In this Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides, News and Reviews podcast, we would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and good fortune in the New Year. This past year has been incredible for us at Blind Not Alone, LLC and our ever growing number of listeners to the Blind Vet Tech podcasts and teleconferences. Without the support from each of you, these services and chances to connect with other visually impaired individuals interested in technology would not be possible.

For 2018, our monthly teleconferences will expand to four different calls. These calls are open to everyone interested in sharing. Below is a list of the calls we will offer in 2018:

Teleconference Name

Teleconference Date

Teleconference Time

Connect Via Computers or Zoom Mobile App

Dial-In Phone Number

Notes

Monthly Narrator Talk

2nd Tuesday of the month

1300 or 1:00 PM Central Time

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android by clicking here

Dial – (646) 876-9923,,7854091838#

This call focuses solely on learning Microsoft’s integrated screen reader, Narrator on Windows 10.

Monthly MacOS Talk

2nd Thursday of the month

1300 or 1:00 PM Central Time

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android by clicking here

Dial – (646) 876-9923,,7854091838#

This call focuses solely on learning Apple’s integrated screen reader, Voice Over and other accessibility options in MacOS.

Monthly Tech Talk

3rd Thursday of the month

1300 or 1:00 PM Central Time

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android by clicking here

Dial – (646) 876-9923,,7854091838#

This call focuses on the greater world of cross platform to stand alone devices and apps for blind and visually impaired individuals.

Open Mic Night

3rd Thursday of the month

1900 or 7:00 PM Central Time

Join from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android by clicking here

Dial – (646) 876-9923,,7854091838#

The Blind Vet Tech is all about the community of individuals who come together to support each other. The Open Mic Night is open to anything from latest in Apple rumors to asking anything about blindness.

To connect to our monthly teleconferences, click here to view how to access our Zoom room.

Stay Informed

Stay up to date with the latest news and announcements from the Blind Vet Tech team, by doing one of the following:

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech News and Announcements podcast on iTunes

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides and Tutorials on iTunes

* Follow the Blind Vet Tech podcasts on your Victor Reader Stream, Hims Blaze, or podcasting app by searching for Blind Vet Tech in the podcast section

* Receive an email about any posts by subscribing to our blog

If you have any questions, comments, or requests, feel free to send us an email here. All of our podcasts and other information related to Veterans, blindness, acceptance of a disability, and other resources may be found at BlindNotAlone.com

Don’t miss another Blind Vet Tech teleconference, click here to see a list of our teleconferences and others we support.

In this Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides, News and Reviews podcast, we provide our five favorite updates to Narrator from Windows 10 Fall Creators Update. These are a combination of new and updated features that makes Narrator much more powerful of a screen reader for Windows 10. Its our opinion that Narrator will become the leading screen reader for Windows users, since its an integrated screen reader that Microsoft is vested in enhancing its usability. The top five are:

* Caps lock 1 – Input Learning –

* Automatic Scan Mode

* Caps lock Shift Enter – Toggle Search Mode

* Caps lock Shift D – Describe and recognize text in an image

* Caps lock W and R – Read the entire window or from Narrator’s cursor

If you enjoy the Blind Vet Tech Podcast series, we invite anyone interested in assistive technology for the blind to join us on our monthly tech teleconferences. Click here to see a list of our calls and how to connect via Zoom.

Stay Informed

Stay up to date with the latest news and announcements from the Blind Vet Tech team, by doing one of the following:

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech News and Announcements podcast on iTunes

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides and Tutorials on iTunes

* Follow the Blind Vet Tech podcasts on your Victor Reader Stream, Hims Blaze, or podcasting app by searching for Blind Vet Tech in the podcast section

* Receive an email about any posts by subscribing to our blog

If you have any questions, comments, or requests, feel free to send us an email here. All of our podcasts and other information related to Veterans, blindness, acceptance of a disability, and other resources may be found at BlindNotAlone.com

Don’t miss another Blind Vet Tech teleconference, click here to see a list of our teleconferences and others we support.

In this Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides, News and Reviews podcast, we demonstrate some options that becomes available when you place Voice Over’s focus on the Status Bar. The Status Bar is located at the top of an iPhone or iPad’s screen. While on the Status Bar, you can quickly check connectivity status, current time, and battery level. However, Voice Over is also to preform the following actions:

* Three finger swipe downwards to bring up Notifications

* Three finger swipe upwards to bring up Control Center

* One finger double tap to bring the current page’s view back to the top of the page

If you enjoy the Blind Vet Tech Podcast series, we invite anyone interested in assistive technology for the blind to join us on our monthly tech teleconferences. Click here to see a list of our calls and how to connect via Zoom.

Stay Informed

Stay up to date with the latest news and announcements from the Blind Vet Tech team, by doing one of the following:

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech News and Announcements podcast on iTunes

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides and Tutorials on iTunes

* Follow the Blind Vet Tech podcasts on your Victor Reader Stream, Hims Blaze, or podcasting app by searching for Blind Vet Tech in the podcast section

* Receive an email about any posts by subscribing to our blog

If you have any questions, comments, or requests, feel free to send us an email here. All of our podcasts and other information related to Veterans, blindness, acceptance of a disability, and other resources may be found at BlindNotAlone.com

Don’t miss another Blind Vet Tech teleconference, click here to see a list of our teleconferences and others we support.

In this Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides, News and Reviews podcast, we demonstrate some fun ways to utilize Alexa and Siri on Halloween and other times. Both digital assistants offers an amazing array of daily to seasonal responses that allows you to have fun. Here are some of the commands we used:

* Alexa

* Good Morning, to receive a factoid about the day

* What should I wear for Halloween

* What are you wearing for Halloween

* Tell me a Halloween story or joke

* Siri

* Happy Halloween Siri

* What should I wear for Halloween

* What are you wearing for Halloween

If you enjoy the Blind Vet Tech Podcast series, we invite anyone interested in assistive technology for the blind to join us on our monthly tech teleconferences. Click here to see a list of our calls and how to connect via Zoom.

Stay Informed

Stay up to date with the latest news and announcements from the Blind Vet Tech team, by doing one of the following:

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech News and Announcements podcast on iTunes

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides and Tutorials on iTunes

* Follow the Blind Vet Tech podcasts on your Victor Reader Stream, Hims Blaze, or podcasting app by searching for Blind Vet Tech in the podcast section

* Receive an email about any posts by subscribing to our blog

If you have any questions, comments, or requests, feel free to send us an email here. All of our podcasts and other information related to Veterans, blindness, acceptance of a disability, and other resources may be found at BlindNotAlone.com

Don’t miss another Blind Vet Tech teleconference, click here to see a list of our teleconferences and others we support.

In this Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides, News and Reviews podcast, we recognize images on a website with Voice Over. iOS 11 introduced a simple way for the blind to identify what is happening in a picture through a three finger single tap. Voice Over will announce the number of faces, any clearly discernible expressions, and objects in the photo. Yes, the Photos app received this feature in iOS 10, iOS 11 enables you to use the feature in almost every app on your iOS device. If you are struggling with utilizing the feature, here are some tips:

* Make sure Screen Curtain is off by preforming a three finger triple tap

* Make sure the screen brightness is set to at least 30% for best results, though its debatable how much this actually impacts the recognition process

* Select Images in the Voice Over rotor under Settings>General>Accessibility>Voice Over>Rotor to quickly swipe up or down to the previous/next picture

Thank you for listening to this Blind Vet Tech tutorial on how to recognize pictures and images in iOS 11 with Voice Over and a three finger single tap.

Stay Informed

Stay up to date with the latest news and announcements from the Blind Vet Tech team, by doing one of the following:

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech News and Announcements podcast on iTunes

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides and Tutorials on iTunes

* Follow the Blind Vet Tech podcasts on your Victor Reader Stream, Hims Blaze, or podcasting app by searching for Blind Vet Tech in the podcast section

* Receive an email about any posts by subscribing to our blog

If you have any questions, comments, or requests, feel free to send us an email here. All of our podcasts and other information related to Veterans, blindness, acceptance of a disability, and other resources may be found at BlindNotAlone.com

Don’t miss another Blind Vet Tech teleconference, click here to see a list of our teleconferences and others we support.

In this Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides, News and Reviews podcast, we demonstrate how to optimize your iPhone’s or iPad’s storage in iOS 11. Apple changed how information appears in the Storage settings in your Settings > General settings menu. Of note, you may quickly regain much storage by automatically deleting messages and large files from the Messages app that are more than a year old. If you keep swiping, Apple changed how individual apps appear, and if you tap on one, you may offload the app. Offloading allows you to delete the app while retaining user settings from the app. Here is how the iPhone or iPad Storage settings appear:

* Amount of storage used and total capacity of your iOS device

* On/off toggle to automatically delete messages more than an year old

* Option to view and delete large files from the Messages app that are more than a year old

* List of individual apps, highlighting their name, storage required, and last used

If you double tap on an app, a detail menu appears with the following options:

* List the name of the app, developer, and version

* Amount of storage the app requires

* Amount of storage the user settings and data files require

* Offload or a reinstall and delete button an its description

Thank you for listening to this Blind Vet Tech tutorial on how to optimize your iPhone’s or iPad’s storage in iOS 11.

Stay Informed

Stay up to date with the latest news and announcements from the Blind Vet Tech team, by doing one of the following:

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech News and Announcements podcast on iTunes

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides and Tutorials on iTunes

* Follow the Blind Vet Tech podcasts on your Victor Reader Stream, Hims Blaze, or podcasting app by searching for Blind Vet Tech in the podcast section

* Receive an email about any posts by subscribing to our blog

If you have any questions, comments, or requests, feel free to send us an email here. All of our podcasts and other information related to Veterans, blindness, acceptance of a disability, and other resources may be found at BlindNotAlone.com

Don’t miss another Blind Vet Tech teleconference, click here to see a list of our teleconferences and others we support.

In this Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides, News and Reviews podcast, we demonstrate how to use the new QR Code reader in the Camera app, explore facial features in Photos, and recognize text in images through Voice Over. Apple continuously improves features for the blind and visually impaired with each update, and these three new features simply make iOS the goto device for us. Here is how to preform these features:

* QR Code Reading through the Camera App

Open the Camera app and place it over a Qr Code

* Wait for Voice Over to announce that a QR Code was recognized

* Navigate to the Notification banner at the top of the screen that allows you to read the QR Code and navigate to the embedded link in Safari (if available)

* Find facial features in the Photos app

* Find a picture with a face in it by doing a three finger single tap on a photo in the Photos app

* With the photo opened, place Voice Over on the picture and do a one finger swipe down to locate Show Facial Features (if this is not available use the rotor to find Actions)

* Double tap on Show Facial Features and then explore by touch or swipe to find the facial features,/li>

* Recognize text in images with Voice Over

* Find an image in Safari, emails, social media or wherever that might have images with text

* Place Voice Over’s focus on the image and do a three finger single tap

* You will hear details about the photo, and if text is identified Voice Over will say “Possible Recognized Text”

Thank you for listening to this Blind Vet Tech tutorial on how to use the new features in iOS 11 for QR Code Reading in Camera, finding facial features in Photos, and recognizing text in images with Voice Over.

Stay Informed

Stay up to date with the latest news and announcements from the Blind Vet Tech team, by doing one of the following:

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech News and Announcements podcast on iTunes

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides and Tutorials on iTunes

* Follow the Blind Vet Tech podcasts on your Victor Reader Stream, Hims Blaze, or podcasting app by searching for Blind Vet Tech in the podcast section

* Receive an email about any posts by subscribing to our blog

If you have any questions, comments, or requests, feel free to send us an email here. All of our podcasts and other information related to Veterans, blindness, acceptance of a disability, and other resources may be found at BlindNotAlone.com

Don’t miss another Blind Vet Tech teleconference, click here to see a list of our teleconferences and others we support.

In this Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides, News and Reviews podcast, we demonstrate how to check for what iOS apps are not compatible with iOS 11. iOS 11 drops support for 32 bit apps, which increases performance and battery life of iOS devices. We have a simple way to check for what apps will no longer be supported, which greatly aids in determining whether updating to iOS 11 is right for you. We also cover two new updates to iOS 11, the ability to drag and drop multiple items and Voice Over’s new ability to read text on certain images. Here is how to verify what apps are not compatible for iOS 11:

* Open Settings

* Tap on General

* Tap on About

* Tap on Application

* Navigate through this page to see what apps are not supported on your device.

Thank you for listening to this Blind Vet Tech tutorial on how to see what apps will not be compatible with iOS 11.

Stay Informed

Stay up to date with the latest news and announcements from the Blind Vet Tech team, by doing one of the following:

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech News and Announcements podcast on iTunes

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides and Tutorials on iTunes

* Follow the Blind Vet Tech podcasts on your Victor Reader Stream, Hims Blaze, or podcasting app by searching for Blind Vet Tech in the podcast section

* Receive an email about any posts by subscribing to our blog

If you have any questions, comments, or requests, feel free to send us an email here. All of our podcasts and other information related to Veterans, blindness, acceptance of a disability, and other resources may be found at BlindNotAlone.com

Don’t miss another Blind Vet Tech teleconference, click here to see a list of our teleconferences and others we support.

In this Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides, News and Reviews podcast, we demonstrate how to listen to podcast through an Amazon Echo via TuneIn Radio. This episode continues to build upon our previous Amazon Echo and Alexa episodes by guiding one through a couple of new commands and further inspection of the Alexa iOS App. In this episode we:

* Ask Alexa to play the Blind Vet Tech Podcast

* Search for a podcast through the Alexa iOS app by

* Open the Alexa app

In this Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides, News and Reviews podcast, we demonstrate how to optimize your iPhones and iPad’s battery life. Most iOS devices possess about 1000 charge cycles before you start to see battery life degradation. With these tips and tricks, you will be able to stave off charging your device, even if your battery begins to show its age. These tips and tricks will squeeze every bit of life from each charge by simply modifying various settings. All of these items stem from Apple’s support page on iOS battery life.

* Check out the health of your battery in the Settings > Battery menu

* Enable Low Power Mode from the battery settings, Control Center, or by asking Siri

* Deactivate Screen auto brightness and set the screen brightness to a desired level in the Control Center or Displays menu

* Turn on/off Cellular Data when needed

* Set Mail and cloud accounts to fetch data in the Accounts menu

* Turn on/off bluetooth as needed

* Turn on/off Location Services in the Settings > Location Services menu

* Turn on/off Background App Refresh in the Setting > General > Background App Refresh menu

Thank you for listening to this Blind Vet Tech tutorial on how to optimize your iOS device’s battery life.

Stay Informed

Stay up to date with the latest news and announcements from the Blind Vet Tech team, by doing one of the following:

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech News and Announcements podcast on iTunes

* Subscribe to the Blind Vet Tech Quick Guides and Tutorials on iTunes

* Follow the Blind Vet Tech podcasts on your Victor Reader Stream, Hims Blaze, or podcasting app by searching for Blind Vet Tech in the podcast section

* Receive an email about any posts by subscribing to our blog

If you have any questions, comments, or requests, feel free to send us an email here. All of our podcasts and other information related to Veterans, blindness, acceptance of a disability, and other resources may be found at BlindNotAlone.com

Don’t miss another Blind Vet Tech teleconference, click here to see a list of our teleconferences and others we support.