WEBVTT - Talking Tech 5th October 2024 0:00:33.353 --> 0:00:37.553 Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from 0:00:37.553 --> 0:00:41.482 November the 5th, 2024. I'm Stephen Jolly, great to have 0:00:41.483 --> 0:00:45.503 you with us listening through Vision Australia Radio associated stations 0:00:45.503 --> 0:00:49.763 of the Radio Reading Network or perhaps the Community Radio Network. 0:00:49.793 --> 0:00:52.553 There is also the podcast. To catch that, all you 0:00:52.553 --> 0:00:55.373 need to do is search for the two words talking 0:00:55.403 --> 0:00:58.163 tech and Dan can all come usually on a Tuesday 0:00:58.163 --> 0:01:01.673 afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option is to 0:01:01.703 --> 0:01:05.453 ask your Siri device or smart speaker to play. Vision 0:01:05.483 --> 0:01:11.603 Australia radio talking tech podcast. Vision Australia radio talking tech podcast. 0:01:11.633 --> 0:01:20.153 With me. Vision Australia's national access technology manager Damien McMorrow. Hey, Damo. Hi, Stephen. Damo. 0:01:20.183 --> 0:01:25.073 It's been a big week for software upgrades, particularly in 0:01:25.072 --> 0:01:29.633 the screen reader and screen enhancement area. Before we go 0:01:29.633 --> 0:01:33.943 into the details of what's been released, let's perhaps explain 0:01:33.943 --> 0:01:38.083 what a screen reader is and what screen enhancement is. 0:01:38.113 --> 0:01:44.173 Yeah, sure. So screen readers are really designed to give 0:01:44.173 --> 0:01:48.433 you access to your computer through synthetic speech output. But 0:01:48.433 --> 0:01:52.243 also if you have a refreshable Braille display connected, it'll 0:01:52.243 --> 0:01:56.233 give you the same sort of access through Braille. So 0:01:56.233 --> 0:01:59.803 for people who are totally blind, like you and I, 0:01:59.833 --> 0:02:03.943 or people who have either very low vision or suffer 0:02:03.943 --> 0:02:07.903 from a lot of vision fatigue, they will often use 0:02:07.903 --> 0:02:11.262 a screen reader as their primary means of access. For 0:02:11.263 --> 0:02:15.193 those people who have some hearing loss as well, they 0:02:15.192 --> 0:02:17.953 may rely more on the Braille output side of things 0:02:17.953 --> 0:02:22.873 rather than the speech output. Screen enhancement, on the other hand, 0:02:22.903 --> 0:02:26.203 is more of a visual enhancement. So for people who 0:02:26.203 --> 0:02:29.213 have some usable vision, a lot of people think that 0:02:29.213 --> 0:02:32.903 it's just magnification, but it goes a lot further than that. 0:02:32.933 --> 0:02:37.553 There are things like high contrast mouse pointers and cursors. 0:02:37.583 --> 0:02:41.393 You can change the screen contrast. So for example, if 0:02:41.423 --> 0:02:44.482 your vision works in such a way that having everything 0:02:44.482 --> 0:02:47.093 as white on black or black on white works best 0:02:47.093 --> 0:02:50.422 for you, then you can adjust those sorts of things 0:02:50.423 --> 0:02:54.712 as well as the text size. A lot of screen 0:02:54.713 --> 0:03:00.083 enhancement tools also provide some speech so that you can 0:03:00.083 --> 0:03:04.673 use it for reading emails, long documents, that kind of 0:03:04.703 --> 0:03:07.042 thing so that you can give your vision a break. 0:03:07.072 --> 0:03:11.602 And then of course, there are products like Supernova Magnifier, 0:03:11.632 --> 0:03:16.762 Screen Reader or Zoomtext Fusion, which actually include a full 0:03:16.762 --> 0:03:20.843 screen reader and all of the screen enhancement tools. So 0:03:20.843 --> 0:03:25.132 they are often used if someone is transitioning from being 0:03:25.162 --> 0:03:29.993 perhaps predominantly a magnification user, a screen enhancement user to 0:03:30.023 --> 0:03:33.712 becoming more of a screen reader user as their vision 0:03:33.713 --> 0:03:37.313 deteriorates or depending on the day. You know, people's vision 0:03:37.313 --> 0:03:40.343 can change day to day, and if you're having a 0:03:40.343 --> 0:03:44.182 bad day visually and your eyes just aren't cooperating, you 0:03:44.183 --> 0:03:48.383 may rely more on your screen reader component in that instance. 0:03:48.383 --> 0:03:49.973 Whereas if you're having a good day and you want 0:03:50.003 --> 0:03:51.803 to do things visually, or you're dealing with a lot 0:03:51.833 --> 0:03:54.893 of graphs, or you're looking at photos or things like that, 0:03:54.893 --> 0:03:57.862 you would rely more on the screen enhancement side of things. 0:03:57.893 --> 0:04:01.523 So let's talk about vespero, still quite often referred to 0:04:01.553 --> 0:04:07.793 as Freedom Scientific. They have the Jaws product, the Zoomtext product, 0:04:07.793 --> 0:04:13.193 and the fusion product. And they're 2025 upgrades came out 0:04:13.193 --> 0:04:14.063 last week. 0:04:14.243 --> 0:04:20.093 They did last Thursday. Australian time. The big new feature 0:04:20.093 --> 0:04:24.233 in jaws is a thing called PFS companion. It's essentially 0:04:24.233 --> 0:04:29.993 an AI tool that allows you to ask questions, particularly 0:04:29.993 --> 0:04:36.743 around Jaws usage, Microsoft Windows usage, and use of office applications. 0:04:36.743 --> 0:04:41.543 So you could, for example, type in how do I 0:04:41.543 --> 0:04:44.303 change the volume in Jaws? How do I have jaws? 0:04:44.333 --> 0:04:48.833 Read the column headers in Excel, something like that. And 0:04:48.833 --> 0:04:54.623 it will analyze a number of different resources training resources, documentation, 0:04:54.623 --> 0:04:57.653 help files, all of those kinds of things and produce 0:04:57.653 --> 0:05:00.323 a nice step by step guide for you on how 0:05:00.323 --> 0:05:02.513 to do the thing that you're trying to do. 0:05:02.513 --> 0:05:05.993 I asked it recently to tell me how to delete 0:05:05.993 --> 0:05:11.843 a block of rows in a Microsoft word table. It 0:05:11.873 --> 0:05:17.093 told me exactly as an access trainer and a shout 0:05:17.123 --> 0:05:19.613 out to Ken Baker, who used to do this for us, 0:05:19.643 --> 0:05:22.463 would tell you there are five steps step one, step two, 0:05:22.493 --> 0:05:24.713 step three, etc. it's fantastic. 0:05:24.743 --> 0:05:27.043 Yeah, it really is. And there are a couple of 0:05:27.043 --> 0:05:29.653 different ways of accessing it too. You can access it 0:05:29.653 --> 0:05:33.493 from the device that's running jaws. You can go your 0:05:33.493 --> 0:05:37.183 jaws key and space followed by F1. Or you can 0:05:37.183 --> 0:05:39.823 actually if you want to look something up on your 0:05:39.823 --> 0:05:42.223 phone because you're not near the computer or you don't 0:05:42.223 --> 0:05:45.973 want to change focus, you can in any web browser 0:05:46.003 --> 0:05:50.953 go to FS companion I and access it from your 0:05:50.953 --> 0:05:53.383 phone or another computer or something like that. 0:05:53.383 --> 0:05:55.483 So it's a matter of fact. What I've done is 0:05:55.483 --> 0:06:00.523 put the shortcut to FS companion I on my desktop. 0:06:00.523 --> 0:06:02.533 It's very easy to go to it that way at 0:06:02.533 --> 0:06:03.253 any time. 0:06:03.253 --> 0:06:07.393 Yeah. That's a that's a really good idea. There are also, 0:06:07.393 --> 0:06:12.403 as is often the case, a number of other enhancements. 0:06:12.403 --> 0:06:17.533 So there are some improvements in office applications. There's also 0:06:17.533 --> 0:06:22.663 some improvements with the new outlook. And this is a 0:06:22.663 --> 0:06:25.863 little bit confusing Microsoft have done away with or are 0:06:25.863 --> 0:06:28.413 in the process of doing away with the old Windows 0:06:28.413 --> 0:06:33.003 Mail windows calendar, and they've amalgamated all of those into 0:06:33.003 --> 0:06:37.563 a new version of outlook, which will eventually permeate through 0:06:37.563 --> 0:06:40.593 office 365 and so on as well. But for the moment, 0:06:40.593 --> 0:06:45.153 I think they're calling the office 365 version Outlook Classic. 0:06:45.363 --> 0:06:48.663 So there are some improvements there because a lot of 0:06:48.663 --> 0:06:52.383 people were finding the new outlook quite difficult to deal with. 0:06:52.413 --> 0:06:55.923 The other big one is some improvements in Epub files. 0:06:55.923 --> 0:06:59.403 So a lot of electronic books and so on come 0:06:59.403 --> 0:07:03.573 out in the Epub format. And there's a whole range 0:07:03.573 --> 0:07:07.892 of new navigation features for Epub documents. And this is 0:07:07.893 --> 0:07:11.193 just sort of the beginning. They do incrementally release updates 0:07:11.193 --> 0:07:13.893 throughout the cycle during the year. So usually between sort 0:07:13.893 --> 0:07:17.223 of October and July. So I think that we will 0:07:17.223 --> 0:07:22.593 continue to see some more enhancements throughout the the 2025 cycle. 0:07:22.603 --> 0:07:26.443 Any comments about fusion and Zoomtext? 0:07:26.473 --> 0:07:32.203 Yes. So most of the improvements in Zoomtext are sort 0:07:32.233 --> 0:07:35.323 of under the hood improvements, if you like. They have 0:07:35.323 --> 0:07:39.493 made some changes to things like the dual monitor behavior. 0:07:39.613 --> 0:07:42.883 It used to put a sort of an artificial boundary, 0:07:42.883 --> 0:07:45.133 so that you knew when you'd changed from one monitor 0:07:45.133 --> 0:07:48.403 to another. That's now defaults to being off so that 0:07:48.403 --> 0:07:52.963 you can span your desktop across multiple monitors. They have 0:07:52.963 --> 0:07:56.893 also improved the sort of font smoothing and that type 0:07:56.893 --> 0:08:02.113 of thing in office applications. So yes, there are some improvements, 0:08:02.113 --> 0:08:05.923 there's some improved start up times and general performance improvements 0:08:05.923 --> 0:08:08.593 and those kinds of things. And again, I think we'll 0:08:08.593 --> 0:08:13.303 probably see a number of improvements throughout the the cycle 0:08:13.303 --> 0:08:17.923 with Zoomtext. Obviously with fusion being an amalgam of both products, 0:08:17.923 --> 0:08:22.543 you will get the Jaws improvements and the zoom text improvements. 0:08:22.543 --> 0:08:26.203 So you'll get things like PFS companion if you are 0:08:26.203 --> 0:08:28.123 a fusion user as well. 0:08:28.123 --> 0:08:30.433 If you're a regular user, you just need to go 0:08:30.433 --> 0:08:34.723 to the help and check for updates, and you'll find 0:08:34.723 --> 0:08:37.273 out that these are available and you can download them. 0:08:37.273 --> 0:08:38.113 And off you go. 0:08:38.143 --> 0:08:41.443 That's right, that's right. And it's always a fairly seamless process. 0:08:41.443 --> 0:08:44.473 It generally brings all of your settings and things across. 0:08:44.473 --> 0:08:47.953 The only thing, if you do use any additional jaws scripts, 0:08:47.953 --> 0:08:50.232 you may need to reinstall those. So if you use 0:08:50.232 --> 0:08:54.013 something like Lisa from Arjun Consulting or any of the 0:08:54.013 --> 0:08:57.193 other sort of freely available jaws scripts that are out there, 0:08:57.193 --> 0:08:59.112 you may need to reinstall those. 0:08:59.323 --> 0:09:05.263 So that was the freedom Scientific or Vespero package of products. 0:09:05.293 --> 0:09:11.292 Jaws fusion and Zoomtext upgrades came out last week. And 0:09:11.293 --> 0:09:14.383 let's talk about our own Aussie product, which is very 0:09:14.382 --> 0:09:19.362 popular around the world. From Envy Access, Nvda. 0:09:19.652 --> 0:09:25.273 Yes. So they have this week released version 2020 4.4. 0:09:25.272 --> 0:09:29.292 So this is an incremental update and it is one 0:09:29.293 --> 0:09:34.002 that they recommend that everyone updates to. They have made 0:09:34.002 --> 0:09:40.633 some fairly significant improvements in access through Braille, particularly, um, 0:09:40.632 --> 0:09:43.963 things like word comments and those sorts of things. The 0:09:43.963 --> 0:09:48.973 ability to configure, um, you know, showing the things like 0:09:48.973 --> 0:09:53.142 font changes, style changes in braille as well as using speech. 0:09:53.142 --> 0:09:57.673 So you can sort of configure those independently now, and 0:09:57.673 --> 0:10:03.463 the usual massive array of bug fixes and improvements. So 0:10:03.492 --> 0:10:06.642 definitely worth doing that. And if you are an Nvda 0:10:06.673 --> 0:10:09.732 user and you benefit from the product, it's also a 0:10:09.732 --> 0:10:13.422 nice thing to donate when you can as well. Because 0:10:13.602 --> 0:10:15.642 they are a not for profit. Their aim has always 0:10:15.642 --> 0:10:18.403 been to make the product free, but they do rely 0:10:18.453 --> 0:10:22.772 on grants and donations to keep developing it. So if 0:10:22.772 --> 0:10:25.563 you are a regular user of Nvda and you find 0:10:25.563 --> 0:10:29.283 it helpful, I would encourage you to donate and give 0:10:29.283 --> 0:10:31.623 our friends over here in Australia a bit of a 0:10:31.622 --> 0:10:32.433 helping hand. 0:10:32.463 --> 0:10:36.273 Yes, they've made terrific headway over the years there on many, 0:10:36.272 --> 0:10:40.892 many machines around the world. A busy week for Apple again. 0:10:41.193 --> 0:10:47.133 Yes. So we had the update of the Mac operating system, 0:10:47.132 --> 0:10:52.713 Sequoia to version 15.1. And we also saw an update 0:10:52.713 --> 0:11:00.782 to the iOS operating system for iPhones and iPads to 18.1. Now, unfortunately, 0:11:00.783 --> 0:11:04.323 here in Oz, we don't get Apple intelligence yet unless 0:11:04.323 --> 0:11:07.473 you set your region, I think to us. But we 0:11:07.473 --> 0:11:11.102 do get a couple of nice features, including the ability 0:11:11.102 --> 0:11:15.242 to record phone calls. If you're dealing with a business 0:11:15.242 --> 0:11:16.922 and you think they're going to give you, you know, 0:11:16.923 --> 0:11:19.042 perhaps a reservation number, or you want to have a 0:11:19.043 --> 0:11:22.433 record of the fact that you've registered a complaint or 0:11:22.433 --> 0:11:26.003 something like that. Uh, this is quite a handy feature. 0:11:26.002 --> 0:11:29.152 And I we were talking about this off air, weren't we, Steven? 0:11:29.152 --> 0:11:31.792 That really given that every time you call a business, 0:11:31.793 --> 0:11:35.903 they tell you that your call may be recorded for 0:11:35.902 --> 0:11:39.953 coaching purposes. You should therefore feel comfortable to have the 0:11:39.953 --> 0:11:42.352 right to also record a call if you need to 0:11:42.382 --> 0:11:45.772 for note taking or or records purposes. 0:11:45.772 --> 0:11:48.383 And when you start the record process, there's an announcement 0:11:48.382 --> 0:11:50.303 so that everyone on the call can hear that it 0:11:50.303 --> 0:11:50.992 is being done. 0:11:50.992 --> 0:11:54.983 So that's right. The other thing that this feature offers 0:11:55.012 --> 0:11:59.392 is the ability to have a text summary generated where 0:11:59.392 --> 0:12:02.093 it'll capture sort of the the essence of the phone 0:12:02.093 --> 0:12:05.183 call and provide you a summary of the salient points 0:12:05.183 --> 0:12:08.573 in text format. So that might be quite helpful as well. 0:12:08.573 --> 0:12:11.812 If you're conducting business over the phone and you, you 0:12:11.813 --> 0:12:13.913 discuss a number of things. It saves you having to 0:12:13.943 --> 0:12:16.772 try and note, take or do that weird thing where 0:12:16.772 --> 0:12:20.822 you hold the phone against your shoulder and try and type. So, um, 0:12:20.823 --> 0:12:22.923 that's quite a useful feature as well. 0:12:22.953 --> 0:12:25.682 Any other things? About 18.1 for those. 0:12:25.683 --> 0:12:30.872 That do decide to experiment with the Apple Intelligence feature, 0:12:30.902 --> 0:12:35.132 there are currently some accessibility issues with that in that 0:12:35.132 --> 0:12:38.823 if you have it, generate summaries of emails and those 0:12:38.823 --> 0:12:41.643 sorts of things, they aren't accessible with VoiceOver. So at 0:12:41.642 --> 0:12:45.843 the moment, the workaround is to copy that out into 0:12:45.843 --> 0:12:48.873 another document to make it accessible, which is certainly not ideal. 0:12:48.872 --> 0:12:53.522 And it is disappointing that at launch we don't have 0:12:53.522 --> 0:12:56.703 full access to this. I have had a couple of 0:12:56.703 --> 0:13:01.532 funny bugs with 18.1 with Braille screen input. That's where 0:13:01.533 --> 0:13:04.382 you type braille on the screen, but I haven't worked 0:13:04.382 --> 0:13:07.052 out if that's just my particular setup or whether it's 0:13:07.053 --> 0:13:09.272 happening for other people. But a couple of people that 0:13:09.272 --> 0:13:12.063 I've asked haven't experienced it, so maybe I'm just lucky. 0:13:12.093 --> 0:13:16.463 So that's updates for iOS. Also for the operating system, 0:13:16.463 --> 0:13:20.693 for the watch, for the iPad and Sequoia, the Mac 0:13:20.723 --> 0:13:21.983 operating system. 0:13:22.012 --> 0:13:23.843 It's been a big week for Apple. 0:13:23.872 --> 0:13:25.943 This is a great place to go to to find 0:13:25.943 --> 0:13:31.042 out what's being discussed in the blindness community around Apple accessibility. 0:13:31.402 --> 0:13:35.032 It really is. And I was really pleased that it 0:13:35.033 --> 0:13:39.653 is now being supported by Be My Eyes. There was 0:13:39.652 --> 0:13:44.693 a concern that it might disappear when its founder, his 0:13:44.693 --> 0:13:47.902 health deteriorated and he needed to step back from it. 0:13:47.933 --> 0:13:50.542 It's really great that be my eyes have picked this 0:13:50.543 --> 0:13:54.742 up and are supporting the sort of ongoing development of content, 0:13:54.742 --> 0:13:58.073 but it's a great resource for you if you want 0:13:58.102 --> 0:14:00.833 to check out things like what's new in a particular version, 0:14:00.833 --> 0:14:05.123 what bugs they've found, that kind of thing. There are podcasts, 0:14:05.122 --> 0:14:09.172 there are demonstrations, there are forum posts where people can 0:14:09.173 --> 0:14:12.203 ask questions. So it really is a good resource for 0:14:12.203 --> 0:14:14.882 those of us who use Apple products extensively. 0:14:15.392 --> 0:14:18.002 The demo podcasts are fantastic, aren't they? 0:14:18.033 --> 0:14:19.773 They really are. Yes. Yeah. 0:14:19.803 --> 0:14:25.202 Apple Vice.com. Before we go, a reminder of where you 0:14:25.233 --> 0:14:27.633 can find details of what we've been talking about in 0:14:27.633 --> 0:14:30.182 this and previous editions of the program, all you need 0:14:30.183 --> 0:14:38.583 to do is go to VA radio.org/talking tech. VA radio.org/talking tech. 0:14:38.613 --> 0:14:41.103 To write to the program you can email me. 0:14:41.133 --> 0:14:46.803 Damo Damo dot McMorrow m c m o r o 0:14:46.833 --> 0:14:51.513 w at Vision australia.org. And I really appreciate the feedback 0:14:51.513 --> 0:14:53.552 and the comments from those who have emailed me, so 0:14:53.553 --> 0:14:54.633 thank you very much. 0:14:54.663 --> 0:15:00.873 Damo McMorrow at Vision australia.org. This has been talking tech 0:15:00.873 --> 0:15:04.323 with me has been Vision Australia's national Access technology manager 0:15:04.353 --> 0:15:07.802 Damo McMorrow. I'm Stephen Jolly. Take care. We'll talk more 0:15:07.803 --> 0:15:09.093 tech next week. See you.