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Author: Tim Schwartz

Happy New Year from Life After Blindness

Posted in Blog Posts

I hope that everyone has had a wonderful holiday season and a great start to the new year! Unfortunately, I’ve spent most of the last few months rushing between doctor visits, medical tests and hospital stays. Thankfully, there has been plenty of love and holiday cheer sprinkled in from my family, friends and those of you who follow my work to keep me positive and strong!

As regular listeners to the podcast know, 2018 was a very difficult year for me and my health. That combined with health issues suffered by my family as well as other personal situations, I am very glad to put 2018 behind me! I am really looking forward to making a fresh start in 2019!

As always, my blog and podcast are still dedicated to the exploration of an enabled life with blindness. The blind and visually impaired community is truly a global community. Because of this, I feel it is more important than ever to talk about blindness. Not just to each other but also talk about each other. I want the whole world to know that with a little effort and education, we can enable ourselves to do great things!

In this new year, I will continue to discuss the best in accessible hardware, apps, games and anything else that I think would be helpful. I will also continue to interview people who have a positive impact within the blind and visually impaired community. Along the way, I will share with you stories from my own experiences as well as tips that may be useful.

I also appear each week as a co-host on the blindness technology show, Double Tap Canada. Hosted by Steven Scott and Co-hosted by Shaun Preece, Double Tap airs every Thursday at 8 PM Eastern time on AMI Audio. It is also released as a podcast. You can find out more by visiting the Double Tap website.

Please come back to Life After Blindness each and every week for new written content in addition to the weekly podcast. And remember, you can find Life After Blindness where ever you listen to podcasts. If you want to contact me with comments or questions, please send your emails to: tim@lifeafterblindness.com

So please join me in this new year as we continue our journey together to find that there truly can be a Life After Blindness.

National Federation of the Blind and Rice Krispies Treats Team Up for Blind Children

Posted in News

On episode 27 of the Life After Blindness podcast, I spoke to Maria Johnson from Girl Gone Blind about a new partnership between Kelloggs Rice Krispies Treats and the National Federation of the Blind. Rice Krispies Treats wanted to create a back-to-school campaign that would intentionally include blind students. They reached out to the NFB to help them with this campaign.

W.K. Kellogg, founder of the Kellogg Company, experienced vision loss in his later years and was totally blind by the age of 77. Kellogg was not only known for accidentally discovering dry flake cereal in 1894 with his brother Dr. John Harvey Kellogg, he also was a pioneer in brand advertising and promotions. He passed away in 1951 at the age of 91.

On individually wrapped packages of Rice Krispies Treats there is a heart. Parents are encouraged to write “love note” or words of encouragement on the heart. Then, the child will discover the note in their school lunchbox. It is, of course, more difficult for parents to share notes with a child who is blind or visually impaired.

This is where Kelloggs and the NFB come in.

From the NFB website:

The new, accessible “Love Notes” are available in two forms: Braille stickers and re-recordable audio boxes. The “Love Notes” Braille stickers are heart-shaped to fit in the space on Rice Krispies Treats writable wrappers for written notes. Each Braille sticker sheet includes eight uplifting phrases in Braille for parents to share with their children, from “You’ve Got This” to “Love You Lots.” The re-recordable audio box holds a Rice Krispies Treat and, when opened, plays a ten-second pre-recorded message. The audio box messages can be re-recorded over a thousand times, offering opportunities to share love and support throughout the entire school year. Every package sent to families will include a Braille letter explaining this program and a co-branded Braille alphabet card featuring Snap, Crackle, and Pop, along with information about the NFB’s Braille programs.

This is a fantastic idea that can help build a child’s self-esteem. It also helps a blind child to feel more included when their sighted peers are receiving lunchbox notes from their parents. But what about blind parents who have sighted children?

As a blind parent to a sighted six-year-old daughter, I am not able to easily share lunchbox notes. I was very intrigued by the talking snack box, especially since neither my daughter nor myself know braille.

I immediately ordered one and it is finally here!

The snack box is just big enough to hold one individually wrapped Rice Krispies Treat. There is a button in the lid that you hold in while recording a message to your child. As noted above, you can record for up to 10 seconds and re-record up to 1000 times. Your message automatically plays when the lid is lifted. Think of a greeting card that plays music when you open it.

If your child is blind or you are a blind parent of a sighted child like me, this is a great way to show that you care!

You can order the stickers or the talking snack box for free by clicking here.

Announcing Double Tap Website for Blindness Technology News

Posted in Blog Posts, and News

In July of 2017, I had reported on Amazons implementation of audio description within their Prime Video app. I was then asked to make a guest appearance on the very popular technology show Tech Talk, on RNIB Connect Radio. The interview went so well that the hosts, Steven Scott and Shaun Preece, asked me if I could continue to appear on the show as a guest host for a couple of months. Our interaction went so well that my appearances became permanent.

Fast forward a few months to October 2017 as we travel across the pond to Canada and Accessible Media Inc. (AMI).

AMI launched our new show about “blind guys talking tech” called Double Tap Canada. Double Tap brings together our friendly and silly banter along with produced segments that discuss technology and how it can affect people who are blind or visually impaired.

It has been over a year and Stephen, Shaun and I are now very happy to announce Double Tap Online!

Double Tap Online will serve as an extension to the radio show and podcast. We hope that it will be the best place to go to get all of your blindness related technology news. It will feature articles written by each of us as well as additional audio and video content specific to the website.

Life After Blindness will continue to be a place to go for all things related to blindness and visual impairment. However, I plan to bring a lot of what we are doing with Double Tap Online to Life After Blindness. I will be writing more news articles and blog posts as well as offering additional content.

Also, be sure to check out the brand new Life After Blindness Facebook Group! This group like the podcast and website, will be dedicated to exploring an enabled life with blindness. It is a place for you to ask questions, provide or receive support and so much more!

If you have questions or comments about this or anything, please leave a comment below or send an email to: tim@lifeafterblindness.com.

Thank you for your continued support as we journey together to prove that there truly can be a life after blindness.

Tim’s Top 5 Features of iOS 12

Posted in Blog Posts

iPhones have been a very popular choice for people who are blind or visually impaired.

However, having an accessible experience right out of the box isn’t the only reason iPhones are so popular. It’s the availability of accessible apps and features that can really affect our lives. Features that help to make our lives easier, more accessible and therefore more independent.

The following is my list of the top 5 new features included in the new iOS 12 from Apple.

1. Performance and Bug Fixes:

Previous versions of iOS may have included great new features, but they were lacking when it came to performance updates and bug fixes. Yes, iOS 11 – I’m looking at you. Thankfully, iOS 12 has resolved many of these long-standing issues.
Apple claims that its new operating system will launch apps up to twice as fast, the camera will appear 70% faster and the keyboard will display up to 50% faster. If you are using an older iPhone model, Apple has good news there as well. iOS 12 can be installed on all iPhone models going back to the iPhone 6 S.

2. 9 1 1 Location Sharing:

Using the Emergency SOS feature or by just calling emergency services directly, you can quickly connect to an emergency operator for assistance. Now, in iOS 12, your phone will use GPS and WIFI access points to automatically and securely share your location with emergency services. Apple accomplishes this through a partnership with a service called RapidSOS.
This feature could be extremely helpful to those who are blind or visually impaired, especially if you are not familiar with your surroundings.

3. Screen Time:

If you are a parent seeking stronger parental controls or you are just a person who can’t seem to put your phone down, this feature is for you. Screen Time provides you with an overview of how much time you spend on your iOS devices with specifics about which apps you use most. You can set individual limits by app or genre and then iOS 12 will alert you when it is time to sign out. These limits can be set to specific durations or even to certain times of the day.

4. Siri Shortcuts:

The popularity and intelligence of virtual assistants has grown dramatically in recent years. Unfortunately, Apple’s Siri has fallen behind its competitors like Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant. iOS 12 promises to change that with Siri Shortcuts.
Apple now allows instant access to certain actions within an app. This greatly expands the out-of-the-box capabilities of Siri. Additionally, third-party app developers now have unprecedented access to Siri. This means that you can ask Siri to launch your favorite actions within an app like sending a tweet, playing a podcast playlist or editing documents in a notes type app. You can edit the Siri Shortcut settings within each specific app. You can also launch the Settings app and navigate to “Siri and Search” for more options.
iOS 12 also includes a Siri Shortcuts app where you can create your own shortcuts or choose from a gallery of existing ones. These can be made to be as simple or as complex as you like. The shortcuts app allows you to string multiple commands together so that you can achieve multiple tasks at once, i.e. have Siri turn on the lights, begin playing your favorite music playlist and turn on the coffee pot. All using one spoken word or phrase that you choose.

5. Grouped Notifications:

Previously, the Notification Center in iOS was more of a mess than my daughter’s bedroom. Thankfully, Apple has cleaned things up with iOS 12 by implementing grouped notifications.
Notifications are no longer shown as a long and messy chronological list. Now, each app that pushes a notification to your iPhone will be grouped together with each group being collapsed for easier reading and navigation. You can expand each group to see a chronological list of all notifications from that app or service. You can also take actions to either view, clear one or all notifications or change the way they are presented to you.

Honourable Mention – Group FaceTime:

FaceTime is a very popular iPhone feature that allows you to make high quality voice or video calls to other iPhone users. Prior to iOS 12, this was limited to one-to-one communication. Apple has dramatically upgraded this feature with iOS 12.
The new Group FaceTime will enable up to 32 people to communicate at once. During a video chat, the app will detect who is speaking and display their image prominently on the screen. This will automatically switch as different people speak. Group FaceTime can also be automatically launched from group iMessage conversations.
FaceTime has been a very popular feature among the blind and visually impaired. It has afforded blind iPhone users a quick and easy way to not only communicate with friends and family, but it is used as a tool to get help from a sighted person. Group FaceTime should only make an even stronger and better tool for people who are blind and visually impaired.
At the time of this writing, Group FaceTime is only available as part of the iOS 12.1 public beta because it was not ready for the initial launch. Apple has stated that it will be released later in the Fall of 2018.

These are just some of the many new features available within iOS 12. Which one of these is your favorite? Is your favorite not on the list? please leave a comment about your favorite new features and why.

Marrakesh VIP Treaty News, Mediterranean Diet and AMD, blind Woman on Dancing with the Stars, Autonomous Vehicles with Steven Scott and iOS 12 Features in T3

Posted in Podcasts

Welcome to Life After Blindness! A podcast that is dedicated to the exploration of an enabled life with blindness.

In this weeks news, the Marrakesh VIP Treaty was passed by the United States House of Representatives. It was also ratified by the European Union. Next, a new study indicates that a Mediterranean diet could have an effect on age related Macular Degeneration. Also in the news, a visually impaired woman named Danelle Umstead was the first blind person to appear on Dancing with the Stars. And finally, Face Book has announced they are working on a process to detect text in images and Memes.

Tim then announces that the radio show/podcast that he’s been a co-Host on for the last year, Double Tap Canada, has just launched a new website. The site, doubletap.online, is your newest and best resource for technology news that affects the blind and visually impaired.

Next up, Tim interviews Steven Scott from the RNIB. Steven talks about his recent experience with driverless vehicles. Then Tim and Steven talk about how autonomous vehicles may one day affect people who are blind and visually impaired.

In this weeks T3, Tim tells you about his five favorite new features available in Apple’s new mobile operating system, iOS 12.

If you have any questions or comments about the show or anything else, please send your emails to: tim@lifeafterblindness.com

Thank you very much for checking out the Life After Blindness podcast! Please come back again next week as together we find that there truly can be a Life After Blindness.

Take care everybody.

Apple Being Sued Over Website Inaccessibility, Charles Schultz Museum has gone tactile and Marty schultz from Blindfold Games Is Getting Into Education

Posted in Podcasts

Tim is join once again on the Life After Blindness Podcast by Maria Johnson from Girl Gone Blind. Maria and Tim discuss the recent lawsuit filed against Apple for failing to make certain parts of their website accessible when using a screen reader. Then they talk about how the Charles M Schultz Museum in California is offering tactile renderings of certain Peanuts cartoons. They wrap up the News discussion this week by following up on a story from a few weeks ago about the Nfb and their partnership with Kellogg’s Rice Krispies.

Next, Tim is joined by Marty schultz from Blindfold Games. Marty talks about his new initiative that will use portions of gameplay from the Blindfold Games series to be used in educational apps for the blind and visually impaired.

Thank you very much for listening to the Life After Blindness podcast! If you have questions or comments please send your emails to: tim@lifeafterblinds.com and be sure to tune in again next week for more news, interviews and tech reviews!

Take care everybody.

News about Kellogg’s Rice Krispies and the NFB, the Toddler Cane and Blind Triplet Eagle Scouts with Maria Johnson. Interview with Darnell Booker from Beep Baseball World Series Champion Indy Thunder. New features in Android Pie.

Posted in Podcasts

Life After Blindness welcomes back Maria Johnson from GirlGoneBlind.com to discuss the weeks news. The unintentional theme of this weeks news is all about children.

First, Tim and Maria talk about a new collaboration between the National Federation of the Blind and Kellogg’s rice crispy treats. You can now order free braille stickers with various sayings on them to put in your child’s lunch. You can also order a free “snack box” that can record an audio message for your child up to 10 seconds long.

Next up is a story about a new cane for toddlers. Developed by an orientation and mobility instructor, this cane is special because it is hands-free.

The last story that Tim talks to Maria about concerns blind triplets who have achieved the rank of Eagle Scout within the Boy Scouts. They were honored recently in Washington DC.

Tim then interviews the General Manager and Coach of the 2018 Beep Baseball World Series champion Indy Thunder, Darnell Booker. Darnell talks about the excitement over his team winning their 3rd straight World Series title. He also talks about beep baseball in general, what makes this team special and how the fans can get involved through the National Beep Baseball Association (NBBA).

Tim wraps up the podcast this week with another installment of Tim’s Tech Tips (T3). This week, Tim talks about new features that you can activate for the new Android Pi operating system on Google smart phones.

If you have any questions or comments, please send your emails to: tim@lifeafterblindness.com

Talking Tech News with Shaun Preece: Accessibility of Pinterest, Lawsuits To Make Websites Accessible and Using VR To See Artwork. Interview with Developers of FlickType for iPhone. Plus Braille Screen Input On iOS in T3.

Posted in Podcasts

Life After Blindness begins this week with Tim talking to Shaun Preece about this weeks tech news. Tim first asks Shaun about the recent commitment to accessibility from Pinterest. Next, they discuss the recent lawsuit against Duncan Donuts for having a website that was not accessible for screen readers used by the blind and visually impaired. This sparks a larger conversation about general website accessibility. The last story that Tim and Shaun discuss come to us from Prague. A museum is using virtual reality and haptic gloves to enable blind people to “see” works of art. Tim thinks this is only the beginning of a very useful tool for the blind but Shaun doesn’t think so.

Next up, Tim speaks to the developers of the popular new keyboard app for iOS called FlickType. The developer couple, Costa and Ashley Eleftheriou, talk about the history of FlickType going back to its Flexy days. They discuss the development of the current app and its future. They also explain why there is a monthly cost to upgrade the app to be used system wide in iOS.

Last week, listener Rachel sent an email into the show asking about braille screen input on the iPhone. Tim did some research and explains how to get started with braille screen input in this weeks T3.

finally, host of the Life After Sight Loss podcast, Derek Daniel, recently highlighted Tim’s interview with author Carol Decker on YouTube. Tim summarizes the YouTube video and describes how Derek explores the question “why” when it comes to cite loss. Derek references Carol’s drive and determination to choose a more beautiful life for her family and children.

If you have any questions or comments about the show, send your emails to: tim@lifeafterblindness.com

Blind First Grader Wins Art Prize, Cyber Summer Camps, Oranges Prevent Macular Degeneration, Skype Accessibility, Because of My blindness and Top 10 Windows Key Shortcuts

Posted in Podcasts

Life After Blindness begins this week with a Because ofMy Blindness story submitted by Connie. She talks about what she has learned about people, technology and herself since going blind.

Maria Johnson from Girl Gone Blind joins Tim again this week to discuss the news.

A blind first grader from Utah one an art design prize when he created a new soap bottle label for elementary schools.

Tim and Maria then talk about the various camps for blind children going on this summer. These include camps with STEM learning, cybernetic camps and many others.

Next they discuss a new study that says eating an orange a day may prevent the onset of macular degeneration.

Last, Tim and Maria talk about the new accessibility features within Skype version 8.

next week Tim will be talking with the developers behind the new and very popular system keyboard app for iOS called FlickType. In the meantime, the newest installment of Tim’s Tech Tips (T3) is here with a top 10 list of keyboard shortcuts using the Windows key.

Please send any questions or comments about the Life After Blindness podcast to: tim@lifeafterblindness.com