The Canadian Council of the Blind Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

The Internet in your pocket is a core reason why you want an iPhone with you. Many apps tap into information available via the web. However, the Safari browser or a third party alternative of your choice will serve as your direct gateway to sites on the web which you want to visit. This month, we’ll take a deep dive and explore the Safari browser. It comes on your iPhone as an important part of iOS. You’ll learn how to navigate the web and how to take advantage of resources there through Safari. We’ll also talk about the settings associated with this browser. Third party alternatives won’t be covered in detail but we’ll briefly discuss why you might want to try them out.

There’s a lot which has been updated in iOS 18. This month, we’ll begin our detour from the second edition of the book in order to fill people in on these changes. We’ll talk about the new tutorial for VoiceOver users which is now available right in the VoiceOver settings. We’ll also look at how audio ducking has been updated and is now far more useful. There’s plenty which has changed outside of VoiceOver. The settings for iOS have been rearranged so we’ll go over how that crucial area has changed.

Your iPhone is constantly checking for new information. Apps running in the background can interrupt you with notifications. So can calls and messages from people. Thankfully, Apple has provided tools to help deal with this effectively. We will discuss notifications settings in detail. These let you decide whether and how apps can inform you of things in normal circumstances. Meanwhile, focus settings let you determine what and who can interrupt you at a given time. Between these groups of settings, you can be in control of interruptions to your daily life from your iPhone.

The Voice Control feature allows people to control their iPhones entirely with spoken commands. Designed with sighted people in mind who have motion difficulties making use of the touchscreen difficult, the system can be used in conjunction with VoiceOver. This final lecture for 2023 will give a basic tour of how Voice Control works. This completes the many different ways there are of controlling your iPhone. In the new year, we’ll begin talking about the many different apps and services which can be used and accessed by blind people through the use of their iPhones.

Nolan Jenikov gives us a brief demonstration of the iPhone application perplexity.

For many blind people, Braille is vital. They prefer to type in Braille and read in Braille rather than using a touchscreen and synthetic speech. This is quite possible using VoiceOver on your iPhone. Apple offers extensive support for using their products with Braille displays. This week, we’ll focus on what’s possible when you connect a Braille display via Bluetooth to your iPhone. We’ll also discuss Braille screen input which lets you type on the touchscreen as if it were a Braille keyboard. We’ll also go over some pitfalls of using Braille with your iPhone.

We store a lot of information on our iPhones. Apple does a lot to help keep that information secure. In this part of the Unseen Touchscreen course, we examine these security measures and the things we can do to safeguard our information while still making the most of our iPhones. The relevant section of the book is called Digitally Defending Yourself.

The topics for this session will include a brief tour of Siri. This digital assistant can be very helpful especially to beginners. We’ll discuss what Siri is designed to do and what it can’t do. Also, we’ll discuss how iOS handles sound. This is an area where iOS can present some challenges for blind people who aren’t aware of sound related decisions that Apple has made.

ScripTalk talking prescription labels help a variety of people who cannot get their prescription information in traditional ways. Talking prescriptions help people with vision impairment, they help people who are print impaired or have other neurological limitations.

The challenge, as we focus our efforts on bringing ScripTalk into more Canadian pharmacies, is to get you  to speak with your pharmacy manager and let them know that  these labels will allow you to be able to stay safe and independent while taking your medications.

for more information on ScripTalk visit the website: https://www.envisionamerica.com/

The Centre for Equitable Library Access (CELA) has recently introduced a new option to its talking book player line up. This is the Envoy connect player available for purchase through the CNIB smart life store. In this  presentation about CELA’s new service supporting the Envoy Connect audio book player, we will cover the basics of the Envoy Connect player, basics of the associated CELA Connect software, and what the service launch involves.