Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to Talking
Technology with VI Labs.
At VI Labs we believe technologyis the single greatest enabler
for people with sight loss andall disabilities.
If you're looking for the latestnews and conversation on tech
(00:21):
from a more accessibleperspective, you've come to the
right place.
SPEAKER_09 (00:26):
Yes, indeed you
have.
Hello one, hello all.
Hope you're all keeping well.
Welcome in to Talking Technologywith VI Labs episode number 90.
Yes, we are at 90 already.
We are in our 90s.
There you go.
We are now 10 away from the big100.
I think we are set, when I didthe maths on this last, we're
(00:48):
set to hit the 100 just beforethe end of the year.
So really looking forward tothat.
We'll have to keep thosepodcasts coming.
But hey, Hey, hope you'rekeeping well.
Hope you're enjoying thesunshine for those of you who
have sunshine or the shockingrain for those of you who were
in Dublin last week.
There was some crazy rain indifferent parts of the country
(01:11):
last week.
One of our centres actually herein Vision Ireland unfortunately
flooded.
But I believe they're over theworst of that now, which is good
to hear.
But hey, welcome in to TalkingTechnology Today.
episode number 90 we have apacked show coming up for you
over the next hour or so we aregoing to be taking a look at the
(01:31):
RTE player they have rolled outsome really cool new updates
that are improving accessibilityon all fronts on web on mobile
lots of really cool stuff we'llbe taking a look at that later
on and we will be taking a lookat all the latest talking
technology news including thediscontinuation of BBC sounds we
(01:53):
will have information on thatlater on in the show so please
do stick with us for that buthey a reminder that this is not
just our show this is your showand as always we do want you to
keep in touch with us you cansend us voice notes you can send
us emails and here is exactlyhow you do it So if you would
(02:14):
like to join the conversation,we'd love to have you as a part
of it.
So please do get in touch withus.
You can send us a voice note onWhatsApp.
You can send that to086-199-0011.
That's 086-199-0011.
And remember, a voice note, it'snot a call.
So you do want to use the voicemessage button.
(02:36):
It's labeled with voiceover downat the bottom right-hand corner
of your screen there.
That will get that message rightin Joe Lonergan, Joe, how are
you?
SPEAKER_07 (03:14):
Hi David, I'm all
good today, thank you.
SPEAKER_09 (03:16):
Excellent.
Joe, you're keeping well.
You were at zero limits and youtook a week off after to recover
from zero limits.
Do you have a good time?
SPEAKER_07 (03:26):
Yeah, I did.
It was a great day and reallywell organised by Vision Sports.
A great adrenaline rush in therally car in the evening time
and Yeah, I needed a bit of abreak to come get that
adrenaline back down again,David, you know, get back to the
balance, back to zero.
SPEAKER_09 (03:43):
Yeah, you can't be,
you know, coming into the Vision
Ireland office whizzing aroundon adrenaline, you know, they
don't allow it.
SPEAKER_07 (03:48):
No, not at 100 miles
an hour, no way.
So yeah, I needed that time, youknow, just to get me back to
level pegging again.
SPEAKER_09 (03:55):
We talked about it,
Joe, on the podcast the last day
about self-driving and we've hadnewsletter articles over the
past couple of weeks on this inTech on Tap as well.
But what's your general take onit.
Would you be wanting to jump ina self-driving car if one came
to Ireland?
SPEAKER_07 (04:12):
I'd be...
Edgy enough, you know.
I might let you go in the firstday, David.
I'll try the day after, maybe.
Okay.
See how you're going, you know.
I know, joking, I would be edgy,but at the same time, I'd look
forward to it, maybe as anindependence point of view, or
maybe Waymo, some version ofWaymo that you might have, which
is a self-driving taxi, foranyone who doesn't know.
(04:33):
But over here, apparently theroad structure is not ready for
it yet, but...
Look, and I'd be hoping herecognizes cows.
You wouldn't know if you wentdown the country road in
Ireland.
People are crossing roads withcows and animals and that kind
of stuff.
Wild stuff.
But I do...
I think it's promising.
I think in Ireland it's at least10 years away myself.
(04:56):
But I know, whether it is inCalifornia or somewhere like
that, they have way more.
Or Los Angeles.
SPEAKER_09 (05:02):
Yeah, they have it
in a few places, I believe.
SPEAKER_07 (05:04):
But I think we're a
little bit away.
Maybe our roads aren't straightenough or maybe other drivers,
the quality of driving mightn'tbe up to it or whatever.
There will be a few issues,like, you know, coming to start.
It's like the Lewis when I cameout for it.
It took people a good year toget used to the Lewis.
If you remember when the Lewiswas there first, there was an
(05:26):
accident probably nearly everyweek for the first maybe six to
eight weeks, you know, and thenit slowly got better as the
months came along.
Now you never hear of anyaccidents with the Lewis, very
rarely, you know.
SPEAKER_09 (05:39):
Yeah, absolutely.
So who knows, maybe once we'vetrained it with the cows, the
dodgy drivers and the wonkyroads will be all good.
SPEAKER_07 (05:48):
Well, yeah, I mean,
it's going to be a process.
So, yeah, we'll take it onceevery time.
But the main thing is you feelsafe.
you don't have anxiety everytime you get in one.
And then, as I said, theservice, if there is one to come
down the line, then it'll work,you know?
SPEAKER_09 (06:07):
Yeah, for sure.
Loads of information on that inprevious week's articles on Tech
on Tap.
So do check that out.
And you can also find those onour website, vi.ie, if that's an
area that is of interest to you.
But Joe, we did have somecomments in over the last little
while.
One of...
(06:28):
from Jessica and Jessica had acomment on an article which you
wrote recently about Facebookreactions.
Here is what Jessica had to say.
SPEAKER_03 (06:38):
Hello.
I saw a post from DavidGoldfield about reacting to a
Facebook post as a voiceoveruser.
I have a similar but relatedquestion about editing posts.
If I make a typo, I have toeither use my BrailleSense or
(07:04):
computer to fix it.
Does anyone know if there's away to fix it on an iPhone or
iPad using VoiceOver?
SPEAKER_09 (07:16):
Great question,
Jessica, and thank you for it.
And also thank you to DavidGoldfield, who shared that post
that Joe wrote over on Mastodon,a platform that I'm not too
familiar with yet.
I'll have to get over and get myMastodon presence going, Joe.
But to Jessica's question,though, editing posts on
(07:37):
Facebook, specifically doing itwith voiceover on iOS, how hard
or easy is this to do, Joe?
SPEAKER_07 (07:43):
Yeah, well, thanks,
Jessica, for the voice note.
And this will inspire an articlethat I will do this week in the
newsletter for anyone that'sinterested.
But easy or difficult?
Well, none is ever easy untilyou're shown how to do it or
you're told how to do something.
So I suppose once you create thepost, you've discovered you've
(08:04):
made a mistake, well, thenyou're going to have to go into
your notifications or your wallto find that post again.
And then you double tap on thepost.
This is for a voiceover user, asJessica said she was.
So you have to double tap on thepost.
The post will open.
Then you look for a buttoncalled More.
And then you double tap on More.
(08:25):
And inside More, you keepflicking left or right, whatever
you prefer, until you come toEdit Post.
And you double tap on Edit Post.
And once you double tap on EditPost, it will open an area where
you can delete the picture, oryou can tag a friend, or in the
text box, you can double tap onthe text box area and you can
delete the word that you made amistake on or you can replace
(08:47):
that word or add a new word.
And when you're finished addingthe word and you're happy with
it, you can flick left and rightif you want for the comment to
be read out again just beforeyou finish editing.
And when you're finished andhappy with the edit that you've
just performed, then you candouble tap on the save button.
(09:08):
The save button is somewhere onthe left.
So I predict you should flickleft with one finger and
eventually you will hear savebutton and double tap on save
button.
And then finally your post hasbeen edited and fixed and people
can see your edit history.
So be wary of that.
So if you do start saying stuffon social media, And you edit
(09:31):
it, people will know you'veeither fixed the spelling or
else maybe had a totallydifferent opinion on something.
So that's it, David.
SPEAKER_09 (09:39):
There you go.
It is good to know that stuff.
It does raise an interestingquestion, though.
And, you know, I do find, like,I will consider myself a
decently proficient voiceoveruser at this point.
But editing text, I think, isone of those things that no
matter how proficient you get,it's still, it's a little bit
clunky.
(09:59):
Like, is this, do you think,Joe, like one of those
disadvantages still of atouchscreen compared with, you
know, physical input?
SPEAKER_07 (10:08):
Yeah, well, look,
touchscreens are notoriously
difficult to type on.
I know a lot of people out theresay, I'm brilliant at it and I
can do it really fast and stufflike that, but there is a big
learning curve at the start toget the hang of typing on a
touchscreen.
And some people say, justdepending on who they are, what
they're used to.
They might never get the hang ofit properly and they make lots
(10:28):
of mistakes before they get tothe finished sentence that they
want to do.
But look, it can be a slowprocess, touch typing.
Some people like the standardtyping, some people like the
touch typing.
So the standard one, I think youhave to double tap on the
letters, touch one, you just putyour finger on the letter and
(10:49):
lift your finger and that kindof thing.
But Yeah, I suppose other waysof doing it then, if you
couldn't really get the hang ofit or you found it just totally
tedious and it really annoyedyou all the time, you may prefer
to connect a Bluetooth keyboardto the device.
These can come in all shapes andsizes.
There's loads of companies outthere.
One company, Zag, they makeamazing Bluetooth keyboards.
(11:11):
Logitech, there is somespecialised keyboards for the
iPhone that clip on as well, youknow.
So, but...
If you want to go down thatdirection, you could.
type with a Bluetooth keyboard,which has a QWERTY-style input.
And there is also a Brailledevice that can connect.
(11:35):
But the Bluetooth one is mypreferred one for people,
especially if they're beginningand they just want to type into
the iPhone, into the edit box.
And you can use your up and downarrow to go letter by letter or
word by word.
And there is lots of differentkeystrokes that you can learn as
well.
I won't go through them here,David.
We could be here all day.
But they're the kind of thingsyou can learn when you get the
(11:57):
keyboard.
So yeah, Bluetooth keyboard,David.
SPEAKER_09 (12:00):
There you go.
And Jessica mentions as wellthat she is using a Braille
Sense 6.
So I would assume if you'reusing a Braille Sense 6, you're
handy enough with Braille,Jessica.
So you also do have, as Joerightly said, there's stuff like
the Braille input devices, likethe Hable and stuff like that.
So those are also other optionsthat could exist for you as
(12:21):
well.
But Bluetooth keyboards,definitely cheaper.
The Hable isn't extortionate byassistive technology standards,
but at the same time, you canget a mainstream keyboard, a
Bluetooth keyboard on Amazon forrelatively inexpensively these
days.
So definitely worth looking intothat.
(12:42):
So yeah, Joe, thank you so muchfor answering that.
And Jessica, thank you so muchas well for the question.
And if people do have otherquestions as well, please do
send it in to us.
The number that you need thereis 086-199-00001.
That's 086-199-00001.
And for those of you who areoutside of Ireland, you can also
(13:08):
send us a message with thatnumber, but using our country
code.
So the country code for Irelandis 353.
So you drop the zero then.
So 353-86-199-0011.
That's 353-86-199-0011.
Or just send us an email,content at vi.ie.
(13:29):
So, moving on.
Loads of exciting stuffhappening here in Ireland, at
least, as far as accessibilityis concerned, ever since the
European Accessibility Actpassed just a couple of weeks
ago, since it took full effect.
We've talked before on thepodcast about how Bank of
(13:49):
Ireland are doing some stuffwith their ATMs, which is great
to hear.
But one of the other big ones isthe RTE player.
This is the player, for those ofyou you who don't know, from
Ireland's national broadcaster.
It's a bit like BBC iPlayer overin the UK.
You have the iPlayer, we've justgot the player without the I,
(14:09):
the good old RTE player.
And this is a big one, Joe,because the RTE player, I think
it's fair to say, it struggledon the accessibility front for a
while there.
SPEAKER_07 (14:22):
It did, David, and
they made a big effort about 10
years ago or more when they'ddone this RTXL player.
It was a separate kind of a weblink that you used on a Windows
machine.
But then...
their app, as people startedusing smartphones more, they had
an app, and it was okay atdifferent times, but then
(14:44):
different updates come alongevery now and again, and they
totally forget aboutaccessibility, and you'd want to
be some sort of genius to guesswhat some of the buttons were
for, and it just didn't workwith voiceover that well.
I'm not sure about some of thelow vision stuff, but probably
didn't look after that either.
Look, I mean...
international broadcaster and Isuppose sometimes you'd be very
(15:08):
disappointed when you can't playa programme that everybody's
talking about whether it couldbe a topic on primetime or it
could be something to do with Idon't know just something in the
news or just a general piece offiction that you really wanted
to see that everybody's talkingabout and then you can't watch
it because you couldn't accessthe series or the search box or
(15:28):
an unlabeled button and that'swhere we were at with it David
so do you have any updates forus?
SPEAKER_09 (15:33):
I do have updates
Joe I came armed with updates
just for you and for all ofthose listening because RTE have
rolled out new updates for RTEPlayer in just the past couple
of weeks.
And they have made significantupgrades.
So the app is now much betterwith voiceover.
And we'll show you that in justa second.
(15:54):
And they've also madesignificant improvements on the
web too.
And Joe, you'll be showing usthat with JAWS in just a few
minutes as well.
So lots of really cool updates.
There's a new accessibilitysettings section as well.
So we'll show you all of that.
But we'll dive right in Joe andtake a look at what exactly has
(16:14):
happened to RTE Player and howgood it is and where things are
going now.
SPEAKER_07 (16:19):
Definitely, David.
I'm looking forward to
SPEAKER_09 (16:21):
this.
Awesome stuff.
So let's jump in.
I don't often trust myself withthese live demos, but let's give
it a go.
So I'm going to turn on MissMaura here, Miss VoiceOver.
Over
SPEAKER_02 (16:34):
on RTE Player.
SPEAKER_09 (16:36):
So when you're in
RTE Player, the first thing that
you kind of are placed with iskind of their featured show, if
you will.
So this might be something thatthey're promoting or their most
popular And it will give you theshow title and the description.
So I'm just going to touch thecentre of the screen to get to
that now.
SPEAKER_02 (16:57):
And there you go.
Not one that
SPEAKER_09 (17:06):
I'm personally
looking to watch, but I'll keep
flicking.
There's my watch list.
So I've added a show to my watchlist, actually.
Button.
Now, see all buttons are stillunlabeled, but that's what those
are, is see all buttons.
And hopefully that will be fixedpretty soon.
SPEAKER_02 (17:23):
A good girl's guide
to murder button.
SPEAKER_09 (17:25):
So there, a good
girl's guide to murder.
That had audio description aswell.
So I'd added that to my watchlist.
I'm going to keep flicking pastthat, though.
SPEAKER_02 (17:34):
Trending now.
SPEAKER_09 (17:35):
There's a trending
now button.
Button.
SPEAKER_02 (17:38):
The Sunday game
button.
SPEAKER_09 (17:39):
The Sunday game.
We won't talk about that becausewe lost in the final, Joe.
Yeah.
That second half was traumatic,I think, to be fair.
SPEAKER_07 (17:47):
Yeah, we leave that
there.
We could upset a lot of people.
And I know I'm happy myself, butyeah, we won't get into sport
now, David.
So flick past that one.
SPEAKER_09 (17:56):
Flick, yeah,
promptly past that
SPEAKER_02 (17:59):
one.
SPEAKER_09 (18:00):
So I can keep
flicking.
SPEAKER_02 (18:01):
The last Irish
SPEAKER_09 (18:02):
missionaries.
We might come back to that in aminute because that does avoid
your description available.
Spin and spill.
Spin and spill.
SPEAKER_02 (18:10):
Up for
SPEAKER_09 (18:11):
the match.
SPEAKER_02 (18:11):
Button.
SPEAKER_09 (18:12):
Up for the match.
SPEAKER_02 (18:13):
Listen to the land
speak.
So there's
SPEAKER_09 (18:14):
loads of different
shows that you can keep on
flicking.
You can go down here.
Watch live.
So there's options for watchinglive.
Continue watching.
You can continue watching.
SPEAKER_02 (18:23):
Page four of eight.
Let the games begin.
SPEAKER_09 (18:25):
And there's a
heading there.
So the Traders US button.
The Traders.
Really looking forward to theIrish version of the Traders
later this year as well.
That should be really fun.
But you can flick through hereand all of the shows are labeled
and stuff like that, which iscertainly an improvement
compared to where things werebefore.
But what's great is when you'resigned in to your RTE ID, you
(18:50):
can actually set someaccessibility preferences as
your defaults.
So up in the top, there is amenu option to go to settings.
SPEAKER_02 (19:01):
Open settings menu.
SPEAKER_09 (19:06):
So I'm going to
double tap in there.
I
SPEAKER_02 (19:11):
don't want
SPEAKER_09 (19:12):
to close it right
now, but I'm going to keep
flicking.
SPEAKER_02 (19:16):
Welcome back.
David.
SPEAKER_09 (19:18):
Why, thank you very
much.
Current language, English.
That's one of my favouritelanguages.
Switch to Gaelic.
And I'm not going to switch toGaelic right now, but Gaeilge is
probably one of my otherfavourite languages, which is
good.
I'm going to keep flicking.
Parental.
So there's parental controls andstuff here.
(19:40):
Kids mode, switch button off.
I'm not
SPEAKER_02 (19:42):
a child.
Double tap to toggle setting.
SPEAKER_09 (19:44):
Not a chat, so I
don't need that on.
SPEAKER_02 (19:46):
Maybe I am.
Why is parental controls on?
I'm
SPEAKER_09 (19:49):
going to leave that
alone though for now.
And then there is a newaccessibility heading.
So this is all new.
So I can flick along here andthere are different options.
SPEAKER_02 (20:03):
So I
SPEAKER_09 (20:06):
don't need captions.
But you can enable captions as adefault on your account.
And interestingly, when you turnyour volume down, the captions
are auto-enabled, which isreally, really cool.
Great job to the player team onthat.
SPEAKER_02 (20:20):
Audio description.
Switch button on.
SPEAKER_09 (20:22):
So audio
description.
Double tap the toggle setting.
Audio description, reallyimportant, obviously, for those
of us who are blind or visuallyimpaired.
You can now turn that on.
You've always been able to turnthat on from your account, but
it's now easier to do that inthis dedicated accessibility
section.
SPEAKER_02 (20:42):
So
SPEAKER_09 (20:43):
for those of our
friends who are deaf or hard of
hearing, you now have an IrishSign Language, ISL option there.
So you can find RTE's programswith ISL and it will auto-enable
that for you, which is really,
SPEAKER_02 (20:57):
really cool.
SPEAKER_09 (21:01):
So you can turn on
and off the autoplay for next
episode.
And this is a handyaccessibility feature if you
don't want it to just tear away,you know, on you.
That is a very handyaccessibility feature to have.
SPEAKER_02 (21:15):
Accessible player
controls.
Switch button and
SPEAKER_09 (21:17):
accessible player
controls.
Now, I did do a little bit oflooking into what this does.
And from what I understand, itmeans that the options for
controlling playback will stayon screen a little bit longer
for you to give you more time toaccess them.
So that's what that seems tomean there, that you can keep
(21:40):
those controls on screen for alittle bit longer.
And you will be able to, Isuppose, interact with the
player a little bit better toplay, pause, adjust the audio
settings, adjust the qualitysettings, close the player.
All of that will be much easierwith that.
So that's what's in theaccessibility section there.
(22:03):
Great that we have anaccessibility section, which is
really cool.
And I'm just going to jump backout and close the menu.
SPEAKER_02 (22:13):
welcome close 79%
battery 79% 79% battery kids
mode parental switch to Gaeliccurrent language in David
Welcome back.
Close the settings panel.
Close the settings panel.
There we go.
Open settings menu.
SPEAKER_09 (22:27):
But you have your
tabs along the bottom, all, of
course, labelled now.
SPEAKER_02 (22:31):
Home, one of five.
Live, two of five.
Box sets, three of five.
So you have box sets there.
Kids, four of five.
There's kids stuff.
Search, five of five.
There's
SPEAKER_09 (22:40):
search and all of
that is all really accessible.
If I go to the kids section justfor a second, we can be a bit
childish.
And we'll give that a second toload.
There's Bluey.
Are you a fan of Bluey, Joe?
SPEAKER_07 (22:55):
Well, my kids are a
big fan of Bluey.
And I actually think of thequality cartoon or animation.
I think it is quality.
It's quite clever and well done.
So, yeah, I'd recommend Bluey,David.
SPEAKER_09 (23:08):
Yeah, absolutely.
Very sophisticated.
Bluey and Bingo, they'll behaving some serious crack.
They really do.
SPEAKER_07 (23:13):
Yeah.
Australian accents as well.
Cool, actually.
SPEAKER_09 (23:17):
Yeah, yeah.
Very, very good.
So we'll keep on flicking downhere.
SPEAKER_02 (23:20):
Hey, Fuzzy Yellow.
What an
SPEAKER_09 (23:29):
awesome kid's name.
Kids shows have the best names.
SPEAKER_02 (23:32):
Yeah,
SPEAKER_09 (23:33):
true.
Peppa Pig.
SPEAKER_02 (23:35):
Seamus goes wild.
Hey, Dougie.
Button.
School's out.
Bing.
Button.
School's out.
Little.
School's out.
Droid Academy.
School's out.
No worries.
There's
SPEAKER_09 (23:44):
loads of school's
out stuff.
SPEAKER_02 (23:45):
School's out.
School's out.
School's out.
Thomas Agus at Shared.
Button.
SPEAKER_09 (23:49):
Thomas Agus Acorda.
SPEAKER_07 (23:52):
You know, and Seamus
goes wild.
That would have been one I wouldhave tried.
Yeah, Thomas
SPEAKER_09 (23:58):
Agus Acorda.
You've got to love stuffconverted to Gaeilge.
I love it.
SPEAKER_07 (24:03):
Yeah, very
SPEAKER_09 (24:04):
good.
SPEAKER_02 (24:04):
Maddie
SPEAKER_09 (24:05):
and Triggs, a show
which has a visually impaired
character and was also assistedby Vision Ireland.
So we might as well jump intothis one and see because it does
have audio descriptionavailable.
Let's jump in here.
And what you can do is you'vegot your accessible play button.
Live button.
Box sets.
SPEAKER_02 (24:24):
Oopsie daisy.
Play button.
There's
SPEAKER_09 (24:26):
a
SPEAKER_02 (24:26):
play
SPEAKER_09 (24:27):
button
SPEAKER_02 (24:27):
there.
Maddy plus Triggs.
28 muddy boots.
During a family hiking trip, dadis adamant that he does not want
his pristine hiking shoesgetting dirty.
Can Maddy plot a route and helpher buddy avoid getting muddy?
SPEAKER_09 (24:39):
There you go.
So I can also keep flicking.
SPEAKER_02 (24:42):
Parental rating.
General audience.
Broadcast date, the 21st ofJuly, 2025.
21st
SPEAKER_09 (24:49):
of July, very
recently.
Duration, 07 minutes.
SPEAKER_02 (24:52):
There's seven
minutes.
Captions, English, switchbutton, off.
SPEAKER_09 (24:57):
I can turn
SPEAKER_02 (24:57):
on or off captions.
Audio description, switch buttonon.
SPEAKER_09 (25:01):
So I can also
quickly enable or disable the
audio description from thissection as well.
And I can, of course, continueflicking and go through
different episodes.
So they've really done quite anice job with this to allow you
to get around the app, selectwhat you want to watch.
They've really done quite a nicejob on this, Joe.
(25:24):
And yes, there are still somelittle bits to fix, like those
see all buttons.
But overall, I think they is amassive improvement and the app
is usable for the first time ithink now
SPEAKER_07 (25:35):
well i think that's
uh excellent even when you
compare it to some of the otherapps out there the other
description is actually veryeasy to turn on and you can turn
it on before you go into theprogram um whereas some of the
the apps i won't name them allbut you find you have to uh put
on the playback and then youhave to double tap on the screen
and look for audio and then lookfor English audio description
(25:56):
which is a bit of a long-windedway of turning on something that
should be so easy to access.
So, I'm quite impressed withwhat you've just shown us there,
David, as regards findingbuttons and reading out the
names of the TV programs,whether it's kids or adults,
doesn't matter.
It reads out the names of theprograms and you look, you'll be
(26:17):
able to find new content.
You can see how many programsare in the series.
Then, as you said, you have anaccessibility section, settings,
all those things easy enough toaccess.
I know there's one button thatwasn't there, but as you said,
It's a work in progress andhopefully that will be fixed in
one of the future updates.
SPEAKER_09 (26:38):
Yeah, absolutely.
And I would hope that theycontinue to build from here.
But overall, the note, there aresome great stuff that you can
check out for both adults andkids with audio description.
One of the dramas that I'dcertainly recommend is one
called Hidden Assets.
There are two series of that.
It's an Irish drama, but it hasa great audio description by
(27:02):
Kevin Sher Well, I...
SPEAKER_07 (27:24):
Actually, I only
tried out the RT Player on the
web today.
I normally use it on the mobilejust for pure handiness.
But I searched for RT Player inGoogle.
I went to it, and I waspleasantly surprised, as we can
see now.
So I'm going to open up thestart menu and press CHR for
Google Chrome.
SPEAKER_06 (27:44):
It's in my
favorites, so I'm going to do
RTE.
SPEAKER_07 (28:02):
So I'm in RTE Player
now, but I'm going to slow down
my voice.
So as RTE Player opens, I cannavigate with my down arrow or I
can press B for buttons or H forheadings to see what's on the
page.
So I'm just going to navigatewith my down arrow.
So I suppose, look, if you wantto find RTE Player yourself, you
(28:23):
can just go and type in RTEPlayer and one of the first
results is the RTE Playerwebsite and you can press enter
on that.
And then I suppose we'll use thedown arrow here and we'll see
what we can hear.
SPEAKER_06 (28:36):
External links
navigation region menu bar with
nine items.
RTE Acute.ie menu, news menu,lifestyle menu, culture menu, TV
menu, radio menu.
SPEAKER_07 (28:46):
Okay, there's lots
of different links.
So we'll ignore some of thoseand I'm going to press H for
headings.
RTE Acute player heading levelone.
Press H again.
Trending now heading level two.
So trending now, let's have aguess.
It's probably going to be Sundaygame and something else.
So I'm going to do arrow downand discover it.
So
SPEAKER_06 (29:01):
they announce
SPEAKER_07 (29:05):
them as slides, I
suppose they probably are
slides, but they will be readout to us aloud
SPEAKER_06 (29:12):
in a second.
So
SPEAKER_07 (29:17):
as you can see, it's
reading out the names of the
programs, which is quite good.
And then if I wanted to playone, I'd press enter on it.
Just go down a few more, I'll goback and I'll try and play one
in a second.
SPEAKER_06 (29:26):
Link item 4 of 19,
spin and spill.
Link item 5 of 19, up for thematch.
SPEAKER_07 (29:31):
There we are.
So I'm going to go back up andI'll play the...
I'll try the Irish Missionariesbecause I'm fairly sure that has
our description.
SPEAKER_06 (29:36):
Link item 3 of 19,
the last Irish Missionaries.
So I'm
SPEAKER_07 (29:40):
arrowing up and now
I'm going to press enter on
that.
SPEAKER_06 (29:42):
Enter.
Home RTE acute player.
Play button to activate.
Press enter.
SPEAKER_07 (29:46):
So as you see, it
lands on the play button
straight away and gives me anoption to play.
If I want to discover what otherbuttons are on the screen, I can
press B.
SPEAKER_06 (29:53):
And there we are.
I'm going to press enter on this
SPEAKER_07 (29:59):
and play and see
will it play for us just a basic
effort at playing a
SPEAKER_06 (30:05):
program.
SPEAKER_05 (30:11):
It's 1500 years
since St.
Colm Cill set out for Scotlandin a tiny rickety car.
I'm
SPEAKER_07 (30:18):
going to pause that
there now.
You
SPEAKER_09 (30:22):
cut poor Dobson off
prematurely there, Joe.
SPEAKER_07 (30:25):
It's quite an
impressive speaking voice, but I
want to speak, you know, Brian,so we're going to keep going.
I'm going to go down here andsee, can I turn on audio
description and see what audiooptions I have.
So I'm going to press the downarrow key.
Mute button.
Volume.
SPEAKER_06 (30:42):
Volume left right
slider.
100.
Min 0.
Mac captions toggle button notpressed.
SPEAKER_07 (30:47):
Yeah, that's the
down arrow.
I'm going to actually press B.
It might get me there quicker.
Audio button.
There we are.
I'm going to press space barhere.
Space English button toactivate.
Press enter.
An arrow up.
Audio description button.
There we are.
The first one almost.
So I'm going to press enter.
Enter.
Audio description button toactivate.
Press enter.
And now audio description shouldbe turned on.
So I'm going to go
SPEAKER_06 (31:07):
back up and press
the play button again.
SPEAKER_07 (31:12):
And I've done the
shift B to bring me back up
there, David.
So shift B brings you back tothe previous button.
So I'm going to press enter nowto play that.
And after a minute or so, wemight hear some audio
description.
Today, Ireland
SPEAKER_05 (31:24):
is down to its last
few missionaries.
SPEAKER_01 (31:27):
The last Irish
missionaries.
Audio described by Kevin Sherwinfor RTE.
A bird's eye view approachesDalgan Park, a large greystone
estate in County Meath.
SPEAKER_04 (31:39):
There's quite a
headline.
Dalgan Park Overcrowded.
SPEAKER_07 (31:44):
Okay, David, there
you go.
There's an example.
It took us a while to get toyour description there, but as
you see, Kevin Sherwinintroduced himself and gave us
some audio described content.
And we just checked out how easyit is to actually turn it on.
So we found the audio button andwe arrowed up to our description
and pressed enter.
I thought that was quite easy,
SPEAKER_09 (32:03):
David.
Yeah, it's a really niceprocess, to be fair.
And, you know, we got a bit ofBrian Dobson there while we
waited, which was always nice.
But no, that's That is likethey've done a brilliant job
with it.
And I'm excited to see wherethings go in the future.
But before we were always kindof, you know, you'd be asking
(32:24):
RTE to maybe, you know, copyNetflix, do a little bit of what
they're doing.
But now RTE is right up therewith them, which is great to see
from a national broadcaster,isn't it?
SPEAKER_07 (32:34):
Yeah, you don't have
to copy anybody.
You can do it your own way.
Sometimes people get a littlebit too automatic and I suppose
too benign.
So I think it's good to have ourown way of doing things from our
national broadcaster, have ourown accents involved in the
programmes as well, not justsomething so neutral or maybe
(32:57):
Americanised or whatever.
So I think it's great to haveour own accents involved.
in our own national programmesand have things described the
way we want them described.
There is a lot of very Irishnessabout certain programmes that
need our own, whether it's ladyactors or male describers or
(33:18):
whatever.
So yeah, I think it's great todo it and have an in-house
operation organising audiodescription for RTE is great.
SPEAKER_09 (33:25):
Absolutely.
And hopefully as time goes on,there'll be just more and more
stuff audio described It's only,I think, going to get better as
this continues.
And hopefully we'll start to seemore from the likes of Sky,
Virgin Media, all of those aswell, as they kind of catch up
with this stuff.
It's only going to be a goodthing.
(33:47):
And I think it's proven somesenses that, look, the European
Accessibility Act probably had apart to play in this, but still
it does take a team of people alot of effort to actually
dedicate themselves to doingthis and creating a good quality
accessible experience.
So I think some credit isabsolutely deserved, Joe.
SPEAKER_07 (34:10):
Oh, definitely.
And some congratulations.
I'd give them somecongratulations for getting to
this level.
I really enjoyed using that.
RTE player, I suppose, website.
It's not an app, it's a websitethere on the laptop.
So I really enjoyed using that.
There was no friction involved.
Normally, I went around for ageslooking for all different types
(34:32):
of buttons and stuff.
That was very easy, I thought.
And there is, as you've shown onthe app earlier on, I can also
access the accessibility sectionand I can also sign in here and
set my preferences to be eithercaptions or sign language or
audio description, whatever Iwant.
I'm a user of.
So they can be all set so thatyou don't have to set it all the
(34:53):
time.
You can have audio descriptionon by default, you know.
So that's all good, I think,David.
That's brilliant.
There is people who have beenhired in RTE as part of a kind
of, I suppose, an accessibilityleader.
And there's people looking afterthis all the time.
And we just hope it keeps up tothis level and even better going
forward.
SPEAKER_09 (35:12):
Absolutely.
Some brilliant stuff.
And a reminder to people thatthere is loads of stuff
available but with audiodescription if you do want to
check it out you can find outthere I mentioned Hidden Assets
that show I mentioned earlier aswell A Good Girl's Guide to
Murder I haven't watched thatyet I don't know if it's any
good but it's on my list ofthings to watch and then you
(35:34):
have loads of kids stuff too aswell available with audio
description so do check that outand do check out audio
description on other platformsas well we'd love to hear what
the best audio description youever heard was or an audio
description that wasparticularly terrible.
(35:56):
Send us all your stories.
We're open to All of that.
You can send us a voice note to086-199-00001 or you can send us
an email to content at vi.ie.
We'd love to hear all of that.
So please do get in touch.
So now moving on.
There's been loads going on overthe last couple of weeks.
(36:18):
And to tell us all about it,we're going to cross now to the
new act with Mr.
Daniel Dunn.
SPEAKER_00 (36:25):
This is Talking
Technology News.
SPEAKER_08 (36:31):
So, with your latest
Talking Technology News, I'm
Daniel Dunn.
The BBC Sounds app has closedfor users outside of the UK,
including those of us here inthe Republic of Ireland.
In a statement provided to VILabs, the BBC said, BBC Sounds
will now be available on thesame basis as BBC iPlayer.
(36:52):
Both services are restricted toa UK domestic audience,
reflecting rights and associatedconsiderations.
BBC Radio Ulster file willremain more widely available via
bbc.com.
You can still access the BBCservices through other platforms
such as Apple Podcasts or TuneInand they do still work on smart
(37:15):
speakers like Alexa.
The move comes as the BBC'scommercial arm, BBC Studios,
tries to find ways to generaterevenue from BBC Audio.
It's unclear what that will looklike in the longer term, but for
now, Irish users need to findworkarounds to continue
listening to some of theirfavourite BBC services.
(37:38):
Do you listen to BBC Radio?
Let us know with a WhatsAppvoice note.
Next up, do you like coffee?
Coffee machine maker Sharer haveannounced that they will be
launching a new module to maketheir coffee machines more
accessible later this year.
The company is focusingspecifically on wheelchair users
(37:59):
at the moment by launching a newmodule for their coffee sole
range that provides the buttonsto the bottom in front of the
drip tray rather than havingthem in an awkward to reach
position at the top.
These coffee machines are moredesigned for corporate
customers, but it's still coolto see.
Global product manager ExoniaTan is responsible for the
(38:24):
creation of the new module.
She said, as far as I know,there are no other similar
features on the market.
This feature is not new forExonia.
is not new for the sharerCoffeeSoul as we launched the US
integrated model in 2023.
But now we are making itavailable globally, says Tan.
(38:45):
It is important for us to fostera society that everyone can
participate in on an equalbasis.
We see that as a critical partof our social responsibility.
This includes improvingaccessibility for wheelchair
users to help them navigate theworld as accessibly as somebody
who does not use a wheelchair.
(39:06):
And that includes being able tostart today with a cup of coffee
independently.
Hopefully, in the future, wewill see coffee machines become
more accessible for those whoare blind or visually impaired
too.
Right now, a lot of moderncoffee machines use touchscreens
or inaccessible apps, so makinga simple cup of coffee can prove
(39:26):
tricky.
It's little things like thisthat make a big difference, and
it sounds like a step in theright direction.
And finally for now, Apple isexpected to avoid further
significant EU fines by makingchanges to how payments work on
the App Store.
The company will reportedlyallow third-party payment
(39:47):
platforms like Stripe to beincluded in apps on the App
Store, and they will also allowdevelopers to include links for
those who want to pay outside ofthe app.
Traditionally, Apple processedall payments that happened
within iPhone apps, but now thisis starting to change.
It's unclear if the interfacesfor these payments will change
(40:08):
significantly, but hopefully ifthey do, they will have
accessibility built in.
This also might lead to someservices becoming slightly
cheaper, as developers won'tneed to contend with the 30%
payment surcharge being taken byApple.
Time will tell how this evolves,but it seems, initially at
least, like a move in the rightdirection.
(40:31):
And that's it for now.
If you want to check out moretechnology news, be sure to sign
up for the Tech on Tapnewsletter.
Just search Labs Newsletter SignUp.
For now, though, it's back toyou, David.
SPEAKER_09 (40:46):
Thanks so much,
Daniel.
Are you a coffee man yourself?
Do you drink much coffee?
SPEAKER_08 (40:51):
Oh, yeah.
Very important to start todaywith a good cup of coffee to get
the cogs greased.
Get the cogs going.
Do you know what?
SPEAKER_09 (41:01):
I have never once
had a coffee, funnily enough.
Not once have I had a coffee.
SPEAKER_08 (41:07):
Wow, David.
UNKNOWN (41:08):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_08 (41:09):
I know you're a
young man, but you are missing
out.
SPEAKER_09 (41:13):
Yeah, this is
Mireille Domagny, who works for
us here on the VR Labs team,said the exact same thing.
Do you know what?
It's one of these things whereI've just never had the desire
for it.
I don't know what caffeine woulddo for me.
I don't feel...
(41:38):
particular need for it.
Years ago, I used to have issueswith chocolate, actually,
because the coca bean in thechocolate used to give me
migraines and stuff like that.
So I wasn't able to deal withit.
But that's not so much the casenowadays.
And I suppose ever since then,just never had a coffee.
(42:01):
So I've never once had a coffeeand I've never once had a
chewing gum.
Two things, never had.
SPEAKER_08 (42:06):
Wow.
Well, whatever about the chewinggum, you're definitely missing
out the coffee.
And yeah, a nice latte is atreat, I guess.
I was going to
SPEAKER_09 (42:16):
say what your order
is.
What's your typical
SPEAKER_08 (42:20):
order?
I suppose, look, it's the bogstandard, one spoon of instant
and a good cup of milk with thehot water, you know, when you're
at home in the kitchen or if,you know, if you're out and
about and you, as many of us areprobably too guilty of is
pulling into the local servicestation, getting a fill of
diesel or petrol and then youpop off the coffee machine
(42:43):
there, it looks very inviting,so you throw on a latte and
drive up the diesel bill anotherthree euro or whatever.
There you go.
Yeah, it's kind of a littletreat like that out and about on
the road.
and sure as well as the servicestations are very very happy
with that kind of you knowindulgence that people treat
themselves to
SPEAKER_09 (43:04):
absolutely I'd say
they are it's yeah something
I've never done but maybe oneday at this point I've gone so
long it's one of these thingsnow I need something significant
to like actually break thestreak you know I'm like there
have been suggestions that ifand when I ever get married that
I have to have a coffee in themorning of my wedding and I'm
(43:25):
like I don't think I'd do thatbut you know it will have to be
a big occasion for me to drink acoffee at this point because
I've gone so long without it butthere you go and also in other
news BBC Sounds Daniel lots ofour service users yes we're
based in Ireland but lots of ourservice users use BBC Sounds
(43:46):
it's almost a stereotype thatblind or visually impaired
people I suppose are into radiobut sometimes stereotypes are
rooted in reality and that canalso often be the case.
A lot of our service users douse things like BBC Sounds.
SPEAKER_08 (44:02):
Yeah, look, this,
unfortunately for us, is a
rather backward step.
And, you know, how can you say?
The broadcasting landscape, aswe traditionally knew it, has
utterly, utterly changed.
And you know, generating revenuefrom advertisements on radio, on
(44:29):
TV and newspapers even, youknow, that that market is
struggling.
So they are trying, I guess, todiversify.
And I suppose you've got to lookat it from the point of view
that the residents of the UK arepaying their license fee.
(44:51):
And that funds their service.
And I suppose quite rightly,they're saying, well, we're
paying for it.
Why should someone in Ireland orin Germany or wherever pick your
country?
Any of the countries that's notthe UK, basically.
Why should they have access toit for free while, you know,
every year they have to stumpup?
I don't know what their licensefee is.
(45:12):
£150 a year or something likethat?
It's a
SPEAKER_09 (45:14):
bit more expensive
than our one, yeah.
I think it's£160, which is, youknow, ours is still cheaper, I
believe.
David, shh, don't say that.
SPEAKER_08 (45:27):
Our government will
rise our TV licence fee.
Do you know
SPEAKER_09 (45:30):
what?
This is true, this is true.
SPEAKER_08 (45:32):
Don't give them
ideas.
SPEAKER_09 (45:34):
Point well taken and
well made, Daniel, yes.
SPEAKER_08 (45:38):
So, yeah, but I can
understand, yeah, like that.
And I suppose if we're in the UKin the morning or out in
holidays in Spain or France orwherever, you know, try to get
to watch the All-Ireland Final.
It wasn't a great game lastSunday.
You know, try to watch that.
It's very, very hard because ourTV services don't really go...
(46:02):
go very much abroad either.
And if they do, they'retypically subscription through
Sky in the UK or across Europe.
So, you know, there is a dealthen done with RTE and Sky that
they can carry it.
And obviously subscribers inother countries, a little bit of
money comes back to RTE.
So maybe that's the model thatwe'll see going forward.
(46:27):
for the BBC that if you want toget it in another country, it's
probably going to be a thirdparty company, just like Sky is
here, who will obviously chargeus to consume BBC services and
relay them.
SPEAKER_09 (46:42):
It's a very, like,
in my view, and this is just my,
like, it's a very backwards wayof thinking in some ways,
because, like, so much of theworld now is, like, this made
sense, you know, 20 30 40 yearsago when everything was i
suppose you know you know likerte wasn't being seen as much in
(47:05):
the uk or in germany or whereveror whatever the case may be but
now we kind of live in you knowa worldwide like we're all
connected and i mean you know ican you know in theory i I can
still, you know, listen to,like, just take this podcast as
an example.
You can listen to this prettymuch anywhere in the world.
(47:27):
I don't think we're restrictedanywhere.
You know, and that's well andgood.
People can do that.
And, you know, if, like, it'sone of these things, I don't see
why that should necessarilychange.
And yes, you know, RTE and theBBC, they've got those kind of
older models of, well, we'lllicense this to this territory
(47:49):
and this can be, you know,purchased in this territory only
or whatever.
But it seems like now, I thinkthe world has gone past that.
It's a shame.
I've wanted to watch, you know,and this is a side point.
There's a show, I believe it'sfrom Canada, called Sight
Unseen.
It's a drama about a policeofficer and she's using
(48:13):
something, an app.
She loses her vision and shesolves, as I understand it, like
crimes and stuff like that.
But using the assistance of anapp that's similar to like a Be
My Eyes or Aira.
And this sounds like a reallyunique concept to me.
But because no broadcaster inIreland has the rights to it or
(48:34):
no broadcasters or this side ofthe pond, it's restricted to
that country.
It's restricted to Canada or theUS or wherever.
And it just seems to me likesuch a backwards way of working
in the, you know, 21st centurynow, you know?
SPEAKER_08 (48:50):
Yeah, yeah.
I understand where you're comingfrom.
And it's just an unfortunatereality.
Look, these, you know, it'sgetting more and more expensive
to produce good content.
SPEAKER_09 (49:05):
That's true.
SPEAKER_08 (49:06):
And, you know, so
they have to look at every trick
in the book, probably not thebest description of it, but
every best commercial decisioneveryone's taking now is a
commercial decision to, Isuppose, generate as much
revenue from that as possible.
And, like, let's face it, ifthey don't get the revenue...
(49:29):
stuff doesn't get made yeah thenext production could might be
axed because the capital fundingis not there because they didn't
they didn't get the income offthe last show the producer the
last movie or whatever it is youknow so yeah it is look it's a
catch-22 it's um we all cravegood content um the good stuff
(49:56):
is going to come with thatlittle bit of a price tag.
And as I say, you know, as wesaid there in the article going
forward, what way is this goingto evolve?
Is it going to, is it going togo to a stage where, you know,
you have to be an Amazon Primemember and then you get BBC
sounds included?
Yeah.
Something like that, you know.
(50:17):
It's interesting.
Is the third party going to takeit on?
And there, you can be sure thatsome of the big, big providers.
Now TV is another one that's outthere.
They basically take Sky Sportsand all that and offer it in a
different way to the Irishcustomer.
Is some company like that goingto say, actually, you know what,
(50:39):
we can tease out an Irish marketwho we think is going to pay a
subscription to include the BBCcontent and Audible would love
it.
SPEAKER_09 (50:50):
You know, I could
see an Audible or someone like
that loving it.
I mean, there's a lot of stuffthere from Radio 4 and 5 Live
that, you know, like they have alot of a similar crossover.
So yeah, it's one that time willtell on that.
But hey, I suppose for now, atleast you've got this here
podcast free all around theworld and free of ads too, at
(51:13):
least for now.
So there you go.
SPEAKER_08 (51:16):
The Apple thing is
very interesting too.
You know, the third-partypayment system, I think that's
going to be an interesting oneto see.
Does the cost of subscriptionsand in-app purchases, will they
come down in price?
SPEAKER_09 (51:36):
It's going to be
easy for some companies.
I think you'll have twocategories here.
You'll have the companies whowill keep the prices as they are
and pocket the change becausetheir customers are well used to
that price now.
But you will also probably havethe companies who use this to
their advantage that will say,ah, let's give them a euro off
or two euros off.
(51:57):
And it will be interesting tosee if those are the ones that
win out in the end.
SPEAKER_08 (52:01):
Actually, we have a
parallel going on in this
country at the moment and wherethe 9% hospitality VAT rate is
possibly coming back.
And people are saying, hmm, willthey pass it on to the customer?
Will they not?
Probably not.
Yeah, look, who knows?
I'm sure every individual placewill either make a decision on
(52:27):
to pass it to the consumer ornot.
And But hopefully it will openup a bit of competition that the
prices might come back a bit.
But am I being too optimistic?
SPEAKER_09 (52:38):
look we've got to be
optimistic in this wild world so
we'll take it but there you goso Daniel thank you so so much
for that really interestingstuff there is a few other
stories popping around at themoment the WRC they've announced
plans to become more accessibleby 2027 that's also happening
(52:58):
there are workplace relationscommission for those who don't
know they've announced somestuff and a few other bits as
well that I believe there aresome updates coming out for JSA.
Did you ever work with JSA,Daniel?
This is the integration betweenJAWS and Dragon, naturally
speaking.
I believe they're getting somesmall, minor upgrades as well.
SPEAKER_08 (53:22):
Okay, no, I have not
worked with that piece before.
So it'll be interesting to seewhat updates are going to do
there for service users.
We might cover it a bit morelater.
SPEAKER_09 (53:35):
More detail at some
SPEAKER_08 (53:36):
stage down the road.
Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_09 (53:40):
Absolutely.
So there you have it.
That is our news and new act forthis week.
And Daniel, thank you so muchfor that.
If you do want to comment on anyof those stories or want to send
us stories of your own, we'dlove to hear from you.
You can send us a WhatsApp voicenote on 086-199-00001 or you can
(54:03):
send us an email to content atVO But for now, though, that is
about all we've got this week.
Thank you so, so much forlistening.
Just a note before we finish upthat our VI Labs training
courses, our group training,they are taking a break for the
August period.
But don't worry, we're not theVI Labs help desk.
(54:24):
It's still going to be open.
We're still doing all of ourone-on-one trainings.
The podcast will be continuing.
Tech on Tap is still going to bepublishing newsletters.
There's still loads going on.
So do be sure to check out thewebsite vi.ie for more if you
were looking to find out what'sgoing on and what we have to
offer you so please do check allthat out but for now that has
(54:48):
been Talking Technology episode90 thank you so much for
listening and we will see youagain in two weeks time for
another episode of TalkingTechnology with VR Labs see you
then music
SPEAKER_00 (55:01):
Thanks for listening
to the Talking Technology
Podcast with VI Labs.
If you'd like to support ourshow, please visit vi.ie.com.
Talking Technology is proudlysponsored by IA Labs, the market
leader in digital accessibilityservices.
IA Labs, digital inclusion, yourlegal obligation.