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LABCast #6: Latest News About Microsoft, Lyft and Samsung with Shaun Preece. Accommodations for Blind Parents with Derek Daniel and a Review of the Parental Controls of the iPhone.

Posted in Podcasts

Last updated on September 20, 2017

Life After Blindness takes a look at being a stay at home blind father. Additionally, we discuss this weeks news as well as review locking down your child’s iPhone.

Tim answers a question from the Life After Blindness Facebook page from Janice. She asks about the best smart phone to get for her son. Tim suggests the iPhone and talks about it’s out of the box accessibility.

As Tim introduces the rest of the lineup for the podcast, he mentions an article posted to the Life After Blindness Blog from Jackie Waters. This article talks about Jackie’s experience when her sister-in-law (who is blind) comes to live with her and her husband. In the article, Jackie outlines some of the methods she used to help her sister-in-law to be more comfortable in the household.

Tim’s first guest is Shaun Preece from the RNIB Tech Talk and Audio Pizza Podcasts. Tim and Shaun discuss the following recent headlines from the blindness community:

Microsoft announces they have added braille support in Narrator for over 35 manufacturers as well as the ability to use Narrator when doing a clean install of Windows.
The National Federation of the Blind and the ride service Lyft have announced a partnership to better accommodate blind and visually impaired customers. This will include initial and ongoing training of drivers and a zero tolerance policy for drivers who refuse service to someone with a guide dog.

In addition to announcing their new lineup of smart phones, Samsung has announced a new virtual assistant named ‘Bixby’. Tim and Shaun talk about how Bixby could compete with other services like Amazon Echo and how this potential competition could be good for the blind.

After the news, Tim demonstrates how a parent can control content on their child’s iPhone. Tim first walks through the process of turning on restrictions and showing what functions and features of the iPhone can be restricted. Tim then demonstrates the Guided Access feature of the iPhone. This feature allows you to not only lock a child into the current app but allows you to set a passcode or even set a time limit for the use of that app.

To conclude the podcast, Tim is joined by Derek Daniel of Life After Sight Loss to discuss his experiences as a stay at home blind father. Derek outlines his daily routine and gives examples of certain tricks he uses around the house. From baby care to cleaning the house to playing games with a toddler, Tim and Derek dive into what accommodations can be made to make things easier on a blind parent.

Thank you for your continued support of the podcast! If you have any questions or comments, please send an email to: tim@lifeafterblindness.com

Please join us again as we demonstrate together that their truly can be a life after blindness.

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