The Tech Doctor Blog and Podcast

In this Tech Doctor episode, Allison and Robert get to know Laura Legendary. Laura is a writer, public speaker, disability advocate and small business owner. Laura tells us the fascinating story of how the idea for her unique jewelry design, manufacturing and marketing business came to be. We explore the challenges and rewards of starting and running a business.

Laura has conquered some of the accessibility challenges by switching from the Motorola Q to the Apple iPhone. We talk, for example, about how the iPhone can be used to accessibly accept and process credit card payments while at a remote location such as a conference or trade show. Laura offered a few creative suggestions on how the iPhone could be improved as well.

Click Here
To learn more about the jewelry that Laura manufactures and sells.

Go
Here
to learn more about Laura’s public speaking and advocacy work.

Keep growing and learn along with Laura by reading her
Blog

Thanks Laura. It was a pleasure getting to know you.

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Imagine a world where a totally blind person has access to over 1.8 million books and magazines. Imagining and hoping is exactly what Allison Hartley has done for the last several years. Until a few days before recording this podcast, much of the Amazon Kindle content was inaccessible. The limited content that was accessible was frustrating and to work with and marginally accessible at best.

In this podcast, you will hear Allison and Robert’s surprise and delight when they discovered that on May 1st, Amazon quietly rolled out an update that makes the iOS Kindle app fully VoiceOver compatible.

Allison and Robert discuss the very polished and highly functional UI. Allison demonstrates how she can read and navigate MacWorld magazine. They explain several ways of purchasing kindle content either from an iOS device or a computer. Fortunately, purchasing is easy and fully accessible.

Robert and Allison discuss the reaction of some of the leaders in the blindness community to the release of this app. Robert and Allison express their disappointment with the tone of the NFB
Press Release
concerning the app. We feel that now is the time for celebrating progress rather than making demands. That said, the NFB Technology Center published a comprehensive review on the
NFB Technology Blog
Allison and Robert feel that giving the app only a “c” grade overall was too low, we recommend the reading of this review to learn a lot about this app.

At the time of this podcast, the most complete and informative demonstration of the app has been published by David Woodbridge and is available as an
Applevis Podcast.

Finally, Robert and Allison are delighted by the coverage that the app becoming accessible is receiving in the mainstream press. Allison and Robert are thrilled to have been guests on
The Unofficial Apple Weblog
Sunday evening Talkcast. We discussed the topic of
Accessibility
in general and the accessibility of the Kindle app specifically.

We encourage every iOS user to download this free Kindle app and join the celebration.

Happy Reading you all.

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In this Tech Doctor episode, Allison and Robert speak with Steve Sawczyn a longtime user, consultant and teacher in the field of access technology. In recent years, Steve has made extensive use of both iOS and Android.

In our roundtable discussion, we explore the idea that your personality type and work habits make a huge difference in whether you prefer Android or iOS. If you are a person who values efficiency and simplicity over having control of what is going on under the hood of your mobile device, then you are likely to be happier with iOS. If, on the other hand, you prefer having control even if figuring out how to make it work takes more time and patience, then you just might have a personality that is more suited to Android. That said, you could be like the three of us and enjoy both depending on the situation.

We prefer the efficiency of iOS for getting our work done but enjoy experimenting with and learning about Android. The podcast concludes with a brief discussion of some of our favorite hardware and software.

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Allison and Robert are in agreement that if the stand-alone Notetaker is going to survive, it will have to provide users with a way to access many of the most popular accessible smartphone apps. In version eight, Hims takes a giant step in this direction by giving Braille Sense users excellent access to Youtube, Dropbox, RSS Excel and more.

Version Eight has two web browsers, the original one and a “quick browser.” The original one is need because the quick browser cannot load all sites but the ones that it does open load amazingly fast. Fortunately, the quick browser works with many of the sites that a Braille Sense user would likely be interested in.

In this podcast, Robert and Allison demo some of these new apps and discuss other highlights of Braille Sense version eight.

We are excited about this advancement and encourage you to learn more by going to
The Hims Website.

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In this podcast, Robert and Allison learn what life is like for an international iOS app developer who lives and works in India. Kunal Sood wanted an RSS reader that would allow him to read his RSS feeds even when he didn’t have a live internet connection. He designed the “Lire” RSS Reader to cache and store the entire text of articles on the iOS device. Like Instapaper, Lire strips out everything but the text which is great for reading on a small screen either with your eyes or with VoiceOver.

When Kunal discovered that Lire and VoiceOver were an excellent marriage, he began adding features to make the app even more customizable for VoiceOver users. At present, the app works great with VoiceOver but Kunal hints that it will soon get even better.

With the pending demise of Google Reader, Lire is a great alternative for reading and managing RSS feeds. The app has the ability to search websites for RSS feeds and feeds can be imported from Google Reader.

We think this app is fabulous and encourage you to
Check It Out.

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In this Tech Doctor episode, Robert and Allison speak with Sina Bahram. Sina is a doctoral student at North Carolina State University.

As part of his work in computer science, he is working with Orbit Research and the American Printing House for the Blind who are partnering to make an off-the-shelf graphing calculator fully accessible to people who are blind. Although currently a prototype, this calculator already provides a blind student with access to both basic and advanced mathematics.

After listening to Sina’s explanation and demonstration of the calculator, I am confident that you will agree that it will be of tremendous help to any visually impaired student wishing to study science, technology, engineering or math.

As we talk, it becomes clear that Sina is a serious thinker who does an excellent job of articulating the potential opportunities that this calculator will open up for future students.

To visit Sina’s home page click
here
To learn more about what Sina is up to,
Read his blog
Sina’s twitter name is @SinaBahram
You can
Click Here
to find all the other ways to contact Sina.
To email someone at the American Printing House for the Blind about the calculator,
Click Here
Click Here
to email someone at Orbit Research.
Finally, to join an email list regarding the development of the calculator,
Click Here
Put the word “subscribe” in the subject line of the email.

We hope you enjoy this podcast as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you.

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In this podcast, Allison and Robert speak with Woody Anna Dresner.

Anna graciously visits the Tech Doctor podcast when she publishes a new book. This time she tells us about “iPhone iOS 6 Updates.” Anna explains that this new book is intended to supplement last year’s “Getting Started with the iPhone and iOS 5 for Blind Users.” We discuss the fact that while the book is concise, it is packed with good information and may be sufficient on its own for experienced iPhone and iPod Touch users. Folks who are brand new to the iPhone may want to purchase both books. National Braille Press is offering the iOS6 update and the Getting Started with the iPhone books as both separate purchases and as a bundle.

Click on this
Link
to go to the National Braille Press page where all of the iPhone related books are listed.

Once again, Anna has done an excellent job of providing the information that every blind iPhone user needs. The book is organized in such a way that it can be used as both a complete learning tool and a quick reference.

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In this podcast, we talk with Shelly Brisbin, a freelance technology author and fellow podcaster. With a dozen books and hundreds of magazine articles to her credit, Shelly has published on topics such as how to use your mac, web publishing and wireless networking. On her podcasts, she does app reviews, explores new technology, let us get to know her husband, Frank, and teaches us how to make tasty beverages. To keep up with what Shelly is doing, check out her
blog.

At the time of this podcast, Shelly is writing a new book called “IOS Access For All.” Shelly is a creative critical thinker, talented writer and passionate advocate for accessibility. We are most fortunate that she has chosen the topic of iOS Accessibility for her next book.

As a person with low vision, Shelly understands accessibility from the inside out. She lives it.
Click here
to learn more about the book and give Shelly your feedback.

Stay tuned to the Tech Doctor podcast for updates as this exciting project develops. Thank you, Shelly, for spending this hour with us.

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This time on the Tech Doctor podcast, Allison and Robert have the pleasure of talking with Seth McFarland, the developer of one of their favorite iOS apps. Downcast is the perfect solution for anyone who wants to either stream or download podcasts to an iOS device.

In addition to talking about our favorite Downcast features, Seth tells us what it is like to be an Apple developer. We learn that Apple has provided developers with the tools to make their apps work properly with VoiceOver.

We were pleased to learn that Seth is currently developing a version of Downcast for the Mac. It will use iCloud to keep podcasts synced between the Mac and iOS devices.

Finally, as we talked with Seth, it became obvious that he sincerely cares about the Downcast customers. This relationship between developer and customer is one of the most exciting and rewarding aspects of belonging to the Apple community.

Be sure to check out
Downcast
in the iOS app store. We are confident that you will love it.

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In this Tech Doctor episode, Robert and Allison talk with Darren Burton the Project Manager at the Technical Evaluation Services branch of The American Foundation for the Blind.

Darren is heading up the development of a new iOS app called “AccessNote.” Darren explains the philosophy behind the creation of AccessNote and walks us through an excellent demonstration of this exciting app.

AccessNote
is currently available in the iOS app store.

Check it out.

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