Cearbhall
An excellent report of everything as usual.
All The Best,
Ken
On 8 Jan 2022, at 22:31, Cearbhall O'Meadhra <cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx>===========================================================
wrote:
in attendance: (12 Participants)
Martha Parkinson, Stuart Haxell, derry Walsh, Dominique Farrell, Jackie
McBrearty, Ken Walsh, Paul Griffith, Clare Cassidy, Chris Egan, Pat McCarthy,
Martin Kelly, Cearbhall O'Meadhra.
Apology: Gavin Allman
Chris is now the proud owner of the After Shokz bone-conducting headset.
While he likes the headset for reading books, he prefers his earbuds (not
Apple's!) for telephone and navigation.
Jackie, on the other hand, loves the After Shokz for getting about with Blind
Square. However, she does have trouble getting her hat on and fixing her face
mask.
Cearbhall reported that he is about to dive into the world of hearing aids as
he is getting on a bit! This led to a lively chat about where to go and buy a
decent hearing aid at a good price. For those who qualify, a good spot to try
is the HSE Audio Service in their local region. Otherwise, Hidden Hearing and
spec savers are worth a call.
Paul got Lepro smart bulbs installed in some of his lamps at home. Alexa
controls them on the instruction to "Turn main lights on! Alexa will also
turn on a range of different colours in the same lamp on request.
Dominique advised Alexa users to go into settings in the Alexa app and select
voice > hands free to ensure that Alexa will respond to voice control without
any need to tap the phone when operating smart gadgets and lights. It was
noted that the light switch must be left on all the time to enable Alexa to
operate successfully.
Ken described what HAPPENED WHEN someone unplugged the light control switch
while cleaning so that he had to rebuild the connection to the switches
within the app.
Jackie is using Tuya lamps which do not need to be fully reinstalled when
they get disconnected. They have only to be put back on again if they go
off-line.
The moral of the story is: "Don't turn off the box, ever!".
Chris and pat discussed the merits and de-merits of Ember and Nest as online
control systems for the home. Chris and Jackie agreed that ember was the best
with Voiceover.
Chris explained that the ember app allows the user to explore a virtual
configuration of an imaginary network before committing to the ember system.
Chris has kindly promised to lead a q & A discussion on heating systems next
week. So, get your questions ready!
Derry reminded the meeting that Jim Sherwin, at 81, had passed away in the
last few days. For those who are not old enough: Jim presented a weekly radio
program for the blind called "Listen and See" which ran for many, many
years. He fondly remembered by all who heard him in that broadcast and for
his commentary on various sports matches. His son is now recording audio
descriptions for various films.
Cearbhall begged for a step by step description of how to enable audio
description on his home television. Jackie guided him, patiently, through the
various stages. As a result, we now know that each television that uses a
dish has a box that is external to the TV set. In this box, open settings
and find Accessibility and then Audio Description.
Martin reminded all that NCBI has an app for RTE audio description.
Martin is the representative of the National League of the blind on the
Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI). He is offering to bring all
questions that any member of FB-exchange cares to raise about broadcasting on
radio or TV to the attention of the BAI. All questions should be addressed to
Ken who will pass them on to Martin. Thanks, Martin, for this generous offer!
Clare raised the problem of conducting antigen testing when alone and blind.
It was agreed that the only way to do this with any success is to have
sighted assistance. HSE and other services are available to come and assist
those who cannot get sighted assistance while actively infected with Covid.
Martin wanted to know how to save an attachment in its own folder in both
Outlook and within documents on the PC. Jackie appealed to Cearbhall for step
by step instructions as follows:
In outlook:
1. Press control+shift+e to create a new folder under the presently open
folder. For instance, if the Inbox is currently in focus, the new folder will
be listed as one of the folders within the Inbox.
2. Highlight the Email to be saved Without opening it.
3. Press Control +shift plus v to open the folder list
4. Arrow up or down the list to find the new folder. Press right arrow if the
folder is at the next level below the current list.
5. Press Enter to save the email in the new folder.
To save the attachment itself in a documents folder on the desktop:
1. Select "Documents" on the desktop and press enter to open it;
2. find where you want to place the new folder by arrowing up or down the
list of folders that appears;
3. Make sure that no item is selected in the list by pressing control + space
bar. This is a toggle and the screen reader should say "not selected" when
all is ready;
4. Press the application key or shift + F10 to open the application menu;
5. Arrow up twice to "New Folder" and press enter;
6. Type the name of the new folder and press enter;
7. Leave the documents folder and Open the email;
8. Pres shift + tab to move back to the attachment. The screen reader will
speak the name of the attachment when you are in the right position;
9. Press the application key or shift+ F10 and arrow down the Application
Menu until "Save as" or the next option, "Save all attachments" and press
enter;
10. Adjust the folder selection to show the new folder and tab to OK to save
the file in the new folder.
Derry reported a problem with punctuation on the iPhone. Jackie advised him
to remove "punctuation from the roto under accessibility settings to cure
this problem.
The meeting went on to discuss electric frying pans along with wireless
chargers for the desk and the pocket.
In conclusion, Ken reminded all that a webinar on "Android accessibility" is
taking place on Wednesday, January 19 at 5pm GMT.
hosting by Ed and Warren from the Blind Android Users Podcast. The webinar
will share three ways to set up an Android phone for the visually impaired,
depending on how comfortable they are with technology.
It is necessary to register. So, see Declan's recent email for instructions.
The meeting ended.
All the best,
Cearbhall
m +353 (0)833323487 Ph: _353 (0)1-2864623 e: cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx
--
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
===========================================================
The fb-exchange mailing list
Manage account,
List Page: https://www.freelists.org/list/fb-exchange
Subscribe: mailto:fb-exchange-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=subscribe
Unsubscribe: mailto:fb-exchange-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=unsubscribe
Archive: https://www.freelists.org/archive/fb-exchange
Administrative contact: insight@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
===========================================================
