Living Blindfully

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. A reminder that this podcast is indexed by chapter. If you listen with a podcast client that offers chapter support, you can easily skip between segments. Here are the topics covered in this episode, and the time in the file for each. Introduction,0:00 Improve your productivity and take control of notifications with Focusses in iOS15,0:27 Listener comments onWWDC,17:21 Bl...

The web has made a profound difference to the lives of blind people. But when images are poorly described or not described at all, it makes the web a less inclusive, accessible place. What if, when one person took the time to describe an image really well, that same description could be used across the web? That’s the aim of a research project from the University of Lisbon called Sonaar. In this e...

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. Apple presented its Worldwide Developers Conference keynote today, and it was one of the most feature-packed keynotes we’ve seen in a long while, particularly where iOS is concerned. There were announcements of new versions of iOS, watchOS, MacOS and tvOS. Our panel, Michael Feir, Heidi Taylor and Judy Dixon join me to discuss these new features from a blindness perspecti...

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. A reminder that this podcast is indexed by chapter. If you listen with a podcast client that offers chapter support, you can easily skip between segments. Here are the topics covered in this episode, and the time in the file for each. Intro,0:00 Guidelines for contributing to the show,0:46 The remarkable story of how Small World comes to MushroomEscape,3:22 Apple pre-WWDC...

Interest in the Mac from the blind community has increased, particularly since iPhone was made accessible. And blind or not, many have had their interest in the Mac peaked or rekindled as a result of the remarkable technological prowess of the new Macs that sport the M1 chip. Operating systems change over time, so Janet Ingber has updated her popular book on Mac Basics. It’s published by National...

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. A reminder that this podcast is indexed by chapter. If you listen with a podcast client that offers chapter support, you can easily skip between segments. Here are the topics covered in this episode, and the time in the file for each. Intro,0:00 My top 10 wish list for iOS 15,0:27 Community wishes for Apple's next OS updates,18:07 Comments on Hims Braille products,32:12 A...

Backpack Studio is an app for iOS for recording podcasts in real-time or streaming live. Boasting advanced features like dynamic audio compression, a sound board and saving to various destinations in a variety of formats, it’s a powerful tool, and its developer, Ed Filowat, has ensured that the app’s VoiceOver accessibility is exemplary. Ed it hitting it out of the park with a new feature in beta...

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. A reminder that this podcast is indexed by chapter. If you listen with a podcast client that offers chapter support, you can easily skip between segments. Here are the topics covered in this episode, and the time in the file for each. Introduction,0:00 Apple foreshadows a series of new accessibility features,5:35 Apple announces major changes to the way you'll hear music,...

Brian Hartgen of Hartgen Consultancy joins me for this episode. We’ll learn how Brian became interested in computing, discuss the state of the screen reading industry, and learn about the latest info about Hartgen Consultancy products including Leasey, J-SAY, scripts for StationPlaylist Studio, Zoom scripts, numerous audio tutorials and more.

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. A reminder that this podcast is indexed by chapter. If you listen with a podcast client that offers chapter support, you can easily skip between segments. Here are the topics covered in this episode, and the time in the file for each. JAWS bringing spoken download notifications back to Microsoft Edge,0:00 Various work-arounds for the Edge/JAWS download issue and thoughts...

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. A reminder that this podcast is indexed by chapter. If you listen with a podcast client that offers chapter support, you can easily skip between segments. Here are the topics covered in this episode, and the time in the file for each. Intro,0:00 Thoughts on blind pride and the social model of disability,0:27 Blind people at the airport,24:19 Clubhouse has dwindling partic...

Earlier this week, Twitter’s social audio competitor to Clubhouse called Spaces became more widely available. As a blind person using VoiceOver, the screen reader built into iOS, I’ll introduce Spaces, show you how to create a space, discuss who can currently create a space and how to participate in one. Inevitably, I’ll also compare it with Clubhouse and look to what the future may hold.

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. A reminder that this podcast is indexed by chapter. If you listen with a podcast client that offers chapter support, you can easily skip between segments. Here are the topics covered in this episode, and the time in the file for each. Introduction,0:00 Revisiting the Brave browser,0:54. Check out Brave at http://brave.com Get free admission to Podfest Masterclass with my...

After the many months we have been speculating about Apple’s new AirTags for tracking lost items, I thought I would probably like them. What I didn’t expect after using one was a realisation that as a blind person, my quality of life just improved. With AirTags and a newer device capable of the precision finding feature, Apple has changed the game for blind people wishing to find lost items. In th...

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. A reminder that this podcast is indexed by chapter. If you listen with a podcast client that offers chapter support, you can easily skip between segments. Here are the topics covered in this episode, and the time in the file for each. Introduction,0:00 I ordered the AirTags but have one little gripe,0:26 Mosen At Large to offer transcripts for the Deafblind community,2:50...

Podcasting is fun! If you’d like a new piece of equipment to help you do some of the trickier things more easily, like recording multiple local or remote guests, having a portable device to carry around offering multiple mic and headphone sockets and even allowing you to use your smartphone as a telephone hybrid, then you’ll be very interested in this demo by Tim Cumings of the Zoom Podtrak P4. Fo...

Apple has announced new products at its Spring Loaded event, including the much-awaited AirTags. Podcast subscriptions, a new iMac based on the M1 chip, and a new iPad Pro based on the M1 chip.   We opened up the Mushroom FM club room in Clubhouse to get some instant reaction. Here’s a recap of the Apple event followed by some listener opinions.

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. A reminder that this podcast is indexed by chapter. If you listen with a podcast client that offers chapter support, you can easily skip between segments. Here are the topics covered in this episode, and the time in the file for each.   Join us for a post-Apple event recap onClubhouse,0:27 Microsoft buys Nuance and what's your favourite text-to-speech engine?,3:04 More ab...

On this episode, I’m sharing something that’s very special to me and has radically changed my life for the better. I’ll discuss my journey to adopting a meditation practice, what the science says and what it has done for me. Most important, I’ll discuss what it can do for you and how to get started. I’ll even take you through a brief mindfulness meditation.   I have a lot of resources including bo...

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. A reminder that this podcast is indexed by chapter. If you listen with a podcast client that offers chapter support, you can easily skip between segments. Here are the topics covered in this episode, and the time in the file for each.   Intro,0:00 Cloudflare's new remote browser isolation is currently inaccessible and a threat to the jobs of blind people,0:28 The importan...

What a difference a good teacher makes. Chances are you remember with fondness the lessons you learned from teachers who made learning interesting and even had the skills to turn learning into a game. Well, your Alexa-enabled device has the skills to do just that too. They’re skills from Thinking Cap Innovations. I speak with one of the co-founders, Misha Feigenson, about the two skills they have...

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. A reminder that this podcast is indexed by chapter. If you listen with a podcast client that offers chapter support, you can easily skip between segments. Here are the topics covered in this episode, and the time in the file for each.   Introduction and a preview of the new Siri voices in iOS 14.5,0:00 Feedback on the new Siri voices, the explosion of audio social network...

Kia ora Mosen at Largers. Clubhouse is hot right now, but sometimes, the audio is not. If you're a content creator who cares about your brand, you don't want to be on Clubhouse with audio that doesn't meet your usual high standards. In this episode, I'm going to tell you how to get the audio from your pro audio gear into Clubhouse. Others also chime in to tell us about microphones and tools that c...

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. A reminder that this podcast is indexed by chapter. If you listen with a podcast client that offers chapter support, you can easily skip between segments. Here are the topics covered in this episode, and the time in the file for each.   Intro and Apple reaching a major podcast milestone,0:00 New initiatives on Clubhouse and elsewhere for blind podcast creators,2:03 A prom...

It is generally accepted that there is a Deaf culture, and it’s something in which Deaf people take a lot of pride. Do we have a blind culture? Amanda Gough, who long-time listeners will remember as my former wife then known as Amanda Mosen, thinks so. She’s socialized and worked with blind people throughout the years and believes a blind culture not only exists, but it’s something blind people sh...