Welcome back to the 33rd episode of the Ebu Access Cast. In this episode Hlynur, Mario, Tanja and Pawel cover a wide range of topics regarding accessibility, from Pawel’s birthday present to himself to a new software suite that turns up Mario’s cravings for cheesecake to the maximum… and everything in between. We cover the ongoing European Commission survey on digital accessibility, where the objective is to seek feedback to improve public sector website and mobile apps accessibility. We encourage everyone to partake in the survey and let your voice be heard. Also we took a look at a new mod for the game Hearthstone by Blizzard, how it works and how the new mod has increased its accessibility. The website named Can I play that was also mentioned. Mario went with us through the new Sunu app update for the Sunu band and how he used it patience as a weapon in dealing with some bluetooth issues regarding it. There were not let-downs in the Gadget section. The show’s number one online shopper, also known as Pawel, showcased his new JBL Link Portable speaker and Tanja spoke about a Minimize to tray option she finds handy. Some discussions were also about Chromecasting music and more related topics. Tweesecake, not Cheesecake, is a new light-weight, multi-purpose, robust software suite that allows users to easily use keybord commands to control Twitter and Telegra, navigate your file system and much more. We looked in to it. An easy way to create a digital copy of your Covid certificate and store in your phone wallet? Yes please! We took a look at getcovidpass.eu before taking on Apple’s “California Streaming” online event and their newcomings. We took a look at what is new inside the newest Beta version of Android 12. And if that wasn’t enough already we had discussions on digital accessibility matters from Hlynur’s point of view after his Siteimprove conference input. Last but not least, an interview with Gleb Zevkov, CEO of Voxmate. We hope you guys enjoy the show, we sure did!

EBU Access Cast

EBU Access Cast 33

Welcome back to EBU Access Cast - podcast about assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people. This is transcribed episode 32. Some of us got the EU Covid certificate and we shared our experiences of showing the digital version on the mobile phone as blind persons. We found out that not all PDF viewers on mobile phones open the QR code maximised and therefore this creates difficulties to blind persons to show properly the certificate on the Covid-19 travel checkpoints. Feel free to share your experience with us! Pawel discovered a very handy app for taking notes Simplenote. The notes are synced on all your devices and can be accessed via the web interface as well. We were thrilled to discover that the interface is accessible on all platforms and that every action has an assigned shortcut. We discussed the new accessibility features in iOS15 and compared them with Google announcement of the changes which will come in Android 12. We also commented the Windows 11 accessibility announcement. The NVDA 2021.1 was released in July with many new features and bug fixes. We discovered the NVDA Unmute addon that checks the status of the Windows audio system when NVDA starts. If the sound is muted - the add-on forcibly turns it on. As blind users we find it very useful. Mario discovered the RHVoice, open source TTS engine, that supports 8 languages. Get in contact with us, share your comments or suggestions via email ebuaccesscast@euroblind.org or via Twitter @ebuaccesscast.

EBU Access Cast 32

It is almost summer, but we are not giving up, in fact we came to the Episode 31 of the Ebu Access Cast, and boy we found many different topics to discuss. However if you think that you herd anything, no no you didn't because we have a Special interview for you about Navilense which you can hear towards the end of the Episode. But at the beginning Pawel said that he found a nice iOS app called Replica which allows iOS user to make audio and Video stream thru their Browser, and Mario told us his positive Opinion about newest generation of the Svarovsky white cane which is very different than the previous canes from the same Brand. After gadgets we talked about Twitter and different ways how you can use it, thru its native interface and a bunch of integrated shortcuts which you can find in the very nice Review, as well as Usage of 3rd party clients for Twitter. Different Messenger clients are todays Standard in the comunication, but are they equally accessible? Mario Talked about Whatsapp web set of scripts which are being developed by blind developer Juliano Lopes which bring up more accessibility features into Whatsapp web while using it thru your Browser, and Pawel found out the Add-on for NVDA for desktop version of Whatsapp Client. We touched the topic of accessibility of Telegram for Android and iOS as s Signal which became very populär in the last few months. Since we mentioned many different Messengers we thought that its the best time tob ring you the news that Clubhouse became available for Android, and Mario introduced Clubdeck, very accessible unoficial Clubhouse  Client to the general audience. However if you thought that this is everything from us for todays döse of how to comunicate, wait a second. Pawel is also having the anouncement about Elten, new very advanced audio Network from Poland for blind people. It As the Summer started to show its strenght, it looks like that after a long long time of not being able to travel, we will be able to do that with new Covid green passports, and in the next article you can read more about itt. After all the topics which we had, it is a time for dezert, and that is the interview about Navilense, very nice System which uses specially made QR codes developed to help blind people to use them in so many different ways. CEO and founder of the Navilense company Mr. Javier PIta gave exclusive interview to Hlynur and Pawel and Tanja prepared also a Short demo of their newest feature called Navilense 360. In this Episode we prepared so many things for you, but now its time for you to tell us what do you think about it. As always contact us on Twitter or send us e-mail and we will look forward to be back with you in 6 weeks just at the end of July.

Ebu Access Cast 31

Welcome back to the 30th episode of the Ebu Access Cast, the big THREE ZERO! In this episode, Hlynur makes his debut as a lead host, joined by the always charming Tanja, Mario and Pawel. We covered a lot of current issues... everything from binaural recordings of a volcano in Iceland to an audio version of an IKEA catalogue. Pawel told us about his new gadget, the Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset and we even get to hear some recordings he created for us and let us take a peak into his daily adventures. Hlynur told us about the Dark Reader Chrome Extension, which enables users to customize the way webpages look, turn light theme pages into dark theme, increase color contrast etc. There were some news we covered, like Microsoft's acquisition of Nuance, who are most famous for the much-loved Siri, the Accessibility Mousepad from Iceland, that was based on a design from UK Home Office and has been shared in GitHub for others to use, translate and produce and the ongoing issue with external bluetooth keyboards not working with many special characters if using both Android 11 and Talkback together. We also discussed how a normal user can get in touch and report bugs and errors to the Android staff. We took a close look at Accessible Overlays, what they are and what they are meant to do and how they are really not working and often making matters worse than fixing them. We also discussed some companies who are offering these overlays as a paid-for service and also how you, as a user, can get rid of them. There are many articles and podcasts who have covered this issue, for example a deep-dive 3 hour podcast of Mosen at large, especially covering it. For those who wish to read more about this, here is a link to an extensive Fact sheet on accessibility overlays. We also talked about how audio-only media seems to be on the rise with large platforms like Clubhouse growing rapidly and huge companies like IKEA releasing their catalogue as an audio book. The Sight City 2021 conference, that was supposed to take place in Frankfurt in May, will be hosted as a virtual-only event. We discussed how that might affect the conference as a whole, the number of companies showcasing their products and more. Finally, Mario shares a piece of his limitless brilliance and expertise, giving us a demo of how you can easily transfer audio from your smartphone to a PC via bluetooth. We really hope you enjoy this landmark episode and will join us next time. Should you have any questions, remarks or content you would like to contribute, you can reach us by email at ebuaccesscast@euroblind.org or twitter! As always, you can also explore the transcript of this episode.   All the best from our entire team!

Ebu Access Cast 30

Welcome back to the 29th episode of the Ebu Access Cast, one away from thirty. In this episode, hosted by Pawel and co-hosted by Tanja, Mario and Hlynur, we find the time to look into the future indeed, but for most of the time we stay focused on what matters for now, of course. In absence of new gadgets from either of the Podcast crew, Mario shares with us the Story of how the name Bluetooth came to signify the popular data transmission protocol and it turns out to be a valuable lesson of common history and geography as well as an insight into how technological inventions receive their often unusual names. Did we already mention that this episode is out of this world? This is not us bragging about it, rather we had a chance to discuss the landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars which, apart from the next foray onto the red planet, brought us the first ever recordings from out of Earth, some of which we are happy to present to you in the podcast directly. In this section we also find out how far it is really from Iceland to Mars and that the European Space Agency is actually thinking of recruiting disabled astronauts in the framework of their Parastronaut Feasibility Project. For those who are hungry for more space adventure, here are some more sounds of Mars. While space agencies of the world are busy exploring other planets, the new Talkback has moved outside of the Galaxy and is now available on many more phones than just the latest Samsungs. Those of us running Android share the first and not so first experiences and mourn the slow demise of some old TTS voices that cease to work on many devices due to the lack of support for the 64-bit infrastructure. What we did not mention in the show as it happened shortly after its recording is the update of the Samsung version of Talkback which brings back the integrated Braille keyboard so there is no need to put extra work to enjoy this functionality on these phones. Fortunately, the fate of the voices we mentioned earlier has been narrowly missed by the Icelandic-speaking community who will soon be able to enjoy new voices and other tools for the Icelandic language. As this has been a long-term project that is finally showing some results and everything has been built from scratch, we speak of a large-scale achievement that has the potential to improve the quality of life for an entire nation. Well done Iceland! We also discuss the new Humanware Brailliant line of Braille Displays. Is a device that lies in between a traditional braille display and a feature-packed Braille notetaker sporting an entire operating system something that will interest the assistive technology market? We will probably see about that in due course. Meanwhile, we will learn how to be Handsome, thanks to a French fintech that claims to be the first bank dedicated to disabled customers. Their connected payment card which allows a blind user to track the entire payment process through their smartphone sounds sweet indeed but is it the final solution to the inaccessibility of payment terminals? Finally, as the world is beginning to enjoy access to the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine, we wonder whether blind people can partake in this access and apply for their shot independently. We share our impressions regarding the accessibility of vaccination application procedures  and, in some cases, application for a COVID-19 test. Remember that, should you be lost about how to fill in accessibility bug reports regarding public sector websites, there are resources available that will help you out such as this report template from Big Hack. Provided we will still be on this planet in six weeks’ time, we will catch up with you in the 30th episode of the show. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy this one. Should you have any questions, remarks or content you would like to contribute, you can reach us by email at ebuaccesscast@euroblind.org or twitter! As always, you can also explore the transcript of this episode.   All the best from our entire team!

Ebu Access Cast 29

Welcome back to EBU Access Cast - podcast about assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people. This is episode 28 transcript. We wish you all the best for a happy and healthy 2021!   In this post-Christmas episode, we review some of the new personal gadgets.   Tanja presents us her new Microphone Yeti Nano from Blue which is an USB condenser microphone - perfect for recording podcasts and for live streaming.   Mario talks about his new open-ear wireless bone conduction headset Aftershokz aeropex.   For all musicians among our listeners that are tired of using cables on instruments, Mario tested out a digital wireless system for guitars and basses Boss wl-20.   Pawel was surely the most creative in the team and recommended us a music pillow that can be plugged in any sound equipment via a 3.5 mm Jack cable and listen while falling asleep. The model that he got is from Kanguru.   Pawel recommended us also a winter cap with built in BT headset from GeekerChip.   We were happy to announce that the bug in Zoom was fixed. _We mentioned the bug in episode 27. Screen reader users should not experience issues anymore while using the virtual background on Zoom. A big shout-out to Zoom that fixed this bug so quickly.   In the accessibility news section, we covered the 2021 edition of CES. This year was the first time CES was entirely virtual rather than in its usual location of Las Vegas. Tech brands were still able to show off the best new technology that will be soon available on the market. Our pick of devices that were introduced at CES 2021: Turn-by-turn descriptive navigation Aware app by Sensible Innovations. Mudra Band for the Apple Watch that remaps small finger movements into standard Apple Watch gestures for persons with physical or cognitive disabilities.   Inclusive design is the concept that drives many big brands like Microsoft or Google. We share the interview from Engadget with Microsoft’s chief accessibility officer Jenny Lay-Flurrie and Google’s product manager for Android Accessibility Brian Kemler.   Microsoft Seeing AI app is a clear example how AI can be used to make visual information accessible to visually impaired persons. In the version 4.0, the new World channel was introduced that explores the space around you and represents them in 3d sound. You can check more information on the latest updates in the Seeing AI changelog.   Microsoft Azure Text to Speech service offers neural voices that sound natural like humans. It can speak in 54 languages and you can test it out on the Microsoft Azure page. Developers can make use of this service to build apps and services that speak naturally. Neural voices are not yet available for screen readers, but we hope that Microsoft will make them available as TTS voices in one of the future Windows updates.   After the strong earthquake in Croatia, we investigated the accessibility of earthquake apps. We found the most accessible and customisable My earthquake alerts. As mobile app for iOS and Android. It notifies the user about the latest earthquakes from all over the world via push notifications. It uses information from earthquake agencies such as EMSC. We were disappointed to discover that Last Quake, the official app from EMSC, does not have a fully accessible mobile app for iOS and Android.   Screen reader users that use Facebook know that images that do not have alternative text are automatically described. We talk about the latest Facebook improvement on the automatic alternative text.   Mario and Pawel speak about the new TalkBack in Android 11 and the collaboration between Google and Samsung.   We mentioned the European Android 11 schedule update for Samsung.   The Icelandic Association of the Visually Impaired (BIAVI) used the accessibility posters and turned them into mouse pads that they give to programmers, designers and staff working in the IT industry to remind them on basic accessibility recommendations.   Get in contact with us, share your comments or suggestions via email ebuaccesscast@euroblind.org or via Twitter @ebuaccesscast.

Ebu Access Cast 28

Wellcome to the transcribed 27th EbuAccessCast! This episode is the last for 2020, so we prepared nice Goodies for you this time, and we got some new faces in the show as well.   NEW Android Talkback Update (2020): Multi Finger Gestures Google officially came out with Android 11 about 2 months ago but if you look at the official help pages from Google Accessibility Suite, you will not find anything about new multi fingered gestures, which we think is total shame for Google since this is really a huge forward for android accessibility. However young enthusiasts from Liveaccessible site compiled all the list of multi fingered gestures and they published it on their web site including very nice Youtube presentation. Again, double shame for Google.   Tanja discovered a huge bug in Zoom which is so far undocumented and which appears only if you use screen readers with it. Basically Zoom chrashes if you try to use virtual backround when running JAWS or NVDA, and once the crash appears, it is not visible on the screen for anybody. Tanja also prepared a short demo presentation so everyone can hear it what’s going on. If you encounter the same while using virtual backround with screen readers, inform Zoom about it so we get the bugfix soon.   Microsoft Teams should have Slack and Zoom on alert with its latest update Yeah that's right, Teams is pushing forward very much and it is very accessible, even more than Zoom from Mario’s opinion and Microsoft just added the possibility of using your private Microsoft account with it.   Google is coming out with a new interesting thing called Project Guideline If you are into sports, or better to say running specifically, this piece of news will be very much interesting for you. There is also a video about the project which shows what's exactly going on. Again, unfortunately not audio described, even though it is related to blind people directly. Again we think that Google should really better promote its products and build better structure when accessibility is included.   This Device Lets Blind Women Take Pregnancy Tests in Privacy All of us who are in the team of EEBU Access Cast think that this is a great step forward for raising awareness about the rights of blind women, and we support the idea 100%. Let’s hope that in the not far future we will start to see Pregnancy Tests as a standard offers in every pharmacy!   Playstation 5 decided to surprise all the gamers with accessibility news: They have expanded their screen reader to support the most wide-spread European languages, there is also now an accessible first-time running wizard that lets you pick the accessibility options you need and your preferences carry across all of the experience so if you tick a need for audiodescription in the settings, you'll get it everywhere it's available E.G> in games, on Netflix etc. If you’re wondering how it sounds in a real demonstration, than check out the following youtube video.   A new interesting product called envision Glasses just started to hit the market. Thankfully to our listeners we got a very nice demo contribution from MR. Benjamin Hofer from Germany.   2020, was quite ruff year for all of us, but we were able to go thru it, and therefore we will be back with you in 2021 even better than we were so far. So, in the name of whole crew we wish you safe and healthy holidays, stay safe, and send us comments and suggestions on our email and Twitter when ever you have the time!

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Welcome back to this month's edition of the EBU Access Cast, as always packed with the latest assistive technology news and gadget discussion. Our content in written form is in our transcript.   We started this one off with Mario telling us all about his brand-new phone, the Samsung Xcover Pro, the latest in the famous line of rugged, durable smartphones made by Samsung. This experience gives us a chance to discuss what to watch out for when choosing the right Android smartphone, including some less obvious characteristics, and how to make sure you will not need to return your purchase days after bringing it home.   Not only Mario did have an interesting device to present, as Paweł got a hold of Feelspace Navibelt, an aid in form of a belt worn around the waist that makes independent navigation easier.     We broke off the path of new hardware to point at a survey opened by the EDF where the opinion of disabled citizens is asked regarding the accessibility of public sector websites following the deadline of the 23rd of September which is when the Web Accessibility Directive should be met by all of the EU member states.   Our discussion of new devices carried on to the news section as well, as we discussed the latest Google event which, short as it was, introduced us to a slew of new speakers, smartphones and even a much smarter Chromecast streaming device. Beyond the event, Google surprised us all, with a little help from Ubisoft, by presenting the feature of alternative audio tracks for youtube videos. Will audiodescription become the new norm on the world's most popular video sharing platform and how easy is it to find the new option?   As is often the case with us, we also took a moment to check out what is new with the most essential pieces of software, the screen readers. While NVDA 2020.3 introduces system keys' emulation and changes for touch screen users, JAWS 2021 beta greets us with Sharky, its brand-new voice assistant, and some more image recognition news.   We also had to share an unfortunate piece of news regarding Samsung's Voice Assistant. Beginning with One UI 3.-, Samsung's Android experience based on Android 11, the company has decided to retire its own screen reader in favour of Google's Talkback. Does Talkback have any real competition at the moment and how easy is it to bring a new screen reading experience to the Android platform? What were your memories connected with the Voice Assistant?     Should you have any questions or queries, do not hesitate to contact us using our email or Twitter.   Stay tuned and, most of all,  healthy and safe in these difficult times.   Until the next episode coming to you in November.

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Welcome back to 25 transcribed episode of EBU Access Cast - podcast about assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people! We started this episode with a short presentation of the EBU 2020 award best practices in web accessibility The EBU jury attributed the first prize to EBU Czech Blind United (SONS) for its contribution in encouraging public and private sector organisations to improve their web accessibility. The European Commission and the European Disability Forum organised on 23 September the online WEBINAR on the web accessibility directive marking this important date by which all public sector websites across the EU will have to be accessible for persons with disabilities. If you attend often online events via Zoom and if you would like to adjust the verbosity of the events the new NVDA addon for Zoom can help you to enhance your Zoom expirience. If you would like to separate the screen reader from the other sounds on your computer, you can do this by using Audiomixer by the Dutch company Babbage. Have you noticed that the native Facebook website became screen reader accessible? Ingeneers from Facebook explain how they built accessibility into the new Facebook interface Microsoft opened the Accessibility Fundamentals training to everyone. The course is composed of 4 modules that give a basic understanding of accessibility in Microsoft products. Android 11 has been launched and we commented the new accessibility features. The Google Lookout app has been updated and now Android users can benefit from having a similar application as Seeing AI on iOS. Pawel prepared for you a demonstration so stay tuned until the end of our episode to hear how it works. Google Chrome started to generate accessible PDF documents by keeping the HTML structure from the saved webpage. Libre Office 7.0 introduces accessibility checkers for documents Wondering how to wash or iron a shirt? Laundry Lens is the app that can read care labels on clothes to determine the washing conditions. Lego Braille Bricks, a set of bricks for children to learn Braille, launches in a couple of European countries We also announced the new, virtual event, Sight Tech Global which will be organised on the 2 and 3 December 2020. If you want to stay in touch with us you can contact us via Twitter and our E-mail. Till next time stay safe!

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Wellcome to the 24th episode of the Ebu Access Cast. If you are following u our  Twitter account you probably noticed that last month was unusually busy for us, because we were looking for new contributors for our podcast. After a set of interviews and selection of the Vacancies which we received from you, we are slowly starting to introduce new members of our expanded team. This time for you Xavier Ciscar and David Ciscar from Barcelona join us for almost 2 hours of very cool debate and exchange of opinions about the news from assistive tech industry. We prepared for you something really special at the end of the show, and that is the exclusive demo of Miele WDD 131 Guideline washing machine which is accessible to blind people. A special Thanks goes to Tanja Kleut who prepared very nice demo of the product. We would like to remind you that from the previous Episode our podcast Comes with the transcript, so if you have any problems with getting our audio content, you are more than wellcome to read thru it.   WWDC20 is behind us, therefore we are bringing to you the news from New Apple accessibility features coming this fall which will make technology usable and more accessible to all   Twitter Is Coming Out with Audio Tweets on iOS and they announced new API which might bring back many features which Twitter took away 2 years ago.   Chrome/Chrome OS Accessibility Version 83 Release Notes showed up on the internet as well, but if you in the mean time got version 84, don't worry, Google is just very quick with their Chrome releases.   Accessibility changes in the latest Firefox are bringing many improvements to screen reader users as well.   Unfortunately the future isn't so bright for the AR projects for the Moment, because we found out that Bose Shuts Down Sound Project.   If you like Computer and Video games, you will be very happy to know that Naughty Dog Makes PlayStation Game Accessible.   If you are curious to know when new Android 11 comes out, than we got  possible spoiler for you because, Google may release the stable Android 11 update on September 8th which will bring up many new accessibility improvements.   There are new releases for both NVDA (2020.2 ) and JAWS (the June update.   In case you didn't know Whatsapp became much more integrated with Google assistant, so this time for you we bring you the tip which is explaining How to make a WhatsApp voice or video call with Google Assistant   At the end you can listen to the demo of Miele WDD131 washing machine, which Tanja prepared for us and for you. If you would like to give us any kind of Feedback we are available as always on out Twitter and email. We will go on a month of vacation and will be back with you in September, so till than, stay safe and take care.

EbuAccessCast 24

Welcome back to EBU Access Cast - podcast about assistive technology for blind and partially sighted people! We are happy to say that from now on you are able to listen our podcast with the transcript which will bring better inclusion to all the listeners with different dissabilities, so if you want to read what we said, head over to it! Lockdown measures are being eased further after 3 months of restrictions and most of us have been teleworking in that period. Owning a decent headset with a good microphone is important for virtual meetings. Tanja purchased new headset from MPOW for this purpose and shared with us her impressions.   We talk about the new features in iOS 13.5 and the Apple Exposure Notification System which lets apps from public health authorities and governments worldwide help people figure out if they've been exposed to COVID-19, and if so, what steps to take next to minimize the spread of the virus.   Staying on the same topic we spoke about SODAR - the Google's experimental web app that helps the user measure 2 metres by using augmented reality and keep the distance from other people. None of us managed to make it work on our devices. Mario recommended to use the Sunu band for this purpose as the user can adjust in the phone app the distance of an obstacle to be announced.   Microsoft released the Spring feature update for Windows 10, a.k.a. version 2004 wwith many accessibility improvements for blind and partially sighted people.   What if we could read braille without touching the surface? German researchers have developed an ultrasonic haptic speaker HaptiRead that allows to display Braille dots without contact.   New Art Scanning Method Offers 3-D Image Of Painting’s Brush Strokes This technology could help improve online art lessons and virtual museum tours as well as make paintings more accessible to visually impaired people.   As of May 2020, the alternative text has been enabled by default on the web interface of Twitter as well as iOS and Android apps. This is a great progress for our community and we hope that users will take advantage of it and describe images that they are adding to their tweets.   We take the oportunity to share you the anouncement on the webinar from Be My Eyes on how top companies like Microsoft and google are benefiting from accessibility   Be My Eyes introduces customizable Siri shortcuts for iPhone users.   Paweł presented us the project Hello Emma that uses provisoric Siri setup for the languages that don't support it natively using a system of interconnected Siri shortcuts that respond to commands and perform the usual Siri actions. The languages supported for now are Czech, Slovak and there is a development process going on for Polish and Hungarian.   We spoke about the I-Cane that is a smart cane with navigation via a connected phone app and obstacle avoidance developed through a cooperation of the Lion Club departments in different European countries.   We hope to enspire some of our listeners to start doing workout at home or to continue if they had to stop in their sport centres. We found few resources with audio described workouts. The first is from BlindAlive where you can download different workouts from cardio, pilates to yoga meditations, whatever you prefer. Another place to find audio described workoutss is at the website of the British Blind Sport The accessible fitness trackers can help you in monitoring your progress to help you attain your health and fitness goals. Google Fit is one of them and Mario shared his expirience with us on the accessibility of the application on the Fosil Gen 5 watch.   As always, we look forward to you sharing your comments and feedback with us. Feel free to reach out  via our email or Twitter. Until the next edition!

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Welcome back to the May edition of the EBU Access Cast, full of interesting news from the Assistive Technology and Digital Accessibility industries.     We kicked off this one by holding a small exchange of Android apps between Mario and Paweł including email clients and useful Wear OS apps.   WE then discussed all that is new and accessible in the latest release of Chrome marked with the version number 81.   Apart from browsers, both of the popular Windows screen readers, NVDA and JAWS, have had their latest versions released recently as well.   An episode recorded in May would not be complete without mentioning the Global Accessibility Awareness Day, celebrated on the 21st of this month. As always it is full of various events and activities most of which will be held online this year and so many more of you will be able to attend. Discussing accessibility gave us a chance to wonder how accessible COVID-19 contact tracing apps in different countries of Europe might be and whether this is a reliable solution in its current form.     In the last episode, we pointed to the fact that mask usage instructions in an accessible form have proven to be impossible to find. A month has passed and, surely enough, the German organisation of the blind and partially sighted DBSV have published their own page on using masks.     As we often remind you, books are a great part of accessibility and thanks to an interesting Daisy Consortium webinar, we had a chance to learn about some solutions allowing those with reading disabilities to access their favourite books using smart speakers.   One service not mentioned in the webinar is Pratsam, a Finnish solution that makes it easy for a library to setup their digital access portfolio ready with cloud, web and mobile apps as well as smart speaker skills.     Another company that has not fallen behind in delivering outstanding accessibility experience is Apple. From the patents they have applied for, we can deduce that a support for enhanced photo taking accessibility features are forthcoming and so is the ability to make binaural (3D) recordings with the iPhone. The celebration of this month's accessibility awareness activities has also been marked by their making available of a brand new accessibility website. VoiceOver improvements can be also spotted in the latest release of Logic Pro X, the music-making and sound editing software.   We may learn soon what else is new in regards to accessibility at both Apple and Google as both companies intend to hold their events on the 22th and 3rd of June respectively.     Speaking of large companies and communities, a set of Wordpress-related accessibility resources has been published by the Deque University.   Finally, we shared a way in which all of us could contribute into building amazing technology that will profit us in the future. Mozilla Common Voice is an initiative where everyone can contribute voice data for a wide variety of languages to make it possible for robust speech technologies to be built. Our listeners in Slovenia will be also pleased to know that Tina has joined the Vocalizer TTS family extending the offer of available language options.   As always, we look forward to you sharing your comments and feedback with us. Feel free to reach out  via our email and Twitter to let us know what's on your minds. Until the next edition!

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Welcome to this month's edition of the EBU Access Cast. As always, we are bringing you some pretty exciting news in the area of assistive technology.     The current situation caused by the spread of the novel Coronavirus has impacted our lives in multiple ways, especially so in the case of people with visual impairments. It is therefore difficult to escape this subject completely. The news, however, will definitely be useful in coping with the new reality of self-isolation, social distancing and working remotely.     To cover the most frequently asked questions, the EBU has compiled a list of resources where the advice from different national partners regarding mobility, everyday life, safety and help, is provided.   We also mentioned some of those general tips and tricks that will let you stay safe as well as discussed campaigns of the disability umbrella organizations started to ensure that whatever strategy is applied to combat the virus in the different European countries, their disabled citizens will be a part of it.     Next up, we mentioned accessible resources allowing us to stay informed about the situation, including an accessible statistics tracker and an information website by Google.     It is also important to be sure that help is available, should you need it. IHelpYou.app is one example of a service that makes it easy to find local volunteers in your area. The website is of course 100% accessible.     Just like you, we are hoping to go back to normality as soon as possible, although the world Post-Corona will not be the same as it was. Perhaps we will be able to move freely again but how do we make sure that we are safe then? An initiative by Google and Apple may provide a solution to detect the virus where it appears before it spreads too far.     Meanwhile, as a significant part of work has moved online, video conferencing has become the everyday reality of communication and zoom is one of the most used tools to facilitate that. Fortunately, it provides a really accessible and pleasant to use experience which becomes even clearer after listening to Jonathan Mosen's "Meet Me In The Cloud" audiobook, now available for free.     The PEAT have also compiled a list of useful resources that may come in handy when arranging different aspects of working away from your office desk.     The world might have slowed down a little but it does not mean that the assistive technology industry has gone completely silent. Last month, we told you about Google working on a new Talkback version with a Braille keyboard. You've probably heard it from the news all over the Internet by now but that version is already here and, what's even better, that's not everything Android Accessibility wants to surprise us with. As spotted in the development documentation of Android 11, we may be seeing the support for multi-finger gestures rolling out this fall..     IT is meanwhile speculated that Apple may be working on support for third-party text-to-speech voices and that the feature may be seeing the light as soon as iOS 14. Should this be true, and adding to that the appearance of the brand new, long awaited iPhone SE 2020, we may be up for a real mobile accessibility showdown by the end of this year.     The first beta of NVDA 2020.1 is already out and, although not as rich in features as the previous release, welcomes some useful improvements and bugfixes.     Quite often these days, a well-designed CMS tool is capable of performing a lot of the work required to make a website fully accessible. Drupal is proving that with the accessibility tools and enhancements introduced in the 8th version of the engine and next ones are already scheduled for the upcoming release.     For our listeners who are keen on writing, Onkyo and the World Blind Union are inviting you to take part in this year's edition of the Onkyo World Braille Essay Contest. Listen on to find out what it is about and why it is worth taking part in it.     We came back to the subject of Envision Glasses. since our last announcement, the pre-sale has begun and the Envision team started organizing a series of webinars to demonstrate the product and answer all of the burning questions about the device.     Speaking of glasses, one question that comes up a lot when talking about accessibility for the blind is, to what extent can Virtual Reality experiences be enjoyable by those who can't see at all? Microsoft is trying to tackle that one with their prototype of a white cane designed to allow blind users to explore the VR independently. This piece of news allowed us to talk in more general terms about the challenges and chances stemming from VR and 360 degree videos for blind users. Many meaningful insights on this subject can be found in Equal Entry's webinar which you can access upon registration.     That is all for this month but watch this space for the next episode coming by the end of May where we'll be sure to deliver even more exciting news. Meanwhile, feel free to reach out with your thoughts and suggestions through our Email and Twitter.

Ebu Access Cast 21

Welcome to this month's edition of the EBU Access Cast. As always, we are bringing you some pretty exciting news in the area of assistive technology.     The current situation caused by the spread of the novel Coronavirus has impacted our lives in multiple ways, especially so in the case of people with visual impairments. It is therefore difficult to escape this subject completely. The news, however, will definitely be useful in coping with the new reality of self-isolation, social distancing and working remotely.     To cover the most frequently asked questions, the EBU has compiled a list of resources where the advice from different national partners regarding mobility, everyday life, safety and help, is provided.   We also mentioned some of those general tips and tricks that will let you stay safe as well as discussed campaigns of the disability umbrella organizations started to ensure that whatever strategy is applied to combat the virus in the different European countries, their disabled citizens will be a part of it.     Next up, we mentioned accessible resources allowing us to stay informed about the situation, including an accessible statistics tracker and an information website by Google.     It is also important to be sure that help is available, should you need it. IHelpYou.app is one example of a service that makes it easy to find local volunteers in your area. The website is of course 100% accessible.     Just like you, we are hoping to go back to normality as soon as possible, although the world Post-Corona will not be the same as it was. Perhaps we will be able to move freely again but how do we make sure that we are safe then? An initiative by Google and Apple may provide a solution to detect the virus where it appears before it spreads too far.     Meanwhile, as a significant part of work has moved online, video conferencing has become the everyday reality of communication and zoom is one of the most used tools to facilitate that. Fortunately, it provides a really accessible and pleasant to use experience which becomes even clearer after listening to Jonathan Mosen's "Meet Me In The Cloud" audiobook, now available for free.     The PEAT have also compiled a list of useful resources that may come in handy when arranging different aspects of working away from your office desk.     The world might have slowed down a little but it does not mean that the assistive technology industry has gone completely silent. Last month, we told you about Google working on a new Talkback version with a Braille keyboard. You've probably heard it from the news all over the Internet by now but that version is already here and, what's even better, that's not everything Android Accessibility wants to surprise us with. As spotted in the development documentation of Android 11, we may be seeing the support for multi-finger gestures rolling out this fall..     It is meanwhile speculated that Apple may be working on support for third-party text-to-speech voices and that the feature may be seeing the light as soon as iOS 14. Should this be true, and adding to that the appearance of the brand new, long awaited iPhone SE 2020, we may be up for a real mobile accessibility showdown by the end of this year.     The first beta of NVDA 2020.1 is already out and, although not as rich in features as the previous release, welcomes some useful improvements and bugfixes.     Quite often these days, a well-designed CMS tool is capable of performing a lot of the work required to make a website fully accessible. Drupal is proving that with the accessibility tools and enhancements introduced in the 8th version of the engine and next ones are already scheduled for the upcoming release.     For our listeners who are keen on writing, Onkyo and the World Blind Union are inviting you to take part in this year's edition of the Onkyo World Braille Essay Contest. Listen on to find out what it is about and why it is worth taking part in it.     We came back to the subject of Envision Glasses. since our last announcement, the pre-sale has begun and the Envision team started organizing a series of webinars to demonstrate the product and answer all of the burning questions about the device.     Speaking of glasses, one question that comes up a lot when talking about accessibility for the blind is, to what extent can Virtual Reality experiences be enjoyable by those who can't see at all? Microsoft is trying to tackle that one with their prototype of a white cane designed to allow blind users to explore the VR independently. This piece of news allowed us to talk in more general terms about the challenges and chances stemming from VR and 360 degree videos for blind users. Many meaningful insights on this subject can be found in Equal Entry's webinar which you can access upon registration.     That is all for this month but watch this space for the next episode coming by the end of May where we'll be sure to deliver even more exciting news. Meanwhile, feel free to reach out with your thoughts and suggestions through our Email and Twitter.

Wellcome to the 20th episode of Ebu Access Cast. We have come to the 20th episode so far, and we would like to thank you for listening to us. We are preparing some nice goodies for you for the future episodes, but new surprise will be coming to you soon. In the mean time, let's check what's going on in this dark times which hovers around the world.   As the Corona pandemics is taking over the Europe and rest of the world, lots of jobs are transfered to teleworking. We made a research to see how it affects the tech giants and assistive tech industry in general and how the whole situation affects the state of accessibility in different environments.   Tech giants will keep paying hourly staff even if they are asked to stay home due to coronavirus Mr Shadi Abou-Zahra tweeted that schools and universities should not forget to include accessibility in their online courses. Alejandro Moledo also  reminds us that all tv providers which broadcast the emergency information must be accessible to all - so with subtitles, sign language, spoken subtitles and audio description. Pawel from our team discovered Discord, free voice and chat client which has a bunch of nice features, great audio sound and the possibility of having up to 50 users connected for free on the server during the Corona pandemics instead of 10 users. It is available for all major platforms and it offeres a nice accessibility. As the client is equipped with very good audio and video features, some people started to use it for online learning courses.   Due to the prevention of the Corona pandemics many people are transfered to work from their offices to their homes. Since lots of population is not in the offices any more, we still have to maintain our comunication, and it is important that the comunication between each other is safe and encripted. Therefore, we are introducing to you the Signal private messenger, available and accessible for iOS and Android users. Signal offers very nice audio quality of voice calls and audio messages, and what's the most important it offers true end to end encription. For the last few weeks it is recommended messaging client for comunication between European institutions as well. To know more about the Signal check out its Wikipedia page.   Beginning of March brought up some unexpected news for many users of Android Accessibility Suite, where a thousands of public beta testers from all over the world over night were no longer available to get the newest beta versions. Google never came up with the official explanation what happened and why they pulled out so many beta testers at once. Mario and Pawel speculated that this could be because the newest beta version was not supposed to be public version, and it was supposed to be distributed only to the internal testing team. However, even if such huge mistake could be the truth, we would still like to receive the official announcement from Google accessibility team, so as soon as we get any information about it, we will forward it to you. Until that time, we really find this kind of behaviour from such a huge tech giant absolutely untolerable and disgraceful towards the whole visualy impaired Android community.   Voice Dream Scanner appeared also for Android in the last few weeks, so Pawel who tested the application explained what's different between Android and iOS version, as well as how the application works on Android platform.   YouTube gains channel filter in subscriptions, better playback control Accessibility   Codejumper is officialy on sale for 999 Dollars.   Twitter Accessibility channel Tweeted a message about alt texts and their correct implementation for Android and iOS users.   If you are the user of new Microsoft Edge, you will find that DevTools accessibility in Microsoft Edge is Improving from each new release.   This is all we got for you for this month. We wish to all of you to stay healthy, and that you watch over each other untill the next month. As always, we are available for all comunication over our email and Twitter channel.

Ebu Access Cast 20

This is Ebu Access Cast, official podcast from (EBU) about assistive technology

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EBU Access Cast

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