KIRK BEHNKE: Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar from the Pennsylvania Tech Accelerator program, sponsored by TechOWL and Temple University Institute on Disabilities. We're going to give 30 more seconds to let people come in, but please know that we will get started right away. Thank you. 

OK, great. Thanks, everybody, for coming today and joining us for our July Tech Accelerator webinar. My name is Kirk Behnke, and I will be your moderator for today's session. Our presentation topic this month is tools for vision. This is the second session of our current series entitled Tools For Employment, Independence, and Socialization. 

This particular session is being recorded, and the video will include a picture in picture ASL and translation, as well as a full transcript. Jule Ann will also be highlighting a few of her technologies that she uses in her video. So if you wanted to see what she's pointing to, you would just highlight or spotlight her when she is presenting. That way you can see her and then see the PowerPoint slides as well. 

So you could also access this recorded video on our website at disabilities.temple.edu. And someone will put a link in the chat with all the resources for today's webinar. So at that website, you also can register for future webinars. The TechOWL has a wonderful series of 18 topics, which we have run from last July of 2024, and it will continue until December of this particular calendar year. 

So each session is held twice, the third Thursday of the month, and it's offered two times, one at 12:00 noon and one at 4 o'clock, which is this time slot. So both sessions have the same content. So you can attend whichever one you most convenient for you and for your schedule. 

So this series is part of the Tech Accelerator program. This is an affiliate-- sorry, this is an initiative funded by the Office of Developmental Programs and the Office of Long Term Living here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And this is also made possible through funding from the American Rescue Plan Act. You can learn more about the Technology Accelerator Program and the other projects that we have on our website by using that link in the chat. And the information could also be sent to you in a follow up email, along with a PowerPoint and other materials from today's sessions. 

For those of you who are joining us for the first time, TechOWL, which stands for Technology for Our Whole Lives, is the federally funded, designated assistive technology program serving the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. So every US state and territory has one of these programs, and they share some commonalities, such as having a device lending library, durable medical equipment utilization programs, offers training, education, and other opportunities. So if you're not from Pennsylvania, just contact your state Tech Act program, and you can follow up with them to find out what other services they provide for you. 

So today, we are very fortunate to have Jule Ann Lieberman. She is a certified low vision therapist and certified assistive technology instruction specialist at TechOWL, the Institute on Disabilities at Temple University. So Jule Ann, I know that you will want to probably introduce yourself, so I'm going to pass it right over on to you. And again, thank you all for joining us today. 

JULE ANN LIEBERMAN: OK. I'm going to try to get over to my slideshow here. Come on. Oh, not that one. There we go. 

KIRK BEHNKE: Looks good. We're seeing it. Thank you. 

JULE ANN LIEBERMAN: OK, good. OK, so a little bit about me. Again, I have lived a life with low vision. Started losing my vision early on, in elementary school. And by the time I was in high school, I was legally blind, 20 over 200. For those that may not be familiar with that term, that think about the old eye chart, and that would be the big E. So at the very top. That would be all that I could see by the time I was 16. 

And then over time, since it is a progressive loss due to a genetic retinal disorder called cone rod dystrophy, I also have the genetic markers for Stargardt's, so I have both. Lucky me. Which means over time, I've lost more and more acuity. So now I'm defined as profound vision loss. So I can see the light on the computer here that the screen is lit up. But as far as reading any content or seeing anything beyond that, that's beyond me at this point. 

So with that said, I also then used technology going into undergraduate way back when. And the technology was pretty antique, if you look at it now. But it did provide me an opportunity to be able to read all my textbooks again, without having to hold it two inches from my nose with magnifying spectacles on. 

So it did provide me-- they used to call them closed circuit TVs. Some still call them that. They're technically video magnifiers, but they can allow to zoom in. And we'll talk a little bit more about that coming up on print and displayed on a screen. So I went from a mediocre student to Dean's list in one semester once I got the technology that I needed. 

So technology is very near and dear to my heart. And so I used technology in graduate school. I was a person that was entering as a mature person, shall we say. And by then, the computer technology caught up. So I was using screen readers and screen magnification software in order for me to access the information on my coursework, which was all online. So therefore, I had to read a lot of material and participate in discussion board threads. 

I'm married for almost 43 years now, have three adult children, and recently became a grandmother, which I'm very proud of, of a little baby girl. And so I'm, again, living life to the fullest, as we say. I've been living, again, on my own without any assistance other than from my family's support. That helps me out with some of the activities of daily living. 

But as I pointed out yesterday to one of my callers, I said, yes, indeed, I'm very fortunate. I do have the support. So when I need a ride, I can ask for a ride to get to one place to another. But I have to be careful how often I ask for help. And I don't want to take advantage of people or make them feel like I'm a burden. 

So with technology, things like using Uber, using not so much paratransit, but the regional rail system, the SEPTA transportation system, which what we have here, public transit. I've been very fortunate that as much as I can, I do remain as independent as possible. 

Then it goes into presentation view. Hang on. It didn't move this time. That's better. OK. That's me. There we go. Let's move on. 

Our goals for today. Since it's such a broad-- there's a lot. I'm sorry. I jumped past that one. There's a lot of conversations we can have about all different kinds of the technology. And since this is such a broad audience, I wanted to make sure that we try to cover everything that we needed to do in a very brief, short manner. So we're going to be talking about some of the simple adaptations that you can make, which technically sort of tools. 

Then we'll also move on to some devices, technology for reading. We'll get into technology for getting around, orientation and mobility a little bit. And so then we'll talk about some of the tasks that we can accomplish by using apps and technology, including wearable technology that's the latest greatest things that's out there. 

So simple adaptations. Sometimes the simplest things are the most effective. So for me to use my microwave, for example, I have tactile marks on the buttons so that I can find the Start button, the Cancel button, and I usually put the tack, a little locator dot, on number 5 on the keypad. That is the same parallel I use on a telephone. 

So every phone that you have will have a tactile mark. When I'm talking about the desktop phones, home phones, I'll have a tactile mark on number 5. Even some cell phones that have keypads that have the numeric keypad will have some kind of indication at number 5. 

And what that does for me is it tells me that above it is 2, on the left of it is 4, on the right is 6. So below an 8 is, again, below the number 5. So I can find my orientation very quickly. I keep getting things on my watch. I'm sorry. So hang on. Let me stop that. It's the timer. Stop. 

OK, so with that said there are some of the simple things that you can do. Yes, I do use an Apple Watch and I set a timer, which now keeps going off, and I don't know why it's not talking to me [INAUDIBLE]. In any case, we'll move on. 

OK, technology for magnification. Now, again, optical magnifiers are usually the first thing people go to. The problem with optical magnifiers is it can only magnify to the degree of the curve of the lens, which means is that you might need more than one magnifier. For example, your medication bottles may have font in 0.4 font size. And your newspaper, for example, might be in 10 point font. So with that said, you would probably need multiple magnifiers to get to the size that you need to be able to read it effectively. 

So what technology does in our magnification devices, it allows you to zoom in. And you can also use your smartphone to zoom in by using the camera on the smartphone. There's also specialty apps that can do that. There's a whole plethora of apps out there for persons with vision loss. And I'd be happy to share that if you contact me directly rather than going through each one of them. 

But to give you an example of the devices for magnification, I put them in two different categories. The first one is a portable device, and I'm going to hold it up. This is the Ruby Video Magnifier. This is a portable device. I opened up the handle. 

And when you open up the handle, it becomes a variable magnification device, which means you can put it closer. It zooms it in. You pull it away. It makes it smaller, which means you can find more on the page. The larger you make the magnification, the less you're going to be able to see on this little screen. 

But it's perfect for things like reading price tags, reading short passages, looking something up in your cookbook, for example. I used to say phone books, but they don't make them anymore. But they give you an idea. 

You also can change the color contrast. Some people with low vision do better if they have a black background with white letters. You can also make it full color. You can also make it high contrast white with black letters. And there's also some other color options on there. So you can switch that out. 

You can also change the magnification. I'm going to turn this upside down here. You can also turn the magnification level up by pressing one of the buttons that will increase it. And it then cycles all the way through four different sizes. 

You can also then freeze the image as well, and that image then will remain on the screen until you, quote, "unfreeze" it. That's really helpful if you're looking at something at a distance like prices on a shelf at the grocery store. You can snap the freeze image and then bring it closer to you. It also will still magnify if you increase the magnification at that point too. So again, handy for things like menus, reading short passages in a book. Reading for long periods is going to be very tedious, as you'll have to move across the screen in order to get all the information depending on the size of the magnification at one time. 

If you do fold the handle down, as right now, you can lay it flat, which makes it a little more comfortable. Because if you do have the handle extended, it will keep trying to refocus, which might get blurry. So I usually tell people, if you're going to be reading for more than a spot check, then you may want to put it in this position so that you're able to move it across the page more effectively. 

The next one I have here is-- and there are multiple devices in our lending library that you could try out if you live in Pennsylvania. This particular one is our Ruby 10, which includes OCR. I have it upside down. Here we go. And what it can do then is it can snap a picture of the image that you want to take as far as text, and then perform what they call optical character recognition. 

So it takes that picture and then turns it back into text that can be read aloud on the screen. It also can be magnified and you can move across the screen using the cursor arrows should you need to move it that way. So it does provide an awful lot of flexibility. This is something that was something I dreamed of maybe 10 years ago, that they would have something portable that can do the OCR. 

Now, you also can do that on your phone. Some of the apps that are very good at that are Microsoft produced one called Seeing, S-E-E-I-N-G, capital A-I. That's a free app on both Android and iOS. We also have one called Envision. And Envision does similar things that the Seeing AI app, also available on both Google and Android. So yeah, Android and iOS. 

It also has-- one of the nice things about Envision is that you can also export what you've read into another app. So in other words, if you wanted to save that priceless letter that you won that sweepstakes, which I know we still get sometimes, then you can actually save it as a file on your smartphone to read it later. So there's a little bit more flexibility with Envision. 

I just had students evaluate that in my course that I was teaching, and they actually found some of the features of Seeing AI a little bit more user friendly, but they liked some of the extra features that the Envision app had as well. So again, there's a lot of ways to get around reading with large print and magnification as well as having it take a picture and read it back. That's called audio supported reading. 

OK, so I do have a picture of the Ruby here. By the way, if you do need accessible content, the PowerPoint does have alt text included in it, so it does describe it. The second image on here is the Topaz desktop video magnification system. They've come a long way since 1975, trust me, where it took up a whole desk. It was two separate devices. 

Now this particular one is in something called an inline system. So the camera is underneath the monitor. The tray below is where you would place the object that you want magnified, including text. The tray, they call it an xy table, and that can move forward, up and down, right to left so that no matter what size magnification enlargement you're using, you'll be able to follow the line of text that you're reading, for example, or examine an image. I like putting pictures of my grandbaby under there and making her real big and cute so I can possibly see some of the image of her on the screen. 

And audio and Braille technology for reading. Sometimes it's just better to listen to something, especially if you're listening for something for a long period of time. And also the Braille technology. Braille is very important for literacy. I like to emphasize that. Unfortunately, I don't read Braille. I have neuropathy in my fingers at this point, so it's a little hard for me to decipher all the Braille cells. 

But if you have a young person, I highly encourage them, even if they have low vision, to learn how to read Braille, because it does make a big difference in the long run, especially if you have a progressive vision loss like myself. And it's not dead. Braille is not dead. Now, with Braille technology, you can take advantage of using Braille, which is, again, includes things like punctuation, whereas an audio recording will not do the punctuation for you. 

So with that said, there are some of the great options out there now for technology, some of which can be paired with a phone or connected to a computer so that you have the advantage of having the refreshable Braille display. You can follow the Braille along the line of text. 

The Talking Book players. Again, I've been a member of the Talking Book program since probably 1974. So the equipment over the years has changed dramatically. Right now, they have a digital player, a Talking Book player, and they also have options where you can download from their mobile website on your phone, as well as on a portable player. And I'm going to show you first the one from the Talking Book program that you receive. And this is, again, provided by the library service. 

What's great about this device is that the buttons are very tactile. They also, if you just put the power button on and don't insert a book, it will read the-- I have it upside down. Thank you. It will read what that key does. What's great also is that it has a sleep timer. Some of us fall asleep while we're listening to books, especially when we're tired. So often you can set a sleep timer there so it can turn off automatically, so you never lose your place. You can also insert bookmarks on it. 

It has volume control. The speaker on this is very good. It also has tone control. Some people hear things better if, indeed, it's a different pitch. Children's voices that are high pitched, for example, may be harder to understand, especially as we age. So you can lower the tone of it. You can also change the rate of speed that it's read aloud. People that have been listening to books as long as I have, have a tendency to make it faster because our comprehension by listening has gone up over the years. So that's the one from the Talking Book player. 

The books come in a cartridge. And that can be sent to you, again, free of charge by the US Postal Service. And as soon as I get there. And it comes in a container like this, which would have your name on it. When you first receive it, you flip the card over, then it goes back to your library. This is an example of a cartridge that comes in it. And a lot of the libraries go typically would be one book on the cartridge. 

But you can also request multiple books be put on the cartridge, and you can navigate using that player. You can't put it in wrong. There's only one way that will fit in, and you slide it in the slot on it. And also it has that little finger hole here that persons with physical motor control disabilities or arthritis, like me, can actually find it and pull it out easily. 

The Talking Book program recently, in Pennsylvania, it's called LAMP, Library of Accessible Media Pennsylvania. And so it's open to anybody that has a print disability, a physical disability that makes it difficult for you to hold or read a book, a regular book. So there are a lot of opportunities now for people expanded access to reading these books. 

I have a portable player that happens to be mine that I like. I have a joke that I like to say, so I hope people aren't offended. I was at a conference years ago and I demonstrated three different Talking Book players, portable ones like this one here. This happens to be the Victor Reader Stream, I think version two, I think they call this now, and it's the latest edition of it. And at this conference, I was explaining that I like different aspects of each one of the book players out there. Some are better at recording. Some can do navigation in recordings. So there was a lot of different features of it. 

And when I was asked at the end when I opened up the questions, I'm pretty sure it was the vendor or the manufacturer, asked me which one did I like the best. And I said, I like all of them, for different reasons. However, I said, I'm married to a man named John, but I sleep with Victor. So in other words, this is on my bedside. So when I can't sleep at night, something will wake me up. I can go back to sleep listening to a book. 

So again, these also have sleep timers on it. So it's a really very useful way. I download books either through my computer for the website, which is BARD, Braille and Audio Reading Download service, the Talking Book program. Or I can also use this as a Wi-Fi capability. I can download the books on there. Now, you have to be a member. But again, the membership has now been expanded. 

Another nice thing about these players, this particular player, is that I can add Bookshare books to it. And in Pennsylvania, if you're a member of LAMP, you can get your Bookshare books without a membership fee. You also can listen to NFB Newsline without any type of fee downloaded right on this particular device. So those are some of my favorites. And yes, I read an awful lot of books. On my last vacation, I read three books in two weeks. One was 17 hours long. So I do like to use these players. 

Now, that has examples of the Braille technology. It's a Braille display. They all have Braille keyboard entry options in there, which is the Perkins style keyboard, which is the six keys plus you can add an eighth or eight keys for computer Braille. It also has navigation cursor movements so you can move across the line. 

Typically they're single line. There are some new devices coming out, one of which is from American Printing House for the Blind, which is known as the Monarch, which is a full page of Braille. It doesn't have the pins that pop up like you do on these Braille, but it's more of a membrane that you can feel the Braille cells. It also allows you for tactile graphics as well. But currently right now, these devices are what's available in our lending library, as well as options for people to, again, obtain them through whatever assistive technology program is there. 

The other device that I have is from the library, if I can find it. Yes. Here we are. This is one that in our lending library is called the Orbit Reader. It can read the books from the Talking Book program. I always turn it upside down, because I don't have the display, which would be down here. The refreshable Braille would be on here. 

You can download books directly by using their Wi-Fi. You can also connect it to the computer and then download books like I did with the audiobooks from the BARD website. And also there are ones that the libraries do provide. In Pennsylvania, they're providing the Zoomax version. There's also the HumanWare version that other states are providing. So it kind of depends. Check with your national Talking Book program in your state to find out what particular device would be available. 

But it's really nice, because it's pocket size in some ways. Well, I guess you need a big pocket. But you can put it in your purse or your backpack. And that way when you get stuck at the doctor's office, like happened to me two weeks ago for two hours, I could be entertained by listening to a book in my case. Or someone had a one of those Braille devices, they can actually be sitting there reading. Just like someone else picks up a magazine, you can be able to do that with these particular devices, portable devices. 

So I mention the Kindle here because some of them do-- well, all of them have display options in the books. And that means that it can make the print larger. It can also make the spacing between the lines bigger. It also could do contrast settings. So the persons that like that black background with white letters can benefit from a switch in the contrast. That also has on, not all of them, however, but some of the Kindle devices have what they call voice view, which means its text is speech. 

So it would read the menus and it will read any of the content that's been allowed through digital rights management to be accessed using a screen reader. So not every book on the Kindle store has that capability to be read aloud to you with voice view, but more and more are available. So that it's something to take-- if you have a Kindle, especially if you need the text to speech, to give it a try. 

They don't have a speaker jack on these devices anymore. However, if you use the Kindle app on a tablet device, then you can, obviously, if it has a speaker jack, excuse me, a headphone jack, you can attach it that way. But what you can do, though, and one of the recent advancements in these Kindle devices, is that once you pair Bluetooth headphones to it and now when you power it on, it will find, as long as the headset's turned on, headphones are turned on, it will find it. 

Previously, it was one of those things you had to keep it powered on in order for it to find, which really drove me crazy. I didn't like keeping it plugged in all the time. So make sure that it would connect using the text to speech screen reader. But they've come a long way in this capability. So again, if that's an option for you, especially your low vision clients or students, give that in mind. It's a possibility. 

As an AT professional, kind of our brains go to what is the simplest first. So I look at things first as in and what's already available on the devices. And over the years, each one of the operating systems, Windows and Mac, as well as the mobile devices, include an option to enable accessibility features for vision. So if you haven't tried them out, I suggest you do. 

And over the years, things have improved dramatically on you have options for choosing which voice, which synthesizer. You can change the rate of speech so that you can either speed it up, like some of my friends do, or slow it down like I do sometimes, so that I can understand it when the text to speech is reading it. You can also change the, again, the voice and the pitch as well. So there's a lot of customizations that you can do on these particular devices that are built in. So Windows has it. Mac has it, as well as iOS and the Android tablets, as well as the Chromebooks. 

So Windows accessibility for vision. The first thing I'm going to tell you is that it does have options for a magnifier. It also has options for text to speech, and that's called a narrator. Currently with magnifier, I believe that you can enable a screen read aloud feature, but I'm not sure how well it works totally with Narrator. I haven't checked the updates lately since Windows just updated. So who knows? It might be available to do that now to run them both at the same time. 

But it is a great option out there for individuals, especially if you think about it in the workplace. If indeed your employer doesn't provide a reasonable accommodation for a third party software, this is a quick fix is Narrator. So you go to Settings and go to Accessibility, Vision, and you choose Magnifier. And you choose from this screen enlargement. 

You can also choose how the enlargement goes, whether it's just a magnifying glass that follows the cursor, or a split screen where some of it's magnified and some of it's not, or a full screen magnification. Again, it can go up quite high. The higher you make it, just like with a video magnifier, the higher the magnification, the more mousing around you're going to have to do. But for people that are new to vision loss, it's really a great step into using accessibility. 

And on Macs, you want to go to System Preferences and then choose Accessibility and choose Vision. That allows you to then choose what their magnifier is called Zoom. And it, again, can enlarge text. It can do different type of displays. It also can have contrast-- both of them can have contrast changes as well. I usually start with individuals to see first if, indeed, if you just change the font sizes, make it bold, change the color contrast and display settings, whether that helps first. And if that's not enough increase in visibility, then we start looking at the magnifiers that are built in like Zoom. 

Likewise, with the text to speech, I introduce Voice Over to individuals. And I'll be totally honest, I am not a great Mac user with Voice Over. It's just a matter of when you learned one way to do something in Windows, it's hard to make that quick switch over to a Mac. But that's one of my goals for the next year, is to get more proficient in using Voice Over on a Mac. But it is available there. 

Again, same type of settings in Voice Over as you can do with Narrator. You can change the rate of speech. You can change the pitch. You can change the synthesizer. So you can have one voice reading one component of the computer screen and another reading the text aloud. So there's a lot of different options that you can set up in all these screen readers. 

One thing I did want to mention about screen readers is how does that work? Again, I'm a geek. And it really does interpret the video signal. So whatever's going to be displayed on the screen will then be verbalized. It also reads the things in the background. So when I open up, say, Microsoft Word, it will tell me that Microsoft Word is opening. It'll also tell me the title of the document. It reads a lot of information that may or may not be visible on the screen. 

So when I tell people I use mine on beginner mode, because I teach a lot new people, you can change the settings on the screen reader so it doesn't have to say all that much. But bear in mind, that's how it's presenting to this screen reader, the speech synthesizer. It's actually taking the information that's on the background that's being sent to the display. 

So let's go back to Chromebook here. Chromebook also has features for accessibility. You can enable it by going to the system's tray, choosing Accessibility, and then choose Vision. Their screen magnification is called Magnifier. And their text to speech is called Chromevox, V-O-X. C-H-R-O-M-E-V-O-X. 

Things to note about this on the Chromebook. Yes, Chromebooks are typically less expensive. They are browser based, so everything you're doing is on the internet. So you have to have an internet connection to do much of anything on a Chromebook. 

The other thing is that Chromebooks have a very small display compared to what you can buy on laptops or tablets, for example. So with that said, keep that in mind if you're using Magnifier. So as I mentioned, the higher the magnification, the less you're going to see of the content on the screen, the more mousing around you're going to have to do and move the cursor along. So think carefully if you're going to be purchasing a Chromebook or using a Chromebook. 

Likewise with Chromevox, one of the things about these computers that you can-- or excuse me, Chromebooks that you can get very cheaply is they don't have an awful lot of processor speed, how quickly the computer operates, as well as enough RAM, Random Access Memory. And when you're running an accessibility feature, plus doing whatever activity you're doing on the internet, it's going to grab up memory. 

So I usually recommend a minimum of 16 gigabytes of RAM on a Chromebook. So that might mean that you might need a little higher end device, higher processor speed for able to effectively work well with Chromevox or the Magnifier. 

iPhones and iPads likewise has the screen reader Voice Over. It also has Zoom Magnifier on it. You go to the Settings icon and then you choose Accessibility, and then you choose Vision. And you have an option for Magnifier-- excuse me, Zoom, as well as Voice Over, which is the text to speech. 

And I highly recommend that people try out the tutorials that come along with it. For example, there are gesture commands that will enable magnification very quickly and to the custom setting that you chose. So that's a gesture command. So it's not just tapping once on what you would see under your finger. It's involving different gesture commands. So these tutorials come in handy, especially so with voiceover users. 

And I know sometimes people that aren't used to listening to a screen synthesis or using a mobile device with text to speech on it, it's a hard transition for them for some cases. It's not that hard, but I've heard people get frustrated because when you use Voice Over, for example, anything that's under your finger, it's going to talk to you. And in order for you to activate it, you're going to have to double tap. So each time you put your finger on an icon, you're going to have to double tap to get that activated. And if you just swipe from left to right, it's going to move from one icon to another, so instead of moving from page to page. So paying attention to those tutorials, I think is very important, whether you're using an iPhone or an iPad. 

Likewise, Android phones and tablets, they have their own accessibility features. Surprise, surprise. You go to Settings, you go to Accessibility, you go to Vision. And their screen magnification is called Magnifier. And also their text to speech is called Talk Back. Likewise, they have gesture commands. The difference that I found between Talk Back and Voice Over, they have some very similar commands, but they also have some unique commands in Talk Back that it's worth going through the tutorial to get comfortable using it on an Android phone. 

Visibility, as far as vision, just display settings, comparing the two of them, there are a little bit more options in the iOS for clarity in different font sizes than you do standard in the Android operating system. It doesn't mean that it won't work for that individual, but it just may be that if, indeed, those display options, you are more limited in the Android, so they may have to go to magnifier faster than they would have to do so on a Zoom on an iPad or an iPhone. 

Devices for safe travel. They come in categories. GPS for navigation. You also go to obstacle detection. You also have for indoor wayfinding navigation. I can get to a building using a GPS app. I can get to the front door and then inside. Depending on how well I know the building, I might need help getting from point A to point B, because I can't read the signs on the wall. There are some apps, of course, that I could probably take a picture and have it read it back to me, but again, that's tedious. So the new frontier, as I say, is indoor wayfinding. We'll get into that a little bit in a minute. 

Obstacle detection. Some of the most common devices that are used are the WEWalk cane and the Mini Guide, for example. There are a few other ones that you can purchase through specialty catalogs. And they all kind of have a different form factors, different shapes and sizes. The WEWalk cane is something that you can attach to a white cane. It includes both GPS and obstacle detection. You'll need to activate the GPS through the app on your smartphone, however. 

But one thing about obstacle detection you really shouldn't be using WEWalk cane unless you've had good mobility training using a white cane. Because relying on the obstacle detection may not be your best option. Because if you're in a very dense environment, like say, traveling on the streets of Philadelphia and there's a lot of people, you're going to get a lot of signals bouncing back at you. 

So it's a matter of determining, OK, what is that? I call it the cognitive load. What does that vibration mean? And if you're using a white cane, you're going to be able to determine what obstacle's ahead of when you encounter it rather than listening, or again, waiting for the vibrations on the obstacle detection. 

But again, for those that it would benefit, for somebody who walks rather slow, is what I say, is a WEWalk cane, that they can actually get a warning ahead of them outside. Also, it has indoor door. Obstacle detection. So some times that you're in an unfamiliar location, that might be helpful to have that so that you can determine that a cubicle wall is there rather than waiting to encounter it with your white cane. So there are some advantages and disadvantages of using obstacle detection, as you can tell. 

GPS. Some of them do include some indoor wayfinding. I was happy to discover one day by accident when I had Blind Square, which is one of the apps that I have on my phone, announced to me as I walked by our kitchen area, which is called, and somebody had dropped what they call a cookie or a tag. And they called it IOD pantry. I was like, whoa. The first time I heard indoor wayfinding. 

Now, that is also, again, dependent on how good the signal it is, because it's still using GPS satellites in order for it to work that way. There are some new apps out there that will allow you to have some indoor wayfinding. Let's see. Am I on the next slide? Let's go to the next slide. There we go. Indoor wayfinding. 

Good Maps is one of the apps that I actually tried out when I was at a conference. The Marriott in Anaheim, when I was at the CSUN conference, did have it mapped with Good Maps. What they do is that the venue or the location can request for Good Maps to come out for a cost, square footage by square footage. They literally use a scanning device that then records the layout of that environment. They label it and then they save that map to a cloud. 

So the end user, for example, like myself, could download the app, use it for free, and if that venue or location has a Good Maps cloud map in there, I can activate it by choosing that location. It'll come up on the list of the app. So it can be very effective. And I found that very helpful from getting from one workshop room to another. I only got lost once, so I think that's pretty good considering it was a four day conference. And again, it's all a matter how interpreting that information and what information has been coded in their. 

Navi-Lens is a different approach. They actually provide you with ability to create tags, which would be then coded to identify that location. And they're usually discretely placed on a sign, like, say, a room sign. They do recommend not using it on a glossy surface. So if you have a really fancy sign that it's in Cyrillic font, for example, and is on a glossy background, it's not as effective. 

However, what it does do, though, is that within about 8 to 10 feet, it will announce the next tag that's on there. So that's really helpful for getting around in an environment. Again, depending how close you put these tags, the more information you're going to get, which also can be bombarding like the obstacle detection. But we're going to experiment with that here at TechOWL's space coming up in a few months. So we're going to try that out. 

The next one I mentioned here is also the WayAround tags. And I got to experience that by when I got trained for my new guide dog. They decided to put ADA signs next to various residents' rooms that you were using while you were there. And as long as you knew where the sign was, it was great. You can also then-- but you needed to be close to it with your phone. So within about eight inches, I had to hold it so that it could recognize the tag. 

But you can customize the tag and you can change it very easily through the website application. And when I put the phone up to the tag, my dorm room, it said "welcome Jule Ann," which kind of freaked me out a little bit, and also then described how the room was laid out inside. 

So again, I call that the least expensive alternative of all of them, WayAround tags. Also, the app is free. The tags are not, but it's also commonly used by people that are blind or low vision to identify objects that they've pre-recorded a tag. So in other words, they can help you sort your clothing in your closet, for example. 

Voice assistance and artificial assistance. Now we're getting into some of the hotter topics of voice assistants. The speaker devices, like the Amazon Echo and the Google Assistant devices, they're great for getting information, quick answers to questions, as long as you learn their wake up calls and how to ask a question. And again, they are using artificial intelligence to retrieve the answer. You have to be connected to a Wi-Fi in order for it to work. Most of these devices will require you to have an app on a smart device, whether it be a tablet or an iPhone, at least for the setup process, so that you can use that. 

On your smartphone, though, however, you already have some built in. On an iPhone, the voice assistant is called Siri. And on an Android phone, it's the Google Assistant. And again, with the wake up call, you can get a great deal of information there. I always caution, though, however, not to rely totally as the access point. As good as these assistants are, there are some limitations of what they can do. 

In other words, I use as an example that Siri can place a call for you. Siri can answer a call for you. Siri can hang up a call for you. But if you get a call in at the same time while you're talking to someone, you have to hang up that first call in order to answer the second call. So little things like that, which again, if you don't know enough about how to use accessibility devices on the phone in general, you're probably at a disadvantage. So I always encourage people to take advantage of both using the voice assistants as well as the accessibility devices on the phone. 

Wearable options. Now, this is, again, the latest, greatest hot things out there. They come in various price points and various types. I have here with me the OrCam MyEye 2. I also have the Envision AI glasses. I also have a AIRx bone conduction headphones that connect to an iPhone. All three of these devices, for setup, it helps to have an app. 

The OrCam, you don't necessarily need an app. So you don't need to have your smartphone with you. It can perform certain functions without using connected to a smartphone. For example, it can take a picture and read a text back to you. It can also describe a scene, I think whatever is limited to what they've already have in their database. It can recognize people if you've recorded that image of that person. 

And again, the other ones do involve using Wi-Fi access or, in this case, with an iPhone or a mobile device, you can make that as your hotspot to connect it. So they're really a great alternative for use. Again, the AIRx vision is tethered to the phone. So the disadvantage for me is I don't like too many cables. But it's a great alternative for people that don't like using the touch screen type of devices. 

So first I'm going to start with-- where is my OrCam? Here it is. OK. The OrCam MyEye is a device that gets mounted onto your glasses. So I'm going to take this off first. And it has a little mount that you can order extra ones. So if you have a different pair of glasses like maybe your computer glasses, or maybe your sunglasses and your regular spectacles. You can put that on there. When we loan these out, we loan them with this pair of spectacles so that it's already mounted. 

The mount is now a magnetic device. So you might have seen me. I'll do it again. It quickly attaches to it. The camera is here in that little circle, as I feel with my finger in the front. It is a touch screen. So you can activate different menus and different activities by using that touchscreen, which I'll turn on the side here so you can see it better. You can also use voice commands. 

And again, the OrCam is somewhat limited in some of the features compared to the other devices. However, there are individuals that would prefer to have this type of device because, again, it's quick and easy to learn. Again, the voice commands. And they only want it to do for certain tasks anyway. So, it might be a good option. For me, the disadvantage also too is that it's also $4,999. So a little bit pricey for individuals out of pocket. 

The next one I'm going to show you is the Envision AI glasses. This is my own personal one. It is set on the old Google glasses. There are other options, and I'll hold it up, there are other options out there for frames that you can choose. It is a camera, like I say, a little geeky here, that's mounted here on the temple of the device. So it's already pre-mounted. 

You can also then remove this temple and put it on a different frame that you can also purchase from them. Of course, they want you to buy accessory, right? So that's kind of nice. It does have a touchpad feature like the OrCam does. It also has a voice activation so that you can actually give it a voice command to take a picture, read it back to you the text on the screen. 

Also, it really did a nice job of describing a scene. I was really kind of impressed with it at a conference when I took a picture of the front of the room. It told me that there was a slide presentation on the screen, as well as told me how many people were sitting in front as presenters, which I thought was kind of cool. So it does have that ability to describe scene. 

The difference between this and the OrCam, for example, it also allows you to take advantage of something called Be My Eyes, which is an app you can download on your phone. But this can also call using Be My Eyes, using your smartphone, and the camera here. So it makes it hands free. Will allow the Be My Eyes volunteer to see what's going on through that camera lens. 

It also has something called Envision Ally, which means it's a group of people that have agreed to be your assistant. So when they'll get a notice on their smartphone, they open up the app, and then they can literally see what you're looking at through that camera on there. 

That's just things that you can use both these devices for, like currency identification, color identification, scan and read text, read text by taking a picture and it will do the optical character recognition, which I mentioned earlier. So that's some of, again, the advantages. 

Now, again, we're stepping down a little bit in the price. These are the home edition, and that was $2,400. You can buy a professional edition for $3,500. I believe that's still a price. They also have just a read version, which will only take a picture and read it back to you. So it doesn't have that calling features and all that into it. And that's less expensive. That's $1,500. So compared to the OrCam, yeah, we're talking price points a little bit better. But again, it really comes down to what the individual prefers to use. 

The last one I'm going to show you is the RX AI Vision. AIRx Vision. 

KIRK BEHNKE: Jule, I just want to interrupt here. You have two more minutes. 

JULE ANN LIEBERMAN: Two more minutes. OK, I'll speed it up. They're bone conduction headphones. And so if you have an Android phone, you just connect it into the power connection there. And the camera's up here on that. 

What's nice about this is that it's not a touchpad. It has the navigation keys for pause, fast forward, and rewind. You can also then choose different menus that are involved in the device. They just came out with this year an adapter so that I can use it with an app on my iPhone as well. So I would plug that cable into this, and then this becomes the navigation pad for the iPhone edition. So that's some of the cool things. 

One that I don't have yet is the Echo Vision, which is coming out next month supposedly. And that provides the options for, again, similar type of things where it can take a picture, read it back to you. That one is I think they're retailing that one for $600. The next one down is the Meta glasses, mainstream devices that we're now having the capability to do that. They're very popular, can do a lot of the same functions here, and also now just recently added Be My Eyes ability. 

And I believe maybe still pending, but it might have been approved recently, to include the contacting an IRA agent. An IRA agent, compared to Be My Eyes, is that the IRA agent is a trained person who knows how to work with blind people, not just a volunteer. But it is a subscription, so you will have a monthly fee on that. 

There you go. Conclusions. So with this, there are a lot of options out there for everyday tasks and in the workplace that you can use these devices. If you have questions that didn't get answered on the chat, don't hesitate to contact me. 

I'm sure that Caitlin or Kirk can put up in the chat feature my web-- or excuse me, my email address is jule.ann.lieberman L-I-E-B-E-R-M-A-N @temple.edu. You can also send a message to TechOWL, T-E-C-H-O-W-L @temple.edu. Also visit our website, www.techowlpa.org. 

We have a chat feature. They can direct a message to me that way. Also just visit the website. It's just got oodles of great information there on all our different services that are out there. And worst case scenario, you can always call 800-204-7428, because I answer the calls Monday through Friday in the morning, Eastern Standard Time. Eastern Daylight savings time right now. And I'd be happy to. 

And otherwise, if you want to have a question for me, I'm sure the AT staff in the afternoon would be happy to get that information connections made with me. So hopefully we've answered some of your questions, and I thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. 

KIRK BEHNKE: Yes, thanks, everybody. Jule Ann, thank you so much for your continuous expertise in this particular area as well as the lived experiences as well. So thank you for sharing your stories, your technologies, and thank you, everyone, for joining us today. 

JULE ANN LIEBERMAN: Have a great day, everybody.