Cearbhall,
A great tech no-no-noncense report as per usual but you really don't
need to know that of course!
Such a wonderful descriptive picture of folk on the hols as we are and
can well relate to what you say.
Enjoying the reale sounds arounds us certainly has to be treasured indeed.
All things in their rightful place and all of that.
Thank you!
Tony
On 13/09/2021 19:36, Cearbhall O'Meadhra wrote:
in attendance: (16 Participants)===========================================================
Cearbhall O'Meadhra, Jackie McBrearty, John Chambers, Martin Kelly, Noreen
Meagher, Vera Naughton, Tom Langan, Stuart Haxell, Annette McCarthy, Eamonn
O'Connor, Michael Brown, Bert Brown, Marian Murray, Gerry Eastwood, Mary
Lavelle, Declan Meenagh.
Apologies: Paul Griffith.
We are seeing signs of a lift in covid restrictions at last! Four of our
attendees were out and about in the last few days, taking in islands,
beaches, mountains, trains, trams and buses with many a story to tell!
Martin am Mary had an exciting trip to Ratlin island, walking and, when
weary, taking the Puffin bus to help them on their way. Mary described her
adventures with an upside-down lighthouse, 400 steps down and, yes, back up
again. A bird sanctuary at the highest part of the island was an exhaustive
source of avian information. All of this was in wonderful weather, lucky
things!
We heard that Sightless Cinema is coming to the Civic Theatre in Tallaght. A
separate notice about this event was posted to the list yesterday. The
performance is free and is live with over 50 people in attendance. It will
also be available on podcast.
Tom continues his explorations in the wonderful world of Orcam and his After
Shokz headset. Having gotten used to the sound of the Orcam and of
Soundscapes speaking information in his ears he was startled when a new voice
announced "Charge me!" from within the After Shokz. Jackie and others happily
reassured him that the headset does announce the battery level at start-up
and when the battery gets dangerously low.
Tom is just back from a holiday in the sunny beaches of tramore and
Rosslare with only the sound of the wind, sea and happy people to soothe his
nerves. No commercial music was heard blaring over the diners tables just the
sound of nature. Wandering around the harbour he was intrigued with the
precision of Soundscapes in describing streets and buildings left and right
of him.
Martin told us about partially sighted car-Driving in Montello Park. On a
less frenetic level, we heard of many accessible driving games that work well
on the iPhone. Among others, AppleVis lists a useful range of choices.
Marian is contemplating breaking into the world of the iPhone and was advised
that the iPhone SE was the best choice if she wanted to retain the familiar
home button. The later models all feature different keystrokes to operate the
home function that involve a bit of study and learning. Bert was able to
reassure her that it does work well after a bit of getting used to. He then
went on to described how to set up your own shortcuts on the iPhone for
various activities by going into settings, Accessibility and in Voiceover,
access the VoiceOver Command section. He mentioned that there is a podcast
that describes this process.
Microsoft, in its huge effort to make more people use Edge, MS Teams, etc,
has been more of a nuisance lately. Bert and Michael both found that they
could not break out of the notification screen that Windows threw up at
start-up following the latest Windows Update. Despite their considerable
skill with the screen reader and Windows, they could only give up and restart
the computer. Later Bert found that it was possible to call up narrator to
find the close button and clear away the offending notification.
He explained how to turn off MS teams in Windows settings by unchecking it.
Bert recommended using ninite.com whenever an application needed to be
updated or newly acquired. The interface is clean and simple. It works
smoothly with all screen readers and has proven highly reliable over the
years.
Eamonn does not like the new look of Firefox and DropBox. A Google search
will explain how to restore the classic view but it does not seem to be too
easy with a screen reader.
Jackie reported her recent finding that certain equipment needs a 32bit SD
card and other need a 64bit card. This resolved a difficulty that she was
having with files in the Orbit 20 Reader.
Michael had lost some files from his USB drive after taking it out of the
computer without ejecting it first. After a lengthy discussion, it was agreed
that, for clarity, this needed more research. Here is a useful-looking link
that explains what to do in a range of operating systems:
https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001943.htm#windows
In the discussion that followed, there was great interest in knowing what
shortcuts were available. Here is a useful guide:
https://shortcuts.design/tools/toolspage-windows/
The meeting ended.
All the best,
Cearbhall
m +353 (0)833323487 Ph: _353 (0)1-2864623 e: cearbhall.omeadhra@xxxxxxx
