Welcome to Access on, and AI to help you use your technology
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Is this thing on? Hello, i'm mark ricaby o president of the national federation of the blind, and welcome to this new platform that U. N.

I. And thousands of others are going to create together. Technology is not new for the national federation of the blind. As blind people, we've been working to influence the development of technology for decades.

I think the first project that the federation as an organization was involved in related to technology was in the one thousand nine hundred and sixty. I could be wrong about that, but definitely into the one thousand nine seventies, most notably with our relationship with ray curse. While but a number of other projects, the blind have been at the center of technology development.

You can't live in twenty twenty four without being influenced and truly barrage ed by technology on a daily basis. And as blind people, we need a place to go where we can ask questions and get answers that come from a blind center point of view, where people aren't using their eyes as the primary interface and where they understand the techniques and tools that blind people use. This platform, we hope, is that resource for you, bringing together experts from our international rail and technology center, members and leaders of the national federation of the blind and blind people throughout the global community to create a blind centered technology discussion.

I wrote a speech about technology in twenty seventeen, what you can find, that nfb, that org. And in that speech, I call on us as blind people to be in the middle of technological innovation, to not assume that technology is going to solve every problem we face, but also to make sure that we are influencing technology, guiding IT, helping IT to be all that I can be for us and everybody else. I think this podcast will do that. So welcome.

I hope that each and every one of you will get engaged with this environment of access that we are creating, whether you are trying to do a high power development in a corporate environment or where the you're just a blind person trying to live your life in your house, dealing with the everyday technology that continues to invade our consumer electronics, our appliances and the medical devices we need to use at home, the interfaces we need to use in public places. This podcast is for all of us. IT is to help us identify the ways that we can get access to information so that we can live the lives we want.

So welcome. And I look forward to having you engaged with our community. With that, let me find the tackle power on button and say it's time for us to go access on with the national .

federation of the blind live like you want.

Access my.

Welcome to access on the technology podcast of the national federation of the blind japan mom, this week will take a look tech stories impacting the blind community ask bye a new A I talk for microsoft giving you information about their products and services and if you rejoice, user is a similar A I service just for you from a sparrow, if is companion. welcome. Thank you for joining me is celebrating the heavy here this week.

We are celebrating the eighty fourth anniversary of the founding of the national federation of the blind. So IT seems fitting that we are launching this new podcast, which in turn is launching a new and exciting chapter in our engagement with technology. Technology is a wide and very subject, and we appreciate that you may want to skip around the podcast and maybe to bypass sections that don't affect your interest.

You we do segment excess on by chapter. So if you're using a player or a podcast APP that supports an navigation by chapter, and many do now, including the Victory of stream third generation, you can skip around the podcast and get to the segments that you warmed. Technology is in the end about the people who use IT.

And we hope that what you hear will inspire you not just to keep listening, but to participate. Got a comment about something we have covered. Be in touch.

Do you want to produce a demo of a product or a service? You know, well, let's make you a part of the show. Got a tech question or concern or don't hold back to contribute to access on.

You can email us. You can just write your email down or we love to get a diversity of voices on the show. So if you like, you can use any thing that records, like the voice memos APP on your phone, or anything that records sound on your computer and attached to the email. Access on at N F B D ogg, that's access on all joined together at N F B dot g. And we'll have other ways to participate in the near future.

When I was a teenager in the nineteen and eighties, play with apple, two ears and versus rails, I used to love the magazines I would receive from the united states some and rail some on my favorite and the inspiration for some of the things i've done in the space over the years was a tape based magazine from doug wake field called newsbeat. The production values was simply outstanding. So i've decided to call our use summary segment for exits on news bits as a hat chip and a thank you to dug for all the inspiration.

So here's our first newspaper. Google is expanding its support services now, offering a toll free phone line for U. S.

Space customers to connect with specialists who can assist with google accessibility features. You can call six, five, zero, four, one, seven, nine, two, five, seven. That number six, five, zero, four, one, seven, nine, two, five, seven.

And users can reach out to disability supporting experts from four am to seven p pacific time support remains available through email, chat and the be my eyes APP. Google is also streamlining access to its support services for talk back users. For the first to time, talk back users can directly access the contact disability support services link from within settings, making an easier to connect with help for any issues relating to google accessibility tools.

And google has rolled out an update towards guided frame feature on pixel phones, the company says that delivers smarter and more efficient camera access for blind people. Thanks to improve A I object recognition, users can focus on capturing a main subject like a person or a product while minimizing distracting elements in the background, intelligent face filtering, and shows that unwanted photos bombs won't to disrupt group shots, and new reminders help users get clear shots even in low light. The feature is now accessible directly from the camera settings, so everyone confined and activated more quickly.

In a further enhancements to its android to talk back screen reader, google has introduced advanced audio descriptions pounded by the gym I AI models. This update delivers Richard image descriptions across apps and websites, providing essential context for users as I Brown the web, view photos or scroll social media needs, and google wallet has become more excessive over the feature designed specifically for blind users when saving a state issued ID. It's a google wallet.

Users can now receive guided step by step verbal instructions and real time audio and haptic feedback, helping blind android uses position the camera capture a clear usable image of their ID. And apple has released the I O is eighteen point two beta, introducing several new features and enhancements. The update expands apple intelligence capabilities, nobly integrating ChatGPT with siri.

The integration allows siri to handle complex queries and provide detail responses and housing its functionality beyond basic tasks that beta introduces gin mogi, enabling users to create customer modes based on text descriptions or photos of individuals, making the feature easy to use for blind people. The image playground APP allows users to generate image from text prompts, offering creative possibilities directly from the device. And for iphone sixteen users, apple has added visual intelligence, allowing the camera to recognize and provide information about objects and scenes.

This feature can identify items, provide restaurant reviews and add vans from posters to the calendar. Users can now share the location of lost items. Either find my APP.

This feature generates a link that you can share with trusted individuals or organizations like airlines to assist in locating lost belongings. I S eighteen point two allows users to change the photo apps for calling and messaging, enabling third party applications like WhatsApp. As the default, apple has redesigned the email APP to include automatic inbox category ation, organizing emails into groups like primary transactions, updates and promotions, improving email management.

And yes, you can switch that off. There are risks and testing by to software. So if this isn't for you, you can expect the official release of the saying point to in december x on we'll be covering the release so you'll be up to speed.

Fantastic cal is one of the most popular third party Kevin reps in the epi com stem. The developer flexibility has a strong accessibility track record. Many blind fantastic hel users were delighted to see the APP coming to windows, but disappointed to see that the windows APP had so many accessibility problems at release.

IT couldn't be used. Flexibility has been responsible to feedback from the blind community, and we've already made significant strides internally as they a significant accessibility defects. So IT looks like before too long, those who enjoy the powerful features of fantastic cw, like natural language appointment entry and ways to coordinate appointment times with others will be able to use accessibly on windows.

The popular web hosting service dream host has been an accessible option for blind people who host their own services, such as websites and email us, but the control panel has recently taken a dramatic turn for the worse and let you know how to employ some expert level work round. The control panel was now appearing completely blank to screen leaders, with all items not displaying for any major screen reader. Dream host says there is committed, as ever to being complained with worldwide whip consorted him accessibility guidelines and that they're working on fixes to the problems.

And finally, microsoft is making changes to the availability of co pilot for microsoft, three sixty five, but only in some countries of the state. It'll be including some access to the A I tool as part of the microsoft three sixty five subscription bundle without the need for a user to pay extra microsoft three sixty five family and personal subscribers in australia, new zealand, malaysia, singapore, taiwan and thailand. We'll get automatic access to copilot features once they update to the latest version of the productivity sweet.

This comes less than a year after the company started charging twenty dollars for copilot pro licenses. On top of the regular microsoft three sixty five subscription the excess users receive isn't the same as if they paid the copilot fee. Users only have a limited number of monthly credits to use on co pilots and word, excel, powerpoint, outlook and one not.

The critics are also applied to the use of co pilot in other raps such as paint, photos and note pad. Yes, that is correct. Copilot is coming to note pad too. If you want a limited access to copilot escape of, but he, you'll still have to pay the twenty doll monthly upgrade fee.

Microsoft designer, which is a program that that you create eye catching images by simply describing what you're looking for and therefore at all that has a compelling use case for blind people, will be added to the microsoft three sixty five subscription as part of the shake up. But even for those who nevern tined using copilot features that will be included in microsoft, three sixty five plans are standard. The subscription fee is going up.

The amount varies from regional to region, but IT will be less than what you would have paid if you'd purchased to the co pilot. Add on if you are microsoft three sixty five family subscribe. But there's another catch.

Copilot will be available to the subscription owner and can be shared with others. Microsoft has not yet seen at the time of recording whether these changes and Price increases are rolling out to other markets around the world. And that news bits for this week, if you have a trip to share or you are making you yourself be in touch access on at N F feed at work.

The national federation of the blinds center of excEllence, cent non visual access we call IT, seen up for short, frequently holds training sessions in the form of british and lger form seminars on a range of technology topics coming up on the way of the twenty six, how to train friends and family on a screen reader. You can join this via zoom. Learning access technology can appear daunting to a newly blind person, and finding quality access technology training can be difficult for several reasons.

This is where technology savy friends and family can help someone start learning how to use a screen reader to join the national federation of the blind on tuesday, november, the twenty six, from two until three thirty pm. est. n. To know how you can teach a friend or family member how to get started with a screen reader, we'll cover how screen readers working on how they present common keyboard short cats to help people get started, and further training resources to learn how to use multiple screen readers. IT seems particularly timely to be providing this beautiful right ahead of thanksgiving, when there may be family members around people who have gone blind later in life, perhaps, who would like to get started with a screen reader.

And science people can certainly help with that process with the right knowledge, if you'd like to reduce over the swim or you'd like to find out about more that are coming up, which have more over the rack of blindness, is focus. You can go to nfb dot org sah sena that in if b dot or slash C E N A and follow the promise, you'll finds some very interesting booths coming up. promise.

It's something blind people are all too familiar with. An application I work with has a function that I don't use very often, and I can't remember the keyboard shortcut or how to use IT. I perform a search on the web and I get results and screen really specific, so they don't tell me everything that I need to know.

I may find a youtube video that seems like it'll help me out, but the present is giving visual instructions like click this. Meanwhile, the clock is taking and becoming increasingly frustrated, and I just need to get this task done well. If that application is from microsoft, is a new AI based tool that microsoft has puts together that may help. And to tell me about IT, i'm joined by jeremy kerry, who was a very familiar aim in the access technology industry. Jeremy.

welcome to x on a Johnson is great to be here. I'm so happy to be part of this very first episode. This is so cool and congrats again on on the the new role here.

Thank you very much. Yet you're my first give so no precious ma en, you're sitting the back just so tell me about this tool. First of what, how do you say IT? Is that ask me or ask game had you pronounce IT?

We have internally called IT asked mar a short academy for, asked microsoft accessibility. And as you may know, I said on the enterprise disability answer desk, which we call e that so now we have e did and ask more over both bases ah yeah so um yeah we call ask more and it's it's a really cool new A I tool that can help you with anything microsoft related to accessibility products and services.

We constantly had people coming to us and sing a where can I find this information on your website about x rita could be but IT could be x box that could be windows IT could be whatever IT was. And microsoft has so many products and so much information. The great thing is IT was all over the microsoft website.

The bad thing is that was all over the microsoft website. And so we made this tool to be able to go and find accessibility information very easily in one location. And rather than having to do a being search or you know, insert your your favorite search engine, you can go to this and you can ask the questions. They could be very broad. They could be very, very specific and answer any questions about icr soft accessibility products and services.

Is IT a different data seat from the AI that you can use on be my eyes before you talk to a human from the disability of ancient sk?

IT is a different dataset. Be my eyes goes directly through ChatGPT today. And this goes through what's called azure OpenAI.

Or we say A O A I for short for aconitum. So microsoft has its own version of essentially its own version of ChatGPT. It's got all the microsoft graph and all the goodness that comes with all of the microsoft information.

And IT also has additional things that we make sure that we really support, things like responsible AI and incorporate all of our core principles into IT. So it's different than what is going through, be my AI. And instead of searching the entire web, like be my eye will do IT will actually look at just microsoft domains.

So we only look at microsoft dot com, late and dot com, or get hubbard com. And the reason was we know that the information we have on our site is accurate. It's trusting not to say that other stuff on the web is not.

But we wanted to provide first party resources that people can use because when you get an answer, you'll get a citation, and he says, you can go to this link for more information. And we didn't want to point someone to some other location. And so this is even more specific than what you would find in microsoft copilot.

It's limiting to just those domains. Now for one exception to that is if we reference a support article and that support article links to a third party, we presume that we have gone through and make sure that, that site is credible, acceptable, cetera. And so if we link to something else, will get information from that source.

But by default, it's only getting information from the microsoft domains. And it's so nice because it's so easy. And JoNathan uni have been in the space for decades. Noble, that must have. And i've asked the questions, i'm like i'm not sure what the answer of this is because we we've all been there, right? I know this something do or whatever, and it'll give me stuff on like all I didn't know that it'll save me, maybe not ours, but definite a very long time of trying to search and find out different answers and things. And just put that in the one nice easy spot, really, really awesome.

If i'm say, going through revisions in a word document, the keys that I pressed to do that to move from revision to revision might vary depending on the screen reader that i'm using the ritter, jaws, NVIDIA, whatever. Can this help me out there? Or is that only going to give me general windows keyboard shortcuts?

It's only you going to give you general windows keyboard shortcuts, which would include nar, obviously first screen eratosthenes d as well. One thing when we started developing this because we had been working on this even before copilot was announced, is when you're interacting with A I, we have gotten ourselves as a user kind of used to like going to a search engine and typing something in and like IT should be there on the first link.

And our expectation for A I was that I would do something similar a lot of times that gives you a really good answer on the first try. But it's kind of like when you're talking to a person and you you're talking about a subject and they tell you something, you say, hey, tell me more about that thing because you need to dig in or you want to clarify what you're doing. And with ask more, you have the same, same thing.

So for example, if you ask IT, like, how can I access revisions inside of word IT might say something like where you can go to this item in the ribbon, which should be good for somebody who's lovise right? Because this is for people who are blind, a no vision. I mean, all all the disability y's spectrum and you would say, well, you know I use a screen reader um what do the keyboard command you ask you again and IT would come back and then tell you, you know here's how you do with with the keyboard commands.

So one of the things i've been encouraging people to do when they interact this is treat that like a conversation if you don't get exactly what you want or need. The first time I ask you again, ask IT more clarifying questions. And that's what we initially found with our user testing when we first started developing this is we just thought we would get the right answer or the answer we wanted the very first time, but that's not always the case. And so sometimes you had to to dig in to get a little bit more specific again, just like you would when you're interacting with another person.

Do you see a time when ask man knows about me specifically in my preferences? So i'm a keyboard niner. I would prefer to bypass the ribbon where possible. Efficiency is what I am after. But if i'm correct at the moments it's a general website, IT doesn't know anything about your preferences.

That's a great a great request. IT does not do that today. And the reason is we wanted to make IT really simple for people to use. And let me let me qualify that today.

If you need to log a bug with e dad, you'd simply open up an email, type an e dad at microsoft t common and send IT. And we didn't want to require users to log and have to use, ask mom, we wanted to really keep that that barrier entry very low. And so anybody can go to IT. But because we don't require that log in experience, IT doesn't remember at least in that session, IT doesn't remember who you were when you used IT last week or something. Now if you say that same stuff inside of that session, you will remember from that session.

the only constant. And technology has always been changed. But my goodness for the eye, things are moving so quickly.

Now IT wasn't that long ago, for example, that microsoft outlook classic didn't have any A I capability. Now IT does have copilot, depending on the account that you're using. How are you keeping this relevant? What expectation should I have around the currency of this information?

That's an excEllent question. And for those who had been kind of watching how the AI models work, they had been trained and still are trained to like a certain point because, you know, you can only go so far in tight right then you trained on that data. So we recognize that, that was going to be a problem for our users who are asking his questions like this because there's always something new coming.

I mean, it's like this seems like it's every other minute some days. And we couldn't rely on datasets that were just outdated or trained on old information. And so what happens behind the scenes inside of ask more is we basically have the user entered question like what are the accessibility features and window is, for example.

And we send that information to aai. Aai then sends that information to being IT grabs the top three results from being. And then we scrap all of those web pages, and we take all of that information.

We put that back into A A I. And then AI gives you to ask small. And as small gives the answer, what that means is we're not reliant on old datasets or datasets that only trained up to the temple of twenty twenty three.

As long as being is able to get information sure about something, then we can get information ure about something. And that makes IT much more up to date. So for example, if somebody uploads a support article to microsoft dot com and IT was an available yesterday.

Now IT is like we would still be able to get that information. We wouldn't have to wait until there's a new GPT model updated. So I think one of the the questions I sent to you for an example was tell me about the latest microsoft accessibility features in last six months, and it'll go out and grab the answer.

And so IT can always get the the latest stuff, which is really key, as you said, because it's changing so quickly. The outlook summarizing inside of class outlook classic is a perfect example. But people are always asking us like, hey, what's new for microsoft? Well, here's a great way. They can go and find out just type in what's the latest from microsoft and accessibility asked the question and it'll return to the results and give you links to where you can go. Read about those things.

So the term tool in the toolbox is such a cliche, I try not to use that, but in this case, IT really does come to mind because the spiro has just released with jaws twenty twenty five, a tall if it's companion, which is an AI chatbot, and IT is jews centric. So there may be times when IT might be Better to go there if you're a jaws user and you want to to go deep into your specific commands. So about knowing that these AI functions out there and which one might be be used to use for a particular vacation?

Yeah exactly exactly right. Because obviously jaws has its own dataset. And so if you need a very specific jazz command, there is probably going to be a Better one to use. But if you just need a general windows command or accessibly specific to to microsoft, then as small is really great resource.

There are some nice touches buried away here in terms of the screen reader experience that may not be obvious. Talk to me about some powerful PS and tricks that you've implemented here to provide a great user.

Yeah, absolutely. We spend a lot of time on this trying to figure out what the best ux was. You could go in just like any wwb page, and you can navigate IT just like a browser.

So suppose you could ask IT, or let's suppose you ask you a question and IT says an answer, right? Whatever that answer might be, you can use heading ings to go to those answers and things. So know if shift H, P, however you want to access settings, your spring meter.

But one of the chAllenges for these a ibots is that sometimes you get really long answers, like maybe you ask you what to the top of thirty things I should know. And trying to go through all thirty of those things could be a problematic when you're trying to brows IT, just like you a browser web page. So you have that option.

Or the other way that we've enabled people to do this is when they are on the question etic box, you can shift tab, which will take you directly to the list of answer and questions that you have. And you can then up and down arrow through them. If you're used the teams at a similar experience, you can up and down arrow to one.

And let's suppose you land on the answer that you want to explore. You can press answer on that answer. And basically, you are locked in to just that area of the answer.

So he do a control home. You will no longer go to the top of the web page. You'll go to the top of that answer control and we're taking to the bob of that answer answer.

And then you can navigate that answer however you'd like to, whether you want to use heading through IT or whatever. And you know that you're gonna and just that spot, which is really helpful when you get some complex answers back. Additionally, when you do that, you can give us feedback by you can tab to a yes sterno button that says this help resolve your issue.

And then we take that information. And we didn't continually improve the the bott with IT. So we've got this specifically for screener to users. Another thing that i'll mentioned from a low vision perspective because, by the way, that that what I just mentioned that only works for spring is also works for keyboard users that are not screen, use keyboard on the users.

And then from a low vision perspective, there's also some functionality we put in to try to make this super easy because when you send a question, the question starts visually like typing out like a typewriter. It's gotten faster and faster with as the models update, but essentially, that's what happening. And if you were just sent a question you wait for, you're not entirely sure what's happened.

And so the low vision experience is going to be such that when you do that, you're automatic going to be placed on a button that says something like stop generating. And if you use a magnifier, IT will go to that viewport and you'll see exactly that what was done and then you'll be able to see what's actually going on. So we've tried to make IT very key and not only for screening users, that Lewison users and other other disabilities as well.

And then just the general idea of how does this thing answer, right? There were some chAllenges when we started to make this because of the way the technology works in the background. And one of those chAllenges was when you ask you a question, we start to get information back. And so as I said, it's going like a type rider and they got streaming like because the texas is actually streaming in. And the way that the the technology in the background works is IT gives us like a chunky a time.

And if you don't do anything special with that information, what happens is you would get a response that would say, you know, chunk one and then the next chunk would comment, and you hear chunk one and chunk two, then the next chunk would come in and here, chunk one, chunk two, chunk three, the next chunk would come in here, chunk one, chunk to check three stick fort. And so you would have heard a lot of stuff repeating. And so what we've done for this particular bot is when we get those answers, you're gonna hear every five seconds, like working on IT, working on IT, working on IT.

But yeah, that way we were, we had to kind of adapt to these experiences to make sure that they were not just accessible but also usable, right? It's it's not just about compliance. It's about making sure that people are really enabled, which I I love to the job of being able to go through and do that with this particular boy. I think IT was just excEllent.

One thing that I have done with this that was a really interesting concept. I had several questions about one office application excel to be specific, and I asked my questions, and I was able to shift tab to a control a in a control sy and copy the whole answer to the clipboard in one go. And then I pace IT IT into a word document, and I made several queries about different things I wanted to know about. And then I went to the top of that work document. And I have access to co pilot and I said, IT give me this information in the format like it's a user guide and I actually rewrote that IT created nice headings everywhere and I had my own personalized user guide thanks to .

copilot yeah that's a great way to do also um by the way, there's even a copy button so you can copy a specific answer out without having to do a control A I mean you you can certainly do IT the way you did IT, but you've got multiple messages .

to do that coal. What about interacting by voice with this? Because there will be some people with existing site needs who are not able to use the keyboard.

We've accounted for all of that as well. So someone who's using something like voice access or someone who's using in dragon in can utilize this just as well as somebody who is just a keyboard only user or you know screen user or whatever. Again, we're really trying to go after not just blind ness like that's one of our top ones like IT always is. We're trying to go after all disabilities. And so that's really important whenever we're deciding an interface like this because we don't want to make a keyboard accessible and then not support somebody who has a speech, a condition solution.

But at this stage, just not talking back, correct? Yes.

just not talking back. So we'll be like interacting with any other web page. yeah. Now we are starting to see models and things come out where you see like ChatGPT s conversation mode and things like that and technologies of loving so fast that there's always stuff on the horizon. So we'll see what that brains.

privacy, something people care about. What data are you collecting when I use asma? What is microsoft getting about my query?

We take privacy very seriously. And anything that you send that has personal identifiable information or pii, as it's called in the tech industry, is is stripped out. We don't get any of that.

So let's suppose you say something like my name is JoNathan. I use a screen reader. How do I read a word document? We don't get any part of that that tt says my name is john athan.

It's just gone. It's never sent. It's never processed. We can get the information about like what questions you asked, but it's not specific to you.

We don't even know what user is on the site. So for for example, um some sites will be able to track because you log in and thanks. And of course, we're not having people log in so we don't collect I P interested. We don't collect any of that P I I. So it's all anonymous.

And while at all anonymous, and we still get information that allows us to improve the experience by having people do with thumbs up or thumbs down because we'll give you know an actual question that says something like what is the naratu key to increase the volume? And if somebody liked IT, we'll see that. And if somebody didn't like that response, we'll see that. And you can even leave comments, but we have no idea who you are and any information that people put in that might even possibly causes is all stripped down languages .

that you supported at present. English are only right now.

right now, just U. S. english.

Would that change in the future?

Do you think? IT may IT depends on the usage that we get. We'd like to see this used to hold out more. So as part of this podcast, i'd love to see people spread the word about being able to use this. I'd love for them to go and give us feed back inside of the tour because the more information we can get from our customers, the Better that we can serve them. Because if somebody doesn't ask us, we don't necessarily always know exactly what people want.

right? I talk to a lot of blind people and they express some sophism about whether using those feedback tools makes any difference at all. So can you tell me what happens to my feedback when I leave IT?

There is a process that we actually go through, and we take a look at that, and we can tell what the positives are. And we can tell what the negatives are. We see comments and as you might expect, this a range of comments of all sort of things.

Sometimes you'll give people that are using IT that it's not designed for. For example, somebody i'll ask how do I unlock my user name and password, but it's not designed to tell you how do I lock your user name and password is designed to tell you about accessibility stuff. And so we've come and say this didn't tell me about my user, me password, and like, well, that that's what it's supposed to do.

But we take. That information. And we're actually in the process of creating basically a self learning capability for ask more where we can then have IT learn off of all of the information that comes in. We're still working on that on the back end, but that's what's happening with that data because if somebody does a thumbs down and they give a piece of feedback, we can take that, we can look at trends, we can say, should I do this, should have not answer this. And that helps us to really make IT Better. And there are some, some instances where you have questions like, is this an accessibility issue or not, right? Because we want to be careful that we only answer accessibility and not something like how do I win poker in the world .

series like that?

And so there are questions that are kind of walk that line. We had one, for example, where someone was trying to ask IT, what's the what's the keyboards layout of the microsoft surface? Because I can't see IT and IT.

They didn't say because I can't see IT. They just said, what's the keyboard layout? They said how I can answer that because it's not accessibility issue.

So we took that feedback unlike what that doesn't make sense because if you're someone who is blind and you want to be able to know what the keyboard layout is, think you should be able to know that information. And so we updated to be able to answer some of those things. And so it's kind of always walking this line of where is accessibility and where is that not accessibility. But all of that stuff comes out in those trends that we see from comments.

right? Because there is no standard about what the function keys perform when that not in their standard windows function key motile vary from manufacturer. Exactly how do you get to IT? How do you use this?

Ah, so you can go to A K, A, the M, S, slash. Ask more with A S K M A so lot of me lot of yeah anyways um A K A M S slash ask mall and um you can go to from from anywhere. Anybody can use IT.

It's great for people who are you season professionals like yourself is great for people who are beginners. I always talking to someone just recently about they had an eye injury, know they didn't know about screen raters and screen magnifiers and things. And so we get people asking those sides of questions too, right? Because we've got one billion people around the world that we're really trying to empower with our our various technologies. And so that range is so large that we've got to try and make sure that all of that information is available from asking you what's a specific keyboard, keyboard command word to what something that can help me if i'm starting to lose my site. You know, that's all important stuff, and those are all things that can answer.

And we will go into a quick demo in a moment. But I would encourage people to just kick the tires on this. You can break IT.

See what I can do where IT fits into your life before you go. What I have, you that you have mentioned, eat there a couple of times. The enterprise disability answer desk and I have always received super servers from that. But could you clarify for us, win, does somebody use the standard disability answer disk and win as ead an appropriate service to contact?

Yeah absolutely. So the disability answer desk people can call into. And that is for for individuals. I mean, enterprises can use IT too, but is primarily gear towards individuals who are using windows and office e that hence the enterprise disability answer.

This is for someone who's at an enterprise, whether is a government agency or no educational institution or a corporation, we get involved when there are these enterprise level customers. And so in order to contact us, I mentioned IT earlier, but it's e dad at microsoft dot com. But if you're an individual, you really want to get in touch with the disability answer desk because there are really two separate avenues. One goes to a separately train call center in the the one goes to some of us who are more in redmond and and deal more directly with the product teams .

than the others that's germy Carry from microsoft will go into a demo of this in just a moment in a reminder that the if you want to try this self A K A dot image slash, ask M A. Now he is simple.

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Let's make every birthday count. Let's put, ask Matthew, spaces for this demonstration are using jos twenty twenty five. But the commands that you use a very similar, no matter what screen reader you are using, at the very least, you may like to wear dot M S slash asma to your favorite or bookMarks in what if a Brown are you're using.

And there would be some people who might make extensive use of this. Ask my future, who would benefit from adding IT to their start tabs whenever Browns loads. I'll talk about how to do that with. Ask mr in just a moment. So i'm on the page now at A K dot M S slash e, and I can confirm that by chicking the title of .

the age microsoft edge beta maximized display one at .

the top of the page, you'll find a set of standard microsoft links that are just like they don't pretend to accessibility so you want na invega by .

hitting as microsoft accessibility had level.

this is the first heading on the page. I'm going to read continuously from this .

point for a while. High level one as microsoft level one, accessibility had level two power accessibility discover ly microsoft accessible wei so surprises and mistakes possible share feedback s so we can improve link responsibly. I FAQ the s microsoft, but is at all that helps users find the information about the accessibility of microsoft products, products and services IT uses only the publicly available information on microsoft products as a reference does not answer general accessibility questions or something about code head level to sample questions to five items feature are available on next box bullet how do I set up my adaptive of accessory hub bullets?

How do I use voice access on windows bullet? How do I make text bigger and the mesage list and outlook bullet? How do I use word copilot with a screen reader? This can ask me anything about microsoft accessibility and sist to ask. Follow what questions is needed.

Enter a question at place. I'll stop the reading there because now we're at the point where we can type in question depending on the screen reader that you're using. You may find that when you go to this website, focus will be in the edit field and you can start typing a bit like what happens when you go to the google page.

I find that this does vary from screen reader at a screen reader. If i'm using that rider IT does seem to work this way. I'm going to press em actually um .

in the form field holder. Ask me anything about microsoft accessibility of plus you and .

performs mode. I was suggesting that you might like to add ask out to the list of tabs that load when you start your browser. But if you do that, how do you switch seamlessly from one tab to another from the keyboard without having to control tab through all the items that you have on your tab bar? We will ask and see if he knows. I'll type in my query and let you hear what IT is .

that .

i'm typing when using .

microsoft edge cost space, how do I switch taps front the keyboard question search, just reviewing the line. Enter a question when using microsoft edge, how do I switch types from the keyboard or present? Enter, stop responding button.

Working on IT. Working on IT. Main region ask me anything about mo soft accessibility, answer a question, edit plane please holder. Ask me anything about microsoft accessibility of plus q to switch taps using the keyboard in my rosoff t edge, you can use the following keyboard shortcuts, bullet control plus tab switches to the next tab in the window, bullet control plus shift plus tab switches to the have been the window, bullet control plus one, two t dot to eight switches directly to the specific tab number from one to bullet, bullet control plus nine switches to the last tab. Using these shortcuts can ensure your browsing efficiency, allowing you to navigate through your open tabs sweetly without relying on mouse. A complete list of keyboard shortcuts available in microsoft edge, you can refer to the full guide on microsoft edge keyboard shortcuts one references one, microsoft edge keyboard shortcuts two using keyboard shortcuts in microsoft age easy or browsing with accessibility settings.

Microsoft IT has set up the sources that IT is using to get the answer IT has just given, and those are hylan ks as well, so you can click through to those sources and read the entire article if you want to know more. At the moment, I have four tabs that load when microsoft edge does, and ask my is the latest edition. That means that I know whenever I this control for, I will get right into this.

And I can ask microsoft access ability my question, having obtained the answer, let's see what we can do with IT. At the moment, i'm an application mode and I want to get back into forms mode, sometimes called browse mode or scan mode, depending on the screen read out that you're using. So i'm going to press the command that gets me back into the virtual curse and jars .

application virtual PC.

If I press shift with b now full bottom copy button, I can copy this response to the clipboard. And that means that I can paste IT somewhere else if i'm the kind of person that keeps little cheat cheats for applications that I use a lot, I might have that open in word, and I can post IT in to microsoft word so I can refer to IT in future.

As I mentioned to jeremy, another very nice trick is that once you've done that, but a lot of information you can ask, copy that if you have access to IT, to reformat that information in the form of a nice handy for the user gude. I'm going to go back to the edit field and a question edit and turn forms mode back on. Now i'm going to press shift with tab to switch .

tab using the keyboard in microsoft edge.

and that's the answer we heard before.

I'm going to press into to switch tab using the keyboard .

you heard the jw sound, which indicates that forms mode is on. Now my environment is restricted to the answer rather than the page, which means that if I press control home, which gets me to the top of something.

this, which taps using .

the keyboards in my rol, I met the top of the answer, not the top of the page, and I can error down through which bullet. I can press control in .

the end of content.

And i'm at the bottom of the information. This is a very nice extra touch, which makes getting at your information easy. So to recap, press shift tab will be in the press to your screen readers virtual buffer, and you will be able to navigate just the answer. I'm going to press escape to exit this escape. And I pressed and buns again.

asking me anything about microsoft access ability. Enter a question at IT blank place holder asking me anything about microsoft .

accessibility of pluto. Let's throw a much more complex problem at at all typed in.

how do I U copilot to create a powerpoint presentation from a word document questions.

See what IT comes .

up with later. Stop responding button. Working on IT.

Working on IT. Working on IT. Main region asked me anything about microsoft accessibility. Enter a question I IT blank plain holder asked me anything about microsoft accessibility of plus q to use copilot in powerpoint to create a presentation from the word document, follow steps one open powerpoint and create new presentation to select the copilot button in the home tab of the selector, type create presentation from file four, choose the world document you went from the file picker that appears.

If the file picker doesn't appear, you can type up front slash slash to make IT pop up five click send in. Copilot will draft the presentation for you based on the content of your word document. Copilot will sides apply layouts, create speaker notes and choose themes for you.

You can then review when and edit the presentation to suit your needs. Copilot will try to incorporate any images in your word document to get the best results, use styles and word to organize your document as the helps copilot understand the structure and representation. For a more comprehensive look at how to use co pilot, you can refer to the tutorial on how to create a new presentation with copilot in powerpoint .

one references one. I'll stop the reading there, but IT is about to go through a list of sources that IT will sight for the answer IT has just given. I can testify to the fact that this does work, and that is useful.

That is to say, creating a power point in presentation from a microsoft word file. I had a very busy may, and I had five significant presentations that I had to deliver. And I found that using copilot to generate the powerpoint presentation saved me a large amount of time.

I was skeptical, but I came away from having used IT a convert. Let's ask another pretty common accessibility question here. I believe i'm still in the edit field .

at a question edit.

I am indeed. So it's time this one.

How do I ensure that what I tab around excel spread .

sheet.

my hatter row is choked by a screen reader? Ever stop responding button?

Working on IT. I'm not ditching this because I want you to hear how long these queries type to deliver. I think that a significant part of the reviews on IT.

Working on IT to ensure that when you tap around an excess pressure, your hair row is spoken by a screen reader, you need to set up the head role correctly and use a simple table structures. Here are the steps to achieve this one. Create a table with a simple structure ensuring that includes your head a row at the top two place your text in sala a one as screen readers start reading any work truth from a soft accessibility best practices for itself spreadsheet one three unable to head a row option for your table this ensures screen readers recognize the header row and associated correctly with the data cells below IT example of setting up the had row highlight the range of cells that include on the ribband then click table three in the create table dialog box ensure that the checks x for my table has headers as checking ico soft support on screen reader or navigation in excell to using this method, each time you navigate real worksheet, the screen reader will directly identify and read out the hero, enhancing accessibility users who rely on screen leaders.

One observation I would make is that i'm not sure I agree with use of the term rely on screen readers. Does a science ted person rely on a screen? They use a screen and are not sure why the term rely on screen readers is appropriate in this context. Nevertheless, a comprehensive answer, but we know that is going to fall down if we try a query like this.

how do I get dry to display only the cells with content in a spread seat? Enter stop responding .

button and see what that comes back with .

working on IT. Working on IT to get just to display only the cells with content in an excel spreadsheet, you can make use of some just specific commands to enhance production activity and navigation. Here are the steps to follow. One, open your excell, spread y and ensure that just is active to navigate to the first cell the range you are interested in by pressing control, plus home to to sell a one, or use the arrow keys to position yourself at the start of your data range. Three, to cycle through cells with content, use the duns table reading commands White bullet Price plus control plus to move to the next cell to the right with content White bullet Price plus control plus to move to the previous ell to y bullet Price plus control plus down arrow to move to the next sell below with content, White bullet presto plus control plus up area to move to the previous sell above with content allows you to the navigate content over s. And for more detailed to guidance on using drugs with microsoft excel, you may refer to the comprehension documentation provided by microsoft, such as using itself with screen readers and other assistance .

of technology support page on. I will stop that because I don't believe that that is going to do what IT says it's going to do that will move me around the spreadsheet from cell to cell in the way that I said. But if the set of empty IT will still navigate to that cell and we'll show you another strategy for getting that sort about.

So in the moment, microsoft does not claim that. Ask my will give a correct dancer in a situation like that because i'm talking about a screen. Read out specific function before we talk about how to get a good answer to a question like that about jaws, we now have a number of answers on the screen that we have received during our session. I'm going to get out of application mode and forms mode .

or those good things.

sapper virtual PC. And I back browsing the page and to control home to get to .

the top of that page. Mrt c.

now it's never guide by hitting.

Ask microsoft accessibility heading level one, mini power accessibility, discover the ability tool heading level two sample questions having level two when using microsoft edge how do I switch tapes from the .

keyboard heading level to? What we're seeing here is that as long as your session is active, you will be able to review your history of queries by navigating at the heading to level. Could press the number two to go onto my next query. If I just navigate by heading references, heading level three, we get to a hitting level three, which shows the references that ask mass cited to give the answer. But then when I press IT again.

how do I use to create a powerpoint presentation from the word document heading .

level two and a prison number two?

How do I ensure that when I type around the excel pretty, my head role is spoken by a screen reader?

Heading level two, IT jumped me, strike to my clearly. And the final one we tried.

do I get to trust to display only the cells with content in a .

spread seed heading level two? So by knowing a few basic screen read to commands, you can never gate this page efficiently and effectively, and get to your history of answers. This can be very useful for the scenario I painted before, where you want to build a little user guide for yourself using a ee doesn't have to necessarily be copilot.

If you have access to ChatGPT, you can feed at the word document of the answers that you were symbol LED and IT will do a similar thing, staying on the topic of harassing the power of the technology that we have access to and using A I to do that. Let's talk a bit about another toll. In this particular A I took box called, if it's companion.

Obviously, the primary user service for this tool will be people who use jars, but it's also handy for trainers who may need to assist somebody. You are lucky enough to signage the support person and your family. And in a blind person who uses jews, this can be very helpful thanksgivings coming up, you know.

And I know that around thanksgiving tables right across the united states, that would be Christians fired at the resident family. Geek, if that's you and you want to support somebody who uses jews, this is a very handy tool. Now, there are two ways that you can get to this.

You can use your web browsing to go to fs companion dot, freedom scientific dot com. Don't go to F S. Companion dot com, because that will get you to an APP for flight simulator, which nothing at all to do with jaws. Interesting though i'm sure IT is, if you were jews, twenty twenty five user, the spiro has integrated a short cut into jaws. So all you have to do is place the jaws key with space, which is this layer keystroke, that jaws has increasingly used as it's run out of single layer keys over the years. And then you press if one that's a very, and you would have way to do IT, because if one usually equals help in the windows world, and I swear i'm going to do that, i'll press the jews key with spice.

Will us f one opening new tab f us companion beta f us companion 贝塔 f companion beta your question here at IT ranic。 Hello there. I'm excited to help you learn more about us. Here are some things to know about our conversation. Bullet, you can use the age shift, h tab, shift plus tab and up down aerogel to navigate between messages, but that use the new conversation button to start a conversation about a new topic to get, just type your question in the .

chat box below. I have found this tool very useful, as well as ask me the reason why I haven't at this stage, added IT to my start tabbed in my brothers is that is so easy to get to any time with this. The just key with spaces, something, if one, and the site speaks very friendly. introduction. When you get there, i'll to inform mode on and all type a similar query to the one I gave to ask, that was jaws specific.

How do I view a list of just cells with content in excel spread sheet? Enter, how do I view a list of just the cells with content in an excell spread sheet? To view a list of cells with content in excel spread sheet using just, you can use the following keystroke bullet press control plus shift plus d this command will list the cells would dated that are visible in the active window.

and you can move to a select itself from the list. Bingo, I use that command a lot. Shift day. See, I just want to a take tip right there because that's a really useful tip when you get into a small sheet.

And you just want to see the cells that have data if you are using microsoft c cell with jaws. A couple of points to note. I quite like the progress indicated with this, and I was lightning fast. Actually, I gave that response very quickly. Let's try the other excel related query that I asked.

How do I ensure the one on tab around a street sheet coma space drugs speak the header. How do I ensure that when I tap on a spreadsheet, john speaks to head a row to ensure that trone speaks the header row went. You tap around the spread sheet in excel.

You can use the following steps, one define the hetero wipe, let first make sure your data as one matter, as a table you can do by selecting data range, impressing control 加 full stop。 This opens A G weight bullet. Ensure that my table has headers checked, boxes checked, then press enter period to enable con titles White bullet to have joe read the collen titles as you vigor, use the command to read the current column with titles. Press in surge plus control plus up pass control plus up arrow on a desktop layout by setting your data as a table and using the appropriate at command, you can have john announced the head or row as .

you navigate for the cell s good answer, but I would observe that sparrow is not disclosing the sources for the information that is giving a can't click through to further information like a technical support notice or jaws documentation. There are buttons on the page where you can provide feedback on the response. And just like with aska for was monitoring the data, determining where the A I is falling short and modifying IT accordingly. We can signal to if his companion that we're starting something completely new and going to navigate by button.

provide feed back on this response button, provide feedback on this response button new conversation button starts a conversation .

about a new topic activate that .

button space after companion beta new conversation button touch your question here at IT hello there.

Well, hello to you is going to give that blue begin. I've just sign that out to inform this mode on here. And let's ask, get a really jow specific question. And this is one that does come up in a lot of workplaces. Somebody will send you document and they say, I want you to concentrate on the responses highlighted in read.

How do I get a list of text in a document that is in red? quite? How do I get a list of text in a document that isn't red? To get a list of text in a document that isn't that using just with microsoft word, you can use the fine feature to search for text with specific formatting. Here's how you can do IT one, open the fine dialogue weight bullet, press control plus f to open the navigation pain way bullet, press plus h to open the hometown b then F, D to open the fine dialogue to access advanced find options. Weight bullet in the fine dialogue, press all plum to open the more options.

Three, specify the format bullet, press all pf to open the format menu, use the aries to select fund in, press the period weight bullet in the font dialogue, press alpa to move to the font color, drop down y bullet, use the ark to select red, and press period, find all instances bullet press find all instances of text with specified formatting. White bullet word will highlight all text in red, and you can navigate through them using the arrow keys. This method allows you to quickly locate and review all text form mattered and read within your document.

Oh, right, this a fair enough, but i'm GTA .

push back and say this, can I not use the scheme reading to to this? Can I not use the schema reading tool to do this? The scheme reading tool in john's is not specifically designed to fine tax based on color formatting such as text and red. Instead, IT is generally used for navigating and reading crew documents more efficiently to find text in red using the fine feature with specific formatting options in microsoft word previously is the most effective method. If you have any other questions or need further assistance.

feel free to ask. I feel pretty confident in saying that you can absolutely use the skin reading tool to find text to a certain color or certain attributes. So these things don't always get IT right. And sometimes you might have to just ask IT in a different way. I got to to try that virtual PC will start a new conversation.

provide feedback on this response, provide feedback on this with new conversation button. Starts a conversation about a new topic space new conversation button starts a conversation about a new topic. Take your question here.

Added Better this time. I'm going to ask you this way.

how do I use skin reading to find text .

highlighted?

How do I use some reading to find text highlighted in red? To use scheme reading and just to find text highlighted in red, follow these steps. One, open the scheme reading dialogue to impress shift plus, control plus and search plus down arrow to open the skin reading dialog box. Alternatively, you can access list of just managers by pressing in search, post and selecting scheme reading tool to set up color rules Colin White bullet in the scheme reading dialogue, locate the text color edit box y bullet using the up and down narrows to select red from the list of text dollars, or take red directly into the combo box. Three select reading mode, choose in the attributes and color rules apply for reading radio button.

This ensures john will search for text according to the selected color and attributes for start skin reading Colin y bullet press control plus insert plus down arrow to begin scheme reading, search for and read only the text that is highlighted in red five, create a summary optional Colin White bullet. If you want a summary of all the red highlighted attack used to create summary button in the skin reading dialogue, this will generate a summary in the result wer, where each segment of textor, a link you can present on the link, jump to its location in the document. By following these steps, you can efficiently locate and reteach tighter and .

read using june scheme. Reading exactly. And I was trying to tell IT before. So sometimes you do have to ask a question a particular way, and you can get into a situation with some of AI tools where you know for well that something you want to do as possible.

You just can't quite remember the sequence or the key drugs persist with IT or sometimes you might just have to realize that it's not going to give the answer. And you can go back to a good old fashioned whip surge nether. That is why there are those problems.

Most of the time, these sorts of tools can really speed up your efficiency. When you're on a deadline, you just need answers, have a look at, ask more from microsoft. And if is companion from the spiral, I have found that they are both in considerable value.

But more importantly, what have you found? Are you using these A I tools? How are they working out for you? Are the other tips and tricks that you have for getting the information you want efficiently? Drop us an email.

You can attach an audio clip to that imaal. You can write IT down and send them into access on that's all jointed together. Access on IT N F B dorg. And we going to win this episode of excess on without first tick tip. The idea behind this is that sometimes you're talking to someone who really knows a product well, and they casually mention something that's just so handy.

You think our boy i've been using this product for years and I didn't know that you could do this, and it's just saved to me so much time. And many of us Carry these little tick tips around. So let's share them and i'll start us off.

But I hope that by next week, we will have heard from you with a tik tive IT doesn't matter what the Operating system or the application is, if you think it's something that can help us to live the life we want more efficiently than, let's hear, IT access on IT. And if they are August, how you get in touch with the audio clip or any email written down for our first take trip, we are going to microsoft outlooks. Since we've been talking a lot in this particular episode about microsoft things, I often come across people who was struggling, saving an attachment from an email in the right place in microsoft outlook, or attaching a file that they want to see and to somebody else.

You can certainly use the dialogues provided by microsoft outlook, but there is an easier way, in my view, is easier anyway, and that is to simply locate the file in file to expire by browser, to IT in the usual way, navigating the photos, and find the file you want, and then press control C2Copy the fil e to the cli pboard, then compose your new message. When you're in the body of the message, just press control v and you will find that the file has been attached to the email message that you want to see, and IT works for receiving attachment as well when you pay shift with tab from the body of an email to get to the list of attachments that have been sent to you in a message, you can press control seeds to copy the attachment to the clipboard, navigate to where you want the file to be saved on your computer, and press control. Vee, it's as simple as that.

And for many people who resort with the standard dialogue, it's a big timesaver that concludes this edition of axes on the technology pod council, the national federation of the blind. If you'd like to know more about the nfb, visit our website at N F B dot ogg. You can phone us on four one zero six five nine nine three one four and be sure to check out the nation's blind podcast, right from where you heard this podcast, to send in a contribution for possible inclusion for a future episode of access on email.

You can attach an audio clip to the email, or you can just write the email down. The address is on at nfb dot ogg that's access on all joints together at N F B dot org. And always remember, it's the organized blind movement that puts access on the agenda.