ATFAQ044 – Q1 Comments from Listeners Q2 iPhone with camera/switch access Q3 iPhone calls going straight to voicemail Q4 Moving icons on new iPhones Q5 E-book reader apps Q6 Which tool for communication do/should we use

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Panel – Brian Norton, Belva Smith, Josh Anderson, Wade Wingler –  Q1 Comments from Listeners Q2 iPhone with camera/switch access Q3 iPhone calls going straight to voicemail Q4 Moving icons on new iPhones Q5 E-book reader apps Q6 Which tool for communication do/should we use

——-transcript follows ——
WADE WINGLER:  Welcome to ATFAQ, Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions with your host Brian Norton, Director of Assistive Technology at Easter Seals Crossroads. This is a show in which we address your questions about assistive technology, the hardware, software, tools and gadgets that help people with disabilities lead more independent and fulfilling lives. Have a question you’d like answered on our show?  Send a tweet with the hashtag #ATFAQ, call our listener line at 317-721-7124, or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. The world of assistive technology has questions, and we have answers. And now here’s your host, Brian Norton.
WADE WINGLER: Welcome to ATFAQ, Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions with your host Brian Norton, Director of Assistive Technology at Easter Seals Crossroads. This is a show in which we address your questions about assistive technology, the hardware, software, tools and gadgets that help people with disabilities lead more independent and fulfilling lives. Have a question you’d like answered on our show? Send a tweet with the hashtag #ATFAQ, call our listener line at 317-721-7124, or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. The world of assistive technology has questions, and we have answers. And now here’s your host, Brian Norton.
BRIAN NORTON: Hello and welcome to ATFAQ episode 44. My name is Brian Norton and I’m the host of the show. Today I’m so happy to be in the studio with a few colleagues where we can get into the questions that you sent in. But before we do, let’s go around and let me introduce the folks who are here with me. Belva?
BELVA SMITH: Hey everybody.
BRIAN NORTON: Belva is our vision team lead here at Easter Seals crossroads. I also have in the studio with me Josh.
JOSH ANDERSON: Happy holidays everybody.
BRIAN NORTON: Josh is the manager of clinical assistive technology. Also Wade Wingler.
WADE WINGLER: Ho ho ho.
BRIAN NORTON: Wade is the popular host of AT update, one of our other podcasts, and also VP of ATIT. My name is Brian Norton. I’m the director of assistive technology here. For those that are new listeners, I just want to give you some information about our show. How our show works is we, throughout a couple of weeks, gather feedback and talk about and look for assistive technology related questions in a variety of different places. But mostly through a couple of ways that folks can send in information and ask questions directly to us. We operate three different ways to do that and make that happen. We have a listener line which is 317-721-7124. We also have an email address that you can send your questions, tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Or you can send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ. For those who are new to the show, our favorite way to receive questions is when you give a call on our listener line because that allows us to actually use your audio, your questions, we will play that voicemail and it adds a different flavor to our show. We love for you guys to do that. If you have questions that we talk about different things today, send those in. But also be listening and thinking about the question we’ve been asked and answered because of you guys have a good information to share with those around us, we would love for you to do that. Please make that happen.
Also make sure your friends know about the show. There are a variety of different ways to find us. We are on iTunes. You can go to our website at ATFAQshow.com. Find us on stitcher and a whole host of other places where podcasts are generally able to be downloaded. Take a look for us there.
WADE WINGLER: It’s probably worth a mention that this show will release right after the Christmas holiday, but we are recording the week before because we are going to have a little time off. We are all in full holiday spirit here today. We’ve been eating too many cookies and having lots of pitch-in’s throughout the office, so it’s a very festive time. There is a little time delay which is when we started with Merry Christmas and ho ho ho ho but actually the show will release after. That’s okay, we had the Christmas spirit here.
BRIAN NORTON: What is the hashtag? #Christmas365? I think we all roll our eyes but you generally accept that that’s a pretty cool thing.
Before we jump into direct questions, we did get lots of feedback and comments this past week. We actually have three different ones to share with you today. The first is a voicemail so we’ll play that for you.
SPEAKER: My name is Bill. I just listen to your show we talked about black Friday and you were talking about screen readers and Dragon Dictation and so forth. There is a product coming out – I’m not sure how soon is going to be – with NVDA, the screen reader, has a Go Fund Me campaign where they’re working on doing a dictation with that program. It was pretty impressive because you would talk to it and you would tell it to stop and you would hear the voice for the NVDA, and you go back and give it a command or dictate and you would dictate your thing. It looks pretty good. I’m not sure how soon is coming out but that’s another product that maybe you want to talk about at some point that would help listeners it would certainly be a lot cheaper solution than JAWS and all that. It never works is what I say because there are so many other choices out there now. Enjoy your show.
BRIAN NORTON: I just wanted to tag along to what Bill mentioned. There is a software package out there called dictation bridge. Dictation bridge was sponsored by the lighthouse for the blind and visually impaired out of San Francisco. It sounds like they just recently did a crowdfunding piece, campaign, where they raised a lot of money. They are working on developing. If you go to dictationbridge.com, you can learn about that project. I think what is interesting, I know we have mentioned J say on the show and how expensive and it takes a lot to get it to work well for folks because there is a lot of T’s to cross and I’s to dot in the installation process just to make all those different things work together. When things like NVDA and dictation bridge and Windows speech recognition are all free, maybe the effort and work isn’t as bad and wouldn’t be necessarily as hard and difficult to make work.
BELVA SMITH: I think that it still going to be difficult to get it to work correctly. I’d be very interested to explore it once it’s actually available. The idea of it having no cost is obviously exciting. Just a whole – I’m assuming you’re going to be able to command not just dictate, so you’ll be able to, instead of — for example, use a three keyed combination to open up a program, you should be able to ask it to open the program for you as you can with J say. Again, because you have to be so precise with what you say, I would think that there is still going to be quite a learning curve to go with it, but it’ll be interesting to see.
BRIAN NORTON: If you read their sites, what I find cool and interesting is right now they are working with NVDA. This dictation bridge will then work with Windows speech recognition, but they also mentioned once we get to the point where that is working okay, they are going to look at doing scripts for window eyes and transfusion and JAWS as well so that it would be more in the flavor of what J say it already offers. It’s definitely a project and something to keep our eyes on as they continue to develop and make that stuff work.
JOSH ANDERSON: Reading about it, it says that it is feature complete and they are happy to share the software with anyone who would request the copy, as far as the one for window speech recognition and NVDA. It should be something to try. They said there might be bugs but they want to report it to them so they can fix as they go. They are also trying to get it up and working with Dragon. It looks like that’s almost ready to roll out also.
BELVA SMITH: I would also say this might be a good option for someone who is using it perhaps at home, but I would be concerned about tech support if you’re trying to use it for school or any kind of employment. I’m not trying to be the bearer of bad news —
JOSH ANDERSON: Where is that Christmas spirit?
BRIAN NORTON: Scrooge, bah humbug. We have this fun thing in the studio —
WADE WINGLER: Isn’t there a sound effect?
BELVA SMITH: Yeah, here.
[Applause] BRIAN NORTON: Nice.
BELVA SMITH: I’ve got a sound effects machine in one of the holiday parties here. We are only going to bring it here once but you might hear some sound effects.
BELVA SMITH: It has these cute pictures that give you an idea.
WADE WINGLER: Give us another one.
[Sound effect] BRIAN NORTON: Very cool. I think we need to bring it to every show and we need to work in one of the sound effects. I think that would be fun. On to our second comment.
Our next comment was essentially an email I got from a couple of weeks ago or the last show. We talked about a geometry app question. For folks who aren’t able to use their hands, they were looking for a compass or rule that would work for them. I know, Wade, you reached out to someone you knew and she got back to us about a couple of apps that might be helpful.
WADE WINGLER: Kristin Reit from BridgingApps was the person who reached out to us. She had a couple of examples of apps that might be useful in that situation we talked about where someone was looking for a compass or a ruler. She suggested jungle geometry as one of the apps we might look at. Another one is geometry pad. I’m not exactly sure what the function is on those. I haven’t had a chance to look at them. In general, BridgingApps is a place we go to for lots of apps recommendation because they allow you to search for things by category and keyword and all kinds of stuff. Kristin suggested jungle geometry and geometry pad might be some apps to look at for the second comment.
BRIAN NORTON: I always find BridgingApps is a great place to go to search for stuff. Sometimes you are in the dark in a turtle shell, and when you go there and find different apps, it brings you out into the open to be able to find things you might not have been able to find.
BELVA SMITH: BridgingApps is not just iOS apps, right? It is android as well.
WADE WINGLER: Correct.
BRIAN NORTON: They are all over the board. It is such a great site because they vet things. If you go to a manufacturer site, or you might find it on iTunes, what you’ll find on BridgingApps as they have parents, teachers, special educators and other folks who really are invested and working for a child or student or somebody. They give you more accurate descriptions and a better understanding of the pros and cons when it comes to that particular app. Just a great place to look and search.
BELVA SMITH: Real life experience reviews basically.
BRIAN NORTON: Exactly. Very much so.
Our next question — so we had three of those. We gone through two. The third comment was from TJ. I’ll give a shout out to TJ.
WADE WINGLER: TJ is awesome.
BRIAN NORTON: He’s is our transcriptionist. He takes a lot of the things we do and transcribes things, makes sure we have scripts for all that stuff.
WADE WINGLER: If you have relied on the show notes or transcriptions for any of our podcasts or specials or things like that, TJ Cortopassi is our guy who does that for us. If you need transcription or need those kinds of services, let us know and we can connect you to TJ. He’s really great.
BRIAN NORTON: His comment was essentially, I think last show we talked about Dragon and a particular Chrome issue where Dragon isn’t working with Chrome. I think when Dragon is running and you bring up Chrome, it leaves you with a black screen or just doesn’t work very well with it. We had talked a little bit about one of the figures that we had found that works well is there is a Dragon add-on that you can enable or disable. Sometimes you need to make sure it is enabled so that it’ll work well. TJ has e-mailed back in, he’s a great listener for the show. Obviously because he has to listen to it.
WADE WINGLER: He listens to every word of every show.
BRIAN NORTON: It’s a little bit of forced labor on his part to do that. He had mentioned that he was having trouble with that and it wasn’t working very well for him. One of his fixes for it — I think he uses the Edge browser to do quick Internet searches when he needs it. He is still looking for an answer that will solve his particular issue with it.
BELVA SMITH: Was the question based on using edge or was it based on using chrome?
BRIAN NORTON: It was based on using chrome. What he is saying is he uses edge and set up chrome now —
JOSH ANDERSON: Because of the problems.
BELVA SMITH: Okay.
BRIAN NORTON: It’s funny. One of those things with Windows computers, what works on one computer doesn’t work on the other computer. That’s just something that we deal with as we troubleshoot and provide support for folks who have computers and software and things like that. Sometimes there is not a rhyme or reason for why something is happening to somebody and not the other folks.
BELVA SMITH: I’m finding that it’s becoming more and more — I guess necessary is the word I want to use — to use more than one browser. It used to be that you could open up Internet Explorer and do anything you wanted, but it just doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. I find myself having to use two different browsers depending on what I’m doing, and I’m not using any assistive technology. I can’t do certain things with Safari that I can do with Google Chrome.
BRIAN NORTON: I’m a big chrome user. Use it all the time.
WADE WINGLER: Me too. Chrome is my primary but then I jump into Safari or sometimes even Firefox if I need another browser open where I am logged in to Amazon on one but not logged in on the other one or some unusual websites I need to look at.
***
BRIAN NORTON: Don’t forget, we just went over some different comments. If you guys have comments about the comments, I guess is the way to say it. You guys have any feedback or other suggestions or situations where you have run into those things that you have some answers, the snow. We would love to be able to continue those conversations over those questions and provide folks with good information.
Our first question for the day is, I was trying to set up my iPhone to use my head movements as a switch. So far I am not having any luck getting it to consistently recognize my face and constantly getting a message at the top of my screen telling me I cannot locate my face. I am going to try using switches, but I need someone to tell me what they have found to be the best switch set up to operate the iPhone completely hands-free but using switches I can activate with my head. I played around with iOS and switch access a little bit. One of the interesting things and more inconsistent things with it is they allow you to use your face as a switch. If you are staring at the camera, you’re supposed to be able to move your face left or right to have essentially two different switch inputs. Depending on what you call it or how you essentially program it, it could be an activation switch or a scanning switch. There are all sorts of things you can do with those switches.
BELVA SMITH: I just thought of something. Wouldn’t the camera have to be facing forward?
WADE WINGLER: It use the forward facing camera for switch activation.
BELVA SMITH: So the switch automatically turns the camera for you? Because this person is saying that they couldn’t get it to recognize their face at all. I’m wondering what the camera maybe not facing them?
BRIAN NORTON: I believe it automatically uses the one that’s on the screen itself.
WADE WINGLER: It doesn’t show you the camera view. It just activates the camera while you’re looking at the screen, and then you look left for one switch activation and write for another switch activation.
JOSH ANDERSON: How sensitive is it? Does it have the whole face in it? Could it be a problem of just positioning?
WADE WINGLER: My experience has been you have to turn your face pretty far to the left or right. I’ve always joked, I think it is looking for my big nose. When I look far to the left, it can’t miss that. I’ve had some people complain that switch access in general is slow. It works at a total place. I’ve learned that the official recognition for switch activation can be a little bit inconsistent. I demo it. I don’t rely on it. There are times when I can’t make it work because the facial recognition isn’t working. What we’ve recommended in the past is the Blue 2 switch. It runs at $180 or something like that and it has two physical switch is built in. It also has a switch interface see you can connect any kind of switch you want to it. You get the best of both worlds. You get the Bluetooth switch with the two switch is built in and you can plug in whatever switch you want.
BRIAN NORTON: Again with switches, they mentioned wanting to know what the best switch setup is. You have to have a Bluetooth switch connected to it because I don’t believe there is a physical input where you can plug the switch directly into the device itself. As far as using switches they can get access to with your head, there are literally hundreds of different types of switches.
WADE WINGLER: Wait a minute. The Blue 2 connects Bluetooth to the iPad or iOS device and you can physically connect other switches to it. It has switch jacks.
BRIAN NORTON: Exactly.
WADE WINGLER: I just wanted to make sure we were clear.
BRIAN NORTON: Bluetooth, there are two switches on the actual device itself that you can use, but instead of using the switches that are actually on the device itself, you can plug in any of the switch you would want to use. It becomes a pass-through device for you. Again there are hundreds of different types of switches. Often I will recommend that folks see an occupational therapist or something like that, someone you can work with on positioning and making sure that when they are activating a switch that it is a place where they are consistently being able to activate it. They have to not only be consistent with it so it is one single motion that they can be repetitive with and consistent with. A lot of times, fatigue and energy, range of motion come into play when you are talking about switch access because you want to be able to make sure it is reliable and they can be consistent with it. Over the course of a day or so, doing one consistent action, you’re going to get tired. You just want to make sure we are using whatever switch activation, location, and device, something they can use for a good period of time.
***
BRIAN NORTON: Again if you have a question or you have a comment, don’t hesitate to give us a call. I’ll give our phone number, 317-721-7124. Feel free to give us a call. We would love to hear from you if you’ve got any comments about that previous question or if you been sitting and thinking I wish someone could help me with this particular question.
Our next question is, do you have any idea why my iPhone is sending calls directly to voicemail. I haven’t been able to receive calls for a couple of weeks now and it is getting so frustrating. Any thoughts?
BELVA SMITH: I actually do. I had a client a couple of weeks ago that was having this issue. What we found was that she had some way, somehow, turned on her do not disturb. When that is turned on, it just automatically send it to the voicemail. You can tell it is turned on by looking at the top right side of your screen, by the battery indicator, you should see a crescent moon. If it is turned on, all you need to do is go into settings and make sure that you turn off the do not disturb. That client also had something exciting to show me. She has an albino turtle. I have never in my life seen an albino. You guys are laughing at me but it’s the truth. She had given to her. The funny thing is she happens to be an albino herself.
WADE WINGLER: We say person with albinism. I guess we should also say a turtle with albinism.
BELVA SMITH: It’s got the cutest red eyes.
BRIAN NORTON: Are you serious?
BELVA SMITH: I am serious.
WADE WINGLER: I’ve got to spill the beans about this. For the last few shows, before we record, we pick a secret word that we are all going to try to say. You might have noticed we have tried to do that. Today’s secret word is turtle. We are all trying to crowbar the word turtle into the show. Belva just killed us.
BELVA SMITH: I couldn’t wait to do a story in there. We fixed her phone and she sold me her turtle.
WADE WINGLER: Now you guys know what turtle is about this episode. We will let you listen in future episodes for other secret words. We are trying to liven it up around here and have some fun. There really was a turtle?
BELVA SMITH: It’s the truth.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s pretty impressive.
BELVA SMITH: She lets him out and lets him walk around her house.
WADE WINGLER: That’s great.
BRIAN NORTON: So it is with albinism?
BELVA SMITH: Yes.
BRIAN NORTON: Wow. It’s funny, that question came from my wife. She came to me and kept getting so frustrated. For weeks I didn’t think anything of it. Finally one day I’m putting the shadows together for this and I said that’s a pretty good question. I’d better but it down and figure out what’s going on. It was the same thing. I wonder if one of my daughters had used it.
JOSH ANDERSON: What she had probably done is if you just pull up the little menu at the bottom, it’s one of the options. Her finger probably actually hit that. I’ve done it before on accident.
BRIAN NORTON: Our kids use the phone a lot too. They mess around with settings and it drives her crazy.
BELVA SMITH: In my client’s case, she’s using voiceover. I’m thinking that she must have just accidentally got in there some way and didn’t realize it.
WADE WINGLER: She was probably chasing her turtle around.
JOSH ANDERSON: Or the turtle did it.
BELVA SMITH: It’s also important to know that if you are too far away from a cell tower, which that’s pretty much hard to do nowadays, and you get a call, it may go directly to your voicemail instead of coming through.
BRIAN NORTON: This is a part of the question but is about the iPhone. I just realized the other day that you can — maybe it was you, Josh, I shared it with me. The thing about recognition — it’s one degree out in Indiana today. It’s freezing cold. When you wear your gloves, you can take your gloves and make a fingerprint recognition with your glove.
JOSH ANDERSON: As long as they are touchscreen gloves.
BELVA SMITH: They have to be the touch screen.
JOSH ANDERSON: It’ll recognize that thumbprint.
WADE WINGLER: Don’t leave your gloves lying around.
JOSH ANDERSON: If someone steals your phone, don’t let them sell your gloves.
BRIAN NORTON: I did that with a couple of different fingers.
WADE WINGLER: I never would’ve guessed that.
BRIAN NORTON: I never would have either.
BELVA SMITH: Here’s a good one. I have a client who is using his nose for his thumbprint.
WADE WINGLER: That’s interesting.
BRIAN NORTON: I guess you could use anything.
BELVA SMITH: We could not get his thumbprint to work.
BRIAN NORTON: So you have a client who can use his nose?
BELVA SMITH: He’s using his nose to unlock his iPhone. I can’t remember what the situation was, but he doesn’t have a finger print and we could not get any one of his fingers to work. He said just jokingly, let’s see what happens when I try my nose. Sure enough it worked.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s fascinating.
WADE WINGLER: I’ve used my nose a couple of times with my Apple Watch when there is an alarm going off or I need to answer the phone and my hands are full of stuff. I just put my nose on the snooze button or the answer call upon on my Apple Watch and answer it that way. We’ve gone way far off track but we are sharing some nice tips and tricks.
BRIAN NORTON: I was so fascinated when I was missing around my glove and I thought that was cool.
BELVA SMITH: How did you figure out that was going on with Leah’s phone? Did you see the moon?
BRIAN NORTON: I googled it. I said “not receiving calls on my iphone”. I think that’s what I googled. Calls are going directly to voicemail. It brought up that do not disturb thing. It was fascinating.
JOSH ANDERSON: I think you just gave away the secret of where we get answers from. You mean you called the listener line to FAQ?
[applause] BRIAN NORTON: I think our blooper reel will be the longest part of the show.
WADE WINGLER: We may just have all bloopers.
BELVA SMITH: That’s what we need, and all bloopers show.
***
BRIAN NORTON: The next question, I have a new iPhone with the new touch sensitive screen. I cannot figure out how to move the app badges around.
WADE WINGLER: This is horrible.
BRIAN NORTON: I used to press and hold the app bad for a second or two but now all that does is open up a context window. Any suggestions or fixes for this? It just can’t be this hard.
WADE WINGLER: My wife brought this one up the other day.
BRIAN NORTON: I brought it up. I was messing around with this too.
WADE WINGLER: You can’t make the icons wiggle anymore. You just bring up this thing. Has everybody figured it out?
JOSH ANDERSON: Just don’t press too hard.
BELVA SMITH: You have to gently touch it.
WADE WINGLER: Very lightly which is difficult. I don’t think it is very intuitive. I think Apple will need to fix that. It’s just too difficult. I find myself doing a two or three times sometimes to just touch and hold it very lightly without pushing hard enough to get it.
BELVA SMITH: Is that just on the seven? I don’t have it on my phone and I’m glad.
JOSH ANDERSON: 6S.
BELVA SMITH: I have the 6S.
JOSH ANDERSON: Yours should do it too.
BRIAN NORTON: I was doing it on the 6 and it was doing it to me.
BELVA SMITH: I just did an iOS update this morning. Did it change it? That stinks.
BRIAN NORTON: What I’ve realized is I think a lot of the issue is with the new 7, the physical button on the bottom isn’t a push button anymore. I think a lot of these iOS features are made for the new phone and not for your 6 or 6S.
WADE WINGLER: It’s a haptic response that makes it feel like the button is being depressed, but it’s not. Is vibrating in such a way that it makes it feel like the button is being pushed but it is not moving.
BRIAN NORTON: I think it goes together with some of these other questions we’ve had in previous weeks about moving — I can’t slide anymore. I had to push a button to unlock. I think these updates are all about the new phone and how it works with the new phone. People are stuck with old phones with the new operating system and it is not as intuitive, not as easy as it had been with the previous iOS versions on older phone.
WADE WINGLER: I’m still struggling with these things. It’s just working through the bugs and kinks of Apple trying to figure out how to tweak and make those work well.
***
BRIAN NORTON: Our next question is, I have macular degeneration and I’m looking for a e-book reader app that will allow books to be read to me. I have an NLS reader from the state library but would like to use an app on a tablet so it can be more easily transported. Any guidance would be much appreciated.
BELVA SMITH: Hopefully you have an iPad or are planning in getting an iPad. I would suggest the bard mobile app. You can download directly — you open the app and search the library, download directly to the tablet, and you control it just like you do your NLS reader that you currently have. All of the same funds are available on the screen. It works beautifully.
JOSH ANDERSON: They are one and the same. They are all getting the same materials.
BELVA SMITH: I don’t think they have that for android tablets yet. I think it still only for Apple. You could check that out but I’m pretty sure it is iOS.
BRIAN NORTON: There are so many apps that will do reading to you but it may not be as intuitive.
BELVA SMITH: Through iBooks you can get plenty of free books that will be read to you. If you are looking to use it for primarily a book reader, you can do it iPad mini which would be cheaper than getting a full-size iPad, perfectly sized and easy to go with you.
BRIAN NORTON: I think one of the advantages of the bard mobile app as it is simple.
BELVA SMITH: The biggest advantage is you are downloading back into the app. If you’re doing it on your computer to read them in their reading device, you have to download the book, transfer it to a thumb drive, and put the thumb drive in the book reader. Then you’ve got these books on your computer that you have to go back and delete eventually and you have to keep them deleted off of your thumb drive and the sea have many thumb drives. It eliminates the transfer process. You’re able to search the library and download directly to the app.
BRIAN NORTON: From what I understand, in order to sign up for that, much like the NLS reader, you have to have an account, be approved.
BELVA SMITH: You don’t have to be approved. I guess if you don’t have —
JOSH ANDERSON: Originally you do.
BELVA SMITH: If you don’t have a talking books or national Library service approval, then yes you do have to start with that. That is something that’s free. All you have to do is contact the library and let them know you are visually impaired. They will get you signed up. But then to get your iPad to actually work, you also have to contact them and let them know that you’re getting ready to use an iPad. They go through an approval process. It typically takes 24 hours but I have on more than one occasion just called the library up and said, look I am here with them, we don’t have 24 hours, and they will go in and immediately approve it so we can get it activated and begin the downloading and go through the training process.
JOSH ANDERSON: They give you a username and password and other stuff?
BELVA SMITH: You create your own username and password.
BRIAN NORTON: I just went through the approval process, and of course I’m not visually impaired although I do have age-related vision stuff going on. I don’t have low vision per se. I did apply for bard mobile just as a professional piece so I can then be an educator and teach folks. The Mac did they let you do that?
BRIAN NORTON: They did. There is one more I was able to mark and say I work with people.
BELVA SMITH: That’s interesting because I used Todd’s account because I didn’t know I could get one.
BRIAN NORTON: I had to explain to them that that’s what I do and I’m wanting to look at their apps would be better prepared to provide training and help people with it. They did approve me. The Mac that’s one I would suggest. It’s a very simple to use app and makes getting her book so much easier than trying to download them and transfer them.
BRIAN NORTON: I’ll go along with that. Part of the nice feature about that is if you are visually impaired, a lot of times you’re using voiceover or the zoom feature that’s on the iPhone, and the simple controls make it so much easier to use rather than iBooks and some of these other things, maybe audible is another place I get books from. They are just harder to navigate, not as easy and intuitive as what bard would be.
BELVA SMITH: Bard is available for android. You can get it in the Google Play store.
BRIAN NORTON: I also think about the other tablets. Kindle can read to you if you get a specific kind that has a screen reader to it.
BELVA SMITH: Wasn’t there a big to do with NFB and Kindle for a while? Because it wasn’t accessible. I think they worked hard to change that.
JOSH ANDERSON: You can also use the built in speech on any kind of iOS device where you pull down two fingers and it reads the page to you.
BELVA SMITH: Sometimes. The problem with doing that is you can’t bookmark.
JOSH ANDERSON: Is not going to have as many features.
BELVA SMITH: You can’t bookmark and go back chapters or pages if you want to.
BRIAN NORTON: It’s really helpful for navigational purposes being able to move to where you want to start again.
BELVA SMITH: Searching through the books is going to be much easier.
WADE WINGLER: When I was in grad school, I really relied on voice dream reader. I would read text books while I was driving back and forth to work because I have a long commute. That was when I liked. I liked it because you could just drag a file into dropbox and it would show up in the voice dream reader and would read out loud but also colorcode and highlight as it went. It was five dollars, $10.
BRIAN NORTON: Claro PDF is another one I’ll throw out. If you have a PDF document or a text file for a book, you can put it into dropbox. It gets access to that. If you have a learning disability or something like that going on, it does that highlighting and follows the bouncing ball through your document, easy access to dictionaries and other things to look up words you might not understand or need some additional help with.
WADE WINGLER: It looks like voice dream is up to $15 an iOS but only $10 on android.
BELVA SMITH: Will that read a book or does it have to be a certain file?
WADE WINGLER: It’ll read whatever you put in that has text. It reads PDF, HTML, text and the Word by default.
BELVA SMITH: Don’t they also have a package deal with the voice dream where you can get several programs?
WADE WINGLER: There are a few different things that go with that. There is the voice dream reader, the voice dream writer which does some of the same stuff and gives you the ability to generate documents and those kinds of things. They are separate apps but work pretty similarly.
***
BRIAN NORTON: Our next question was an email we received. That email address is tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. The question is, I’ve been thinking about purchasing an Amazon echo or Amazon dot to help me control some stuff in my office like lights, fans. I guess my first question is how does this work in what accessories what you need to buy for it to work in my home?
WADE WINGLER: I’m becoming one of the people that is fascinated with the Amazon echo because he bought a couple of those for our home recently. In our other show, assistive technology update, the December 9 2016, episode 289, is nothing but me and my beautiful wife and my lovely children playing around with Amazon echo in our home. If you haven’t checked out the episode, it’s pretty fun. You should listen to it. I guess the question is what do you need to buy? The first thing I would talk about is the difference between the echo and the dot. Primarily it’s the speaker. The Amazon echo has a really nice speaker that sounds good throughout the house, but in terms of functionality, I haven’t found any different except the dot is everything the echo does but it doesn’t have the big, full sounding speakers. Is that what you guys have found as well?
BELVA SMITH: Yes.
JOSH ANDERSON: It is a lot less expensive.
BELVA SMITH: It’s $50 cheaper.
WADE WINGLER: During the holidays they’ve been running them for like $35 or $40 versus $180.
BELVA SMITH: You can connect a Bluetooth speaker to the dot.
WADE WINGLER: It just doesn’t sound as nice.
BRIAN NORTON: Can you plug the speaker into it?
WADE WINGLER: So on the dot you can hook an external speaker to it. You can also tell the dot to play to a legit speaker which is what we do with our dot. I got a decent pocket kick Bluetooth speaker that really sounds good that I’ve been playing on my iPhone for a while. I connect the dots to that Bluetooth speaker and you end up with a really nice sounding system even though you didn’t buy the full Amazon echo. It also integrates with smart home technology cost of the brand I’m using the most is TP link and I like those. They seem to be good bang for the buck. You can hook it to smart switches, lightbulbs, Phillips Hue, and all kinds of stuff. If you’re just getting started and want to play around with it, I would probably — if I were doing it over again and especially want to save money, just by the Amazon dot and hook a nice speaker into it if you have one. A lot of us have old computer speakers or things sitting around. You might want to buy one smart outlet and one smart bulb to play around with and start to see what those things do. You can do a lot of stuff with it. You really can. In our home and got a few lamps hooked up to it downstairs because it’s the Christmas season. We’ve got a Christmas tree connected to it. My son Jake, we just got a cheap disco ball as a gag holiday gift. We just hooked up this disco ball to it so we can say Alexa turn on the party, and the disco ball starts playing in the house. I would start probably with the dot and maybe one or two outlets, smart plugs, and bulbs.
BELVA SMITH: You can eventually get it to do your thermostat.
WADE WINGLER: It works with some thermostats. If you go on to the Amazon.com/echo website, you can poke around and find the different things that are compatible with it. It’s interesting to know the Amazon echo – I haven’t found any of those smart device that it talks directly to yet. And every case – and I have a couple different brands – you have to use of intermediary app. For example, with the TP link switches and lightbulbs, I use an app called casa. It is like the primary controller of those devices which is nice because I can open up the casa app on my phone and can flip the light on or off or dim them just by using the touch display on my iPhone within the Casa app. Then you tell Amazon echo what your login is for your casa app, and it basically uses the app as an intermediary between Amazon echo and those actual devices.
JOSH ANDERSON: So you have to download the app to the echo? How does that really work?
WADE WINGLER: On echo you download skills, basically apps on the echo. If you want to control a smart plug, you need to buy the smart plug, have an Amazon echo or dots, download whatever app the smart plug wants to get connected to your Wi-Fi to turn it off and on, then you have to download the skill on Amazon echo. On Amazon echo, some of the devices seem to be able to be controlled just by Amazon echo natively and some require that intermediary app. I think all the devices require that intermediary app. It kind of gets daisychained with those different apps to make it happen, but in the end once you get it figured out and set up, then it’s smooth.
JOSH ANDERSON: It’s just one command and it goes.
WADE WINGLER: You say Alexa, turn on the little Christmas tree, like in our house. Or you can also group things with an Amazon echo and the Alexa app. We got upstairs and downstairs. For example all our bedrooms are upstairs. When we leave the downstairs for the night, we just say Alexa turn off the downstairs, and every device that’s been put in that downstairs group shuts off. Or you can go downstairs in the morning and say Alexa turn on the downstairs, and everything in the group turns on.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s great. Where would you suggest listeners go to learn more about this? Or where did you even find — you mentioned these modules and things that get plugged in. Where do you go to get these things?
WADE WINGLER: About the Amazon echo and dot at a home improvement store, Home Depot or Lowe’s. You can buy them from Amazon and they will ship them. To buy the smart devices and learn about those, I went on Amazon and typed echo and smart plug or whatever, and I just started reading the reviews inside the products. I found one, a $20 bulb that looks pretty good, and then I read the reviews and I think they might’ve been listed as Amazon bestsellers at the time so I could then know that a lot of people were using them. I guess I used Amazon and their reviews to find those things and figure out what worked and what didn’t.
BELVA SMITH: You can also go into the big box stores like Best Buy where they sell it and ask the guys on the floor. They are happy to talk to about that stuff and give you tips and tricks. I have a question.
WADE WINGLER: We have a show for that.
BELVA SMITH: As an IT person, how nervous are you about Alexa being too easy for other people – like you just said you can control everything downstairs by saying turned downstairs off. How hard, how easy is it for someone to get onto your Wi-Fi and be able to start controlling your house for you?
WADE WINGLER: I don’t know. Not an area of expertise. I do know with Alexa, you have to have the app or voice activation. I’m thinking it’s fairly secure. I want to believe it’s the core but then I’ve heard in the news recently about people whose stuff has been hacked. I’m not sure that it’s there. I can tell you a funny story. My wife and I have been doing some house shopping recently and we went and did an open house at a home, and I saw Alexa sitting there on the cabinet. I started talking to her trying to turn on thermostat.
BELVA SMITH: Did you talk to you?
WADE WINGLER: She responded, and none of the commands I did worked. But then I realized you can go back and review all the commands that have been sent to it. I’m sure that dude came home after we had toward their house and was looking at his Alexa app and said this guy was talking to my thermostat and trying to turn it up and down. I don’t know about the security piece so much. I haven’t been too worried about it yet. Maybe I should be.
BELVA SMITH: Truth is I don’t think anybody knows too much about it yet because I think it’s all too new. We’ll figure it out as we go along. What about Google home? Is it going to be something to compete with Amazon echo?
WADE WINGLER: My understanding is it is, and that it’s good, and Apple is supposed to come out with something early in 2017 it’s going to do something very similar as well. It’s like the Kindles. There are a bunch of them out there but Amazon sort of hit that first in such a way that it was cost appropriate. $40 buys an Amazon Dot and gives you all of that basic functionality. I think Google is fine and I think the Apple one will be great, but I’m getting standardized on Amazon so I’m guessing I’m going to stay there, at least until I get a cheaper one to do what I want it to do.
BRIAN NORTON: I know on our next show, a couple of the questions that we are going to tackle have to do with the Alexa, some of the security stuff. One of the questions I have for our next show is I hear the Alexa and the Google home record everything you say.
JOSH ANDERSON: It’s true.
BRIAN NORTON: The question is what happened to all that data. We are going to tackle that a little bit. I’m also going to dig in. I think the security question is a valid.
BELVA SMITH: I have heard people say that Google is collecting that, Amazon is collecting the information. We are going to be getting the echo for Christmas, so when we come back I’ll hopefully have a little bit more experience. Honestly, I’m not too worried about it myself. I think it’s because I don’t know what I need to be worried about. I don’t like to worry about what I don’t know.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s an interesting question.
JOSH ANDERSON: It still creeps me out. I know the person in our loan library had it and was using it. He said stuff said in casual conversation started showing up insert list and showing up as recommendations and Amazon even though he hadn’t actually stopped for those things, just because he had mentioned them they started showing up.
BELVA SMITH: So the FBI will be knocking on your door.
JOSH ANDERSON: It creeps me out that I’m going to have to start making sure my TV knows I’m doing my exercises.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s a slick piece for this next one.
BELVA SMITH: Which will be next year.
BRIAN NORTON: We are going to bring it in shortly. If you think about it and have questions or comments related to that stuff, let us know. We’d love to add it to our stuff of the upcoming show notes and questions.
***
WADE WINGLER: And now it’s time for the wildcard question.
BRIAN NORTON: So our next question is the wildcard question. This is where I pass the mic – what do a mic drop — over into Wade’s hands. What have you got?
WADE WINGLER: We live in a world of technology and communication, and we have things like Facebook and Skype and Apple messenger and text messaging and phone calls and emails. We’ve got a bunch of different platforms for communicating. They are sort of fragmented and scattered. As I’m sitting here with my laptop in the studio, I have Apple instant messaging open. I have email open. I have Facebook which includes Facebook messenger. I have Slack open. I have a Skype icon that I haven’t clicked on yet today. I have Go To Meeting. Before long we are going to have a new phone system here where our company phone calls will show up as an app on our smartphone as well. The question is, why are some things used on one platform, and why are some things used on others? Why is one communication an email but another is a Facebook message but another is a slack message and another is a text message. Are we ever going to land in a situation where we just have one unified communications tool that sort of does all that stuff together? When you guys use and why have we ended up in such a fragmented world when it comes to the way we use technology to communicate? The applied question is what does that mean for assistive technology?
JOSH ANDERSON: That’s a big question. I say there used to be just one and it was called the telephone. Or the letter.
WADE WINGLER: Or the telegraph or telegram.
BRIAN NORTON: Smoke signals.
WADE WINGLER: Cave etchings.
BRIAN NORTON: Here is my take on some of that stuff. I think as you get into different groups of people, different organizations, different things that you are a part of, I think as a group of folks decide on how they want to communicate. Whatever those folks decide, all these different methods or technologies kind of pop up. For those that aren’t familiar, slack is like instant messaging but within a group and you can segment who gets to see what and other kind of stuff. I think a lot of it has to do with different groups you are a part of and what their modus operandi is when you start using communication tools. The other part is, I think for different types of situations there is different expediency. For me an email is something I will send out that I want a response but maybe it’s not so urgent. I use email quite a bit. But then text messaging, I think you’re looking for more expedient answers. You need to know something or quickly so you send a text message and expect someone to text you back. You’re looking for a faster response. I think there are all different levels of that with beyond we were looking for as far as a response. How quickly do you want to know the information? Choose the method of communication based on how quickly I want a response. Those are just some thoughts off the top of my head.
JOSH ANDERSON: Agreeing with Brian, I use all of them, phone calls, text messages, emails, but it depends on how much information there is to relay. Text messages are usually quick, try to not to make it five paragraphs long. If it’s something longer or need more information, I need to attach something, then maybe do an email and then a phone call. For me, phone calls are the quick one. If I need an answer right now, I tried a phone call. Then usually if that doesn’t work I try text. If that doesn’t work issue an email to make sure that question is out there. For me it’s how much information I need to relay to use those. Talking about the different ones, I think maybe your age has something to do with it. I have a 15-year-old stepdaughter that, if you call, you will probably get a text back. She doesn’t use Facebook because that’s for old people, I think. She uses Snapchat and those things to communicate. I think as long as new things keep coming out, you’re going to continuously have that fragment in all different ways. If he is like emails, text messages, phone calls are sticking around just because they’ve been around a little bit longer.
WADE WINGLER: I’ve heard some colleges aren’t issuing email at addresses to students anymore because they don’t use them. We’ve got some folks on our staff who are younger, in their early 20s, who won’t really respond to an email. They’ll respond to a text message quickly but don’t respond to emails. They just don’t check it.
BELVA SMITH: I think it has a little bit to do with what device you’re using, as to what meaning you’re going to use. For me, I use a text message like a tap on the shoulder, just to say hey, call me, or I’m going to be late, because I don’t like conversations. Nothing annoys me more than to see someone has sent me a text message that is a letter long or two pages long.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s been voice dictated and has a bunch of misspelled words.
BELVA SMITH: That needs to be an email. Also when I look at my text, I want it to be quick. I don’t want to have to really read and think about it. I just want to get quick information and be done. Facebook, I think, is totally different, and Snapchat and all that stuff is totally different, then email or text or phone because that is really just me telling the whole world, hye, look, here is where I’m at, here is what I’m doing. That’s part of the reason why I gave up on Facebook. I have an account but I really ever go there. Primarily when I do it is because I’m going to see what my boyfriend’s daughter is up to or whatever —
WADE WINGLER: You’re spying.
BELVA SMITH: Exactly. Then your mailbox is always full of “someone’s updated their status”, and it’s like, really, I don’t care what your status is. I don’t think there will ever be a one. I think we may all get – this sounds kind of funny, but I think we may our own personal address that a person can either text or email us at that address. As far as Facebook and Snapchat, I think that will always remain a separate social media thing instead of a notification or communication thing. What does it mean for folks with disabilities? I think texting and emailing has opened the world and so many different ways for so many of my clients that that is never going to stop. They love Facebook because they can’t get out and go to the ice cream shop and have an ice cream, but they can talk about things, share each other’s experiences. They can see where other folks are at and what they are doing. I know my clients absolutely love their social media and the ability that they have two text and email.
BRIAN NORTON: I think the access to that, when you start talking about the different software programs, email, texting, I think the biggest challenge for folks with disabilities as they are all useful tools and are mostly pretty accessible, but I think as people start designing software — I think about the iPhone and the accessibility that was there five, six years ago, it is so much improved. I think that’s going to continue to improve. But as they come out with different methods of communication, we are going to have to give it a little while. Maybe it isn’t the most accessible thing out of the box, but eventually you’re going to be able to get access to those things. I think from an access standpoint with mobile technology, the built-in accessibility features of all platforms, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, all that stuff will continue to improve and you will find access will become less of an issue as things continue to develop and grow.
BELVA SMITH: That’s true across the board with assistive technology. If you think about how inaccessible things were 10 years ago compared to now. Even Dragon NaturallySpeaking, how much it has improved over the last 10 years. I agree with you. I think as the developers continue to work on these products, they are going to be out of the box more accessible and more widely used.
WADE WINGLER: I think if you think about those tools in general, they are becoming less and less different with each iteration. It’s a voice communication, video communication, asynchronous text communication. I think we are just starting to see refinements as opposed to big earth shattering differences on each one. My prediction is we probably will start to see more of that stuff coming together in one platform. I hope we do eventually have some sort of identify that becomes the platform and then you can choose whatever mode works best for you. I hate talking on the phone, but I don’t mind using asynchronous tools like Voxer where it is more of a walkie-talkie style communication. There could be seconds, minutes, hours or days between each side of the conversation. I think we are going to get there and I do agree they are becoming more accessible, although there is still trouble out there.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s our show. I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy day to spend some time with us talking about the questions that we tackled today. Don’t forget, if you have questions or feedback, we would love to hear from you. We have a variety of ways for you to get in touch with us. Our listener line is 317-721-7124. You can email us at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Or send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ. Definitely would love to hear from you. Take some time, reach out to us, and let us know what kind of questions you have and what kind of feedback you have. Also want to take a moment to thank the folks that are here in the city with me. Belva?
BELVA SMITH: Thanks everybody. We will see you next year and have a Merry Christmas.
BRIAN NORTON: Josh?
JOSH ANDERSON: Thanks everybody. Happy new year.
BRIAN NORTON: Wade.
WADE WINGLER: Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and happy new year.
BRIAN NORTON: Thank you for taking time to be with us.
WADE WINGLER: Information provided on Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions does not constitute a product endorsement. Our comments are not intended as recommendations, nor is our show evaluative in nature. Assistive Technology FAQ is hosted by Brian Norton; gets editorial support from Mark Stewart and Belva Smith; is produced by me, Wade Wingler; and receives support from Easter Seals Crossroads and the INDATA project. ATFAQ is a proud member of the Accessibility Channel. Find more of our shows at www.accessibilitychannel.com.
***Transcript provided by TJ Cortopassi. For requests and inquiries, contact tjcortopassi@gmail.com***

WADE WINGLER: Welcome to ATFAQ, Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions with your host Brian Norton, Director of Assistive Technology at Easter Seals Crossroads. This is a show in which we address your questions about assistive technology, the hardware, software, tools and gadgets that help people with disabilities lead more independent and fulfilling lives. Have a question you’d like answered on our show? Send a tweet with the hashtag #ATFAQ, call our listener line at 317-721-7124, or send us an email at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. The world of assistive technology has questions, and we have answers. And now here’s your host, Brian Norton.
BRIAN NORTON: Hello and welcome to ATFAQ episode 44. My name is Brian Norton and I’m the host of the show. Today I’m so happy to be in the studio with a few colleagues where we can get into the questions that you sent in. But before we do, let’s go around and let me introduce the folks who are here with me. Belva?
BELVA SMITH: Hey everybody.
BRIAN NORTON: Belva is our vision team lead here at Easter Seals crossroads. I also have in the studio with me Josh.
JOSH ANDERSON: Happy holidays everybody.
BRIAN NORTON: Josh is the manager of clinical assistive technology. Also Wade Wingler.
WADE WINGLER: Ho ho ho.
BRIAN NORTON: Wade is the popular host of AT update, one of our other podcasts, and also VP of ATIT. My name is Brian Norton. I’m the director of assistive technology here. For those that are new listeners, I just want to give you some information about our show. How our show works is we, throughout a couple of weeks, gather feedback and talk about and look for assistive technology related questions in a variety of different places. But mostly through a couple of ways that folks can send in information and ask questions directly to us. We operate three different ways to do that and make that happen. We have a listener line which is 317-721-7124. We also have an email address that you can send your questions, tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Or you can send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ. For those who are new to the show, our favorite way to receive questions is when you give a call on our listener line because that allows us to actually use your audio, your questions, we will play that voicemail and it adds a different flavor to our show. We love for you guys to do that. If you have questions that we talk about different things today, send those in. But also be listening and thinking about the question we’ve been asked and answered because of you guys have a good information to share with those around us, we would love for you to do that. Please make that happen.
Also make sure your friends know about the show. There are a variety of different ways to find us. We are on iTunes. You can go to our website at ATFAQshow.com. Find us on stitcher and a whole host of other places where podcasts are generally able to be downloaded. Take a look for us there.
WADE WINGLER: It’s probably worth a mention that this show will release right after the Christmas holiday, but we are recording the week before because we are going to have a little time off. We are all in full holiday spirit here today. We’ve been eating too many cookies and having lots of pitch-in’s throughout the office, so it’s a very festive time. There is a little time delay which is when we started with Merry Christmas and ho ho ho ho but actually the show will release after. That’s okay, we had the Christmas spirit here.
BRIAN NORTON: What is the hashtag? #Christmas365? I think we all roll our eyes but you generally accept that that’s a pretty cool thing.
Before we jump into direct questions, we did get lots of feedback and comments this past week. We actually have three different ones to share with you today. The first is a voicemail so we’ll play that for you.
SPEAKER: My name is Bill. I just listen to your show we talked about black Friday and you were talking about screen readers and Dragon Dictation and so forth. There is a product coming out – I’m not sure how soon is going to be – with NVDA, the screen reader, has a Go Fund Me campaign where they’re working on doing a dictation with that program. It was pretty impressive because you would talk to it and you would tell it to stop and you would hear the voice for the NVDA, and you go back and give it a command or dictate and you would dictate your thing. It looks pretty good. I’m not sure how soon is coming out but that’s another product that maybe you want to talk about at some point that would help listeners it would certainly be a lot cheaper solution than JAWS and all that. It never works is what I say because there are so many other choices out there now. Enjoy your show.
BRIAN NORTON: I just wanted to tag along to what Bill mentioned. There is a software package out there called dictation bridge. Dictation bridge was sponsored by the lighthouse for the blind and visually impaired out of San Francisco. It sounds like they just recently did a crowdfunding piece, campaign, where they raised a lot of money. They are working on developing. If you go to dictationbridge.com, you can learn about that project. I think what is interesting, I know we have mentioned J say on the show and how expensive and it takes a lot to get it to work well for folks because there is a lot of T’s to cross and I’s to dot in the installation process just to make all those different things work together. When things like NVDA and dictation bridge and Windows speech recognition are all free, maybe the effort and work isn’t as bad and wouldn’t be necessarily as hard and difficult to make work.
BELVA SMITH: I think that it still going to be difficult to get it to work correctly. I’d be very interested to explore it once it’s actually available. The idea of it having no cost is obviously exciting. Just a whole – I’m assuming you’re going to be able to command not just dictate, so you’ll be able to, instead of — for example, use a three keyed combination to open up a program, you should be able to ask it to open the program for you as you can with J say. Again, because you have to be so precise with what you say, I would think that there is still going to be quite a learning curve to go with it, but it’ll be interesting to see.
BRIAN NORTON: If you read their sites, what I find cool and interesting is right now they are working with NVDA. This dictation bridge will then work with Windows speech recognition, but they also mentioned once we get to the point where that is working okay, they are going to look at doing scripts for window eyes and transfusion and JAWS as well so that it would be more in the flavor of what J say it already offers. It’s definitely a project and something to keep our eyes on as they continue to develop and make that stuff work.
JOSH ANDERSON: Reading about it, it says that it is feature complete and they are happy to share the software with anyone who would request the copy, as far as the one for window speech recognition and NVDA. It should be something to try. They said there might be bugs but they want to report it to them so they can fix as they go. They are also trying to get it up and working with Dragon. It looks like that’s almost ready to roll out also.
BELVA SMITH: I would also say this might be a good option for someone who is using it perhaps at home, but I would be concerned about tech support if you’re trying to use it for school or any kind of employment. I’m not trying to be the bearer of bad news —
JOSH ANDERSON: Where is that Christmas spirit?
BRIAN NORTON: Scrooge, bah humbug. We have this fun thing in the studio —
WADE WINGLER: Isn’t there a sound effect?
BELVA SMITH: Yeah, here.
[Applause] BRIAN NORTON: Nice.
BELVA SMITH: I’ve got a sound effects machine in one of the holiday parties here. We are only going to bring it here once but you might hear some sound effects.
BELVA SMITH: It has these cute pictures that give you an idea.
WADE WINGLER: Give us another one.
[Sound effect] BRIAN NORTON: Very cool. I think we need to bring it to every show and we need to work in one of the sound effects. I think that would be fun. On to our second comment.
Our next comment was essentially an email I got from a couple of weeks ago or the last show. We talked about a geometry app question. For folks who aren’t able to use their hands, they were looking for a compass or rule that would work for them. I know, Wade, you reached out to someone you knew and she got back to us about a couple of apps that might be helpful.
WADE WINGLER: Kristin Reit from BridgingApps was the person who reached out to us. She had a couple of examples of apps that might be useful in that situation we talked about where someone was looking for a compass or a ruler. She suggested jungle geometry as one of the apps we might look at. Another one is geometry pad. I’m not exactly sure what the function is on those. I haven’t had a chance to look at them. In general, BridgingApps is a place we go to for lots of apps recommendation because they allow you to search for things by category and keyword and all kinds of stuff. Kristin suggested jungle geometry and geometry pad might be some apps to look at for the second comment.
BRIAN NORTON: I always find BridgingApps is a great place to go to search for stuff. Sometimes you are in the dark in a turtle shell, and when you go there and find different apps, it brings you out into the open to be able to find things you might not have been able to find.
BELVA SMITH: BridgingApps is not just iOS apps, right? It is android as well.
WADE WINGLER: Correct.
BRIAN NORTON: They are all over the board. It is such a great site because they vet things. If you go to a manufacturer site, or you might find it on iTunes, what you’ll find on BridgingApps as they have parents, teachers, special educators and other folks who really are invested and working for a child or student or somebody. They give you more accurate descriptions and a better understanding of the pros and cons when it comes to that particular app. Just a great place to look and search.
BELVA SMITH: Real life experience reviews basically.
BRIAN NORTON: Exactly. Very much so.
Our next question — so we had three of those. We gone through two. The third comment was from TJ. I’ll give a shout out to TJ.
WADE WINGLER: TJ is awesome.
BRIAN NORTON: He’s is our transcriptionist. He takes a lot of the things we do and transcribes things, makes sure we have scripts for all that stuff.
WADE WINGLER: If you have relied on the show notes or transcriptions for any of our podcasts or specials or things like that, TJ Cortopassi is our guy who does that for us. If you need transcription or need those kinds of services, let us know and we can connect you to TJ. He’s really great.
BRIAN NORTON: His comment was essentially, I think last show we talked about Dragon and a particular Chrome issue where Dragon isn’t working with Chrome. I think when Dragon is running and you bring up Chrome, it leaves you with a black screen or just doesn’t work very well with it. We had talked a little bit about one of the figures that we had found that works well is there is a Dragon add-on that you can enable or disable. Sometimes you need to make sure it is enabled so that it’ll work well. TJ has e-mailed back in, he’s a great listener for the show. Obviously because he has to listen to it.
WADE WINGLER: He listens to every word of every show.
BRIAN NORTON: It’s a little bit of forced labor on his part to do that. He had mentioned that he was having trouble with that and it wasn’t working very well for him. One of his fixes for it — I think he uses the Edge browser to do quick Internet searches when he needs it. He is still looking for an answer that will solve his particular issue with it.
BELVA SMITH: Was the question based on using edge or was it based on using chrome?
BRIAN NORTON: It was based on using chrome. What he is saying is he uses edge and set up chrome now —
JOSH ANDERSON: Because of the problems.
BELVA SMITH: Okay.
BRIAN NORTON: It’s funny. One of those things with Windows computers, what works on one computer doesn’t work on the other computer. That’s just something that we deal with as we troubleshoot and provide support for folks who have computers and software and things like that. Sometimes there is not a rhyme or reason for why something is happening to somebody and not the other folks.
BELVA SMITH: I’m finding that it’s becoming more and more — I guess necessary is the word I want to use — to use more than one browser. It used to be that you could open up Internet Explorer and do anything you wanted, but it just doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. I find myself having to use two different browsers depending on what I’m doing, and I’m not using any assistive technology. I can’t do certain things with Safari that I can do with Google Chrome.
BRIAN NORTON: I’m a big chrome user. Use it all the time.
WADE WINGLER: Me too. Chrome is my primary but then I jump into Safari or sometimes even Firefox if I need another browser open where I am logged in to Amazon on one but not logged in on the other one or some unusual websites I need to look at.
***
BRIAN NORTON: Don’t forget, we just went over some different comments. If you guys have comments about the comments, I guess is the way to say it. You guys have any feedback or other suggestions or situations where you have run into those things that you have some answers, the snow. We would love to be able to continue those conversations over those questions and provide folks with good information.
Our first question for the day is, I was trying to set up my iPhone to use my head movements as a switch. So far I am not having any luck getting it to consistently recognize my face and constantly getting a message at the top of my screen telling me I cannot locate my face. I am going to try using switches, but I need someone to tell me what they have found to be the best switch set up to operate the iPhone completely hands-free but using switches I can activate with my head. I played around with iOS and switch access a little bit. One of the interesting things and more inconsistent things with it is they allow you to use your face as a switch. If you are staring at the camera, you’re supposed to be able to move your face left or right to have essentially two different switch inputs. Depending on what you call it or how you essentially program it, it could be an activation switch or a scanning switch. There are all sorts of things you can do with those switches.
BELVA SMITH: I just thought of something. Wouldn’t the camera have to be facing forward?
WADE WINGLER: It use the forward facing camera for switch activation.
BELVA SMITH: So the switch automatically turns the camera for you? Because this person is saying that they couldn’t get it to recognize their face at all. I’m wondering what the camera maybe not facing them?
BRIAN NORTON: I believe it automatically uses the one that’s on the screen itself.
WADE WINGLER: It doesn’t show you the camera view. It just activates the camera while you’re looking at the screen, and then you look left for one switch activation and write for another switch activation.
JOSH ANDERSON: How sensitive is it? Does it have the whole face in it? Could it be a problem of just positioning?
WADE WINGLER: My experience has been you have to turn your face pretty far to the left or right. I’ve always joked, I think it is looking for my big nose. When I look far to the left, it can’t miss that. I’ve had some people complain that switch access in general is slow. It works at a total place. I’ve learned that the official recognition for switch activation can be a little bit inconsistent. I demo it. I don’t rely on it. There are times when I can’t make it work because the facial recognition isn’t working. What we’ve recommended in the past is the Blue 2 switch. It runs at $180 or something like that and it has two physical switch is built in. It also has a switch interface see you can connect any kind of switch you want to it. You get the best of both worlds. You get the Bluetooth switch with the two switch is built in and you can plug in whatever switch you want.
BRIAN NORTON: Again with switches, they mentioned wanting to know what the best switch setup is. You have to have a Bluetooth switch connected to it because I don’t believe there is a physical input where you can plug the switch directly into the device itself. As far as using switches they can get access to with your head, there are literally hundreds of different types of switches.
WADE WINGLER: Wait a minute. The Blue 2 connects Bluetooth to the iPad or iOS device and you can physically connect other switches to it. It has switch jacks.
BRIAN NORTON: Exactly.
WADE WINGLER: I just wanted to make sure we were clear.
BRIAN NORTON: Bluetooth, there are two switches on the actual device itself that you can use, but instead of using the switches that are actually on the device itself, you can plug in any of the switch you would want to use. It becomes a pass-through device for you. Again there are hundreds of different types of switches. Often I will recommend that folks see an occupational therapist or something like that, someone you can work with on positioning and making sure that when they are activating a switch that it is a place where they are consistently being able to activate it. They have to not only be consistent with it so it is one single motion that they can be repetitive with and consistent with. A lot of times, fatigue and energy, range of motion come into play when you are talking about switch access because you want to be able to make sure it is reliable and they can be consistent with it. Over the course of a day or so, doing one consistent action, you’re going to get tired. You just want to make sure we are using whatever switch activation, location, and device, something they can use for a good period of time.
***
BRIAN NORTON: Again if you have a question or you have a comment, don’t hesitate to give us a call. I’ll give our phone number, 317-721-7124. Feel free to give us a call. We would love to hear from you if you’ve got any comments about that previous question or if you been sitting and thinking I wish someone could help me with this particular question.
Our next question is, do you have any idea why my iPhone is sending calls directly to voicemail. I haven’t been able to receive calls for a couple of weeks now and it is getting so frustrating. Any thoughts?
BELVA SMITH: I actually do. I had a client a couple of weeks ago that was having this issue. What we found was that she had some way, somehow, turned on her do not disturb. When that is turned on, it just automatically send it to the voicemail. You can tell it is turned on by looking at the top right side of your screen, by the battery indicator, you should see a crescent moon. If it is turned on, all you need to do is go into settings and make sure that you turn off the do not disturb. That client also had something exciting to show me. She has an albino turtle. I have never in my life seen an albino. You guys are laughing at me but it’s the truth. She had given to her. The funny thing is she happens to be an albino herself.
WADE WINGLER: We say person with albinism. I guess we should also say a turtle with albinism.
BELVA SMITH: It’s got the cutest red eyes.
BRIAN NORTON: Are you serious?
BELVA SMITH: I am serious.
WADE WINGLER: I’ve got to spill the beans about this. For the last few shows, before we record, we pick a secret word that we are all going to try to say. You might have noticed we have tried to do that. Today’s secret word is turtle. We are all trying to crowbar the word turtle into the show. Belva just killed us.
BELVA SMITH: I couldn’t wait to do a story in there. We fixed her phone and she sold me her turtle.
WADE WINGLER: Now you guys know what turtle is about this episode. We will let you listen in future episodes for other secret words. We are trying to liven it up around here and have some fun. There really was a turtle?
BELVA SMITH: It’s the truth.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s pretty impressive.
BELVA SMITH: She lets him out and lets him walk around her house.
WADE WINGLER: That’s great.
BRIAN NORTON: So it is with albinism?
BELVA SMITH: Yes.
BRIAN NORTON: Wow. It’s funny, that question came from my wife. She came to me and kept getting so frustrated. For weeks I didn’t think anything of it. Finally one day I’m putting the shadows together for this and I said that’s a pretty good question. I’d better but it down and figure out what’s going on. It was the same thing. I wonder if one of my daughters had used it.
JOSH ANDERSON: What she had probably done is if you just pull up the little menu at the bottom, it’s one of the options. Her finger probably actually hit that. I’ve done it before on accident.
BRIAN NORTON: Our kids use the phone a lot too. They mess around with settings and it drives her crazy.
BELVA SMITH: In my client’s case, she’s using voiceover. I’m thinking that she must have just accidentally got in there some way and didn’t realize it.
WADE WINGLER: She was probably chasing her turtle around.
JOSH ANDERSON: Or the turtle did it.
BELVA SMITH: It’s also important to know that if you are too far away from a cell tower, which that’s pretty much hard to do nowadays, and you get a call, it may go directly to your voicemail instead of coming through.
BRIAN NORTON: This is a part of the question but is about the iPhone. I just realized the other day that you can — maybe it was you, Josh, I shared it with me. The thing about recognition — it’s one degree out in Indiana today. It’s freezing cold. When you wear your gloves, you can take your gloves and make a fingerprint recognition with your glove.
JOSH ANDERSON: As long as they are touchscreen gloves.
BELVA SMITH: They have to be the touch screen.
JOSH ANDERSON: It’ll recognize that thumbprint.
WADE WINGLER: Don’t leave your gloves lying around.
JOSH ANDERSON: If someone steals your phone, don’t let them sell your gloves.
BRIAN NORTON: I did that with a couple of different fingers.
WADE WINGLER: I never would’ve guessed that.
BRIAN NORTON: I never would have either.
BELVA SMITH: Here’s a good one. I have a client who is using his nose for his thumbprint.
WADE WINGLER: That’s interesting.
BRIAN NORTON: I guess you could use anything.
BELVA SMITH: We could not get his thumbprint to work.
BRIAN NORTON: So you have a client who can use his nose?
BELVA SMITH: He’s using his nose to unlock his iPhone. I can’t remember what the situation was, but he doesn’t have a finger print and we could not get any one of his fingers to work. He said just jokingly, let’s see what happens when I try my nose. Sure enough it worked.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s fascinating.
WADE WINGLER: I’ve used my nose a couple of times with my Apple Watch when there is an alarm going off or I need to answer the phone and my hands are full of stuff. I just put my nose on the snooze button or the answer call upon on my Apple Watch and answer it that way. We’ve gone way far off track but we are sharing some nice tips and tricks.
BRIAN NORTON: I was so fascinated when I was missing around my glove and I thought that was cool.
BELVA SMITH: How did you figure out that was going on with Leah’s phone? Did you see the moon?
BRIAN NORTON: I googled it. I said “not receiving calls on my iphone”. I think that’s what I googled. Calls are going directly to voicemail. It brought up that do not disturb thing. It was fascinating.
JOSH ANDERSON: I think you just gave away the secret of where we get answers from. You mean you called the listener line to FAQ?
[applause] BRIAN NORTON: I think our blooper reel will be the longest part of the show.
WADE WINGLER: We may just have all bloopers.
BELVA SMITH: That’s what we need, and all bloopers show.
***
BRIAN NORTON: The next question, I have a new iPhone with the new touch sensitive screen. I cannot figure out how to move the app badges around.
WADE WINGLER: This is horrible.
BRIAN NORTON: I used to press and hold the app bad for a second or two but now all that does is open up a context window. Any suggestions or fixes for this? It just can’t be this hard.
WADE WINGLER: My wife brought this one up the other day.
BRIAN NORTON: I brought it up. I was messing around with this too.
WADE WINGLER: You can’t make the icons wiggle anymore. You just bring up this thing. Has everybody figured it out?
JOSH ANDERSON: Just don’t press too hard.
BELVA SMITH: You have to gently touch it.
WADE WINGLER: Very lightly which is difficult. I don’t think it is very intuitive. I think Apple will need to fix that. It’s just too difficult. I find myself doing a two or three times sometimes to just touch and hold it very lightly without pushing hard enough to get it.
BELVA SMITH: Is that just on the seven? I don’t have it on my phone and I’m glad.
JOSH ANDERSON: 6S.
BELVA SMITH: I have the 6S.
JOSH ANDERSON: Yours should do it too.
BRIAN NORTON: I was doing it on the 6 and it was doing it to me.
BELVA SMITH: I just did an iOS update this morning. Did it change it? That stinks.
BRIAN NORTON: What I’ve realized is I think a lot of the issue is with the new 7, the physical button on the bottom isn’t a push button anymore. I think a lot of these iOS features are made for the new phone and not for your 6 or 6S.
WADE WINGLER: It’s a haptic response that makes it feel like the button is being depressed, but it’s not. Is vibrating in such a way that it makes it feel like the button is being pushed but it is not moving.
BRIAN NORTON: I think it goes together with some of these other questions we’ve had in previous weeks about moving — I can’t slide anymore. I had to push a button to unlock. I think these updates are all about the new phone and how it works with the new phone. People are stuck with old phones with the new operating system and it is not as intuitive, not as easy as it had been with the previous iOS versions on older phone.
WADE WINGLER: I’m still struggling with these things. It’s just working through the bugs and kinks of Apple trying to figure out how to tweak and make those work well.
***
BRIAN NORTON: Our next question is, I have macular degeneration and I’m looking for a e-book reader app that will allow books to be read to me. I have an NLS reader from the state library but would like to use an app on a tablet so it can be more easily transported. Any guidance would be much appreciated.
BELVA SMITH: Hopefully you have an iPad or are planning in getting an iPad. I would suggest the bard mobile app. You can download directly — you open the app and search the library, download directly to the tablet, and you control it just like you do your NLS reader that you currently have. All of the same funds are available on the screen. It works beautifully.
JOSH ANDERSON: They are one and the same. They are all getting the same materials.
BELVA SMITH: I don’t think they have that for android tablets yet. I think it still only for Apple. You could check that out but I’m pretty sure it is iOS.
BRIAN NORTON: There are so many apps that will do reading to you but it may not be as intuitive.
BELVA SMITH: Through iBooks you can get plenty of free books that will be read to you. If you are looking to use it for primarily a book reader, you can do it iPad mini which would be cheaper than getting a full-size iPad, perfectly sized and easy to go with you.
BRIAN NORTON: I think one of the advantages of the bard mobile app as it is simple.
BELVA SMITH: The biggest advantage is you are downloading back into the app. If you’re doing it on your computer to read them in their reading device, you have to download the book, transfer it to a thumb drive, and put the thumb drive in the book reader. Then you’ve got these books on your computer that you have to go back and delete eventually and you have to keep them deleted off of your thumb drive and the sea have many thumb drives. It eliminates the transfer process. You’re able to search the library and download directly to the app.
BRIAN NORTON: From what I understand, in order to sign up for that, much like the NLS reader, you have to have an account, be approved.
BELVA SMITH: You don’t have to be approved. I guess if you don’t have —
JOSH ANDERSON: Originally you do.
BELVA SMITH: If you don’t have a talking books or national Library service approval, then yes you do have to start with that. That is something that’s free. All you have to do is contact the library and let them know you are visually impaired. They will get you signed up. But then to get your iPad to actually work, you also have to contact them and let them know that you’re getting ready to use an iPad. They go through an approval process. It typically takes 24 hours but I have on more than one occasion just called the library up and said, look I am here with them, we don’t have 24 hours, and they will go in and immediately approve it so we can get it activated and begin the downloading and go through the training process.
JOSH ANDERSON: They give you a username and password and other stuff?
BELVA SMITH: You create your own username and password.
BRIAN NORTON: I just went through the approval process, and of course I’m not visually impaired although I do have age-related vision stuff going on. I don’t have low vision per se. I did apply for bard mobile just as a professional piece so I can then be an educator and teach folks. The Mac did they let you do that?
BRIAN NORTON: They did. There is one more I was able to mark and say I work with people.
BELVA SMITH: That’s interesting because I used Todd’s account because I didn’t know I could get one.
BRIAN NORTON: I had to explain to them that that’s what I do and I’m wanting to look at their apps would be better prepared to provide training and help people with it. They did approve me. The Mac that’s one I would suggest. It’s a very simple to use app and makes getting her book so much easier than trying to download them and transfer them.
BRIAN NORTON: I’ll go along with that. Part of the nice feature about that is if you are visually impaired, a lot of times you’re using voiceover or the zoom feature that’s on the iPhone, and the simple controls make it so much easier to use rather than iBooks and some of these other things, maybe audible is another place I get books from. They are just harder to navigate, not as easy and intuitive as what bard would be.
BELVA SMITH: Bard is available for android. You can get it in the Google Play store.
BRIAN NORTON: I also think about the other tablets. Kindle can read to you if you get a specific kind that has a screen reader to it.
BELVA SMITH: Wasn’t there a big to do with NFB and Kindle for a while? Because it wasn’t accessible. I think they worked hard to change that.
JOSH ANDERSON: You can also use the built in speech on any kind of iOS device where you pull down two fingers and it reads the page to you.
BELVA SMITH: Sometimes. The problem with doing that is you can’t bookmark.
JOSH ANDERSON: Is not going to have as many features.
BELVA SMITH: You can’t bookmark and go back chapters or pages if you want to.
BRIAN NORTON: It’s really helpful for navigational purposes being able to move to where you want to start again.
BELVA SMITH: Searching through the books is going to be much easier.
WADE WINGLER: When I was in grad school, I really relied on voice dream reader. I would read text books while I was driving back and forth to work because I have a long commute. That was when I liked. I liked it because you could just drag a file into dropbox and it would show up in the voice dream reader and would read out loud but also colorcode and highlight as it went. It was five dollars, $10.
BRIAN NORTON: Claro PDF is another one I’ll throw out. If you have a PDF document or a text file for a book, you can put it into dropbox. It gets access to that. If you have a learning disability or something like that going on, it does that highlighting and follows the bouncing ball through your document, easy access to dictionaries and other things to look up words you might not understand or need some additional help with.
WADE WINGLER: It looks like voice dream is up to $15 an iOS but only $10 on android.
BELVA SMITH: Will that read a book or does it have to be a certain file?
WADE WINGLER: It’ll read whatever you put in that has text. It reads PDF, HTML, text and the Word by default.
BELVA SMITH: Don’t they also have a package deal with the voice dream where you can get several programs?
WADE WINGLER: There are a few different things that go with that. There is the voice dream reader, the voice dream writer which does some of the same stuff and gives you the ability to generate documents and those kinds of things. They are separate apps but work pretty similarly.
***
BRIAN NORTON: Our next question was an email we received. That email address is tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. The question is, I’ve been thinking about purchasing an Amazon echo or Amazon dot to help me control some stuff in my office like lights, fans. I guess my first question is how does this work in what accessories what you need to buy for it to work in my home?
WADE WINGLER: I’m becoming one of the people that is fascinated with the Amazon echo because he bought a couple of those for our home recently. In our other show, assistive technology update, the December 9 2016, episode 289, is nothing but me and my beautiful wife and my lovely children playing around with Amazon echo in our home. If you haven’t checked out the episode, it’s pretty fun. You should listen to it. I guess the question is what do you need to buy? The first thing I would talk about is the difference between the echo and the dot. Primarily it’s the speaker. The Amazon echo has a really nice speaker that sounds good throughout the house, but in terms of functionality, I haven’t found any different except the dot is everything the echo does but it doesn’t have the big, full sounding speakers. Is that what you guys have found as well?
BELVA SMITH: Yes.
JOSH ANDERSON: It is a lot less expensive.
BELVA SMITH: It’s $50 cheaper.
WADE WINGLER: During the holidays they’ve been running them for like $35 or $40 versus $180.
BELVA SMITH: You can connect a Bluetooth speaker to the dot.
WADE WINGLER: It just doesn’t sound as nice.
BRIAN NORTON: Can you plug the speaker into it?
WADE WINGLER: So on the dot you can hook an external speaker to it. You can also tell the dot to play to a legit speaker which is what we do with our dot. I got a decent pocket kick Bluetooth speaker that really sounds good that I’ve been playing on my iPhone for a while. I connect the dots to that Bluetooth speaker and you end up with a really nice sounding system even though you didn’t buy the full Amazon echo. It also integrates with smart home technology cost of the brand I’m using the most is TP link and I like those. They seem to be good bang for the buck. You can hook it to smart switches, lightbulbs, Phillips Hue, and all kinds of stuff. If you’re just getting started and want to play around with it, I would probably — if I were doing it over again and especially want to save money, just by the Amazon dot and hook a nice speaker into it if you have one. A lot of us have old computer speakers or things sitting around. You might want to buy one smart outlet and one smart bulb to play around with and start to see what those things do. You can do a lot of stuff with it. You really can. In our home and got a few lamps hooked up to it downstairs because it’s the Christmas season. We’ve got a Christmas tree connected to it. My son Jake, we just got a cheap disco ball as a gag holiday gift. We just hooked up this disco ball to it so we can say Alexa turn on the party, and the disco ball starts playing in the house. I would start probably with the dot and maybe one or two outlets, smart plugs, and bulbs.
BELVA SMITH: You can eventually get it to do your thermostat.
WADE WINGLER: It works with some thermostats. If you go on to the Amazon.com/echo website, you can poke around and find the different things that are compatible with it. It’s interesting to know the Amazon echo – I haven’t found any of those smart device that it talks directly to yet. And every case – and I have a couple different brands – you have to use of intermediary app. For example, with the TP link switches and lightbulbs, I use an app called casa. It is like the primary controller of those devices which is nice because I can open up the casa app on my phone and can flip the light on or off or dim them just by using the touch display on my iPhone within the Casa app. Then you tell Amazon echo what your login is for your casa app, and it basically uses the app as an intermediary between Amazon echo and those actual devices.
JOSH ANDERSON: So you have to download the app to the echo? How does that really work?
WADE WINGLER: On echo you download skills, basically apps on the echo. If you want to control a smart plug, you need to buy the smart plug, have an Amazon echo or dots, download whatever app the smart plug wants to get connected to your Wi-Fi to turn it off and on, then you have to download the skill on Amazon echo. On Amazon echo, some of the devices seem to be able to be controlled just by Amazon echo natively and some require that intermediary app. I think all the devices require that intermediary app. It kind of gets daisychained with those different apps to make it happen, but in the end once you get it figured out and set up, then it’s smooth.
JOSH ANDERSON: It’s just one command and it goes.
WADE WINGLER: You say Alexa, turn on the little Christmas tree, like in our house. Or you can also group things with an Amazon echo and the Alexa app. We got upstairs and downstairs. For example all our bedrooms are upstairs. When we leave the downstairs for the night, we just say Alexa turn off the downstairs, and every device that’s been put in that downstairs group shuts off. Or you can go downstairs in the morning and say Alexa turn on the downstairs, and everything in the group turns on.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s great. Where would you suggest listeners go to learn more about this? Or where did you even find — you mentioned these modules and things that get plugged in. Where do you go to get these things?
WADE WINGLER: About the Amazon echo and dot at a home improvement store, Home Depot or Lowe’s. You can buy them from Amazon and they will ship them. To buy the smart devices and learn about those, I went on Amazon and typed echo and smart plug or whatever, and I just started reading the reviews inside the products. I found one, a $20 bulb that looks pretty good, and then I read the reviews and I think they might’ve been listed as Amazon bestsellers at the time so I could then know that a lot of people were using them. I guess I used Amazon and their reviews to find those things and figure out what worked and what didn’t.
BELVA SMITH: You can also go into the big box stores like Best Buy where they sell it and ask the guys on the floor. They are happy to talk to about that stuff and give you tips and tricks. I have a question.
WADE WINGLER: We have a show for that.
BELVA SMITH: As an IT person, how nervous are you about Alexa being too easy for other people – like you just said you can control everything downstairs by saying turned downstairs off. How hard, how easy is it for someone to get onto your Wi-Fi and be able to start controlling your house for you?
WADE WINGLER: I don’t know. Not an area of expertise. I do know with Alexa, you have to have the app or voice activation. I’m thinking it’s fairly secure. I want to believe it’s the core but then I’ve heard in the news recently about people whose stuff has been hacked. I’m not sure that it’s there. I can tell you a funny story. My wife and I have been doing some house shopping recently and we went and did an open house at a home, and I saw Alexa sitting there on the cabinet. I started talking to her trying to turn on thermostat.
BELVA SMITH: Did you talk to you?
WADE WINGLER: She responded, and none of the commands I did worked. But then I realized you can go back and review all the commands that have been sent to it. I’m sure that dude came home after we had toward their house and was looking at his Alexa app and said this guy was talking to my thermostat and trying to turn it up and down. I don’t know about the security piece so much. I haven’t been too worried about it yet. Maybe I should be.
BELVA SMITH: Truth is I don’t think anybody knows too much about it yet because I think it’s all too new. We’ll figure it out as we go along. What about Google home? Is it going to be something to compete with Amazon echo?
WADE WINGLER: My understanding is it is, and that it’s good, and Apple is supposed to come out with something early in 2017 it’s going to do something very similar as well. It’s like the Kindles. There are a bunch of them out there but Amazon sort of hit that first in such a way that it was cost appropriate. $40 buys an Amazon Dot and gives you all of that basic functionality. I think Google is fine and I think the Apple one will be great, but I’m getting standardized on Amazon so I’m guessing I’m going to stay there, at least until I get a cheaper one to do what I want it to do.
BRIAN NORTON: I know on our next show, a couple of the questions that we are going to tackle have to do with the Alexa, some of the security stuff. One of the questions I have for our next show is I hear the Alexa and the Google home record everything you say.
JOSH ANDERSON: It’s true.
BRIAN NORTON: The question is what happened to all that data. We are going to tackle that a little bit. I’m also going to dig in. I think the security question is a valid.
BELVA SMITH: I have heard people say that Google is collecting that, Amazon is collecting the information. We are going to be getting the echo for Christmas, so when we come back I’ll hopefully have a little bit more experience. Honestly, I’m not too worried about it myself. I think it’s because I don’t know what I need to be worried about. I don’t like to worry about what I don’t know.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s an interesting question.
JOSH ANDERSON: It still creeps me out. I know the person in our loan library had it and was using it. He said stuff said in casual conversation started showing up insert list and showing up as recommendations and Amazon even though he hadn’t actually stopped for those things, just because he had mentioned them they started showing up.
BELVA SMITH: So the FBI will be knocking on your door.
JOSH ANDERSON: It creeps me out that I’m going to have to start making sure my TV knows I’m doing my exercises.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s a slick piece for this next one.
BELVA SMITH: Which will be next year.
BRIAN NORTON: We are going to bring it in shortly. If you think about it and have questions or comments related to that stuff, let us know. We’d love to add it to our stuff of the upcoming show notes and questions.
***
WADE WINGLER: And now it’s time for the wildcard question.
BRIAN NORTON: So our next question is the wildcard question. This is where I pass the mic – what do a mic drop — over into Wade’s hands. What have you got?
WADE WINGLER: We live in a world of technology and communication, and we have things like Facebook and Skype and Apple messenger and text messaging and phone calls and emails. We’ve got a bunch of different platforms for communicating. They are sort of fragmented and scattered. As I’m sitting here with my laptop in the studio, I have Apple instant messaging open. I have email open. I have Facebook which includes Facebook messenger. I have Slack open. I have a Skype icon that I haven’t clicked on yet today. I have Go To Meeting. Before long we are going to have a new phone system here where our company phone calls will show up as an app on our smartphone as well. The question is, why are some things used on one platform, and why are some things used on others? Why is one communication an email but another is a Facebook message but another is a slack message and another is a text message. Are we ever going to land in a situation where we just have one unified communications tool that sort of does all that stuff together? When you guys use and why have we ended up in such a fragmented world when it comes to the way we use technology to communicate? The applied question is what does that mean for assistive technology?
JOSH ANDERSON: That’s a big question. I say there used to be just one and it was called the telephone. Or the letter.
WADE WINGLER: Or the telegraph or telegram.
BRIAN NORTON: Smoke signals.
WADE WINGLER: Cave etchings.
BRIAN NORTON: Here is my take on some of that stuff. I think as you get into different groups of people, different organizations, different things that you are a part of, I think as a group of folks decide on how they want to communicate. Whatever those folks decide, all these different methods or technologies kind of pop up. For those that aren’t familiar, slack is like instant messaging but within a group and you can segment who gets to see what and other kind of stuff. I think a lot of it has to do with different groups you are a part of and what their modus operandi is when you start using communication tools. The other part is, I think for different types of situations there is different expediency. For me an email is something I will send out that I want a response but maybe it’s not so urgent. I use email quite a bit. But then text messaging, I think you’re looking for more expedient answers. You need to know something or quickly so you send a text message and expect someone to text you back. You’re looking for a faster response. I think there are all different levels of that with beyond we were looking for as far as a response. How quickly do you want to know the information? Choose the method of communication based on how quickly I want a response. Those are just some thoughts off the top of my head.
JOSH ANDERSON: Agreeing with Brian, I use all of them, phone calls, text messages, emails, but it depends on how much information there is to relay. Text messages are usually quick, try to not to make it five paragraphs long. If it’s something longer or need more information, I need to attach something, then maybe do an email and then a phone call. For me, phone calls are the quick one. If I need an answer right now, I tried a phone call. Then usually if that doesn’t work I try text. If that doesn’t work issue an email to make sure that question is out there. For me it’s how much information I need to relay to use those. Talking about the different ones, I think maybe your age has something to do with it. I have a 15-year-old stepdaughter that, if you call, you will probably get a text back. She doesn’t use Facebook because that’s for old people, I think. She uses Snapchat and those things to communicate. I think as long as new things keep coming out, you’re going to continuously have that fragment in all different ways. If he is like emails, text messages, phone calls are sticking around just because they’ve been around a little bit longer.
WADE WINGLER: I’ve heard some colleges aren’t issuing email at addresses to students anymore because they don’t use them. We’ve got some folks on our staff who are younger, in their early 20s, who won’t really respond to an email. They’ll respond to a text message quickly but don’t respond to emails. They just don’t check it.
BELVA SMITH: I think it has a little bit to do with what device you’re using, as to what meaning you’re going to use. For me, I use a text message like a tap on the shoulder, just to say hey, call me, or I’m going to be late, because I don’t like conversations. Nothing annoys me more than to see someone has sent me a text message that is a letter long or two pages long.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s been voice dictated and has a bunch of misspelled words.
BELVA SMITH: That needs to be an email. Also when I look at my text, I want it to be quick. I don’t want to have to really read and think about it. I just want to get quick information and be done. Facebook, I think, is totally different, and Snapchat and all that stuff is totally different, then email or text or phone because that is really just me telling the whole world, hye, look, here is where I’m at, here is what I’m doing. That’s part of the reason why I gave up on Facebook. I have an account but I really ever go there. Primarily when I do it is because I’m going to see what my boyfriend’s daughter is up to or whatever —
WADE WINGLER: You’re spying.
BELVA SMITH: Exactly. Then your mailbox is always full of “someone’s updated their status”, and it’s like, really, I don’t care what your status is. I don’t think there will ever be a one. I think we may all get – this sounds kind of funny, but I think we may our own personal address that a person can either text or email us at that address. As far as Facebook and Snapchat, I think that will always remain a separate social media thing instead of a notification or communication thing. What does it mean for folks with disabilities? I think texting and emailing has opened the world and so many different ways for so many of my clients that that is never going to stop. They love Facebook because they can’t get out and go to the ice cream shop and have an ice cream, but they can talk about things, share each other’s experiences. They can see where other folks are at and what they are doing. I know my clients absolutely love their social media and the ability that they have two text and email.
BRIAN NORTON: I think the access to that, when you start talking about the different software programs, email, texting, I think the biggest challenge for folks with disabilities as they are all useful tools and are mostly pretty accessible, but I think as people start designing software — I think about the iPhone and the accessibility that was there five, six years ago, it is so much improved. I think that’s going to continue to improve. But as they come out with different methods of communication, we are going to have to give it a little while. Maybe it isn’t the most accessible thing out of the box, but eventually you’re going to be able to get access to those things. I think from an access standpoint with mobile technology, the built-in accessibility features of all platforms, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, all that stuff will continue to improve and you will find access will become less of an issue as things continue to develop and grow.
BELVA SMITH: That’s true across the board with assistive technology. If you think about how inaccessible things were 10 years ago compared to now. Even Dragon NaturallySpeaking, how much it has improved over the last 10 years. I agree with you. I think as the developers continue to work on these products, they are going to be out of the box more accessible and more widely used.
WADE WINGLER: I think if you think about those tools in general, they are becoming less and less different with each iteration. It’s a voice communication, video communication, asynchronous text communication. I think we are just starting to see refinements as opposed to big earth shattering differences on each one. My prediction is we probably will start to see more of that stuff coming together in one platform. I hope we do eventually have some sort of identify that becomes the platform and then you can choose whatever mode works best for you. I hate talking on the phone, but I don’t mind using asynchronous tools like Voxer where it is more of a walkie-talkie style communication. There could be seconds, minutes, hours or days between each side of the conversation. I think we are going to get there and I do agree they are becoming more accessible, although there is still trouble out there.
BRIAN NORTON: That’s our show. I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy day to spend some time with us talking about the questions that we tackled today. Don’t forget, if you have questions or feedback, we would love to hear from you. We have a variety of ways for you to get in touch with us. Our listener line is 317-721-7124. You can email us at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Or send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ. Definitely would love to hear from you. Take some time, reach out to us, and let us know what kind of questions you have and what kind of feedback you have. Also want to take a moment to thank the folks that are here in the city with me. Belva?
BELVA SMITH: Thanks everybody. We will see you next year and have a Merry Christmas.
BRIAN NORTON: Josh?
JOSH ANDERSON: Thanks everybody. Happy new year.
BRIAN NORTON: Wade.
WADE WINGLER: Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and happy new year.
BRIAN NORTON: Thank you for taking time to be with us.
WADE WINGLER: Information provided on Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions does not constitute a product endorsement. Our comments are not intended as recommendations, nor is our show evaluative in nature. Assistive Technology FAQ is hosted by Brian Norton; gets editorial support from Mark Stewart and Belva Smith; is produced by me, Wade Wingler; and receives support from Easter Seals Crossroads and the INDATA project. ATFAQ is a proud member of the Accessibility Channel. Find more of our shows at www.accessibilitychannel.com.
***Transcript provided by TJ Cortopassi. For requests and inquiries, contact tjcortopassi@gmail.com***

BRIAN NORTON:  Hello and welcome to ATFAQ episode 44. My name is Brian Norton and I’m the host of the show. Today I’m so happy to be in the studio with a few colleagues where we can get into the questions that you sent in. But before we do, let’s go around and let me introduce the folks who are here with me. Belva?

BELVA SMITH:  Hey everybody.

BRIAN NORTON:  Belva is our vision team lead here at Easter Seals crossroads. I also have in the studio with me Josh.

JOSH ANDERSON:  Happy holidays everybody.

BRIAN NORTON:  Josh is the manager of clinical assistive technology. Also Wade Wingler.

WADE WINGLER:  Ho ho ho.

BRIAN NORTON:  Wade is the popular host of AT update, one of our other podcasts, and also VP of ATIT. My name is Brian Norton. I’m the director of assistive technology here. For those that are new listeners, I just want to give you some information about our show. How our show works is we, throughout a couple of weeks, gather feedback and talk about and look for assistive technology related questions in a variety of different places. But mostly through a couple of ways that folks can send in information and ask questions directly to us. We operate three different ways to do that and make that happen. We have a listener line which is 317-721-7124. We also have an email address that you can send your questions, tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Or you can send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ. For those who are new to the show, our favorite way to receive questions is when you give a call on our listener line because that allows us to actually use your audio, your questions, we will play that voicemail and it adds a different flavor to our show. We love for you guys to do that. If you have questions that we talk about different things today, send those in. But also be listening and thinking about the question we’ve been asked and answered because of you guys have a good information to share with those around us, we would love for you to do that. Please make that happen.

Also make sure your friends know about the show. There are a variety of different ways to find us. We are on iTunes. You can go to our website at ATFAQshow.com. Find us on stitcher and a whole host of other places where podcasts are generally able to be downloaded. Take a look for us there.

WADE WINGLER:  It’s probably worth a mention that this show will release right after the Christmas holiday, but we are recording the week before because we are going to have a little time off. We are all in full holiday spirit here today. We’ve been eating too many cookies and having lots of pitch-in’s throughout the office, so it’s a very festive time. There is a little time delay which is when we started with Merry Christmas and ho ho ho ho but actually the show will release after. That’s okay, we had the Christmas spirit here.

BRIAN NORTON:  What is the hashtag? #Christmas365?  I think we all roll our eyes but you generally accept that that’s a pretty cool thing.

Before we jump into direct questions, we did get lots of feedback and comments this past week. We actually have three different ones to share with you today. The first is a voicemail so we’ll play that for you.

SPEAKER:  My name is Bill. I just listen to your show we talked about black Friday and you were talking about screen readers and Dragon Dictation and so forth. There is a product coming out – I’m not sure how soon is going to be – with NVDA, the screen reader, has a Go Fund Me campaign where they’re working on doing a dictation with that program. It was pretty impressive because you would talk to it and you would tell it to stop and you would hear the voice for the NVDA, and you go back and give it a command or dictate and you would dictate your thing. It looks pretty good. I’m not sure how soon is coming out but that’s another product that maybe you want to talk about at some point that would help listeners it would certainly be a lot cheaper solution than JAWS and all that. It never works is what I say because there are so many other choices out there now. Enjoy your show.

BRIAN NORTON:  I just wanted to tag along to what Bill mentioned. There is a software package out there called dictation bridge. Dictation bridge was sponsored by the lighthouse for the blind and visually impaired out of San Francisco. It sounds like they just recently did a crowdfunding piece, campaign, where they raised a lot of money. They are working on developing. If you go to dictationbridge.com, you can learn about that project. I think what is interesting, I know we have mentioned J say on the show and how expensive and it takes a lot to get it to work well for folks because there is a lot of T’s to cross and I’s to dot in the installation process just to make all those different things work together. When things like NVDA and dictation bridge and Windows speech recognition are all free, maybe the effort and work isn’t as bad and wouldn’t be necessarily as hard and difficult to make work.

BELVA SMITH:  I think that it still going to be difficult to get it to work correctly. I’d be very interested to explore it once it’s actually available. The idea of it having no cost is obviously exciting. Just a whole – I’m assuming you’re going to be able to command not just dictate, so you’ll be able to, instead of — for example, use a three keyed combination to open up a program, you should be able to ask it to open the program for you as you can with J say. Again, because you have to be so precise with what you say, I would think that there is still going to be quite a learning curve to go with it, but it’ll be interesting to see.

BRIAN NORTON:  If you read their sites, what I find cool and interesting is right now they are working with NVDA. This dictation bridge will then work with Windows speech recognition, but they also mentioned once we get to the point where that is working okay, they are going to look at doing scripts for window eyes and transfusion and JAWS as well so that it would be more in the flavor of what J say it already offers. It’s definitely a project and something to keep our eyes on as they continue to develop and make that stuff work.

JOSH ANDERSON:  Reading about it, it says that it is feature complete and they are happy to share the software with anyone who would request the copy, as far as the one for window speech recognition and NVDA. It should be something to try. They said there might be bugs but they want to report it to them so they can fix as they go. They are also trying to get it up and working with Dragon. It looks like that’s almost ready to roll out also.

BELVA SMITH:  I would also say this might be a good option for someone who is using it perhaps at home, but I would be concerned about tech support if you’re trying to use it for school or any kind of employment. I’m not trying to be the bearer of bad news —

JOSH ANDERSON:  Where is that Christmas spirit?

BRIAN NORTON:  Scrooge, bah humbug. We have this fun thing in the studio —

WADE WINGLER:  Isn’t there a sound effect?

BELVA SMITH:  Yeah, here.

[Applause]

BRIAN NORTON:  Nice.

BELVA SMITH:  I’ve got a sound effects machine in one of the holiday parties here. We are only going to bring it here once but you might hear some sound effects.

BELVA SMITH:  It has these cute pictures that give you an idea.

WADE WINGLER:  Give us another one.

[Sound effect]

BRIAN NORTON:  Very cool. I think we need to bring it to every show and we need to work in one of the sound effects. I think that would be fun. On to our second comment.

Our next comment was essentially an email I got from a couple of weeks ago or the last show. We talked about a geometry app question. For folks who aren’t able to use their hands, they were looking for a compass or rule that would work for them. I know, Wade, you reached out to someone you knew and she got back to us about a couple of apps that might be helpful.

WADE WINGLER:  Kristin Reit from BridgingApps was the person who reached out to us. She had a couple of examples of apps that might be useful in that situation we talked about where someone was looking for a compass or a ruler. She suggested jungle geometry as one of the apps we might look at. Another one is geometry pad. I’m not exactly sure what the function is on those. I haven’t had a chance to look at them. In general, BridgingApps is a place we go to for lots of apps recommendation because they allow you to search for things by category and keyword and all kinds of stuff. Kristin suggested jungle geometry and geometry pad might be some apps to look at for the second comment.

BRIAN NORTON:  I always find BridgingApps is a great place to go to search for stuff. Sometimes you are in the dark in a turtle shell, and when you go there and find different apps, it brings you out into the open to be able to find things you might not have been able to find.

BELVA SMITH:  BridgingApps is not just iOS apps, right?  It is android as well.

WADE WINGLER:  Correct.

BRIAN NORTON:  They are all over the board. It is such a great site because they vet things. If you go to a manufacturer site, or you might find it on iTunes, what you’ll find on BridgingApps as they have parents, teachers, special educators and other folks who really are invested and working for a child or student or somebody. They give you more accurate descriptions and a better understanding of the pros and cons when it comes to that particular app. Just a great place to look and search.

BELVA SMITH:  Real life experience reviews basically.

BRIAN NORTON:  Exactly. Very much so.

Our next question — so we had three of those. We gone through two. The third comment was from TJ. I’ll give a shout out to TJ.

WADE WINGLER:  TJ is awesome.

BRIAN NORTON:  He’s is our transcriptionist. He takes a lot of the things we do and transcribes things, makes sure we have scripts for all that stuff.

WADE WINGLER:  If you have relied on the show notes or transcriptions for any of our podcasts or specials or things like that, TJ Cortopassi is our guy who does that for us. If you need transcription or need those kinds of services, let us know and we can connect you to TJ. He’s really great.

BRIAN NORTON:  His comment was essentially, I think last show we talked about Dragon and a particular Chrome issue where Dragon isn’t working with Chrome. I think when Dragon is running and you bring up Chrome, it leaves you with a black screen or just doesn’t work very well with it. We had talked a little bit about one of the figures that we had found that works well is there is a Dragon add-on that you can enable or disable. Sometimes you need to make sure it is enabled so that it’ll work well. TJ has e-mailed back in, he’s a great listener for the show. Obviously because he has to listen to it.

WADE WINGLER:  He listens to every word of every show.

BRIAN NORTON:  It’s a little bit of forced labor on his part to do that. He had mentioned that he was having trouble with that and it wasn’t working very well for him. One of his fixes for it — I think he uses the Edge browser to do quick Internet searches when he needs it. He is still looking for an answer that will solve his particular issue with it.

BELVA SMITH:  Was the question based on using edge or was it based on using chrome?

BRIAN NORTON:  It was based on using chrome. What he is saying is he uses edge and set up chrome now —

JOSH ANDERSON:  Because of the problems.

BELVA SMITH:  Okay.

BRIAN NORTON:  It’s funny. One of those things with Windows computers, what works on one computer doesn’t work on the other computer. That’s just something that we deal with as we troubleshoot and provide support for folks who have computers and software and things like that. Sometimes there is not a rhyme or reason for why something is happening to somebody and not the other folks.

BELVA SMITH:  I’m finding that it’s becoming more and more — I guess necessary is the word I want to use — to use more than one browser. It used to be that you could open up Internet Explorer and do anything you wanted, but it just doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. I find myself having to use two different browsers depending on what I’m doing, and I’m not using any assistive technology. I can’t do certain things with Safari that I can do with Google Chrome.

BRIAN NORTON:  I’m a big chrome user. Use it all the time.

WADE WINGLER:  Me too. Chrome is my primary but then I jump into Safari or sometimes even Firefox if I need another browser open where I am logged in to Amazon on one but not logged in on the other one or some unusual websites I need to look at.

***

BRIAN NORTON:  Don’t forget, we just went over some different comments. If you guys have comments about the comments, I guess is the way to say it. You guys have any feedback or other suggestions or situations where you have run into those things that you have some answers, the snow. We would love to be able to continue those conversations over those questions and provide folks with good information.

Our first question for the day is, I was trying to set up my iPhone to use my head movements as a switch. So far I am not having any luck getting it to consistently recognize my face and constantly getting a message at the top of my screen telling me I cannot locate my face. I am going to try using switches, but I need someone to tell me what they have found to be the best switch set up to operate the iPhone completely hands-free but using switches I can activate with my head. I played around with iOS and switch access a little bit. One of the interesting things and more inconsistent things with it is they allow you to use your face as a switch. If you are staring at the camera, you’re supposed to be able to move your face left or right to have essentially two different switch inputs. Depending on what you call it or how you essentially program it, it could be an activation switch or a scanning switch. There are all sorts of things you can do with those switches.

BELVA SMITH:  I just thought of something. Wouldn’t the camera have to be facing forward?

WADE WINGLER:  It use the forward facing camera for switch activation.

BELVA SMITH:  So the switch automatically turns the camera for you?  Because this person is saying that they couldn’t get it to recognize their face at all. I’m wondering what the camera maybe not facing them?

BRIAN NORTON:  I believe it automatically uses the one that’s on the screen itself.

WADE WINGLER:  It doesn’t show you the camera view. It just activates the camera while you’re looking at the screen, and then you look left for one switch activation and write for another switch activation.

JOSH ANDERSON:  How sensitive is it?  Does it have the whole face in it?  Could it be a problem of just positioning?

WADE WINGLER:  My experience has been you have to turn your face pretty far to the left or right. I’ve always joked, I think it is looking for my big nose. When I look far to the left, it can’t miss that. I’ve had some people complain that switch access in general is slow. It works at a total place. I’ve learned that the official recognition for switch activation can be a little bit inconsistent. I demo it. I don’t rely on it. There are times when I can’t make it work because the facial recognition isn’t working. What we’ve recommended in the past is the Blue 2 switch. It runs at $180 or something like that and it has two physical switch is built in. It also has a switch interface see you can connect any kind of switch you want to it. You get the best of both worlds. You get the Bluetooth switch with the two switch is built in and you can plug in whatever switch you want.

BRIAN NORTON:  Again with switches, they mentioned wanting to know what the best switch setup is. You have to have a Bluetooth switch connected to it because I don’t believe there is a physical input where you can plug the switch directly into the device itself. As far as using switches they can get access to with your head, there are literally hundreds of different types of switches.

WADE WINGLER:  Wait a minute. The Blue 2 connects Bluetooth to the iPad or iOS device and you can physically connect other switches to it. It has switch jacks.

BRIAN NORTON:  Exactly.

WADE WINGLER:  I just wanted to make sure we were clear.

BRIAN NORTON:  Bluetooth, there are two switches on the actual device itself that you can use, but instead of using the switches that are actually on the device itself, you can plug in any of the switch you would want to use.  It becomes a pass-through device for you. Again there are hundreds of different types of switches. Often I will recommend that folks see an occupational therapist or something like that, someone you can work with on positioning and making sure that when they are activating a switch that it is a place where they are consistently being able to activate it. They have to not only be consistent with it so it is one single motion that they can be repetitive with and consistent with. A lot of times, fatigue and energy, range of motion come into play when you are talking about switch access because you want to be able to make sure it is reliable and they can be consistent with it. Over the course of a day or so, doing one consistent action, you’re going to get tired. You just want to make sure we are using whatever switch activation, location, and device, something they can use for a good period of time.

***

BRIAN NORTON:  Again if you have a question or you have a comment, don’t hesitate to give us a call. I’ll give our phone number, 317-721-7124. Feel free to give us a call. We would love to hear from you if you’ve got any comments about that previous question or if you been sitting and thinking I wish someone could help me with this particular question.

Our next question is, do you have any idea why my iPhone is sending calls directly to voicemail. I haven’t been able to receive calls for a couple of weeks now and it is getting so frustrating. Any thoughts?

BELVA SMITH:  I actually do. I had a client a couple of weeks ago that was having this issue. What we found was that she had some way, somehow, turned on her do not disturb. When that is turned on, it just automatically send it to the voicemail. You can tell it is turned on by looking at the top right side of your screen, by the battery indicator, you should see a crescent moon. If it is turned on, all you need to do is go into settings and make sure that you turn off the do not disturb. That client also had something exciting to show me. She has an albino turtle. I have never in my life seen an albino. You guys are laughing at me but it’s the truth. She had given to her. The funny thing is she happens to be an albino herself.

WADE WINGLER:  We say person with albinism. I guess we should also say a turtle with albinism.

BELVA SMITH:  It’s got the cutest red eyes.

BRIAN NORTON:  Are you serious?

BELVA SMITH:  I am serious.

WADE WINGLER:  I’ve got to spill the beans about this. For the last few shows, before we record, we pick a secret word that we are all going to try to say. You might have noticed we have tried to do that. Today’s secret word is turtle. We are all trying to crowbar the word turtle into the show. Belva just killed us.

BELVA SMITH:  I couldn’t wait to do a story in there. We fixed her phone and she sold me her turtle.

WADE WINGLER:  Now you guys know what turtle is about this episode. We will let you listen in future episodes for other secret words. We are trying to liven it up around here and have some fun. There really was a turtle?

BELVA SMITH:  It’s the truth.

BRIAN NORTON:  That’s pretty impressive.

BELVA SMITH:  She lets him out and lets him walk around her house.

WADE WINGLER:  That’s great.

BRIAN NORTON:  So it is with albinism?

BELVA SMITH:  Yes.

BRIAN NORTON:  Wow. It’s funny, that question came from my wife. She came to me and kept getting so frustrated. For weeks I didn’t think anything of it. Finally one day I’m putting the shadows together for this and I said that’s a pretty good question. I’d better but it down and figure out what’s going on. It was the same thing. I wonder if one of my daughters had used it.

JOSH ANDERSON:  What she had probably done is if you just pull up the little menu at the bottom, it’s one of the options. Her finger probably actually hit that. I’ve done it before on accident.

BRIAN NORTON:  Our kids use the phone a lot too. They mess around with settings and it drives her crazy.

BELVA SMITH:  In my client’s case, she’s using voiceover. I’m thinking that she must have just accidentally got in there some way and didn’t realize it.

WADE WINGLER:  She was probably chasing her turtle around.

JOSH ANDERSON:  Or the turtle did it.

BELVA SMITH:  It’s also important to know that if you are too far away from a cell tower, which that’s pretty much hard to do nowadays, and you get a call, it may go directly to your voicemail instead of coming through.

BRIAN NORTON:  This is a part of the question but is about the iPhone. I just realized the other day that you can — maybe it was you, Josh, I shared it with me. The thing about recognition — it’s one degree out in Indiana today. It’s freezing cold. When you wear your gloves, you can take your gloves and make a fingerprint recognition with your glove.

JOSH ANDERSON:  As long as they are touchscreen gloves.

BELVA SMITH:  They have to be the touch screen.

JOSH ANDERSON:  It’ll recognize that thumbprint.

WADE WINGLER:  Don’t leave your gloves lying around.

JOSH ANDERSON:  If someone steals your phone, don’t let them sell your gloves.

BRIAN NORTON:  I did that with a couple of different fingers.

WADE WINGLER:  I never would’ve guessed that.

BRIAN NORTON:  I never would have either.

BELVA SMITH:  Here’s a good one. I have a client who is using his nose for his thumbprint.

WADE WINGLER:  That’s interesting.

BRIAN NORTON:  I guess you could use anything.

BELVA SMITH:  We could not get his thumbprint to work.

BRIAN NORTON:  So you have a client who can use his nose?

BELVA SMITH:  He’s using his nose to unlock his iPhone. I can’t remember what the situation was, but he doesn’t have a finger print and we could not get any one of his fingers to work. He said just jokingly, let’s see what happens when I try my nose. Sure enough it worked.

BRIAN NORTON:  That’s fascinating.

WADE WINGLER:  I’ve used my nose a couple of times with my Apple Watch when there is an alarm going off or I need to answer the phone and my hands are full of stuff. I just put my nose on the snooze button or the answer call upon on my Apple Watch and answer it that way. We’ve gone way far off track but we are sharing some nice tips and tricks.

BRIAN NORTON:  I was so fascinated when I was missing around my glove and I thought that was cool.

BELVA SMITH:  How did you figure out that was going on with Leah’s phone? Did you see the moon?

BRIAN NORTON:  I googled it. I said “not receiving calls on my iphone”. I think that’s what I googled. Calls are going directly to voicemail. It brought up that do not disturb thing. It was fascinating.

JOSH ANDERSON:  I think you just gave away the secret of where we get answers from. You mean you called the listener line to FAQ?

[applause]

BRIAN NORTON:  I think our blooper reel will be the longest part of the show.

WADE WINGLER:  We may just have all bloopers.

BELVA SMITH:  That’s what we need, and all bloopers show.

***

BRIAN NORTON:  The next question, I have a new iPhone with the new touch sensitive screen. I cannot figure out how to move the app badges around.

WADE WINGLER:  This is horrible.

BRIAN NORTON:  I used to press and hold the app bad for a second or two but now all that does is open up a context window. Any suggestions or fixes for this?  It just can’t be this hard.

WADE WINGLER:  My wife brought this one up the other day.

BRIAN NORTON:  I brought it up. I was messing around with this too.

WADE WINGLER:  You can’t make the icons wiggle anymore. You just bring up this thing. Has everybody figured it out?

JOSH ANDERSON:  Just don’t press too hard.

BELVA SMITH:  You have to gently touch it.

WADE WINGLER:  Very lightly which is difficult. I don’t think it is very intuitive. I think Apple will need to fix that. It’s just too difficult. I find myself doing a two or three times sometimes to just touch and hold it very lightly without pushing hard enough to get it.

BELVA SMITH:  Is that just on the seven?  I don’t have it on my phone and I’m glad.

JOSH ANDERSON: 6S.

BELVA SMITH:  I have the 6S.

JOSH ANDERSON:  Yours should do it too.

BRIAN NORTON: I was doing it on the 6 and it was doing it to me.

BELVA SMITH:  I just did an iOS update this morning. Did it change it?  That stinks.

BRIAN NORTON:  What I’ve realized is I think a lot of the issue is with the new 7, the physical button on the bottom isn’t a push button anymore. I think a lot of these iOS features are made for the new phone and not for your 6 or 6S.

WADE WINGLER:  It’s a haptic response that makes it feel like the button is being depressed, but it’s not. Is vibrating in such a way that it makes it feel like the button is being pushed but it is not moving.

BRIAN NORTON:  I think it goes together with some of these other questions we’ve had in previous weeks about moving — I can’t slide anymore. I had to push a button to unlock. I think these updates are all about the new phone and how it works with the new phone. People are stuck with old phones with the new operating system and it is not as intuitive, not as easy as it had been with the previous iOS versions on older phone.

WADE WINGLER:  I’m still struggling with these things. It’s just working through the bugs and kinks of Apple trying to figure out how to tweak and make those work well.

***

BRIAN NORTON:  Our next question is, I have macular degeneration and I’m looking for a e-book reader app that will allow books to be read to me. I have an NLS reader from the state library but would like to use an app on a tablet so it can be more easily transported. Any guidance would be much appreciated.

BELVA SMITH:  Hopefully you have an iPad or are planning in getting an iPad. I would suggest the bard mobile app. You can download directly — you open the app and search the library, download directly to the tablet, and you control it just like you do your NLS reader that you currently have. All of the same funds are available on the screen. It works beautifully.

JOSH ANDERSON:  They are one and the same. They are all getting the same materials.

BELVA SMITH:  I don’t think they have that for android tablets yet. I think it still only for Apple. You could check that out but I’m pretty sure it is iOS.

BRIAN NORTON: There are so many apps that will do reading to you but it may not be as intuitive.

BELVA SMITH:  Through iBooks you can get plenty of free books that will be read to you. If you are looking to use it for primarily a book reader, you can do it iPad mini which would be cheaper than getting a full-size iPad, perfectly sized and easy to go with you.

BRIAN NORTON:  I think one of the advantages of the bard mobile app as it is simple.

BELVA SMITH:  The biggest advantage is you are downloading back into the app. If you’re doing it on your computer to read them in their reading device, you have to download the book, transfer it to a thumb drive, and put the thumb drive in the book reader. Then you’ve got these books on your computer that you have to go back and delete eventually and you have to keep them deleted off of your thumb drive and the sea have many thumb drives. It eliminates the transfer process. You’re able to search the library and download directly to the app.

BRIAN NORTON:  From what I understand, in order to sign up for that, much like the NLS reader, you have to have an account, be approved.

BELVA SMITH:  You don’t have to be approved. I guess if you don’t have —

JOSH ANDERSON:  Originally you do.

BELVA SMITH:  If you don’t have a talking books or national Library service approval, then yes you do have to start with that. That is something that’s free. All you have to do is contact the library and let them know you are visually impaired. They will get you signed up. But then to get your iPad to actually work, you also have to contact them and let them know that you’re getting ready to use an iPad. They go through an approval process. It typically takes 24 hours but I have on more than one occasion just called the library up and said, look I am here with them, we don’t have 24 hours, and they will go in and immediately approve it so we can get it activated and begin the downloading and go through the training process.

JOSH ANDERSON:  They give you a username and password and other stuff?

BELVA SMITH:  You create your own username and password.

BRIAN NORTON:  I just went through the approval process, and of course I’m not visually impaired although I do have age-related vision stuff going on. I don’t have low vision per se. I did apply for bard mobile just as a professional piece so I can then be an educator and teach folks. The Mac did they let you do that?

BRIAN NORTON:  They did. There is one more I was able to mark and say I work with people.

BELVA SMITH:  That’s interesting because I used Todd’s account because I didn’t know I could get one.

BRIAN NORTON:  I had to explain to them that that’s what I do and I’m wanting to look at their apps would be better prepared to provide training and help people with it. They did approve me. The Mac that’s one I would suggest. It’s a very simple to use app and makes getting her book so much easier than trying to download them and transfer them.

BRIAN NORTON:  I’ll go along with that. Part of the nice feature about that is if you are visually impaired, a lot of times you’re using voiceover or the zoom feature that’s on the iPhone, and the simple controls make it so much easier to use rather than iBooks and some of these other things, maybe audible is another place I get books from. They are just harder to navigate, not as easy and intuitive as what bard would be.

BELVA SMITH:  Bard is available for android. You can get it in the Google Play store.

BRIAN NORTON:  I also think about the other tablets. Kindle can read to you if you get a specific kind that has a screen reader to it.

BELVA SMITH:  Wasn’t there a big to do with NFB and Kindle for a while?  Because it wasn’t accessible. I think they worked hard to change that.

JOSH ANDERSON:  You can also use the built in speech on any kind of iOS device where you pull down two fingers and it reads the page to you.

BELVA SMITH:  Sometimes. The problem with doing that is you can’t bookmark.

JOSH ANDERSON:  Is not going to have as many features.

BELVA SMITH:  You can’t bookmark and go back chapters or pages if you want to.

BRIAN NORTON:  It’s really helpful for navigational purposes being able to move to where you want to start again.

BELVA SMITH:  Searching through the books is going to be much easier.

WADE WINGLER:  When I was in grad school, I really relied on voice dream reader. I would read text books while I was driving back and forth to work because I have a long commute. That was when I liked. I liked it because you could just drag a file into dropbox and it would show up in the voice dream reader and would read out loud but also colorcode and highlight as it went. It was five dollars, $10.

BRIAN NORTON:  Claro PDF is another one I’ll throw out. If you have a PDF document or a text file for a book, you can put it into dropbox. It gets access to that. If you have a learning disability or something like that going on, it does that highlighting and follows the bouncing ball through your document, easy access to dictionaries and other things to look up words you might not understand or need some additional help with.

WADE WINGLER:  It looks like voice dream is up to $15 an iOS but only $10 on android.

BELVA SMITH:  Will that read a book or does it have to be a certain file?

WADE WINGLER:  It’ll read whatever you put in that has text. It reads PDF, HTML, text and the Word by default.

BELVA SMITH:  Don’t they also have a package deal with the voice dream where you can get several programs?

WADE WINGLER:  There are a few different things that go with that. There is the voice dream reader, the voice dream writer which does some of the same stuff and gives you the ability to generate documents and those kinds of things. They are separate apps but work pretty similarly.

***

BRIAN NORTON:  Our next question was an email we received. That email address is tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. The question is, I’ve been thinking about purchasing an Amazon echo or Amazon dot to help me control some stuff in my office like lights, fans. I guess my first question is how does this work in what accessories what you need to buy for it to work in my home?

WADE WINGLER:  I’m becoming one of the people that is fascinated with the Amazon echo because he bought a couple of those for our home recently. In our other show, assistive technology update, the December 9 2016, episode 289, is nothing but me and my beautiful wife and my lovely children playing around with Amazon echo in our home. If you haven’t checked out the episode, it’s pretty fun. You should listen to it. I guess the question is what do you need to buy?  The first thing I would talk about is the difference between the echo and the dot. Primarily it’s the speaker. The Amazon echo has a really nice speaker that sounds good throughout the house, but in terms of functionality, I haven’t found any different except the dot is everything the echo does but it doesn’t have the big, full sounding speakers. Is that what you guys have found as well?

BELVA SMITH:  Yes.

JOSH ANDERSON:  It is a lot less expensive.

BELVA SMITH:  It’s $50 cheaper.

WADE WINGLER:  During the holidays they’ve been running them for like $35 or $40 versus $180.

BELVA SMITH:  You can connect a Bluetooth speaker to the dot.

WADE WINGLER:  It just doesn’t sound as nice.

BRIAN NORTON:  Can you plug the speaker into it?

WADE WINGLER:  So on the dot you can hook an external speaker to it. You can also tell the dot to play to a legit speaker which is what we do with our dot. I got a decent pocket kick Bluetooth speaker that really sounds good that I’ve been playing on my iPhone for a while. I connect the dots to that Bluetooth speaker and you end up with a really nice sounding system even though you didn’t buy the full Amazon echo. It also integrates with smart home technology cost of the brand I’m using the most is TP link and I like those. They seem to be good bang for the buck. You can hook it to smart switches, lightbulbs, Phillips Hue, and all kinds of stuff. If you’re just getting started and want to play around with it, I would probably — if I were doing it over again and especially want to save money, just by the Amazon dot and hook a nice speaker into it if you have one. A lot of us have old computer speakers or things sitting around. You might want to buy one smart outlet and one smart bulb to play around with and start to see what those things do. You can do a lot of stuff with it. You really can. In our home and got a few lamps hooked up to it downstairs because it’s the Christmas season. We’ve got a Christmas tree connected to it. My son Jake, we just got a cheap disco ball as a gag holiday gift. We just hooked up this disco ball to it so we can say Alexa turn on the party, and the disco ball starts playing in the house. I would start probably with the dot and maybe one or two outlets, smart plugs, and bulbs.

BELVA SMITH:  You can eventually get it to do your thermostat.

WADE WINGLER:  It works with some thermostats. If you go on to the Amazon.com/echo website, you can poke around and find the different things that are compatible with it. It’s interesting to know the Amazon echo – I haven’t found any of those smart device that it talks directly to yet. And every case – and I have a couple different brands – you have to use of intermediary app. For example, with the TP link switches and lightbulbs, I use an app called casa. It is like the primary controller of those devices which is nice because I can open up the casa app on my phone and can flip the light on or off or dim them just by using the touch display on my iPhone within the Casa app. Then you tell Amazon echo what your login is for your casa app, and it basically uses the app as an intermediary between Amazon echo and those actual devices.

JOSH ANDERSON:  So you have to download the app to the echo?  How does that really work?

WADE WINGLER:  On echo you download skills, basically apps on the echo. If you want to control a smart plug, you need to buy the smart plug, have an Amazon echo or dots, download whatever app the smart plug wants to get connected to your Wi-Fi to turn it off and on, then you have to download the skill on Amazon echo. On Amazon echo, some of the devices seem to be able to be controlled just by Amazon echo natively and some require that intermediary app. I think all the devices require that intermediary app. It kind of gets daisychained with those different apps to make it happen, but in the end once you get it figured out and set up, then it’s smooth.

JOSH ANDERSON:  It’s just one command and it goes.

WADE WINGLER:  You say Alexa, turn on the little Christmas tree, like in our house. Or you can also group things with an Amazon echo and the Alexa app. We got upstairs and downstairs. For example all our bedrooms are upstairs. When we leave the downstairs for the night, we just say Alexa turn off the downstairs, and every device that’s been put in that downstairs group shuts off. Or you can go downstairs in the morning and say Alexa turn on the downstairs, and everything in the group turns on.

BRIAN NORTON:  That’s great. Where would you suggest listeners go to learn more about this?  Or where did you even find — you mentioned these modules and things that get plugged in. Where do you go to get these things?

WADE WINGLER:  About the Amazon echo and dot at a home improvement store, Home Depot or Lowe’s. You can buy them from Amazon and they will ship them. To buy the smart devices and learn about those, I went on Amazon and typed echo and smart plug or whatever, and I just started reading the reviews inside the products. I found one, a $20 bulb that looks pretty good, and then I read the reviews and I think they might’ve been listed as Amazon bestsellers at the time so I could then know that a lot of people were using them. I guess I used Amazon and their reviews to find those things and figure out what worked and what didn’t.

BELVA SMITH:  You can also go into the big box stores like Best Buy where they sell it and ask the guys on the floor. They are happy to talk to about that stuff and give you tips and tricks. I have a question.

WADE WINGLER:  We have a show for that.

BELVA SMITH:  As an IT person, how nervous are you about Alexa being too easy for other people – like you just said you can control everything downstairs by saying turned downstairs off. How hard, how easy is it for someone to get onto your Wi-Fi and be able to start controlling your house for you?

WADE WINGLER:  I don’t know. Not an area of expertise. I do know with Alexa, you have to have the app or voice activation. I’m thinking it’s fairly secure. I want to believe it’s the core but then I’ve heard in the news recently about people whose stuff has been hacked. I’m not sure that it’s there. I can tell you a funny story. My wife and I have been doing some house shopping recently and we went and did an open house at a home, and I saw Alexa sitting there on the cabinet. I started talking to her trying to turn on thermostat.

BELVA SMITH:  Did you talk to you?

WADE WINGLER:  She responded, and none of the commands I did worked. But then I realized you can go back and review all the commands that have been sent to it. I’m sure that dude came home after we had toward their house and was looking at his Alexa app and said this guy was talking to my thermostat and trying to turn it up and down. I don’t know about the security piece so much. I haven’t been too worried about it yet. Maybe I should be.

BELVA SMITH:  Truth is I don’t think anybody knows too much about it yet because I think it’s all too new. We’ll figure it out as we go along. What about Google home?  Is it going to be something to compete with Amazon echo?

WADE WINGLER:  My understanding is it is, and that it’s good, and Apple is supposed to come out with something early in 2017 it’s going to do something very similar as well. It’s like the Kindles. There are a bunch of them out there but Amazon sort of hit that first in such a way that it was cost appropriate. $40 buys an Amazon Dot and gives you all of that basic functionality. I think Google is fine and I think the Apple one will be great, but I’m getting standardized on Amazon so I’m guessing I’m going to stay there, at least until I get a cheaper one to do what I want it to do.

BRIAN NORTON:  I know on our next show, a couple of the questions that we are going to tackle have to do with the Alexa, some of the security stuff. One of the questions I have for our next show is I hear the Alexa and the Google home record everything you say.

JOSH ANDERSON:  It’s true.

BRIAN NORTON:  The question is what happened to all that data. We are going to tackle that a little bit. I’m also going to dig in. I think the security question is a valid.

BELVA SMITH:  I have heard people say that Google is collecting that, Amazon is collecting the information. We are going to be getting the echo for Christmas, so when we come back I’ll hopefully have a little bit more experience. Honestly, I’m not too worried about it myself. I think it’s because I don’t know what I need to be worried about. I don’t like to worry about what I don’t know.

BRIAN NORTON:  That’s an interesting question.

JOSH ANDERSON:  It still creeps me out. I know the person in our loan library had it and was using it. He said stuff said in casual conversation started showing up insert list and showing up as recommendations and Amazon even though he hadn’t actually stopped for those things, just because he had mentioned them they started showing up.

BELVA SMITH:  So the FBI will be knocking on your door.

JOSH ANDERSON:  It creeps me out that I’m going to have to start making sure my TV knows I’m doing my exercises.

BRIAN NORTON:  That’s a slick piece for this next one.

BELVA SMITH:  Which will be next year.

BRIAN NORTON:  We are going to bring it in shortly. If you think about it and have questions or comments related to that stuff, let us know. We’d love to add it to our stuff of the upcoming show notes and questions.

***

WADE WINGLER:  And now it’s time for the wildcard question.

BRIAN NORTON:  So our next question is the wildcard question. This is where I pass the mic – what do a mic drop — over into Wade’s hands. What have you got?

WADE WINGLER:  We live in a world of technology and communication, and we have things like Facebook and Skype and Apple messenger and text messaging and phone calls and emails. We’ve got a bunch of different platforms for communicating. They are sort of fragmented and scattered. As I’m sitting here with my laptop in the studio, I have Apple instant messaging open. I have email open. I have Facebook which includes Facebook messenger. I have Slack open. I have a Skype icon that I haven’t clicked on yet today. I have Go To Meeting. Before long we are going to have a new phone system here where our company phone calls will show up as an app on our smartphone as well. The question is, why are some things used on one platform, and why are some things used on others?  Why is one communication an email but another is a Facebook message but another is a slack message and another is a text message. Are we ever going to land in a situation where we just have one unified communications tool that sort of does all that stuff together?  When you guys use and why have we ended up in such a fragmented world when it comes to the way we use technology to communicate?  The applied question is what does that mean for assistive technology?

JOSH ANDERSON:  That’s a big question. I say there used to be just one and it was called the telephone. Or the letter.

WADE WINGLER:  Or the telegraph or telegram.

BRIAN NORTON:  Smoke signals.

WADE WINGLER:  Cave etchings.

BRIAN NORTON:  Here is my take on some of that stuff. I think as you get into different groups of people, different organizations, different things that you are a part of, I think as a group of folks decide on how they want to communicate. Whatever those folks decide, all these different methods or technologies kind of pop up. For those that aren’t familiar, slack is like instant messaging but within a group and you can segment who gets to see what and other kind of stuff. I think a lot of it has to do with different groups you are a part of and what their modus operandi is when you start using communication tools. The other part is, I think for different types of situations there is different expediency. For me an email is something I will send out that I want a response but maybe it’s not so urgent. I use email quite a bit. But then text messaging, I think you’re looking for more expedient answers. You need to know something or quickly so you send a text message and expect someone to text you back. You’re looking for a faster response. I think there are all different levels of that with beyond we were looking for as far as a response. How quickly do you want to know the information?  Choose the method of communication based on how quickly I want a response. Those are just some thoughts off the top of my head.

JOSH ANDERSON:  Agreeing with Brian, I use all of them, phone calls, text messages, emails, but it depends on how much information there is to relay. Text messages are usually quick, try to not to make it five paragraphs long. If it’s something longer or need more information, I need to attach something, then maybe do an email and then a phone call. For me, phone calls are the quick one. If I need an answer right now, I tried a phone call. Then usually if that doesn’t work I try text. If that doesn’t work issue an email to make sure that question is out there. For me it’s how much information I need to relay to use those. Talking about the different ones, I think maybe your age has something to do with it. I have a 15-year-old stepdaughter that, if you call, you will probably get a text back. She doesn’t use Facebook because that’s for old people, I think. She uses Snapchat and those things to communicate. I think as long as new things keep coming out, you’re going to continuously have that fragment in all different ways. If he is like emails, text messages, phone calls are sticking around just because they’ve been around a little bit longer.

WADE WINGLER:  I’ve heard some colleges aren’t issuing email at addresses to students anymore because they don’t use them. We’ve got some folks on our staff who are younger, in their early 20s, who won’t really respond to an email. They’ll respond to a text message quickly but don’t respond to emails. They just don’t check it.

BELVA SMITH:  I think it has a little bit to do with what device you’re using, as to what meaning you’re going to use. For me, I use a text message like a tap on the shoulder, just to say hey, call me, or I’m going to be late, because I don’t like conversations. Nothing annoys me more than to see someone has sent me a text message that is a letter long or two pages long.

BRIAN NORTON:  That’s been voice dictated and has a bunch of misspelled words.

BELVA SMITH:  That needs to be an email. Also when I look at my text, I want it to be quick. I don’t want to have to really read and think about it. I just want to get quick information and be done. Facebook, I think, is totally different, and Snapchat and all that stuff is totally different, then email or text or phone because that is really just me telling the whole world, hye, look, here is where I’m at, here is what I’m doing. That’s part of the reason why I gave up on Facebook. I have an account but I really ever go there. Primarily when I do it is because I’m going to see what my boyfriend’s daughter is up to or whatever —

WADE WINGLER:  You’re spying.

BELVA SMITH:  Exactly. Then your mailbox is always full of “someone’s updated their status”, and it’s like, really, I don’t care what your status is. I don’t think there will ever be a one. I think we may all get – this sounds kind of funny, but I think we may our own personal address that a person can either text or email us at that address. As far as Facebook and Snapchat, I think that will always remain a separate social media thing instead of a notification or communication thing. What does it mean for folks with disabilities?  I think texting and emailing has opened the world and so many different ways for so many of my clients that that is never going to stop. They love Facebook because they can’t get out and go to the ice cream shop and have an ice cream, but they can talk about things, share each other’s experiences. They can see where other folks are at and what they are doing. I know my clients absolutely love their social media and the ability that they have two text and email.

BRIAN NORTON:  I think the access to that, when you start talking about the different software programs, email, texting, I think the biggest challenge for folks with disabilities as they are all useful tools and are mostly pretty accessible, but I think as people start designing software — I think about the iPhone and the accessibility that was there five, six years ago, it is so much improved. I think that’s going to continue to improve. But as they come out with different methods of communication, we are going to have to give it a little while. Maybe it isn’t the most accessible thing out of the box, but eventually you’re going to be able to get access to those things. I think from an access standpoint with mobile technology, the built-in accessibility features of all platforms, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, all that stuff will continue to improve and you will find access will become less of an issue as things continue to develop and grow.

BELVA SMITH:  That’s true across the board with assistive technology. If you think about how inaccessible things were 10 years ago compared to now. Even Dragon NaturallySpeaking, how much it has improved over the last 10 years. I agree with you. I think as the developers continue to work on these products, they are going to be out of the box more accessible and more widely used.

WADE WINGLER:  I think if you think about those tools in general, they are becoming less and less different with each iteration. It’s a voice communication, video communication, asynchronous text communication. I think we are just starting to see refinements as opposed to big earth shattering differences on each one. My prediction is we probably will start to see more of that stuff coming together in one platform. I hope we do eventually have some sort of identify that becomes the platform and then you can choose whatever mode works best for you. I hate talking on the phone, but I don’t mind using asynchronous tools like Voxer where it is more of a walkie-talkie style communication. There could be seconds, minutes, hours or days between each side of the conversation. I think we are going to get there and I do agree they are becoming more accessible, although there is still trouble out there.

BRIAN NORTON:  That’s our show. I want to thank you for taking time out of your busy day to spend some time with us talking about the questions that we tackled today. Don’t forget, if you have questions or feedback, we would love to hear from you. We have a variety of ways for you to get in touch with us. Our listener line is 317-721-7124. You can email us at tech@eastersealscrossroads.org. Or send us a tweet with the hashtag ATFAQ. Definitely would love to hear from you. Take some time, reach out to us, and let us know what kind of questions you have and what kind of feedback you have. Also want to take a moment to thank the folks that are here in the city with me. Belva?

BELVA SMITH:  Thanks everybody. We will see you next year and have a Merry Christmas.

BRIAN NORTON:  Josh?

JOSH ANDERSON:  Thanks everybody. Happy new year.

BRIAN NORTON:  Wade.

WADE WINGLER:  Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and happy new year.

BRIAN NORTON:  Thank you for taking time to be with us.

WADE WINGLER: Information provided on Assistive Technology Frequently Asked Questions does not constitute a product endorsement.  Our comments are not intended as recommendations, nor is our show evaluative in nature.  Assistive Technology FAQ is hosted by Brian Norton; gets editorial support from Mark Stewart and Belva Smith; is produced by me, Wade Wingler; and receives support from Easter Seals Crossroads and the INDATA project.  ATFAQ is a proud member of the Accessibility Channel.  Find more of our shows at www.accessibilitychannel.com.

***Transcript provided by TJ Cortopassi.  For requests and inquiries, contact tjcortopassi@gmail.com***