What are people's preferences between TW Blue or OpenTween?--Joe

On 9/11/18, Mohamed <malhajamy@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes, he did say that, but it seems he's abandoned that idea for now.


On 9/10/2018 7:07 PM, Hope Williamson via Groups.Io wrote:

Hi, I could be wrong and it could be just me, but I thought he said he
was going to release a final version? As in to take care of the
Twitter changes.


On 9/10/2018 10:27 AM, Cristóbal wrote:

If you're not already logged in and authorized with CN, then you're
more or less out of luck and will have to either go with TW Blue or
OpenTween for Windows PC. This is due to Twitter's API changes last
month and the CN dev announcing that he'd no longer be updating the
client do to those new changes.

-----Original Message-----
From: main@TechTalk.groups.io <main@TechTalk.groups.io> On Behalf Of
Joe Orozco
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2018 10:15 AM
To: main@techtalk.groups.io
Subject: [TechTalk] Chicken Nugget Twitter Client

Hi,

I hadn't used Chicken Nugget in a while. When I recently tried to
relaunch it, I click on the Add Existing Twitter account button, but
though it says it's connecting, the application doesn't actually take
me anywhere. It just sits there. I uninstalled, reinstalled, to no
avail. Am I missing something? Thanks for any help.

Joe

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

Yes, he did say that, but it seems he's abandoned that idea for now.


On 9/10/2018 7:07 PM, Hope Williamson via Groups.Io wrote:

Hi, I could be wrong and it could be just me, but I thought he said he
was going to release a final version? As in to take care of the
Twitter changes.


On 9/10/2018 10:27 AM, Cristóbal wrote:

If you're not already logged in and authorized with CN, then you're
more or less out of luck and will have to either go with TW Blue or
OpenTween for Windows PC. This is due to Twitter's API changes last
month and the CN dev announcing that he'd no longer be updating the
client do to those new changes.

-----Original Message-----
From: main@TechTalk.groups.io <main@TechTalk.groups.io> On Behalf Of
Joe Orozco
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2018 10:15 AM
To: main@techtalk.groups.io
Subject: [TechTalk] Chicken Nugget Twitter Client

Hi,

I hadn't used Chicken Nugget in a while. When I recently tried to
relaunch it, I click on the Add Existing Twitter account button, but
though it says it's connecting, the application doesn't actually take
me anywhere. It just sits there. I uninstalled, reinstalled, to no
avail. Am I missing something? Thanks for any help.

Joe

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com

They are in a folder called Trash.
On 9/12/2018 4:34 PM, angelsonsAna wrote:

Hello there, I am using windows ten with thunder bird and I would like to read my deleted items, but I don't know how to find them can anyone help?

Hi Everyone,
Can someone please tell me how to be for sure I've wiped my old external drive completely clean before I take it to Best Buy for recycle?
I did delete what I had on the drive, but just not for sure if that is good enough.
I don't remember what kind of drive it is because I've had it over ten years.

Thank you in advance.
Janet

Steve is right, the folder is called trash.  Follow the steps in my previous message and look for Trash, not deleted items.  Don't know where my head was on that original.



On 9/13/2018 10:42 AM, Ron Canazzi wrote:

Hi Angel,


From the Thunderbird main window, press the F6 key, this should bring you to a list of folders.  Depending upon just how you configure Thunderbird, you may have to press the F6 key more than once to get to the list of folders.  When you do, you should hear something like: Tree view level one inbox selected 1 of 4.'  Then use the down arrow key to highlight the deleted items folder. Then press the tab key until you hear the list of messages and you should be good to go.



On 9/12/2018 4:34 PM, angelsonsAna wrote:

Hello there, I am using windows ten with thunder bird and I would like to read my deleted items, but I don't know how to find them can anyone help?

Hi Everyone,
Can someone please tell me how to be for sure I've wiped my old external
drive completely clean before I take it to Best Buy for recycle?
I did delete what I had on the drive, but just not for sure if that is good
enough.
I don't remember what kind of drive it is because I've had it over ten
years.

Thank you in advance.
Janet

Hi Angel,


From the Thunderbird main window, press the F6 key, this should bring you to a list of folders.  Depending upon just how you configure Thunderbird, you may have to press the F6 key more than once to get to the list of folders.  When you do, you should hear something like: Tree view level one inbox selected 1 of 4.'  Then use the down arrow key to highlight the deleted items folder. Then press the tab key until you hear the list of messages and you should be good to go.



On 9/12/2018 4:34 PM, angelsonsAna wrote:

Hello there, I am using windows ten with thunder bird and I would like to read my deleted items, but I don't know how to find them can anyone help?

Hello there, I am using windows ten with thunder bird and I would like to read my deleted items, but I don't know how to find them can anyone help?

Hello there, I am using windows ten with thunder bird and I would like to read my deleted items, but I don't know how to find them can anyone help?

Wow, Thanks a lot for that!

I would like to see all computer programs at universities and colleges, demand students to take a couple assistive technology classes as a part of their degree.

I think this is a must!

I love to see assistive technology getting people’s attention in the mainstream. It is so much better than it was just 20 years ago.

If more and more software is developed with accessibility in mine, it will be beautiful!

David Moore

 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

 

From: Alan Dicey
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2018 5:05 PM
Cc: Tech Talk Groups
Subject: [TechTalk] Technology improves for people with disabilities as firmsrespond to moral, legal demands article from USA Today 9/10

 

article from USA Today 9/10/2018

This article quotes ACB members Doug Wakefield and Don Barrett, as well as

ACB executive director Eric Bridges.

 

Technology improves for people with disabilities as firms respond to moral,

legal demands

 

By Edward C. Baig, USA Today

September 10, 2018

Xbox's latest release, the Adaptive Controller, allows compatibility

external joysticks, pedals, switches and buttons. USA TODAY

 

Retiree Douglas Wakefield is a tech enthusiast.

The 76-year-old begins a typical day by donning his Apple Watch and

listening to its synthesized voice deliver the weather. Over coffee, the

Arlington, Virginia, resident catches up on overnight news on his iPhone X

and consumes books read out loud on topics like coding - his goal is to

write apps for the iPhone.

 

Blind since birth, Wakefield has been taking advantage of features on the

most popular tech devices and platforms that have made them more useful to

people with disabilities.

These have meant big changes in the way he goes about his daily routine.

A former broadcaster for the Department of Agriculture and later a computer

specialist working in government, he uses Microsoft's Seeing AI app for the

iPhone to, among other purposes, scan barcodes that let him distinguish the

groceries that are delivered: packages of crackers, or the Chardonnay his

wife prefers to the Pinot Noir he favors.

Previously, someone would have to tell him and his wife, who is also blind,

which bottle was which.

 

Thanks to narration tracks on Netflix and Apple TV, he can take in a movie,

following audio that depicts the scenes, from what characters are wearing to

their facial expressions. In 2016, Netflix reached a settlement with

advocates for the blind community to add such "audio

descriptions" tracks to more of the content.

 

One of the biggest shifts in Wakefield's day-to-day routine comes from the

Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod; he owns all three

voice-activated smart speakers. For example, he can summon the assistants to

turn on household lights by voice.

 

"I often say if all these tools were around when I was going to school, God,

it would be a breeze," he says.

 

Over the last few years, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft have

leveraged artificial intelligence, computer vision and advances in voice

recognition to deliver tools to assist blind individuals and people who are

deaf, have motor impairments or other disabilities. At the same time, new

technologies such as voice-activated speakers and more captioning on

websites and in social media have widened access to some internet services.

 

Pressured to do the right thing

 

Development of these specialized features are driven by a confluence of

factors - a  desire by tech leaders to be more inclusive, but also the need

to satisfy legal and market imperatives.

 

"This is the right thing to do both from a moral point of view but it's also

the right thing to do from a business point of view," says Amazon director

of accessibility Peter Korn.

Companies must adhere to the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act and comply

with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires the federal

government to make electronic and information technology accessible to

people with disabilities. And many states have their own Section-508-type

requirements or consumer-protection statutes.

 

Laws have provided the biggest benefit to blind people, because "you can't

count on people's compassion to drive industry," says Anil Lewis, executive

director for the Jernigan Institute at National Federation of the Blind.

 

Companies are also cognizant that to keep expanding their customer base,they

need to make products that everyone can use.

 

More than a billion people, or about 15 percent of the global population,

have some form of disability, according to the World Health Organization.

 

What's more, as the general population ages, "accessibility is not something

that is strictly thought of anymore as helping people who are blind or

helping people who are blind or helping people who are deaf," says Geoff

Freed, director of technology projects and web media standards at the

National Center for Accessible Media. "When you make something accessible

for a specific population, the entire population benefits."

 

Built-in tools, not after-thoughts

 

But there's still plenty of room for progress across the tech industry.

 

Increased tech accessibility is needed to break down some of the barriers

that prevent or make it difficult for people with disabilities to enter the

workforce. In 2017, 18.7 percent of people with a disability were employed,

the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, compared to 65.7 percent for those

without a disability. And the unemployment rate for people with a disability

was 9.2 percent, more than double the 4.2 percent rate for the rest of the

population.

 

Artificial intelligence promises to help predict consumers' needs, model

human conversation and sort through vast tracts of data - all potentially

helpful for people with disabilities.

But, "we're still kind of at the starting line with AI in terms of what its

promises are and what it will be able to deliver," said Eric Bridges,

executive director of the American Council of the Blind.

 

 

Advocates also warn that technological innovations meant as conveniences

must avoid conferring a stigma on the user.

 

"People want their accessibility tools to be built into the same devices

that everybody else is using whenever possible, rather than have their own

device that makes them stand out because of their disability," says Eve

Andersson, the director of accessibility engineering at Google.

Lewis of the Jernigan Institute was on a panel at an accessibility

conference when an executive from IBM brought up the idea of an artificial

intelligence robot that could help a blind person check into a hotel and

show them around their room. While acknowledging it could be helpful for

some, Lewis was insulted.

"Just give me the key. If I get to the hotel and expect this (AI robot) to

take me to the room, that's going to make me lazy and not practice my

independent travel skills. And one day that technology may not work or not

be available."

 

What companies are doing

 

Microsoft recently came out with a $100 adaptive controller for the Xbox

with multiple ports that are compatible with a range of optional

accessibility peripherals, including bite switches, single-handed joysticks

and foot pedals.

 

The packaging also has been designed for gamers who have limited mobility.

One way is through the use of loops and a specially designed

'break-the-seal'

label. Designers also followed a 'no teeth' principle that didn't require

users to open the package with their teeth.

 

 

At its Build developer conference this past May, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

announced an "AI for Accessibility" pledge to spend $25 million over five

years to put AI tools in the hands of developers who can accelerate the

development of accessibility solutions.

 

At its own I/O developer conference last spring, Google revealed plans for a

Lookout app coming later this year, which by employing machine learning and

image processing, promises to help blind people wearing a Pixel around their

neck learn about their environment. It uses spoken cues to describe where a

bathroom is located or to detect people, text and objects around them

("scissors at 12:00.")

 

Some accessibility features are fairly simple -- on the iPhone, for example,

a person with visual impairments can magnify the display or invert the

screen colors to better make out the screen. Other tools on the phone are

meant to help disabled users interact with switches and other adaptive

accessories.

 

Wakefield, for instance, also uses a refreshable Braille display that helps

him feel in Braille what is on the screen. "I don't care how good synthetic

speech is, sometimes they can really botch a word." He joked that the Jewish

holiday of Chanukah is always pronounced "chanookah."

 

Caption: An accessibility shortcuts menu on Apple's iPad Pro (Photo: Apple)

 

More than 50 third party Bluetooth hearing aid models work with Apple's Made

For iPhone hearing aid program which came out in 2013. Last year, Apple

partnered with Cochlear on the first Made For iPhone cochlear implant. As

part of the upcoming iOS 12 software update, consumers can also turn AirPods

wireless earbuds into a hearing aid of sorts, using an Apple-developed

assistive technology called Live Listen.

 

Amazon recently introduced a feature for the Echo Show smart speaker with a

screen called Tap to Alexa, which lets people with speech impairments query

Alexa without using their voice. Instead, they can tap the display and

choose among preset menu options, maybe to have Alexa deliver weather or

news. Folks can customize such requests too, perhaps using the Echo Show or

Echo Spot to turn certain smart home devices on or off. Users of

screen-based Echo devices can also turn on captioning.

 

Disability advocates say that ideally, companies will build assistive

technology into their development process - rather than as an afterthought.

 

"What some tech companies do is say, `We'll release an accessible version

later, and we'll talk about it like it's something really sexy and, woohoo,

exciting.' We actually want (it) to be kind of boring" and just be

accessible," says Eve Hill, a partner at Brown, Goldstein & Levy in

Washington, D.C., and former deputy assistant attorney general at the

Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

 

Don Barrett, a member of the American Council of the Blind, agrees: "If you

get coders and computer scientists accessibility-aware from the beginning .

it's not a big deal.' I think people just don't think along those lines," he

said.

 

Caption: Apple CEO Tim Cook with actor and deaf advocate Nyle DiMarco making

a surprise visit to California School for the Deaf in Fremont, Calif.) for

the launch of the company's Everyone Can Code initiative in May 2018.

(Photo: Apple)

 

That attitude is changing.  Apple CEO Tim Cook has been pushing the

company's "Everyone Can Code" curricula for the Swift programming language

to schools across the country that serve students who are deaf and blind.

 

"At Apple, we consider accessibility to be a basic human right," says Sarah

Herrlinger, director of global accessibility policy at the company.

 

And more tech companies have dedicated accessibility units.

 

Facebook's Matt King was recruited from IBM in 2015. A year later, his

project at the social network began helping sightless or low-vision people

"see" what's in pictures by describing what's in them. At the time, the

photo descriptions were only available in English and only on iOS and

Android; descriptions have since been rolled out to the Web and to more than

two dozen languages.

 

Read more: Facebook taps artificial intelligence for users with disabilities

 

Since then, Facebook has been expanding the kinds of audible descriptors it

can identify, including such activities as sitting, eating, walking or

playing a musical instrument. And in December, it started naming friends in

a photo using facial recognition.

 

What's next?

Caption: Matt King, a Facebook accessibility engineer who has been blind

since childhood, is working to create tools that will use artificial

intelligence to identify objects in photos and describe them to users. Video

by Christopher Schodt for USA TODAY

 

Though not ready to be commercialized, a New York developer Abhishek Singh

built a prototype that lets Alexa devices with a camera detect sign language

and respond with transcribed text.

 

Machine learning has "made it possible for the computer to see an image of

me and continuously make a prediction of what sign it thought I was making,"

Singh says. "The purpose of this project was to start a conversation, not

solve the entire sign-language-to-text problem."

 

And despite also being a work in progress, Microsoft's Seeing AI app is also

providing benefits to people like Wakefield. Among its features, the app

uses the phone's camera to describe a person's approximate age and mood,

though not always with perfect accuracy (e.g., "47-year-old man looking

happy").  Seeing AI can also read text, identify currency and describe

colors, which can help a blind person pick out a matching outfit.

 

Wakefield has one lasting complaint that people both with and without

disabilities can relate to, the price of today's tech gear: "A lot of people

can't afford this stuff. Seeing AI is free. But the iPhone isn't."

To read the article online, go to

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2018/09/10/technology-improves-people-disabilities-firms-respond-moral-legal-demands/835232002/

<https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2018/09/10/technology-improves-people-disabilities-firms-respond-moral-legal-demands/835232002/>.

 

Sharon Lovering, Editor

American Council of the Blind

1703 N. Beauregard St., Suite 420

Alexandria, VA 22311

 

slovering@... <mailto:slovering@...>

 

Learn more about us at www.acb.org <http://www.acb.org/>

 

Follow us on Twitter @acbnational

 

Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AmericanCounciloftheBlindOfficial

<http://www.facebook.com/AmericanCounciloftheBlindOfficial>

 

With best regards

God Bless

Alan

Plantation, Sunny South Florida

 

 

 

 

 

article from USA Today 9/10/2018

This article quotes ACB members Doug Wakefield and Don Barrett, as well as

ACB executive director Eric Bridges.

Technology improves for people with disabilities as firms respond to moral,

legal demands

By Edward C. Baig, USA Today

September 10, 2018

Xbox's latest release, the Adaptive Controller, allows compatibility

external joysticks, pedals, switches and buttons. USA TODAY

Retiree Douglas Wakefield is a tech enthusiast.

The 76-year-old begins a typical day by donning his Apple Watch and

listening to its synthesized voice deliver the weather. Over coffee, the

Arlington, Virginia, resident catches up on overnight news on his iPhone X

and consumes books read out loud on topics like coding - his goal is to

write apps for the iPhone.

Blind since birth, Wakefield has been taking advantage of features on the

most popular tech devices and platforms that have made them more useful to

people with disabilities.

These have meant big changes in the way he goes about his daily routine.

A former broadcaster for the Department of Agriculture and later a computer

specialist working in government, he uses Microsoft's Seeing AI app for the

iPhone to, among other purposes, scan barcodes that let him distinguish the

groceries that are delivered: packages of crackers, or the Chardonnay his

wife prefers to the Pinot Noir he favors.

Previously, someone would have to tell him and his wife, who is also blind,

which bottle was which.

Thanks to narration tracks on Netflix and Apple TV, he can take in a movie,

following audio that depicts the scenes, from what characters are wearing to

their facial expressions. In 2016, Netflix reached a settlement with

advocates for the blind community to add such "audio

descriptions" tracks to more of the content.

One of the biggest shifts in Wakefield's day-to-day routine comes from the

Amazon Echo, Google Home and Apple HomePod; he owns all three

voice-activated smart speakers. For example, he can summon the assistants to

turn on household lights by voice.

"I often say if all these tools were around when I was going to school, God,

it would be a breeze," he says.

Over the last few years, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft have

leveraged artificial intelligence, computer vision and advances in voice

recognition to deliver tools to assist blind individuals and people who are

deaf, have motor impairments or other disabilities. At the same time, new

technologies such as voice-activated speakers and more captioning on

websites and in social media have widened access to some internet services.

Pressured to do the right thing

Development of these specialized features are driven by a confluence of

factors - a  desire by tech leaders to be more inclusive, but also the need

to satisfy legal and market imperatives.

"This is the right thing to do both from a moral point of view but it's also

the right thing to do from a business point of view," says Amazon director

of accessibility Peter Korn.

Companies must adhere to the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act and comply

with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, which requires the federal

government to make electronic and information technology accessible to

people with disabilities. And many states have their own Section-508-type

requirements or consumer-protection statutes.

Laws have provided the biggest benefit to blind people, because "you can't

count on people's compassion to drive industry," says Anil Lewis, executive

director for the Jernigan Institute at National Federation of the Blind.

Companies are also cognizant that to keep expanding their customer base,they

need to make products that everyone can use.

More than a billion people, or about 15 percent of the global population,

have some form of disability, according to the World Health Organization.

What's more, as the general population ages, "accessibility is not something

that is strictly thought of anymore as helping people who are blind or

helping people who are blind or helping people who are deaf," says Geoff

Freed, director of technology projects and web media standards at the

National Center for Accessible Media. "When you make something accessible

for a specific population, the entire population benefits."

Built-in tools, not after-thoughts

But there's still plenty of room for progress across the tech industry.

Increased tech accessibility is needed to break down some of the barriers

that prevent or make it difficult for people with disabilities to enter the

workforce. In 2017, 18.7 percent of people with a disability were employed,

the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported, compared to 65.7 percent for those

without a disability. And the unemployment rate for people with a disability

was 9.2 percent, more than double the 4.2 percent rate for the rest of the

population.

Artificial intelligence promises to help predict consumers' needs, model

human conversation and sort through vast tracts of data - all potentially

helpful for people with disabilities.

But, "we're still kind of at the starting line with AI in terms of what its

promises are and what it will be able to deliver," said Eric Bridges,

executive director of the American Council of the Blind.

Advocates also warn that technological innovations meant as conveniences

must avoid conferring a stigma on the user.

"People want their accessibility tools to be built into the same devices

that everybody else is using whenever possible, rather than have their own

device that makes them stand out because of their disability," says Eve

Andersson, the director of accessibility engineering at Google.

Lewis of the Jernigan Institute was on a panel at an accessibility

conference when an executive from IBM brought up the idea of an artificial

intelligence robot that could help a blind person check into a hotel and

show them around their room. While acknowledging it could be helpful for

some, Lewis was insulted.

"Just give me the key. If I get to the hotel and expect this (AI robot) to

take me to the room, that's going to make me lazy and not practice my

independent travel skills. And one day that technology may not work or not

be available."

What companies are doing

Microsoft recently came out with a $100 adaptive controller for the Xbox

with multiple ports that are compatible with a range of optional

accessibility peripherals, including bite switches, single-handed joysticks

and foot pedals.

The packaging also has been designed for gamers who have limited mobility.

One way is through the use of loops and a specially designed

'break-the-seal'

label. Designers also followed a 'no teeth' principle that didn't require

users to open the package with their teeth.

At its Build developer conference this past May, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

announced an "AI for Accessibility" pledge to spend $25 million over five

years to put AI tools in the hands of developers who can accelerate the

development of accessibility solutions.

At its own I/O developer conference last spring, Google revealed plans for a

Lookout app coming later this year, which by employing machine learning and

image processing, promises to help blind people wearing a Pixel around their

neck learn about their environment. It uses spoken cues to describe where a

bathroom is located or to detect people, text and objects around them

("scissors at 12:00.")

Some accessibility features are fairly simple -- on the iPhone, for example,

a person with visual impairments can magnify the display or invert the

screen colors to better make out the screen. Other tools on the phone are

meant to help disabled users interact with switches and other adaptive

accessories.

Wakefield, for instance, also uses a refreshable Braille display that helps

him feel in Braille what is on the screen. "I don't care how good synthetic

speech is, sometimes they can really botch a word." He joked that the Jewish

holiday of Chanukah is always pronounced "chanookah."

Caption: An accessibility shortcuts menu on Apple's iPad Pro (Photo: Apple)

More than 50 third party Bluetooth hearing aid models work with Apple's Made

For iPhone hearing aid program which came out in 2013. Last year, Apple

partnered with Cochlear on the first Made For iPhone cochlear implant. As

part of the upcoming iOS 12 software update, consumers can also turn AirPods

wireless earbuds into a hearing aid of sorts, using an Apple-developed

assistive technology called Live Listen.

Amazon recently introduced a feature for the Echo Show smart speaker with a

screen called Tap to Alexa, which lets people with speech impairments query

Alexa without using their voice. Instead, they can tap the display and

choose among preset menu options, maybe to have Alexa deliver weather or

news. Folks can customize such requests too, perhaps using the Echo Show or

Echo Spot to turn certain smart home devices on or off. Users of

screen-based Echo devices can also turn on captioning.

Disability advocates say that ideally, companies will build assistive

technology into their development process - rather than as an afterthought.

"What some tech companies do is say, `We'll release an accessible version

later, and we'll talk about it like it's something really sexy and, woohoo,

exciting.' We actually want (it) to be kind of boring" and just be

accessible," says Eve Hill, a partner at Brown, Goldstein & Levy in

Washington, D.C., and former deputy assistant attorney general at the

Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

Don Barrett, a member of the American Council of the Blind, agrees: "If you

get coders and computer scientists accessibility-aware from the beginning .

it's not a big deal.' I think people just don't think along those lines," he

said.

Caption: Apple CEO Tim Cook with actor and deaf advocate Nyle DiMarco making

a surprise visit to California School for the Deaf in Fremont, Calif.) for

the launch of the company's Everyone Can Code initiative in May 2018.

(Photo: Apple)

That attitude is changing.  Apple CEO Tim Cook has been pushing the

company's "Everyone Can Code" curricula for the Swift programming language

to schools across the country that serve students who are deaf and blind.

"At Apple, we consider accessibility to be a basic human right," says Sarah

Herrlinger, director of global accessibility policy at the company.

And more tech companies have dedicated accessibility units.

Facebook's Matt King was recruited from IBM in 2015. A year later, his

project at the social network began helping sightless or low-vision people

"see" what's in pictures by describing what's in them. At the time, the

photo descriptions were only available in English and only on iOS and

Android; descriptions have since been rolled out to the Web and to more than

two dozen languages.

Read more: Facebook taps artificial intelligence for users with disabilities

Since then, Facebook has been expanding the kinds of audible descriptors it

can identify, including such activities as sitting, eating, walking or

playing a musical instrument. And in December, it started naming friends in

a photo using facial recognition.

What's next?

Caption: Matt King, a Facebook accessibility engineer who has been blind

since childhood, is working to create tools that will use artificial

intelligence to identify objects in photos and describe them to users. Video

by Christopher Schodt for USA TODAY

Though not ready to be commercialized, a New York developer Abhishek Singh

built a prototype that lets Alexa devices with a camera detect sign language

and respond with transcribed text.

Machine learning has "made it possible for the computer to see an image of

me and continuously make a prediction of what sign it thought I was making,"

Singh says. "The purpose of this project was to start a conversation, not

solve the entire sign-language-to-text problem."

And despite also being a work in progress, Microsoft's Seeing AI app is also

providing benefits to people like Wakefield. Among its features, the app

uses the phone's camera to describe a person's approximate age and mood,

though not always with perfect accuracy (e.g., "47-year-old man looking

happy").  Seeing AI can also read text, identify currency and describe

colors, which can help a blind person pick out a matching outfit.

Wakefield has one lasting complaint that people both with and without

disabilities can relate to, the price of today's tech gear: "A lot of people

can't afford this stuff. Seeing AI is free. But the iPhone isn't."

To read the article online, go to

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2018/09/10/technology-improves-people-disabilities-firms-respond-moral-legal-demands/835232002/

<https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2018/09/10/technology-improves-people-disabilities-firms-respond-moral-legal-demands/835232002/>.

Sharon Lovering, Editor

American Council of the Blind

1703 N. Beauregard St., Suite 420

Alexandria, VA 22311

slovering@... <mailto:slovering@...>

Learn more about us at www.acb.org <http://www.acb.org/>

Follow us on Twitter @acbnational

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With best regards

God Bless

Alan

Plantation, Sunny South Florida

Which screen-reader are you using? There may be a way to work with the
combo boxes but the exact method will vary because screen-readers use
different commands to try what I am suggesting.

Gene
----- Original Message -----

From: Peter Spitz
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2018 9:29 AM
To: main@techtalk.groups.io
Subject: Re: [TechTalk] Using combo boxes with Google Chrome and Amazon
credit card payment menu


Michael:

When I use the Alt Down Arrow combo, it doesn't show a drop down list
and then it moves to the next drop down. Driving me nuts. Must be
bad coding on the webpage since it's not happening on other sites.

On 9/11/18, Michael Mote <miketmote73@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi there. Is JAWS indicating to you that it is indeed a combo box? If
so,
you may want to try and use Alt plus down arrow to activate the choices
in
that particular dropdown menu. You may have already tried this. I
thought
I would throw it out there and see if this would help.


-----Original Message-----
From: main@TechTalk.groups.io <main@TechTalk.groups.io> On Behalf Of
Peter
Spitz
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2018 10:57 AM
To: main <main@techtalk.groups.io>
Subject: [TechTalk] Using combo boxes with Google Chrome and Amazon
credit
card payment menu

I used to be able to pay my Amazon credit card online but lately the
combo
boxes don't work for me with either Google Chrome or Internet Explorer.
The
combo boxes allow a person to select the amount to be paid, the date of
payment and the source of the money being paid. I can't get any of the
combo boxes to announce what the choices are.
This does not occur on my other cards or banking sites. If anyone has an
Amazon credit card or just knows what I should do, thank you very much in
advance.

Peter