Dear AccessWorld readers,

Once again, it is time for our entrepreneurship and personal finance issue. For this issue focusing on personal finance, we will focus on using Apple Pay, a quick and convenient way to make payments using an iOS device. In addition, we will be discussing the newly released Revision Fitness app, discussing the recent NFB conference and convention, and comparing a set of mainstream Optical Character Recognition (OCR) apps, Prizmo Go and TextGrabber.

Over the past several years, we have covered several evergreen topics related to entrepreneurship and personal finance. Below, I have listed several that are still relevant today:

• Judy Dixon: A Guide to Using Mobile Check Deposit and Some Helpful Accessories
• Jamie Pauls: Online Payment Platforms: An Evaluation of Accessibility, Part I: PayPal and Venmo
• J.J. Meddaugh: Sign Here: Tips and Tools for Filling out Business Forms

In addition to AccessWorld, AFB also publishes a good deal of other content that you may find interesting. Our Talent Lab program publishes posts on web accessibility, which can be found on the Talent Lab main page. In addition, the AFB Blog includes posts on a number of topics including information on policy and research, Helen Keller, and education as well as many other topics. The main AFB Blog can be found here

As always, I would like to thank you, for reading and engaging with our magazine each month, as well as our wonderful authors who continually bring us excellent articles.

Until Next month,

Aaron Preece

AccessWorld Editor and Chief

Deborah Kendrick

July has been the season for major blindness conventions for as long as AccessWorld has been publishing, and for decades before, but the Covid-19 pandemic brought that tradition to a standstill. After meeting virtually for the national gatherings in 2020 and 2021, both organizations this summer decided it was time to reconvene, face to face and in person once again. For those of us for whom such gatherings have long been a part of summer tradition, the decisions to gather once again in person were welcome indeed. Both conventions were held in early July, ACB in Omaha, Nebraska, and NFB in New Orleans, Louisiana. Although there were many similarities, this writer was only able to be in one place, so this article will be summarizing the experience on being Together in NOLA.

The National Federation of the Blind gathered in New Orleans, Louisiana, with energy and enthusiasm filling two major hotels, the Sheraton and the Marriott, both conveniently located on Canal Street, directly across from one another. Most meetings were held in the Marriott, and exhibits were housed in the Sheraton. Countless amazing restaurants were short walks and/or rideshare trips away in New Orleans French Quarter, known the world over for delicious cuisine. 

The Crowd Compass app, available for both iOS and Android devices, made navigating the convention, both virtually and literally, easier than at any time in history. In the app, you could review each day’s schedule, build your personal schedule, get Zoom links for attending virtually, look at attendee lists to contact others, and more. While not all of the convention was available virtually, much of it was. Not only did this make it possible for those who were not able to travel to enjoy the speakers, seminars, elections, resolutions, and more, but it even provided an unplanned accessibility advantage for those of us attending in person. As a person with a hearing impairment, for example, I sometimes connected to the virtual link to hear the speakers, event even though I was sitting right there in the convention session. The Zoom version streamed the voices directly into my hearing aids. It should be noted here, by the way, that assistive listening devices were also available. If you couldn’t be there in person, participation was made possible via YouTube, Amazon Echo, Zoom, and NFB NEWSLINE. I and about 2500 other people were there in person, however, and it is that experience I’ll do my best to convey in these pages.

Seminars, Exhibits, and Meetings, OH MY!

As mentioned above, the convention filled two major hotels, directly across the street from one another. All official convention sessions were held in the Marriott, while the expansive exhibit hall was housed in the Sheraton. Seminars and meetings of every state affiliate, division, and special interest group were mostly held in the Marriott, although some of these were in the Sheraton as well. Whether your priorities were technology, law, education, parenting, sports, or something else, there were gatherings focused on these topics where you could commune with others sharing your interests. 

Because I write about technology, my central focus has always been the exhibit hall, so we’ll begin our exploration there. Eager attendees gathered in the adjacent areas, waiting for the doors to the exhibit hall to open. 

Lists of exhibitors were available in the CrowdCompass app and the online agenda, and having the advance list certainly aids in planning. Once inside the hall, however, braille and print lists of companies were readily available, as were tactile maps of the layout of the room. The arrangement of tables was symmetrical and logical, so that it was navigable by all. Tables all had both braille and print identifiers, announcing company name and booth number.

Most leading vendors in the field of access technology for blind and low vision people were represented, as well as many mainstream companies recognizing that blind people are a vital part of their customer base. Braille displays and notetakers from  Vispero, HumanWare, Hims, and others were on hand, as were the latest updates in screen reading technology. Representatives from Lyft, Google, Microsoft, and AIRA were either at booths or circulating in the crowd to answer questions and get customer feedback. 

New product demonstrations that were drawing crowds included the Hable One, a pocket-sized braille input device for smartphones; the LyriQ, a stand-alone reading machine that recognizes and reads text aloud in mere seconds and which we have reviewed in AccessWorld, (linked above), and the DotPad, a not quite ready for prime time electronic tactile display. 

Company swag included the familiar squeezy sharks, 3D magnets with braille on them, and t-shirts with sayings like, “Keep calm. It’s a cane.” 

Special interest and state affiliates were selling everything from chocolate bars to jewelry and smartphone accessories, and NFB’s Independence market had a steady stream of customers buying braille games, kitchen gadgets, canes, slates, tools, and more.

And then there’s Inspiration

In the general convention session, the parade of dynamic speakers seemed especially powerful. Blind professionals from law to human resources and beyond shared their compelling tales of parenting, competitive sports, media milestones, and more. A Louisiana lawmaker singled out his blind cousin as a mentor and role model, reminding us all that blindness knows no boundaries, visiting every gender, ethnic, age, and educational category of humans. Blind race car driver, Dan Parker, with his field of dreams Corvette, and a panel of audio description professionals celebrating equal access to movies and TV were all loud and clear evidence that blindness reaches hearts and minds in every artistic and scientific pursuit, and that opportunities for blind people are growing in multiple arenas.

Evenings boasted a variety of social and entertainment options, my favorite of which was the annual Performing Arts variety show. Musicians representing every genre rocked the house and soothed the soul with their artistic renderings, the only common thread being that all performers were blind.

What about that COVID?

Energy was at a constant high all week long as friends and colleagues gather for the first time in three years, but the threat posed by the pandemic was acknowledged with precision and respect. Every attendee was required to submit a negative Covid-19 test result upon arrival at the hotel, and bracelets proclaiming one’s status were distributed. For those needing assistance with testing for Covid, help and tests were readily available. Masking was required in all public areas, and frequent reminders to don masks were heard throughout the week. 

Despite such vigilant precautions and attention to detail, the coronavirus still managed to insert itself. It was not at all uncommon to hear an announcement from the podium that speaker X would not be with us, due to quarantining in his or her hotel room with COVID-19. In the weeks that followed, anecdotal reports of friends and colleagues laid low by Covid during or following both conventions continued to circulate. 

Due to vaccinations and precautions, however, most were mild to moderate cases, and duration fairly brief. Overall, the consensus is a positive one: that the time was right for gathering in person and that there is no replacement for being in the same physical space with hundreds or thousands of your fellow travelers.

If it has been a long while since you’ve attended a national convention of a blindness organization or if you have never had the experience, begin planning now for July 2023. In-person conventions are on our calendars again, and whether the attraction for you is seeing the latest technology, listening to inspirational speakers, learning new skills, or just communing with like-minded friends and colleagues, they are events to be treasured.

Jamie Pauls

In the August 2021 issue of AccessWorld, we began evaluating online payment platforms in terms of their accessibility with screen readers. This month, we will take a look at Apple Pay with an emphasis on using the iPhone.

The first hurtle to jump through when getting set up with an online payment platform is signing up. Some Websites aren’t as screen-reader-friendly as they might be with regards to the sign up process. With Apple Pay, the process is as accessible is everything else on your iPhone. Not only is the process smooth from an accessibility standpoint, but your information is already in iCloud if you’ve been using your iPhone for a while. Thus, you don’t need to fill in much information at all.

There is an app on your iPhone called wallet, and it does pretty much what you would expect. It holds information about cards that you add to Apple Pay. You can type your card info manually, or use your phone’s camera to scan the card and fill out the needed information that way.

If you have more than one card in your wallet, you can move them around. The actions rotor allows you to move cards up or down in the list. The first card you add to your Wallet app is the default card, but you can change this by going to Settings, and then Wallet and Apple Pay on your iPhone. You can also make these changes from your Watch app or your Mac.

In addition to your debit and credit cards, you have access to Apple Cash. Like other online payment platforms, people can send you money which will be stored in Apple Cash. If you get an Apple card, cash back rewards are added to Apple Cash automatically. You can purchase items with Apple Cash, use your Apple Cash balance to make payments on your Apple card, or transfer money directly to your bank. If you use instant transfer, Apple keeps one percent of the transaction. If you allow two to three business days, you keep all the money.

Applying for an Apple card is done right in the Wallet app, and you receive instant confirmation as to whether you were or were not accepted. Your credit score is not impacted if you are declined. You can begin using your Apple card instantly for purchases on the Apple store or the App store, and you will soon get an Apple card in the mail. The titanium Apple card has a very distinct feel, and you should have no problem identifying it among your other cards. There is not a card number written on the card, but you can get this information from within the details of the card when you view it in your wallet app. Making payments on the card is easy as well, whether you choose to pay the balance off or make a partial payment.

If you purchase Apple products using your Apple card, whether at an Apple store or online, you can opt to pay for your product over 12 months with no interest. Keep in mind that you must have enough credit to cover the purchase should you have decided to pay the entire amount up front. In other words, if you only have a $1000 credit limit, you can’t purchase $3000 worth of Apple products and pay over time. You can receive three percent cash back on Apple purchases, and less when you purchase from most other places using your Apple card.

When you are out and about, you can use Apple Pay from your iPhone or Apple Watch to make purchases. Double-click the side button on your iPhone (or home button if you have one), and you will hear the message “Hold near reader.” A swipe left shows you which card will be used by default, and swiping right will allow you to choose a different card from those you have added to Wallet. If you prefer, you can simply double-tap on your default card and the “stack of cards,” as Apple calls them, will open for you to make another selection.

If using an Apple Watch, double-click the side button. Either go with your default card or choose a different card, and then hold the watch near the contactless reader. You will feel a tap and hear a beep to let you know your purchase was completed. I had not set up Apple Pay on my watch as of the writing of this article. I needed to go into the Watch app on my phone and choose Wallet. I had not yet set up a passcode on my watch, so I was required to do this. By default, Apple Cash was added to my Apple Watch. I was able to add other cards from my phone as well.

I live in a rural area, and there aren’t many businesses that allow the use of Apple Pay. I haven’t had a lot of experience with using it, but those who live in bigger cities should have more opportunities. I will be traveling a bit this year, so hopefully I will have a chance to try it out as well.

One of the most convenient features found on Apple devices is Siri. Once you have Apple Pay set up with your default card in place, simply tells Siri to “Send $30 to John Smith.” You get the chance to include a personal message with your payment if you wish. You can even tell Siri to send or request money using PayPal or Venmo.

Another way to send and request money is through an iMessage. Compose a message to a friend or family member, and select the apps button. One of the options is to send and request money.

One of the things I like to do is listen to podcasts or tutorials from blind people who are proficient with technology. In the case of this article, that would be VoiceOver with Apple products. In learning to use Apple Pay myself and researching for this article, I didn’t find any helpful audio tutorials. I suspect the reason for this is that in order to do something of that sort, It would be necessary for the person doing the demonstration to share personal financial information. That is something that most people would be understandably unwilling to do. While using Apple Pay is not difficult, there is a lot that  can be done in the Wallet app using your iPhone, Apple Watch, or Mac. Once you get things set up properly, a bit of trial and error is all that is required. Fortunately, searching mainstream articles on the subject will give you pretty much all the information you need, albeit without a VoiceOver perspective.

Coming with the release of iOS 16 later this fall, Apple Pay will include an option to purchase more products in installments. You can read more here.

If you use any Apple products whether they be iOS, Watch OS, or Mac OS, you might want to seriously consider adding Apple Pay to your list of online payment services. You will have a leg up on accessibility by using a product built into Apple devices, and many of your friends and family members will already be familiar with how to use Apple Pay.

There are more online payment platforms to explore, and we will take a look at them in the coming months. Feel free to leave a comment or send us an email sharing your experiences with Apple Pay, or any of the other services we cover in this series of articles.

Janet Ingber

In this second article about scanning and reading options, I compare two reading and scanning apps, Prizmo Go and TextGrabber. Unlike OneStep Reader and Voice Dream Scanner, these two apps are not specifically designed for people who are blind or low vision, but they do claim to work well with VoiceOver.

For this article, I used an iPhone 13 with iOS 15.6.

Prizmo Go

• Prizmo Go
• Cost: The app is free, but offers in-app purchases.
• Developer: Creaceed SRL
• iPhone: Requires iOS 13.0 or later.
• iPad: Requires iPadOS 13 or later.

At this time, Prizmo Go is not available for the Mac.

On Android, there are 3rd party websites for getting Prizmo Go through the Google Play Store. This app is described as follows on the app store:

“Aim at text. Shoot. It's yours! Prizmo Go lets you quickly grab text with the camera. After text is recognized in a blink of an eye, you can interact with it in many useful ways. Or just send it to other apps. ”

The app also states, “Prizmo Go comes with enhancements specifically built for VoiceOver, in addition to spoken guidance prior to shooting. That, combined with its text-to-speech capabilities, make it a great companion in case you need help reading printed documents.”

Getting Help

I could not find any specific help information in the app. Here is the FAQ section from the developer’s website

The Home Screen

The home screen contains a series of buttons. They are Application Settings, Orientation Detection, Flash, Stabilization, On-Device OCR, Take Picture, Import Image, and Scene Description.

The Application Settings button is organized by headings. The first heading in the menu is Manage Purchases. Use the first button under this heading to restore purchases. Under that button is an option to get the Premium Plan. A monthly subscription costs 99 cents and an annual subscription is $9.99. Information about the plan is also in this section.

The next heading in the Application Settings menu is Text Recognition. The first control is a Manage Languages button. By default, English is the selected language. Next is a toggle button to handle curved text. By default, this button is on. The final button in this section is for Advanced OCR Selection. By default, it is off. There is an explanation of what this setting does when selected.

The next heading is Camera. The first option is whether not to detect QR Codes. Next is Save Picture to Album. Both of these options are off by default. The next control is Capture Chime, which is on by default. The final option is Low Power Mode, which is off by default.

The final heading is Text Reader. The first option in this section is Read Text Automatically. This is on by default. The second option is Siri Shortcuts.

Once you are done in this section, activate the Done button in the upper right corner. This will bring you back to the app’s home screen.

Next are a series of buttons. The first three are all off by default. They are Orientation Detection, Flash, and Stabilization.

Next is the name of your chosen language and a button labeled On-Device OCR. Activating this button brings up a screen inviting you to try Prizmo Go’s cloud based recognition. You will need to get a premium subscription to use this service.

The Take Picture button is the next control. The final buttons are Import Image and Scene Description.

TextGrabber

• TextGrabber
• Cost Free with in-app purchases.
• Version 6.13.20
• Developer: ABBYY USA Software House Inc
• iPhone: iOS 13.0 or later
• iPad: iPad OS or later
• Android version

The company describes the app as, “ABBYY TextGrabber easily and quickly digitizes fragments of printed text, reads QR codes and turns the recognized result into actions: call, write, translate into 100+ languages online and into 10 languages offline, search in the Internet or on maps, create events on the calendar, edit, voice and share in any convenient way.

When you point a camera at printed text, TextGrabber instantly captures information and recognizes it without connecting to the Internet. A unique real-time recognition mode extracts information in 60+ languages not only from documents but from any surfaces.”

When I activated the link for the developer’s website, I got a message that the connection was not secure. If you want to try it, go to TextGrabber’s App Store page and find the link to the developer’s website.

Getting Help

The company has an entire help center for support and help. The help center can be found here

The Home Screen

The first time you open the app, there are setup questions to answer and you will need to accept the app’s terms.

The first control on the home screen is Viewfinder Image. When activated, TextGrabber will photograph whatever is in the viewfinder. Use the next control to select text recognition languages, and the final control to toggle Flash on and off. It is off by default.

Next are four tabs: QR Code, Camera, Real Time, and Translate. Although VoiceOver calls these items tabs, they function more like buttons. Once the QR Code tab is activated, the QR Code camera is available. It is located at the bottom of the screen between the Notes and Album buttons. Point the camera at the QR code. Regrettably, there is no feedback to let you know where the code is.

The Camera tab will bring up the camera, again between the Notes and Album buttons. Double tapping on in will take a photo. If the Real Time tab is activated, the Real Time camera will be in the same location as the other camera options. When activated, it will read whatever is in the viewfinder. If the Translate tab is activated, a translate camera will be activated. Choose the language you want to use.

At the bottom of the screen are two buttons, Notes and Albums. The different cameras mentioned above are between the Notes and Album buttons. Once the Notes button is activated, there is a Settings button in the upper left corner of the screen. The different Settings categories can be navigated by headings. The General section has the same recognition languages options. Also under this heading is Premium Account. Selecting this option loads a screen with information about the having a premium account. Prices are 99 cents for the first month, $1.99 per month, $9.99 per year, or lifetime subscription for $19.99.

Use the button below the Text heading to choose font size. The Export heading provides an option to add a signature. The Photo heading has a toggle button for saving snapshots.

Near the bottom of the screen are two checkboxes. The first is to receive information from Abbyy and other third parties, while the second is a checkbox to send anonymous data to Abbyy.

If you flick right from the Settings button, you will find a More button. When activated, the first part of the More section has options to open other Abby products in the App Store. Next is FAQ. Selecting this option brings you to the list of Frequently Asked Questions. This list will open in Safari. Next are options to recommend TextGrabber and to leave feedback. Next is an option to learn features. If you give Abbyy your email address, you will be sent “50 useful tips on  mobile productivity and easy document management.” The final options are Rate the App, Like Us, Follow Us, and About.

Comparison

When scanning a page with either app, make sure the camera lens is pointed at the middle of the page. Hold your phone or device approximately one foot from the page, but you still will probably need to adjust the distance.

Photography

Neither app gives feedback to tell you when the camera has the entire page in the viewfinder. Both apps did moderately well when scanning a page of text. However, Prizmo Go was more accurate when scanning a page with columns.

Both apps have controls on the screen along with whatever has been scanned. For this activity, I used a single page of printed materials, both on a document stand and freehand. The document stand worked better.

Prizmo Go

Because I had the Read Text Automatically button selected, as soon as my scan was done, Prizmo Go started reading. On the right side of the screen, use the scroll bar to move quickly through a document. There are buttons on the screen but they cannot be accessed by the Forms rotor setting. I found the quickest way to get to the buttons was to go to the bottom of the screen and flick left. The first controls are Repeat, Play, and Stop. The Reading Voice button is the next control and it is followed by Reading Speed. The next two controls are Language and Translate. Next are controls to Copy and Share. Next are controls to Return to the Camera and to Upgrade to a Subscription Plan. If you go back to the camera and then select the Import Image option, a new screen will show saving options. The page can be save in your photo album. At the bottom of the screen is a button to save the last taken picture.

TextGrabber 

After TextGrabber takes a photo, a screen will offer options for cropping the photo. Once that screen is closed, the document will be available. There are only three buttons on the screen: the current language, the secondary language, and a Translate button.

If you want to save a document in Notes, first open the Notes option. Then find the Camera button at the bottom of the screen. Photograph your document. A Save button will appear to let you save it. There will now be two additional buttons: Combine and Delete.

Conclusion

In my opinion, neither Prizmo Go nor TextGrabber comes close to the accessibility of OneStep Reader or Voice Dream Scanner. Prizmo Go and TextGrabber require subscriptions to take advantage of all features that OneStep Reader and Voice Dream Scanner provide with a one-time purchase. OneStep Reader and Voice Dream scanner provide feedback when taking photos and overall are significantly easier to use.