Dear AccessWorld Readers,

You may remember the mainstream video game Hearthstone, that we reviewed last year. There have been some major developments regarding the mod and I wanted to take this space to discuss them.

Earlier this month, Guide Dev, the developer of Hearthstone Access, announced that he would no longer be able to continue updating the Hearthstone Access mod. For full information, you can read his post on the topic. If you have read his post regarding how Hearthstone Access was developed and maintained its very understandable why continue to update the mod, especially in light of the upcoming changes to the game. Guide Dev developed the best accessible interface for a mainstream game I have ever seen. When playing hearthstone, it felt like the accessibility was a native part of the game and the design allowed someone who was blind or low vision make plays and gather information in an efficient way so that they can compete on the same competitive level as their sighted peers. I would like to thank Guide for all of the work he has put into Hearthstone Access over the last year and a half. Considering that Hearthstone updates almost every 2 weeks, I imagine that this has required a considerable amount of effort based on the glimpses we have received of the update process.

In response to the announcement, Blizzard themselves released a statement stating that they would explore adding native accessibility to the game. In addition, many well known streamers of Hearthstone picked up the thread signal boosting the loss of accessibility, and the that the blind and low vision community was able to play the game at all. One even wrote an article on one of the most well known third party websites dedicated to hearthstone.

I have been heartened to see the support expressed by the sighted community of Hearthstone for accessibility and have high hopes considering that Blizzard themselves are aware of the mod and are in support of it and accessibility of the game.

If you would like to show your support of the accessibility efforts, both at Blizzard and in the community there are a few things you can do. A petition to add accessibility to Hearthstone is ongoing, and even though Blizzard have already responded and expressed that they will be exploring potentially adding access to the game, signing the petition will demonstrate the extent that the blind and low vision community plays and values accessibility in hearthstone. In addition, the Hearthstone Access mod itself is open source, and efforts are under way to determine if a developer or group of developers can take up development of Hearthstone Access while Blizzard evaluates adding native accessibility. If you are a programmer and would like to take part in this effort, details and organization are taking place in the Hearthstone Access discord server. A link to the server can be found on the Hearthstone Access website.

If you would like to stay up to date with the last developments on Hearthstone accessibility, the aforementioned Discord server is an excellent place to find the last news. Updates have also been featured on Guide Dev's Twitter. You can also keep an eye on the Audio Games forum topic where dissemination of the latest news is also occurring.

As always, we hope you enjoy this issue of AccessWorld and thank you for reading our magazine.

Happy Holidays,

Aaron Preece, AccessWorld Editor in Chief

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

Welcome to the 2022 AccessWorld online shopping guide. This year I will review Nuts.com, QVC, and Amazon.com. Nuts.com does not have an app so I will review their web site. QVC and Amazon have iOS and Android apps. Apps tend to be less cluttered. This article covers iOS versions of Amazon.com and QVC but I am including links for the Android versions of the apps. Remember that app layout and accessibility can change from the time I wrote this article until it is published.

No matter whether you are using any of the retailers listed above or any other web site or app, make sure that you are using the real version. Check out this article from CNET about online shopping scams. If possible, try to support local businesses.

Nuts.com

Nuts.com can be found, you guessed it, at Nuts.com

Getting Help

Priority Hotline: (866) 376-0042 Phone: (800) 558-6887 Email: care@nuts.com They also have a Help Center.

The Home Page

At the top of the home page is an option to order online or by phone at (800) 558-6887. Next is your cart and a search form, which can be located with form navigation. I entered Gifts in the search box and below the search form was a long list of results. Another way to explore the site is with links and headings. Nuts.com has more than just nuts. They have chocolates, dried fruits, a variety of snacks, and a wide assortment of gifts. They even have a “build your own box” option. Each link had the product name. Using the arrow keys, you can locate the cost, weight, and a button to add the item to your cart. Headings navigation also works to review the list of products. Activating an item’s link brings up a new screen which contains the product’s rating, cost, and size. Some products can be bought in bulk. The cost and size will be below the single product. Next is a pop-up button for quantity. The arrow keys will just cycle you through all the options. Make your selection and then activate the tab key to get out of this section.

The next controls are radio buttons to choose how often you receive your product. When activated, VoiceOver did not say whether the button was selected or not selected. The final control was to add the item to your cart.

When the cart link was activated, my item was there and so were recommendations of related items. Below the list were buttons to Checkout, use Apple Pay, Edit Cart, or Keep Shopping.

The checkout form was relatively straightforward. I did have to enter some information twice.

Conclusion

This website was relatively easy to navigate. Their extensive list of products and their helpful phone support staff make this company a good option.

Amazon.com

• iOS app
• Android

Getting Help

I made many calls to Amazon’s Customer Service asking questions about products not made by Amazon. I could not get either their automated phone system or customer service to give me information.

Here are the numbers and ways to get support for Amazon related issues including tracking your order or Amazon device support.

• Customer Service: (888) 280-4331
• Accessibility Tech Support (888) 283-1678

You can access support through the Menu tab of the Amazon app. Go to Contact Us/Customer Service/Accessibility. On this page, choose from one of the help links. On the next page, there are options to chat or request a phone call.

The Amazon Help Center can be found here

App Layout

At the bottom of the app’s home screen are tabs: Home, Your Amazon.com, Cart, and Menu. The Home screen contains a list of deals. For example, there were holiday gifts and Black Friday deals. The Your Amazon.com tab has your profile, account information, orders, etc. The Cart tab lists items in your cart. The Menu tab has your settings, shopping by department and more.

At the top of the Home and Menu tabs there are a search box, a scan products option, and a voice search option. Both the search box and the voice search feature worked well. Results were listed below the search options.

I put “dog toys” in the search box and received a list of toys as well as ads. Once I made my selection, a new screen loaded with different options for the toy I chose. Using headings navigation, I found features and details, product information, and reviews. Using form navigation, I was able to locate the quantity button and the button to add the item to my cart.

I activated the checkout button. The checkout form contained the usual edit fields. Since I already had an account, my information was in the form.

Conclusion

Amazon.com’s app is useable if you have patience and are familiar with your screen reader’s navigation features. In addition, it appears that they only provide tech support for Amazon devices and issues relating to your Amazon account.

QVC (Quality, Value, Convenience)

• iOS app
• Android

It is possible to get help through the Customer Service phone - (800) 600-1105.

QVC has live programming in addition to the app and website.

The QVC app has five tabs on the bottom of the screen: Home, Shop, QVC TV, Cart, and More. Both the Home tab and Shop tab have a search form at the top of the screen.

The Home tab lists many products many product in different categories. Use headings navigation to go through the list. You can also flick left or right to find products.

The Shop tab contains an edit box and search button at the top of the screen. Results are listed below the search form. This tab also contains an extensive category list. Selecting a category brings up sub-category list. Once in the sub-category list, you can narrow your choice even further.

The QVC TV tab lets you watch QVC on your phone. There also is information about the item currently on air and items recently on air.

The Cart tab lists any items in your cart.

The More tab contains many links including My Account, Security Settings, Program Guide, and Help.

I used the search form and put in “petite sweater.” Results were below the search form. In the product information section of the app, the best way to navigate it is to use flick right and flick left. This would be much easier with links and headings. The product screen loaded with options to choose size and color, followed by the price. QVC has Easy Pay options where the cost is broken down into several installments. How many installments depends on the item. Next was the shipping cost. Sometimes QVC offers free shipping.

Next was quantity and product description.

In the Product Information section was a more detailed description. For example, my sweater was listed as a cowl neck hooded tunic and in the Description section was a Read More button, with additional information. Next were reviews and answers to questions viewers asked. This was followed by a Call to Order button. You can also use automated ordering: (800) 345-1212 or call an order representative at: (800) 345-1515.

Below the order button was a carousel that VoiceOver did not describe, even with image description activated. Next were options to Speed Buy or Add to Cart.

Since I already had an account, I could use the Speed Buy option. Controls for creating an account are accessible. If you have any difficulty, call customer service and they will assist you.

Conclusion

I have used QVC for over thirty years. In my opinion, their customer service is outstanding. They are excellent with returns and are glad to answer questions about an item. They have always been polite and very helpful.

AccessWorld wishes you a joyful holiday season. Happy Shopping!

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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Jamie Pauls

Vispero, the company that now owns Freedom Scientific has released the latest version of their JAWS screen reading software for Windows. As has been the case for many years now, JAWS 2023 was released toward the end of October after a public beta cycle that anyone could participate in. There are always significant features of each release, with other important features that, nevertheless, may receive less publicity.

Perhaps the most notable addition to JAWS 2023 is a feature simply called Smart Glance. The impetus for this feature is the fact that web page developers often use text or background colors as well as different fonts to highlight areas of interest on a page. A sighted user’s eyes are drawn to this content, but the page developers may not use headings or other elements traditionally recognized by screen readers. Thus, the blind user may need to hunt for this information, or they may not even be aware that the material is present on the page at all. So how does it work? Let’s visit the home page of The American Foundation for the Blind to find out.

When I load AFB’s home page into Microsoft Edge, in addition to the number of headings and links on the page I am now told that there are two Smart Glance highlights. To get to the first highlighted area, I simply press the letter Y. I hear the line “AFB's third Access and Engagement research report examines the continued negative impact of systemic and COVID-19-specific issues on the education of students …” While this is not the entire sentence, I can simply press the down arrow key to finish reading. I can then navigate to links of interest related to that topic. The second Smart Glance simply gives me the copyright date of the website. The AccessWorld home page has six smart glance highlights. Pressing Y takes me to the following:

• Breadcrumb
• are published monthly in AccessWorld®: Technology and People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired.
• Your organization can change the way the world sees blindness
• Most of our funding comes from individuals, not corporate sponsors. Your support is vital!
• Connect with our accessibility consulting team.
• © Copyright 2020 American Foundation for the Blind 

As can be seen from the example above, not everything highlighted is of importance to the reader, but some content truly is.  Often phone numbers are other contact information will appears as a Smart Glance highlight. Pressing Shift-Y moves back through these elements, and Insert+Control+y brings up a list of Smart Glance highlights available on the page. How JAWS detects Smart Glance highlights can be adjusted in the JAWS Settings Center. You can also make these adjustments by pressing Insert+V while on a web page. You can have JAWS play a sound when encountering a Smart Glance highlight, or disable the feature altogether if you don’t care about it.

In June of this year, JAWS introduced a Notification History feature. Pressing Insert+Spacebar followed by the letter N opens a history of the notifications you have received over the past 24 hours. It is possible to create rules that will change how notifications are announced. You can change the way JAWS speaks notifications, have a sound played when a notification appears, or simply mute some notifications altogether. As of JAWS 2023, you can now press JAWS+Spacebar followed by Control+N to mute “toast” notifications. This rather odd-sounding name for notifications may leave you scratching your head until you realize that one of the notifications you can toggle on or off with this keystroke is the announcement of messages that are read from Microsoft Outlook. I might toggle this feature on when I am in a Zoom conference so I can concentrate on my meeting, and turn it back on when I am done. Notifications from Outlook, using my above example, will still appear in my notification history.

If you are a Dell computer user who has needed to disable Wave Max Audio because of memory usage problems related to the text to speech voice you were using, these issues have been resolved.

An enhancement that may seem small to many is the ability to authorize JAWS on your system without requiring administrative privileges. If this is important to you, it may not seem like such a trivial feature.

For some time now, Jaws has implemented a Smart Navigation feature that allows for moving around in Web-based applications by using arrow keys alone rather than in conjunction with other keys. One very practical application of this feature is in navigating tables on the web. Rather than needing to hold down the Alt and Control keys while moving around tables with arrow keys, it is possible using Smart Navigation to simply use arrow keys to navigate the table. Once you are out of the table, arrow keys work as expected. In JAWS 2023, it is now possible to enable Smart Navigation for tables only, causing arrow keys to behave as expected everywhere else. I played with this feature a bit, but personally prefer arrow keys to behave as expected all the time. For me, it is worth the extra effort of holding down Alt and Control while navigating tables to keep this behavior as it has always been. You may feel differently, so feel free to play with this new feature.

Support for ARM64 is now provided in JAWS 2023. The JAWS installer will recognize whether your device has an ARM processor. The Microsoft Surface Pro X is an example of such a device. ARM support for ZoomText and Fusion will come later. Windows 11 is the only version of the operating system that is supported, and you can only use Freedom Sientific’s Focus Braille displays at this time.

There are other features still under development and apps that are not currently supported. If this topic is of interest to you, you should check out the What’s New in JAWS document for more information.

Annual licenses for JAWS start at $95. You can learn more or purchase here.

As with every new release of a screen reader, there are features that will appeal to some users more than others. It is rare to find a release that has no appeal at all, so be sure to check out JAWS 2023. Also, visit the Webinars page to hear demonstrations on how to use JAWS for Windows.

The Bottom Line

I always make every effort to keep my screen readers up-to-date. If no other feature were of interest to me at all, I find Smart Glance highlights to be an interesting enhancement that I find myself using more and more. It is easy not to try out new features simply because one is comfortable with the old way of doing things, and I try to avoid this trap when possible. I also enjoy the annual home license option for JAWS, rather than paying for a software maintenance agreement. Both options are still available, so pick the option that best suits you. Finally, I really appreciate the work the Freedom Scientific team has done on their regularly-released webinars. Even if you use screen readers other than JAWS, you will find topics such as using Google Docs and Sheets of great value.

Feel free to leave us a comment on your most-used feature of JAWS 2023.

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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Judy Dixon

In 2018, Envision, a Netherlands-based company, launched the Envision AI app for iOS and Android. Initially, the app had basic reading, identifying, and finding components, but as time went by, more features were added.

Two years later, in 2020, Envision launched the Envision Glasses that include most of the same software components as the app, but with this release, those functions also became available on the Google Glass Enterprise hardware.

The Envision AI App

The glasses function as an adjunct to the Envision AI app which runs on both iOS and Android. Before we discuss the glasses further, let's have a quick look at the companion app as it exists today. The Envision AI app has several text-reading, object recognition, and people finding functions. You can teach the app to find your spouse so you can easily locate him or her in large gatherings. Both the iOS and Android apps have five tabs across the bottom:

• Read: Instantly read text, scan documents, or open the library;

• Identify: Describe a scene, detect colors, or scan a product barcode;

• Find: Find objects, people, or teach the app to recognize a face;

• Glasses: Request a demo or pair Envision Glasses; and

• Settings: Check account details, get support, or change app settings.

Initially, the app was subscription-based but as of June 2022, the app is now completely free.

The Glasses

The Envision Glasses that are being reviewed for this article are running software version 1.8.1. At present, the glasses perform all of the functions within the Envision AI app except barcode scanning. The glasses do have a few functions that are not found in the Envision AI app. These include: recognize cash, light detector, recognize QR code, call an ally, Call an Aira Agent, and Explore. These features will be explained fully later in this article.

A major step forward occurred in the summer of 2022 when the Envision Glasses were upgraded to support Aira, the popular visual interpreter service. Calls to Aira can be made directly from the glasses. Aira agents have a wide view in front of the user. The user can hear the agent from the speaker on the glasses.

Because most of the functions available on the glasses require an Internet connection, the glasses must be connected to wi-fi. When you are outdoors, this can be the hotspot on your phone. Envision has a very clever way of entering a password for a wi-fi connection. If you go to www.letsenvision.com/qr, you will be at a very simple page that asks you to enter a wi-fi password. Once you type in the password for the wi-fi network, you tab to Create Wi-fi QR and press Enter. The QR code appears on your computer screen. Then all you need to do is use the Scan a QR Code function from the glasses, and you are connected to that wi-fi network.

The glasses also have Bluetooth capability so they can be connected to Bluetooth earbuds, a Bluetooth speaker, or hearing aids. Wired USB-c headphones can also be connected directly to the USB-c charging port. Alternatively, you can use a USB-c to audio adapter to connect traditional wired headphones.

Physical Description

Out of the box, the glasses consist of the body and the frame. The body is a thick bar that replaces the right arm of the glasses frame. This is where all the electronics are housed. It extends from the camera pointing forward from a spot just above the right eye, back along the right temple which is where the touchpad is located. It ends several inches behind the right ear. The small power button is located on the inside of the body very near the back end. A small speaker is located on the inside of the body just in front of the Power button. The USB-c charging port is located at the back end of the body.

The included frame is a very lightweight titanium wire which extends across above both eyes. There are no lenses and no wire under the eyes. The frame is hinged at both temples. On the right side, there is a button at the point where the frame joins the body. This button is used for voice commands. On the left side, the frame extends as a fairly thin wire back to the left ear. Depending on which frame you purchase, you may have to attach your frame to the body. There are instructions for doing this in the Help Center on the Envision website. See the section later in this article on Optional Accessories for a discussion of alternative frames.

Initial Setup

To begin using the glasses, they first need to be paired with the app. This is required for the glasses to communicate with the app but they get their Internet connection from wi-fi. Once paired, the app will guide you through the process of connecting the glasses to wi-fi. After the setup is complete, the glasses present a very comprehensive gesture tutorial. It starts by showing you exactly where the touchpad is located, and proceeds through the six one-finger gestures, then the three two-finger gestures. After teaching each gesture, the tutorial goes on to what Envision calls "The Playground." This is where you can perform any gesture and the device will tell you what that gesture does. This tutorial provides a significant amount of practice with each gesture to be sure you've got it right.

In addition to the onboard tutorials, you will get an email inviting you to attend a 90-minute, one-on-one onboarding session. You can select a time of your choosing using a very accessible scheduling program called Calendly.

The knowledgeable Envision representative will help you set up your Envision Glasses. They will walk you through any of the setup steps that you have yet to complete, and describe and demonstrate all of the various functions of the glasses. They will answer any questions you might have.

Main Menu

Each time you turn on the glasses, you will be at the Home position, and the glasses will helpfully announce "Home." From here, a one-finger double tap will cause the glasses to speak the time, date, battery level, and current wi-fi network. A two-finger single tap will speak the current software version.

Swiping forward on the touchpad with one finger will move through the available options on the Main Menu. Swiping back on the touchpad with one finger will take you to your Favorites.

There are six items on the Main Menu: Read, Call, Identify, Find, Settings, and Help. On each item, a single double tap activates the item; a two finger single tap will open a context menu; and a one-finger tap and hold will provide additional information. Let's have a look at each of these.

Read

The Read menu contains three items: Instant Text, Scan Text and Batch Scan. The Envision glasses can recognize more than 60 languages. Instant Text can be used without an Internet connection but Scan Text and Batch Mode both require the Internet to function.

Instant Text will use a continuous video function to read whatever text the glasses can see. A one-finger single tap will pause and resume the reading of text. A one-finger double tap will reset the reading of instant text and cause the glasses to start instantly detecting text again.

The context menu lets you turn offline mode on or off so you can use instant text without an Internet connection. The offline mode only allows the reading of Latin-based languages. You can also choose the language you would like the glasses to recognize. By default, it uses the language in which the glasses are set, but this can be easily changed from the context menu.

Scan Text uses the device's camera function to take a picture of text. This feature is meant for whole pages of text that may have complex layouts. Scan Text can also recognize handwritten text. The context menu for Scan Text allows you to set four optional features:

• Smart Guidance: Detects the edges of the document and provides guidance on the direction to move the document for the best position;

• Layout Detection: Detects headings and columns;

• Language Detection: Useful for multilingual documents or for documents in a language other than the default language on the glasses; and

• Word Detection: Emits a tone to indicate the amount of text that is visible. The higher the tone, the more text the glasses can see.

Smart Guidance and Word Detection are mutually exclusive. The scanned text is opened in a reader which allows you to pause and resume reading and navigate to various portions of the document. With scanned Text in the reader, you can use the context menu to export it to the Envision AI app on the phone as text or PDF. In the Envision AI app, saved documents appear in the Library.

Batch Scan allows you to scan multiple pages one after another. They are processed and presented to you as a whole document that you can read continuously or navigate by phrases, paragraphs, or pages.

Call

There are two items on the Call menu, Call an Ally and Call an Aira Agent. Both of these options provide a one-way video and two-way audio connection.

An ally can be any sighted person who can run the Envision Ally app on their iOS or Android phone. You can add an ally from the Envision app or if an ally downloads the app, the person can optionally send you a message with a link that automatically adds that ally in the Envision AI app.

The Call an Aira Agent feature requires that the Envision Glasses be updated to software version 1.8 or later. The first time you access this item from the glasses, you will be told that you must connect your Aira account. This involves opening explorer.aira.io in a web browser, logging into your Aira account, selecting Connect Envision Glasses, and scanning the QR code with the glasses. During a call with an Aira agent, you can control the volume during the call by doing a one-finger swipe forward to increase the volume or a one-finger swipe back to decrease the volume.

Identify

There are five items on the Identify menu:

• Describe Scene: Takes a picture of the area in front of you and provides a general description;

• Detect Light: Emits tones or beeps to indicate the presence and amount of light;

• Recognize Cash: Recognizes currency, you can select which currency you want to recognize from a list of over 100 currencies. This feature is an implementation of the Cash Reader app that is built into the software suite for the glasses.

• Scan QR Code: Recognizes text-based QR codes; and

• Detect Colors: identifies the colors of the item in front of the camera.

Find

There are three items on the Find menu:

• Detect Object: Beeps when one of 15 possible objects is in range;

• Find People: Beeps if a person is in view. Speaks the name of a person whose face you have taught in the Envision AI app;

• Explore: Identifies various objects and people in the environment.

Settings

There are eleven items on the Settings menu. Several of them are categories containing multiple settings, while others are single settings:

• Audio: Includes Change Volume, Change Speed, and Change Voice. The volume can be changed at any time with a two-finger swipe up gesture. There are nine possible voice options.

• Wi-fi: Includes options for adding and removing wi-fi networks. Wi-fi passwords can be entered with a QR code;

• Bluetooth: Scans for available Bluetooth devices. Here you can connect to Bluetooth earbuds or headphones, speakers, or hearing aids.

• Voice Commands: Turn Voice Commands on or off.

• Software: Speaks current software version and checks for updates.

• Language: Allows changing of default language for the glasses.

• Feature Preferences: Contains Instant Text preferences, Scan Text Preferences, and Teach Faces, Add Ally, and Favorites. The Teach Faces, Add Ally, and Favorites functions here send a notification to the phone. By default, Instant Text and Scan Text are added as favorites. You can remove one or both of these and add additional items that you may prefer.

• Display: Turns small visual display next to the camera on or off.

• Time Format: Sets 12- or 24-hour time format.

• Pairing Mode: Puts the glasses in pairing mode if you need to repair the connection.

• Power: Speaks current battery level, puts the glasses to sleep, or turns power off.

Help

The Help menu contains three items:

• Trainings: Includes Smart Guidance Training, Gestures Introduction Training, and Gestures Practice Training.

• Manuals: Includes the following manual, Voice Commands, Instant Text, Scan Text, Batch Scan, Reader, Call and Ally, Describe Scene, Detect Light, Recognize Cash, Scan QR Code, Detect Colors, Find Object, Find People, and Explore.

• About Your Envision Glasses: Contains software version number, serial number, Mac address, privacy policy and terms of use, and reset device.

Voice Commands

There is also some limited control of the glasses by voice. If you press and hold the Hinge button, you will hear a tone to let you know that the glasses are now listening for a voice command. Here is a complete list of the voice commands that are available as of this writing:

• Go home

• Instant Text

• Scan Text

• Batch Scan

• Call an Ally

• Call an Aira Agent

• Describe Scene

• Detect Light

• Recognize Cash

• Detect Colors

• Find Object

• Find People

• Explore

• Change Volume

Optional Accessories

It is possible to use the Envision Glasses with the titanium frames that are included with them. These frames are very lightweight and the body with all the electronics runs along the right temple.

There are two optional frames which can be purchased at an additional cost, the Smith Optics frames and the Lux frames. Both frames come with clear lenses, but your local optician can install darker or prescription lenses if you prefer.

Battery and Power Management

The Envision Glasses can operate for four to six hours on battery, depending on what type of activity you are performing. A USB-c charging port is at the very end of the body portion of the device. The glasses are capable of being fast charged. A 20-watt power adapter can bring the glasses to 50% of its full power capacity in 30 minutes.

Power can be preserved with the use of the device's sleep mode. There are five ways to put the glasses into sleep mode:

1. Briefly press the Power button;

2. Perform a two-finger swipe down from the home screen;

3. Wait 30 seconds when the device is on the home screen and the device will automatically enter sleep mode;

4. Navigate to Settings, Power, Put Your Envision Glasses to Sleep; and

5. Fold the glasses.

As the glasses enter Sleep Mode, an ascending two-note audio click will sound to confirm that the glasses have gone to sleep. A one-finger double tap will wake them up again.

Software Updates

You will be notified if a software update is available. To update the glasses, go to Settings, then Software. You will be instructed to do a one-finger double tap to check for updates. If an update is available, you will be informed and instructed to do another one-finger double tap to start the update.

Getting Help

There is an enormous amount of documentation and training materials available for the Envision Glasses. The Envision website includes a Help Center and Envision offers a free virtual demonstration of the Envision Glasses for potential customers. If possible, they will arrange an in-person demo.

In the box, there is a card that contains a print quick start guide. In braille it says "Go to envisionglasses.com." This website contains the text of the Quick Start guide. Curiously, it doesn't tell you the location of the power button nor does it give instructions on how to turn the glasses on.

Pricing and Availability

At present, the Envision Glasses can be purchased for $2,499 directly from Envision at www.letsenvision.com. The Smith Optics frames are $399 and the Lux frames are $150. These items can also be purchased from one of their distributors. In addition to the free, 90-minute onboarding session, Envision also offers a 30-day money back guarantee.

Those who purchased a subscription to the Envision AI app are considered Envision Pioneers. Pioneers are afforded several perks by Envision including 10% off of the purchase price of the Envision Glasses.

Conclusion

The two main advantages of the Envision Glasses over using a smartphone to perform similar functions is hands-free capability and an expanded field of view of your surroundings.

Envision plans to continue adding features and expanding the capabilities of their app and glasses through partnerships with other app developers. In recent podcasts and webinars, Envision management has indicated that new features and partnerships are on the horizon. More features will be able to run in offline mode, the Envision AI and Envision Ally apps will be released as web-based apps making them accessible from desktop computers, and Envision will soon be coming to the BlindShell 2 as well as other devices.

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

Thousands of iPhones are in the hands of blind and low vision consumers today, arguably one of the most popular products in the blind community since the arrival of the Perkins braille writer! Many of those blind iPhone users, however, struggle daily with the flat touch screen of the phone, longing for some good old-fashioned buttons or switches to enable one to move from app to app or to enter text for a message.

A number of products have come into the marketplace to address this problem – from the simplicity of dots strategically placed on a screen protector to costly braille displays – but a product introduced to the United States earlier this year by a couple of brilliant inventors from The Netherlands addresses the issue with dazzling success. The Hable One, as it is called, is smaller and lighter than my iPhone itself, took less than five minutes to set up, has battery life that is like no other product that comes to mind, and, best of all, does what it set out to do. And what it set out to do is to enable a blind person to navigate an iOS or android phone – all those apps and gestures – from a simulated Perkins-style keyboard. If you can learn all the commands – and there are plenty of them – you can operate all the apps in your phone, enter, read, and navigate text, and do all of it without ever touching the phone at all.

Out of the box

Unboxing the Hable One is every bit as user friendly as the device itself. You will find the Hable One itself, a small USBC charging cable, and a carry strap in case you want to wear it on your wrist or attach it to something. I found it easiest to use it without the strap, but that's just a personal preference. All user guides can be emailed to you or downloaded by you at any time from the Hable web site.

The Hable One is very simple in design. Roughly rectangular and weighing just 90 grams (3.2 ounces), it has a considerably smaller footprint than my iPhone 12 Pro. It has six buttons to represent the six braille dots, plus two larger keys for dots 7 and 8, which perform a multitude of functions. You hold it vertically, with your thumbs on its back and your brailling fingers on the front surface facing away from you. When holding it vertically, there is a single switch top center which is for powering it on and off. When you slide the switch to turn the Hable on, it vibrates to let you know it is on. When you switch it off, your phone's VoiceOver will announce "Keyboard visible."

The USBC charging port is on the bottom edge. Typing can be done in either uncontracted or contracted braille, with all braille translation being done on the Hable One. Although it can be used with either iOS or android devices, I have used it with an iPhone 12 Pro, so observations will reference that particular phone.

If you have ever tried using the Screenaway mode for braille input on the iPhone, the posture for using the Hable One is reminiscent of that typing method. Rather than placing the Hable One on a table with keys facing upward, you hold it vertically with keys facing away from you. With your thumbs on back and three fingers of each hand placed on the braille keys for dots 1 through 6, you are ready to go. The 1 through 6 keys are small and round, while the keys 7 and 8 are long and narrow. To space, press key 8. To backspace, press key 7. To double tap, press keys 7 and 8 together. You can type uncontracted or contracted braille. The translation is all onboard, performed by the Hable one.

Within just a few minutes of pairing the Hable One with my iPhone 12 Pro, I was typing a message in the Messages app, a note in the Notes app, and an experimental few paragraphs in Voice Dream Writer. The results were clean text, without errors, remarkably accurate fora first run with any keyboard. If you prefer dictating your text, you can still do that. Just navigate to the Dictate button, double tap it by pressing Hable's 7 and 8 keys together and begin speaking.

Navigating the phone screen

How, you are wondering, can you possibly navigate from app to app and screen to screen and execute commands with only eight keys? The answer is both simple and brilliant. To move through the apps on the Home screen for example, let's start at the top of the screen. If your first app there is Facetime, VoiceOver will speak Facetime. Now, hold down the 7 key and tap the 8 key. With each tap, you will move from icon to icon till you get to the Dock at the bottom. Continue holding 7 and tapping 8 to move across your Dock till you get to the last message which, in my case is Messages. If you want to move back to an app further up the screen, reverse the action. Hold down key 8 and continuously tap key 7. You will move icon by icon to the left corner of the Dock and then, one by one, through icons from bottom to top of screen. When you find the one you want, say Notes, press 7 and 8 simultaneously to simulate a double tap and open the app.

By using strategies like this one and others like "press and hold" technique, Hable One's inventors have covered all possible bases. To go to the Home screen, for instance, press and hold the letter H (dots 1-2-5). To hear notifications, press and hold the letter n (dots 1-3-4-5). TO move back to the previous screen, press and hold the braille letter b (dots 1-2).

Most commands are intuitive, and those that aren't are learned through repeated use. You can move from page to page, access and navigate the rotor, type and review text, read lengthy documents, and even answer and end a phone call. All of these functions can be performed exclusively by the Hable One without ever having to touch the phone's screen at all. The phone can, in fact, be inside a pocket or bag while you use the Hable to "drive" it through reading and writing email, listening to podcasts, checking the weather, or any other combination of the myriad things you might do with your iPhone. The phone could even be in the next room or in a drawer, as long as the Bluetooth signal reaches and you are able to hear the phone. If you use a Bluetooth headset with your phone, you don't even need to have the phone close for listening. I use Bluetooth hearing aids which stream the audio from my iPhone, so that I can perform all phone functions from the Hable One without the phone ever coming out of my pocket.

Additional Features

When you press the number sign (dots 3-4-5-6) to indicate the beginning of a number sequence or dot 6 to indicate an uppercase letter, the Hable One vibrates to confirm. Similarly, when many of the "press and hold" commands are issued, Hable One vibrates. It vibrates when powered on and does not vibrate when powered off, so it is easy to tell by touch when the unit is active.

The designers say that the battery life of the Hable One is about 50 hours. I'd say it might be even greater than that. It takes only three hours to charge fully, which I did upon first opening the box. A good two months went by before I ever charged it again.

At this point, the Hable One accepts input in either contracted or uncontracted UEB. Plans are for earlier codes, such as English Braille American edition to become available as well.

Again, although this review refers only to the iPhone, the Hable One is compatible with both iOS and android devices. Several languages are available including English, French, Spanish, Italian, and others, with plans to add more. It sells for $349.

If mastering the gestures needed to use the iPhone with VoiceOver effectively has presented more challenge than you care to manipulate or if you simply want one more alternative for efficiently and rapidly entering and reviewing text on your smartphone, the Hable One offers an efficient and ingenious solution.

For additional information, visit

www.iamhable.com or email info@iamhable.com.

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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