Triple-click Home

Listen to Triple-click Home episode 33: Where’s the Braille

The entire Triple-click Home team is back for this month’s podcast. Jamie and Derek join the team to discuss the recent Apple event announcing new iPhones plus the unveiling of Apple Watch. Discussion next turns to the good, the bad and the undecided with regard to iOS 8. Also included are some AppleVis links not discussed in the podcast.

Hands-On First Impressions of the New iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

iPhones with bigger screens may find eager senior buyers

Apple Pay Is The Most Important News Out Of Today’s Launch Event

Why Apple Pay could be the mobile-payment system you’ll actually use

Why Walmart and Best Buy aren’t backing Apple Pay

Sources Say The Next Version Of The Apple Watch Is Going To Be Much Better

Exclusive: Two Apple medical trials shed light on how HealthKit will work

Everything That You Need to Know About iOS 8 Will Be On AppleVis On Release Day

Acapela Voices Temporarily Not Available in iOS 8

The Accessibility Bugs in iOS 8: From Serious To Minor

What’s New in iOS 8 Accessibility for Blind, Low-Vision, and Deaf-Blind Users

Mailbag

From Jenine Stanley:

Oh can I relate to Buddy’s Pro Tip for those of us who find ourselves straddling both worlds.

My work laptop is a Windows machine and it’s good for what it does, sort of, but I’m really enjoying most of my leisure and home chores on my MacBook Pro.

Nope, those Mac commands do not work in Windows and sometimes they do very bad things to your work. I recently went all the way to getting a trouble ticket written for a problem I was having. When I talked to the tech at the outside support service, he asked me for exact steps. I told him and he laughed, in that way you know you’re not supposed to do but …

“Ma’am, that’s a Mac command. Do you use a Mac at home?”

“Uh, yeah, I do. thanks. I’m going to just dig a big ole hole now.”

And yes, Alena, I was taught way back when to start with any new program by exploring the menu system. See what it offers and how to do those things. It’s held me in good stead for many years, many more than I care to think about.

And Buddy, evil as you are, I’m with ya in the playing pranks on the computer teacher. Of course we’d just gotten the IBM Selectric typewriters when I was in high school and the Trash 80 computers didn’t come out until a couple years later. I had my fun at work.

We set up the old DOS machines we had so that the screen came up with a red background and red letters. Then I did a whole demo on some aspect of accessibility. Then I got called into my boss’s office to hear how that wasn’t funny. Made my point though.

Oh and you could indeed set up some key commands, like hot keys, outside of the screen reader, for Windows and more for DOS. Could I remember how to do it now? No, but I had a couple cool ones back in the day.

Blog comment from Jesse

There seems to be a lot of wining about a larger iPhone screen in recent episodes. True, some people don’t want larger screens and that’s fine. But there are many blind and low vision users, low vision users especially, who are really looking forward to a larger iPhone, myself included. I have looked at several Android phones with larger screens, and would love to have an iPhone with these types of screens.

Simply getting an iPad Mini isn’t a good solution either, for a couple of reasons. first, as a low vision user, I use the camera in my phone all the time. The camera in all iPad models isn’t as good, and for some reason, Apple has yet to add a camera flash, making many camera apps on the iPads rather pointless. I use my phone as a portable CCTV all the time and absolutely love it. A little larger screen would be very helpful, and when combined with a more open camera for developers, will make the iPhone even more comparable to dedicated handheld CCTV’s.

Also, I use data everywhere on my phone, and don’t intend to pay for an expanded data plan to have data on my iPad. I’m fine with a Wi-Fi only iPad for now.

These are just my thoughts though. I say, “Bring on the bigger phone.”

Otherwise, I love the podcast, and keep up the great work.

From Beth

Hi, I was introduced to the slate and stylus in mid elementary school but I tended toward wrist rolling and hand pain when using it and, since I was adept at the Perkins Brailler, I did not persevere with the slate and haven’t since, with no desire to. I have no need to write stuff down when I’m out and I use the Perkins and the PC at home. I was fortunate to have parents and teachers who took my individual needs into account. I wonder about the wisdom of teaching screen readers at a very young age. Computers and phones are more intuitive if you have vision, since direct action can be done with the mouse or touch screen.
Screen readers place a bridge of gestures and/or keyboard commands between the user and the device. Yes, very young kids’ brains are pliable and can soak up knowledge well but should so much info be thrown at such a young brain? Also, who will have or take the time to teach a very young child a screen reader? Most kids now are in homes where both parents work and, in general, parents do not have the time, energy or enthusiasm to learn a screen reader themselves, let alone teach it. We don’t have the resources to have that many teachers of the visually impaired to teach that many kids. Beth