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Top Tech Tidbits for Thursday, March 19, 2015 - Volume 501
The Week's News in Access Technology

A Flying Blind, LLC Publication
http://www.flying-blind.com/

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Greetings,

1) Anna Dresner discusses some iOS8 concepts from her newly-released NBP book on the subject, and takes questions, on Tek Talk on GMT Tuesday, 24 March at 00:00. Archives of this and all other Tek Talk presentations are available soon after the live webcast:
http://conference321.com/masteradmin/room.asp?id=rsc9613dc89eb2

2) There's a good chance that at least part of the process necessary to carry this out is not accessible, but it is nonetheless intriguing that you can use the My Own Voice site from Acapela to produce a speech synthesizer using your voice. This video explains:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo1-LVKZXuU&feature=youtu.be

3A) A lot of spectator sports are in season now or soon will be, in North America and elsewhere. The aim of the Accessible Sports Survey is to collect data related to persons with disabilities and their interest in sports:
http://terrillthompson.com/sports/survey/

3B) Meanwhile, here is a post about the largely fruitless search for an accessible NCAA tournament bracket:
http://blog.kellyford.org/appreciate-terrill-thompsons-work-on-accessible-ncaa-brackets/

3C) And a bracket that is accessible, just in time for the Big Dance:
http://terrillthompson.com/ncaa/bracket.php

4) It's the 20th anniversary of the JAWS screen reader, and here is the well-produced video that Freedom Scientific has created with input from users:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DYjkF59jeo

5) The March 2015 issue of AccessWorld contains "A Bit About Yahoo's Accessibility Team," "Voice Dream Writer: An iOS Editor with Accessibility Extras," "Choice of Robots from Choice of Games LLC: A Game Review," "A Review of the Pocket Yoga, CARROT Fit, and CARROT Hunger iOS Fitness Apps," and "Become an Amadeus Pro Maestro, by Jonathan Mosen: A Book Review:"
http://www.afb.org/aw/main.asp

6A) The Apple Watch doesn't appear until April but people are talking about it a lot. Since the conversations, if not the watch, are available, here are a few examples. This post is called "Covering the Apple Watch Launch as a Blind Apple Fan":
http://www.psmag.com/nature-and-technology/apple-watch-blind-low-vision-users

6B) This AppleVis post covers the watch and other topics of the Spring Forward event:
http://applevis.com/blog/apple-apple-watch-ios-news/recap-apples-spring-forward-event-march-2015c

6C) And this Cool Blind Tech blog post asks: "What Does The Apple Watch Mean To VoiceOver Users?
http://www.coolblindtech.com/what-does-the-apple-watch-mean-to-voiceover-users/

7) Now people with disabilities in six countries can receive assistance from the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk via both phone and chat, and in another five countries via phone:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/accessibility/archive/2015/03/10/disability-answer-desk-phone-support-expands.aspx

8A) Finishing our wrap-up from this year's CSUN conference, there is an article in the aforementioned issue of AccessWorld:
http://www.afb.org/aw/main.asp

8B) Here are slides from the Digital Accessibility Legal Update: http://www.slideshare.net/lflegal/csun-2015-digital-accessibility-legal-update

8C) This Web Axe page contains a podcast and a lot of potentially interesting links:
http://www.webaxe.org/csun15-review-interviews-podcast-101/

8D) This Blind Access Journal podcast features Prime Time, a program from a CSUN exhibitor which is under development:
http://blindaccessjournal.com/2015/03/prime-time-power-rethinking-windows-accessibility/

8E) And Blind Bargains has added another interview to their audio site, and their Podcast 8 was partly concerned with CSUN:
http://blindbargains.com/audio/

9) This is the transcript of a live chat with the creator of the Be My Eyes app:
https://medium.com/@MakerHunt/today-we-have-michael-flurap-who-is-an-awesome-designer-and-helped-design-be-my-eyes-e2596addb8f2

10) Chris Hofstader's opinions always offer food for thought. This post is called "Anarchy, Leadership and NVDA:"
http://chrishofstader.com/anarchy-leadership-and-nvda/

11A) Two Freelist mailing lists may interest different readers. To join these, write to the indicated address and put "Subscribe" in the subject field. The first exists for the discussion of the accessibility of antivirus programs:
av-a11y-request@freelists.org

11B) The other focusses on the Raspberry Linux device which can be made accessible and is becomming powerful enough to be useful:
raspberry-vi-request@freelists.org

12A) Spotlight Text is a popular specialized reading app for users with low vision, incorporated into Bookshare. This Cool Blind Tech podcast discusses the app:
http://www.coolblindtech.com/the-freedom-to-read-a-spotlight-interview-with-the-developer-of-spotlight-text/

12B) For those with Bookshare questions, this short video discusses eligibility:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBLmimtj3RE&feature=youtu.be

13A) The March, 2015 edition of The Braille Monitor contains this article: "Access Technology: Spreading the Word and the Knowledge:"
https://nfb.org/images/nfb/publications/bm/bm15/bm1503/bm150310.htm

13B) Also from the Federation, recordings from the 2014 Web Accessibility Day are available:
https://nfb.org//web-accessibility-day

14) The Direct to Player app is now ready, so Canadians can read accessible audio books on their iPhones:
https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/direct-to-player/id952647612?mt=8

15) Mike Arrigo has begun creation of a new set of Mac tutorial recordings, and part one is ready:
http://www.blind-geek-zone.net/mac-tutorial-part-one/

16) A new guide posted to the Inclusive Android page addresses, "Browsing the web with Chrome and Talkback:"
http://inclusiveandroid.tk/?q=content%2Fbrowsing-web-chrome-and-talkback&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

17) AFB offers a series of four $49 webinars in the "Moving to Learn Series: Adapted PE for Students with Visual Impairments:"
http://www.afb.org/store/Pages/ShoppingCart/ProductDetails.aspx?ProductId=eMtoLSERIES&ruling=Yes

18) Archives of the recent webinar, "Explore the New Features of Window-Eyes 9" are available. Incidentally, we erred last week in suggesting that one must purchase the 60-Day Window-Eyes Demo. It is free:
http://www.gwmicro.com/Training/Webinar_Training/

Finally, a couple of regular podcasters are at work as usual:

19A) Eyes on Success concentrates on "Preparing for Vision Loss" in post 1512:
http://eyesonsuccess.net

19B) Serotalk podcast 225 awaits you:
http://serotalk.com/2015/03/16/serotalk-225-mirror-mirror/

19C) And a variety of new blog posts are also available on the Serotalk site:
http://serotalk.com/

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