The Canadian Council of the Blind Podcast

In this lecture, the focus will be on the personal economics of owning an iPhone. Having a device which can do so much means that you’re likely to save money which you might have needed to spend on other devices. You can also tap into markets of digital goods such as apps, books, and streaming services, among many others. There are unavoidable costs such as the price of the iPhone, accessories and a cellular data plan. We will examine these costs as well as other optional expenses. I’ll be sharing some advice on how to maximize your enjoyment while spreading out or minimizing costs.

We have come a long way in the Unseen Touchscreen course. The focus of this month’s lecture is on using your iPhone to help you navigate and go places in the real world. There is a wide variety of apps which can help you do this. They typically use the GPS receiver in your iPhone combined with constantly updated map information. Some apps are built for absolutely everyone and made accessible to VoiceOver. Others are built specifically with blind users in mind. In this lecture, we’ll cover examples of both kinds of these apps, plus other apps which help with navigation and transportation.

Your iPhone makes a very accessible gateway to all sorts of entertainment, including various streaming services. In this session, we’ll talk about some popular ones like Netflix, Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video. We’ll also discuss what makes YouTube and Twitch somewhat different from other platforms. How to explore content and how to activate described audio on the various services will be covered.

In part two of our discussion about productivity apps on iPhones, we take a whirlwind tour of possibilities. A wide range of apps to help with everything from task management, cooking recipes, scheduling events, recording music, and many more activities will be briefly covered. While I’ll offer some explanations of how to use various apps, the main goal is to make people more aware of the possibilities for getting things done and managing your work using your iPhone. Beyond apps, we’ll also briefly discuss features included in your iPhone which may prove helpful.

One of the most powerful ways an iPhone has changed my life is through making books accessible and portable. This month’s lecture is all about how to acquire and read eBooks and audiobooks using your iPhone. Accessible digital libraries, small publishers, and large outlets such as Apple and Amazon make books available in digital form. Apps on your iPhone like Kindle, Audible, Voice Dream Reader, and others let you take full advantage of these books. While it’s impossible to cover everything, I’ll attempt to give you an idea how things work and give you an idea of the lay of the land. Just in time for a Summer of portable and accessible reading.

In our modern lives, mental and physical health is an increasing concern. Using apps and sensors on our iPhone and in accessories we can connect it to, there are many ways in which your iPhone can assist you. iPhones can count the steps we take as we carry them with us. Workout apps can offer training and encouragement to keep ourselves fit. They can give us an outlet to journal our thoughts. Recent additions include mood tracking and mental health assessment questionnaires which assess our danger of anxiety or depression. Meditation apps like headspace can provide numerous mindfulness tools. There are also books and podcasts which our iPhones can help us find and access. We’ll take a whirlwind tour of all of these and hopefully provide enough information to get people started.

The GTT program is excited to have a representative from Innosearch.ai Visiting us to introduce an innovative accessible shopping page!This platform brings together products from multiple companies, all designed with accessibility in mind. It offers an inclusive shopping experience tailored for individuals using assistive technology, ensuring a seamless and empowering journey for everyone.Join us to learn how this cutting-edge tool makes online shopping more inclusive, efficient, and enjoyable for all.

The camera on your iPhone is a tremendously useful addition for Blind users. Combined with the internet, human sighted volunteers and artificial intelligence, the right apps can do a whole lot of good. We’ll discuss the apps which harness these capabilities to help you read printed documents, identify items, find lost things and tell you what is around. We’ll also discuss some of the implications of these tools and the economics making it all possible.

The Internet in your pocket is a core reason why you want an iPhone with you. Many apps tap into information available via the web. However, the Safari browser or a third party alternative of your choice will serve as your direct gateway to sites on the web which you want to visit. This month, we’ll take a deep dive and explore the Safari browser. It comes on your iPhone as an important part of iOS. You’ll learn how to navigate the web and how to take advantage of resources there through Safari. We’ll also talk about the settings associated with this browser. Third party alternatives won’t be covered in detail but we’ll briefly discuss why you might want to try them out.

Increasingly, Apple is turning to making revenue through services which it offers. The News app offers a lot of interesting articles which are freely available even without a subscription. People can also search for and follow their own topics of interest. Through the Apple News Plus service available for a monthly subscription, this app will provide access to far more content including full articles, newspapers and over two hundred magazines. Recently, crossword and other puzzles have been added for subscribers. All of this is fully accessible to blind users through VoiceOver. In this first Fall session, we’ll take a tour of what the app and service have to offer while waiting for the arrival of iOS 18.

Communication is what your iPhone is all about. Several apps come installed on your iPhone to help you connect and exchange information with people in your life. In part one of our tour of these apps, we’ll focus on the Contacts, Phone and Messages apps. We’ll also touch on some additional related topics like emoji characters, stickers, Voice mail, and more.

In this session, we will explore the lifestyle apps discussed in the previous session in more detail. We’ll talk about managing recurring events in the calendar. The Notes app is full of features to keep your information organized. Suggestions are at the heart of apple’s new Journal app and we’ll go through how to access these. Apps in this category are simple on the surface, but often have surprisingly thorough capabilities.

Wayne Antle reviews the features and how to use finder on the mac.finder is like file explorer for windows. It has many powerful features and uses.