On the Archive of the May FSOpenLine, an overview of features new to the June product updates, resources for learning Slack, and your calls on a variety of topics including: JAWS getting stuck thinking menus are active, and Adobe Reader not always bringing focus  to the dialog for setting document tagging options.

On FSCast 230, we’ll get to know retired Army Major Scotty Smiley.  He was blinded by a suicide bomber when fighting in Iraq; but came back, taught at West Point, and became the military’s first totally blind active-duty officer.  Then, Dr. Michele McDonnall will be here to discuss the second year of the AT in the Workplace study conducted by Mississippi State University.

On FSCast 229, when Mandy Van Cleave started her job as an assistive technology trainer, little did she know that she would soon need that technology for herself.  We hear from Mandy about her personal and professional experience, as well as about a new ZoomText feature that might change the way you use screen magnification.  We also give a few tips on how to stay on the same page with your sighted colleagues and friends, and how to write bug reports that stand out.

On FSCast 228 I’m joined by retired Paralympic swimmer Donovan Tildesley.  We’ll hear about his odyssey of being removed from a Virgin cruise because the crew panicked when they saw a solo blind passenger, and how his social media presence allowed him to negotiate a solution.  Then, a look at Visual Studio Code and why it’s an accessible way to learn to program. Transcript available at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.

On the archive of the February FSOpenLine, we take your calls on a variety of topics including: Slack conversations unexpectedly scrolling to previous  content, Notepad starting up slowly on Windows 11, Fusion sometimes scrolling the screen away from the mouse location, the newly added WhatsApp scripts for JAWS, and how to prevent Zoom from automatically announcing incoming chat messages.

On FSCast 226, we’ll get to know longtime JAWS beta tester, self-proclaimed language nerd, and software developer Andre Polykanine. Then Andre will serve as translator for a visit with Sasha Hordiiko and Igor Kushnir of the Ukrainian Association of the Blind. We’ll hear about their work and find out what life has been like since the beginning of the war.

On FSCast 225, we celebrate Braille Literacy Month with two guests for whom braille plays a pivotal role.  Bill McCann, founder of Dancing Dots, has been helping blind musicians with all aspects of music creation for the past 32 years.  And Campbell Rutherford, a former Freedom Scientific Student of the Month, is now studying applied mathematics at Harvard.

Transcript at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.

On FSCast 224, it's the archive of the November 2022 FSOpenLine. We discuss improved support for the Outlook Scheduling assistant in JAWS 2023, and take your questions on a variety of topics including: searching for commands in JAWS and Office apps, preventing mail from going to the Outlook Junk folder, and providing resources to people who create inaccessible PDF files.

Transcript at Blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.

On FSCast 223, it’s the Second Annual Audio Description Awards put on by the American Council of the Blind.  We’ll hear about some of the winners and talk about all things audio description with Kim Charlson, co-chair of the ACB Audio Description Project, and Thomas Reid, audio description narrator and host of the Gala two years running.

Transcript available at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.

On FSCast 222, we’ll demonstrate how creating rules to manage notifications just got more powerful, thanks to the use of regular expressions.  It may sound a bit intimidating, but we’ll take it step by step, and you’ll see just how easy it really is. Then we’ll meet M. Leona Godin and hear about her book “There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness.”

Transcript and links available at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.