Kia ora koutou everyone from New Zealand, where our 102 days of being COVID free in the community has come to an end.
What makes the show special is that our listeners set the direction. I have some topics for the week, but if you want to raise anything else, feel free.
This week I’ll be speaking with David Kingsbury. David works for the Carroll Centre for the Blind, and he’s a technology author. His latest book is called “When One Web Browser Is Not Enough: A Guide for Windows Screen Reader Users”. It’s a good read and it has helpful stuff in it.
Talking with David got me curious, so I’d be interested in your thoughts. On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being hideously horrible bad soup and 10 being utter perfection and bliss, how would you rate the accessibility of the web overall these days? Is it getting easier or harder to use the web? Share your thoughts with our listening family regarding the things that you enjoy about getting information from the web, and the things that really frustrate you. Do you find one screen reader or browser or combination thereof gives you a better experience? Thanks for taking the time to share your insights.
Apple has been and gone and done it this time. When they knowingly released a developer build of watchOS that broke VoiceOver, some people were feeling lenient because it was only a developer beta. But one week on, the same build has been released as the first ever public beta of watchOS, meaning blind people are excluded from giving feedback to Apple during a critical period in the operating system’s development. This despite a week having elapsed in which the issue could have been resolved. I’ll tell you why I believe Tim Cook should consider this a sackable offense and why I think we ought to be calling for the dismissal of whoever the person is responsible for the decision to exclude us. I welcome your thoughts on this issue. Is it OK that Apple, while soliciting feedback from everybody else, locks out blind people?
Do you use Audible.com? How is it working out for you? After an email I read out on last week’s show, I received some informative feedback about problems with this service much loved in the blind community. We’ll discuss the issues and I’ll let you know what Audible has to say about some of the most important ones. If you’ve been experiencing issues with Audible Sync or any other aspect of Audible, let me know.
There is plenty of room for your thoughts on these or any other topic.
Remember, the podcast version of Mosen At Large is abridged. To hear the full version, tune into when I record it live, on Mushroom FM at 2 PM US Eastern time, 7 PM UK on Saturday, that’s Sunday at 6 AM in New Zealand.
You are very welcome, and in fact encouraged, to get contributions in ahead of time. Please don’t be shy, I’d love to hear from you. To contribute, send an email with an audio attachment or just written down to Jonathan at MushroomFM.com, or call the listener line, +18646066736, that’s 1-864-60Mosen.
Thank you so much for listening and contributing to the show, and see you soon for Mosen At Large.