Welcome to the forty-first episode of Access On, the National Federation of the Blind's Technology podcast.
Episode
Listen to the forty-first episode of the Access On podcast (Browser).
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Timestamps
Below is what's on the show this week, and when you can hear it.
- Join us for Access On's coverage of the Apple Event on September 9 0:00
- Two exciting opportunities to become an Accessibility Excellence Advocate at the National Federation of the Blind 1:47
- Check out the position description for the Accessibility Excellence Advocate, Education and Employment, and the Accessibility Excellence Advocate, Home and Independent Living.
- Remarks from President Riccobono's report 5:48
- Jonathan Mosen's remarks to National Convention 11:45
- Sponsor message, The People Make the Places, with Mike May 35:37
- Doordash, Innosearch, and Facebook 36:10
- Problem sending packages with Uber 40:45
- iPhone overheating 42:15
- how to get Brailliant auto-scrolling 46:55
- This is my favorite laptop 49:55
- Yoto Player 51:28
- Headphone controls and the Bard Mobile app 52:25
- The Brava Smart Oven 53:36
- Tech Tip, quickly switching documents in Microsoft Word 58:04
- Closing and contact info 59:53
Transcript
Speaker 1:
Live the life you want.
Jonathan Mosen:
Welcome to Access on, the technology podcast of the National Federation of the Blind. This week, CENA is hiring. Could you be one of our new accessibility excellence advocates? With this announcement, it seems timely to bring you CENA related content from the general session of national convention.
We look ahead to Access on's comprehensive coverage of the Apple Hardware event on September 9th and in our tech tip this week, how to switch nimbly from one Microsoft Word document to another.
It's Jonathan Mosen at the Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, Maryland welcoming you to episode 41 of the podcast. First, let's talk about next week. Yes, we're looking to the future already. That is when Apple is holding its hardware event for the year. It happens on September the ninth, which is a Tuesday and that means that episode 42, which will give us the answer to life, the universe, and everything will be published a day earlier because we'll be doing our recap of the Apple Hardware event.
We’ll give you lots of additional description of what went on that maybe wasn't described because time didn't permit it. We'll give you some analysis and some comparison of what Apple is offering because the rumors are pretty consistent that we're going to get a new kind of iPhone this year in the range called the iPhone air.
It's going to be very thin and sleek apparently, but with that thinness and sleekness will undoubtedly come with some compromise, so we'll take a look at all of that on September the ninth when Access on will be published a day earlier than it normally is.
This is a bit of a different episode of Access on because at the beginning of every episode I mentioned to you that I'm proudly coming from the Jernigan Institute here in Baltimore, Maryland and that's where our center of excellence and non-visual accessibility is located.
At National Convention this year, both President Riccobono and his presidential report and I and my address to national convention as well as other addresses to divisions that I gave throughout the week talked about a revitalization of our CENA programs that is now underway.
And I know that we have many technology specialists and exceptional advocates who listen to Access on who might want to take this opportunity to come to the National Federation of the Blind and change the world and make it a more accessible place.
We have two positions available that are based here at our Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
I can tell you Baltimore is a great city. It's a great place to live and work and we're looking to fill two roles. They're both called Accessibility Excellence Advocates and over time we hope to roll out several more roles like this.
These Accessibility Excellence advocates don't specialize in particular kinds of technology like iOS, Android or Windows because the National Federation of the Blind always has believed that technology is a tool that facilitates living the life we want.
So we wanted to create these roles that focus on the outcomes, on the ends, if you will, and not the means. So the two roles that we are initially advertising for are for an accessibility excellence advocate for education and employment and an accessibility excellence advocate for home and independent living.
If you go to the NFB’s website, nfb.org, you can choose the link called Career opportunities and you will see the position descriptions for both roles available on the website there and in fact, there are other roles if you want to come and work here at the Jernigan Institute that are not technology related.
So if you're looking for a new role and you've always dreamed of coming to work for the organized blind movement, well now might be your moment. There are some good roles there.
The position descriptions are very detailed, but just in brief, both of these roles require people with exceptional technology skills but also advocacy and negotiation skills. Because if we want to change the world and make it a more accessible place, we need articulate people who can credibly go into any manner of forums and high level meetings, hold their own, know when to give a little, know when to negotiate and clearly articulate the vision and the values of the National Federation of the Blind, as well as work extensively with our members.
I can't think of a more rewarding role than knowing that you went into a technology discussion, a negotiation, you tackled something that was inaccessible and you made it more accessible thanks to your skills and that meant that more blind people were able to work more blind people were able to study more easily, more blind people were able to participate in their communities.
These are fantastic opportunities and they don't come around that often. So do check out the position descriptions by going to nfb.org and then choosing the career opportunities link.
What I'm going to do today is play you some comments from President Riccobono’s report and then also my address to national convention to set the scene for you so that if you are considering applying for one of these roles, you understand and hopefully are enthused by our very clear strategic vision to revitalize our Center of Excellence in Nonvisual Accessibility.
So let's start of course with our national president. Here's a section from his presidential report. I encourage you to check out the full text or audio of what was a motivating and at times very moving address by President Riccobono, but here are his comments related to CENA.
Mark Riccobono:
Following last year's convention, we initiated a restructuring of our technology related priorities to increase the important leadership role the Federation plays in advancing built-in accessibility for the blind. We hired our first executive director for accessibility excellence and during the next year we will continue implementing programmatic enhancements.
In time for our 84th anniversary, we launched the Access on podcast. This is a platform to hear breaking news about the technology that affects us, tips and tricks from technology experts and grassroots feedback from Federation members.
We work to keep Access on the priority list of the top technology companies. The Federation's expertise and authority is well respected and we enjoy frank but cordial relationships with all of the major technology players. We have built a trusted loop with these companies where they seek our informed perspective and we provide feedback that directly results in product improvements. We also continue to work closely with small companies and emerging startups to be sure they are grounded in the understanding of blindness that we share through our lived experience.
We operate the non-visual accessibility initiative, a public private partnership between the National Federation of the Blind and the Maryland Department of Disabilities. One example of our partnership work is our production of accessibility boutiques and half day seminars covering a wide range of relevant topics for blind individuals. We hope to expand our partnerships beyond Maryland by working strategically with Federation affiliates In the coming year.
We continue to actively seek, acquire, and evaluate new accessible devices to fulfill our commitment to maintain a comprehensive blind centered consumer reports technology lab at our headquarters in Baltimore. One example of our evaluation work is at the forefront of exploring new navigation solutions for blind travelers.
We aim to have as many indoor navigation solutions live at the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute as possible. This allows visitors to try these technologies for themselves and for our staff to provide meaningful feedback.
In addition, demand is increasing for our Blind Users Innovating and Leading Design (BUILD) program, which provides a trusted process for matching blind people prepared to test technologies. With companies seeking user testing, the time and knowledge of blind users is valuable. Thus we always ensure testers are compensated.
In the coming year, we will establish a new committee on accessibility and user innovation. This committee will provide perspectives and recommendations on strategic technology matters and the coordination of Federation technology efforts to maximize their effectiveness for all blind people.
One objective is to curate useful intelligence on emerging trends and accessibility issues that might require the attention of the organized blind movement.
As with all Federation committees, we seek to ensure that we are maximizing the power of our individual efforts collectively focused. It is essential that we continue to be the source of trusted information and that we define meaningful accessibility in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.
Jonathan Mosen:
The national President of the National Federation of the Blind, Mark Riccobono, and a small extract from his excellent presidential report from the 2025 National Convention.
And as we continue to set the scene for you about the future of CENA and what CENA is doing now, let's go into my address to national convention from that same general session.
Mark Riccobono:
Alright, well we'll move to our next item on the agenda and we're going to talk a little technology now for the next little while and to start this off is access on through collective action mobilizing leadership through blind centered technology perspectives.
And you heard in the presidential report that over the past year we've been re-imagining what the Federation's role can and should continue to be in this area and step one of that was to bring this gentleman aboard to team NFB.
And we were really happy that he joined earlier this year as our executive director for accessibility excellence. Many of you have gotten to know him from some of his podcast work and from his work at tech companies.
I believe that through his leadership now as one of our executive leaders on the staff at the National Federation of the Blind, you will have even more opportunities to get to know his heart and his commitment as a blind person.
It's not an easy task to pick everything up from around the world and move to a new country and dive into a position like a leadership position at the National Federation of the Blind. I think that says all you need to about this guy and I'm really glad that he is a friend, a colleague and here for his first presentation to our federation family as executive director for accessibility excellence. Here's Jonathan Mosen.
Jonathan Mosen:
Thank you Mr. President and good afternoon Fellow Federationists.
It is an honor to be here as the Federation's executive director for accessibility excellence. And since I now live here in the United States, I do want to assure you that I now feel honored without the letter U. I would like to thank everyone who has made me feel so welcome to the Federation and to the United States.
Technology affects us all. Some of us embrace it, some of us wish we could avoid it. Some of us find it intuitive, some of us find it inscrutable. Some of us rise to the challenge. Some of us want to throw the darn thing out the window!
While technology evokes various responses and emotions. We all just want this stuff to work so we can get on with our lives. We demand access that is equal in functionality and reliability because we proudly and unashamedly assert our worth, and we deserve no less.
When companies develop technology for our use, we the blind expect to have a seat at the table at a time when our voice can matter. President Riccobono chose the title of this address, “Access on Through Collective Action”. And I was delighted that he gave me this title because collective action is the reason we have much of the technology we now take for granted.
Sometimes people say things to me like I'm not really much of a joiner. I feel strongly about an issue so I can just whip up a frenzy on social media or start an online petition and make change that way. And it's true, you might have some success if you have a big enough following, your issues get sufficient traction and all the noise reaches the right person who can implement the change that you're asking for. I've seen it done, but it's rare and it takes time, skill, and a lot of luck.
Now this organization has an unmatched track record of bringing about technological advancements because of the power of collective action. Social media is often an echo chamber, but history proudly chronicles that the voice of the organized blind has been echoing through the corridors of power changing the world for 85 years.
It is the voice that cannot be silenced and will not be ignored. While an individual complaint may be seen as a personal grievance, the organization representing the nation's blind transforms that complaint into a civil rights issue. My fellow Federationists, the NFB is not fighting for us. Collective action means that the federation is us fighting for ourselves and for one another, stronger together, unstoppable in our momentum, gaining solace and strength from our solidarity.
Now to attendees in the room who have come to find out about the NFB and to those listening online who aren't a part of our movement yet, I say this. If you want to see technology evolve and improve, if you believe that the blind have not just the right but the duty to build on the work of those who have gone before and worked so hard to give us the technological victories we now enjoy, then our doors, our hearts and our arms are open. Come join us. There is a place for you in the National Federation of the Blind.
At our Center of Excellence in Nonvisual Accessibility, which we call CENA for short. We inform, advise, educate and advocate about technology. And of course I have to start with artificial intelligence, AI specifically generative ai. This is disruptive technology, and it has the ability to disrupt myths about blindness. The National Federation of the Blind knows that it isn't blindness that holds us back, but constraining attitudes certainly do.
All the major AI players are well aware that without intervention, AI may perpetuate harmful stereotypes about blind people. The generative AI revolution has presented an opportunity to correct the record, and we intend to see that it is corrected.
We are making progress. Thankfully, it's been a long time now since I've had an AI express sorrow to me that I'm blind. AI companies are actively rebalancing data, ensuring that we are portrayed accurately. Many AI companies now have ethics boards that monitor AI for inaccurate portrayals.
Blindness specific data sets, where we ourselves demonstrate what it is to be blind, help to reduce bias and better inform the AI.
AI describes the world around us, and many of us find it helpful. Sometimes it produces vivid accurate descriptions. At other times it just makes things up. Although it does continue to improve steadily guided by member feedback, we in turn provide guidance to AI companies about the kind of information AI should convey in a range of settings. AI should never replace our own travel skills and awareness of surroundings, but nor do we wish for companies with the potential to provide us with useful information to be overly cautious and patronizing.
We continue to talk with technology companies about the concept of AI as an alternative technique of access to visual information. Everyone else can identify people they already know in a crowded room and AI in theory permits a blind person to do that too. We must make it happen. We must find ways of allowing a blind person to identify someone they know, while respecting privacy concerns. This problem is no longer technological, it is ethical. We will work with the industry to figure it out.
You'll be hearing much more about agents in the world of AI in the year ahead. AI has the potential to create a new screen reading paradigm that will be particularly beneficial for people who become blind in later life and may not have vocational goals. It can be conversational and easy to use for daily tasks like shopping and communication, and we look forward to working with a range of companies in the mainstream and access technology sectors to see this new product category emerge in a way that makes technology more inclusive while preserving the efficiency so many experienced users need.
Speaking of efficiency, we continue to receive feedback from members about the need for companies to remember efficiency when designing for accessibility. There are some applications which are broadly accessible but which are unnecessarily verbose. Software developers mean well when they do this, but it is the equivalent of ordering a cup of coffee somewhere and then when someone hands it to you they say, be careful, that's hot. We know it's hot, it's what we ordered.
And just to give you an example, when we press enter in a web browser to load a page, we don't need to be told the page is loading because that's what we ordered. We're in the undesirable situation of some applications speaking way too much, and third party screen readers with far fewer resources than big tech are having to invest some of those limited resources in making these applications bearable. That is wasteful, pure and simple.
Some may think that this is a finicky complaint. It is not. When you calculate over a work or school year the lost productivity because of suboptimal experiences, accessible but inefficient user interfaces hold us back.
And now I want to talk about something that we've received many phone calls and emails about – Facebook. And given how much concern people have expressed, I think it is important that I account in detail to the convention about our advocacy on this subject.
Blind smartphone users who use Facebook have not had an easy time of it. Several severe bugs crept into the Facebook app, which were left unresolved for a long time. Not everyone uses a smartphone. That is their choice and that is their right, and if a desktop site exists, we demand that it is fully accessible to everybody.
Now late last year just ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday, when people often use social media to connect with one another, Meta close down its mbasic Facebook site. We know that change is the only constant when it comes to technology, and that the in basic site was designed for older mobile phone browsers that no longer exist, but many blind people used it because it was clean, simple and accessible. I don't think Meta appreciated the accessibility impact of deprecating the site. Nevertheless, the elimination of that workaround exposed how increasingly riddled with accessibility problems the primary Facebook site had become.
Things were pretty bad, but the National Federation of the Blind and Meta have been in constructive, respectful, forthright dialogue. We've gathered your feedback. We've found common threads and provided helpful steps for the Meta team to duplicate defects. Meta in turn has been responding. It has fixed some of the particularly egregious bugs that were frustrating smartphone users and we are now starting to see improvements to the main Facebook website with some of the keyboard shortcuts fixed and extraneous block characters removed.
We are not yet at our destination. The journey continues, but as long as we see changes in response to our feedback, we will keep the conversation going.
I also acknowledge Meta’s presence here at our national convention. They have come so they can hear their blind users and we are pleased that they have responded to our feedback on improving the Meta Smartt glasses. And I think you'll be impressed with what is coming with the Metas Smartt glasses.
It was a significant moment in 1990 when Dr. Maurer unveiled the concept of the International Braille and Technology Center for the blind. He said, and I quote, “when the blind buy technology, we deserve the same consumer report style independence that cited people take for granted, the International Braille and Technology Center will exist only to answer one question, what really works for a blind person.”
We launched the IBTC 50 years to the day that our federation was founded at a press briefing. Dr. Jernigan said this, “the IBTC is at least one of everything. Every speech synthesizer, every Braille display, every scanner we can find. It is the tool we will use to keep industry honest and to keep blind people employed.”
Of course, the federation delivered. There is no place on the planet like the IBTC.
We have been so successful in our advocacy that many devices available for general purchase now offer accessibility features. The IBTC purchases a selection of such devices, but we have stayed true to the founding mission of the IBTC. When a device specifically for blind people comes on the market, we purchase it, we evaluate it without fear or favor and we communicate our findings to you.
In 2017 in his banquet address, President Riccobono observed, “We live in a time in which technology is constantly a part of our human experience, but of course we've always lived with technology. However, the difference today is the speed with which technology is becoming increasingly important in our lives. The changes that occur as technology alters the pattern of our lives take place not in decades but in days. The increased velocity of change will soon demand altered patterns of thought and behavior from us hour by hour or minutes by minute. Technology has changed the way we work, play, and even the way we think.”
In response to the rapidity, impact and nature of technological change, last year, President Riccobono concluded that the time was right to create an executive director position with a technology focus. The federation never stands still, and the time has come to write an exciting new chapter.
I have recently completed a thorough strategic review of CENA, which includes the IBTC and related functions, and there are 10 key strategic objectives that will guide us moving forward.
1. Be a timely, credible source of technology advice for our members.
2. Make recommendations, provide technical advice, and perform detailed evaluations in service of the core programs of the Federation (e.g. legal work,
advocacy priorities, capacity building projects, etc.).
3. Facilitate means by which members can share information about the increasingly complex area of technology, since no matter how talented our staff, they can no longer be expected to keep up with every option in minute detail.
4. Conduct thorough, fair evaluations of products based on a published test methodology to ensure transparency and equity, reducing the prospect of personal bias creeping into evaluations.
5. Raise awareness of accessibility in the wider community, ensuring the NFB is seen as the definitive, authoritative source of information on the accessibility of technology for blind people.
6. Build strong relationships with companies producing technology that blind people use, both blindness-specific and not.
7. Act as a conduit between members experiencing accessibility challenges and technology companies, to promote speedy defect resolution, thus materially improving the lives of our members and adding value as an organization.
8. When necessary, provide clear information and calls to action that allow the membership to campaign on accessibility issues of importance.
9. Provide guidance to individuals and start-ups seeking to enter the access technology field, encouraging them to adopt a genuine interest in co-design and a respect for the self-determination of blind people.
10. Seek international cooperation with individuals and organizations with whom we have mutual objectives.
In the years ahead, we'll be making the operational changes that better equip us to deliver on those strategic objectives.
As President Riccobono said in his report, in the coming year, he will create a committee to more closely link the membership with CENA's work, but there is much more. We'll find innovative ways to bring the knowledge of the IBTC to you.
Our new technology podcast, Access on, is just the beginning. Access on is an opportunity for us to tell you about some of the technology that we've been evaluating, and let you hear the movers and shakers talking about the latest developments in technology.
But we also love hearing listener contributions and there are plenty of people in this room who can add immense value to the podcast, giving it a strong federation flavor. So if you have something to share, a concern, a demonstration others may benefit from, a tech tip to improve efficiency, remember, Access On is the Federation's podcast, which means it is your podcast.
Now as Steve Jobs used to say, I have one more thing. I'd like to share with you our bold dreams for the International Braille and Technology Center of the future. We are re-imagining the IBTC’s layout to reflect that technology is not an end in itself, but the means to living the life we want.
In the IBTC of the future, when you look at equipment that can help you study, you'll do so in a classroom. When you consider equipment to help you succeed on the job, you'll do so in an office where you can sit down at your desk and try as many solutions as you need to.
In the IBTC of the future, we'll have extensive home automation set up so you can bring your own smartphone along, see what's possible and how effective it is to control the home yourself.
These changes will take time and significant resourcing, but we know that when the National Federation of the Blind has a dream, we always turn the dream into reality through the grit, determination and love that is the lifeblood of our movement.
This dream must come true because technology affects us all. Accessible, functional, useful technology develops not only for us, but with us, means employment, education, entertainment, and empowerment.
Let's do what we must to preserve it and take further control of our technological future and make it happen. It will be so, because we are the National Federation of the Blind, and that is our right, that is our duty. That is our destiny. Thank you so much.
Hope you enjoyed that. There is a lot going on, and maybe you'd like to be a part of it. Do check out the careers page nfb.org and then choose career opportunities. You'll find links to position descriptions for those two new accessibility excellence advocate roles, one for education and employment, the other for home and independent living.
We'll take a break, and when we come back, it's listener contribution time.
Mike May:
Check out my podcast, the People make the Places, Mike May and Friends published the first weekend of each month, based on 50 years of travel to 35 countries consisting of travel journals and recordings from the seventies to the present.
When people ask me Where is your favorite place to visit, I say it is the people who make the places travel as a blind person can be complicated, frustrating and fun all at the same time. Have a listen to the People Make the Places, Mike May and friends, available on all the podcast platforms including the Victor Stream.
Jonathan Mosen:
Chris Nusbaum says, hi Jonathan. Here I am again from our Greater Carroll County chapter and I might now add our AT trainers division to share some follow-up comments on the bug report I shared in episode 33 regarding the DoorDash app for iOS.
You ask me to let you know how I'm getting on and I'm happy to report that the initial bug I mentioned in which voiceover froze when I double tapped the add item button from the cart screen seems to have been fixed. I'm cautiously optimistic that it will stay that way though of course one can never tell what a difference an update makes.
By the way, I have noticed the issue you mentioned where connecting a Braille display slows the responsiveness of both voiceover and DoorDash to a crawl. If memory serves, this has been a problem for at least a year as it was around last summer when I recorded a demo for my former employer of myself using DoorDash with voiceover and a Braille display.
When I first recorded it, everything worked well, but we had to quickly update it before publication to point out that bug and the bug has remained ever since.
I don't know if there's a way for an individual user to report this to anyone beyond their standard tech support people, but in my experience their tech support has little to no knowledge of accessibility. In any case, that's why I'm reporting it to you.
No pressure Chris. We'll see what we can do there.
Regarding Innosearch, thank you for clarifying the question of whether it can be used with Amazon Prime and similar subscriptions. It seemed that this was a common request expressed by many people who attended their session at our national convention, so I hope they will respond accordingly.
They seem to be very responsive to user feedback. Perhaps a user's Amazon account could be linked to their inner search account similar to the way a user can link Lyft with Aira.
While we're on the subject, I tried to shop by phone for the first time this week and overall had a good experience. The only problem came at checkout when the automated system asked for my name and couldn't make out my last name at all to the point that I decided to hang up and switch to the website for fear of confusion or something coming in a box addressed to whatever it thought it is.
I'll chalk that up to my last name being hard to pronounce though you pronounce it correctly, but there must be a solution to that for those who prefer shopping by phone, asking the shopper to spell their name or connecting their phone number to their account.
Perhaps Chris, I believe that's what's supposed to happen. Certainly when I make a purchase by phone, it knows who I am at checkout, so I'm not sure why that didn't work for you.
Maybe your phone number is not associated with your Innosearch account in some way.
And finally another day, another bug in the Facebook iOS app. This one is relatively minor but annoying nonetheless, when I'm writing a post and want to tag someone in it, for example, if I start typing at JON and double tap on Jonathan Mosen, when the list of matches comes up, the words tagged in posts will appear in the text field in which the post is being written.
Once those words are there, the cursor is somewhere in the middle of those words and I haven't found a way to move it back to where I want it. If I'm using a Braille display, it seems to put extraneous characters after the person's name and before tagged in post if I try to keep writing but moving the insertion point to the end will make the cursor jump to some unknown place making me lose my place.
If I try to use voiceover alone navigating by character or word does nothing because voiceover doesn't tell me where I am. This is similar to the bug where create post stayed in the text field even as someone was writing with a Braille display, but that one seems to have been fixed.
Is this something that anyone else has experienced? Yes, Chris, I have experienced this. I really thank you for your articulate stating of the bug and I'll make sure Meta gets this one and we'll see if we can get it resolved.
Francisco Crespo is writing in and he says, I found a very annoying accessibility issue with the redesign of the Uber app and want to know if other listeners are affected and if it can be reported to Uber. After choosing send from the new product selector on the top left corner, I input Origin and Destination select whether I want to send an article by car or motor and press next, and the issue appears on the next screen where I need to input the details of the sender and recipient there.
The screen refreshes every few seconds and voiceover focus jumps all over the screen making the experience quite annoying. Has someone experienced this?
Thank you for writing in Francisco. I don't often use this particular feature of the Uber app, but I just did give it a try and at the moment using the current Uber app, I couldn't reproduce this. It seemed to be okay for me, but the Uber app, as I've said in previous episodes is interesting because you can have the same version number as somebody else but have a completely different user experience.
It's fascinating the way this works, so it may be that others are experiencing what you're experiencing and if so, we'd like to know. You are also outside of the United States, so that may be playing a factor as well. But let's see what others come back with because we have plenty of listeners outside the United States as well.
Accesson@nfb.org if you want to be in touch on this one.
We have an email from Haya Simkin. He says, hi Jonathan, I hope you are well. I've been an iPhone user since 2012 starting with an iPhone four s, mainly to use Siri when it was new. Since then, I usually buy models that are two or three years old at the time, not secondhand, but not the latest release either. Currently I use an iPhone 12 mini.
Recently my iPhone 12 mini has been overheating frequently. Starting last April, I replaced the battery with a non-Apple battery because Apple declined to replace it since I purchased the phone outside their store. After a short period of ambiguity, the overheating issue became clear within a month.
I have received the iPhone overheating warning about five times over the years with some occurring just before the battery replacement.
Despite careful charging habits and usage, the phone often gets so hot that it becomes uncomfortable to touch. A friend who also uses voiceover tends to keep his iPhones for about four years, although he experiences similar overheating problems. I wonder if buying iPhones that are not the latest model could contribute to these issues. Most of the time I use wireless charging because I often break charging cables.
This is the first phone where I have primarily used wireless charging given the expense of frequent replacements. I'm curious whether others in the blind community face similar challenges with iPhone longevity and overheating, especially when relying heavily on voiceover.
I've also discussed best practices to reduce overheating and prolonged battery life with chat GPD, which included recommendations such as using official apple batteries for accurate battery health and better thermal management, avoiding heavy phone use while charging and charging on hard, flat and well-ventilated surfaces, enabling optimized battery charging and low power mode to reduce stress on the battery limiting background app refresh and location services to reduce processor load, prefer wired charging over wireless charging when possible as wireless charging operates more heat, avoiding charging in hot environments and keeping the phone out of direct sunlight.
I would appreciate it if you could verify these claims or provide additional insights based on your experience and the community's feedback.
Well, thank you for your message Haya. Those recommendations seem plausible enough to me. I have no reason to argue with any of them. It might be hard to get out of the cycle now and I appreciate that, but I think if it were me, I'd try and save up enough to get one of the latest iPhone models, even if it's something like the iPhone 16 E, because over time Apple adds features that do slow older phones down, they just have more stress on the chips, they're doing more things and of course with all of the AI innovation that's going on now, there's a lot that is changing quickly.
So if you are able to get one of the newer iPhones and then use it to death for years, you probably have a better experience longer than starting with a phone that's so much older because you're at a disadvantage right away.
That said, I'm not sure if what you're experiencing is at all expected behavior and I dunno whether you've asked Apple specifically this question because I don't think iPhones are supposed to get that hot and it's interesting that you say it happened before you went to the unofficial apple battery. That suggests there might've been something and there still may be something defective with the phone itself.
And of course the dilemma you have now is that since you've got a third party battery in the phone, it could be difficult to establish that and Apple might say, oh, well you've voided any obligation that we have to look at this problem because you've started putting non-Apple parts in the product, so that could be a bit tricky at this point, but I don't think that's normal.
It'd be interesting to get other people's experiences with those who are going for the older model of phone and if you want to contribute to this, access on@nfb.org is how you get in touch, access on@nfb.org. Attach an audio clip to the email or you can just write it down.
Charles Akello:
Hi Jonathan Mosen, this is Charles Akello. I'm from Uganda and it's not really a common thing for us here to be able to own access technology devices that we mostly hear about. So last month I to my hands on a Brailliant BI 40 that now is going to be mine from now on. However, I'm still finding challenges on how I can get up to speed with this device.
First and foremost, I would like to know how can I make the text read continuously like the auto scroll feature, how can I be able to set this up on this machine that I can maybe set some that five seconds for example, or four seconds in the line that I can just hold on to the display and I just wait till the text will refresh automatically? That's one issue.
Then the other is Jonathan, I have a challenge. Sometimes I can have one word appearing on the whole line of text as you can have say as in maybe towards the end you a word appears, but I did want it to be that way. I would love, for example, if I had text like full lines of text every time and again, how best can I be able to set that up?
That's really something that I'm really hoping that the community’s going to help me out, find up a solution how to or how to do that. Otherwise, thank you so much and I'm really so glad for the podcast and looking forward to contribute more on this.
Jonathan Mosen:
Charles, congratulations on getting the Braille display. I know you'll be absolutely thrilled about that and I hope you get many years of use out of it. In terms of commands, it's complicated because there are a set of commands that are in use when you are using the device locally.
In the case of a device like the Brailliant that would be in the Victor Reader app, in the keypad app and you can auto scroll, I believe it is enter with 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 to start the scrolling and then enter with six speeds it up, enter with three, slows it down, but that's only on the local applications where it's relevant.
When you put one of these devices into terminal mode, all they're doing is taking the commands from the product that you are using, so if you want to do auto scrolling with the screen reader that you use, you'll need to look up the user guide for that screen reader or find keyboard help or whatever and check out what their assignments are.
For Braille commands, the auto scroll function is pretty common on screen readers, so you should be able to find it and then just commit that command to memory from then on because it may well be different from the command that you would use on your local brilliant device when you're using one of their applications.
We had a listener asking some time ago about laptops at what people are using.
Reg George is commenting on this. He says, hello Jonathan. I'm a huge fan of the LG gram computers For those using Zoom text or Fusion, I tend to get the traditional 17 inch model that weighs less than three pounds. For others using JAWS or those used to a touch screen interface, I will get the 16 inch gram two in one laptop.
I like them because they have approximately 20 hours battery life, good sound and use the 13th generation I seven 16 core processes and come standard with 16 or 32 gigs of ram.
They also have beautiful keyboards that are easy to type on and have a standard layout and it's easy to switch the media keys to function keys with function escape.
I work for Washington Department of Services for the Blind as an assistive technology specialist and I have been able to convince many of my coworkers to switch to these computers because they have proved to be for the most part durable and people have been happy with the portability and long battery life and generous ports including HDMI and a couple of USBA ports for connectivity. Pro tip, the F five key will turn the touch pad on or off.
Thank you Reg. Much appreciated and if you have a laptop that you particularly like and want to tell us why, accesson@nfb.org is how you get in touch and share that info with us.
Tina Hanson, she doesn't let the grass grow.
Only recently was she talking about the Yoto player and now she writes in to say I have the Yoto. I've ordered both the mini and the full unit. I like the mini for its size and from what I understand the full unit has incredible audio for a unit this small.
I've actually used it to play an audio book and not long ago I gave some people a demo, they were impressed. Since I have no kids, I demoed it with content from my library including a couple of Shakespeare plays and the musical Hamilton. It's a good unit and for me it complements the Victor Reader stream very nicely.
Thank you, Tina. I hope you continue to get on well with the Yoto player. There's a song that I got on my granddaughter's Yoto player called Happy Song and if you ever hear it, it'll be an earworm that stays in your ears forever.
Anyway, it is always such a pleasure to hear from the venerable Larry Skutchan who has written into access on and you can too, access on@nfb.org if you want to be in touch, and Larry says, first of all, thank you and NFB for making this wonderful content available. I was very interested to note a listener's observation from last week's show that setting the Bard app to play at normal speed would allow you to pause playback when using something like the boast frames. I have been plagued with this issue as well and think it actually occurred with an iOS update several years ago.
Also, the same problem exists with the cloud library app. This is an app that many public libraries use to loan electronic and audio books. When you set the playback to normal speed on that app, the play pause button on the frames does work.
Since this exact behavior occurs on two different applications, it leads me to believe the problem is actually with Apple's code. I suspect it's something to do with deep in the bowels of Bluetooth.
That's an interesting analogy. Thank you very much Larry. Much appreciated.
And speaking of Venerable Scott Marshall is writing in, it must be my week for Venerability on Access On this week. He says, hi Jonathan. I hope you one of your team members or an access on subscriber can help with this inquiry. I'm considering the purchase of a Brava Smart Oven. This product was not originally built for the blindness market.
One of the company's founders has explained that the goal of the product was to make cooking easy for everyone. He indicated that his company has worked with blind people from the San Francisco Lighthouse as I recall, to ensure that the app that controls the oven is accessible using voiceover.
He further stated that current sighted assistance is required during the initial setup to connect the oven to a Wi-Fi network and that this issue is being addressed.
The Brava oven performs a variety of cooking tasks and can automatically adjust cooking methods, time and temperature as required by thousands of recipes continually updated in the accompanying app. You can also cook to your own specifications in a manual override mode.
The cost of the device is high, ranging from about 1,300 to 2,000 dollars depending on the accessories package chosen, and I understand that the basic functionality of the device is the same for all models.
I would very much like to talk with a blind person who has had some hands-on experience with this device, someone who is not trying to sell the product. I'm not expecting any guarantees or endorsements of course, and I realize that individual experience with the product may vary.
I know that a 10 day money back guarantee is available from the company. Unfortunately, I will need to engage an electrician to update my kitchen wiring before I could even trial the oven myself.
This product sounds too good to be true. Has the food replicator from the Star Trek next Generation series finally arrived?
Thanks, Scott. We have one, not surprisingly, we have one in the international Braille. Well, actually let me be clear. We don't actually have one in the International Braille and Technology Center because when we got this Brava Smart oven, we all thought, oh my word. We do not want to actually put this in the International Braille and Technology Center when there's so much equipment around and people trying to use this thing, so we will give you more information on this and perhaps provide you with an actual demonstration on a future edition of Access on.
We do have it set up at the moment in one of the kitchens here at the Jernigan Institute. Kennedy Zimnik and I configured this and we created a login and yes, we've been talking to the co-founders as well who were super responsive and interested in serving this market.
You definitely cannot set this up from scratch as a blind person at the moment. That is clear from the evaluation that we have done to date, but once you do get it set up, then the recipes are easy to scroll through, select one, find out what's required, and then you upload the recipe to the oven and then it tells you what zone to put Different things in. The zones are actually distinctive by touch and the accessories seem relatively easy to use.
What I haven't done at the moment is actually cook anything with it, and I do hope to come into the Jernigan Institute one of these weekends and cook some steak in the oven and have a bit of a meal, so we are continuing our evaluation, but I can tell you that at least on iOS, the app is in good shape, but you do have to get that assistance to set it up initially as you say, something that they claim to be working on for the future.
So it's an interesting product and for those who aren't familiar with it, the idea of this is that it uses infrared cooking. So with the combination of the infrared cooking and the sensors, it's supposed to get your meal cooked to perfection, but if you already have one, if a Brava Smart oven is part of your life, what do you think about it? Do be in touch. Help us out, help Scott out. Accesson@nfb.org. We don't want Scott going hungry for too long accesson@nfb.org, attach an audio clip or write it down if you prefer.
And for our tech tip, we are going to the venerable Nolan Crab. What can I say? My thesaurus is broken this week.
Nolan says, greetings from central Ohio. There are times when Microsoft Word 365 on my desktop machine behaves like a hot house in the depth of summer with no air conditioning. In other words, I have multiple windows open in words simultaneously in order to rapidly transfer data among them. Naturally, I can F six or even control plus tab among all of those, but if you have too many open at once, you can lose your train of thought and bogged down in a productivity Mara, very picturesque.
Earlier versions of word more than a decade ago now had an elegant fix for that, but the current version offers a fix that is slightly less elegant because you're tapping more keys still. It works well if you know you need to cut data from document six and paste it into document two.
For example, you can give focus to document six and gather your data for pasting elsewhere. Then tap ALT plus W followed by another W having released the old key. Then the number of the window you want to jump to to get from window six to window two, tap alt WW. Then two.
You’ll leap, says Nolan, with the agility of a world class gymnast from window six to window too. Thanks for an outstanding podcast.
Well thank you Nolan for a very useful tech tip, and if you would like to submit a tech tip, then email accesson@nfb.org and you can put tech tip in the subject line.
That concludes this episode of Access on the Technology Podcast of the National Federation of the Blind. To send in a contribution for a future episode, email us, attach an audio clip or just write it down and send it to accesson@nfb.org. That's accesson@nfb.org.
To keep up to date with access on, follow us on Mastodon, Accesson@nfb.social, that's accesson@nfb.social on Mastodon. To subscribe to an announcement only email list about upcoming episodes, send a blank message to accesson-announce-subscribe@nfbnet.org. That's accesson-announce-subscribe@nfbnet.org. To learn more about the National Federation of the Blind, visit our website nfb.org or phone us 410-659-9314. That's 410-659-9314. And be sure to check out the Nation's Blind podcast right from where you heard this podcast.