Participate in Workplace Technology Focus Group

Sighted and Visually Impaired Workers Wanted for Focus Groups to Understand How People Use Technology in the Workplace

The Workplace Technology Study
https://www.afb.org/research-and-initiatives/workplace-tech-study?utm_source=AFB&utm_campaign=a62400035b-AW-December-2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ec813cd965-a62400035b-167443477
will examine how people with visual impairments use technology in three fields:
• Information Technology and Communications
• Telemedicine
• Banking and Finance
Information learned will be valuable to companies, technology designers, and those with visual impairments seeking jobs in these fields. To help us meet this objective we also need to understand how sighted people use technology in these fields.

In the first phase of the study, Dr. L. Penny Rosenblum and her team will be conducting nine (9) focus groups between October and November 2020.

Groups 1-3:
Individuals who are sighted and have no knowledge of accessible workplace technology

Groups 4-6:
Individuals who use screen reader, VoiceOver, or refreshable braille technologies

Groups 7-9:
Individuals who use primarily print with or without screen magnification technology.

Those who are chosen to participate will meet online for approximately one and-a-half to two hours. Each participant will receive a $25 Amazon gift card.

Further details can be found in
the Workplace Technology Study Focus Group
https://www.afb.org/research-and-initiatives/workplace-tech-study/focus-group-info?utm_source=AFB&utm_campaign=a62400035b-AW-December-2019_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ec813cd965-a62400035b-167443477
section of our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Dr. Rosenblum.

12 alternative search engines to Google

Yesterday during a meeting the question came up of how to find out which urgent care options are near you, as an alternative to using the E/R, which my insurance company is making an active effort to discourage.

Aside from my pointing out various reasons why this is a much more complex issue than the insurance company thought, it occurred to me to wonder how well Alexa and Siri could provide answers to the question of where I could go for urgent care.

Alexa gave three answers, all more than a mile away, and prompted me to respond whether I wanted more information about any of them.

Siri, however, really blew Alexa out of the water on this one: Siri gave three options, and two were much closer, including the Codman Square Health Clinic which is only a few blocks away, and my actual PCP. Siri's farthest away option was the same as Alexa's closest option.

Siri also prompted me to respond whether I wanted to call any of these options.

This got me thinking about my default search habits, and how I should be experimenting more. Also, I want to investigate what Siri is using for searches.

Well, lately my Internet wishes keep coming true, so this morning there was an email update from MakeUseOf listing 12 alternatives to Google. The second link with a similar title showed up in my search engine (still Google at this point) while I was trying to find out the direct link to the MakeUseOf article.

12 Search Engines that Find What Google Can't from MakeUseOf
https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/13-alternative-search-engines-that-find-what-google-cant/

12 Google Alternatives: Best Search Engines to Use in 2020
https://fossbytes.com/google-alternative-best-search-engine/

Samuel L. Jackson and Alexa, it's a pretty crazy pairing

Kes: oh. my. Possibly the best Alexa skill ever. 99 cents plus tax and you have to tell Samuel it's okay to use adult language because "Why the f*** not."
"Alexa, introduce me to Samuel L. Jackson"
Add extra personality to your Alexa experience with Samuel L. Jackson. Just ask and Samuel can tell jokes, give you the weather, and more.

"Alexa, help me register to vote"
Are you registered to vote in the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election? Alexa can help you get started by sharing instructions on how to register online.

Ahoy! Argh you ready for Talk Like a Pirate Day?
Just say, "Alexa, tell me a pirate fun fact"

"Alexa, play Quick Question with Malcolm Gladwell"
Tune in to Quick Question to listen to New York Times best-selling author, Malcolm Gladwell, answer burning questions from other Alexa customers.
Kes: sorry, couldn't find the direct URL for this.

Kes: FYI: I just found out that Bookshare is developing an Alexa skill that will probably be released next year sometime.

To learn about Alexa's accessibility features, just ask
"Alexa, what are your accessibility features?"
or go to
https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=202158280

"Alexa, set a sixty minute study timer"
Alexa can help you reduce distractions and stay focused with easy to set timers. Find out more on the Alexa blog.
https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=17978648011

"Alexa, tell me a joke about time"
"Alexa, play Radiolab on Amazon Music"
Now you can stream podcasts with Amazon Music. Listen on your Echo devices, and continue listening anywhere seamlessly in the Amazon Music app.

Project to create easy-to-understand Covid-19 information worldwide

Posted to the
A11yBoston Meetup
https://www.meetup.com/a11yBoston/?_af_cid=a11yBoston&_af=chapter
which had its virtual kick-off last night (I missed it due to being over-Zoomed).

Dear Boston Accessibility members,
Thank you to everyone who attended the a11y Boston Meetup on Thursday. We enjoyed meeting everyone and thought the conversation was great. We would also like to thank John Rochford again for his help kicking us off in the virtual environment.
For those who couldn’t make the Meetup, John shared his project to make COVID-19 information accessible around the world and is actively looking for people who would like to help with the project. Here is a link with more information about John’s project
Creating Easy-To-Understand COVID-19 Information Worldwide
https://www.volunteermatch.org/search/opp3302956.jsp
and if you would like to contact him his email is john.rochford@umassmed.edu.
We will hold the next Virtual Meetup in October.
We will announce the details once we have them finalized and we hope to see all the familiar faces and some new ones.