News and Events – Page 2

Let’s have some fun talking about our devices injuries and see how did they survived! Part 1

In this podcast recorded during the holydays 2019 and published on May 1st 2020, Alexandre and Olivier tell you funny stories about their devices. The goal of this podcast was to change a bit of what we’re used to do and to have some fun sharing our experiences with our listeners. You will learn how our devices survived or not to different type of damages.

Before telling you about our devices, Alexandre will discuss about some wrong informations found in the podcast regarding free licenses for JAWS, ZoomText and Fusion provided for the Covid-19. This should be useful to you if you need to use JAWS remote access and/or tandem direct feature. Next, Alexandre will tell you about an update that came out for the Bose Frames glasses which provide a way to adjust the volume by turning your head.

In addition, as a reminder, the Canadialog team can offer private or group training on request on the use of assistive technologies. Do not hesitate to contact our team to learn more about training we can offer.

Visit our website regularly to be informed when new Podcast becomes available or subscribe to our YouTube channel. See how it is possible to listen to our podcasts by consulting the list of services where our podcasts are referenced and the instructions attached to them.

Enjoy!

See how to get a free license of JAWS, ZoomText or Fusion for the Covid-19

UPDATE: If you need to use Remote Access or Tandem Direct, note that your existing license for previous version of JAWS will not remain in place after activating the free license if you have chosen JAWS when you initially did your license choice on the portal. To keep your existing JAWS license active for previous versions when using the free license for 2020, make sure to choose Fusion when subscribing and select JAWS when downloading the activation file.

In this podcast published April 17th, 2020, see how to retrieve free licenses of JAWS, ZoomText or Fusion software provided by Vispero for the Covid-19. These licenses will be valid until June 30th and you can use them if you’re working at home, for school or if you simply want to do some tests. See also how looks like the new Freedom Scientific’s portal available in the U.S. since more than a year. The license portal can be accessed at http://portal.freedomscientific.com.

Enjoy!

Easily reclaim space on your hard drive using Windows Disk Cleanup utility

In this short podcast published on April 3, 2020, Alexandre is with you to explain how you can free up space on your hard drive using an easy-to-use utility: Windows Disk Cleanup. With this utility, see if unnecessary files can be trashed from your hard drive such as old files belonging to the system, files generated during the upgrade of your PC, temporary files, etc.

Enjoy!

The Chromecast, an accessible device for streaming content to your TV

In this podcast published on March 23, 2020, learn more about the Chromecast, a small device from Google that allows you to stream the content of your choice to your TV from your phone, tablet or computer.

Alexandre will be with you to give you some advice on accessibility, teach you the different steps to configure the device, what you can stream from your iPhone or Android device, how to broadcast the screen of your PC wirelessly or how to stream content using your voice and a smart speaker. The Chromecast will broadcast both the image and the sound of your equipment on the TV to which it is connected. Since the Google Home app is required to configure the Chromecast, see our Google Home setup podcast here to find out more information on this app

Enjoy!

iOS tips: The accessibility shortcut, reactivate speech and dial an extension number during a call

In this podcast published on March 4th, 2020, Alexandre presents three tips for iOS users.

As a first tip, you will learn more about the accessibility shortcut, how to use and configure it. This can be particularly useful to quickly activate or deactivate an accessibility feature or in case accessibility present a strange behavior. Note that this shortcut will not necessarily be active by default, so you will find out more information on how you can activate it when listening to this podcast.

Second, learn what to do if your device suddenly stops talking to you. Knowing that a device who doesn’t speak anymore can be quite annoying in case you only use VoiceOver, see how to solve this issue without causing more trouble.

Finally, you can familiarize yourself with a trick to make it easier to dial extension numbers. Suppose you need to call the hospital and may reach extension 1234 to make an appointment. You can call the hospital the same way you would call your best friend and, as soon as you hear the welcome message, dial the desired extension number while listening to VoiceOver's instructions through the voice prompt played by the hospital. However, some users have complained that it can be difficult to hear what VoiceOver announces during a call, especially if a message is heard in the background. The trick presented here will therefore allow you to dial the extension number before even placing the call and therefore making sure that your iPhone dials it for you at the appropriate moment once the call was established. Everything can be done on the spot, without even having to create or edit any contact.

Enjoy!

Learn more about Thunderbird, a free an easy to use accessible email client

In this podcast published February 17th, 2020, Alexandre will be with you to show you the basic of Mozilla Thunderbird, a free accessible email client that can be used with NVDA or JAWS. You’ll see how it is easy to install, how to setup an email account (Gmail) into it, how you can personalize it for a better experience, and some useful shortcuts design to facilitate the navigation.

Even if this podcast is mostly based on NVDA and the Mozilla Apps Enhancements add-on, note that it can be usable with JAWS to perform some basic tasks.

Here are some useful links:

Enjoy!

NVDA 2019.3 is now live, however, pay attention before updating especially if you’re using remote!

Update: Note that NVDA Remote Support add-on version 2.3, for NVDA 2019.3 is now live. Go to nvdaremote.com to download it.

With the new release of NVDA, which is NVDA 2019.3, the core of this screen was migrated from Python 2 up to Python 3. Well, that’s great, but some NVDA add-on are not ready yet to be used with this version. When updating, you’ll be prompted to check the compatibility of all your add-on, and you may observe that some aren’t.

What you can do? First check if you’re running the latest version of each add-on you’re using. You can simplify this by downloading and installing Add-on Updater. Once done, please go into the tools menu and click search for add-on updates.

Note that if you’re using NVDA Remote Support add-on, there is currently no public compatible versions with NVDA 2019.3.

If you’re unable to update an essential add-on of if you’re relying on Remote to get assistance, wait before updating. You can still use NVDA 2019.2.1 without any issues.

If you’ve already updated your copy of NVDA to 2019.3 and need to use remote, note that you can use JAWS Tandem in replacement. If some other add-on stopped working, note that JAWS natively provides a lot of functions covered in NVDA add-ons.

You can always contact us to get a free quote if you need help with NVDA or want a private training.

Learn about NFC tags, a solution that can be used to label items and do much more!

In this podcast published on January 25th, 2020 Olivier and Alexandre discuss about NFC tags, which are stickers that you put on objects. These stickers allow you to write text labels on them and having these labels read back to you by your smartphone.

What is NFC? This is the acronym for near field communication. NFC tags are available for sale on different Web platforms like Amazon at a very low cost. Even if these tags are not considered as a specialized assistive product, this technology can help a lot of users who are living with a vision loss.

Alexandre and Olivier will show you different apps available on iOS to read and write NFC tags. In order to use these apps, you need an iPhone 7 or higher. A demonstration on Android will also be made. At the end of the podcast, we will demonstrate the voice label feature only available on some Samsung smartphone allowing to associate an audio label to a tag that will be played as soon we tap the tag.

You will also learn how it is possible to launch automations by simply taping your iPhone on an NFC tags with the Shortcuts app on iOS. However, please note that this feature requires an iPhone XS, XR, XS Max or later in order to work.

Here is a list of the apps demonstrated in this podcast:

Enjoy!

The Dot watch, a Braille watch that change the way to interact with your smartphone!

In this podcast published January 9th, 2020, Alexandre and Olivier are with you to talk about the Dot Watch. What is the Dot Watch? This is a Braille watch that provides 4 Braille cells, 6 dots each, that can be paired to your existing smartphone (iPhone or Android). Using this watch, you’ll be able to read the time and date, use the stopwatch, the timer, read the notifications received on your smartphone, read memos, see whose calling and decide if you want to answer or decline the call, find your smartphone and much more, all by reading Braille!

You can interact with the Dot Watch using the 4 cells Braille display, by feeling vibrations provided by the watch, use the two touch sensors, the two buttons or even the crown that can be turned. At this time, the Dot Watch cannot be used to interact with your smartphone like sending text messages, reply to emails, Etc. Expect to be able to read out your notifications with this watch but not to reply to them.

Here are useful links:

Enjoy!

Speech and sounds schemes, a JAWS tool allowing to be informed about text formatting while reading

In this podcast published on December 23, 2019, Alexandre will be with you to talk about a JAWS tool that many of you ignore the existence: speech and sounds schemes. This tool makes it easier to check certain visual aspects of a text document, change the way how commands and controls are announced by JAWS and even replace certain long or recurring sentences by shortest ones or simply by sounds.

When checking formatting of a text using speech and sounds schemes, this feature allows, among other things, to announce font type changes, to be noticed about font size in use and even to identify, when reading a document, parts of text using a determined color. All can be done by playing sounds, by reading the blocks of text concerned with a different voice or by simply announcing the change. Note that the text analyzer can do a part of this work by detecting certain inconsistencies, however this will not provide the precision that can be provided by speech and sounds schemes.

Enjoy!