Hello everyone! Welcome back to my channel. I hope that you're all well.
Today is Thursday the 21st of May and today marks Global Accessibility
Awareness Day and to mark the occasion I thought that I would make a video
talking about to how I as a visually impaired person use and interact with
technology. Today's video is also in collaboration with Juan from JC5
Productions. Who you may remember from a previous collaboration I did with him.
Link in a card above my head, if you'd like to go and watch that. Juan is a
visually impaired youtuber from the States, who makes a lot of great videos.
He's a filmmaker, he talks a lot about visual impairment and filmmaking on his
channel and today we are doing a collaboration for Global Accessibility
Awareness Day. So Juan is going to be making a video on his channel about how
he interacts with these devices as a VoceOver user.
Juan: Hey everybody. What's going on? So if you want to check out the video on my channel for
Global Accessibility Awareness Day. I'm gonna be talking about the one
accessibility feature that has made the biggest impact on me as a visually
impaired person and that feature is Apple's VoiceOver screenreader. I use
that feature on my iPhone, on my iPad, my MacBook Pro, my Apple watch and my Apple
TV. So I want to share with you how voiceover has made life so much more
manageable for me. Thanks to that feature being on all of those products.
In my video I am going to be talking about the features that I use as a visually
impaired person on my Apple devices. That enable me to be able to use them and
interact with them. So for today's video I have my iPhone, my MacBook and my iPad
with me. I am going to be going through the various accessibility features that
I use on each of them. Also if you have never been to my
channel before and you don't know what my visual impairment is I will link a
video in a card above my head right now. Which explains what I can and can't see
and also if you are new to this channel please consider supporting me by
clicking the subscribe button and also by clicking the notification bell down
below so that you receive updates when I post new videos. The eyesight that I have
enables me to see certain things. But I do need to use visual aids. Like
magnifiers and also larger text as well this is where the accessibilty features
on my devices really does come into play. All of these features that I am going to
discussing on this video today are features that are already available on
your Apple devices. They are already built-in and they are not separate. You
do not have to download anything or download any third-party apps. They are
there waiting and ready for you to use and explore. But if you would like to see
a video that I have previously filmed on my favorite apps that I find useful
as a visually impaired person. I will link a video above in a card right now
that you can go and watch too. So I'm going to start off with my iPhone.
Because let's face it, we're all on our phones constantly. So it makes sense for
me to start off with the thing that I use the most. With Apple devices the way
that you find the access features is by going into the settings tab and then
there will be a section labeled "accessibility" When you get into the
accessibility feature there will be a selection of different features that you
can explore and the great thing about this is that it's not just exclusive to
visual impairments. There are loads of different features that are available
for people with different disabilities. The first feature is VoiceOver. I do know
how to use this. But I don't use this all of the time. Just because I don't really
need to. I do know how to use it and the reason that I have learned how to use is
because I have a visual impairment that means that my eyes can get fatigued so
sometimes it's necessary. But also because I do work with beauty brands and
sometimes I do work where I work with brands on how to improve their
accessibility on their websites. It's important for me to be able to know how
to use VoiceOver that I can give my opinion on how they could improve their
services. For today's video I'm not going to put it on. Because I don't
use all the time so it's not really something that is integral to my
everyday life. One of the main features that I use on my iPhone is Zoom. Now this
is a feature that enables you to be able to zoom into the screen on your iPhone.
What you do is tap twice with three fingers and it will zoom in on the
screen. Now what you can then do is take those three fingers and basically scroll
across the screen like you would with one finger and this will enable you to
see different parts of the screen, whilst zoomed in. This is really useful if
I'm looking at pictures, if I'm reading text, if I'm sending a text to someone or
if I'm looking on Google Maps anything where it involves a little bit more
close detailing that I can't see we my eyesight alone. I will then use zoom
to be able to see it more clearly. Now with Zoom, you also have the option to
customise it to what you want. So what you can do is you can take your three
fingers and tap three times and then it then comes up with this little panel
which enables you to change the options. For how zoomed in you want it to be. You can
choose the region so you can either have it as a full screen or as a window zoom.
You can also have the option to have a different filter on there as well. So if
you want it to be inverted or in grayscale or low light. You can change it
depending on what you want and then you can also change how again you want it to
be so if you want it to be more zoomed in or less zoomed in you can customise
it to what you want it to be and that is the great thing about these features is
that a lot of them enable you to be able to customise it to what you want and
what you are comfortable with. The next feature that I use on my iPhone is the
Magnifier feature. Now this enables you to use your camera on your iPhone as a
magnifier and when set up what you do is you click on the side button to start
the magnifier and then it comes up with the magnifier app and it just uses the
camera on your phone and you can zoom in or out depending on how zoomed in you
want it to be. So I'm going to show you an example. This is a lipstick that has a
very very small print and then what it enables me to do is to zoom in and then
it uses the camera on my iPhone. So that I can see it and then you can also press
the centre button and it pauses the magnifier. So that you can see in more
detail what it says and then you can then press the button again and it will
go back on to live view and I use this for a variety of different things. Like
letters, book, magazines. I use it when I'm shopping, if I'm trying to find
details about an item like the price or the ingredients. I have always used
electronic magnifiers, I find them a lot more easier and a lot more convenient to
use. The cameras on iPhones these days and indeed all smartphones are so much
more powerful and the fact that they are using these features to be able to
enable you to use them as a magnifier is fantastic. Then we go on to the feature
which is Display and Text Size. So this just enables you to go in and customise
a variety of features. Such as the font size,
button size, the labels, the transparency, colour contrast, inverted colours. There's a
lot of different features that you can customise and change. Depending on what
you want. So what I have basically done is I have enabled the feature called
larger text and this feature enables you to enlarge the text so that appears
bigger on the screen and then we move on to the feature called Spoken Content and
this is the option where you can enable your phone to read back things like text
or to speak the screen out to you. The first option I have here is speak
selection. So this is basically where you select the text that you want it to read
and it will read it back to you. This is what I use if I only want it to read out
a small amount of text and the text might be a little bit too small for me
to see. So I will highlight the paragraph and then I will have it read it out to
me. So I'll show you an example...So let's go
on to BBC News and then I will select some text and then when this speak selection
feature is enabled it will come up with an option that says speak and I will
then tap that.
Apple voice (Irish male): The public is being urged to think twice before heading to
England's Beaches and country parks weekend.
Emily: That's an example of what
you would do if you wanted it to read a small amount of text out to you and then
the other feature that I use is speak screen. Now this is a little bit
different where it will read up the entire screen and the way that you use
this is when enabled you take two fingers and you swipe the two fingers
from the top to the bottom of the screen and it will then read out the content
that is on the screen and I find this very useful when I am reading books in
particular. Because it acts a little bit like VoiceOver would, except it does not
change how you interact with your phone. So I have a book here on my Kindle books
app and I'm going to show you what I mean.
Apple Voice: Fairytales are more than true. Not because they tell us that dragons exist.
But because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
Emily: and then when you go to use speak
screen. It will come up with a little arrow and when you tap it it comes up
with a selection of options. So you can choose to go back or jump forward, you
can pause it or press play and you can change the speed of which you want the
voice to narrate things. So you can have it slower or faster and also with the
spoken content I have the option which is highlight content.
This is where it will highlight each word as it speaks it. It makes it easier if I
want to quote something or cite something, it makes it easy for me to be
able to pinpoint the quote and where I am on the page or on the text. Another
feature that I use is the typing feedback feature and this will narrate
each letter and each word as you type it. I don't always physically see the
spelling mistakes that I make or the grammatical errors. So this means that it
will read out the text that I am typing as I type it so if I miss something or
if I misspell something. It enables me to go back and change it. You can customise
what you want it to say. So for me personally I have it customised so that
it will speak every character that I type, every word that I type and then it
will also speak up the auto text if I have made a mistake or if it wants to
fill in the word for me and I really like this feature because it just makes it
more easy for me to be able to do things like use social media and type emails
and be able to do things in the confidence that I won't make spelling
mistakes when I'm relying on sight alone I don't always see the spelling mistakes
and this just makes it easy for me to be able to catch them out and to be able to
correct them. You can also change the accent and the speed of which you want
the voice to be. So I have the Irish male and I have it on quite a high speed. I
absolutely love the Irish accent and the Irish accent is so great. So that's why I
have the Irish male speaking to me, because I just really like it. That
is all of the access features that I use on my phone and let's not forget to give
an honourable mention to Siri. Because Siri is fantastic when you have a visual
impairment for so many things. Like being able to look things up on the internet
or being able to shortcut things or to be able to change apps. So that is
everything on my phone now moving on to what I use on my MacBook. So here is my
MacBook and with MacBooks you will find the accessibility features by going on
to System Preferences and then by going on to the selection that says
"accessibility" and you can also customise it to have an accessibility icon at the top
as well if you want to like I have done. Now the first feature I want to walk you
through that I use on my Mac is zoom. So zoom is a great feature if
you have a visual impairment. Because it enables you to zoom in and out of your
MacBook screen using the key commands on your keyboard. Now what you do once you
have enabled zoom. To zoom in, you press the option command and the plus key. To
zoom out, you press the option command and the minus key and to zoom all the
way out you press the option command and the 8 key and this is a great feature
because you can customise it to be what you want. You can change how zoomed in or
zoomed out you want it to be. You can change the zoom style. So you can have it
as fullscreen, split screen or picture-in-picture. When you go onto the
advanced settings you can also change whether you want it to follow the
pointer or if you want it to stay static as well and also under zoom I
have the enable hover text option on it. So basically when enabled you press the
command button and hover your cursor over the text and enlarge it to be
bigger. Then we move into display. Now this is where you can change a variety
of features such as the color the contrast, the transparency and the size
of your cursor and you can basically change how big or small you want the
cursor to be and I have mine quite large. Because I always end up losing the
cursor on my screen. So I have it quite big, I can see where my cursor is and
where I'm moving it across and we move into the speech section of the accessibility
features. On mine I have the option which enables me to have announcements on my
MacBook. If you have a notification, say for instance that someone has sent you an
email or you have a text message from someone or your battery is low and you
have your screen zoomed in or you physically can't see that well to see
notifications. It will announce that you have a notification and it will tell you
what that notification is.
Apple Voice: Alert from System Server. Low battery.
Emily: Oh god!
and it's great for me because I have to have my screen
so far zoomed in that I don't see this section of my screen all the time where
the notification will pop up. The other option I have is speak selected text
when a key is pressed. It is a customisable option. so you can choose
keys you want to press and then once you highlight some text you want it to read
out and press these keys the audio on your MacBook will read out to you. So
it's great if you're reading an email or you're reading something on the web. What
you do is you select some text that you want it to read out for you and you
click and drag your cursor along to highlight it and then you press the keys
that you have selected that you want to press. Mine is ctrl + S. But you can
change it to be what you want it to be. I've got an example here using a page on
the Cult Beauty website, because I'm addicted.
Like a stint in a spa when your skin’s showing signs of fatigue,
111SKIN’s Y Theorem Bio Cellulose Facial Mask works.
to quickly replenish, recharge and awaken dulled, lacklustre skin types
So that is really really useful
feature that I use and then the final feature I use under this category is the
speak items under the pointer option. Which is where you hover your cursor on
a particular item. Like an icon or a piece of text or a button and it will
then read it out to you and tell you what it is. So it's great if you can't
physically see it for yourself. So let me show you an example.
Apple Voice: Reminders, messages,
at location photos, music ,podcasts.
Emily: It will read out what your cursor is under. So if
you move your cursor it will go on to something else.
But obviously if you're trying to read out a piece of text that your cursor is
under. You don't need to move it around. You just need to keep it on what you
want it to read. But this is great because if you're just whizzing through
your different applications and you're trying to find something. It's great
because it will just tell you what your cursor is under and it's a really really
great option. If again you have a vision impairment that means that you find it
difficult to be able to see the icons and the text on your MacBook. So that is
everything that I use on my macbook and again also I love the fact that with
MacBooks now you can also use Siri. Finally for my iPad. So I have the iPad
Pro and I also have the iPad pencil as well. Now I love my iPad I use it for
drawing. Because I love to draw on my iPad and I use procreate. I also use it
to watch TV and films. I use it to write blogs as
well, because I have the iPad keyboard too. So I use it when I'm traveling. I
like to use it for reading books and emails and I like to download magazines
on here as well and books that have a lot of pictures in them too. So I mainly
use this for things where I want to see it in a higher definition and I want to
see it on a larger screen and to be honest the features that I use on my
iPad are very much the same that I would use on my iPhone. But for the purpose of
this video I'm just gonna quickly show you what I would use again. Just so you
can see what I would use. I use zoom which I use to be able to see things
like pictures if I want to zoom in. Because when I do my drawings, I like to
be able to zoom in and see more fine detail. I also have the magnifier option
on. Because I use this a lot of the time to be able to read my letters and
documents. Because the screen is a lot more bigger , you can see more of what is
on the screen. So that is really good for that. Under the display and text size
option, I have larger text enabled. Which I have on quite large because, again
because the screen is so big I can have it on its full capacity. Because the
screen is big enough to be able to accommodate that.
I also have increased contrast on this as well. Then under spoken content
I have speak selection and speak screen enabled and this is great because I use
my iPad a lot of the time to read my books and magazines and blog posts. So
those are the access features that I like to use on my iPad. So that is
everything for today's video. I really hope you found it useful and interesting.
Let me know down in the comments. What access features do you like to use on your
devices? What do you use? Are you an Apple person? or do you use something els? and I
will see you all in my next one. Bye guys!
(Jazz music)