GTT New Westminster Meeting Invitation, Artificial Intelligence for Sighted Assistance, October 24, 2018

Get Together with Technology (GTT) New Westminster!

Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind

in partnership with

Blind Beginnings

And

Vancouver Community College

October 24 Theme: Artificial Intelligence vs Human Sighted Guide, Seeing AI and Envision AI

During the October 24 meeting we will continue the discussion on how best to gather visual information by using the notion of Artificial Intelligence like Seeing AI and Envision AI, or using sighted humans as demonstrated during the September meeting.

GTT New Westminster:

Date & Time: Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Where: Blind Beginnings Office, 227 6th Street, New Westminster

*Note: Meetings are usually on the third Tuesday, however due to scheduling issues no one will be available to open the room for GTT, so we’ve moved it back a week and a day to the forth Wednesday.

Hour one:

The apps called Seeing AI and Envision AI will be demonstrated as means of accessing several types of information, like documents, bar codes, scenes, faces, banknotes, colour, light and hand writing.

Hour two:

The second half of the meeting will include an opportunity to seek tech advice from those with more knowledge. Please bring the device you want assistance with.

For more information contact either Shawn Marsolais or Albert Ruel:

shawn@blindbeginnings.ca or 604-434-7243.

Albert.GTT@CCBNational.net or 250-240-2343

What is GTT?

An opportunity for individuals who are blind or partially sighted to get together and

Share how they are using assistive technology for work, school, and in their daily lives
Learn from others who are using different assistive technology
Request information on new technology
Mentor and support each other

You’re invited, and encouraged to circulate this invitation widely to your circle of friends, colleagues and family who have an interest in peer support in the area of assistive technology.

For more information about GTT contact:

Shawn Marsolais Albert Ruel

Shawn@BlindBeginnings.ca Albert.GTT@CCBNational.net

604-434-7243 1-877-304-0968 Ext. 550

GTT Victoria Summary Notes, BrailleMe, Be My Eyes and Aira, October 3, 2018

Get together with Technology (GTT) Victoria

A Chapter of the Canadian Council of the Blind

In Partnership with

Greater Victoria Public Library

Summary Notes

Wednesday October 3, 2018

The meeting was called to order at 1:00 pm by Tom Dekker.

Attendance, there were 15 individuals in Attendance.

Tom Decker welcomed everyone to the meeting and opened the session with a presentation and demonstration of a new low-cost Braille display. The item is called BrailleMe and is produced by Innovision Tech

www.innovisiontech.co/brailleme/

Tom is quite impressed with the item, especially in relation to what it can do based on the very attractive price point. The unit sells for around $575 (USD). the item can produce .BRF and .TXT files, and can read from an SD Card, but holds no internal memory. Tom went around the room with the item and let everyone have a look/test,

Other low-end Braille products were discussed including the Orbit, however their seams to be some serious issues with that product and people not having much luck with it, even if they are able to get their hands on one.

During the second half, Albert Ruel presented a demo of both the Be My Eyes App

www.bemyeyes.com

and the Aira service

www.aira.io

Albert is a subscriber to the Aira service and wanted people to see the differences while highlighting the unique services offered by both apps.

First, he demonstrated BeMyEyes. it uses the camera on your phone. You connect via the app, cost is free, and you are connected to a volunteer who will assist you with whatever vision challenge you present. Today Albert spoke to a volunteer (randomly selected by the app) in Calgary. Albert asked her to read several cards he held in front of the camera, she did so with great ease and accuracy.

Then albert did the same test utilizing the Aira service. Although a cell phone camera can be used, Albert used the provided Austria glasses with an attached camera that one gets when subscribing to the service. Lining up the cards was a bit more of a challenge using the glasses due to a bit of a field of vision limitation. Albert also asked the Aira Agent to provide a brief description of the clothing being worn by some of the people sitting across the room, as well as to have some of the room described. Interestingly enough, there is a fire extinguisher hanging on the wall across from where Albert was sitting, a fact not previously known by the blind people who attend GTT meetings monthly. Aira is a “user pay” service and there are four plans available with varying prices based on the number of minutes you wish to purchase. They also have some referral promotions if people sign up from a referral from an existing user, who is referred to as an Explorer.

In closing a brief discussion was held about both the province-wide October 20, 2018 civic election, and the provincial referendum on Proportional Representation that will conclude on November 19, 2018. Albert said that CNIB will be contacting clients with particulars about the braille information and templates that can be requested for the latter, seeing as it is a mail in ballot. For accessibility features available for the Civic Election, please check with your City or region to ask about their what they’ve put in place for blind and partially sighted voters.

Albert also provided some sense of the poor intercity bus service available on Vancouver Island, particularly for communities North of Nanaimo. If one is travelling beyond Nanaimo the last intercity bus leaving Victoria is at 2:55 PM. Also, the first bus heading for Victoria leaves Parksville at 9:15 AM and doesn’t arrive in Victoria until after 1:00 PM if riding with Tofino Bus, and the IslandLink Express Bus leaves Parksville at 9:40 AM and arrives in Victoria at about 12:30 PM. Sadly, if intercity bus riders have occasion to visit Victoria from Up Island communities their work/social day will last no more than 2- and one-half hours in total.

Finally, a topic for an upcoming meeting was discussed, that being “how do we feel about asking for visual help and how might technology play a role in how we answer that in a changing world. How will we maintain our independence when accessing information in our home activities, work tasks and during our recreational pursuits?

The next meeting will be held on November 7, 2018, and it will have us receiving a presentation from Stephen Ricci from Frontier Computing in Toronto. They are one of the largest assistive technology resellers in Canada, and while Stephen is in Victoria attending the Foundation Fighting Blindness Vision Quest the previous day he is pleased to stay one additional day to attend the GTT Victoria meeting.

Meeting was adjourned at 3pm

Next meeting, Wednesday November 7th, Same bat time, same bat channel. Happy Halloween everyone!

Meeting notes submitted by Corry Stuive

GTT Victoria Overview

GTT Victoria is a chapter of the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB).
GTT Victoria promotes a self-help learning experience by holding monthly meetings to assist participants with assistive technology.
Each meeting consists of a feature technology topic, questions and answers about technology, and one-on-one training where possible.
Participants are encouraged to come to each meeting even if they are not interested in the feature topic because questions on any technology are welcome. The more participants the better able we will be equipped with the talent and experience to help each other.
There are GTT groups across Canada as well as a national GTT monthly toll-free teleconference. You may subscribe to the National GTT blog to get email notices of teleconferences and notes from other GTT chapters. Visit:

http://www.gttprogram.wordpress.com/

There is a Follow link at the bottom of that web page to enter your email.

National GTTSupport Email distribution List

CCB sponsors a GTT email support list to provide help and support with technology for blind and low vision Canadians. To subscribe to the email list, send an empty email to:

GTTsupport+subscribe@groups.io

[End of Document]

GTT Chilliwack Meeting Invitation, Smart Phone Accessibility and how to use them, October 22, 2018

Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB)

Get Together With Technology (GTT) Chilliwack

You are invited to the next session of the Chilliwack GTT group, a group dedicated to the learning and sharing of information about assistive technology useful for those living with low vision, blindness or deaf-blindness.

Theme: Accessibility of Smart Phones and How to Use Them

When: Monday October 22, 2018

1:30-3:30 p.m.

Where: Chilliwack Public Library, Community Room

45860 First Avenue, Chilliwack

First Hour:

Brian Mackie from the CNIB will we joining us to talk about the accessibility features available for both iPhones and Android phones and how to use them.

Second Hour:

Following a break we will open a Get Together with Technology (GTT) discussion about what devices we might be having trouble with, or those great new gadgets we’ve recently discovered that we might want to show-off. Bring along those gadgets you want help with, and those you want to show others.

For more information contact:

Ginny @ (604) 378-9676

CCB Backgrounder:

The CCB was founded in 1944 by a coalition of blind war veterans, schools of the blind and local chapters to create a national self-governing organization. The CCB was incorporated by Letters Patent on May 10, 1950 and is a registered charity under the provisions of the Income Tax Act (Canada).

The purpose of the CCB is to give people with vision loss a distinctive and unique perspective before governments. CCB deals with the ongoing effects of vision loss by encouraging active living and rehabilitation through peer support and social and recreational activities.

CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.

The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.

The CCB understands in many instances vision loss is preventable and sometimes is symptomatic of other health issues. For the 21st century, the CCB is committed to an integrated proactive health approach for early detection to improve the quality of life for all Canadians.

As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the “Voice of the Blind™”.

CCB National Office

100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6

Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net

Summary Notes

GTT Edmonton Meeting October 15, 2018

The most recent meeting of the Get Together with Technology (GTT) Edmonton Chapter was held October 15 at 7pm at Ascension Lutheran Church 8405 83 Street in Edmonton.

19 people attended.

Reading Tip: These summary notes apply HTML headings to help navigate the document. With screen readers, you may press the H key to jump forward or Shift H to jump backward from heading to heading.

October Topics – Blue Sky TV, JAWS Tutorials and iPhone

Blue Sky TV

Russell provided a recorded 33-minute thorough demo of using all aspects of Shaw Cable’s Blue Sky digital TV service including navigating the talking menus, browsing the talking program guide, using voice commands to find channel or programs, accessing Netflix, Accessing YouTube, and configuring the voice assistant settings.

Activate this Drop Box link to download Russell’s seven zipped recorded MP3 files so you can listen to this excellent presentation on your computer or DAISY player, for example placing the files in the $VROtherBooks folder on the SD card of the Victor Reader Stream.

The Drop Box will open with a window to sign-in or create an account. Just select close and then find the More Options choice which has a direct download link to get the zip file.

JAWS Built-in Training Materials

Russell worked with a member of GTT to show him how to get to the Jaws training materials by going into the Jaws window, going to the help menu, and choosing “Training” from within the help menu. He then demonstrated how to arrow through the list of training materials and press enter on the desired material to get it to download and install. After that he showed how the training material can be either read with Jaws using the usual Jaws reading commands, or listened to by pressing CTRL + P.

Aside from these training materials, Freedom Scientific has also archived many of their past webinars and offer them free of charge from their web site:

https://www.freedomscientific.com/Services/TrainingAndCertification/FreeWebinars

You can access these webinars in any of the following three ways:

A link to the recorded archive, including text, audio, and chat history
A link to an audio only file in MP3 format
A link to the text of the lesson in HTML format

iPhone Training

Gerry took a group of members to a separate room for training on basic iPhone navigation gestures using the built-in Voice Over screen reader. The following table lists only 12 gestures that allow you to do almost everything on an iPhone without being able to see the screen.

Use this Gesture	To DO This
Single finger touch	Select the item under your finger. VoiceOver will announce it.
Single finger double tap anywhere on the screen	Activate the selected item
Single finger flick left or right.	Select previous/next item.
Single finger flick up or down	Select previous/next item from a menu of additional choices.
Two finger rotate left or right.	Select previous/next rotor setting.
Two finger double tap	Start and stop the current action such as answering or hanging up a phone call, playing/pausing music, or video, start and stop the timer etc.
Two finger flick up	Read page starting at the top.
Two finger flick down	Start reading at selected item to end of screen.
Three finger flick left	Scroll right one page.
Three finger flick right	Scroll left one page.
Three finger flick down	Scroll up one page.
Three finger flick up	Scroll down one page.

Note that these gestures work only when VoiceOver is turned on. Sighted people who might share your phone use different gestures. The phone will not respond to the gestures sighted people are accustomed to unless you turn off VoiceOver.

The app switcher was also discussed. It lists all the open apps on your phone. You reach the app switcher with a double click of the Home button.
You move between the apps on the list by flicking left or right.
In the app switcher a 3 finger scroll up is a shortcut to close the app. It is a good idea to close apps from the app switcher as this reduces memory usage and improves battery life. Also, if an app is misbehaving it may help to go to the app switcher and close that app then relaunch the app.
Be careful with the 3 finger gesture because if you accidentally double tap with 3 fingers this turns off speech. If your speech goes silent, try double tapping with 3 fingers to turn speech back on.
The gesture help screen is a good place to practice gestures. Each gesture you perform will be announced as well as its purpose. This helps you to confirm that your gestures are interpreted correctly by the phone. To quickly reach the help practice screen, tap twice with 4 fingers. To leave the help practice screen again double tap with 4 fingers.

Next Meeting (Monday November 12 at 7pm)

We will focus on the AIRA live-agent system for providing visual assistance to blind and visually impaired people.
As always, for help with technology bring your devices and/or questions to the meeting.

Meeting Location and Logistics

Ascension Lutheran Church 8405 – 83 Street NW, Edmonton.
We meet in the basement hall. There is elevator access.
Enter the church from the back door. There is parking at the back and drop off space for taxis, DATS.
Meetings are every second Monday of the month at 7pm.
If you have someone helping you your assistant is welcome to remain for the meeting.

GTT Edmonton Overview

GTT Edmonton is a chapter of the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB).
GTT Edmonton promotes a self-help learning experience by holding monthly meetings to assist participants with assistive technology.
Each meeting consists of a feature technology topic, questions and answers about technology, and one-on-one training where possible.
Participants are encouraged to come to each meeting even if they are not interested in the feature topic because questions on any technology are welcome. The more participants the better able we will be equipped with the talent and experience to help each other.
There are GTT groups across Canada as well as a national GTT monthly toll free teleconference. You may subscribe to the National GTT blog to get email notices of teleconferences and notes from other GTT chapters. Visit:

http://www.gttprogram.wordpress.com/

To subscribe, use the form at the bottom of that web page to enter your email.

National GTT Email Support List

CCB sponsors a GTT email support list to provide help and support with technology for blind and low vision Canadians. To subscribe to the email list, send an empty email to:

GTTsupport+subscribe@groups.io

[End of Document]

GTT Toronto Summary Notes, Music Apps, September 20, 2018

Summary Notes

GTT Toronto Adaptive Technology User Group

September 20, 2018

An Initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind

In Partnership with the CNIB

The most recent meeting of the Get Together with Technology (GTT) Toronto Group was held on Thursday, September 20 at the CNIB Community Hub.

*Note: Reading Tip: These summary notes apply HTML headings to help navigate the document. With screen readers, you may press the H key to jump forward or Shift H to jump backward from heading to heading.

September 2018 Topic: Music Apps and Services

GTT Toronto September 20, 2018 Meeting Summary Notes can be found at this link:

Thanks again to Chris Malec for taking these awesome notes! People may not realize it, but she writes these in real time!

Ian opened the meeting.

Next month’s meeting will be on accessible TVs, and we’ll be joined by Kim Kilpatrick, the founder of GTT.

Jason took over to give some updates. It’s possible that next month, we’ll also be joined by a representative from Rogers, to demonstrate their new accessible cable box. It’s called Rogers Ignite TV. It’s based off of the U.S. system from Comcast, which is largely accessible as a set-top box.

CNIB just announced a new program called Phone It Forward, this week. People or corporations can donate used cell phones, and CNIB will be distributing them to clients who need them. The phones will be stripped, then loaded with accessibility aps. It’s meant to be a no-cost deal for the client. We don’t know what the cut-off is for the age of donated phones. A tax receipt will be issued for any donated phone, but an employee said they’ll only be using iPhone 5 or higher. At this point there’s nothing in place about data plans, but they’re trying to work that out. The push right now is to get donations of phones. The phones will be unlocked.

Jason raised the topic of rearranging the structure of our meetings. We want to encourage discussion back and forth about whatever topics people want to share information about. This will comprise the first part of meetings, and a presentation will be the second part. The idea is to bring problems or something you’d like more information about, and draw on resources from the group. Also, bring any new information or tips that you’ve discovered.

Tips that arose from discussion

When using a touch pad, curl all your other fingers inward to avoid accidentally activating something you didn’t intend.

Turning off the Reading Pain in Outlook will prevent or avoid many annoying problems. Do this by pressing Alt V, P, N, arrow down to Off, and hit enter there. The Thunderbird keystroke is F8.

Talking Tuner is an ap for tuning instruments or your voice. It’s accessible and voice-activated.

For success with the Seeing AI ap bar code reader, try laying the object on a table for stability, then hold the phone 8 inches or so away. Bar codes on boxes are often on an edge or the bottom. Light levels can matter too. It will use the flash, but it might help to have a light on. Try rotating the object slowly and incrementally, not continually. On cans and jars, the code is often at the seem of labels. Cans are more challenging, so if you’re learning, try starting with angular boxes.

Tap Tap See and KNFB Reader have both been updated recently.

The Identify ap is an alternative if you’re not fond of Seeing AI. Both aps are free. There’s an ap called Envision AI that has a small cost associated with it, that’s available on iPhone and Android.

The advantage of having the Microsoft Office subscription version is that it gets updated very often. There have been issues around instability with Excel. The problems come and go, but having the subscription version is the best way to keep current with updates that solve problems. Microsoft has a Disability Answer Desk, at 1-800-936-5900. They know about screen readers, and are a great resource. If they can’t answer your question, they will escalate it.

Apple also has an accessibility desk. 1-877-204-3930.

The topic of Libre Office was raised. It’s the free version of Microsoft, and is the descendant of Open Office. It doesn’t use the ribbon structure, but it seems to have some accessibility issues. It works better with NVDA. It can be used with files created in conventional Microsoft products.

A risk in continuing to use old versions of mainstream software like MS 2007, is that, as you update your screen reader, things might become incompatible, because the AT companies aren’t making their products with older mainstream software in mind. If it works, keep using it. Also, if you have files sent to you from other people who are using newer versions of mainstream software, you might have trouble reading them. For example, if you receive a document created in pre-2007, and it has tables, Jaws won’t read them. You have to save them in the new format.

For anyone using tables and a screen reader, one piece of advice is to make your heading titles short, as the screen reader will have to read the whole thing each time you move within the table.

For advice using Jaws with very specific software like SPSS, stats management, the best advice is to contact Freedom Scientific. SPSS may have their own accessibility team.

The ap called, Transit, was recently updated, and works well. Their release notes are thorough and amusing.

The Triplynx ap is also very good.

Main Presentation

Jason took over to talk about music aps. Spotify, Apple Music, and Google Play Music are the main three. Most of these services have a free and a paid version. They’re all about $10 to $12 per month for an individual membership, and $15 or so for a family membership. These are streaming services. Spotify’s free version will let you search for an artist. It will then put together a playlist of artists including that one, plus others. You can’t play an entire album, and it will advertise at you. Go to Spotify.com and download the free trial. It can run on most playing services. It has a program that you can install on your PC that works well. The client looks like a regular web page with search functions. Spotify is known for discovering new music, which is a great feature of most music services. It generates a playlist each week based on what you’ve chosen recently. This is a great way to find out about music you’ll probably like, based on your tastes. The iPhone ap works well, and so does the Android ap. You can connect your Amazon Echo or Google Home, to your Spotify account, and play music on your device. You can download music, but can’t take it out of the Spotify ap. The free version has a time restriction, a certain amount of play per day. If you load the ap on your Apple device, there’s an option to pay using your iTunes account. There may be a small fee associated with doing this.

Jason loaded the ap on his phone and demonstrated what the screen looks like. It doesn’t integrate with Siri. It’s the most versatile of the services. The artist gets $0.001 per play.

Apple Music is exclusive to Apple, but there is an Apple Music ap for Android. It’s new within the past three years, and around the same price. The great thing about it is that it’s integrated into Siri. The Spotify trial is 30 days, but the Apple Music trial is 3 months. Apple Music has a “for you” tab, which is its way of introducing you to new music it thinks you’ll like. All three of these streaming aps have radio stations based on genres. These aren’t the way to access generalized regular or internet radio stations, you’d need TuneIn or your smart speaker to do that. Apple Music allows you to upload your personal music collection of MP3 songs into your ap using iTunes. It will also replace poor quality versions of songs with a better quality version if it has one. One caution here is that improperly named or tagged files will give you trouble in playback.

Google Play Music isn’t particularly differentiated from the other two, it’s really more about which devices you’re using. Apple and Google both allow you to download music and play it from other aps. All three aps are accessible. Google Play offers a 30 day trial.

Other smaller services exist, like Amazon Music, but their collections tend to be smaller. Tidal is a service for streaming high quality music. It’s around $20 per month, but the quality matters to some people. The interface can be tricky. The files are much bigger, so keep that in mind regarding data use. They don’t tend to have as big a selection. HD Tracks is a service where you pay by track, rather than a flat subscription fee.

Spotify allows you to set the quality that you get, and you can choose to get lower quality when you’re using data verses y-fi.

YouTube is another source for free music. YouTube Music is a new service. It’s a downloadable ap. It’s got an enormous selection. The auto-play feature will essentially make a playlist. Playing it through the Apple TV gives you a lot less ads. Creating actual playlists with YouTube and Voiceover is quite difficult.

The Sonos ap will perform a search on all the services you’re subscribed to.

If you’re subscribed to more than one service, you can specify to your smart speaker, which service you want to search on.

Apple Music gets updated whenever you do an IOS update. Spotify updates every few weeks. Accessibility glitches usually get addressed pretty promptly.

Upcoming Meetings:

Next Meeting: Thursday, October 18 at 6pm
Location: CNIB Community Hub space at 1525 Yonge Street, just 1 block north of St Clair on the east side of Yonge, just south of Heath.
Meetings are held on the third Thursday of the month at 6pm.

GTT Toronto Adaptive Technology User Group Overview:

GTT Toronto is a chapter of the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB).
GTT Toronto promotes a self-help learning experience by holding monthly meetings to assist participants with assistive technology.
Each meeting consists of a feature technology topic, questions and answers about technology, and one-on-one training where possible.
Participants are encouraged to come to each meeting even if they are not interested in the feature topic because questions on any technology are welcome. The more participants the better able we will be equipped with the talent and experience to help each other.
There are GTT groups across Canada as well as a national GTT monthly toll free teleconference. You may subscribe to the National GTT blog to get email notices of teleconferences and notes from other GTT chapters. Visit:

http://www.gttprogram.wordpress.com/

There is a form at the bottom of that web page to enter your email.

GTT Edmonton Summary Notes, Apple Pay and JAWS Built-in Training, September 10, 2018

Summary Notes

GTT Edmonton Meeting September 10, 2018

The most recent meeting of the Get Together with Technology (GTT) Edmonton Chapter was held September 10 at 7pm at Ascension Lutheran Church 8405 83 Street in Edmonton.

22 people attended.

Reading Tip: These summary notes apply HTML headings to help navigate the document. With screen readers, you may press the H key to jump forward or Shift H to jump backward from heading to heading.

September Topics –Apple Pay and JAWS Built-in Training

Apple Pay on the iPhone

Lorne demonstrated using Apple Pay on his iPhone 8 to pay for items. He had access to a Square wireless card reader for small businesses to accept Apple Pay transactions, which he used to demonstrate purchasing an item using Apple Pay, the same way one would in a store.

Apple Pay is a quick, secure and accessible method for making purchases that allow a blind or partially sighted iPhone user to avoid the need to figure out the various layouts of debit/credit pin pads in stores. It works with iPhones going back as far as the iPhone 6, with an Apple Watch, or newer Macs that have the Touch ID fingerprint reader.

Most stores may not know if they support paying for things using Apple Pay, so instead ask if they accept tap cards; if the accept paying with tap, it will accept Apple Pay.

Advantages of using Apple Pay verses tap is that it’s more secure, you know for sure which card you’re using, and there will be a record of each transaction, so you can go back and confirm that you were correctly charged.

If you’ve set up Apple Pay on your phone, and you hold your phone up very close to the pin pad at a store after the cashier is waiting for you to proceed, the Apple Pay screen will pop up automatically on your iPhone. It will not proceed however, until you type in your pass code or touch your home button with your fingerprint registered with Touch ID. If it does not pop up for any reason, you can bring it up anytime from your lock screen by double tapping the home button and hold after the second tap.

Links for More Information

A demonstration of setting up Apple Pay from AppleVis, it’s a few years old but most things are similar still:

https://www.applevis.com/podcast/episodes/quick-tip-setting-your-iphone-use-apple-pay

Settings you can change for accessing Apple Pay right from the lock screen: http://www.idownloadblog.com/2015/10/02/how-to-wallet-apple-pay-lock-screen/
Apple’s official guide for using Apple Pay:
https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201239
All major Canadian banks support Apple Pay. here is the complete list of 28 Canadian banks in Canada that support Apple Pay: (second heading is Canada): https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204916
For those concerned about what Data, including credit card numbers that Apple is storing, the following was taken directly from Apple Pay security and privacy overview – Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT203027

“Apple doesn’t store or have access to the original credit, debit, or prepaid card numbers that you use with Apple Pay. And when you use Apple Pay with credit, debit, or prepaid cards, Apple doesn’t retain any transaction information that can be traced back to you. Your transactions stay between you, the merchant, and your bank or card issuer. When you add a credit, debit, prepaid, or transit card (where available) to Apple Pay, information that you enter on your device is encrypted and sent to Apple servers. If you use the camera to enter the card information, the information is never saved on your device or photo library. Apple decrypts the data, determines your card’s payment network, and re-encrypts the data with a key that only your payment network (or any providers authorized by your card issuer for provisioning and token services) can unlock.”

JAWS Built-in Training Materials

Anthony asked a great question about how to access the built-in training materials that come with JAWS. Many JAWS users forget these DAISY formatted materials are available right on their computer through the FS Reader DAISY book reader that is installed with JAWS. There are two ways to access the FS Reader app either: from your desktop or through the JAWS help menu.

Access JAWS Training from the Desktop

Hold down Windows key and press M to reach your desktop.
Press key F repeatedly until the icon for the FS Reader app is announced. Then press Enter and the FS Reader app will open.
You may hear, FS Reader untitled, meaning there is no current book open to read. Press Alt+F to open the File menu.
Press down arrow to read the items in the File menu. The first one is Open which allows you to open and read any DAISY book on your computer regardless of whether it was created by Freedom Scientific. Press down arrow again and you will find the item to open the JAWS Training table of contents. Press Enter to activate this item.
You can now arrow up and down the training books in the table of contents. Simply press Enter to read the topics you want. If the selected topic is not installed FS Reader will automatically download it from Freedom Scientific so be sure your computer is connected to the Internet.
To get help using the FS Reader itself, simply press F1.

Access JAWS Training from the JAWS Help Menu

If you prefer, the training materials may also be accessed through the JAWS menu as follows:

Press JAWS key + J to open the JAWS menu.
Arrow down to the Help menu and press right arrow to open its submenu.
Arrow down to Training and press Enter.
FS Reader will open with the JAWS training table of contents already loaded.
You can now arrow up and down the training books in the table of contents. Simply press Enter to read the topics you want. If the selected topic is not installed FS Reader will automatically download it from Freedom Scientific so be sure your computer is connected to the Internet.
To get help using the FS Reader itself, simply press F1.

Next Meeting (Monday October 15 at 7pm)

The second Monday of October is Thanksgiving, so we will have our next meeting on the third Monday October 15.
As always, for help with technology bring your devices and/or questions to the meeting.

Meeting Location and Logistics

Ascension Lutheran Church 8405 – 83 Street NW, Edmonton.
We meet in the basement hall. There is elevator access.
Enter the church from the back door. There is parking at the back and drop off space for taxis, DATS.
Meetings are every second Monday of the month at 7pm.
If you have someone helping you your assistant is welcome to remain for the meeting.

GTT Edmonton Overview

GTT Edmonton is a chapter of the Canadian Council of the Blind (CCB).
GTT Edmonton promotes a self-help learning experience by holding monthly meetings to assist participants with assistive technology.
Each meeting consists of a feature technology topic, questions and answers about technology, and one-on-one training where possible.
Participants are encouraged to come to each meeting even if they are not interested in the feature topic because questions on any technology are welcome. The more participants the better able we will be equipped with the talent and experience to help each other.
There are GTT groups across Canada as well as a national GTT monthly toll free teleconference. You may subscribe to the National GTT blog to get email notices of teleconferences and notes from other GTT chapters. Visit:

http://www.GTTProgram.blog/

To subscribe, use the form at the bottom of that web page to enter your email.

National GTT Email Support List

CCB sponsors a GTT email support list to provide help and support with technology for blind and low vision Canadians. To subscribe to the email list, send an empty email to:

GTTsupport+subscribe@groups.io

[End of Document]

GTT Calgary Meeting Invitation, Amazon Echo vs Google Home, September 17, 2018

Although this notice is being circulated late, for those living in the Calgary area please be in touch with Ted if this and other tech topics are of interest to you.

Get Together with Technology (GTT) Calgary

Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind

Meeting Invitation

Theme: Amazon Echo VS Google Home

Date/Time: Monday, September 17, 2018, 10:00 AM until 12:00 Noon

Place: CCB office, CNIB Basement, 10 11A Street NE

Good afternoon everyone. I hope everyone had a very good summer and was able to find places to stay out of the heat, at least, some of the time.

With fall once again in the air, it is time for our first GTT meeting of the new season. This meeting will be held in the Basement of CNIB in the CCB office from 10 A.M until noon.

The topic this month will be a direct comparison of the Amazon Echo VS. Google Home Mini. If you don’t have one of, or neither of these fascinating little speakers, come and join us as we do our best to put them through their paces. We will show you how to connect them, what they do… don’t do… and just how helpful they can be.

If you are a blind or visually impaired person who wants to learn about new and/or existing technology, and how to use it, then these meetings are for you.

We invite one and all to come and join us for lots of learning, laughs, and tech talk that will keep you both entertained, and informed.

Since there are two new members on the list for this message, I make this announcement. If you no longer wish to receive e-mails from this list, or if you know someone who wants corospondence from this list that we are not reaching, please contact us, and we will do our very best to make sure they are added to our contact list.

Thank you for your attention

Who is invited? Everyone with an interest in technology and learning.

We have our meeting on the third Monday of every month from 10 A.M until noon.

Ted Phillips, GTT Coordinator

CCB Calgary

ccb.calgaryclub@shaw.ca

TedsMusicom@Telus.net

CCB Backgrounder:

CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.

The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.

As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the “Voice of the Blind™”.

CCB National Office

100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6

Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: www.ccbnational.net

GTT National Conference Call Meeting Invitation, Brainstorming for Fall and Winter Topics, September 12, 2018

Get Together with Technology (GTT)

National Teleconference Call

Sponsored by the Canadian Council of the Blind

You’re invited to the CCB’s September 12, 2018 GTT National conference call meeting:

Theme: Brainstorming Session for Fall and Winter Meetings

Brian Bibeault and Albert Ruel will facilitate an exploration of what participants want to have presented/discussed during the upcoming fall and winter GTT National Conference Call meetings. Bring your ideas for presentations you might be able/willing to deliver, or those topics for which you want us to recruit presenters.

You can participate by phone from wherever you are.

Date: September 12, 2018

Time: 4:00–5:30 PM Pacific Time, 7:00-8:30 PM Eastern Time

The call-in info is:

Toll Free: 1-866-740-1260

Passcode: 5670311#

To mute your phone while on the call please use Star 6, and to unmute use Star 7.

iPhone Users can copy and paste the below number and code into their Contacts list and dial directly:

1-866-740-1260, 5670311#

For more information contact:

Kim Kilpatrick, GTT East Coordinator

GTTProgram@Gmail.com

1-877-304-0968 Ext 513

Albert Ruel, GTT West Coordinator

albert.GTT@CCBNational.net

1-877-304-0968 Ext 550

CCB Backgrounder:

CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.

The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.

As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the “Voice of the Blind™”.

CCB National Office

100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6

Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: http://www.ccbnational.net

GTT Duncan Meeting Invitation, Be My Eyes and Aira Smart Glasses, September 13, 2018

Get Together with Technology (GTT) Duncan

An Initiative of the Canadian Council of the Blind,

in Partnership with the

Vancouver Island Regional Library, N. Cowichan Branch

Theme: Be My Eyes and Aira Glasses for sighted assistance

Date: September 13, 2018

Time: 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM

Where: Vancouver Island Regional Library, N. Cowichan Branch

2687 James Street Duncan BC

First Hour:

Albert Ruel will lead a discussion around the sighted assistance available through our smart phones from the volunteers with Be My Eyes and paid staff with Aira Glasses. We will talk about how these devices can be used to work through the upcoming provincial referendum and local elections.

Second Hour:

Bring those assistive gadgets you’re having trouble with and we’ll see if others in the group can assist in learning how to best use them.

For More Information:

Contact Albert Ruel at 250-240-2343, or by email at Albert.GTT@CCBNational.net

CCB Backgrounder:

CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.

The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.

As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the “Voice of the Blind™”.

CCB National Office

100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6

Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: http://www.ccbnational.net

GTT Victoria Meeting Agenda, Tech Round-up and Fall Voting, September 5, 2018

Get Together with Technology (GTT) Victoria

A Chapter of the Canadian Council of the Blind

in Partnership with

The Greater Victoria Public Library

Theme: Tom’s NFB Tech Round-up – Accessible Voting in the Fall

Date: September 5, 2018

Time: 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM

Where: Community Room, GVPL, Main Branch 735 Broughton St

First Hour:

Tom Dekker will give us 2 or 3 wonderful technology nuggets he picked-up/learned at the NFB Convention in July, then we’ll discuss the accessibility of the upcoming fall referendum on Proportional Representation and the Province-wide Civic Elections.

Second Hour:

During the second hour Corry Stuive, Albert Ruel and Tom Dekker will lead the group in discussion on any other assistive tech topic participants want to raise. Please bring to the meeting all your other assistive technology questions, nuggets and frustrations for discussion with the group.

For More Information:

Contact Albert Ruel at 250-240-2343, or email us at GTT.Victoria@Gmail.com

CCB Backgrounder:

CCB promotes measures to conserve sight, create a close relationship with the sighted community and provide employment opportunities.

The CCB recognizes that vision loss has no boundaries with respect to gender, income, ethnicity, culture, other disabilities or age.

As the largest membership organization of the blind and partially sighted in Canada the CCB is the “Voice of the Blind™”.

CCB National Office

100-20 James Street Ottawa ON K2P 0T6

Toll Free: 1-877-304-0968 Email: info@ccbnational.net URL: http://www.ccbnational.net