This has been an ACB community call. This community unmuted was live on Saturday, April 5, 2025.
Hello and welcome to Community Unmuted for Saturday, April 15th, 2025. I am Liz. I am one of your facilitators for the next hour. So welcome everyone. With me I have Michael. Hello Michael, how are you?
Hello Liz. I'm doing great. It's appreciated that you kicked things off and April 5th seems weird to say, I don't know why.
Yeah, I agree.
So we are here to answer your tech questions. So if you have tech questions, feel free to raise your hand. We will jump over to those question here in a moment. But before I get into my announcements, do you have anything to say, Liz?
At the moment I do not, but I know you do so I will hand them back to you.
I have a lot to say. I am not going to go over all of the podcast content since we were last here the third February. The third February? Oh sweet. Which year? Oh no, right, the third Saturday in February. Oh man, those years just got super long. And I do see these hands here. I will jump over to Lucy here in a moment to get those but I want to thank Lucy for hosting for us today, Brad for doing the clubhouse and streaming thing. Really appreciate you guys. And we did attend CSUN in March which is the leading assistive technology conference. There's a lot of coverage on there. So we unmute did not publish a lot of content related to csun. If you're interested in very comprehensive in depth content, I do highlight recommend checking out Double Tap. That is a podcast that's based out of Canada even though neither of the hosts live in Canada. And you can go to doubletaponair.com to get more information about events that happened. There is a recap show that was published on the Saturday of CSUN where Marty, myself, Sean, Stephen and Chris. I may be missing someone, but I think that was. Oh, Mark made an appearance in there too. But we did a recap of some of the things that we observed at CSUN and some of the things that we were excited about. Hint. One of my favorite things was the Procter and Gamble tactile labels because you know, there's nothing like going to a hotel and not knowing what bottle belongs to. What I just make a weird concoction and try things out, see if it works. But that was our CSUNG coverage that we did. So if you're interested in that, check it out. We have been publishing content on a fairly regular basis. Those who are used to Chris's at your fingertip show coming out on Thursday. Since we last talked in February, I now can talk about it because it's quite obvious. I started working with the American Council of the Blind as the Membership Services Admin assistant and that takes up a lot of time during the day. So I did get that content published. It was later than usual, so it did not come out on Thursday. It actually came out about an hour and a half ago as of the time that we are here. And then also for club members, I posted the latest, which was the first intermediate Jaws course that Marcy started on Thursday. Came out to be about 29 minutes. So if you're interested in checking that out, check your club member only podcast feeding. You can get access to that and in the main podcast feed we had a digital bite recently. Someone commented about one of our more recent digital bites where I was doing laundry. If you want to hear what it sounds like with Michael's head in the washer, check that out. Anyways, Lucy, who do we have first?
We have Judy first.
Good morning, Judy.
Hey there. I noticed a while back that at the bottom of my messages app it says Syncing to icloud paused. So I went poking around and it looks to me like everything is turned on. There is a button that says Sync now and I double tapped on that and nothing happened and it says like this iPhone and I double tapped on that and it said on. So I double tapped on that and then it said something about your messages have not been fully downloaded. Something. I forgot what the other word was Download now. So I don't know what that means and I don't know why it says my syncing is paused when it looks to me like everything's turned on. I do have the messages on my iPad, but my concern is that when I get a new phone, those messages will disappear. So any thoughts on why I can't sync it, even though it looks to me like everything's turned on?
So I'm going to look at something. Liz, do you have any suggestions? Because. Go ahead.
The first thought that would come to my mind immediately is, is it a space issue in your icloud account?
No, no, I have plenty of space.
Yeah.
Okay.
So what I would do oh my goodness, my Messages take up 5.2 gigabytes. That is ridiculous. What I would do if you haven't yet is go into settings, go to your name and tap on that, go down to where it says ICLOUD. Mine says 2 TB and tap on that and then find messages and Double tap on that. And yes, that says. It probably says that it's on, but there's a button that says use on this iPhone and then there's an option that says keep on this iPhone. Where is it?
Oh yeah, I did that. And it says it's on.
Yeah.
Yep, this is where you went. And then you hit sync now. And then did it switch to cancel sync when you hit sync now? Dina?
I did sync now in the not in the not in my name part of the icloud, but in the separate icloud setting. And I double tapped on that. I don't remember if I did it. And when I went into where my name is and all of that.
So what I would check at then is if you go down to your name and then you go down to the icloud and then you go down to messages at the bottom there's a sync now directly before that it'll say last or it'll say status. And mine says synced just now because I tapped on that. So I would try tapping that just to make sure that it says synced just now and see if that makes a difference. And then I presume, do you restart your phone often?
Oh, yes, absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So that's my suggestion. If it continues to be an issue, don't hesitate to pick up the phone and call Apple and tell them, hey, I'm just curious if there's any issues with my messages. And you don't see that all the time in messages, do you?
Well, I never really looked way down at the bottom when I did one time. It was there, it has remained there. And as I said, I mean, I am getting them to my iPad, but I prefer to manage my messages in my iPhone.
Totally. Yeah, I definitely get that.
So tell me again, so my name icloud and messages.
Right, your name icloud messages. And then at the very bottom. So you can do a four finger tap at the bottom of your screen or flick all the way there. There'll now button and if you flick to the left once from there, it'll tell you the last time that it synchronized. So prior to me doing it right now, it said last synced last night at 9:46pm or something like that. So that would be worth checking. And I would check that on both of your devices just to make sure that they're both similar times.
Okay, all right, that's interesting that there are two different sync options in the two different places.
But yeah, they probably do the same thing. But that's where naturally I Went to find it first is again under your name, and then icloud, and then messages.
Okay, perfect. Thanks, Michael.
Thanks, Judy. Who do we got next there? Sheila. I mean, Lucy, not Sheila. It's like I've never done this before.
All right, Sharon. Hey, Sharon. Hi. Okay, Belle and Rick did an excellent presentation a few weeks ago on emojis and that kind of stuff, but I forgot some of what they said, and what I don't remember is the sequence. I'm on the latest version of iOS 18. I know, like, how to get to tap back when you want to do, say, a, like, reaction.
Oh, so you want to know how do you. How do you.
How do you. How do you put in a reaction to a message? Yeah, please.
Let me go to my son's messenger.
It's an odd word, I know. Tap back.
So if you touch a message. So I just touched a message that said, just sat down to dinner. I'll call you back in an hour. To myself.
You don't open it. You just touch it?
No, you open the message thread. So open the message thread and then touch a message in the message thread. Okay, so tap on Bel's name, for example, if you have a message thread with her, and that'll show you a list of all of the messages on your screen. Find the message that you want to tap back or react to. Think of it as react, react.
Right?
And once you find that, take one finger and swipe down and you'll hear tap back. If you double tap on tap back, it will pop up a little screen. My focus was set automatically to add custom emoji. And if I flick to my left, I hear tap back picker, and I hear group. You won't hear that, but I hear the different emojis that I can respond with. So for. For me, it's a heart. Thumbs up, thumbs down. Haha. Exclamation mark, Facial, tears of joy, smiling, pile of. And other things there. And then there's.
You just tap on the one you want and then.
And then you just tap on that. And then. No, you don't even have to hit send. You just tap on the one you want that will react to that message. And then when you are using voiceover to navigate your messages, if you touch a message that has a reaction, after it reads the message, it will tell you what that tap back was on that message.
Oh, that's great. Now, if you're creating a message and you want to put an emoji with it. Same procedure.
Nope. If you're creating a message and you want to add an emoji, because an emoji is technically different than a tapback.
Well, let's do a tap. I'd rather do a tap back, I think.
Well, tapbacks are only think of tabs, reactions to messages.
All right. Okay.
Emojis can be inserted into your message.
Okay, go ahead.
So if you want to add an emoji, the emoji button is in the bottom left hand corner below the more button. If you tap on that, that'll bring you up to your most recent emojis. At the top of the where the keyboard would be is a search field if you want to search for an emoji. Otherwise, you can use the tabs across the bottom of the screen to find the category of the emoji you want. And then the middle of the screen will have all of the emojis in that category. And by double tapping on an emoji that will insert it into the message. I hesitate because actually, I think you can just lift your finger up and it will. Does that work, Liz?
Do you know it depends on the typing method that you have set within your.
I don't use the lift a finger method.
Okay.
So I think I would just. That is perfect. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Yep, no worries. Oh, that does work. Sweet. Thanks for your question, Lucy. Who do we have next?
Okay, area code 970. I think that's Catherine. Hi, this is Estelle. I'm at seminar.
Hi. I have a blind shell too, and I'm just learning how to use podcasts, and I think they're wonderful. However, is there any way at all that I can delete just an episode from a podcast? Or do I have to to unsubscribe.
To get it off?
Because they keep coming and coming and.
It'S getting so long it takes to download.
Yeah.
So I wonder if there's.
I can delete just an episode.
I don't remember and I don't have a blind shell powered on because it's on its journey to Jacob for AT guys. But I believe what you would want to try to do. Estelle, you're subscribed to the podcast, correct?
Yes.
Okay, so what I would do is let's say you find an episode at your fingertips. We'll pick on in the end mute podcast feed so you find that episode. What I would try is pressing the okay button. That'll open a context menu for that specific episode. And then try up arrowing once. And I believe you can clear or remove the episode by up arrowing okay.
I'll give that a try.
Thank you very much.
No worries.
Okay.
Okay. Ms. Donna Brown.
Hello. Hey, Donna.
Hey. Hey. So I have kind of a weird question. And. And if you don't know the answer, maybe you can help me figure out how I can find the answer. So I use Gmail on the. On the web primarily. And I want to know how to create like a contact group. Does anyone know either know how to do it or how. Where can I find out how to do it?
I apologize, Donna, would you mind repeating your question?
Yeah.
So I use Gmail on. On the web and so I want to create it like a contact group. I can't figure out how to do it, if anybody knows either how to do it or how I can find out how to do it.
At this exact moment, I do not know the steps involved. However, if you send an email to feedbackmute show, we can certainly send over the instructions for creating a contact group via Gmail web interface.
Okay. Feedback.
Mute show.
Okay. Thank you very much.
You're welcome. To put you in the direction of where to possibly look. And Gmail interface is doable. It is very crowded is the nicest way to put that. So where I would try going is go to contacts.google.com and that'll take you to your contact list. And I believe Google, because Google likes to change the wording. Instead of them calling it a contact group, I believe they'll call it a label. And so you'll want to create a new label for contacts and then add contacts to that label, I believe. Let's try that first.
They do that with their quote unquote folders. It's called labels.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yes, yes.
So contacts.google.com and that'll show you all your contacts. You can import and export from there as well.
Would that be contact with an S? I couldn't. Well, I can check. I can try that. Okay. Thank you.
No worries.
You're welcome.
All right, Petra.
Hello? Petra.
Wow.
I got it unmuted. First try. First of all, I get to tap back. I listen to a lot of messages on my watch because it's always with me and convenient. And I get that when I want to swipe to dismiss the message, I get tapped back. And I don't want to tap back. And I don't see any way to get out of the tap back mode. I can't swipe up to get rid of it. I can't swipe right to get rid of it. So I wind up just leaving the message there. And then later When I go back to that message, I have the option to delete it. How can I get rid of the darn tap back when I don't want to tap back?
So I just hit my crown. When I want to leave a message and I want to dismiss it, I typically just hit my crown. Then I'll bring up the notifications on the watch and then dismiss it if I want to dismiss it from the watch. Liz, do you have any suggestions?
I was just gonna say that I don't know that you can actually get rid of the tap back option as an option, but yeah, I would eventually.
Eventually it goes away on its own, but yes.
Yeah, I think Apple has. Yep. I think Apple has kind of forced tap back on everyone whether you want it or not. But you're right, eventually it will disappear when you go back to that message. But that's typically how I handle messages on my watch. And I need to reset my watch because, like, my V rotor isn't even working on the watch anymore. So. Good.
Yeah, I'd recommend a reset.
Yeah.
Okay. Thank you.
No worries, Patra. Thanks a lot.
All right, Donna Clark.
Hello, Donna.
Good morning. So I got on my Mac yesterday and I got on my mail, and I don't get on it every day. And all of a sudden I was looking, because I was looking for an email to get into a Zoom call, and I knew that email was where it was. I knew it was in a certain folder. I went to that folder and couldn't find it. And I said, wait a minute, this is the last one was the 13th, and I'm looking for the 30th. Where's my other emails? And so I thought, wait a minute, maybe I'm just. Just scrolling up and up. No, no, Windscroll. And it just wouldn't come. And I couldn't figure what was going on. And so I just kind of poked around and. And then I saw this icon. You know, it looked like a little letter and clicked on that. All of a sudden I looked and it was there. And I'm like, what did I do? You know? And so I thought, wait a minute, my email should automatically just come in. I don't think I need to click something to make them come in. Do you have any idea what could have happened and why it wasn't there?
I do have an idea, because this has happened to me a lot of times, and I don't know if this is what it is because I have no sight. So I don't know if it has an icon, but if you accidentally do what I do and hit Command L in Mail, which is the command to go to your address bar in Safari. So if you're a little. If you're a little faster than your computer is and you hit Command L and you think you're in Safari, this does what's called Enable Message filter. And a message filter can be set up and configured so it will hide all of your read messages for you. So if you've already opened that message and you have Message filter enabled, then it's only going to show you unread or older messages. So that's what I would possibly try. The other thing to try as well in Mac Mail, just especially since it's been a little while since you opened it, is hit Command Shift N and that says get all new mail. And that tells your Mac to go to the website or the web server for your email and get all of the latest email that's available on the server. So those are the two things. Command L and Command. Command shift N N or M N, like new mail.
Okay. Okay.
And then Command L is a filter, I mean, a toggle. So when you hit Command L, voiceover will either say enable message filter or if I hit it again, disable message filter. And you want it to say disable message filter. You can get to it in the mail interface, but I find that keystroke to be a heck of a lot faster.
Okay, yeah, I was doing this visually, but I am also learning the keystroke. So that Command Shift in is good to know. I'm going to try that.
See, if that's when you were looking at your messages, do you recall if they were messages that you had read or were they unread messages?
So the one that. So I was in, in your folder, I was in my folder that I wanted to be in. It was my personal folder and is what I've labeled it. And I knew that. No, actually I was in my ACB, VA, ACV, VA, because I needed to get on a meeting and I was looking for the email that I knew I'd put there. And I even went on my phone and looked and it was there. I'm like, okay, it's in this folder.
The only reason I asked that is because visually, if you can tell if you're in that folder and there are messages and they look like they're unread, that is when you could try the Command L shortcut.
Okay, yeah, because it wasn't even showing me the email. That was the thing. It wasn't even showing me that it was there and that was the weird thing.
But what Liz is asking, I think, is the messages that it was showing you, were those unread?
Some are, some are not.
Okay, yeah.
Generally the ones that are in my folders are read already. I've just moved them there because there's some in them I need.
Yeah. Yep. So those two keystrokes should potentially help you with them and hopefully that helps you out there.
Excellent. Thank you, thank you. And thank you for helping me continue to learn those keystrokes.
Perfect, Donna. And again, this will be republished to the podcast feed. Probably not today because I have a journey to go on. Right after this call, I get to go see the bloodsuckers and they get to take my blood and then I get to go help a new chapter start. So that'll be fun. Lucy, I'm not seeing any new hands, are you?
No, I don't see any new hands.
No, I do see actually. Judy, go ahead. Judy.
Oh my gosh.
Slipped right in. That's okay. Yeah, I just wanted to give you a follow up. I did poke around on that setting. It's identical in the two places and I. So I will call Apple because it says sync now and nothing happens. Even what if I swipe either direction, it's not giving me any other feedback. So, yeah, really, really curious.
So, well, thanks for following up and let us feel free to drop us an email and let us know what Apple says. But hopefully they're able to resolve it. It's probably just something simple. Hopefully. Yeah.
Okay, thanks. Yeah, we'll find out.
Yep. Who do we got next? Lucy?
Gregory?
Hello, Gregory? Hey guys, can you hear me? I certainly can, yeah. I've got Windows Defender on my laptop, HP Lap, and I'm getting got a couple from Office 365. I got a subscription with them and they're telling me did I get some kind of free upgrade with Defender? Is that. I mean, it doesn't make sense to me because I've already got Defender on my laptop. Is there some kind of more upgrades that Office is offering with a subscription? I can't figure out what it's really saying. Anybody know?
I am not aware of that.
I heard something about this. Gregory, let me do a little bit of research and come back to you in about five minutes or so because I did hear something about about upgraded Defender options for Microsoft, but you should be good to go. I will do a little bit of research and come back to you. Okay, thank you, buddy. No worries. Who do we got next? Lucy?
Oh, I'm so sorry.
No worries.
I was muted.
Let's go to Scott.
Hey, Scott.
Another new hand. Yes. This has to do with the mail app on the iPhone. I don't know if you all have noticed this. It seemed whenever. Now, this is no biggie. This is really no biggie. With, with the community call, you know, the daily schedule because it can go by headings and the headings are a link or links. In other words. Okay, when I have the rotor set to links and I'm in an email message, it'll only let me flick down to one link and then the rotor switches back to default, which is trash. And it's only in an email message. Thank God it's not in Safari. But only in mail. I'm in the email message that has leak that has links in it. And it. I'll switch the rotor to links and I'll flick down to the. In the first. To the first link I come to from wherever I am. And it. And it. It won't let me continue to flick down through the links. It just switches back. The next time I flick down, it's back to trash.
So, Liz, do you want to take this one.
Setting or a setting change I can do or just a bug I have.
I'm actually in a message right now with several links and I'm using my rotor and going down and it's cooperating.
So. So I think. I think I know what's going on. So, Liz, if you flick down to the link and then you flick to the right once, I bet when you flick down, it's going to go to trash.
That's exactly.
No, but I'm not even doing that. I mean, I'm in my.
You're just trying one finger flick down repeatedly.
I'll do it right now with. I'll do it right now with the mail. Bring up an email that I know.
Yeah. So I think what's happening, Scott? And there is a setting. If this is what you're experiencing while you're doing that, I can give you some tips. And I'm trying to find the episode where we demonstrated this on.
Okay, I flicked down. Click here to see news and resource. Okay, I flick down again and it gives me a track. I'm not even. I'm not flicking right at all.
You're not flicking right at all. Okay, so what's happening is by default, voiceover is going to switch your rotor to the default action or the default rotor option when you're flicking down. And I'm honestly not sure why it's not. Or why it did not. Nope, you are correct. This is not how it used to behave. There is a voice voiceover setting that does not take over your voiceover rotor and I will look that setting up for you in a second and let you know where to go to fix it. And that'll fix the behavior. So you specifically explicitly have to change your voiceover rotor if you want it to do something different. So bear with me a couple of minutes. I'll look for that setting and tell you where to go in a couple of minutes. Okay.
All right, sounds good.
And then to go back to Gregory before we go to the next hand, it does look like there are additional defender options. If you are an Office 365, well, Microsoft 365 subscriber, they may be available for free. Microsoft will clearly explain to you if there are paid options. Honestly, what you have with Windows Defender right now is it's perfectly fine unless you're. You're doing questionable things on your computer. I wouldn't be too terribly worried about it. You should be good to go on that. So hopefully that works out for you. I don't want any business options. There's no upgrades for personal, apparently. Gotcha. Gotcha. So it's not letting you upgrade it for personal. Well, I don't need to. I mean operating upgrades free. Oh, okay. I would. I would. So honestly, your best bet is to reach out to disability answer desk. Okay, buddy. Yep. Yep. So thanks, Gregory. Lucy, who do we got next? While I look Scott's question up, Pam.
Okay, maybe I can help Scott a little bit.
Awesome.
I don't remember the exact wording of the setting, but you are going to go obviously to settings accessibility voiceover rotor and there's going to be a setting.
That change rotor with item is what it says.
There you go. That's it. And you're going to. It's a toggle. So whatever your toggle is right now, you're going to choose the other option and, and that should work for you. What I really raised my hand about was for those of us, and I'm one of them who have older phones, I have an older phone. I love it. I'm dreading having to retire it. But it's coming sooner rather than later. I wish to. I need. I don't enjoy doing this.
This.
But I need to report a couple of bugs in case anyone out there has not updated to 18.4 and you're on an older phone. I haven't heard anyone with a newer phone running into this two of them. One is intermittent and I'm glad it's only intermittent because when it pop, when it shows, it's a pain in the and that is sometimes the whole right edge of the screen. The content voiceover will not pick it up, at least not unless you flick. For instance, I'm in an app and I need to find my vertical scroll bar and it is there. I know it's there, but voiceover is not picking it up. And I can flick, do a three finger up, down, whatever, and it'll eventually take me there, but the whole the vertical scroll bar disappears, the battery status on my status bar disappears, and occasionally even whatever item is to the immediate left. Oh man, she knows I'm on a call trying to get away from it and I can't, so we'll just have to ignore it. So when I touch on the status bar up to the far right, it'll show something to the left of battery status, but it will not show the battery status. Now, if I flick right, it'll show the battery status, but then when I touch up there again, it doesn't give me the battery status. The vertical scroll bar is not there if I am typing on screen. If this bug pops up, the letters L and P are not there and the delete button isn't there. I have to go on my. And thank goodness I have one. I have to go on my Bluetooth keyboard. Now this is an intermittent bug. Sometimes everything works just fine, sometimes it doesn't. And restarting my phone will sometimes straighten it out, but not always. And you just never know when it's going to happen.
Gotcha.
There is a smaller bug. It's in podcasts, and I know a lot of people probably never use this, but this one just started with 18.4 as well. If you are in a list of podcasts episodes, you go into filters. Well, you can filter by played, unplayed subscriber episodes, all that stuff. But if you want the podcasts to sort from oldest to newest as opposed to from newest to oldest, that's not working.
Gotcha. So it sounds like there's a couple of things that are broken in older devices with the newer operating systems.
Yes, and I just wanted to alert people to that because if they haven't updated, look out, it may hit you. If you have updated and you've run into something like this, you're not alone.
You're not alone. Yep, appreciate that, Pam. Thank you very much. And hopefully you're able to get a newer iPhone and those issues go away.
Well, Yeah, I dread that. I dread giving up my touch ID and all that.
It's big changes. I totally get that. So thanks a lot for your input, Pam. Glad to hear you're here and hope you have.
I am so glad you folks are back.
I've been missing you first and third Saturday of the month for right now. Yes, ma'am. Thanks. All right, Thanks a lot.
Okay, Rich V. Hey, Rich V. I.
Bet he has blind shell answers.
Good evening.
Good morning everybody. You guys are doing a great job. Lucy and Michael and Liz and just keep up the good work. Answer to Stell's question on Stella's question on removing those podcasts. You can't that. Ah, okay.
Because when you hit the okay button.
It just plays the podcast. It doesn't give you like a play option, delete option, share option or whatever. Now what you can do if the list gets too long, you know, the blind shell always gives the list to you in newest, first, newest to oldest, you can hit your up bar and then you get to the oldest. So you can go backwards and go the other way but you can't remove them. That's interesting and well worth a quick email to supportlineshell.com because that seems like a very basic feature that should be available. Thank you, Rich. So Estelle, hopefully that helps you a little bit. So apparently you cannot remove those episodes. And good luck, Lucy. Who do we got next?
Okay, we have a repeat hand, Petra.
Hello, Petra. And since she is a repeat hand, hopefully if you haven't asked your question, we've got a couple more minutes so hopefully you can get your hand up. Petra, how can we help you?
Okay, I will be real fast in my weather app. The generic weather app comes on the iPhone. We're having a lot of rain here in Oklahoma right now. So when I double tap on it to find out what the weather is, it will tell me, you know, 58 degrees thunderstorm and if I flick right, it will say precipitation for next hour. And if you flick right, it keeps giving you pretty much minute by minute. And it has a graph of sound which I've never investigated to tell you how much rain is going to fall in that minute. But I can't seem to get out of that to find out the hour by hour temperature. I'm stuck in that precipitation map and I don't know if there's somewhere on the screen to touch. I can't even get to the 10 day forecast.
So I am playing with my weather app right now.
Likewise, there was a reason for the.
Pause and in the meantime, while you're looking, I'll just make a comment. I wish that Apple would come back with a touch id even if it's a fingerprint ID in a lower or upper corner. Because my phone, the last six months I've had to put in my passcode more times than I care to remember. And of course, when my phone is using voiceover, everyone on God's green earth hears my passcode.
Yeah, yeah, I totally get that Apple has touch id. Apple has the ability to add touch ID to the lock button because they've done it in other devices. So I'd like to see that. I have experience with the Pixel and the Galaxy S23 Plus. I would not like to see Apple do an in screen touch fingerprint because those are very finicky. Well not finicky, but they're difficult to find in some instances. So I don't know if Liz found something but what I would try for you and we'll see if Liz found anything different. Petra Next time this happens, try using three fingers and flick down and that should scroll your screen because I suspect what's happening is you're further down on the weather app because I don't even see a settings option in the screen which or in the weather app. But I would try three finger flick down to see if that brings you over to what you're looking for. If it says page one of X when you do three finger flick down and like mine says page one of five, then try three finger flick up and that should get you to your 10 day forecast. Again, that's using three fingers and swiping up on your screen. Liz, did you find anything?
The other. I did find that but. And the other thing I found is just using explore by touch and try with a finger just sliding your finger up to a different part of the screen to move focus to that different section because there are several sections within that one screen. And so by moving your finger up or down respectively, you can then move focus into a different section and then use your one finger, your flick left and flick right gestures accordingly from that to move through that particular section.
Perfect. Thank you both.
You're welcome.
Do we have any hands?
Lucy, we do not have any hands.
Oh well, Liz said she came prepared, so I'm going to let Liz take what she came prepared with and throw it over to her. We are 40.
Uh oh, I just got a lot of raised hands. Okay. Lynn.
Hey Lynn.
Good morning.
I have a question. So I, I have a Windows PC, I have a Mac too. But I have a Windows PC and they took WordPad away. And I know there's a way to get it back, but I don't know how to do it. Do you guys happen to know?
I do not. Liz.
I am furiously searching.
Okay, so while she's looking.
I do not.
So. So while she's looking that up to see if anyone has or she's able to find that, honestly, I just use Notepad and I find Notepad to be very clunky. Now it drives me crazy because it remembers the last open document. And for me, Notepad has always been a scratch paper, a scratch pad. Like if I want to open something dumb, I. I know, I know. Okay, thank you, Liz.
Indeed.
But it is clunky, at least in my opinion right now. So I can.
Notepad is.
Yeah, no good.
I'm sorry.
So. So hang out around. If Liz is able to find that information, because I have no clue, then she'll be glad to share it with you.
Thanks, Michael. Thanks. Thanks, Liz. Okay, Roberta.
Hello, Roberta.
Good morning. I have been searching for a while for an accessible or at least usable with voiceover on my iPhone version app for wordle, I use the New York Times, but I'm looking for a wordle where I can play with other people one against the other. And my question doesn't have to do specifically with wordle, it has to do with with. Many times in the apps there is an area on the screen that says direct touch. Can you explain that or how to deal with that? What is it?
So direct touch. So when you need to activate something on your screen with voiceover enabled, a lot of people know you can either split tap, which means find something on the screen by exploring by touch and then touching the screen with a separate finger that will enable that will activate that element, or most people use double tap, which means if you find something on the screen, you double tap on it and then it will activate that. When you have Direct Touch enabled or you're using an app that supports Direct Touch, what that means is that it's assumed that you don't need to explore your screen and that when you tap on something for a single time, it's going to activate that something. This was made popular in the blindfold games. I don't know that those are still around. But also in the flick type keyboard, which used to be a awesome, amazing keyboard that you could just type where you thought the letters were and it would autocorrect, but you didn't have to double tap and voiceover didn't Read the thing before you activated it. So when something says direct touch, that means that directly touching on the screen will activate that element. No, double tap or split tap is necessary.
Can I turn that off in my rotor? I mean, I think I've seen it in my rotor. I don't know for sure.
So the rotor does have an option. I'm not certain that it always appears, but you should be able to locate that option and turn that off. I have encountered some apps where they weren't the most accessible, but Voiceover still required Direct touch, so I would. I would do that with the understanding that it may or may not work.
Yeah, so in the area. So if Direct touch is on and I'm in an area or I flicked and it appears, you know, the response I get from Voiceover is direct touch. Can you explore that area or does Direct touch have to.
Just direct touch.
Okay. So you have to be able to see.
Yes. Or be low vision. And for accessible wordle games, unless. Lucy, do you have an idea for an accessible wordle game? I thought you were going to say something. That's why I asked.
Well, I was thinking no, actually, because I downloaded the wordle app and it is not accessible. So I just use the New York Times, like Roberta.
Yeah, there you go.
It's like I want to play it more than once and I want to play it against another person. Yeah, well, you don't.
Check applevis. If you haven't yet, go over to applevis, do a search for wordle, or post on their forms and ask if someone has created something. Because just because we don't know about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
All right, thank you.
Exactly. Yep. Before we go to this next hand, Liz, did you want to report back anything or did you find anything?
I did, but. So you need to copy some files from a computer that has the version of Windows 11 or older that has WordPad, and then you can install them. So I'm not comfortable recommending that as an option, honestly.
Okay, thank you.
Having done it myself.
Appreciate you looking, though.
But there are other apps that you can use that have the same functions as WordPad.
And you can go to aka ms.dad and just call the disability answer desk and say, hey, can you guys go in and fix this? Because they may have a solution for you as well. Lucy, who do we got next?
All right, area code 614 ending in 972.
Hi, Michael. We have a weird question. My husband and I both have the SE3 phones. I can put him on if you want to talk to him, he is sighted, so he's not using voiceover, just so you kind of know where we're coming from. And he has a problem with his phone. Interestingly enough, he had another SE3 and they had him send it back a couple of weeks ago, and they sent him this new phone because they had the same problem with that one. And we can't figure out what's creating it. But his phone goes into a mode where for some reason or other, when you call it, you get silence for a couple seconds, and then it goes straight to voicemail, and. And he doesn't even get the call. And the only way he can seem to fix it is if he turns off his phone and turns it back on, then he can answer it for a while, and then all of a sudden it'll go back into that mode again. And like I said, he had another phone just like it. I have an SE3 also, although I don't use my phone a lot, but I haven't seen this happen. But they had him send that phone in and they replaced it and he's having the thing, you know, with this phone. So I. We can't figure out if there's something that he has on his phone, some kind of software or something that's causing it or what it is. It's hard to believe he got two bad phones in a row. So do you have any ideas?
So I have some bad news. And the bad news is I can replicate this on my wife's iPhone 15 Pro and on her 16 Pro Max. And. And it's. It's vital for her job to be able to answer calls in a efficient and timely manner. And unfortunately, she encounters this as well by chance. You guys aren't on AT&T, are you? No, we're on Verizon because my thought was possibly a carrier issue, but I don't have an answer for you. I can say he's not alone. That seems to not happen to everyone. But, yeah, I have not solved that problem. And if you guys ever solve it, please let me know.
Wow. He seems to think it's mostly since iOS 18. However, I know it happened last year to one time to him before we ever got this version.
We've noticed this substantially more since iOS 18. Yes.
So, wow, that's just not a good thing.
Nope. Not quite sure what's going on there, but hopefully they can get it resolved there. So thank you very much.
All right, well, I appreciate it. It's just tough because, you know, when we're not together. I need to be able to reach him. And, you know, I've got a medic thing Monday where he's gonna have his phone, and nobody might be able to get a hold of him because we don't know when it's gonna do it.
Yep, it's. It's frustrating and. And would be nicer if you could predict when it's gonna happen. I do. See, we have about 10 minutes and two hands here.
Yep.
So, Lucy, who do we got next?
I think this is Estelle again, I think.
Okay.
I changed her name once, but if your number starts 970 ending in 874.
Oh, it's Catherine Johnson. Go ahead.
Oh, it is Catherine this time.
Okay.
Okay, fine.
Hi, Michael.
Hey.
It's so good to hear your voice. I have a YouTube mini. Actually have two of them, but I have one with me, and I wanted to know if you could use that as a Braille terminal for, like, either the blind shell or some of these other apps that I'm accessing using the blind shell phone or when I go to the Internet and try to access a webpage. Thank you.
So the braille sense U2 mini does have the functionality to be a terminal device, so you can use it as a remote Braille device. However, the Blindshell Classic 2 or 3 does not support any Braille input or output output. So the answer would be no, not with a blind shell.
Oh, okay. How about if I was to use my BS6 Pro phone?
Nope. Oh, your BS6. Your BS6 Pro phone. That. That's not a phone. The Braille Sense 6? Is that what you're talking about?
No, the. I have a. A Android phone.
The Pixel 6.
That is the. The Pixel 6.
Did I say the wrong word?
I'm so sorry.
You said BS6 and. And so I went to the 6.
No, I meant that. No, no, no. I. I meant. I meant the Pixel 6. I'm so sorry.
So that would be dependent on. And on the Talk version of Talkback that's on that pixel. What? I would try doing settings and then go under Braille display and see if the mini shows up there. And then that would work, but you are not going to get that to work with the blind shell.
Okay, thank you so much.
And before you go in to talk back Braille display settings, make sure Bluetooth on the Android device is on. Yes, otherwise I won't see anything.
Okay.
Anyway, thank you.
Sure.
Doc.
Donna.
We'll take Donna as the last hand. Donna.
No, I just. I just wanted to reiterate I have a SE3 and I periodically have the same problem with the calls, like the phone not ringing and then there for a while and it's been since iOS 18. The phone just all of a sudden like shuts down and starts back up just out of nowhere. So anyway, fun times.
It is not really. Appreciate you confirming that I'm thank Lucy for hosting for us today. Brad for getting us connected. I see we are coming up on the top of the hour, so before I wrap up, Liz, do you have anything else that you want to mention?
I also would like to thank Lucy and Brad.
Awesome.
And all of you for having questions.
Yes, your tech questions is what keeps on mute going most of the time. So you can get a copy of this content probably published on Tuesday is when it's going to actually come out on the main feed. And again, if you haven't yet, check out Unmute Presents on your favorite podcast app. It'll also be available on the ACB Community Podcast feed. My name again is Michael. We are joined with Liz. Thanks for helping me out today. And all of you have a beautiful rest of your Saturdays.