As always Cearbhall excellent record thanks
Chris
Sent from my iPad
On 3 Jul 2021, at 16:12, Cearbhall O'Meadhra <cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx>===========================================================
wrote:
in attendance (11 participants):
Anthony Bourg, Derry Walsh, Martin Kelly, Martha Parkinson, Chris Egan,
Jackie McBrearty, ken Walsh, Dominique Farrell, Cearbhall O'Meadhra, Noreen
Meagher, John Chambers. John Chambers
Apologies: Paul Griffith and Gavin Allman.
Jackie and Dominique swung into action with an enthusiastic review of tennis
in Wimbledon which they were able to enjoy with excellent commentary on BBC
radio.
Jackie is concerned that when she opens the Wimbledon app on her iPhone, she
finds herself locked into the status bar and cannot find any way to move to
the main app screen.
Martha expects to return to the workplace in September with or without
furniture and computer screen. Meanwhile, she continues to fill up her newly
refurbished house with new furniture.
As we begin to emerge from our cocoon state, long cane uses are finding that
sighted People don't see the cane. The common practice of looking at the
smart phone while walking along the road raises the strong possibility of an
accident as the sighted phone user trips over the white cane. Martin drew our
attention to the danger of street furniture now cluttering the pavement as
more and more people take to dining and socialising on the pavement. Guide
dogs can avoid the chair legs but a cane is as likely to miss such a slight
obstacle and an impact with the table or chair is the result. A terrifying
prospect is the arrival of a long cane user just as a waiter appears with a
loaded tray.
Cearbhall drew the attention to the forthcoming conference between fighting
Blindness and Dublin Corporation on the dangers associated with the new cycle
lanes being installed in St. Stephen's Green,/ Hume Street and Ely Place.
More anon.
John entered the meeting as the mystery man hiding behind the name of his
Android phone. This opened up a discussion of how best to create a personal
name when in a Zoom meeting. Cearbhall found a way to do it when coming
through the Meeting History link. Ken and Jackie showed how to do it through
registration beforehand, or through the participant list while the meeting is
running.
The imminent arrival of Windows 11 caused concern about the difficulties that
might arise. The most immediate question is whether we need a new PC.
Microsoft offers a means of Checking for compatibility with the PC Health
Check app to see if your current PC meets the requirements to run Windows 11.
If so, you can get a free upgrade when it rolls out.
Meanwhile, the minimum system requirements are:
* processor: 1 gigahertz
* Memory: 4 GB RAM
* Storage: 64 GB or larger storage device
More information at:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-11
Noting the trend towards voice activation and touch swiping in modern
computers, it was felt that there is a danger that typing skills might be
lost.
Ken reported that he could not unmute his phone during a session with
Microsoft Teams. He experienced this with the recent NCBI technology session
in which participants are expected to contribute. It is true that Microsoft
Teams is often set to keep users muted during a lecture but this was not the
case here.
Jackie reported an interesting smart phone app in the UK that saves a
visually impaired pedestrian from having to press the button on a traffic
signal pole. The app operates by Bluetooth and triggers the button on a smart
traffic light system. This saves the visually impaired user from having to
search for the pole or disturb other pedestrians in the process.
Martin suggested that we review the new Soundscape app which Microsoft has
just launched. This is a product from Microsoft Research that explores the
use of innovative audio-based technology to enable people to build a richer
awareness of their surroundings, thus becoming more confident and empowered
to get around. Unlike step-by-step navigation apps, Soundscape uses 3D audio
cues to enrich ambient awareness and provide a new way to relate to the
environment. It allows you to build a mental map and make personal route
choices while being more comfortable within unfamiliar spaces. Soundscape is
designed to be used by everyone and live in the background; therefore, feel
free to use it in conjunction with other apps such as podcasts, audio books,
email and even GPS navigation!
Anthony tried to increase the charging time on his iPhone by turning off
Aeroplane mode. However, he found that this made no difference.
He then asked for help sending either voice messages or text messages from
WhatsApp using VoiceOver. Ken and Jackie gave demonstrations on how to do
this:
double tap and hold on "Record" and then swipe up with one finger to "Record
Lock".
Siri can also send WhatsApp text messages but cannot send Voice recorded
messages.
Chris found that the familiar shortcut of alt-control-n did not work for his
installation of NVDA. Cearbhall offered to explore this further and report to
the list if an answer is found.
The meeting ended.
All the best,
Cearbhall
m +353 (0)833323487 Ph: _353 (0)1-2864623 e: cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx
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