EBU Access Cast

Wellcome to the last transcribed edition of the Ebu Access Cast for 2021. Stay tuned till the end because we prepared many nice things for you and if you stay listening, you will hear surprising announcement at the end. However if you are really curious skip out to the end of the shownotes to find out what did we say.

Mario bought him self a nice and cheap pair of Sennheiser HD 206 studio headset. On the current list of the best budget studio headsets for 2021, this one sits on the first place.

Hlynur got him self Roborock S7 – vacuum cleaner, and Tanja got Seagate One touch 5 tb hard drive as well as SanDisk Ultra Trek™ USB 3.0 Flash Drive 128 GB

Another piece of a cool and free gadget is LION - Live, intelligent OCR for NVDA which is able to read direct subtitles. Pawel discovered new addon for NVDA called NVDA Advanced OCR which is able to make direct OCR from the PDF document. Keep in mind that the addon is still in the early stages of development, but it is already very promissing, so if you want to know more about it check it out on its Github page.

We are very close to Christmas and black Friday is just behind us, therefore we bring to you a nice article fromm Kelly Ford called Black Friday Accessibility Deals Free for the Taking

TwBlue, a famous third party Twitter Client has new version out, and we will talk about what you need to do in order to get it running because direct instalation over previous version will not work.

Whatsapp started offering their new beta version of their Client for Windows which we found out to be much more accessible than official release, therefore if you wish to try it out on your pc, here is what you need to do.

If you own Samsung Android smartphone which you recently purchased, you are probably wondering when you will get the update to the newest One UI 4? Which comes with Android 12? Well no worries, Android Police prepared a nice article with all information.

StSolutions is the company which makes nice online accessible software by using a JS library called designer.js, and Pawell will tell us more about it.

AstroAccess is a website which talks about persons with dissability travelling into space. Our inspector gadget Pawell knows more about it.

Our show lasted since May of 2018, during this time we had a nice long season with all of you, and we really enjoyed making it. However due to the many different occupations from each of us who are having our daily jobs, Ebu Access Cast will be taking a break for a while, therefore EBU will keep you informed if the show returns with new crew members, or if the podcast will transform into something different. In the mean time, Mario, Tanja, Pawel and Hlynur wish you all the best for the upcoming holidays, so  if you want to follow us individualy, search for us on Twitter and you will find us for sure.

Welcome back in the 34th episode of the EBU Access Cast where, as always, we provide you with the news around assistive technology and accessibility. This episode, hosted by Paweł and co-hosted by Tanja, Mario and Hlynur contains big amounts of news from the Big companies out there, impressions of technology we have ourselves tested and a nice demo at the end so tune in and enjoy!

You can always review the transcript of the podcast if that form suits you better.

For any lovers of movies and TV Series, Paweł has tested Teleparty, a browser extension that allows a group of friends to watch a movie together with everyone keeping their individual audio and subtitle settings intact.

We then head of to find out what Microsoft has in store. The announcement of the Surface Adaptive Kit  has made rounds all over the Internet. We discuss possible use cases for the blind helped by Tanja who has recently tested one of the Surface laptops.

 Of course we did not forget that Windows 11 has recently been released. WE start off the discussion on that particular topic by diving into running Android apps on Windows 11 and how accessible and usable that is going to be. Those of us who have had a chance to run windows 11 share their first impressions.

But Microsoft doesn’t just stop there. They also organize a handful of webinars addressing all that changed in Windows 11 in regards to accessibility. Speaking of events, this year’s editions of the NVDACon and Sighttech Global are taking place soon.

On a more negative note, Apple has recently made itself a bit of a bad name with the blind community. Firstly, the developer of the Flicktype keyboard has had problems publishing into the App Store then he discovered his app was turned into an Apple Watch feature. Next, a blind developer has had issues updating one of his games. Finally, a rain of headlines fell upon the Internet as many blind users discovered that Siri features such as checking the call log or sending E-mails were gone. These examples show how lack of awareness on accessibility issues appearing in some departments of even the biggest companies, coupled with the politics behind technology can severely affect our access to solutions we use every day.

On the Google front, a new version of the Android Accessibility Suite was released  with a surprisingly huge jump in the version numbering. Are the changes significant enough to justify such a change?

We also congratulate the users in Slovenia and Belgium, as Slovenian and Belgian French join the family of Vocalizer voices on Android.

Further down the Google line, Youtube is rolling out a slew of new features that should make audio more accessible. Can you hear that audiodescription coming? Come and find out!

We also had a last-minute, surprising news from Mastercard who have announced their brand-new accessible card design.

We also discussed the appearance of Susan Bennett, the voice actress behind the original Siri voice, in the latest campaign by UserWay. Can the gap in accessibility be bridged by a single line of code and how does the marketing in the accessibility space look like today?

To top the whole show off, Hlynur introduces us to Isak, an Icelandic developer behind Retinaid, a way to revolutionize playing tabletop games by blind people. Feel free to contact Isak to find out how you can get involved in testing and check out the list of currently supported games (PDF).

You can get in touch with us by sending an e-mail to [email protected] or reaching out to us on Twitter at @EbuAccessCast Until the next time!

Welcome back to the 33rd episode of the EBU Access Cast

Here we provide transcription of the 33rd episode of the EBU Access Cast.

In this episode Hlynur, Mario, Tanja and Pawel cover a wide range of topics regarding accessibility, from Pawel’s birthday present to himself to a new software suite that turns up Mario’s cravings for cheesecake to the maximum… and everything in between.

We cover the ongoing European Commission survey on digital accessibility, where the objective is to seek feedback to improve public sector website and mobile apps accessibility. We encourage everyone to partake in the survey and let your voice be heard.

Also we took a look at a new mod for the game Hearthstone by Blizzard, how it works and how the new mod has increased its accessibility. The website named Can I play that was also mentioned.

Mario went with us through the new Sunu app update for the Sunu band and how he used it patience as a weapon in dealing with some bluetooth issues regarding it.

There were not let-downs in the Gadget section. The show’s number one online shopper, also known as Pawel, showcased his new JBL Link Portable speaker and Tanja spoke about a Minimize to tray option she finds handy. Some discussions were also about Chromecasting music and more related topics.

Tweesecake, not Cheesecake, is a new light-weight, multi-purpose, robust software suite that allows users to easily use keybord commands to control Twitter and Telegra, navigate your file system and much more. We looked in to it.

An easy way to create a digital copy of your Covid certificate and store in your phone wallet? Yes please! We took a look at getcovidpass.eu before taking on Apple’s “California Streaming” online event and their newcomings.

We took a look at what is new inside the newest Beta version of Android 12.

And if that wasn’t enough already we had discussions on digital accessibility matters from Hlynur’s point of view after his Siteimprove conference input.

Last but not least, an interview with Gleb Zevkov, CEO of Voxmate.

We hope you guys enjoy the show, we sure did!

Welcome back to EBU Access Cast - podcast about assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people. This is transcribed episode 32.

Some of us got the EU Covid certificate and we shared our experiences of showing the digital version on the mobile phone as blind persons. We found out that not all PDF viewers on mobile phones open the QR code maximised and therefore this creates difficulties to blind persons to show properly the certificate on the Covid-19 travel checkpoints. Feel free to share your experience with us!

Pawel discovered a very handy app for taking notes Simplenote. The notes are synced on all your devices and can be accessed via the web interface as well. We were thrilled to discover that the interface is accessible on all platforms and that every action has an assigned shortcut.

We discussed the new accessibility features in iOS15 and compared them with Google announcement of the changes which will come in Android 12.

We also commented the Windows 11 accessibility announcement.

The NVDA 2021.1 was released in July with many new features and bug fixes.

We discovered the NVDA Unmute addon that checks the status of the Windows audio system when NVDA starts. If the sound is muted - the add-on forcibly turns it on. As blind users we find it very useful.

Mario discovered the RHVoice, open source TTS engine, that supports 8 languages.

Get in contact with us, share your comments or suggestions via email [email protected] or via Twitter @ebuaccesscast.

It is almost summer, but we are not giving up, in fact we came to the Episode 31 of the Ebu Access Cast, and boy we found many different topics to discuss. However if you think that you herd anything, no no you didn't because we have a Special interview for you about Navilense which you can hear towards the end of the Episode.

But at the beginning Pawel said that he found a nice iOS app called Replica which allows iOS user to make audio and Video stream thru their Browser, and Mario told us his positive Opinion about newest generation of the Svarovsky white cane which is very different than the previous canes from the same Brand.

After gadgets we talked about Twitter and different ways how you can use it, thru its native interface and a bunch of integrated shortcuts which you can find in the very nice Review, as well as Usage of 3rd party clients for Twitter.

Different Messenger clients are todays Standard in the comunication, but are they equally accessible? Mario Talked about Whatsapp web set of scripts which are being developed by blind developer Juliano Lopes which bring up more accessibility features into Whatsapp web while using it thru your Browser, and Pawel found out the Add-on for NVDA for desktop version of Whatsapp Client. We touched the topic of accessibility of Telegram for Android and iOS as s Signal which became very populär in the last few months.

Since we mentioned many different Messengers we thought that its the best time tob ring you the news that Clubhouse became available for Android, and Mario introduced Clubdeck, very accessible unoficial Clubhouse  Client to the general audience. However if you thought that this is everything from us for todays döse of how to comunicate, wait a second. Pawel is also having the anouncement about Elten, new very advanced audio Network from Poland for blind people.

It As the Summer started to show its strenght, it looks like that after a long long time of not being able to travel, we will be able to do that with new Covid green passports, and in the next article you can read more about itt.

After all the topics which we had, it is a time for dezert, and that is the interview about Navilense, very nice System which uses specially made QR codes developed to help blind people to use them in so many different ways. CEO and founder of the Navilense company Mr. Javier PIta gave exclusive interview to Hlynur and Pawel and Tanja prepared also a Short demo of their newest feature called Navilense 360.

In this Episode we prepared so many things for you, but now its time for you to tell us what do you think about it. As always contact us on Twitter or send us e-mail and we will look forward to be back with you in 6 weeks just at the end of July.

Welcome back to the 30th episode of the Ebu Access Cast, the big THREE ZERO!

In this episode, Hlynur makes his debut as a lead host, joined by the always charming Tanja, Mario and Pawel. We covered a lot of current issues... everything from binaural recordings of a volcano in Iceland to an audio version of an IKEA catalogue.

Pawel told us about his new gadget, the Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset and we even get to hear some recordings he created for us and let us take a peak into his daily adventures.

Hlynur told us about the Dark Reader Chrome Extension, which enables users to customize the way webpages look, turn light theme pages into dark theme, increase color contrast etc.

There were some news we covered, like Microsoft's acquisition of Nuance, who are most famous for the much-loved Siri, the Accessibility Mousepad from Iceland, that was based on a design from UK Home Office and has been shared in GitHub for others to use, translate and produce and the ongoing issue with external bluetooth keyboards not working with many special characters if using both Android 11 and Talkback together. We also discussed how a normal user can get in touch and report bugs and errors to Google 

We took a close look at Accessible Overlays, what they are and what they are meant to do and how they are really not working and often making matters worse than fixing them. We also discussed some companies who are offering these overlays as a paid-for service and also how you, as a user, can get rid of them. There are many articles and podcasts who have covered this issue, for example a deep-dive 3 hour podcast of Mosen at large, especially covering it. For those who wish to read more about this, here is a link to an extensive Fact sheet on accessibility overlays.

We also talked about how audio-only media seems to be on the rise with large platforms like Clubhouse growing rapidly and huge companies like IKEA releasing their catalogue as an audio book.

The Sight City 2021 conference, that was supposed to take place in Frankfurt in May, will be hosted as a virtual-only event. We discussed how that might affect the conference as a whole, the number of companies showcasing their products and more.

Finally, Mario shares a piece of his limitless brilliance and expertise, giving us a demo of how you can easily transfer audio from your smartphone to a PC via bluetooth.

We really hope you enjoy this landmark episode and will join us next time. Should you have any questions, remarks or content you would like to contribute, you can reach us by email at [email protected] or twitter!

As always, you can also explore the transcript of this episode.

All the best from our entire team!

Welcome back to the 29th episode of the Ebu Access Cast, one away from thirty.

In this episode, hosted by Pawel and co-hosted by Tanja, Mario and Hlynur, we find the time to look into the future indeed, but for most of the time we stay focused on what matters for now, of course.

In absence of new gadgets from either of the Podcast crew, Mario shares with us the Story of how the name Bluetooth came to signify the popular data transmission protocol and it turns out to be a valuable lesson of common history and geography as well as an insight into how technological inventions receive their often unusual names.

Did we already mention that this episode is out of this world? This is not us bragging about it, rather we had a chance to discuss the landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars which, apart from the next foray onto the red planet, brought us the first ever recordings from out of Earth, some of which we are happy to present to you in the podcast directly. In this section we also find out how far it is really from Iceland to Mars and that the European Space Agency is actually thinking of recruiting disabled astronauts in the framework of their Parastronaut Feasibility Project.

For those who are hungry for more space adventure, here are some more sounds of Mars.

While space agencies of the world are busy exploring other planets, the new Talkback has moved outside of the Galaxy and is now available on many more phones than just the latest Samsungs. Those of us running Android share the first and not so first experiences and mourn the slow demise of some old TTS voices that cease to work on many devices due to the lack of support for the 64-bit infrastructure. What we did not mention in the show as it happened shortly after its recording is the update of the Samsung version of Talkback which brings back the integrated Braille keyboard so there is no need to put extra work to enjoy this functionality on these phones.

Fortunately, the fate of the voices we mentioned earlier has been narrowly missed by the Icelandic-speaking community who will soon be able to enjoy new voices and other tools for the Icelandic language. As this has been a long-term project that is finally showing some results and everything has been built from scratch, we speak of a large-scale achievement that has the potential to improve the quality of life for an entire nation. Well done Iceland!

We also discuss the new Humanware Brailliant line of Braille Displays. Is a device that lies in between a traditional braille display and a feature-packed Braille notetaker sporting an entire operating system something that will interest the assistive technology market? We will probably see about that in due course.

Meanwhile, we will learn how to be Handsome, thanks to a French fintech that claims to be the first bank dedicated to disabled customers. Their connected payment card which allows a blind user to track the entire payment process through their smartphone sounds sweet indeed but is it the final solution to the inaccessibility of payment terminals?

Finally, as the world is beginning to enjoy access to the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine, we wonder whether blind people can partake in this access and apply for their shot independently. We share our impressions regarding the accessibility of vaccination application procedures  and, in some cases, application for a COVID-19 test.

Remember that, should you be lost about how to fill in accessibility bug reports regarding public sector websites, there are resources available that will help you out such as this report template from Big Hack.

Provided we will still be on this planet in six weeks’ time, we will catch up with you in the 30th episode of the show. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy this one. Should you have any questions, remarks or content you would like to contribute, you can reach us by email at [email protected] or twitter!

As always, you can also explore the transcript of this episode.

All the best from our entire team!

Welcome back to EBU Access Cast - podcast about assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people. This is episode 28 transcript. We wish you all the best for a happy and healthy 2021!

In this post-Christmas episode, we review some of the new personal gadgets.

Tanja presents us her new Microphone Yeti Nano from Blue which is an USB condenser microphone - perfect for recording podcasts and for live streaming.

Mario talks about his new open-ear wireless bone conduction headset Aftershokz aeropex.

For all musicians among our listeners that are tired of using cables on instruments, Mario tested out a digital wireless system for guitars and basses Boss wl-20.

Pawel was surely the most creative in the team and recommended us a music pillow that can be plugged in any sound equipment via a 3.5 mm Jack cable and listen while falling asleep. The model that he got is from Kanguru.

Pawel recommended us also a winter cap with built in BT headset from GeekerChip.

We were happy to announce that the bug in Zoom was fixed. _We mentioned the bug in episode 27. Screen reader users should not experience issues anymore while using the virtual background on Zoom. A big shout-out to Zoom that fixed this bug so quickly.

In the accessibility news section, we covered the 2021 edition of CES. This year was the first time CES was entirely virtual rather than in its usual location of Las Vegas. Tech brands were still able to show off the best new technology that will be soon available on the market. Our pick of devices that were introduced at CES 2021:

• Turn-by-turn descriptive navigation Aware app by Sensible Innovations.
• Mudra Band for the Apple Watch that remaps small finger movements into standard Apple Watch gestures for persons with physical or cognitive disabilities.

Inclusive design is the concept that drives many big brands like Microsoft or Google. We share the interview from Engadget with Microsoft’s chief accessibility officer Jenny Lay-Flurrie and Google’s product manager for Android Accessibility Brian Kemler.

Microsoft Seeing AI app is a clear example how AI can be used to make visual information accessible to visually impaired persons. In the version 4.0, the new World channel was introduced that explores the space around you and represents them in 3d sound. You can check more information on the latest updates in the Seeing AI changelog.

Microsoft Azure Text to Speech service offers neural voices that sound natural like humans. It can speak in 54 languages and you can test it out on the Microsoft Azure page. Developers can make use of this service to build apps and services that speak naturally. Neural voices are not yet available for screen readers, but we hope that Microsoft will make them available as TTS voices in one of the future Windows updates.

After the strong earthquake in Croatia, we investigated the accessibility of earthquake apps.

We found the most accessible and customisable My earthquake alerts. As mobile app for iOS and Android. It notifies the user about the latest earthquakes from all over the world via push notifications. It uses information from earthquake agencies such as EMSC.

We were disappointed to discover that Last Quake, the official app from EMSC, does not have a fully accessible mobile app for iOS and Android.

Screen reader users that use Facebook know that images that do not have alternative text are automatically described. We talk about the latest Facebook improvement on the automatic alternative text.

Mario and Pawel speak about the new TalkBack in Android 11 and the collaboration between Google and Samsung.

We mentioned the European Android 11 schedule update for Samsung.

The Icelandic Association of the Visually Impaired (BIAVI) used the accessibility posters and turned them into mouse pads that they give to programmers, designers and staff working in the IT industry to remind them on basic accessibility recommendations.

Get in contact with us, share your comments or suggestions via email [email protected] or via Twitter @ebuaccesscast.

Wellcome to the transcribed 27th EbuAccessCast! This episode is the last for 2020, so we prepared nice Goodies for you this time, and we got some new faces in the show as well.

NEW Android Talkback Update (2020): Multi Finger Gestures

Google officially came out with Android 11 about 2 months ago but if you look at the official help pages from Google Accessibility Suite, you will not find anything about new multi fingered gestures, which we think is total shame for Google since this is really a huge forward for android accessibility. However young enthusiasts from Liveaccessible site compiled all the list of multi fingered gestures and they published it on their web site including very nice Youtube presentation. Again, double shame for Google.

Tanja discovered a huge bug in Zoom which is so far undocumented and which appears only if you use screen readers with it. Basically Zoom chrashes if you try to use virtual backround when running JAWS or NVDA, and once the crash appears, it is not visible on the screen for anybody. Tanja also prepared a short demo presentation so everyone can hear it what’s going on. If you encounter the same while using virtual backround with screen readers, inform Zoom about it so we get the bugfix soon.

Microsoft Teams should have Slack and Zoom on alert with its latest update

Yeah that's right, Teams is pushing forward very much and it is very accessible, even more than Zoom from Mario’s opinion and Microsoft just added the possibility of using your private Microsoft account with it.

Google is coming out with a new interesting thing called Project Guideline

If you are into sports, or better to say running specifically, this piece of news will be very much interesting for you.

There is also a video about the project which shows what's exactly going on. Again, unfortunately not audio described, even though it is related to blind people directly. Again we think that Google should really better promote its products and build better structure when accessibility is included.

This Device Lets Blind Women Take Pregnancy Tests in Privacy

All of us who are in the team of EEBU Access Cast think that this is a great step forward for raising awareness about the rights of blind women, and we support the idea 100%. Let’s hope that in the not far future we will start to see Pregnancy Tests as a standard offers in every pharmacy!

Playstation 5 decided to surprise all the gamers with accessibility news: They have expanded their screen reader to support the most wide-spread European languages, there is also now an accessible first-time running wizard that lets you pick the accessibility options you need and your preferences carry across all of the experience so if you tick a need for audiodescription in the settings, you'll get it everywhere it's available E.G> in games, on Netflix etc.

If you’re wondering how it sounds in a real demonstration, than check out the following youtube video.

A new interesting product called envision Glasses just started to hit the market. Thankfully to our listeners we got a very nice demo contribution from MR. Benjamin Hofer from Germany.

2020, was quite ruff year for all of us, but we were able to go thru it, and therefore we will be back with you in 2021 even better than we were so far. So, in the name of whole crew we wish you safe and healthy holidays, stay safe, and send us comments and suggestions on our email and Twitter when ever you have the time!

Welcome back to this month's edition of the EBU Access Cast, as always packed with the latest assistive technology news and gadget discussion. Our content in written form is in our transcript.

We started this one off with Mario telling us all about his brand-new phone, the Samsung Xcover Pro, the latest in the famous line of rugged, durable smartphones made by Samsung. This experience gives us a chance to discuss what to watch out for when choosing the right Android smartphone, including some less obvious characteristics, and how to make sure you will not need to return your purchase days after bringing it home.

Not only Mario did have an interesting device to present, as Paweł got a hold of Feelspace Navibelt, an aid in form of a belt worn around the waist that makes independent navigation easier.

We broke off the path of new hardware to point at a survey opened by the EDF where the opinion of disabled citizens is asked regarding the accessibility of public sector websites following the deadline of the 23rd of September which is when the Web Accessibility Directive should be met by all of the EU member states.

Our discussion of new devices carried on to the news section as well, as we discussed the latest Google event which, short as it was, introduced us to a slew of new speakers, smartphones and even a much smarter Chromecast streaming device. Beyond the event, Google surprised us all, with a little help from Ubisoft, by presenting the feature of alternative audio tracks for youtube videos. Will audiodescription become the new norm on the world's most popular video sharing platform and how easy is it to find the new option?

As is often the case with us, we also took a moment to check out what is new with the most essential pieces of software, the screen readers. While NVDA 2020.3 introduces system keys' emulation and changes for touch screen users, JAWS 2021 beta greets us with Sharky, its brand-new voice assistant, and some more image recognition news.

We also had to share an unfortunate piece of news regarding Samsung's Voice Assistant. Beginning with One UI 3.-, Samsung's Android experience based on Android 11, the company has decided to retire its own screen reader in favour of Google's Talkback. Does Talkback have any real competition at the moment and how easy is it to bring a new screen reading experience to the Android platform? What were your memories connected with the Voice Assistant?

Should you have any questions or queries, do not hesitate to contact us using our email or Twitter.

Stay tuned and, most of all,  healthy and safe in these difficult times.

Until the next episode coming to you in November.