2010-08-18-For Your Information on PDAs
Seminars@Hadley
FYI on PDAs: Considerations When Choosing a
PDA / Note Taking Device
Presented by
Sharon Ewing
Amy Salmon
Moderated by
Billy Brookshire
August 18, 2010
Billy Brookshire
Good morning! The time is upon us and I would like
to welcome you to Seminars@Hadley. My name is
Billy Brookshire. I will be your moderator today.
Today we are going to be talking about FYI on PDAs:
Considerations when choosing a PDA/Note Taking
Device. PDA stands for Personal Digital Assistant or
is that Personal Data Assistant, I am sure our
speakers will help us out with that today. We have
two great speakers here today who know this topic
backwards and forwards. You guys are going to
really enjoy what they have to say. I am sure you will
have lots questions at the end. So, please hang in
there for the question and answer session.
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Today, our speakers are Sharon Ewing who is coowner and Assisted Technology Trainer for Kewing
Enterprises and Amy Salmon who is a Hadley
instructor par excellence. You guys are in for treat
this morning. Not to take up any more of their time, I
am going to hand the microphone over to you Sharon.
Take it away.
Sharon Ewing
Good morning everyone. I am privileged to be here. I
was asked to do this in early July and have been on
the road. I want to ask your forgiveness for anything
that may or may not seem prepared. I feel pretty
confident in the subject. I was an evaluator for the
State of Texas in the Assistive Technology Unit here
in Austin. I get to see a lot of situations in which note
takers were chosen by people. First they hired a
consultant, worked with them and had a consult done
(employment assistant specialist). The employment
assistant specialist determined their need for such a
device.
I am going to backtrack just a bit because note taker
in today’s scheme of things is almost non-applicable
to what the device can actually do. Note taking
assumes simply note taking; which in a college or
university setting many times you would see an
individual who was gifted in that area and took very
good notes. The person would come on and they
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would help someone who had a disability. Whatever
that disability whether physical which kept them from
being able to write and/or a visual disability. They
would actually put their names up on message boards
advertising their skill either as a volunteer or for pay.
Many times those individuals were excellent in their
classes and did a great job, but there was a problem
with the issue of independence.
Many blind people what to be independent. One of
the first tools that I believe was used in that venue
was a simple tape recorder. I had a young woman
come into my evaluation and said all she had used in
her entire 4 years of college to get a bachelors degree
was a simple tape recorder. For some people that is
perfect. They have no problem with using a tape
recorder and actually prefer it. There are those that
want to physically take notes. To quote Mr. Hodges
in his article for AFB, “Enter this device or enter that
device…” we see Braille Express, Braille n’ Speak
and later the Braille Lite, and the Millennium series.
All of these devices came on board with much more
than the ability to take notes. They had full calendar
function, phone books, and options to connect to PCs
with serial connections. They were capable of
speech. You could listen to your notes with the
original devices. Then you had the Braille Lite which
also came on board with a Braille display. You could
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have Braille output as well as Braille input. Also, let’s
not forget the type and speak. The ability for those of
us who love QWERTY input, you could type and save
in a format that you could use later. These things
began to change what was used and expected in the
field and as time went by, other companies brought
along other devices.
Now we come to the situation of what do I need?
What do I choose for myself? There are so many
choices. The variable in the cost is phenomenal. For
example, there are netbooks or laptops you can
purchase these for under $300 and $500 respectively.
You can add a Braille display for approximately $2000
or less and that gives you something that is half the
cost of a traditional note taking device. What about if
you want it to come on instantly? Do you hibernate,
do you sleep, do you force the device to use the
battery by putting it into a low power hibernate so that
you can get that instant on? Well, maybe not, maybe
you would prefer to have the ability to just turn it on
and there it is. Or a calendar that is set up for Braille
input as opposed to using Outlook. Some of these
considerations need to be thought about as you look
at these devices.
Another criteria to think about with assistive devices is
your job description. Do you actually need a device
that is portable along with your desktop? Do you
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actually need a device that would allow you to bring it
to a board room and take notes in a meeting? Most
times you need something if you are in any sort of
management capacity or in an assistant capacity.
You do have to have something that is portable to
take notes in meetings. Again, somebody might
prefer to use a simple tape recorder, but most of us
want something that has a little more functionality.
Most of us want the capability of being able to
schedule while you are in the meeting or perhaps you
get a call and you need to be able to write something
down right then.
What about in school? One of the situations we came
across in the senior years of a college degree
program that laptops were required. Do you need a
laptop and a note taker? Sometimes people want the
ability to take short notes without booting up a laptop.
Here we are back at the instant on capability.
Something even more important is battery life of a
laptop in that situation.
Note takers have such a wonderful battery life. In
some devices such as the Braille Lite and Braille n’
Speak it can be as much as 30 hours. Now you are
looking at 12, 15, or 20 hours depending on the
device. When you start talking about note takers in
the context of laptops, netbooks, and notebooks,
gosh! How many books can we get confused with?
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Laptops tend to be larger with a built-in keyboard and
number pad with traditional screen access tools such
as JAWS®, WindowEyes, and VDA that use the
number pad and the fact that the keys are larger for
those who have issues with small keys. There are
issues with the space between the keys. How far do I
have to move and the shape of the key tends to make
an impact. I have had people choose note taker on
nothing more than the size of the keyboard alone.
They didn’t like the way the keyboard felt on any of
the devices and they were willing to sacrifice any
other factors to have that particular keyboard. In this
sense, a laptop is going to be the better solution.
Then comes the notebook which is smaller with a full
keyboard, 15 inch or smaller screens, but you still
have to worry about using that function key to access
your mouse keys or JAWS® cursor unless you are
willing to switch to the laptop keyboard settings. Lots
of people don’t like using laptop keyboards they just
want to stick with the traditional keyboard settings for
screen access tools so they get a number pad instead
whether integrated or removable. Those don’t always
work well. That is another consideration.
You have battery life, keyboard size, and then the
size of the device and its power. Let’s talk about
power. For example with netbooks, I get reports from
field training that include, my Braille display is
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sluggish. I love my Braille display and when I use my
netbook I often have issues with the Braille display
acting sluggish and not having quite as much power
to handle the peripherals. You also have the issue of
the external CD-ROM. You do have SD Card
capability on most netbooks that you can save to, but
a lot of times that might be an issue.
If we are talking about netbooks, notebooks, and
laptops there are going to be other considerations. I
would certainly like to ask Amy to bring her input into
this part of our discussion which is what about low
vision? Amy, how do we deal with that issue?
Amy Salmon
Thanks Sharon. I did want to touch on the low vision
aspect of the netbook world. I have worked with quite
a few students in the last couple of years and one
downside of the netbook is a smaller screen size. A
laptop monitor is normally 15 to 17 inches, notebooks
range from 13 to 14 inches and netbooks tend to be
around 10 inches.
The other problem that we have with netbooks that I
want anyone with low vision to take into consideration
when they are looking at this option for themselves, a
client, or student is that the video quality on a netbook
is very degraded. It is much less than what you would
get on a typical screen for a laptop, notebook, or
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desktop monitor. When looking at a netbook as an
option for a low vision user I really recommend they
get their hands on a netbook and look at the quality of
the screen. The other problem is that if you hook up a
netbook to a standard flat-screen desktop monitor
your quality is not going to improve because the video
feed from the netbook is still the same lower quality.
Even though you might have an excellent desktop
monitor you want to use you are not going to get any
improved image quality because of the video card in
the netbook. Again, make sure you take a good look
at those netbooks and make sure that they meet your
needs.
The other problem I see with low vision people having
with the netbook is the size of the keyboard and
particularly the size of the keys. They are difficult to
label and see. These are just some issues I want to
make sure everybody is aware of as they look at the
netbook option.
If it is okay with Sharon then I will move on to our next
section which talks about mobile note taking or PDA
solutions.
Sharon Ewing
In relations to the keys I did also mention earlier and
want to reiterate that is also in the key size and key
shape. We go back to that same issue with netbook
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keyboards being smaller than the notebooks and
laptops. Sometimes key reach, key shape, and those
people who just like that traditional feel to the
keyboard you won’t get that with the netbook. You
are going to get little bitty keys. Often times there is
no definitive difference but for example your function
keys are not going to have division between them.
They are just straight across. If you do choose the
Netbook avenue you are going to want to mark those
keys like F4, F8, F12 because sometimes there is no
declination between F12 and the insert, delete, and
home keys. Keyboard layout is a big consideration.
Again, it also makes you want to think more about the
key size, battery life, and what Amy mentioned about
the video quality.
Amy Salmon
Thanks Sharon. We are going to go on to the next
area of note taking solutions that I like to call
mainstream PDA options. Another term you will hear
in the field today is mobile solutions. These include
cells phones, smartphones, and Pocket PCs. They
really have come quite a ways in the last couple of
years as far as being an accessible option for
somebody who is visually impaired. But, what is the
difference?
A cellular phone can be a Symbian-based phone or a
Windows-based mobile phone which are the two
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primary phones on the market today. Android is a
new one that has just recently come onto the market
and I consider that to be more of a smartphone not a
standard cellular phone.
Then there are smartphones. Smartphones cover
everything from the Android, Blackberry, and iPhone.
Those would all be considered smartphones. A
smartphone is a cellular phone that also offers other
options and functions, such as accessing the internet,
checking email, and calendar and contacts all in one
place on your phone.
Then there are the more robust which are the Pocket
PCs. A Pocket PC can be a cell phone, but can also
be a standalone mobile device. On a Pocket PC you
typically have email, internet, calendar, and contracts,
but you also have more advanced computer
functionality like Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, or
PowerPoint available on the device.
Then comes the personal digital assistant, you were
right Billy, which can be a standalone device or
incorporated into your cell phone. For example, the
iPhone would be considered a smartphone/PDA, the
iTouch I would consider a PDA because it doesn’t
offer the cell phone functionality.
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Those are your categories of mobile solutions. Any of
these you can get at what I like to say, “What’s at
Best Buy?” My husband and I love to go to Best Buy.
We love to check out what’s new and love to buy toys.
All of this stuff you can buy at Best Buy. You don’t
have to go through a special vendor selling products
for the blind or visually impaired.
How do they make these mainstream products
accessible? There are several different techniques.
If you go the iPhone/iTouch/ iPad route and I lump
them all together because they all work on the same
platform/operating system using VoiceOver as the
screen reader to access the information. Right there
you have a solution that is all built into one. You buy
an iPhone you have VoiceOver. It’s built into the
operating system. If you have an iPad, again it’s just
a bigger version of the iPhone but does not have
cellular phone service, but has VoiceOver built right
into the operating system.
Then as you move to the Windows mobile platform
which would be a Windows mobile smartphone or
your Symbian based cell phone there are other
options for you as a blind or visually impaired user.
You can go with Mobile Speak and Mobile Magnifier
which is manufactured by a company called Code
Factory based in Spain. Mobile Speak provides you
text-to-speech access to all functions on your
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smartphone, cell phone, or Pocket PC. Mobile
Magnifier provides those with low vision magnified
access to the features on your smartphone, Symbian
cell phone or Pocket PC.
Android is in a category by itself. Android has some
text-to-speech support built into the operating system,
but it is not the greatest. I don’t recommend the
Android for somebody who is a blind user because
they have not quite perfected this function. They are
working on upgrades to the OS for the Android to
make it more accessible for people who need text-tospeech access.
What can you do with these mobile solutions? Why
are we talking about them as they relate to note
takers? In a lot of ways these mobile solutions could
be note takers. I am going to talk about my own
personal experience. I think that will give everybody
an idea in a more real-world situation. I am legally
blind and I used a traditional note taker. About two
years ago I replaced my traditional note taker with a
Windows Mobile Pocket PC running Mobile Speak
from Code Factory.
I am the mother of two little kids and my cell phone
and I never part. We are together all the time. I
wanted a device that offered me a cell phone
capability, keep the kids soccer schedule, and my
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doctor appointments all in one place. I also had all of
my contacts in the same location so that I could
quickly look up the doctors address and phone
number, but also giving me the ability to read a book if
I am sitting in a doctors office or listen to music, or
take notes. The Windows Pocket PC gave me that
option. I now have Microsoft Word as my note taker
and I can do all of those tasks all together. The
device I chose had a built-in keyboard, one of those
itty bitty what I like to call mice type built-in QWERTY
keyboards, but I added a Bluetooth fold up external
QWERTY keyboard that when folded was about the
size of a deck of cards. When unfolded was a fairly
large keyboard that I could then use in tandem with
my Pocket PC. It was a great solution and worked
wonderfully. I really enjoyed it instead of carrying a
note taker, cell phone, and book reader. I had it all in
one device.
In February of this year I decided to upgrade to the
iPhone 3GS. I am very happy. I was thrilled in June
of this year when they came out with the operating
system 4 for the iPhone which now fully supports
Bluetooth for Braille display as well as Bluetooth
external QWERTY keyboard support for the iPhone. I
personally purchased the Bluetooth QWERTY
keyboard and it works beautifully with the iPhone.
Again, I have everything in one solution.
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The typical price range on these devices depending
on the type of phone you get can range from $200 to
$500. Obviously with the iPhone solution you don’t
pay anything extra for your access technology
because it is built-in. If you go with the cellular,
smartphone, or Windows Mobile solution you do have
to pay extra for your screen reader or your screen
magnifier.
I have talked a little bit about the iPhone, iTouch, and
iPad. Previously we did a seminar at the end of
March this year on the iPhone and iTouch so if you
have questions about the iPhone or the iTouch I
strongly recommend you go back and listen to the
seminar we ran in March because we covered a lot of
the functions and features of the iPhone and the
iTouch.
I did not mention that the Blackberry would be
considered a smartphone. Recently HumanWare
worked the bugs out of their Oratio Text-To-Speech
software support for the Blackberry. So you now
have a couple of options for screen reader support for
your Blackberry.
You also have Talks™ from Nuance. They recently
had some changes in the company in the last year so
and I would look into them as far as what
smartphones and cell phones they are supporting.
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The other option you can have added to these mobile
platforms, and I let me break it down into two
categories; one is the iPhone/iTouch world and the
other would be the smartphone/cell phone/Pocket PC.
On the iPhone you have a built-in GPS system that is
accessible using VoiceOver. I personally can say that
I was out Friday and my driver got completely lost. I
was able to pull up the GPS on my iPhone and get us
back on track with the compass and figure out exactly
where we were and get us home. On the Windows
Mobile platform, such as the smartphone/cell
phone/Pocket PC, if you are using Mobile Speak you
have the option to add Mobile Geo which is the
Sendero Group GPS system. This can be added to
your cell phone package so you have fully accessible
GPS support on your mobile solution. I know that
they are looking at coming out with some new ones
as well in the GPS world.
Those are basically your mobile technology solutions
that are available today. What they can do for you
and it is another option that you might want to look
into if you are looking at a note taking solution. I find
that in some of the high school situations the students
want to have the same devices as the other students,
so how can we modify these devices like the iPhone
or smartphone to work for the students so that they
can utilize it and access information easily. It is very
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possible to do that today. Again, it is another option
that you should consider when looking at note taking
solutions.
I am gong to hand the microphone over to Sharon to
talk about traditional note takers unless there is
anything else you want me to add on the mobile
solutions.
Sharon Ewing
Thanks Amy. That was great. I am convinced. I am
going to get one today! No, just kidding. But, I do
love the idea of traditional and mainstream devices
coming up to snuff and working for people with visual
disabilities and other disabilities as well. People with
reading issues that need speech; I find that there are
more and more people who are grabbing things that
talk and saying, ‘this works for me’. It is helpful to
have this because I have issues with reading text or
reading for long periods of time or keeping up with
things while driving in the car. What about the people
who drive now that are actually able to use speech as
opposed to having to look down at their phone and
risk all of our lives by text messaging, which they do.
What I would like to talk about now with the time we
have left before we get to Q&A is traditional note
taking devices and the people who really love them,
need them, and what them. Built-in Braille displays
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as opposed to accessory Braille displays with a
device are a plus. People do like that in hand, one
piece device that have the ability to pick it up and go
and not have to worry about hooking up a Braille
display or Bluetooth for whatever reason. Maybe the
Bluetooth isn’t working as well as you like on it. You
don’t have that issue with a built-in Braille display.
That is a pro of a traditional note taking device with
built-in suites of productivity tools, why are we not
calling them note takers anymore. In fact, I believe
we are heading toward not calling these note takers
because they do so much more. You have your
calendar, planner, address books, MSN chat, and
database manager which can import data from files.
There are many manufacturers that are working on a
database solution to interface with Excel. For some, if
you save Excel files as comma separated values you
are able to import them into databases. You are also
able to use the word processors and type on Braille
input note takers or if you prefer there is a QT or
QWERTY versions which are typewriter style. The
you again come to the issue of battery life, and I will
reiterate that note takers in the traditional sense or
accessible personal digital assistants have the
capability of longer battery life that say a netbook,
notebook, or laptop.
One of the things you want to take into consideration
those things is the cons that they are sometimes not
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as powerful in terms of connectivity. I have actually
been in a hotel many times where I couldn’t get the
wireless to connect because it wasn’t strong enough
or the note taker wasn’t strong enough to interface,
but my laptop did just fine. I have also recently been
in hotels where the traditional note taking device did a
great job. No problem at all. It even accessed the
web page, what they call the redirect page that allows
you to connect to the internet. It did a great job of
browsing. Those things have changed as well in the
last year or two. Manufactures such as HumanWare,
Hands Co. Ltd., and LevelStar are all very capable of
connecting to the internet and doing a great job.
These are some of the choices you are going to have
Braille input or not that we discussed whether you
want something such as the LevelStar Icon or Braille
Plus or the APH version of the icon which is the
Braille Plus unit. The APH version has a docking
station with a very nice large keyboard that allows you
to type. It also has a mobile manager piece that
comes out and you have about 60 to 80 gigs of hard
drive which again shows we are approaching the
ability to call that more of a laptop or notebook
solution. There are all factors to consider.
In choosing your note taking device, I want to quickly
go through some things that Mr. Hodges gave us from
the American Foundation for the Blind or AFB Access
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World® article. I was so impressed with this. Amy
shared this with me and I just couldn’t help looking at
this check list for all the things you should consider
when choosing a device. This will also be in the
document presentation we are going to upload and
you will have the ability to see for yourself. There will
be a link to the article. He recommends that you
carefully choose note takers by giving them an A, B,
C value in each area that you test them. General
impressions such as sound or loudness of keyboard;
arrangement of keys; location of function navigation;
amount of pressure required to access the keys.
Some note takers require more pressure than others.
Is it too much or too little? That would be your choice
or decision to make. What about fatigue on the
fingers? I like this one question about how you get to
the ports. Can you get to them through the case or
do you have to take it out of the case. These are very
minute detailed factors that you want to look into
when you are choosing a note taking device to
determine if this is the device for you. You want to
look at the productivity tools as well the connection of
everything. Does it weigh too much? It can be a
matter of a couple of ounces one way or another and
you still have issues or whether it is thin or thick. Is it
short or long? Sometimes these things matter. If all
other factors are equal and the playing field is level in
terms of what the device can do for you then the size
and shape may matter. Responsiveness, again
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would I want that or put that in with the keyboard.
How quickly are you able to access the tools moving
through the keyboard or pressing the keys? How
quickly do things load? That’s another factor.
The Braille display is an interesting factor as well. I
had a lady call me this week and said I can’t use my
present note taking any longer because the Braille is
too sharp. I have always had people tell me the
Braille was not sharp enough. This sweet lady said
she had issues with the Braille being too sharp. This
is a concern. Is the Braille rounded or is it more
sharply defined. Is it smooth to the touch or does it
prick your hands when you touch it and this was an
issue for her. The speech, what kind of speech, can
you listen to or hear, is it easy on the ears or does it
bother you to listen to the pronunciation of the words
or how the speech is factored in with everything else.
Can you turn off the speech and do better? Do you
need to have it on with the Braille? Does the speech
pronounce things clearly if you have some hearing
issues?
If you care about media here is another factor about
the quality of music playback and recording. All of
these factors are one of many that are going to play a
huge role. Is it familiar and how much of a learning
curve am I going to have to deal with. Do I really
want to switch horses in mid-stream or do I want to
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stay with the productivity system that has remained
consistent, I am happy with, I like the newer feel, I like
the newer way it is shaped, I like the newer this or
that and I like the fact they kept things the same in
terms of the productivity tools. I don’t have all this
other stuff to learn or am I tired of this. Do I want to
switch and work with a device that has a completely
different feel and do things differently in the menus?
Do I want things to be different? A lot of that is going
to be your choice to determine when you do decide
on a note taker.
Before we get to the question and answer I want to
thank you all so very much for the privilege of working
with Hadley and with Billy. Again, Billy and I worked
together for several years in the same agency and I
just met Amy recently and I am just excited to know
that there is so much knowledge out there. I like to
learn from other people about their perceptions of
things. It gives you a completely different view of the
way things are. It changes your scope. It also
augments and makes better the way you relate to
other people and how you are able to teach and show
them what is out there.
I would like to pose a question and any of your
questions are more than welcome. If Amy would also
like to add to what I said I will release the mic shortly.
My question to all of you, are the lines blurring
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between choosing the laptop, netbook, notebook,
mobile solutions, and traditional note takers of the
devices that are out there? Obviously cost is a huge
con in some of these areas, but there are people out
there looking for cost solutions that are helpful rather
than prohibitive. There are people that are out there
trying to help make this a little easier for individuals to
afford and that is a huge issue with the people out
there looking for devices is can I afford this. Do I
want to stay with what is familiar and what I am
comfortable with at the cost of several thousand
dollars or do I want to try something new? Always
take into account that you may not have the things
that you are familiar with.
Amy, if you would like to add to anything, please feel
free to do so and thank you everyone for this
privilege.
Amy Salmon
Well, thank you very much Sharon. I appreciate
everything you offered. I did want to add a couple of
things that I noticed in my notes on the mobile
solutions. One feature of the mobile solution that
some people like is that with most mobile solutions
today whether it is the iPhone/iPad or the Pocket PC
or smartphone you can sync these devices to your
personal computer so you can share information
between your calendar, address books, and transfer
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information from your mobile device onto your
computer. For example, if you use the voice memo
recording feature on your iPhone you can then
transfer that file onto your computer so that you can
save it for future reference. Some of the syncing can
be done through a cable. The newer devices that
have come out in the last six to twelve months
actually have wireless syncing capability as long as
the phone is somewhere near your computer and
your computer is set up for wireless syncing. You can
actually sync it as soon as you literally walk in the
room. It will sync with your computer and transfer any
new appointments or new contacts to your mobile
device.
The other thing I was reviewing was some of the text
chat entries while Sharon was talking. I noticed that
Tim was talking about using other devices such as
your Victor Reader Stream book port is another
example. Those are devices that provide functionality
for book reading, audio book reading, and voice
recording. I don’t really see those as a traditional or
even comprehensive note taker, but they are another
tool that we have in our tool box for resources that are
definitely worth looking into and considering.
Tim was talking about was the standalone GPS
systems like the Maestro and Treker and Treker
Breeze. Those are great solutions too. Again, on the
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GPS front I think you just need to figure out which one
is going to work best for you. Do you want a GPS
system that is integrated into your note taker, whether
traditional note taker or a mobile solution or even you
have some netbooks out there that are offering some
GPS connectivity as long as you install the software.
You just need to figure out if you want a standalone
unit or do you want it integrated into everything else.
I want to let everyone know that while Sharon was
talking earlier I was in the background working with
Hadley’s wonderful computer services staff and we
have now uploaded documents to the room. If you
are using a screen reader you can press the F6 key to
move to the browser window and then you can down
arrow and the links for today’s seminar have been
posted. We have created a document on additional
resources that list other Hadley seminars that we
have done related to this topic such as the iPhone
seminar I mentioned that we held in March. Then a
list of articles that ran in AFBs Access World®
magazine over the last couple of years that deal with
this topic from how to select a netbook, to traditional
note takers, to iPhone and mobile solutions. I really
recommend that you take a look at these articles and
listen to some of Hadley’s past seminars for additional
background and information to help you make your
decision for yourself, your client, or your student. We
also have a document up there that lists
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iPhone/iTouch/iPad resources. That document offers
information for you on where you get more
information on these devices, how to get training, and
where additional resources are for anybody who is
using that platform or solution. We then have a
document that lists the Macintosh VoiceOver
resources and keyboard commands if you are using
VoiceOver I thought I would include that for anybody
who wanted it because it is not something that a lot of
people have available. The other document we put
up is a list of traditional note taker manufactures with
most current pricing we know today and availability of
the manufacturers.
Feel free to check out those links. You can press
enter on the link and you will be prompted to
download and save or open that file. If you do not
want to do that while you are in the room do not worry
about it. These will be posted with this seminars
recording in Hadley’s seminar room under Past
Seminars. Feel free to go there and get these
documents at that time. I am going to turn it over to
Billy.
Billy Brookshire
Amy and Sharon you guys have given us lots to think
about today. Amy thanks for all those documents.
We had a note here talking about where to find them.
You might want to cover that again a little bit later.
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Also, we have one question in the chat room for you
guys. It is from Tim who says, “Can you weigh the
pros and cons of proprietary devices like Braille
Sense versus devices that adapt mainstream
technology such as PAC Mate?” That might be a
good question to start with before we open it up to the
microphone. Sharon or Amy, do either of you want to
address this question?
Sharon Ewing
Tim, I have evaluated all of those devices at one point
in time and in contrasting the devices one of the
greater differences in the devices is that you can
install and uninstall software on the PAC Mate. It also
uses a mobile version of Microsoft Excel and Word
where the Braille Sense and the new HumanWare
Baille Note Apex units stay with more of the traditional
scheme of productivity tools that have been out for
quite some time. They have augmented and made
them much more useable. They have also locked out
any installation of software.
I see the pros and cons of each. I see the fact that
you can do a whole lot of damage to your note taker if
you start installing and uninstalling software. I have
seen people who have told me and these are not my
own words, but theirs that they would rather have a
more stable platform in which case the Braille Sense
and the Braille Note Apex give you that type of stable
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platform and use the Windows CE standard on which
to install, but they also develop their own software to
use on that device as opposed to being able install
and uninstall different things on the note takers.
I have had people tell me they didn’t like the idea of
having something traditional they wanted the ability to
install and uninstall software on their note takers. It is
a matter of taste. It’s a matter of preference and as a
person who sells traditional note taking devices I have
seen too many instances where I thought I knew
something and then I realized I didn’t know based on
those customers that I have that will tell me that they
want that ability. I want to be able to change what’s
going on with my note taker. I want to be able to
uninstall and install things even if I have to do it a lot.
At one time I had to do it every time I did an upgrade.
That is no longer necessarily the case, but I am
saying it didn’t matter. They wanted the ability to
change what was on the device and to be in control.
Amy what about you?
Amy Salmon
I agree with you Sharon. It is a personal decision.
What do you want to work with? If you are using
Braille Sense or the Braille Note Apex series you
know that your formats are going to be different. If
you are going to be transferring files to your computer
or if you want to email them to somebody you may
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have to manually go in a change the format of those
files so that they can through as a .DOC. You don’t
have Microsoft Excel as an option on those devices
so you can’t do spreadsheets, but that may not be an
issue for you. The PAC Mate gives you the option to
use the Pocket Word or Pocket Excel and those
formats are readily available. On the laptop or
netbook scene obviously you have all your file formats
that are compatible with someone else if you want to
transfers files between systems or to someone else.
Regarding the mobile solution side since most of the
mobile solution platforms are either based on the
Windows Mobile platform or the Blackberry (in a world
all its own) so I don’t’ really want to get into that
because Blackberry works on its own server and its
own network, but most of the other Windows Mobile
systems you are dealing with like Mobile Word or
Mobile Excel. On the iPhone the beauty of Mac is
that it has always been cross platform so the files are
transferable from one to the other. It is really a matter
of what do you want to use the device for. It is a
personal decision.
I am going to move on here since I have been
catching up with Billy. There were a couple questions
I saw come in. One is how do we get to the
documents that are available for today’s session. You
have two options, you can either get them right now if
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you are using a screen reader you can press the F6
key that will move you to the browser window of the
conference room. You can then down arrow and you
will see links there for each of the individual
documents. Press enter on the link and you will be
prompted with the standard Internet Explorer or
Firefox download that will ask if you want to save or
run this file and you can choose how you want to
handle that file. After opening or saving the first file
then you can go back and go on to the next file in the
list and follow the same instructions.
However, if you don’t want to hassle with it right now
we will be posting all of these documents on the
Hadley website under Past Seminars. If you go to
Hadley.edu website in a couple of days select the link
for Past Seminars and on the Past Seminars page
you are going to go down to the name of today’s
session and you will be able to download or listen to
the audio recording and the documents will be listed
after that. Again, you can open them and save them
or just listen to them on your computer.
I am going to hand the mic back to Billy or see if there
any other questions.
Billy Brookshire
We have a couple more questions that have come
into the chat room. I want to bring up one which is,
and this might be yours Amy, Marie is asking can you
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use touch phones, etc. and if so how? The second
question is what if you don’t have a screen reader,
how do you access?
Amy Salmon
On the touch phone it really depends on which one
you are looking at. For example, on the
iPhone/iTouch/iPad you have the ability to use the
built-in screen reader VoiceOver that is free and
comes with the device. All you need to do is enable
the option. It is very simple. The touch screen on the
iPhone/iTouch solution really is a touch screen.
Where ever you touch your finger it announces what
is under your finger. Using hand gestures and
different techniques you can actually do quite a bit
and you have a full screen reader support so that
VoiceOver is telling you what you are doing and how
you are interacting with the device.
On the Windows Mobile platform if you are using
Mobile Speak, Mobile Speak does use it with a touch
screen so if you use a fully touch screen smartphone,
Pocket PC or PDA, again through different gestures
on the screen and mainly with tapping the screen in
different locations you will be able to get all the
functionality that the touch screen offers. Android is a
bit different and as I have said earlier their interface is
not there yet. They need time to work out some bugs
so that is will work well with screen reader support.
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To answer your second question, what if you don’t
have a screen reader? If you are totally blind and you
are trying to access a device you are probably going
to need a screen reader. If you are looking at
notebook, laptop, or netbook you have several
options. You can purchase a screen reader like
JAWS® or Window-Eyes which are excellent screen
readers. You also have some other options today.
You can download a totally free open source screen
reader called NVDA which stands for Non Visual
Desktop Access. Again, it is totally free open source
screen reader. It has some limitations. It works really
well on the internet and email, but is limited in its
support for some of the programs like Microsoft Word
and Excel. You also can use a free version of System
Access To Go which is found at www.satogo.com and
can be used for free. Also System Access To Go
offers some really nice payment plans where you can
pay a certain amount each month if you decide you
want to purchase the software.
Those are the four leading pieces of screen reader
software out there today. There are other screen
readers and screen magnifiers available which would
take another seminar to tell you about. They would
be able to run on a laptop, netbook, or notebook or
the traditional note takers. All of them come with
some kind of text-to-speech screen reader support.
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Again, depending on the device would determine the
text-to-speech engine they are using and voice
choices available. On the mobile solutions obviously
if you are blind user and you want to use a
smartphone you are going to need to purchase a textto-speech screen reader that works on that platform
and that would be Mobile Speak or Talks would be
two of the primary text-to-speech software engines
that work on smartphones, cell phones, and Pocket
PCs. In the iPhone world it comes built into the
iPhone so you do not have to purchase any additional
software to put on the iPhone, iPad, or iTouch.
Billy Brookshire
Thanks Amy. [Christy] has modified her question to
say "How do I get to documents without a screen
reader?" That might be something to address later.
For the rest of you I am going to open it up to the
microphones. We have about five minutes left if you
have any questions you would like to ask now is the
time.
Caller
This has been an excellent presentation. I was
wondering if one or both of you has struggled with an
issue that I struggle with and that is the whole issue of
privacy on how nice it is to have a mainstream device
with a screen but that often in public especially if you
are doing something that you don’t want just anybody
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to see., Is that a concern for you versus the nice part
of having something like Braille or speech but then
you may need some help and you do not have the
screen so nobody can sort of look at it and say, ‘oh
this is what’s going on’. I just wanted your thoughts
on that. Thank you.
Amy Salmon
I am going to jump in here Sharon because I just dealt
with this last night as a matter of fact. It’s kind of
funny you bring that up. We have better privacy
control that the sighted people. What I do with my
iPhone is turn my screen brightness down to nothing
because I am not using the screen visually I am using
it tactually through the touch screen so nobody can
see that screen. But I still have full access to
everything that is on the screen. I put an ear bud in or
a Bluetooth headset so that they are not hearing the
speech talking. It gives me total privacy. My husband
on the other hand who is sighted and using a
Blackberry while sitting at our daughters football
practice last night had somebody looking over his
shoulder and reading an email that he had gotten
from his boss that he was looking at on his screen.
He could not control that because he visually had to
look at the screen and he could not control somebody
standing over his shoulder and reading. If it had been
me they would not have been able to see it because
my screen is totally dimmed.
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I find that I have better privacy control than my
sighted counterparts.
Billy Brookshire
Any other questions out there folks would like to
address.
Caller
Yes I have had trouble with the smartphone because
the buttons are just too small. Would screen access
be better in that case?
Amy Salmon
With the smartphones I strongly recommend you get
into a store and try the devices. Get your hands on
them. You can order them online, but I think you
really need to go into the store and try them out
before your order. There are some smartphones that
have some wonderful keys like the Motorola flip
phone. It has really nice key size and layout but it is a
flip phone. It’s another option if you want to stay in
that smartphone and throw on a screen reader like
Mobile Speak. If you want to go touch screen that is
another personal decision. I just read an article
before I came in today they have a new screen
overlay for the iPhone and iTouch that is a screen
protector that you can put on the front of your iPhone
or iTouch that has little bumps to indicate where
certain elements are on the touch screen. For
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example, it has a little bump for the number five if you
are in the number pad for the telephone keypad. It
has little bumps on the F and J if you are using the on
screen keyboard. I thought that was a pretty cool new
feature. I think they are $6 for the screen protector
that has these tactile bumps for those of us who want
to use the touch screen but maybe getting a little
frustrated with the location of what is the screen.
Billy Brookshire
Okay folks, time for maybe one more question if there
is a quick one. We have one minute left. Alright, I
guess that is the end of our broadcast. Thank you for
tuning in. I want to remind you that this seminar like
all of our Seminars@Hadley is archived on our
website. Amy mentioned a little bit about this before.
These seminars are available 24/7. If there is a
resource list that comes along with the presentation
and Amy has already mentioned that they will be
posted there as well.
I would like to thank you all for participating. As you
know, we value your feedback. Please let us know
what you thought of the seminar and if you have
future seminar topics you would like to suggest, send
an email to feedback@hadley.edu.
Sharon/Amy would you like to say goodbye before I
end the seminar?
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Amy Salmon
I want to say thank you to everyone for being here
today and participating. I always enjoy doing these
seminars. I find your questions interesting and they
keep me going. Please keep them coming. If you
have question or me specifically you can always
reach me at Hadley. I am the instructor for Using
Excel, Internet: Beyond the Basics, and Access
Technology beginning courses. Please feel free to
contact me through Hadley if there is anything else I
can do for you. Thanks again for letting me do this
and for participating today.
Sharon Ewing
I do appreciate everyone’s participation. Thank you
so much for everyone’s attention and questions.
Please do not hesitate to contact me. I am in Austin
at Kewing Enterprises and my telephone number is
512-340-0062. Please feel free to call or email me at
Sharon@kewing.com with any questions you might
have about anything we talked about today or
questions about visual impairment and devices you
might like to know more about. Thank you and have
a wonderful afternoon.
Billy Brookshire
Thank you all for coming. We appreciate it very
much. Amy and Sharon you did just a terrific job.
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Thanks so much. I learned all kinds of things today. I
think you can see from the information in the chat
room that the rest of folks did too.
For all of you thanks for participating. Please, keep
coming back. We love having you here. Have a
great day. We will see you soon.
[End of Audio – 0:59:11]
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