Blind Abilities

Latest Episodes:

Accessing Arts and Science: The Luminato Festival Toronto Access Hub, the Accessible Descriptions and Sonifications on the Chandra X-Ray Observatory web site and Sci-Fi on the Talk Description to Me podcast Jun 07, 2022

Show notes

Christine Malec, co-host of the Talk Description to Me podcast, returns to the Blind Abilities Studio to bring us the news about the Luminato Festival Toronto Access Hub, The Chandra X-Ray Observatory Sonifications and descriptions from images from deep within our Universe and highlights some of the Star Trek and other topics from the over 106 Talk Description to Me episodes.

Learn about how STEM possibilities are being made in science and how you can tune into some amazing art creatives attending the Luminato Festival Toronto from June 9th to June 19. With 6 hours of Worldwide broadcasting every day of the Festival from the Access Hub, there is something for everyone.

Here are some helpful links:

Talk Description to Me podcast

https://talkdescriptiontome.buzzsprout.com/

Chandra X-Ray Observatory text and visual descriptions of Chandra images

https://chandra.harvard.edu/resources/podcasts/description_audio.html

Luminato Festival Access Hub

https://luminatofestival.com/access-hub/

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

ObjectiveEd: Reinforcement Learning for Students with Disabilities. Benefitting Teachers and Schools and their Blind and Visually Impaired Students Jun 02, 2022

Show notes

Marty Shultz from Objective Ed joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities Studio to talk about all the new developments happening at Objective Ed.

ObjectiveEd's mission is to provide students with disabilities, and the parents and professionals dedicated to their education, digital curriculum and integrated performance monitoring and reporting tools that will help the students achieve their best educational outcomes.

ObjectiveEd has achieved recognition by winning the Louis Braille Touch of Genius award from the National Braille Press, the American Council of the Blind Annual Award and the Florida Association for Education and Rehabilitation for Innovator of the Year.

Through interactive games and innovative software programs, teachers can teach and students can learn skills, retain skills and all in a fun way through Objective Ed's program.

You can learn more about Objective Ed on the web at:

https://www.objectiveed.com

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

Tech Abilities: Anticipation 6-6, Weather App Alerts, Facebook/Twitter Accessibility, Apple's 22 Min-Pay, SOS setup, Clipboard list, Audio Description and More Tech Tidbits and News from a Blindness Perspective Jun 01, 2022

Show notes

Two is company as Callie takes a break from the Blind Abilities Studio this week and Serina and Jeff pick up the tech tidbits and news. From accessibility to losing sight, they dash through the latest and bring a perspective of experience and usability.

Join the 2 out of 3 ain't bad crew and check out the list of topics listed below. But, believe us, there is a lot between the lines!

List of topics from the episode:

Home pod mini update

Precipitation alerts on the weather app

How to block text on iPhone in a few taps.

Apple employees get surprise pay raise as union pressure grows

iPhone SOS, here is how to set it up.

FCC fines Twitter 150 million for deceptive ad targeting

Way Map app guides the VIP through the Washington subway systems.

We own the City with audio description

Clipboard and saving the clips in a list using JAWS

Thanks for listening!

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

iPhone101 QuickByte: Revealing and Copying and Pasting Your Password Made Easy May 26, 2022

Show notes

This quick yet handy demonstration can be useful in many applications. If you need to use a password elsewhere and the password is a jumble of characters, numbers and symbols, then this method will do you well.

Go to settings, swipe down to Passwords and then to the particular password you want to grab. Expose the bullets and an option to copy pops up and boom, you can paste wherever you want. This will also show you the actual characters of the password as well.

Check it out and then check out all of the QuickBytes and iPhone101 demonstrations in the iPhone101/QuickByte series.

Web Site

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

The Only Constant is Change - Welcome back Tony Gebhard - Assistive Technology Specialist, Transition Program Coordinator and Singer/Songwriter/Musician May 26, 2022

Show notes

Tony Gebhard returns to the Blind Abilities Studio and third time is a charm! Tony has just dropped his 2nd album of 2022 and is making change a constant as he keeps growing in his pursuit of improving towards his highest potential.

Tony has always worn his heart on his record sleeve and Guided, his latest album, is a refreshing look at Tony's outlook at life and his happiness in the choices he has made. From teaching assistive technology and coordinating the Transition Program for the Alaska Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Tony is reaching for more as he will also be part timing with Tech Vision and striving to become a Life Coach as well.

Tony has graduated from World Services for the Blind and has settled in Anchorage Alaska and is now engaged as he shares his life with the one who stole his heart.

Learn about Tony's teaching, his music and how he is taking control of his destiny and absolutely loves what he is doing.

You can find out more about Tony Gebhard on the web at www.TonyGebhard.com and all his social networks, his music and resource page.

Be sure to give Tony a shout and follow his blog, his bandcamp and try to keep up with Tony where the only constant is… change!

QuickByte: Hiding Screen pages on your Apple device and still accessing everything. May 18, 2022

Show notes

In this QuickByte demo, previously published in the Tech Abilities episode, Jeff takes us through the process of hiding and unhiding a Screen page on the iPhone.

When you have a lot of apps and widgets filling screen pages and want to clean up the experience, you can hide the pages and still be able to access the apps through the Library, the Library search and with the Siri assistant.

Just double tap and hold on the page number and then select the page you want to hide or unhide and single finger double tap. And lastly, Tap on Done and there you go!

Web page

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Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

Storms, Wind and Fire - Yet, the Tech Abilities Show goes on! Hiding Your Screen Pages, Widgets on the Move, Passwords and Fishing, Don't Trust Trusted Friend scam, Hey Facebook Support, how about a Human Chat? May 16, 2022

Show notes

Serina, Callie and Jeff roll through the toughest of weather situations to bring you the latest Tech Tidbits and News from around the Tech World with that special Blindness perspective that they bring to every show.

Check out the 2 demos, Hiding Screen Pages on your Apple device and Putting a Widget into place, and so much more from the Tech Abilities Crew!

Here are links to some of the topics from the episode:

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

Eyeless Mind: A Memoir about Seeing and Being Seen - Author and CVI Advocate, Stephanie Duesing, Shares Her Journey into the Leading Cause of Blindness, CVI. May 12, 2022

Show notes

Author and Advocate, Stephanie Duesing joins Jeff Thompson in the Blind Abilities Studio to share her journey into Cerebral/Cortical Visual Impairment (CVI) - The Leading cause of Blindness in the Developed World.

Her son Sebastian was finally diagnosed at age 15 after numerous Doctors from across the States offered no explanation for her son's condition. Learn about their journey and how CVI is now the leading cause of Blindness in the developed world, yet probably the least understood,

Full Transcript

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

QuickByte: Grabbing Specific Text from OCR Apps on the iPhone with Usability in Mind! May 10, 2022

Show notes

I wanted to grab some text from a document and decided to use 3 of my favorite OCR apps on my iPhone. The 3 apps I chose were:

What I found was that all 3 apps gave me really good OCR and I could copy the text and paste into an editor of choice. I chose Notes on my iPhone. The two apps that stood out for me were Seeing AI and Voice Dream Scanner with the ability to use the Text Selection feature in my rotor to grab the exact text I wanted,

thus in Envision AI I selected all and used Text Selection in the Notes app. This is not a game breaker as the end result was successful with all 3 apps.

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093

A Conversation with Author Dr. M. Leona Godin - There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness. May 06, 2022

Show notes

Dr. M. Leona Godin talks about her new book, There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness. Gives advice to new writers and talks about her personal journey through Blindness and how her book and people's actions today can begin to change the perception that the sighted have for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Full Transcript

we would love to hear from you! Send us an email at info@BlindAbilities.com or give us a call and leave us some feedback at 612-367-6093