Michael Doise 
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On this episode of the iA Cast, Michael, Jason, and Aleeha discuss the latest updates to the Alexa app and how to use the new communications features for the Alexa app for iOS.
Alexa App for iOS
Alexa App for Android
Amazon Echo Calling and Messaging
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In this episode of the iA DemoCast, Aleeha sets up the Amazon Echo Dot for the first time with iOS Alexa app. She then demonstrates a few things you can try with your own Alexa enabled device.
Amazon Echo Dot
Amazon Alexa App for iOS
Amazon Alexa App for Android
One of the first apps that iAccessibility reviewed was an app called Prizmo which would scan an image and convert any text found in that image to digital text that could be copied or opened in another program or that could be read by a screen reader. Now, the makers of Prizmo has released a new app called Prizmo Go which is a free app on the iOS app store. This new app has several features that make it similar to other OCR solutions, but it is completely accessible, and offers text to speech reading of text.
Prizmo Go lets the user scan an image and convert that image to spoken or readable text. Like other apps, Prizmo Go contains page detection, stabilization, and a field of view report to tell the user how to angle the page and the camera to get the best shot. Once you have taken the image you can have Prizmo Go read out loud any text that was found. This is an amazing feature as it allows for quick scanning and reading of documents. While scanning an image is the app’s main feature, Prizmo Go can also detect text in images from your camera roll, and from other apps through an app extension. Once you scan an image, you can purchase an in app purchase to unlock the export pack to send the scanned text out to other apps.
So one question you may find yourself asking is why should I get Prizmo Go if I have Prizmo, and the answer may surprise you. While Prizmo Go has all of the same features that come with Prizmo, Prizmo Go provides a quick and easy way to read documents and move on to your next task. Prizmo allows for the storage of multi-page documents locally on your device, or in the cloud with iCloud Drive. This makes Prizmo an extremely powerful app, but does take more time to use. With Prizmo Go, a user can open the app and quickly scan and read a document and send that document to another app without having to pick the type of document, or how to store that document or anything. The app just brings you to the scan interface and lets you scan a page quickly
KNFB Reader has become a huge success in the OCR world whether the user is blind, low vision dyslexic or someone without a disability altogether. Despite this fact, KNFB Reader was designed for the people who are blind and visually impaired and is built around blindness concepts and has been built to serve a certain demographic, and while I think it is great that KNFB Reader is being used by more than just the world’s blind community, I have to really applaud a mainstream company like Creaceed for coming to the table and providing to great solutions to OCR from a mainstream perspective. Prizmo and Prizmo Go are two very accessible apps, and have been so from the start, and while I think KNFB Reader may be slightly more accurate with quicker OCR recognition time, I think that Prizmo and Prizmo Go provide a cheaper solution that can truly do more with your text then what KNFB Reader provides. I also find that the interfaces for Prizmo and Prizmo Go are more modern than that of the KNFB Reader software
As stated previously, Prizmo Go and Prizmo have been seen to not have as good of accuracy as KNFB Reader. The process may take longer to recognize text and you may need to hold the device a certain way for Prizmo Go to detect all of the text. The other drawback is that Prizmo Go is only available for iOS where as KNFB Reader is available for Windows, Android and iOS. It is worth noting though that Prizmo does have a Mac version that costs $50.00
While Prizmo and Prizmo Go have their drawbacks I think that the makers of these apps have brought mainstream OCR to the next level, and have taken a huge step in bringing mainstream OCR to the accessibility world. Prizmo and Prizmo Go will read text aloud, and have extremely good support for VoiceOver. iAccessibility would like to thank Creaked for keeping accessibility in focus throughout these apps.
iAccessibility will also be reviewing Prizmo Go on our Podcast the iA Cast.
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On this episode of the iA DemoCast, Rich Cavallaro reviews Talking Typer for iOS and demonstrates several areas of the app.
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On this episode of the iA Cast Aleeha Jason and Michael discuss the Microsoft’s latest update to Windows 10 which is called the Windows 10 Creators Update. Here is what we covered during the episode.
During the podcast, we also discuss bugs we have found during the creators update process.
Learn about the Microsoft Windows 10 Creators Update in full detail.
Thank you for listening to this episode of the iA Cast. Please leave us feedback at feedback@iaccessibility.net or on Twitter at @iAccessibility1
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Welcome to the latest episode of the iA Cast. This week we talk about the differences between the two most popular mobile operating systems iOS and Android and we say which ones we prefer.
iAccessibility has set up a new pattern account for our community to support our podcast each month. If you would like to support the podcast, head over to Our Patreon
On this episode, we talk about the differences in iOS and Android and why we use the hardware we do. These episodes are designed to be open so that podcasters can voice their opinions and let others know how they feel about the devices they use.
During the episode, Aleeha Dudley, Jason Earls, and Michael Doise decided that iOS is the best platform for getting work done on quickly with the least amount of setup, but that Android can offer more power to users with more customization with features that iOS can’t provide.
What are your thoughts, Please tweet us at @iaccessibility1 or email us at feedback@iaccessibility.net
Talking Typer by the American Printing House for the Blind has now been released for iOS. If you are familiar with the Windows version then you will find it easy to learn the keyboard with the mobile app. Talking Typer offers training for the on screen keyboard, a Bluetooth keyboard, and even for use with Braille displays.
Talking Typer is $4.99 in the iOS App Store, and we will have a review of Talking typer up on the next episode of the iA Cast
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On this episode of the podcast, we talk about the newest releases in technology during the last week. Here is what we discussed.
We hope you enjoy each episode of the iACast. To leave us feedback, you may email us at feedback@iaccessibility.net.
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For the longest time, games have not been accessible for blind and low vision users. Today, gamers have more choice in what games they play, and Michael Chad and Aleeha discuss their preferences in games on this episode of the iACast.
During this podcast episode, we discuss progress made by AbleGamers and how other game companies are making games accessible. We discuss how games could be more accessible, and we encourage everyone to contact game developers and discuss how much they want games to become accessible.
Game console text to speech was discussed in this episode and how this feature has allowed gamers to navigate the Xbox and the PlayStation consoles to buy and play games.
We hope you have enjoyed this episode of the iACast. Please leave us feedback at feedback@iaccessibility.net or on twitter at @iaccessibility1
Amazon has been working on accessibility in their products lately with their Fire tablets and with their e-readers, but they have started in other areas as well. Recently, Amazon has made their Kindle application for Windows accessible with NVDA, and this is a big deal for users and the assistive technology industry.
Amazon chose to make the Kindle application for Windows accessible with the NVDA screen reader from NVAccess. While it is great that the Kindle app is accessible for Windows, I think it is the latest application that makes NVDA a major screen reader for users which puts it in the same playing field as JAWS or Window-Eyes
NVDA is a free screen reader funded by the community of users and other organizations that keep the project going. Because of this, it is never certain how long NVDA will stay funded. This means that NVDA could stop being developed by the developers if funding runs out. Fortunately, NVDA is open source, which means that anyone can continue the development of the project and the community would oversee its development. JAWS and Window-Eyes are developed by an organization that makes a profit by selling their products to those who use screen readers so their products will continue to receive updates in the future.
The fact that Amazon chose NVDA to make the Kindle app for Windows accessible means that NVDA has become a household name in screen readers enough for Amazon to think that enough people will use NVDA to read books over other screen readers at home. I think that every time NVDA gets recognized like this by an organization the project gets more recognition in the community, and that means that it is more essential for NVDA to stay around and for it to continue to receive feature updates and new features.
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Welcome to episode 37 of the iACast. This week Michael speaks to Jade Sharp and Aleeha Dudley on the topic of using Uber while traveling with a guide dog and how this differs between countries.
Let us know what you think about this episode by tweeting us at @iaccessibility1 or at feedback@iaccessibility.net
Each year, the California State University of Northridge (CSUN) holds their assistive technology conference. This year the conference was in San Diego California, and was held at the Manchester Grand Hyatt.
One of the biggest things that people go to this conference for is the exhibit hall, and iAccessibility was there and we continue to bring you articles based on several product seen at the exhibit hall.
Today I would like to discuss another exhibiter that I had the chance to meet and that was Right Hear. despite the pun possibilities, Right hear is a new system to provide mobility to their users through beacons and smartphones.
Right Hear is a system developed using smartphones and Bluetooth LE devices known as iBeacons. These iBeacons can work with iOS devices and Android devices to provide extremely accurate location based services such as alerts and push notifications.
Right Hear uses iBeacons and an app to make locations accessible. Right Hear calls these accessible locations. When the user of the Right Hear app enters an accessible location, a push notification is sent to their phone to let that user know that they have reached that location, at which point the user can use the compass view to get more information about their surroundings or get assistance from a person at Right Hear.
Right Hear is rolling out to businesses and organizations around the world. They are adding their technology to more and more locations as people request, and they are always interested in talking to businesses and organizations about adding their service to new places as well.
Right Hear is a new technology that will greatly improve the mobility of the blind and deaf-blind in navigating buildings. I think they have more to go until they will be useful in large places, but this is a start to using beacons for indoor navigation.
To learn more, Check out Right Hear’s website.