VISION 2020 (UK) Limited:
Registered Charity Number 1146746
Agenda for the Meeting of the
Technology for Life Group to be held at
11am on 22/01/2013 in meeting room 5
RNIB, Judd Street, London.
1. Welcome, Introductions and Apologies for
Absence:
Robin Spinks
RNIB
Chair
RS
Matt Broom
VISION 20020UK
MB
Roger Whitton Guide Dogs
RW
Martin Roberts Humanware
MR
Michelle Baxter-Wickham
Thomas Pocklington Trust MBW
Andrew Ronksley
RNIB
AR
Apologies
Mike Townsend
Roger Wilson-Hinds
Sean Page
Mike Brace
Lucy Winton
BCAB
Choice Technology
DeafBlind UK
Independant
NBCS
The Chair Welcomed MBW who is attending from Thomas
Pocklington Trust while Anna Zakotti is on Maternity leave.
2. Declarations of Interest
None
3. Notification of Any Other Business
None
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4. Minutes of the Last Meeting: RS
Approved as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the
Technology for Life Group held on 22/11/12
5. Matters Arising
MB to send the Guide Dogs ‘Future Technologies’ Video link to
MBW http://www.guidedogs.org.uk/news/future-technology-tobring-new-levels-of-freedom/
MR and RS: EqualEyes app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.equaleyes
Free navigation app
6. Smart Ticketing MB
To consider the discussion document from John Welsman (Guide
Dogs) re Smart Ticketing.
Committee opinions and questions were requested on the
circulated document to either be sent direct to John with MB ccd or
to MB
7. NEXUS ALPHA LPS Interactive Tactile Map
MB
Unfortunately a rep from Nexus Alpha cannot attend but this item
has been circulated and this is an opportunity to discuss the map
as they will hopefully attend the next meeting.
Any comments on the document re the map to be sent to MB.
8. Technology/objective 3 table at the Vision
2013 conference MB
MB said that the table this year was to be focussed on outcome 3
of the UKVS rather than just technology so will include Braille and
talking books etc but asked if people were prepared to bring tech
for the table.
MBW said that she will be off but TPT will provide low tech the
same as last year
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MR agreed to bring 5 or 6 pieces of humanware technology and is
prepared to demonstrate on the day.
RS and AR will bring Panasonic TV to demonstrate along with
various other bits of high tech to explain accessibility.
9. RIM/Blackberry update RS
RS Blackberry are about to launch the new Blackberry 10 which
comes with screen reader and accessibility features either with a
Qwerty keyboard or a touch screen it’s being released with 70 000
apps already written (compares tom 125 000 for the windows
phone and approx 750000 each for apple and android)
http://blogs.blackberry.com/2012/11/blackberry-10-launch-event/
9. Surface update AR
AR: Microsoft came to RNIB pre Christmas to demonstrate the
Surface. It has two different keyboards the Touch and the Type.
Both fit using a magnet so easy to use. The Touch does not have
feedback on the keys so can be difficult to use the Type is thicker
and the keys move making the surface more like a netbook.
Surface RT comes with Narrator which now runs with touch and
other accessibility features such as screen magnification and text
enlargement but has a arm processor and is therefore a bit slow
and will not run standard software but only that which is
downloaded from the app store. Surface pro will have an Intel
processor and will run full windows office. Surface Pro will be
released this year.
RS: Windows phone 8 after many years of campaigning the
Windows phone 8 comes with low vision accessibility features
Screen Magnification, High contrast, Text enlargement but no
screen reader. The World Council of the Blind have sent a letter to
Microsoft asking for a timetable for when they would be installing a
screenreader on their products.
10. Updates from Committee members
RS: "Getting interested in technology" is part of RNIB's initiative to
show that it isn't complicated to get started with technology. RS
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mentioned a short series of videos to cover all of the popular topics
and questions around technology
http://www.rnib.org.uk/livingwithsightloss/computersphones/Pages/
technology_videos.aspx
MB: VISION 2013 tickets are now on sale
http://www.vision2020uk.org.uk/ukvisionstrategy/news.asp?itemid=
387&itemTitle=Vision+UK+2013+conference+registrations+open&
section=23&sectionTitle=Latest+News&from=&to=
Concluding Items
10. Any Other Business
11. Dates of Next Meetings
March 19th
May 21st May (at Humanware?)
August 20th
November 26th
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