On FSCast 233 we'll meet Andrew Leland. His brand new book, "The Country of the Blind," is a thoughtful exploration of the world of blindness as he discovers his place in it. Then Ian Stenseng from The Lighthouse for the Blind, Inc. and longtime JAWS scripter Steve Clark will be here to talk about their creative ways of making The Lighthouse factory equipment accessible. Transcript available at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.
Jul 26, 2023•59 min•Ep. 233
On FSCast 232, we'll give a tour of the just-released Message Center. It's a great way to keep up with product news and announcements, but to read them when it's convenient. Then we'll meet longtime JAWS developer Brett Lewis. In his other life, he's a former Paralympian in judo, and loves the sport so much that he still teaches it three nights a week.
Jun 28, 2023•46 min•Ep. 232
On the Archive of the May FSOpenLine, an overview of features new to the June product updates, resources for learning Slack, and your calls on a variety of topics including: JAWS getting stuck thinking menus are active, and Adobe Reader not always bringing focus to the dialog for setting document tagging options.
Jun 22, 2023•49 min•Ep. 231
On FSCast 230, we'll get to know retired Army Major Scotty Smiley. He was blinded by a suicide bomber when fighting in Iraq; but came back, taught at West Point, and became the military's first totally blind active-duty officer. Then, Dr. Michele McDonnall will be here to discuss the second year of the AT in the Workplace study conducted by Mississippi State University.
May 31, 2023•58 min•Ep. 230
On FSCast 229, when Mandy Van Cleave started her job as an assistive technology trainer, little did she know that she would soon need that technology for herself. We hear from Mandy about her personal and professional experience, as well as about a new ZoomText feature that might change the way you use screen magnification. We also give a few tips on how to stay on the same page with your sighted colleagues and friends, and how to write bug reports that stand out.
Apr 26, 2023•46 min•Ep. 229
On FSCast 228 I'm joined by retired Paralympic swimmer Donovan Tildesley. We'll hear about his odyssey of being removed from a Virgin cruise because the crew panicked when they saw a solo blind passenger, and how his social media presence allowed him to negotiate a solution. Then, a look at Visual Studio Code and why it's an accessible way to learn to program. Transcript available at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.
Mar 29, 2023•57 min•Ep. 228
On the archive of the February FSOpenLine, we take your calls on a variety of topics including: Slack conversations unexpectedly scrolling to previous content, Notepad starting up slowly on Windows 11, Fusion sometimes scrolling the screen away from the mouse location, the newly added WhatsApp scripts for JAWS, and how to prevent Zoom from automatically announcing incoming chat messages.
Mar 14, 2023•47 min•Ep. 227
On FSCast 226, we'll get to know longtime JAWS beta tester, self-proclaimed language nerd, and software developer Andre Polykanine. Then Andre will serve as translator for a visit with Sasha Hordiiko and Igor Kushnir of the Ukrainian Association of the Blind. We'll hear about their work and find out what life has been like since the beginning of the war.
Feb 22, 2023•43 min•Ep. 226
On FSCast 225, we celebrate Braille Literacy Month with two guests for whom braille plays a pivotal role. Bill McCann, founder of Dancing Dots, has been helping blind musicians with all aspects of music creation for the past 32 years. And Campbell Rutherford, a former Freedom Scientific Student of the Month, is now studying applied mathematics at Harvard. Transcript at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.
Jan 25, 2023•54 min•Ep. 225
On FSCast 224, it's the archive of the November 2022 FSOpenLine. We discuss improved support for the Outlook Scheduling assistant in JAWS 2023, and take your questions on a variety of topics including: searching for commands in JAWS and Office apps, preventing mail from going to the Outlook Junk folder, and providing resources to people who create inaccessible PDF files. Transcript at Blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.
Dec 14, 2022•44 min•Ep. 224
On FSCast 223, it's the Second Annual Audio Description Awards put on by the American Council of the Blind. We'll hear about some of the winners and talk about all things audio description with Kim Charlson, co-chair of the ACB Audio Description Project, and Thomas Reid, audio description narrator and host of the Gala two years running. Transcript available at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.
Nov 30, 2022•50 min•Ep. 223
On FSCast 222, we'll demonstrate how creating rules to manage notifications just got more powerful, thanks to the use of regular expressions. It may sound a bit intimidating, but we'll take it step by step, and you'll see just how easy it really is. Then we'll meet M. Leona Godin and hear about her book "There Plant Eyes: A Personal and Cultural History of Blindness." Transcript and links available at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.
Oct 26, 2022•57 min•Ep. 222
On FSCast 221, we'll get to know chef and entrepreneur Christine Ha. Since winning "Master Chef" Season 3 back in 2012, she's published a cookbook, opened multiple restaurants, hosted a cooking show on AMI Canada, and more. Then Judy Dixon will be here to talk about her latest book. It's about Microsoft Word and called "Formatting Documents for Appearance." Transcript available at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.
Sep 28, 2022•58 min•Ep. 221
On the Archive of the August 2022 FSOpenLine, Ryan Jones, Glen Gordon, and Rachel Buchanan take your calls on a variety of topics including: Math in Braille with JAWS, switching Braille tables on the fly, Quick Keys in Word, efficiently reading Windows event logs, and why new JAWS versions are installed along side old ones. Transcript available at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.
Sep 14, 2022•48 min•Ep. 220
On FSCast 219, we'll spend some time with Ryan Jones, Freedom Scientific's new Vice President of Software Product Management. He'll share a bit of his background, talk about what's coming in the JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion 2023 product betas, and demonstrate the new JAWS Smart Glance feature. Then a visit with Svetlana, the Freedom Scientific July Student of the Month. Transcript available at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast.
Aug 31, 2022•56 min•Ep. 219
On FSCast 218, Eric Damery joins Glen Gordon for what will probably be the last time. After over 28 years tirelessly advocating for JAWS and other software, and always being around to help users who are having problems, he's decided to retire. This time, rather than talking about a new product feature, Eric is here to reflect upon some of the highlights of his career. You can read the transcript, and listen to some of the obsolete 1996 JAWS 2.0 training tapes, at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCas...
Jul 27, 2022•52 min•Ep. 218
On the archive of the June 2022 FSOpenLine, we take your calls on a variety of topics including: using JAWS with the Dvorak keyboard layout, a request for better support of WhatsApp on Windows, using JAWS with the touch screen on a Surface Pro, switching from JAWS Professional to a Home license, and lack of spoken feedback when selecting messages in Thunderbird. Read the transcript at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast
Jul 13, 2022•43 min•Ep. 217
On FSCast 216, we have an answer to the age-old question, "What do you do about applications that tell us too much?" It's the new JAWS Notification History Manager to the rescue. With it, you can gain precise control over which messages are spoken and which are shown in Braille. We'll get you started by demonstrating how to make Microsoft Edge less chatty. Then we'll get to know Richard Oehm, electronics engineer, entrepreneur, doctor of Optacons, and all-around interesting guy. Read the transcr...
Jun 29, 2022•54 min•Ep. 216
On FSCast 215 we'll get to know long-time developer Joe Stephen. In addition to his work on JAWS, he does manual labor on his family farm in rural Tasmania and manages to find the time to add accessibility support to some handheld ham radios. Then Toby Willis will be here to talk about Expedia and their current initiatives to make booking travel more inclusive. Text transcript at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast
May 25, 2022•47 min•Ep. 215
On FSCast 214, Adrian Amandi will be here to talk about the Second Annual National Coding Symposium. It's aimed at blind students of all ages to get them interested in careers in software development. The conference is free, online, and available to people worldwide. Then we'll get to know Gary O'Donoghue, Chief North America Political Correspondent for the BBC, and longtime JAWS user.
Apr 27, 2022•51 min•Ep. 214
On FSCast 213, Dr. Robert Englebretson, Associate Professor of Linguistics at Rice University, discusses the Braille code for the International Phonetic Alphabet, why reading Braille is different than reading print, and his ongoing research about how Braille is taught. Transcript available at https://blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast
Mar 30, 2022•41 min•Ep. 213
On the archive of the February 2022 FSOpenLine, we take your calls on a variety of topics including: new VocalizerExpressive voices in the latest software updates, keystrokes for identifying the site to which a link points, finding out where a file will be saved, Eloquence spontaneously getting louder mid sentence, and certain video cards hijacking keystrokes to rotate the screen. Transcript available at blog.freedomscientific.com/FSOpenLine.
Mar 10, 2022•46 min•Ep. 212
On FSCast 211, Chancey Fleet discusses training workshops offered by the New York Public Library, many of which are online and available to everyone. She's also quite the expert on 3D printing and will share some resources for doing that accessibly. Then Glen demonstrates using the new Windows Terminal, and gives an introduction to working at the Windows Command Prompt. Transcript available at blog.FreedomScientific.com/FSCast
Feb 23, 2022•51 min•Ep. 211
On FSCast 210, a focus on accessible science. Maureen Hayden will share her experiences being low vision and doing her Ph.D. in marine biology. Then Dr. Greg Williams and Ashley Neybert from Independence Science demonstrate the Talking LabQuest and Logger Pro® software, tools for making science experiments accessible. Of course, JAWS plays an active part in the accessibility story. Transcript available at blog.freedomscientific.com/fscast.
Jan 26, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 210
On FSCast 209, Ryan Jones is here to talk about the process of running is annual Christmas light show involving thousands of lights choreographed to music. He does everything from putting lights on the roof to sequencing the light display using special software that JAWS makes accessible. Then we'll meet Pedro Zurita who has spent his life advocating for blind people around the world and served as secretary general of the World Blind Union from 1986 to 2000. Transcript available at blog.FreedomS...
Dec 23, 2021•55 min•Ep. 209
On the archive of the December FSOpenLine, we take your calls on a variety of topics including: ideas to improve Text Analyzer, JAWS failing to announce word count when reading the Word Status Bar, shortcut keys for JAWS speech history, simplified Braille tables for Braille learners, and the status of JAWS running on computers that use an ARM processor.
Dec 13, 2021•57 min•Ep. 208
On FSCast 207, improvements to Tandem security require JAWS and Fusion to be up to date, and Richard Kuzma tells us how he's using a combination of Tandem and Voice Assistant to support a fellow blind user. Though Windows 11 sports a new visual look, it's very much like Windows 10 if you're a JAWS user. We'll demonstrate some of what's changed to help you decide if now is the time to update. Plus, a visit with Cassandra McNabb McKinney whose low vision and works as a funeral director and Embalme...
Nov 24, 2021•47 min•Ep. 207
On FSCast 206, McDonald's has partnered with Freedom Scientific and TPGI to develop their accessible self-order kiosks. Over 500 have rolled out throughout the U.S., with more coming before the end of 2021. Ryan Jones will give us a demo. And then we'll talk with Kelsey Hall, a product manager on the McDonald's Digital Accessibility team, about how all the pieces of the project came together. Transcrript at blog.freedomscientific.com/FSCast.
Oct 27, 2021•25 min•Ep. 206
On FSCast 205, Eric Damery is back with more about what's coming in JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion 2022, and how you can try those features early. Then we'll meet Daniele Casarola. He spent over two years teaching himself stenography and now works as a court reporter in Italy. He does it with the help of a JAWS plugin for Plover, his stenography program. Transcript available at blog.freedomscientific.com/FSCast.
Sep 29, 2021•43 min•Ep. 205
On the archive of August FSOpenLine, public betas of JAWS, ZoomText and Fusion have been released, home annual licenses are now available in Canada, and severe memory leaks on many computers running Dell Waves Audio. Plus, we take your calls on a variety of topics including: a request to show a running clock on Braille status cells, a desire for advanced Teams training, a push for additional Vocalizer Expressive voices, and hearing JAWS when a Bluetooth headset is on a call. Transcript available...
Sep 15, 2021•49 min•Ep. 204
