Today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day. It has become a tradition for tech companies to announce accessibility improvements on this important day, and we’ve already seen exciting announcements from Apple to kick off proceedings. We wanted to celebrate this great access news by making a few announcements of our own. In this podcast, we tell you all about the new version of the myNCBI SmartHub, an exciting new addition to Bookshare, and a really cool collaboration between NCBI and a sight los...
May 18, 2023•28 min•Season 3Ep. 31
In many ways, video games allow consumers to escape their world and experience things that would otherwise be impossible. On this show this week we take time to explore the area of accessible gaming. From Windows PC to PlayStation, Xbox to Smart Speakers, what are some of the best games available on these devices for someone who is blind or partially sighted, and how can we stay up to date with the latest news and developments in this area? Support the show...
May 10, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 30
In the latest episode of Talking Technology we return with more product reviews. Michael Griffith from Dublin gives us an insight into his experience with the Apple AirTag that can help locate misplaced items such as keys, wallets, luggage, backpacks, and in his case even the TV remote! There are lots of different power banks on the market, however many of them are not accessible. Mairead in the Labs team has been trying out the Energrid Accessible Portable Power Bank and shares her thoughts. Da...
Apr 18, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 3Ep. 29
Android or iOS – we all have our platform of choice when it comes to choosing the right smartphone. On the show this week we’re re-joined by NCBI Labs Chief Technology Officer Kyran O’Mahoney who shares with us the next part of his journey from switching from his iPhone to a Google Pixel Pro. Likewise, Mairead O’Mahony in the Labs teams has been taking a break from her iPhone to try out the Samsung Z 4 Flip phone. Are they missing their iPhones or have they already converted to Android? The Stel...
Apr 04, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Season 3Ep. 28
Android or iOS. Everyone has their platform of choice when it comes to choosing a smartphone. On the show this week we’re joined by NCBI Labs Chief Technology Officer Kyran O’Mahoney who shares with us the first part of his journey from switching from his beloved iPhone to a Google Pixel Pro. We’re also joined by Mairead O’Mahony who has made the switch from her iPhone to a Samsung A13. What are their initial thoughts? Next up, Sean Doran tells us about the latest technologies for people with si...
Mar 21, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Season 3Ep. 27
The ARX Vision headset is a wearable device aimed at helping blind and visually impaired people to interact with the visual world around them using a camera and AI. On the show this week we’re joined by David Nason who has been trying out this headset and shares his thoughts. Next our conversation turns to smartphones, more specifically Samsung smartphones. We review the new Samsung Z Flip4 and the Samsung Galaxy S23, giving a perspective on each phone from an accessibility viewpoint. Support th...
Mar 07, 2023•1 hr 11 min
On the show this week we take time to acknowledge and celebrate some of the women in technology who have been making strides in the field of digital accessibility and inclusion. We’re first joined by Rebecca Rosenberg, developer of the ReBokeh app that works much like an augmented reality filter for real life, allowing users to customise how they see their world through their smartphone. Adela Buliman tells us about an upcoming diversity and inclusion conference being organised by Google in Nort...
Feb 21, 2023•59 min•Season 3Ep. 25
The evolving concept of smart homes is becoming a game changer for many people with sight loss as more and more smart home appliances enter the market. On the show this week we speak with Deirdre Feehilly who with her son Oisín has been trying out the Roborock S6 MaxV intelligent robot vacuum cleaner. Joe has been checking the accessibility of the Cosori smart air-fryer, while David gives us an insight into the Google Nest Protect smoke and CO alarm. We also discuss the new Indoor Navigation fea...
Feb 07, 2023•1 hr 13 min•Season 3Ep. 24
The power and potential of a new technology called ChatGPT, the artificial intelligence chatbot from OpenAI, have led some to claim it heralds a new era in computing. On the show this week David has an exclusive interview with ChatGPT (that’s right a chatbot) you’ll definitely not want to miss. From smart wearables to smart TVs, we review the latest tech innovations that came out of this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. They are sunglasses, they are headphones, but are they any goo...
Jan 24, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 23
On the show this week, and in celebration of World Braille Day on 4th January, we host a panel discussion with several experienced braille users who speak about their lives with braille and share with us their top braille device recommendations. We’re also joined by Lina Kouzi and Rebecca Curtis from the Library & Media Centre at NCBI to find out about LEGO Braille Bricks toolkits being sent to teachers and early years educators in schools right across the country as an invaluable resource f...
Jan 10, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 22
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and what better way to help get in the festive spirit than listen to our Christmas episode of Talking Technology!! We have lots of Christmas topics in store for you on the show. To start we share our top things to try on your Alexa smart speaker for Christmas before checking out some Christmas-themed apps for your smartphone. Next up we discuss Microsoft’s recent decision to end its support for the popular Soundscape navigational app. No doubt it comes a...
Dec 20, 2022•39 min•Season 3Ep. 21
On the show this week we find out about Sight Tech Global 2022, a virtual, free, and highly accessible event on December 7 and 8 that convenes some of the world’s top experts working on inclusive tech, especially AI, for people who are blind or visually impaired. To find out more about what’s in store we are joined by Brian Fischler, comedian, podcaster, and host of this year’s Sight Tech Global conference. Also the show we are joined by Santiago Velasquez who is the founder and CEO of technolog...
Dec 06, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Season 3Ep. 20
From video doorbells to smart lighting, this week on Talking Technology we share our top tips for keeping your home safe through the benefits of smart home technology. Next up it’s product reviews as we put the latest iPhone SE mobile phone and Apple AirPods Pro 2 under the microscope and tell you our thoughts on both products. Finally, with Black Friday 2022 only around the corner, we bring you our top recommendations on where to get the best deals in tech and which retailers are offering the b...
Nov 23, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Season 3Ep. 19
Since its initial release in 1995, JAWS has evolved to become the screen reader of choice for millions of visually impaired computer users around the world. On Talking Technology this week we are delighted to welcome Matt Ater, Vice President of Enterprise Sales from Vispero who produce the JAWS screen reader, ZoomText magnifier and Fusion, which combines JAWS with ZoomText. Matt shares with us a bit of his background, talks about what’s new in JAWS, ZoomText, and Fusion 2023, and demonstrates t...
Nov 08, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 18
For nearly 200 years, the tactile reading system of Braille has enabled people of all ages that are blind or vision impaired to read and write. Yet in an age where synthetic speech and audiobooks are widely available, just how relevant is Braille in the modern world? Where can someone learn Braille and what sort of Braille products are available to those who read it? In celebration of National Braille Week and World Sight Day taking place this month, this episode of Talking Technology explores t...
Oct 25, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 17
This week we explore the rise in popularity of the free, open source, screen reader NVDA from NV Access. From its beginnings in 2006, NVDA is now used in over 120 countries and has been translated into more than 50 languages. Telling us all about the original inspiration behind NVDA and latest updates we are delighted to welcome back to the show Quentin Christianson, Training and Support Manager with NV Access. Next, our conversation goes ‘out of this world’ as we find out about recent developme...
Oct 11, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 16
On the show this week our attention first turns to Identity Providers (IDPs), which are used to store and verify user identity. Vittorio Bertocci is a Principal Architect for the Identity Provider Auth0 and joins us on the show to tell how this technology works and how Auth0 came to provide accessible logins for a number of NCBI’s platforms including www.ncbi.ie and the myNCBI SmartHub on Alexa and Google Home. Vittorio also tells us about a brand-new type of login credential called a Passkey. A...
Sep 20, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 15
On the show this week we’re delighted to welcome Óran O’Neill, Audio Description Producer within Access Services at RTÉ, Ireland’s public Broadcaster. Óran tells us about his role as a sound engineer, the availability of Audio Description in RTÉ television, and informs us of several important accessibility improvements recently introduced to the RTÉ player app. What are the most accessible streaming services offering Audio Description? What is the best way to check if AD is available, and then e...
Sep 06, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 3Ep. 14
In this week’s episode of Talking Technology we speak to Alan Kiernan, the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cation Consulting. Based in Dublin, Cation develops software that runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Alan tells us about the work Cation did to develop the myNCBI SmartHub, their work with other organisations, and how voice-activation is changing our day-to-day lives. Next our attention turns to the recent launch of NCBI Live, Ireland’s first radio station for blind and vision-imp...
Aug 09, 2022•45 min•Season 3Ep. 13
In the latest episode of Talking Technology with NCBI Labs we explore the Envision AI Smart Glasses, a smart wearable device designed to assist blind and visually impaired people with performing a huge variety of tasks independently. Lightweight and designed to be worn all day, Envision Glasses provide access all kinds of visual information around the user. They can be used to recognise and speak aloud text, objects, people, colours, products and more. Joining us on the show to tell us all about...
Jul 19, 2022•57 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Apple recently revealed exciting news at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, WWDC 2022, giving us a glimpse at the highly-anticipated iOS 16, the M2 chip, a new MacBook Air, and much more. There was even talk of the popular Eloquence voice in JAWS coming to Apple devices. On Talking Technology this week we are joined by Dave Nason from the Editorial Team in Apple Vis to find out about the biggest announcements from WWDC. Much to our delight Dave gives us a sneak preview of Eloquence on h...
Jun 21, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Season 3Ep. 11
“There are no limits to what people can achieve when technology reflects the diversity of everyone who uses it” ~ Microsoft Asia Pacific chief partner officer Vivek Puthucode In Episode 10 of Talking Technology with NCBI Labs we are joined by Microsoft Accessibility Evangelist for Europe, Middle East, and Africa Hector Minto and Jeremy Curry who is on the enterprise Disability Answer Desk (eDAD) team. Together they take us on a journey through the early days of accessibility in Microsoft, its ev...
Jun 07, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 10
On the show today we are delighted to introduce listeners to the myNCBI SmartHub. Launching today on Global Accessibility Awareness Day, the myNCBI SmartHub is an Alexa Skill and Google Action that facilitates direct communications with NCBI, bringing NCBI services and content into the homes of people with sight loss through an affordable smart speaker. From finding out about the range of services offered by NCBI, to booking appointments or listening to your favourite audiobooks or newspapers, C...
May 19, 2022•48 min•Season 3Ep. 9
We have entered an age of a professionalised internet with high expectations for accessible websites and mobile applications. On the show this week we are delighted to introduce listeners to Inclusion and Accessibility Labs, a spin-out company from the NCBI. IA Labs Co-Founder Kyran O’Mahoney, and Adele Buliman, QA and Customer Success Lead, tell us about the work the team is doing to drive forward the issue of equal inclusion and access to the digital world for everyone. What exactly is digital...
May 03, 2022•43 min•Season 3Ep. 8
In the modern inclusive teaching space, Braille is key to a vision impaired student’s reading and writing skills, enabling them to master the rules of spelling, punctuation, grammar in a script created for them to access text, mathematics, music, and other information. On the show this week we speak with several guests about their experience learning Braille and the empowering role it has played in their lives. Did you know that Braille music was invented along with the literary braille code by ...
Apr 12, 2022•59 min•Season 3Ep. 7
On the show this week we are joined by Amir Slapak, Senior Business Development Manager with Israeli-based company Silentium, to find out about pioneering Active Noise Cancellation technology being developed to enhance sound quality and cut out distraction in all sorts of environments. We are joined by Samsung Galaxy user Kerie Doyle who shares with us her experience using the Commentary Screen Reader for the Android operating system. With custom gestures, a built-in voice assistant, and many mo...
Mar 29, 2022•1 hr 13 min•Season 3Ep. 6
This week on the show we check out key highlights from Apple's recent Peek Performance Event that introduced us to several new products including a new iPhone SE with A15 Bionic Chip, a new iPad Air with M1 Chip, a powerful new Mac desktop called Mac Studio, and a new professional monitor called the Mac Studio Display. Clearly Apple’s first major media event of the year was very much characterized by the company's growing processor technology. In our first Cheap vs Steep discussion we chat about...
Mar 15, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Season 3Ep. 5
The screen reader has for many years been an essential piece of software for people with sight loss who wish to read text that is displayed on a computer or mobile phone screen through speech output. On the show this week we compare and contrast two popular screen readers for Microsoft Windows, NVDA from NV Access and JAWS from Freedom Scientific. We explain the difference between both, and what benefits there from using one over the other. Our panel and special guests go in depth on all the pro...
Mar 01, 2022•1 hr 15 min•Season 3Ep. 4
In our technology podcasts we always strive to keep our finger on the pulse when it comes to finding out about the latest trends and developments in emerging technology for people with sight loss. In 2020 the so-called ‘Jedi Glove’ was developed by medics and engineers at the Clinical Science Institute in NUI, Galway. This ultrasonic glove was designed to help wearers navigate their environment through touch and essentially build up a 3D picture of what’s around them. The technology subsequently...
Feb 15, 2022•59 min•Season 3Ep. 3
First up this week, with Safer Internet Day taking place this year on Tuesday 8th February we take time to highlight some of the ways we can stay safe online. Next we check out the recently released Amazon Echo Show 15. Described as a big Alexa display for your wall, this is the largest smart display yet from Amazon and offers a range of built-in accessibility features for people who are blind or vision impaired including the VoiceView screen reader and Screen Magnifier. We also find out how to ...
Feb 01, 2022•1 hr 17 min•Season 3Ep. 2
