice called subvocalization. This is the practice of saying the words to yourself as you read. Seidenberg's research also debunked the idea that subvocalization slows reading speed. He concludes that this practice is common among highly skilled readers. It does not slow a reader down when reading because the words are not actually spoken out loud.

Later studies of McBride's methods found that the results were questionable, primarily because of his atypical methods of measuring reading speed. Other studies during that same era simply measured the reading rates of braille readers who were told to read as fast as they could. These studies found that as reading speed went up, comprehension went down.

Even though astronomical reading speeds may not be possible in print or in braille, efficient readers can increase their reading speed with practice. If you feel confident that your braille reading technique is working well, you use two hands to read, and you move your hands smoothly across each line of braille without pressing down on the dots, there are several things you can do to become a faster reader.

Certainly, one of the best ways to become a better braille reader is to read. While this may sound completely obvious, there are many ways to do this. You can choose one or all of these, but the most important thing is that you choose a method that is appealing to you, and one that you will do as often as you can.

• Keep braille nearby: Make the act of braille reading something that is easy and convenient to do. Keep a braille book near your favorite chair; keep a braille magazine near your bed at night. Carry some braille with you on a long car or bus ride. If its nearby and easy to pick up and read, you are much more likely to do it.

• Start with shorter items: Reading short material can be very motivating. Find a magazine that interests you or you can read song lyrics, recipes, or poems.

• Repeated reading: It can be helpful to read a short document over and over. The content will become more familiar with repeating readings and you can focus more on the mechanics.

• Read with a friend: Reading with another person can be very enjoyable. You can both appreciate the content of what is being read and thereby increase your reading confidence.

• Read with an audio book: If you don't have a friend to read with, you can get the same book in both braille and audio form and read the braille book while playing the audio. A few good examples of braille and audio books that you can get from your local library for the blind include: Laughter, the Best Medicine: a laugh-out-loud collection of our funniest jokes, quotes, stories & cartoons from the Reader's Digest. BR 17852, DB 67219; Laughter, the Best Medicine, II. BR 17915, DB 67445; Tuck Everlasting, by Natalie Babbitt. BR 13834, DB 50587; Because of Winn-Dixie. by Kate DiCamillo. BR 12917, DB 50679; Breakfast at Tiffany's, a short novel and three short stories by Truman Capote. BR 1589, DB58223

• Record yourself: You can record yourself reading and then listen to the recording. In this way, you will become more aware of where your braille reading might be improved. Are you having trouble with particular contractions? Are you having difficulty finding the next line?

Conclusion

The most important thing you can do to increase your braille reading speed and efficiency is to read. Read as frequently as you can, and read as many different kinds of things as you can. Find reading material that is of interest to you and ways to read that will give you some feedback on your reading progress. The benefits will be enormous and you won't regret it.

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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Deborah Kendrick

"Do you have a pencil?"

Chances are good that every person reading those words has asked or been asked that question or some variation of it in the last day or two. A friend is telling you about a fabulous new must-have gadget and you want to note the name and model. A colleague is about to give you his email address for forwarding a shared document. A customer service representative on the phone is ready to tell you your confirmation number.

If you are blind or have low vision, chances are also pretty good that pens and pencils have outlived their usefulness in your personal toolbox, except for having one on hand to lend a sighted comrade, or to add the occasional signature to a legal document or personal check. But the need to "take a note" is just as essential for those of us who are blind—perhaps more so. The tools we use to get the job done, however, are not pens and pencils.

And the variety of tools available to us has grown exponentially in the last few decades.

Personal Writing History

I became blind shortly before entering the first grade, and was enrolled in the resource classroom in a nearby public school. My first writing tool, the Perkins Brailler, was a ten-pound mechanical distant cousin of the typewriter. With one key assigned to each of the six dots in a braille cell, words could be rapidly produced on paper. The braille writer is a magnificent tool, and most braille-reading individuals still have one readily available, but it is far from portable.

Fortunately for me, I was taught to use a braille slate and stylus in second grade. My first slate was a board slate. This consisted of a 9 by 12-inch clipboard, fitted with a hinged metal slate. Paper was clipped in at the top and placed between the top and bottom halves of the slate. The slate contained four lines of 6-dot braille cells. A small stylus was used to punch the dots corresponding to desired letters, numbers, and contractions, moving from right to left. As four lines of paper were filled, the slate was moved to a new position on the board. This method of writing braille was precise, orderly—and noisy! I remember a relative teasing me that I sounded like a woodpecker.

When you are nine or ten, this might be funny. When you are entering your preteen years, however, being different is just not what you want to be!

My seventh grade year, my teacher presented me with a hard copy braille book called Keys to Grade Three Braille. This is a highly contracted, shorthand form of braille, used primarily for personal note taking. Instead of ten characters on a page, a word might require only two or three, thus dramatically reducing the amount of time and paper, and punching, required to get words written on a braille page. Around the same time, I also acquired my first "pocket" slate, that is, a slate with no board. Although slates are made in a variety of sizes, the most popular consists of 4 lines, 28 cells each, and clamps itself to the page. Again, as four lines become full, the slate is moved down the page for continued writing. Traditional braille paper is referred to as 90-pound, a thickness similar to card stock. As such, it is somewhat difficult, and noisy, to punch. At 12 or 13, making a racket in a classroom full of kids scribbling with pens and pencils was not what I wanted to do. I soon figured out that if I put a cushion of paper, say, a print magazine, underneath my braille slate and paper, it would help absorb the sound. Before long, I took the next step of using spiral notebooks, the ones purchased in the school supply aisle of retail stores everywhere, allowing the unused pages of the notebook itself to provide the cushion. Of course, since this paper is much thinner, the braille is less pronounced, and might be difficult for some braille readers to decipher, but it worked for me.

Throughout my high school, college, graduate school, and early professional life, this was my primary method for writing everything from class notes, essays, grocery lists, phone numbers, and eventually, interview notes and articles for publication.

I used spiral notebooks with the spiral binding on the left edge most of the time. Sometimes, when I especially wanted the dots to be preserved more reliably, I used sketch notebooks, with the binding at the top, and heavier pages. Sometimes, back in the privacy of my own dorm room or home, I would pound out those notes again with the Perkins Brailler, copying key points from the thin paper onto thicker paper for a longer shelf life. That was a good idea, by the way, that I recommend to you now but that I rarely took the time to do!

How Computer Technology Changed the Braille Writer

Happily for me and thousands of other braille-using blind people, the Braille 'n Speak was born in 1987. It was the first in a long line of products sporting a Perkins-style keyboard, text-to-speech output, and the capacity to store information in files electronically. The first Braille 'n Speak was braille input only, so you typed braille into it, but could only hear your notes read back to you via speech. My own solution in those days was to connect the Braille 'n Speak to a braille embosser, which then produced those notes on tractor-fed braille paper. Here, too, I often used the lighter-weight printer paper intended for ink printers.

Methods and styles of taking notes among blind people seem to change with generations. Those of us who were students before today's access technology used slates and Perkins braillers. While there were some others who, like me, were reticent to make noise with a slate and stylus punching dots on heavy paper, many attacked that heavy paper with enthusiasm. Still others, who never learned or didn't fancy the slate and stylus, schlepped those ten-pound braille writers from class to class and their fellow students just accepted the clatter as what must be. Then there were those who took tape recorders to class, recorded lectures, went home, and transcribed their braille notes while listening to the recordings. I have to admit that I have deep admiration for the folks in that last category. Listening to every lecture twice must certainly have been excellent preparation. It does, though, raise the philosophical question of why blindness, which was not an elected characteristic, should require listening to every lecture twice.

Generational Differences

This is an article about taking notes, however, not philosophy, so let's talk about the next generation, the kids who filled the public schools after Public Law 94-142, the 1975 law that told schools they had to figure out how to educate everybody. Students of that generation tell tales of dragging a cart filled with braille books, a braille writer, and other supplies from room to room. Or, more cringeworthy, of being followed around by their special teacher who did the heavy lifting/pulling for them.

Fewer people in this generation were taught to use a slate and stylus, but those who did are usually glad of it. The mid 1980s saw the arrival of talking computers and the Braille æn Speak. Typing notes in contracted braille and then reviewing them by listening to that synthesized speech was the next step for students and professionals alike. The thrill for anyone accustomed to the bulk of braille was the miracle of carrying so many notes in one tiny package. Eventually, the Braille 'n Speak had a younger sibling, the Braille Lite, offering the same Perkins style keyboard and synthesized speech, but now sporting a refreshable braille display. You could write your notes in braille and read them that way, too. And of course, in 2001, the parade of beautiful braille technology we see today was launched with the introduction of the first BrailleNote. These products, some with speech and some without, allow users to carry a single device and divide needed information into multiple files and folders.

Another entire article could be written about the evolution of audio recording devices, but this article is focusing on written notes, particularly those written in braille.

In addition to that ubiquitous slate with four lines of 28 cells each, myriad other slates have emerged over time, ranging from a single line for brailling dymo tape to a full page, and every size and configuration in between. My personal note-taking tools have often incorporated one slate or another with varying sizes of tablets and notebooks, usually ones available commercially. I used a series of designer portfolios in the 1990s and early 2000s, 9-by-12 folders with pretty covers and inside pockets, holding a paper tablet, some loose pages, a four-line slate and a stylus. Index cards or small spiral notebooks, accompanied by a slate of similar size, have also made convenient note keepers. My current favorite folder is red leather, about 5 inches across, 8 inches tall, with pockets and a custom fitting tablet inside. I keep a small slate, 4 lines, and a flat wooden stylus inside. Styluses, too, can be found in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Many users of refreshable braille notetakers say they keep an ongoing file of random notes in their refreshable braille devices, a place for jotting down that random order number or email address, and mining later for nuggets of golden information.

The Holy Grail or pencil equivalent isn't quite here for all blind people yet, so compiling possibilities as I've done here and sharing with one another is constantly relevant.

There's still opportunity for the inspired inventor.

From Slate to Slate

Speaking of opportunities for inventors, the newest arrival on the braille note-taking block brings us around in a kind of full circle from where this article began.

The Versa Slate, introduced last year by a South Korean company called Overflow, is a low-tech, ingenious spin on the original slate and stylus. Rather than paper, the Versa Slate offers four lines, of 20 cells each, of recyclable braille and an attached stylus, conveniently nestled in its own niche at one end of the slate. The 80 cells are comprised of mechanical pins that you punch into place as you would with a stylus on paper. There are two rows of buttons, four in each. When you no longer need a line of braille, press the corresponding buttons, and the dots are retracted. I keep it on my kitchen counter for those phone calls when I need to jot a number or book title or salesperson's name. Later, I copy the captured facts to my computer or smartphone and press the button for the dots to be used again later.

The Versa Slate has been adopted by schools in South Korea as a tool for math students, providing a convenient way to keep track of equations in process. The company has also developed a smaller version, only two lines with a lanyard, and is working on a larger one.

Clearly, taking notes is essential for everyone and finding methods as reliable as the pen or pencil is an ongoing process. We'd love to hear what your experiences with note taking have been, and if there's interest, we'll do a future piece on the many varied and unusual ways blind people have captured vital bits of information with sound.

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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Deborah Kendrick

Sometimes simple is better than complex, slow has more appeal than fast, minimal leads to more productivity than a smorgasbord of features. For the last year or so, my personal quest in the writing tools department was to find a device that would allow me to write—just WRITE already, with immediacy and simplicity, without loading specific programs or entering a parade of keystrokes. I wanted to do that writing in braille, on a fairly small piece of equipment, and to have a relatively straightforward way to transfer what I'd written to a computer for final editing and formatting. Of course, given today's access and mainstream technology arena, particularly when it comes to braille devices, the object of my quest needed to interface with other devices as well, namely my iPhone and Windows-based screen reader. It also needed Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and USB connectivity.. Finally, and this goes almost without saying, a perfectly productive, albeit simple, braille device would provide ready access to reading books and documents in a variety of formats. HumanWare's Brailliant BI 40X refreshable braille display looked like it just might meet the mark.

Meet the Brailliant 40X

The Brailliant BI 40X is a 40-cell smart braille display. Although not a full-blown note taker, it offers Wi-fi, Bluetooth, and USB connectivity. Its suite of KeySoft Lite applications includes a simple text editor, a file manager, a calculator, a book reader, and a slew of convenient features. It provides easy access to Bookshare, NFB NEWSLINE, and NLS BARD—provided that you have accounts with those services—and its 40-cell display, Perkins-style keyboard, thumb keys, and other buttons add up to a pleasant and ergonomic braille-reading experience.

Physical Description

The top surface of the display, from back to front, features 8 brailling keys for dots 1-8, 40 cursor routing buttons, 40 braille cells, 6 command keys (3 at either end of the display, arranged to simulate the shape of a braille cell), and two Spacebars (positioned conveniently under left and/or right thumbs).

On the front edge are the four thumb keys, used for navigation, with a round Home/Select button in the center. On the left edge, from back to front, are the USB-c port (used for connecting the display to a computer or AC power adapter), Power button, and USB-a port (for attaching external storage devices.) On the right edge are an earphone jack and volume up and down buttons, none of which do anything at this point. The Brailliant BI 40X also includes on its top surface built-in stereo speakers, which carry nothing other than machine beeps at this time. HumanWare has indicated that audio will be added at a later date.

First Impressions

We all know the frustration that sometimes accompanies acquainting ourselves with new technology. My unboxing and introduction to the Brailliant 40X, however, could not have been a happier experience. Within an hour, I had unpacked the unit, connected it to AC power, established connection with my wireless network, logged into NLS BARD, and was auto-scrolling through the onboard User's Guide. The keyboard and braille display provide an easy and comfortable writing experience. While the inadvertent execution of commands doesn't occur as often as on some devices, I initially found that my spaces were not being inserted between words. Like many others who type rapidly, I have struggled with some braille notetakers executing unwanted commands or adding/omitting characters as a penalty for speedy typing. Making use of both space bars actually helped minimize this particular annoyance after a few weeks. I'm a longtime fan of thumb keys for navigation, but for those who are not so enamored, the command keys at either end of the display perform the panning function nicely as well.

Since my personal quest had writing as its foremost criterion, I'll address that feature straightaway.

Writing on the Brailliant BI 40x

Bearing in mind that KeyPad is designed to be a simple text editor, most expected features are present. You can select text to copy, cut, and paste to other files or locations within a file. The context menu is always available if you forget a key command. Some of the key combinations for commands are a bit quirky, but the only really troubling ones are those that are not present. You can't move forward and back, for example, by paragraph or line or page.

While KeyPad is intended to be a basic text editor, not a full-blown desktop publishing program, it will be significantly improved by the addition of a few simple features. The two I most miss are a spellchecking function and the ability to identify my location within a file. The "where am I" command indicates in books, for example, the current heading (e.g., heading 4 of 52), but there is no equivalent function to indicate the location or number of words, characters, lines, etc., within the text editor.

Those absences aside, writing on the Brailliant provides exactly the experience of simplicity and immediacy outlined above. You can wake up the device and take a note. It's that simple. Press the Power button and you can be typing in a file in five seconds.

Writing and reviewing what you have written is a pleasant experience; copying the file for uploading to a computer or sharing with a colleague is accomplished easily by attaching a USB flash drive.

Making Connections

Establishing a connection with my Wi-Fi network and iPhone was perhaps a faster and easier process than I have ever witnessed with a braille display. Similarly, when I traveled to a friend's home and later to a hotel, I had the same fast, seamless experience when adding another Wi-Fi network.

I connected the display to three different iPhones, and was again pleased with the quick response. Connection to iOS devices, incidentally, is accomplished through the Buetooth setting on your iOS device, rather than in the VoiceOver menu. The Brailliant BI 40X promises to reconnect with iPhones without taking the phone out of your pocket. I found this to be a bit more temperamental than would be desired. In short, it sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Choosing the "reconnect devices" option in the connections menu, however, usually solves the problem. The experience of moving back and forth between, say, documents or books and incoming messages on the iPhone was straightforward and efficient.

With the Brailliant BI 40X, you can access files in brf, txt, doc, docx, pef, pdf, DAISY, html, and rtf, among other formats.

The Joy of Reading

Braille readers are as opinionated about the desired length of braille displays as most people are about room temperature and political party, but I'm not one of them. I love braille and am happy to read it on any display of any length. That said, the Brailliant BI 40X is one of the most enjoyable electronic braille reading experiences I have had to date.

The braille itself is lovely. The ease of panning backward or forward with either thumb keys or command keys provides comfortable ergonomic choices for all. Auto-scrolling is easily turned on and off, sped up or slowed down.

The quirkiness of assigned commands is a factor again, however, when auto-scrolling. You can turn it on with C 6, the bottom-most key of the three command keys at the right end of the display, but you have to use Perkins key combinations to speed it up or slow it down. If the ability to assign one's own key commands becomes available in a future update, assigning command keys at either end of the display to decrease or increase scrolling speed will be at the top of my personal customization list.

The most dazzling of this display's wow factors, though, is in the lightning fast access it affords to unlimited books, magazines, and newspapers!

In the Online Services menu, you can log in to Bookshare, NLS BARD, and NFB NEWSLINE. (You must, of course, have an account with each of these services in order to take full advantage of this feature.) After one successful log in, you only need to open the desired menu option to access new content. You can, incidentally, have NFB NEWSLINE download new issues of your chosen publications automatically every day. The thrill of carrying today's (and yesterday's and last week's, if desired) issues of the Washington Post, New York Times, and several other local papers around with me in a single slim device along with a few dozen bestsellers and a profusion of other documents is nothing short of dazzling. Of course, finding time to read them, along with all the braille books and magazines downloaded from NLS BARD and Bookshare is another matter!

Logging into these services for browsing and downloading is done through the Online Services menu. Reading and/or manipulating the collection of downloaded items can be accomplished in the Victor Reader menu. Here, in the Book List option, you will find all downloaded materials from the content sources offered in Online Services. Titles are organized alphabetically, not by content source, so today's Miami Herald might be tucked between Maggie's Miracle from NLS BARD and Missy Piggle-Wiggle and the Whatever Cure from Bookshare. Any book or publication selected from your Book List, however, loads instantaneously and puts you at the precise point where you were last reading in that publication. The Recently Read option in the Victor Reader menu, presents you with the five most recently opened books or publications, providing quick and easy access to your current reads of choice.

Setting and retrieving bookmarks works well, as does selecting navigation levels. In publications that are marked up accordingly, you can jump forward or back by article or chapter title, section, or subsection, and so on. How effective this type of navigation is, of course, is dependent on the degree to which levels were indicated by the originating source.

The "Where am I" command (dots 1-5-6 with Spacebar) works well in content downloaded from Online Services. Checking location with this command will give you the heading number, such as 4 of 54, percentage, and sometimes page number of your current reading position. It is frustrating that this same function is not available elsewhere. Large docx files, for example, would be much more conveniently navigated if information regarding percentage or page number within the file was available.

Other Features

The Brailliant BI 40X has a basic calculator, using computer braille, and results obtained there as well as current time and/or date can be inserted into files. The file manager offers the expected features. You can examine file lists, delete and rename files, and move files between drives. One odd omission is that you cannot discover the amount of available space on a given drive. A HumanWare representative said this function will be added, however, with the release of version 1.2.

The Bottom Line

The Brailliant BI 40X represents a new class of braille devices, which I'm calling smart braille displays. Like earlier products, it can act as a screen or terminal for your computer or smartphone, offering the intimacy of braille output along with the ease of braille input. Without the complexity of a full-featured notetaker, it also offers access to online sources of books and periodicals, along with the opportunity to highlight, bookmark, and make notes regarding the material being read. My personal quest was to find a device that would allow me to connect to other devices, read books and documents, and have immediate access to a tool for writing. Whether I want to jot down a phone number or draft an article like this one, the Brailliant BI 40X meets that criteria beautifully.

Pooling that immediate access to a writing tool with a rich and varied reading experience, easy connectivity, the familiarity of braille writing and reading, all in a lightweight sleek package, has the overall impact of delivering what many of us have been seeking. It isn't perfect. A dictionary, a spellchecker, or, at the very least, a mechanism for identifying one's location within any type of file, are small additions that would vastly improve this product. It's basically a newborn, though, and as such can be viewed as a work in progress. A few commands don't deliver as promised. And a few functions can't be found. Maybe that's why some of its menus have only one optionù indications that its creators planned for it to have room to grow. I look forward to updates, and am glad HumanWare didn't wait any longer. As powerful and fun to use as the Brailliant BI 40X is thus far, it's safe to say that we can probably expect future updates will render it an even more dynamic tool for braille readers and writers.

Additional Information

Although not reviewed for this evaluation, the Brailliant BI 20X is a smaller version with exactly the same functionality as the Brailliant BI 40X. The 20X has, obviously, 20 cells rather than 40, has Bluetooth 4.0 rather than 5.0, and an SD card slot rather than USB port for external storage.

Both can be ordered from local HumanWare dealers or directly from HumanWare, 800-722-3393. The Brailliant BI 40X is priced at $3,195 and the Brailliant BI 20X at $1,895.

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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Janet Ingber

Although there were some predictions and leaks, Apple did a good job this year of keeping the planned details quiet prior to its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, which was held virtually (for the second year in a row) on June 7, 2021.

While waiting for the conference to start, online viewers were given an audio description of what was on the screen. During the conference, audio description was used to introduce the presenter and say where they were located. Sometimes there were brief descriptions of what the presenters were doing on their device.

Unfortunately nothing was mentioned about accessibility during the conference.

Compatible Devices

Some older devices may not be able to run all new features in the upcoming releases. If you are using iOS 14 and/or iPadOS14, you can use iOS15 and iPadOS 15. If you are using watchOS7 and an iPhone running iOS 14, you can use watchOS 8 with an iPhone using iOS 15. In order for watchOS 8 to work, your iPhone must use iOS 15. Not all Macs using macOS Big Sur are compatible with macOS Monterey. These Macs will work with the new operating system.

iOS 15

If you are using iOS 14 on your device, you can use iOS 15 as well.

FaceTime

FaceTime is getting many new features. Spatial audio will allow better audio quality and will let speaker's voices sound as if they are coming from on the screen. There are two new microphone modes: Isolation and Wide Spectrum. Isolation mode reduces ambient noise while Wide Spectrum allows all sounds including background to be heard.

For people who are sighted or are low vision, FaceTime has a new grid. Selecting Portrait mode blurs the background and focuses on the speaker.

FaceTime Link lets people who do not have an Apple device join a FaceTime call using a Web link. This works for Windows and Android. FaceTime calls continue to have end-to-end encryption.

SharePlay is a new feature that allows everyone on a FaceTime call to listen simultaneously to the same music, share a screen, or watch something together. Supported apps include Apple Music, AppleTV+, Hulu, and Disney+. SharePlay is also support on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV.

Messages

News stories, music recommendations, and photos sent to you in Messages will be located in the new Shared with You folder. Several apps have this folder, including Apple Music, Photos, and News.

Another new feature is Photo Collage. You can share multiple photos within a conversation.

Notifications

You can now schedule a notification summary where non-critical notifications are delivered to you at a specific time. Using on-device intelligence, more important notifications will be at the top of the summary, as will notifications from apps you frequently use. Urgent notifications will be delivered immediately.

Focus

The new Focus feature will let you set parameters for when you may be interrupted. Focus is controlled in the Settings menu. In addition to Do Not Disturb, there are Focuses for sleep, personal, and work. You can also create your own Focus. You choose which people, apps, etc. can interrupt you for each Focus. You have the option of having a Focus across all your devices. If someone messages you while you are using a Focus, they will receive a notice that you are not currently available.

Photos

The new Live Text feature recognizes text in a photo and lets you interact with it. This lets you, for example, photograph a recipe and digitize it. Visual Look Up will allow users to get specific information about what is in the photo. This feature is available on iPadOS and macOS Monterey.

Your device's camera will be able to recognize and copy text.

Intelligent Songs uses Apple Music to go with photos. Songs are based on the beat of the music.

You will be able to use Memory Mixes. Each selected photo is analyzed for appropriate accompanying music and customized recommendations are given.

Safari

Safari Web browser Web extensions will be available on iPhone and iPad. Voice Search will be available in Safari.

Spotlight

According to Apple, Spotlight will have enhanced search abilities. You can now search your photos in Spotlight. You can also get additional contacts information about the contact. There will be more information about actors, musicians, TV shows, and movies.

Wallet

More "keys" are coming to Wallet. For example, a support lock will let you unlock your door with your iPhone. Some Hyatt Hotels will be able to put a room key on your phone.

In some states, you can scan your driver's license or state ID into your Wallet.

Weather

The Weather app will have a new design including offering hourly precipitation information.

Maps

Maps will have enhanced transit details, including a notification when you are near your stop. There will be more information about cities, including landmarks. Drivers can get improved road details.

AirPods

AirPods will have Conversation Boost for people with mild hearing impairments. Microphone focuses on the person in front of you. Ambient noise can be reduced.

Siri will be able to read time-sensitive notifications to you. You can choose which apps to enable. If a focus is in use, AirPods will automatically get those settings.

AirPods Pro and AirPods Max will be part of Find My network. They will send out a Bluetooth beacon that can be detected by other Apple devices. They can send a sound to the network and back to your Find My app. If the AirPods are nearby, select Play Sound in the app. Within a few seconds you will hear a chirping sound. This works whether the AirPods are in or out of the case. You can also receive a proximity alert if you leave your AirPods somewhere.

Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking will be available on tvOS and M1 powered Macs.

iPadOS 15

There will be some new features that are designed specifically for the iPad.

Home Screen

iPadOS 15 brings larger widgets to the Home screen. The App Library is in the dock. You can also hide pages that you could not hide before.

Multi-Tasking

There is a new control for multi-tasking. Selecting the control brings up the multi-tasking menu. A new App Shelf will appear when multi-tasking. There are new keyboard shortcuts.

Notes

The iPadÆs Notes app has some new features such as Mentions, Activity View, and Tags. If you just want to write a short note to yourself, the Quick Note feature is available from anywhere on your iPad or Mac.

Translate

In addition to iOS, Translate will be available on the iPad and Mac. When in split view, the app can translate a document that is on the screen. The new Auto Translate feature lets you start speaking and the Translate app will recognize the language.

Swift Playgrounds

You can now build apps for iPhone and iPad. The newly created app can then be sent to the App Store right from the iPad.

Privacy

Mail Privacy Protection hides your IP address. This will prevent marketers and other unwanted users from knowing your location and online activity. Senders will not be able to see when you opened their email.

In Safari, your IP is hidden so trackers can't see your activity on different sites or learn your location. The Safari Privacy Report can tell which trackers have tried to follow you.

The App Privacy Report will show you how many times an app has accessed your location, photos, microphone, location and more, within the last seven days. You can also see all the domains your app has contacted.

Siri

Because speech recognition is now on your device instead of Apple's server, Siri's response time will be improved. Siri will be able to perform many new tasks on your device rather than having to use Apple's server. This means an internet connection will not be necessary in order to perform many tasks that formerly required it. Any Siri audio will remain on the device.

iCloud

If you forget your iCloud password or get locked out, you can now recover your password more easily. Create a list of trusted people who can receive an access code from Apple. The recipient can then send the code to you.

You can set up legacy contacts. This will give trusted people access to your account if you pass away.

Apple announced its new iCloud Plus (iCloud+) service. If you have a paid subscription to iCloud, there is no price increase for the additional features.

When on the Web, Apple will use two different internet relays to hide your location and identity. Nobody will be able to see your browsing data.

The Hide My Email feature will let you create a single-use email address that is then forwarded to your inbox. This will prevent your receiving additional emails from the sender.

You will get unlimited video storage for HomeKit enabled security cameras.

Health

The Health app has some significant changes. For example, the new Walking Steadiness feature uses balance, stability, and coordination to measure walking steadiness. Results can be viewed in the Health app. The Health app has new exercises to improve steadiness.

The Health App will have detailed descriptions to help you better understand lab results. The app will show trends such as resting heart rate, steps, and blood glucose.

You can choose which health info to share with your doctor or your family.

watchOS 8

Many of the new watchOS 8 features are related to health and wellness.

Mindfulness

The Breathe app has been enhanced and renamed Mindfulness. It has a new Reflect feature. The Sleep app will measure respiratory rate. You will receive a notification if there is a trend change.

Workout

The Workout app will have support for Tai Chi and Pilates.

Apple Fitness+ will have workouts featuring one artist for the workout's playlist. Artists include Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, and Lady Gaga. Nothing was mentioned about the inaccessibility of Apple Fitness+ for VoiceOver users.

Photos

In watchOS 8 you can put photos on your watch face. The Photos app will be updated to have memory highlights and featured photos. Share photos by message or email directly from the watch.

HomeKit

HomeKit has some new capabilities.

Ask Siri on the HomePod Mini to play something on the Apple TV. The HomePod Mini can be used for Apple TV audio. Voice recognition will come to HomePod Mini. Home Kit will have Siri on third-party devices. Home Kit has new features on Apple Watch including the ability to broadcast a message by tapping Intercom. The watch can access many accessories.

MacOS Monterey

The Mac's newest operating system is macOS Monterey. Not all Macs currently in use support it. Check the list linked near the top of this article.

The enhanced version of FaceTime is supported in macOS Monterey. Both Focus and Quick Note can also run on this operating system.

Universal Control

Universal Control will allow users the flexibility of going between the Mac and iPad using a single mouse or keyboard.

AirPlay

The Mac can now be used as an AirPlay speaker.

Siri Shortcuts

Siri Shortcuts will be available in macOS Monterey. Some pre-made shortcuts will be in the operating system and you can create your own. Automator will still be supported and you can import your Automator workflow into Shortcuts.

Tab Groups

In Safari, tabs can be saved in groups. You can keep related groups together. Tab groups will be available on iPad and iPhone.

Extensions

Safari extensions will be available on iPad and iPhone.

Conclusion

This year's WWDC introduced many new features. Hopefully, they will all work with VoiceOver. No date was given for release of the new operating systems, but they will be coming this fall. If you are interested in trying beta versions of these operating systems, they should be available in July. During the entire WWDC Keynote, nothing was said about accessibility. This is not uncommon and doesn't necessarily mean that Apple will not provide accessibility improvements in the year to come.

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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Bill Holton

Disclaimer: We offer this and other Vision Tech articles as brief snapshots into the considerable groundbreaking investigations and research currently underway to save, preserve, and restore vision. The content of these articles should not be considered as medical advice, or as either endorsements or solicitations for treatment. Whenever possible we offer links so the reader can further pursue the subject, but we are not in the position to offer further information or direction.

Despite advancements in medications and surgical techniques, glaucoma is still the number one preventable cause of irreversible blindness. According to the BrightFocus Foundation more than three million Americans suffer from the disorder. Worldwide, this number approaches 80 million, and it's expected to rise to over 110 million by 2040. There is a range of risk factors for each type of glaucoma.

Unfortunately, studies show that nearly half of those who live with glaucoma aren't even aware they have the disease. And within 15 years of glaucoma diagnosis, 15 percent of patients progress to blindness in at least one eye and 6.4 percent become blind in both eyes.

"Higher than normal eye pressure is often associated with the damage to optic nerve that leads to vision loss, however high intraocular pressure is not the cause of glaucoma; it is merely a risk factor, says Kevin Chan, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology, Radiology and Neuroscience at NYU Langone Health. "Persons with glaucoma may have normal eye pressure, while others with high eye pressure may be spared altogether."

Is there a deeper, more fundamental cause of glaucoma? That's the question Chan and other researchers are trying to answer with research into three different compounds.

Citicoline

Studies have demonstrated that humans and rodents with glaucoma have lower than normal brain levels of choline. Choline is the building block of membranes that line the nerve cells. It's also a precursor of acetylcholine, which is the chief neurotransmitter for enhancing nerve cell communication, contracting smooth muscles, dilating blood vessels, increasing bodily secretions, and slowing heart rate. "We don't currently know whether these lower choline levels are a causal factor for glaucoma or a secondary effect of the disease," says Chan.

Chan and his team wondered if increasing choline levels might slow or even stop the degradation of the optic nerve and other regions of the brain involved in vision. To answer the question they simulated glaucoma in several dozen rats by injecting transparent hydrogel into the front of the eye to block fluid drainage and increase the pressure. They then administered a three-week course of oral citicoline, a choline-rich compound produced naturally in the brain but also available commercially.

For rats with mildly elevated eye pressure, the optic nerves and other tissues connecting eye and brain continued to deteriorate for up to five weeks after the hydrogel injection. Meanwhile, neural deterioration in the citicoline-treated rodents slowed by over 70 percent. These protective effects lasted up to three weeks after the citicoline treatment was stopped.

"A lot more research, including clinical trials, needs to be done before citicoline supplements can be used to treat glaucoma," advises Chan. "Currently, the only clinical treatment for glaucoma is to reduce pressure either with medications or surgery. Our hope is that this research may lead to a new treatment option for persons with glaucoma—even those without elevated eye pressure. At the very least, perhaps we can delay the onset of age-related glaucoma to a point beyond the average life span."

Protrudin

In the November 2019 issue of AccessWorld we discussed the use of gene therapy to treat a trio of genetic eye diseases: Usher syndrome type 2 (USH2), autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (adRP), and Leber's congenital amaurosis 10 (LCA10). Gene therapy may also be well on its way to enabling new treatments for glaucoma.

"The causes of glaucoma are not completely understood, but there is currently a large focus on identifying new treatments by preventing nerve cells in the retina from dying, as well as trying to repair vision loss through the regeneration of diseased axons in the optic nerve," says Veselina Petrova, Research Fellow with the Department of Neurobiology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital.

Petrova and her team were seeking new methods for treating spinal cord injuries. "Nerve cells in the central nervous system lose the ability to regenerate their axons as they mature, so they have very limited capacity for regrowth. This means that injuries to the brain, spinal cord, retina, and optic nerve have permanent, often life-altering consequences," states Petrova. "Optic nerve and retinal cells are often used to investigate new treatments for stimulating neural regeneration. These cells are accessible, test results are rapid, and new treatments identified in the eye have the potential to be examined for their efficacy in treating other conditions of the central nervous system, such as spinal cord injuries."

The researchers discovered that one of the reasons mature nerve cells cannot self-repair or regenerate is because they have very low amounts of a molecule found in abundance in other, regenerative cells, Protrudin. Protrudin assists in the transport of proteins and growth factors to the tip of growing processes. Nerve cells contain only small amounts of the molecule, but what if they could be encouraged to produce more?

The researchers engineered a virus to inject the gene responsible for Protrudin production into the DNA of cultured mouse brain cells. They then used a laser to injure the cells. They discovered the neurons that were high in Protrudin vastly increased their ability to regenerate.

Next, the team used forceps to crush the optic nerves of mice with artificially enhanced Protrudin levels. "When we measured the amount of regeneration a few weeks after the injury, we found that Protrudin had enabled the axons to regenerate over large distances," says Petrova.

In a different model, the retina was removed from the eye in mice and cultured in a dish. Normally, this insult results in severe retinal cell loss, but when Protrudin production is enhanced, there was a complete protection and no noticeable cell death. This experiment shows that Protrudin could be protective to the injured cells of the eye in conditions such as glaucoma.

The next step? "The use of rodent models of glaucoma, human retina cells and donated retinas to evaluate the safety of this treatment," says Petrova.

Astrocytes

When studying glaucoma it makes sense to focus on the neurons of the retina and optic nerves, the electrically active cells that are damaged by the disease and lead to progressive vision loss. However, there are other cells that may also play an active role, including astrocytes, cells named after the Greek word for "star."

"Astrocytes are star-shaped cells that surround the neurons, much like the packing peanuts in your Amazon box," says Shane Liddelow, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Physiology at NYU Langone Health.

According to Liddelow, there are several types of astrocytes that perform various functions. "Some provide nourishment to the neurons, while others remove metabolic waste. During diseases like glaucoma, some others produce toxins that destroy and clear damaged neurons, including retinal and optic nerve cells over-stressed by glaucoma."

Liddelow and his team injected microscopic beads into the eyes of mice in order to block fluid drainage and cause a rise in intraocular pressure. Some of the mice were genetically altered to block the production of the neuron-destroying astrocytes, and these mice suffered significantly less optic nerve damage than the control group. "It's possible for neurons to recover from a certain amount of damage," Liddelow states. "In other instances, the astrocytes will destroy the cell, and then keep going, on and on until eventually the process spirals out of control, leading to the progressive damage associated with glaucoma."

According to Liddelow, this cascading effect may help explain why some people continue to experience progressive vision loss, even after their high intraocular pressure is under control. It may also go a long way toward explaining the mechanisms behind another bewildering eye condition known as sympathetic ophthalmia, a condition where trauma in one eye leads to vision loss in the uninjured eye as well.

Researchers at Vanderbilt University recently discovered that when one eye is stressed, astrocytes in the other eye may actually "bucket-brigade" nourishment up the astrocyte chain into the brain and then down the stressed nerve to help healing. "What if this is a two-way street?" Liddelow suggests. "What if the astrocytes in a severely traumatized eye send neuron-destroying toxins in the opposite direction?"

Liddelow and his team are well on their way to identifying the toxins astrocytes produce to clear damaged nerve cells. "If we can block these toxins, we may be able to limit progressive nerve loss not only from glaucoma, but Alzheimer's and other brain injuries as well."

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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M-Enabling Summit to be Held October 4-6, 2021, Registration Now Available

The M-Enabling Summit Conference and Showcase, dedicated to promoting innovation in accessible and assistive technology for senior citizens and users of all abilities, will host its signature industry networking event October 4-6, 2021 in Washington, DC. The M-Enabling Summit is fully committed to providing a safe and powerful platform in-person this fall with virtual participation options for those still unable to travel or participate in public events by October. Industry leaders, influencers and advocates will be addressing the current issues and strategies surrounding digital accessibility in light of the significant evolutions that occurred since the 2019 M-Enabling Summit.

With participants’ health security as the top priority, conference logistics will reflect official health guidelines and best practices for conferences and public events and their updated details will be published on the M-Enabling Summit website. With the theme of “Digital Accessibility, a Driver for Inclusion Strategies,” key topics that will be explored at this year’s hybrid M-Enabling Summit include:

• The acceleration of the adoption of virtual environments during COVID-19: What’s durable evolution, what’s not, perspective from Industry and Persons with Disabilities.
• Spotlight on most impactful newest accessibility features and their benefits for users.
• Multi-modal gaming and virtual entertainment experiences for accessibility.
• Balancing privacy and security with accessibility and assistive services requirements: The need for users’ choice options.
• The era of voice as a new platform for digital interaction: Challenges and opportunities.
• The emergence of neurotechnologies for advanced assistive solutions: Risks and opportunities.
• State of Accessibility among business, government, and academia.
• The emergence of Strategic Leaders in Accessibility (SLiA) among large organizations
• Workplace accommodations success stories in a virtual environment
• The best of education accommodations strategies in a virtual environment
• The rise of the accessibility profession: Global footprint, professional development resources and benefits for organizations

For additional information on participating in the event and to register, please visit the M-Enabling website.

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