Glad youlike it, Ken!
All the best,
Cearbhall
m +353 (0)833323487 e: cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx
From: fb-exchange-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <fb-exchange-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Kenneth Walsh
Sent: Saturday, December 9, 2023 6:03 PM
To: fb-exchange@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [fb-exchange] Re: Cork Notes 9th. December 2023
Cearbhall
A fantastic report of today’s proceedings.
All The Best,
Ken
On 9 Dec 2023, at 17:29, Cearbhall O'Meadhra <cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx
<mailto:cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx> > wrote:
In attendance: 9 participants
With Christmas getting closer and closer, Our eager members discussed the news
that Be My AI is officially entering an open beta phase for iOS and Android
users and in coming weeks will be available for hundreds of thousands of Be My
Eyes users worldwide.
Be My AI will start being distributed to all existing iPhone users this week.
The full roll-out will take a few weeks, so be sure to keep your app updated so
you will have access to Be My AI as soon as it is available to you.
To use Be My AI in everyday life, open the Be My Eyes app, click on the ‘Be My
AI’ tab, and take a picture.
Stuart opened the meeting by sharing a full description of a large Christmas
tree by Be My AI. He showed that the user can chat and ask Be My AI further
questions to get more information.
Cearbhall asked for advice on the best way to introduce NVDA to an older person
who was new to Windows and screen reader usage. Someone mentioned the resource
of Sharon's Shortcuts as an invaluable resource to turn to. Others reported
that Vision Ireland has an excellent series of online training courses for
users of Windows with either JAWS or NVDA. The sessions are online at vi.ie and
more information and registration can be found on the web site or by email to
training @ vi.ie
Ken told of his work with Possibility Labs who are beta testing the Welcome
Service in his home town in Cork. Currently up and running at Edinburgh
Airport, the app, called ‘Welcome’ by the Edinburgh-based company Neatebox,
allows people with disabilities to set up a personal profile and request
assistance in advance from the airport and other facilities. The destination
venue gets an email to say that the passenger is coming and what type of
assistance is required: i.e. Visually Impaired or wheelchair or elderly, etc.
He praised the quality of the assistance provided and looks forward to a future
rollout of a great service.
Adrian and Ger are thrilled that Be My AI is now available for android users.
The service is free but there is a fee-paying version that gives a more expert
guidance and more detail.
Adrian and Stuart have been making use of the free AIRA Legacy app on both
Android and IOS. Aira Legacy is an app that connects people who have low or no
vision to a live agent who can serve as their eyes. Using the camera on the
user's mobile device, the agent can see what is in front of the user. The
agents can simply read information, help guide the user through unfamiliar
places, assist with public transportation, and so much more, the options really
are endless! Aira is available for Android and Apple devices and is free to
download. For users who need Aira on a daily basis in many different places,
subscription plans are available and range from $29 per month to $199 per
month. For users who only need Aira sometimes in only a few places, Aira offers
limited and ongoing promotions that provide free access, free access when using
certain products such as JAWS screen reader, as well as free access in a
growing number of public locations. Full details of the range of services
offered along with plans and prices can be found at their web site:
https://aira.io/plans-and-prices
All this travel talk brought on a lengthy discussion of the experience of
travelling in Ireland on trains and buses. Stories of the difficulty of coping
with packed trains and buses for long journeys with a guide dog.
Jackie had some difficulty with the MyNCBI skill on Alexa. experimenting at the
meeting, revealed that the service is now called my vi smart hub.
There was only one Borrow box user at the meeting but, for the record, it was
reported that the app is working properly once more. It was unusable for most
people for the past 10 days! No explanation has been given.
Ann Marie is using Duolingo to translate English into any other world language.
We had samples of its use with Spanish, and reports of its use for German, and
Japanese situations. Duolingo is the fun, free app for learning 40+ languages
through quick, bite-sized lessons. Practice speaking, reading, listening, and
writing to build your vocabulary and grammar skills.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.duolingo ;
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.duolingo&hl=en&gl=US>
&hl=en&gl=US
It was noted that one could use the ChatGPT app to instantly translate phrases
and likewise, google translate in conversation mode.
Ann Marie sought advice on magnifying the QR code on the iPhone. Ken
demonstrated the only solution which he has found to work involving:
1. Line up the image;
2. Turn Voiceover off;
3. Pinch the screen wider with thumb and finger;
4. reload Voiceover and continue .
Adrian noted that this action is much simpler in android and works well with
Talkback
Adrian introduced a social network called Mastodon. Mastodon is a free and
open-source software for running self-hosted social networking services.[a] It
has microblogging features similar to Twitter, which are offered by a large
number of independently run nodes, known as instances or servers, each with its
own code of conduct, terms of service, privacy policy, privacy options, and
content moderation policies.
Each user is a member of a specific Mastodon server that can interact
seamlessly with users in any other server. This is intended to give users the
flexibility to select a server whose policies they prefer, but keep access to a
larger federated social network. Mastodon is a decentralized, open-source
software-based social network that operates on user servers. Unlike Twitter,
which is operated by one centralized entity, Mastodon has thousands of
distributed servers known as “instances.
For Android/ Talkback users:@accessibleandroid@mastodon.social
https://mastodon.social/@accessibleandroid
For IOS users: Mona is a Mastodon app packed with customization features.
Optimized for Voiceover.
https://apps.apple.com/ie/app/mona-for-mastodon/id1659154653
In the coming weeks, Adrian will begin to experiment with members of the
Exchange club in the use of the network.
That's all for now!
The meeting ended.
All the best,
Cearbhall
m +353 (0)833323487 e: cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx
<mailto:cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx>
