Steven Scott, Shaun Preece, Steven Scott, Shaun Preece

Double Tap

#27 in Technology · 🇿🇦 #32 in Technology · 🇳🇴

About the show

Double Tap is the show where blind people talk tech! If you’re blind or partially sighted and have an interest in technology, this is the show for you. Everyone is welcome no matter how old you are or how much or how little experience you have with technology. Each week the team will help you better understand how technology can help your everyday life, even if you have little or no sight.

Newest episodes

Your Feedback: Tactile UV Printing, Braille Talking Watches and Blind-Friendly ID Checks

Nov 13, 2026 56 min

Face scans that reject blind users' eyes, a braille talking watch with an alarm and a UV printer that prints raised textures all come up in this Double Tap feedback show. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece also try out Sony's retro MDR-3R headphones and ask whether iOS 27 is worth installing yet. Steven explains why he bought Sony's Walkman-style MDR-3R wired headphones. Shaun talks about his trouble with the Logitech Zone headset, which still cuts off audio tones on a wired connection. Listener Tom misses Lovely Laura and doesn't like the AI voice that now reads the emails. That leads to an honest chat about why a human reader can't keep up with how much mail comes in. Some Schmo suggests the eufyMake E1, a UV printer that builds raised textures up to 5mm high, and the hosts weigh up how useful it could be for tactile graphics and braille labels. Joel recently lost much of his sight. He describes using AI to bring Mystery Mansion, a 1980s text adventure from the HP 3000, to Android. That starts a conversation about vibe coding and the independence it can give. Lena reviews the FutureAids Talking Braille Watch, which combines braille, speech and an alarm for 50 US dollars. Mark in Miami describes life with a keyless Yale smart lock. Scott in Sydney explains how to switch back to Siri Classic on iOS 27, though Steven still advises waiting before you update. Sharon closes with a serious problem: passport and face scans that reject blind users because their eyes don't look like a sighted person's. Steven argues that age and ID checks should be built into the phone or computer's operating system, so they only have to be made accessible once. Chapters0:00 – Intro and Sony MDR-3R retro headphones6:38 – Logitech Zone and headset recommendations12:38 – Tom on the AI email voice15:46 – eufyMake E1 tactile UV printer20:15 – Joel brings Mystery Mansion to Android28:43 – Lena reviews a braille talking watch33:19 – Mark's Yale smart lock and parcel deliveries40:19 – Scott on Siri Cla...

Lumin Shuts Down, SpeakTab Makes Music Accessible, and Good Vibes Is Coming

Nov 12, 2026 56 min

Lumin, the voice-first email app built for blind users, is shutting down. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece look at why, then meet Eden Brown, who used vibe coding to build SpeakTab, an accessible music and guitar tab reader. Lumin stops working on 1 December 2026, and the team says competition from ChatGPT and other big AI platforms made it impossible to sustain. Steven and Shaun replay part of their September chat with founder Sriram Ganesh and ask some hard questions. Did launching free make charging later impossible? How does a small specialist app get noticed when AI tools keep multiplying? Eden Brown, a court reporter and guitarist, explains how she built SpeakTab with Codex. It reads MusicXML, Guitar Pro files and text tabs by beat and measure. It can also loop sections, slow the tempo for practice, write music from plain-language input and connect to an optional AI teacher. There's a Windows version and an Android build tested on the BrailleSense 7. The conversation then turns to Braille. Eden argues that audio alone isn't literacy. Steven pushes back on advocacy that suggests Braille is the only route to success. They disagree on some points and agree on many more. Before that, the hosts deal with an eero router outage that briefly felt like the end of the world, a viewer who noticed Steven wears the same blue shirt every day, and the question "are you two really blind?" To close, Steven and Shaun announce Good Vibes, their new podcast about the tools blind people are building with AI, and Steven reviews the retro Sony MDR-3R headphones. Chapters0:00 – Intro0:17 – Shed heating, emergency prep and an eero outage4:02 – The same blue shirt and "are you really blind?"9:47 – Lumin shuts down25:32 – Eden Brown and SpeakTab34:41 – Braille, literacy and employment45:35 – Getting SpeakTab and sending feedback51:41 – Introducing the Good Vibes podcast53:24 – Sony MDR-3R headphones review Relevant LinksDouble Tap: https://doubletaponair.comDouble Tap Live and Good Vibes:...

HapWare Aleye, Time's Best Inventions and the Smart Glasses Ban Debate

Nov 11, 2026 56 min

HapWare's Aleye wristband, named one of Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 2026, turns smiles, waves and handshakes into vibrations that blind users can feel. CEO Jack Walters explains what has changed, along with pricing, pre-orders and privacy. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece also take on the growing push to ban smart glasses. The show starts with the other assistive tech on Time's list, the Mangoslab Nemonic Dot braille label printer. That leads to a moan about braille labelling. The electronic options, like the 6dot label maker, cost well over $1,000, and the old manual embossers take more hand strength than Steven has. Steven was back on BBC In Touch, and he's tired of hearing that Meta smart glasses should be banned from pubs, pools and even whole countries. He points out that privacy and decency laws already cover misuse, as they did with phones. Shaun pushes back on calling the glasses life-changing, and they get into what actually counts as essential for blind people. Jack Walters, CEO and co-founder of HapWare, tells Shaun how Aleye has grown beyond facial expressions. It now reads text and spots objects without being asked, such as the aisle you're standing in. It works with any Meta glasses or your phone camera, and you don't need Meta's live AI. Jack talks about learning the haptic patterns, how much beta testers wanted to know, and the first watch-sized standalone prototype. Pre-orders are open until 31 December with a $59 deposit toward a $359 price. The first batch is 500 units, aimed at a launch around May 2027. The subscription is $20 a month or $199 a year. Jack also covers SOC 2 security, opting in to share data, and shipping to the UK, Canada and Australia after the US. Chapters0:00 – Intro: Time Magazine's Best Inventions of 20261:52 – Nemonic Dot and the cost of braille labels7:43 – BBC In Touch and the smart glasses ban debate20:50 – Jack Walters from HapWare joins23:45 – How Aleye turns visual cues into haptics26:36 – Unprompted text and objec...

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All episodes

The newest 50 of 600 episodes

Your Feedback: Tactile UV Printing, Braille Talking Watches and Blind-Friendly ID Checks

Nov 13, 2026 56 min

Lumin Shuts Down, SpeakTab Makes Music Accessible, and Good Vibes Is Coming

Nov 12, 2026 56 min

HapWare Aleye, Time's Best Inventions and the Smart Glasses Ban Debate

Nov 11, 2026 56 min

TurnOver for Mac and the Latest on Glidance's Glide

Nov 10, 2026 56 min

TurnOver, a free and open source screen reader for the Mac, has Steven Scott and Shaun Preece rethinking the Mac. Glidance CEO Amos Miller also shares what more than 30 pilot users have learned from Glide in the real world, and when everyone else can expect theirs. Listener Barry starts with his first 10 days on TurnOver. You can use NVDA or JAWS keys on a Mac, open its menu with Control Command Comma, and if TurnOver crashes, VoiceOver comes back on automatically. Steven explains why moving around with Tab and Shift Tab makes WhatsApp and Messages much quicker. He also worries that lots of open source forks could thin out the project, and he advises cautious users to wait while it's this early. Amos Miller tells Shaun that Glide users walked their two and a half millionth step in mid-October. He's open about what still needs work: keeping a line on the sidewalk, walking along a road beside a grass verge, and lining up for road crossings. He also explains why new users should practise on a long, clear, straight stretch before taking Glide anywhere else. The team has sped up work on the Glide agent, which adds scene description and lets you say "guide me to" the blue door, the bus stop or the person with the dog. Amos says the hardware design is now settled and explains why faster, smaller AI models matter for a physical guide. Pre-orders won't ship before Christmas as planned. Amos expects the main software fixes around January or February, and a final round of hardware fixes pushes deliveries into early 2027. Meanwhile, more people are joining the pilot. Chapters0:00 – Welcome and an Al Pacino impression5:28 – Barry tries TurnOver for Mac9:04 – TurnOver, open source forks and the Apple question20:54 – Amos Miller on Glide's real-world pilot24:51 – Pilot lessons and current limitations29:25 – The Glide agent: scene description and guided navigation40:51 – Why the Glide hardware is settled44:01 – How AI progress shaped Glide47:27 – New release timeline and Amos's con...

Nvidia's Jensen Huang Makes Headlines and a Conversation with The Blind Life's Sam Seavey

Nov 9, 2026 56 min

Sam Seavey from The Blind Life joins Steven Scott and Shaun Preece to talk about making YouTube content with low vision, accessible Sony cameras, the Tovala smart oven, and whether it matters if you call yourself blind or low vision. The show opens with Shaun's run of Suno songs. Then the hosts get into the news that Nvidia is investigating CEO Jensen Huang over his affair with a suspected Chinese spy, and what an AI bubble bursting could mean, including for Europe. Sam Seavey has been one of the most requested guests, and he talks about his story: Stargardt's disease, life in Kentucky, and how videos about Android phones turned into The Blind Life. He records, edits and uploads everything himself. He explains how a fixed studio setup and the built-in screen readers on Sony Alpha cameras make that possible. He also reviews a 27-inch Android tablet and talks about the flood of new apps from AI-assisted developers. The conversation then turns to labels. Sam explains why he calls himself blind, why so many people avoid using a cane, and how the low vision versus blind debate plays out inside the community. He also gives his hands-on take on the Tovala smart oven and how accessible it is. To close, Steven and Shaun reflect on the conversation and look at dual monitor support coming to Windows Magnifier. Chapters0:00 – Intro and a weekend of Suno songs3:06 – Nvidia, Jensen Huang and the AI bubble10:26 – Sam Seavey joins Double Tap13:25 – A 27-inch Android tablet17:03 – AI-built apps and accessibility22:03 – Who is Sam Seavey?28:29 – Creating content solo and Sony's accessible cameras36:16 – Advocacy, labels and using your cane47:06 – The Tovala smart oven52:13 – Wrap-up and Windows Magnifier updates Relevant LinksThe Blind Life: https://www.theblindlife.netTovala Accessibility: https://www.tovala.com/accessibilityAira: https://aira.ioSuno: https://suno.com ---- Follow on: YouTube: https://www.doubletaponair.com/youtubeX (formerly Twitter): https://www.doubletaponair.com...

macOS Frustrations, the TurnOver Screen Reader and Offline GPS for Blind Users

Nov 6, 2026 56 min

Can VoiceOver on the Mac be made friendlier for blind users coming over from Windows? Steven Scott opens up the MacBook Neo, fights with the FaceTime app and finds a VoiceOver setting that changes how macOS navigation works. Shaun Preece pushes back, and the pair look at TurnOver, a new open source screen reader for the Mac. Steven explains the Announce Groups and No Groups options under Navigation in VoiceOver settings (VO-F8). They let you move around without interacting with every group, and they make it easier to get into web content in Safari and Chrome. The hosts also cover single letter Quick Nav, the rotor and the actions menu, and ask whether VoiceOver's many settings work for it or against it. TurnOver, a free screen reader that runs alongside VoiceOver, gets the hosts thinking about community-built tools for the Mac and whether Apple's accessibility APIs will eventually get in the way. In the listener mail, James in Missouri argues that the iPhone and braille displays should come with manuals. That leads to a talk about onboarding, a "granny test" for tech companies, and young children using smartphones. Peter explains how Meta's walking directions on Ray-Ban glasses work alongside Soundscape Community. Siobhan asks where the spatial audio setting is. David needs GPS for rural areas with no signal, which brings up BlindSquare, Soundscape and the HumanWare StellarTrek. Chapters 0:00 – Welcome0:34 – MacBook Neo, macOS and FaceTime frustrations7:35 – VoiceOver Announce Groups and navigation settings18:52 – TurnOver, a community screen reader for the Mac27:10 – James on manuals and onboarding36:20 – Kids, smartphones and TikTok41:08 – Peter on Meta navigation and Soundscape Community44:43 – Siobhan asks about spatial audio47:03 – David asks about offline GPS and the StellarTrek53:48 – Double Tap app, JAWS 2027 and wrap-up Relevant Links Double Tap: https://doubletaponair.comMacBook Neo: https://www.apple.com/macbook-neo/TurnOver: https://github.com/TurnOver-F...

Braille Literacy, Siri Blunders and Meta's Muse Agent: Your Feedback

Nov 5, 2026 56 min

Does reading braille define literacy for blind people? Steven Scott and Shaun Preece work through listener feedback on learning braille later in life, what it means to be literate, and AI assistants like Siri, Gemini and Meta's Muse that still trip over plain requests. Larry, 74 and learning braille through Hadley, asks whether Olly Richards' language immersion method could work for braille. That leads into fatigue, the efficiency gap between braille and audio, and the move from magnification to a screen reader. Kevin pushes back on a Zero Project guest's claim that blind people who don't read braille aren't literate. Steven explains why he is pro-braille and still argues that price and access to teaching are the real problems. Ron Peterson introduces STEP Navigation, a free indoor navigation app from Professor Paul Ruvolo, who also made Clew. It has a Start Outside feature and AI scene descriptions. Negative Julian finally gets Gemini to place phone calls, but only when he says "call" and keeps digits out of contact names. Callum asks Siri for a hospital department's number and ends up being put through to 999. Allison uses Meta's Muse agent to track US policy changes and gets summaries with sources by email. The hosts talk about AI becoming a real productivity tool, Grok, and Europe and the UK waiting for Meta features. Chad Rohr shares his first iPhone Shortcuts, including Blind Mode, Sighted Mode and a Log a Pain Point note. Steven then gives an update on living with the iPhone Duo. Chapters0:00 – Intro0:52 – Larry on learning braille later in life8:33 – Kevin on braille, literacy and the Zero Project debate20:15 – Ron on the STEP Navigation indoor navigation app22:52 – Negative Julian on Gemini phone calls and smart speaker frustrations32:22 – Callum on Siri calling emergency services40:04 – Allison on Meta's Muse AI agent46:56 – Chad's iPhone Shortcuts for VoiceOver users50:47 – Living with the iPhone Duo55:05 – Wrap up Relevant LinksHadley: https://hadleyhelp...

Amazon's New Echo Devices, Siri Recap and Accessible WhatsApp Risks

Nov 4, 2026 56 min

Amazon's new Echo devices cost more than ever, and iOS 27.3 brings Siri Recap and Safari dark mode. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece go through what's new for blind tech users, explain the risk of using third-party WhatsApp apps, and ask whether you can run AI on a laptop without the cloud. Shaun has a grievance with Amazon. He bought an Echo Dot Max to get early access to Alexa+, and he still doesn't have it. The iOS 27.3 beta brings Siri Recap, which listens all day so you can look back on conversations later. That leads into a talk about privacy, phones that seem to be listening, and when a recording device crosses a line. Steven is pleased to see per-site dark mode coming to Safari, and Siri shortcuts are arriving in the VoiceOver rotor. Saqib Shaikh's TypeOver lets your Windows PC act as a Bluetooth keyboard for your iPhone. That sets off a comparison of the Logitech MX Keys and Keychron mechanical keyboards. Steven also explains the risk of using accessible WhatsApp clients such as WhatSnap. Meta's terms allow it to ban accounts that use them, so the developers aren't the problem. Meta's inaccessible apps are. David Ward of the Echo Tips podcast covers four new Echo devices: the Echo Show 16, the Echo Time, the Echo Studio with camera, and the sixth-generation Echo Dot, which now costs twice as much. A listener asks about running local AI models on the ASUS ProArt PX13. Steven explains why RAM and the graphics card limit what you can do on the machine itself. Chapters 0:00 – Intro and the Alexa+ early access frustration3:41 – iOS 27.3 beta, Siri Recap and privacy11:46 – Safari dark mode, Dark Reader and Siri shortcuts15:15 – Image descriptions and the VoiceOver rotor17:13 – TypeOver and the keyboard debate23:07 – WhatSnap, WhatsApp bans and Facebook accessibility28:45 – Clipboard sharing, Clipman and VoiceOver Ignore Groups on the Mac32:45 – David Ward on Amazon's new Echo devices46:56 – Listener email: local AI on the ASUS ProArt PX1354:33 – Your midterm voting...

Listener Inbox: Tailscale, Dream Jobs and the Case for Vibe Coding

Nov 3, 2026 56 min

Vibe coding with Claude has taken over Steven Scott's spare time, and he and Shaun Preece think more blind people should try it. They explain how the setup works, why your files stay on your own computer, and whether building our own accessible tools lets big tech developers off the hook. Steven explains how he builds iPhone apps with Claude and Xcode, then shows Records, a small app he made that scans letters, summarises them and adds appointments to his calendar. They also cover the privacy side of uploading documents to the cloud. Shaun announces a public beta of Claudio, his accessible Windows app for Claude Code. They talk about apps people have built for Plaud note takers, and why unofficial WhatsApp clients could get your account banned. Next comes a grumble about iOS and Windows. Steven and Shaun talk about noisy iMessage group chats, FaceTime calls that won't start, and the latest VoiceOver bugs. They also cover the Windows start menu bug that Microsoft is now fixing on its servers. In the inbox, Leander picks up on the jobs we'd have done if we weren't blind. Lindy from Australia asks whether Tailscale can link an iPhone with a Windows laptop. Shaun explains what Tailscale does, and suggests iCloud for Windows and Phone Link as easier ways to get the job done. To finish, ET asks whether vibe coding takes accessibility off developers' plates. Steven argues that blind people should stop waiting for permission and build things themselves. He points to Saqib Shaikh and Seeing AI as proof of what can happen. Chapters 0:00 – Welcome to the therapy session0:45 – Can't leave Claude alone: building your own tools5:05 – Inaccessible PDFs, privacy and the Records app12:12 – Claudio, an accessible Claude Code client13:51 – Plaud tools and WhatsApp client risks16:01 – iMessage, FaceTime and iOS and Windows bugs22:50 – The inbox: the jingle and Leander on dream jobs29:15 – Lindy asks about Tailscale, iPhone and Windows39:55 – ET: is vibe coding letting developers off th...

Can Every Game Be Accessible? Stefan Wilhelm on Inclusive Gaming

Nov 2, 2026 56 min

Can a blind player enjoy a mainstream video game as much as a sighted one? Steven Scott and Shaun Preece talk accessible gaming with Stefan Wilhelm, co-founder of Inclusive Gaming, a Leipzig studio building games blind and sighted people can play together. Steven wants to play Grand Theft Auto and misses the CB radio banter of Euro Truck Simulator. Shaun isn't sure a game run by audio cues and assisted driving is any fun. Their debate sets up a bigger question: does accessible mean enjoyable? Stefan, who is sighted, explains how a podcast with blind gamer Christian Ohrens, who plays Super Mario by ear, led him to start Inclusive Gaming. He talks about learning from the studio's community of blind players, why some prefer screen reader speech to recorded voices, and why playing with your eyes closed is no substitute for real users. He also covers AVOS, an AI assistant in development that describes menus and scenes and uses fast object detection to help blind players with games that were never made accessible. Stefan builds in Unity with FMOD and Steam Audio, and he runs the Gaming Lab at SightCity in Frankfurt with support from Xbox. Last up is Dinonid, a turn-based dinosaur puzzle game coming to Windows, iOS, Android and BlindShell, plus an update on the Double Tap website. Chapters 0:00 – Intro and retro gaming memories2:14 – Mainstream games, online communities and assisted mode10:24 – Stefan Wilhelm and the founding of Inclusive Gaming15:13 – Learning from blind players' feedback18:41 – Designing games blind and sighted players can share26:42 – AVOS: an AI assistant for inaccessible games36:11 – Spatial audio with Unity, FMOD and Steam Audio40:00 – Running the SightCity Gaming Lab46:10 – Dinonid, BlindShell and where to find Inclusive Gaming52:51 – The Double Tap website and your feedback Relevant Links Double Tap: https://doubletaponair.comInclusive Gaming: https://inclusive-gaming.de/en/Dinonid demo: https://inclusivegaming.itch.io/dinonid-accessibleSightCity:...

Duelling Duos: Two New iPhone Duo Users Discuss The Pros And Cons Of Apple's New Foldable Phone

Oct 30, 2026 56 min

Is the iPhone Duo, Apple's first foldable iPhone, any use if you can't see the screen? Steven Scott and Shaun Preece are joined by David Nason of AppleVis to test it with VoiceOver and low vision. They cover the passport-sized design, how VoiceOver copes when the screen changes shape, and a Split View feature that might win over blind users. David has RP and some peripheral vision. He describes the iPhone Duo as a squat, wide phone that opens into a small landscape tablet. The inner folding screen has a matte feel that takes some getting used to under your fingers, and Steven explains why he likes the crease: it gives you a tactile marker down the middle. VoiceOver gestures like the four-finger tap to jump to the top or bottom still behave as before. Exploring by touch is harder, because the dock sits on the right, home screen pages shift sideways, and apps that haven't been updated for the Duo appear in a narrow strip with black bars either side. Steven found an odd quirk: you can touch home screen icons through those black bars. The standout is Split View. Two apps run side by side, and VoiceOver handles each half on its own, so it feels like two iPhones joined together. The hosts also cover Touch ID on the power button, the missing Action button, setting the Camera Control to need a double click, weight and battery life, and the Deck-Man cassette Walkman app. Chapters0:00 – Introduction and David Nason joins3:14 – Passport-sized design explained6:55 – Folding screen feel, the crease and low vision views13:25 – Home screen layout, buttons, Touch ID and speakers23:21 – Hinge and build quality25:35 – VoiceOver on the outer and inner screens35:04 – Split View and two apps at once41:41 – Weight, battery life and thickness47:33 – Deck-Man and the first Duo apps53:07 – Cameras and wrap-up Relevant LinksDouble Tap: https://doubletaponair.comAppleVis Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/applevis-podcast/id478403062Deck-Man: Cassette Player: https://apps.apple.co...

Touchscreen MacBook Pro and Amazon's New Alexa+ Echo Lineup: Who Are They For?

Oct 29, 2026 56 min

Apple's touchscreen MacBook Pro and Amazon's new Alexa+ devices arrived in the same week. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece go through the Echo Dot, Echo Time, Alexa Photo Frame, Echo Studio with Home Camera and Echo Show 16, and ask who these expensive gadgets are really for, including blind and low vision users. Tech keeps getting more expensive. RAM and hard drive costs are pushing a decent laptop toward $3,000, and Apple's new 14 and 16 inch MacBook Pro with a PROLED XDR touch display starts at $2,899 in the US. It comes with M5 Pro and M5 Max chips and a Dynamic Island, and the glowing Apple logo is back on the lid. After an old Steve Jobs clip arguing against vertical touchscreens, the hosts look for a real use case. They welcome a new accessibility setting that turns the touchscreen off. There's also an M6 MacBook Pro and an M6 iMac, which keeps its Ethernet port on the power adapter. On the Amazon side, Shaun is still waiting for Alexa+ on his Echo Dot Max while a new $99.99 Echo Dot arrives with a built-in smart home hub and an eero Wi-Fi extender. Echo Time is a $199.99 smart alarm clock with sleep sensing and no camera. The Alexa Photo Frame syncs with Amazon Photos and lets you attach voice notes to pictures. It's a small accessibility touch, but a useful one. The Echo Studio with Home Camera, at $249.99, brings visual intelligence: hold something up and ask Alexa what it is, which takes the hosts back to Show and Tell. The Echo Show 16 starts at $499.99, and the stands cost extra. Coming up next: David Nason joins the show to compare notes on the iPhone Duo. Chapters 0:00 – Intro and the rising cost of laptops and hard drives3:14 – Apple's touchscreen MacBook Pro19:13 – M6 MacBook Pro and the new iMac24:41 – Amazon's new Echo Dot and the wait for Alexa+31:13 – Echo Time smart alarm clock35:35 – Alexa Photo Frame and voice notes on photos44:17 – Echo Studio with Home Camera50:31 – Echo Show 1653:54 – Website updates and the iPhone Duo with David Nason Are yo...

New OLED iPad mini, Braille Watches and an Accessible Samsung Soundbar

Oct 28, 2026 56 min

Apple's new iPad mini has an 8.5 inch OLED screen, the A20 Pro chip and a thinner 5.4mm body. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece talk about what it offers blind and low vision users. Then they open a busy mailbag covering Braille watches, an accessible soundbar and a pro mixing console that talks. The new iPad mini starts at £699 or $699 for 128GB. Shaun loves the size and thinks the brighter OLED display will matter to low vision users. Steven wonders where the iPad fits now that the iPhone Duo exists and the Mac might get a touchscreen. Both want multi-user profiles on iPad. They compare it with Amazon's new tablet, which now runs Android with full TalkBack, and Steven explains how his iPad Pro and Final Cut's recording app let him run an accessible multi-camera shoot. Anne-Marie from Worcestershire wants talking watches to stop saying "the time is". She's also looking at Braille watches and recommends the thriller The Prometheus Code by Dan Stone. That leads into a debate over whether blind culture exists, an AI-discovered PHP security flaw that took websites offline, early app problems on the iPhone Duo, and whether it's now safe to update to iOS 27. Claire asks why the mailbag is now read by an AI voice, and Steven explains why Laura stepped back. Greg in Pennsylvania praises DiGiCo for putting a screen reader on its mixing consoles. Elliot in Bournemouth found the Samsung HW-Q990F soundbar accessible out of the box thanks to Voice Guide. John Wells reports that Accessible YouTube Downloader has stopped working, which leads the hosts to argue that blind users should be allowed to build their own interfaces. Chapters 0:00 – The new OLED iPad mini8:49 – Amazon's tablet, multi-camera recording and user profiles18:15 – Anne-Marie on talking watches, Braille watches and The Prometheus Code29:30 – Is there such a thing as blind culture?32:14 – PHP security flaw, iPhone Duo apps and updating to iOS 2739:44 – Claire asks about the show's AI email voice44:57 – Greg on DiGiCo...

Retro Reader, Emergency Preparedness and the Withings Paywall

Oct 27, 2026 56 min

Sean Randall has built Retro Reader, an open source book reader that brings classic speech voices like Eloquence, DECtalk and DoubleTalk to a pocket device costing about 22 pounds. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece also look at emergency preparedness for blind people when the power and the internet go down. After recent storms and power cuts in the UK, Steven and Shaun ask what being prepared looks like for blind people. They cover battery packs you can't easily check the charge on, LED displays that OCR struggles to read, offline apps, big portable power stations, and the loss of long wave radio. They also mention Code Orange, a new emergency preparedness podcast from AfterSight that is coming to Double Tap Live. In the news, Apple's expected Mac event is ahead of full coverage on Thursday. Shaun shares the mixed reviews of Microsoft's new Surface, and the hosts question why Withings now charges new users 100 dollars a year to sync their data with Apple Health. Sean Randall then explains how Retro Reader runs on the Freenove Media Kit, a small ESP32 board with a five-way navigation button, a headphone jack and a microphone for voice notes. You install a voice from your browser, add books over Wi-Fi or a microSD card, and listen offline. Sean is open about the trade-offs: there's a slight hiss on headphones, a reset button that's easy to knock, and a battery you buy separately. He's working on a 3D printed back plate with a belt clip. Sean also explains why synthetic voices still suit fast readers. He listens at around 730 words per minute, and he looks ahead to new projects, from a baby monitor to rebuilding the Franklin Language Master. Chapters 0:00 – Coming up: going retro2:44 – Emergency preparedness for blind people15:43 – Code Orange from AfterSight17:04 – Apple's Mac event and Microsoft Surface reviews19:43 – Withings charges for Apple Health sync22:38 – Sean Randall introduces Retro Reader38:05 – Why retro voices still work for fast reading43:56 – Setting up th...

How AI Helps Blind People Build PowerPoint, Plus Alexa+ and Apple News

Oct 26, 2026 56 min

PresentAble is a new JAWS app that lets blind people create, check and fix PowerPoint presentations on their own. Lawyer and trainer Jonathan Simeone explains why he built it. Before that, Steven and Shaun cover a storm, an AppleVis health app debate and Alexa+. A storm cut Shaun off from The Shed. Steven had to get home from the hospital across a busy road with no crossings, with the wind drowning out the traffic. Then an AppleVis thread about an app that uses the iPhone camera to check for blood in stool or urine starts a frank debate. Steven and Shaun weigh privacy and embarrassment, and ask whether health checks like this belong with AI or with trained people through a service like Aira. Steven finally has Alexa+ after setting up Amazon's new tablet, and he reports on how it handles his heating and why its answers keep changing. Siri gets a rare win. They also look ahead to Wednesday's Apple event, the rumoured touchscreen MacBook and the iPhone Duo that Apple has loaned to Steven. Jonathan Simeone is a blind lawyer who trains people for a living. He spent years struggling with PowerPoint and relying on sighted helpers who rarely told him what was wrong. He used vibe coding to build PresentAble with Hartgen Consultancy. It works with JAWS 2022 or later and can import Markdown, Word or existing PowerPoint files. It flags layout errors, and with an OpenAI API key it can review slides visually and create images. The conversation goes further into employment, honest feedback and how much of the job blind people can do by themselves. PresentAble is available to pre-order now and launches on Thursday 29 October. Chapters 0:00 – Storm knocks out The Shed4:04 – AppleVis debate over a hygiene and health app12:48 – Lights left off, lights left on and smart bulbs15:11 – Alexa+ arrives with Amazon's new tablet22:15 – Siri gets the clock change right24:06 – Apple event, touchscreen MacBook and iPhone Duo26:31 – Jonathan Simeone on building PresentAble30:28 – Inaccessible too...

Learning Braille, Braille Display Prices and Cazerny Bussey's Even Though I'm Blind

Oct 23, 2026 56 min

Why is learning braille as an adult still so hard, and why does a braille display cost more than a laptop? Steven Scott and Shaun Preece dig into braille access and pricing. Then they meet Cazerny Bussey, the musician and founder of Even Though I'm Blind. John in London wrote in about trying to learn braille as an adult. He found a box of course books he never opened, and braille displays he couldn't afford. Steven argues that mass adoption and patient learning have to go together. He points to Hadley, the Braillists and the Perkins Braille Bloom as signs of progress, and suggests a low-cost braille display built as a teaching device. The talk then turns to pricing. Steven recalls Amos Miller of Glidance being told to charge several times more because governments would pay. He asks why there's still no real consumer price for blind people who are out of work or study. Cazerny Bussey lost his sight at 15 and went on to graduate from the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts. His father was in Stetsasonic. His song Even Though I'm Blind grew into a nonprofit with a podcast, a 24/7 radio station playing around 45 blind artists, a yearly showcase and a directory of blind-led businesses. Cazerny also talks about recording in Logic on the Mac, being open about using AI in music, a moment with Busta Rhymes, and plans for a documentary and charting records with BMG. Chapters0:00 – Welcome and human-made music2:06 – Inbox: learning braille as an adult10:29 – Why braille and assistive tech cost so much18:15 – Meet Cazerny Bussey23:34 – Music roots and finding the blind community29:44 – The Even Though I'm Blind foundation and radio station35:29 – Making music on a Mac with Logic43:31 – AI-generated music and being open about it48:31 – The directory, a documentary and big plans53:49 – Wrap-up and weekend plans Relevant LinksEven Though I'm Blind: https://eventhoughimblind.com/The Braillists Foundation: https://www.braillists.org/Hadley: https://hadleyhelps.org/Glidance: https://gli...

Sky's Premier League Audio Description, Freight Fate and Apple HomeView

Oct 22, 2026 56 min

Sky Sports is adding audio description and live captions to Premier League football. Then a listener's frustration with Sky Go shows how far the broadcaster still has to go. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece go through your emails and messages on TV accessibility, AI agents, accessible gaming and the smart home. Gordon from Livingston, Scotland, wrote in about Sky Go. You can't watch live programmes with audio description on your phone, and the TV guide no longer tags any programme as having AD. Steven explains how the new Sky Go app for Sky Glass and Sky Stream handles it. The hosts then ask who should be pushing broadcasters on accessibility, how small accessibility teams really are, and why blind people need to be in the room at every level. Gregory asked about OpenAI's Dots. Steven explains what these always-on AI agents can do, and Shaun makes the case that the basic Amazon Echo is still the most dependable assistant. Shaun also tries Freight Fate, an audio-first trucking game, and is impressed by its spatial audio. Apple's HomeView could make setting up smart home devices much easier, and the hosts discuss what that means alongside Matter. Steven also covers people using AI to strip the bloat out of slow Android TVs, which could make a sluggish TalkBack experience faster. Along the way there's Shaun's Fargo rewatch with Seeing AI, the future of live TV, and the Clicks Communicator. Chapters0:00 – Welcome and Sky's Premier League audio description4:28 – Rewatching Fargo without AD and the future of live TV11:43 – Dumb phones, screen time and the Clicks Communicator16:54 – Gordon on Sky Go and missing audio description labels26:47 – Blindness organisations, accessibility teams and blind leadership36:52 – Gregory's message and trying Freight Fate40:26 – OpenAI Dots and why the Amazon Echo still wins45:52 – Apple HomeView and easier smart home setup51:57 – Debloating Android TVs with AI55:02 – Wrap-up and how to get in touch Relevant LinksSky Audio Description: https:...

Aira, Google DeepMind and Guided Vision: How Blind Testers Trained Gemini

Oct 21, 2026 56 min

Google's new Guided Vision feature in Gemini Live was trained with help from Aira and its blind Trusted Testers. Everette Bacon and Lynette Frison of Aira explain how the partnership with Google DeepMind works, what blind users taught the AI, and what it means for Aira's future. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece open with vibe coding, including homemade Claude voice assistants that answer in about three seconds and people using AI to bring old Echo Show and Meta Portal hardware back to life. Brandon Bracey's BlindRSS reader is now on Android, and Steven unboxes a new 8-inch Amazon tablet. Everette Bacon, Chief of Blindness Initiatives at Aira, explains how Explorers swapped free minutes for sharing their sessions to train DeepMind's Astra model. Lynette Frison describes running the Trusted Tester program, where a human visual interpreter watches every AI session and steps in when the answer is unsafe or wrong. Early versions hallucinated and once told a tester to find a sighted person. Today's Guided Vision is, in Everette's words, a little too safe. The panel covers how blind users prompt differently, from turning a vitamin bottle to describing remote buttons by touch. They talk about medical and personal requests, why some people feel more at ease asking AI, and why finding dog poop is Aira's number one request. Everette is open about the business side: Google pays for the data, and Aira hasn't decided whether to charge for Aira AI. Everyone agrees that blocking image descriptions for adult content or swear words treats blind people like children. Aira's Build AI program has now expanded to the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Chapters0:00 – Intro and vibe coding the TV2:40 – Building a Claude voice assistant6:29 – Reviving old tech, BlindRSS for Android and a new tablet11:52 – Aira, Google DeepMind and Guided Vision17:32 – Trusted Testers, hallucinations and human in the loop25:52 – How blind users' prompts train the AI28:36 – Comfort, privacy and sensitive req...

Alexa Tablets Go Android, Apple's Pro and Tell Event, and Amazon Bee

Oct 20, 2026 56 min

Amazon's new Alexa Tablets drop Fire OS for Android 16, TalkBack and the Google Play Store. Chris Cooke, host of At Your Fingertips, has been testing the Alexa Tablet 8 and tells Steven Scott and Shaun Preece how accessible it really is for blind users. Chris covers setting the tablet up on her own with the TalkBack shortcut, the widget-heavy home screen, and a touch-tracking problem that means you aren't always where you think you are on the screen. She goes through the accessibility settings, including switch access, voice access, live captions and hearing aid support. She also tests Alexa+ for product summaries, opening apps and on-screen descriptions, and confirms that a Bluetooth keyboard and a USB-C braille display both work. Before that, Steven and Shaun talk about rising computer prices, memory shortages and possible price gouging, then move on to AI data centers, energy and water use, and whether one person can change anything. Apple's Pro and Tell event on October 28 is expected to bring an OLED MacBook Pro, and maybe a touchscreen, which neither host is keen on. There's also talk of a new iMac and iPad mini, and why leasing could make assistive technology more affordable. To finish, Amazon's Bee Frontier and Bee Eclipse arrive in the US. They listen through the day and turn your conversations into summaries and to-do lists. Chapters0:00 – Intro and the Alexa tablet naming problem3:30 – Rising computer prices and memory shortages7:03 – AI, data centers and who pays the price15:41 – Apple's Pro and Tell event and the touchscreen MacBook Pro27:13 – Leasing computers and assistive technology29:03 – Chris Cooke tests the Amazon Alexa Tablet 851:34 – Amazon Bee Frontier and Bee Eclipse55:17 – Wrap up Relevant LinksAmazon Alexa Tablets: https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/devices/new-amazon-alexa-tablets-alexa-plusAt Your Fingertips, Braille Then and Now: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/at-your-fingertips-braille-then-and-now/id1841245814Bee: https://bee.comp...

Anthony Corona on Blind Creators, Smart Glasses and Mobility Tech

Oct 19, 2026 56 min

Smart glasses for blind people made the national news this week. Anthony Corona of Sunday Edition joins Steven Scott and Shaun Preece to look at Meta Ray-Ban Display, Agiga EchoVision, Glide and the WeWALK Smart Cane 2, and to ask what blind users actually need from them. Steven was on BBC News talking about smart glasses from a blind person's point of view, pushing back on the idea that they're "creepy." Anthony introduces Sunday Edition, now a family of 10 podcasts, and gives honest advice on starting a show and keeping it going. On wearables, Anthony says Fovionics doesn't stand out from the crowd yet. He thinks Agiga's openness with its testers gives EchoVision a real chance, but that it needs third-party apps to compete with Meta, Samsung and Apple. He's sitting on the fence about wearing camera glasses in sensitive spaces like locker rooms. Anthony's first guide dog is retiring, and he explains why he wouldn't trust Glide as a guide replacement yet, even though he thinks it could get there. He finds the WeWALK 2 obstacle detection impressive and the rest of it not worth the price. Steven disagrees, pointing out how useful it is to get information without taking out your phone in the rain or in an unsafe street. The conversation finishes with Meta Ray-Ban Display. Anthony and Steven cover the screen reader, Neural Band gestures, maps with earbuds, and why handwriting doesn't work yet for screen reader users. They also remind each other that if a tool does the job for you, it's good enough. Chapters0:00 – Intro and Steven on BBC News talking smart glasses5:02 – Anthony Corona and Sunday Edition8:15 – Starting a podcast and the rise of blind creators12:15 – Fovionics, Agiga EchoVision and mainstream smart glasses21:15 – Guide dogs, trust and Glide28:01 – WeWALK Smart Cane 2: useful or overloaded?35:24 – Getting the basics right and the geek trap47:08 – Meta Ray-Ban Display hands-on53:53 – Where to find Anthony and wrap-up Relevant LinksAnthony Corona and Sunday E...

Zero Project Tokyo Part 2: Lingvano's Sign Language App and Turn-Motion's Robotic Leg Braces

Oct 18, 2026 35 min

Two Austrian accessibility innovators from the Zero Project Technology Forum in Tokyo: Lingvano, the sign language learning app taught entirely by deaf teachers, and Turn-Motion, which uses AI and robotics to make custom carbon fibre leg braces. Elena Coazzoli and Johanna Steiner of Lingvano explain how the app teaches American, British and Austrian Sign Language, with German Sign Language days away. They describe sign recognition built in-house, which watches you fingerspell and gives feedback on where and how you sign, and why every lesson uses deaf teachers rather than avatars. About a quarter of Lingvano's staff are deaf or hard of hearing. Steven asks what a sign language app can offer blind and deafblind people. Johanna explains that tactile signing cannot be taught through an app, and Elena says accessibility is one of Lingvano's core product rules. They also cover their 2024 Zero Project award and the myth of one universal sign language. Georg Popp, an architect and 3D designer who has lived with polio paralysis since he was one, founded Turn-Motion out of frustration with handmade orthoses that can cost up to 80,000 euros. He walks through the process from a clinic's 3D scan to an AI-optimised carbon fibre shell printed along curves by its own robotic machine in about eight hours. He talks about halving costs, first sales planned in Austria in summer 2027, and his own trials of an exoskeleton. Chapters0:00 – Welcome back to Zero Project Tokyo1:10 – Lingvano and the first ten minutes of learning2:46 – Gamification and the power of the streak4:25 – Sign recognition and training data8:19 – Deaf teachers, deaf staff and the app's platforms10:52 – Sign language, blind and deafblind people13:12 – The 2024 award and the myth of one sign language16:55 – Georg Popp, polio and Turn-Motion's automated braces22:58 – Robotic carbon fibre printing, speed and cost28:48 – Prosthetics, exoskeletons and what comes next Relevant LinksLingvano: https://www.lingvano.comTurn-Mot...

Zero Project Tokyo Part 1: OryLab's OriHime Robots and Miruoto's Visible Sports Sound

Oct 17, 2026 30 min

Two Japanese accessibility innovators from the Zero Project Technology Forum in Tokyo: OryLab, whose OriHime robots let homebound disabled people go to work and school, and Miruoto, which turns the sound of sport into words on screen for deaf fans. Maria Juul, a Dane who has lived in Japan for more than ten years, explains OryLab's mission to eliminate loneliness. Its OriHime robots are always driven by a real person, called a pilot, and she explains why being present in the room creates memories and relationships in a way a video call does not. Steven asks Maria to describe the robots for a blind audience: a 23 centimetre tabletop unit with penguin-wing arms and a face shaped like a Japanese theatre mask, and a 120 centimetre robot that serves drinks in OryLab's Tokyo café. She covers how AI plays a supporting role only, a six month café trial in Denmark, pilots who now earn enough to come off disability support, and the price of around 6,500 euros outside Japan. Reiko Katayama of the Tokyo design company Hogaku answers in Japanese, with an English translation. Miruoto was built over two and a half years for the Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics, from ideas given by Hogaku's deaf and hard of hearing staff, and uses manga-style onomatopoeia to show the crack of a table tennis ball and the atmosphere of a match. She explains how it differs from Fujitsu's station sounds project, and her plans to take it into live music. Chapters0:00 – Welcome to Zero Project Tokyo1:15 – Maria Juul and OryLab's mission to end loneliness4:12 – Why presence matters more than video calls8:41 – What the OriHime robots look and sound like11:26 – Loneliness, employment and the robot café15:02 – Where AI fits, and working with pilots17:29 – Denmark, new pilots and the cost of OriHime21:52 – Reiko Katayama and Miruoto25:41 – Onomatopoeia, manga and Deaflympics feedback27:44 – Station sounds and what's next for Miruoto Relevant LinksOryLab: https://orylab.com/en/Miruoto: https://miruoto.jpZero Project Tec...

Passwords, Passkeys and Blind Employment: A Double Tap Listener Mailbag

Oct 16, 2026 56 min

Steven Scott and Shaun Preece open the Double Tap mailbag to talk about Meta Ray-Ban battery life, password managers, blind employment and the best keyboard for one-handed typing, with straight answers from two blind tech users. Ryan suggests the Carina C2 battery pack for Shaun's Meta Ray-Ban glasses, which leads to a plea for a simple USB-C port on the arm. Biggles raises privacy concerns about Apple Watch's new conversation recall feature, and the hosts ask whether a saved transcript counts as a recording. Sventor in Norway explains how he uses Google Password Manager as the autofill provider on iPhone. James from Missouri explains how to unlock 1Password with Windows Hello or Touch ID. Steven admits Chrome might win him over, and the hosts look at why passkeys still feel fragmented. Barry describes 20 years of rejection despite two computer science degrees, and Shaun reflects on giving up his own job search. Steven recalls being told by Access to Work that he would be "more value on benefits", and makes the case for self-employment and recognising the value of work beyond money. David Ward explains how Mastodon servers such as The Dragon's Cave and TweeseCake shape who sees your posts, and offers a Patrick Stewart analogy on who gets to call themselves blind. Kimberly asks for a keyboard for one-handed use, and Shaun recommends the Keychron V6 Max and his own accessible customisation app, KeyAble. Chapters0:00 – Welcome to the mailbag0:41 – Carina C2 and Meta Ray-Ban battery life3:37 – Apple Watch conversation recall and privacy9:07 – A 3D printer dream and suspicious Facebook ads12:14 – Chrome passwords, passkeys and 1Password23:50 – Employment, rejection and Access to Work38:15 – Mastodon servers and using the word blind50:17 – One-handed keyboards, Keychron and KeyAble55:09 – Coming up: Zero Project Technology Forum in Tokyo Relevant LinksCarina C2 by PrismXR: https://www.prismxr.com/products/carina-c2-compatible-with-ray-ban-meta1Password: https://1password....

Are We Relying on AI Too Much? Claude, KeyAble and Accessible Auphonic

Oct 15, 2026 56 min

Steven Scott has set up a Claude hotline on an accessible Cisco desk phone. It leads into a frank debate about blind users relying on AI. Also covered: a Meta glasses firmware fix for Aira calls, new Facebook and Double Tap Live updates, and listener views on whether smart glasses will last. Steven explains how Claude set up a VoIP line on a talking Cisco desk phone. Claude then built a bridge on his Mac, so one button on the phone lets him talk to Claude directly. From there, Steven and Shaun Preece look at Claude connectors like Booking.com for trip planning. Then comes the harder question: are we losing screen reader skills by handing so much to AI, or is it a smart way to save energy? Shaun releases KeyAble, an accessible tool for customising Keychron keyboards. The hosts also discuss vibe-coded copies of big apps. Brian Hartgen's free Accessible Auphonic shows the better approach: an accessible front end for a service that already works well. Meta glasses firmware 129.1 fixes Aira calls, and the Facebook iOS app no longer adds extra swipes between posts. Steven announces that Double Tap Weekend and Double Tap Mainstream are going on pause. Double Tap Live now plays on Amazon Echo devices. In the emails, Ellen praises Meta AI's more detailed descriptions. Ken in Sacramento predicts Meta's smart glasses will go the way of Google Glass, which leads to a debate about trust, Meta and Apple. Chapters0:00 – Welcome and Steven's week2:18 – A Claude hotline on an accessible Cisco desk phone9:07 – Claude connectors and trip planning with Booking.com12:11 – Are we relying on AI too much?22:04 – KeyAble for Keychron keyboards and building your own tools26:41 – Accessible Auphonic from Brian Hartgen30:44 – Meta glasses Aira fix and Facebook iOS update33:55 – Double Tap schedule changes and Double Tap Live on Echo41:24 – Ellen on Meta AI descriptions47:19 – Ken on smart glasses, trust and AI Relevant LinksKeyAble: https://keyable.slightperception.comAccessible Auphonic: http...

Apple HomeView and What's Next for JAWS and ZoomText

Oct 14, 2026 56 min

Apple's HomeView, a new Apple TV 4K and HomePod mini 2 lead the news, then Vispero's Matt Ater and Ryan Jones explain how Vispero Companion in JAWS will change your settings and help you finish tasks when you get stuck. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece go through Apple's Welcome Home event. The new Apple TV 4K gets the A19 chip and built-in microphones, and the price goes up. HomePod mini 2 is sold on Siri AI, which will not arrive until a later update. The new Siri Remote has Find My built in. HomeView uses Face ID to recognise each person in the household, and the hosts ask what it offers blind users who already have a phone. Matt Ater and Ryan Jones of Vispero talk about the company's new CEO, Sid Gaitonde, Glen Gordon's return, and the push to bring more blind people into leadership and engineering roles. The main news is the new Vispero Companion in JAWS and Fusion. It brings PictureSmart, Page Explorer and other AI tools together in one place. You can describe a setting in plain language and Companion will change it for you. It can also pick a date or explain why a form won't submit. The tools run in the cloud and need an account. Businesses will be able to point Companion at their own AI models. ZoomText is getting performance modes and object detection in photos. Ryan stresses that AI is no excuse for companies to skip accessibility. Chapters0:00 – Intro1:22 – Apple TV 4K, HomePod mini 2 and the new Siri Remote6:25 – Apple HomeView smart home hub9:50 – Matt Ater and Ryan Jones on the Vispero name13:04 – New CEO and blind leadership at Vispero17:16 – Vispero Companion: AI settings and task help in JAWS41:51 – AI in the workplace and enterprise models46:55 – ZoomText updates50:42 – Why AI is no excuse for inaccessibility53:53 – Wrap-up If you enjoyed this conversation, like, subscribe and share it with someone who uses JAWS or ZoomText. Tell us in the comments what you think of Vispero Companion and HomeView. Relevant LinksApple HomeView: https://www.apple.com/ho...

Blind Artist Richard Harlow on Tactile Painting, Accessible Cities and Running for Nanaimo Council

Oct 13, 2026 56 min

Richard Harlow lost most of his sight to LHON while studying at Emily Carr University. Today he is a blind artist and accessibility advocate, and he's standing for Nanaimo City Council on Vancouver Island. He tells Steven Scott how he rebuilt his art, his career and his confidence, and why disabled people belong in local government. Leber's Hereditary Optic Neuropathy took Richard's central vision over six months when he was 20. A doctor told him he would never finish art school. He went on to finish a degree at Vancouver Island University, and he now paints large, high-contrast, tactile canvases that have been shown across Canada. Richard also racked up a string of firsts. He became the first blind cashier at Gap in Canada, working on an iPad till with VoiceOver, and the first blind technical support worker at Shopify. In six years on Nanaimo's accessibility committee he pushed for accessible city documents, talking crosswalks, accessible beaches and an easier LEAP recreation pass, which went from about 200 users to 3,300. His platform covers safer streets, a mental health crisis response team, valuing wetlands and tree canopy as infrastructure, and bus service for the Snuneymuxw First Nation. He talks about campaigning blind with help from the AI agent Muse, dealing with abuse from strangers, and mentoring families whose blind children have been pulled out of PE. Chapters0:00 – Introducing Richard Harlow1:36 – LHON, art school and a new way to paint7:18 – Firsts at Gap and Shopify10:40 – Bus stop announcements and why kindness isn't a system13:26 – Accessible documents and the right to run for office17:44 – Helping others up: campus access and the social model24:01 – The LEAP pass and accessibility as a lens for housing, parks and streets35:28 – Richard's platform for Nanaimo40:19 – Campaigning blind, AI tools and handling the haters47:12 – Election day, charity runs and mentoring others Relevant LinksRichard Harlow for Nanaimo City Council: https://richardharlow....

Too Busy to Be Blind: An Apple Engineer's Second Act

Oct 11, 2026 27 min

In 2015, after twelve surgeries, Brett Halle lost his sight completely. The engineer who spent twenty years building the Mac had to learn to use it with VoiceOver. He explains Radar, why your bug report matters more than you think, and how he treated VoiceOver like a video game. This is part two of our tribute to Brett Halle, the former Apple engineer and friend of this show, who died on 1 October 2026. It was recorded with Steven Scott and Shaun Preece in July 2024. Yesterday Brett took us inside Apple. Today the story turns. His retinas began detaching, surgery followed surgery, and by 2015 he was totally blind. He was running engineering at Livescribe at the time and says he was simply too busy doing his job to deal with it. Retirement in 2017 was when he set about learning, as he puts it, how to be blind properly. Blindness became another problem to work around. He is thoughtful about accessibility inside Apple: where responsibility sits, why spreading it across every team can thin it out, and how far ahead the company plans. Then he opens up Radar, the bug system Apple engineers live out of. If it is not in Radar, it does not exist. His plea is direct: report the bug anyway. Never assume somebody else has already sent it, because the particular way you hit it might be the thing that unlocks the fix. On learning VoiceOver he is honest. For two weeks he wanted to throw his iPhone out of the nearest window. What changed was treating the software as a puzzle, giving himself time to play and explore, the way you would approach a video game. His method is the one a blind person uses in a new hotel room: walk the perimeter, find the edges, build the map. He had warm words for this community, calling us creative and smart and worth building for. The last word is his. Chapters0:00 - Remembering Brett Halle, part two0:57 - Losing his sight in 20152:05 - Too busy to be blind3:58 - Accessibility at Apple and where responsibility sits5:42 - Why Apple switched on to accessib...

Remembering Brett Halle: The Apple Engineer Who Helped Build Mac OS X

Oct 10, 2026 27 min

Brett Halle sold the Apple II as a student, joined Apple in 1991, and was the first engineer through the door after Apple bought NeXT. He led the Core OS team behind Mac OS X, ran Final Cut, and quietly moved the Mac from PowerPC to Intel. This is part one of a two part tribute, in his own words. Brett died on 1 October 2026. He was a friend of this show and a daily listener, and the best way we know to remember him is to let you hear him tell his own story. This conversation with Steven Scott and Shaun Preece was first broadcast in July 2024. He starts at the beginning: a hardware engineer at the Byte Shop of Long Beach, selling the Apple II when it was brand new. By 1991 he was inside Apple, writing memos asking why the company kept reinventing the wheel. When Apple went looking for a new operating system he sat on the team that weighed NeXT against BeOS, Microsoft, IBM and Sun, and he explains clearly why NeXT won. Then comes the meeting where Steve Jobs stood up, said he was willing to bet the company, looked at the engineers and told them not to mess it up. Brett was in the room. He describes Apple weeks from bankruptcy, the layoffs, the arrival of the iMac, and a secret building down the road where his team moved the entire Mac platform to Intel while almost nobody at Apple knew. He is candid about Steve. Intense, demanding, frequently right, and the surest way to get fired was to tell him what you thought he wanted to hear. A year at Apple, Brett says, was worth seven anywhere else, and he would not have traded it. He closes on Final Cut Pro, built to push the hardware and to put a half million dollar edit suite within reach of anyone. Part two follows tomorrow. Chapters0:00 - Remembering Brett Halle1:04 - Long Beach, the Byte Shop and the Apple II4:02 - Joining Apple and choosing NeXT6:46 - Bringing up the microkernel on PowerPC9:53 - Steve Jobs bets the company11:29 - Bankruptcy, the layoffs and the iMac13:59 - The secret building and the move to Intel16:37...

NASA's Artemis Webinar for Blind People: RS-25 Engines, Blind Engineers and Accessible Space

Oct 9, 2026 56 min

NASA ran an Artemis webinar built for blind and low vision people, and two of the panelists are blind NASA engineers. Steven Scott talks to Dr. Robert Shelton, Dr. Craig Moore and Christine Malec about the RS-25 rocket engine, how they built careers at NASA, and what would make space missions accessible to blind fans. Bob Shelton has worked at NASA for almost 40 years and is now lead simulation engineer for the Commercial Crew Program. He describes joining Johnson Space Center as a blind mathematician in 1971. His first boss told him to figure out where he could make the biggest impact. Craig Moore, a chemist turned materials engineer at Marshall, explains what changed in the RS-25 between the Space Shuttle and Artemis, including 3D printed parts. The panel also covers how AI tools like Gemini make maths PDFs readable, with equations converted to LaTeX. Christine explains why science descriptions should include the science as well as what's on screen, and how sonification turns telescope data into sound. She also wants NASA to release the astronauts' own conversations about what they saw from the far side of the Moon. The webinar drew 800 sign-ups and over 220 live attendees, with questions ranging from digital twins to how blind people could live in space. In the feedback, Eleanor's request to Gemini goes amusingly wrong, Leander asks about alert and ringer volume in iOS 27, and Glendon James shares his thoughts on modernising braille and on the inaccessible websites blind people still have to fight with. Chapters 0:00 – Intro2:52 – Meet the panel and why NASA made the webinar8:09 – Bob Shelton's path into NASA as a blind mathematician13:22 – Inside the RS-25 rocket engine18:47 – AI, LaTeX and accessible maths21:43 – Audio description and sonification27:01 – Careers at NASA and advice for blind students33:12 – Following Artemis missions without sight37:05 – Webinar questions and turnout43:35 – Listener feedback: Gemini, iPhone volume and braille Relevant Links NASA...

Microsoft's Hybrid AI Windows Event and the Surface Laptop Ultra

Oct 8, 2026 56 min

Microsoft's latest Windows event went all in on hybrid intelligence, which means AI that runs on your own PC when it can and in the cloud when it has to. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece break down what the agentic OS, a smarter Windows search and the new Copilot could mean for blind and screen reader users. They also look at the $2,599 Surface Laptop Ultra. Windows will decide where each AI task runs, using small local models or the cloud depending on the job and your privacy. Microsoft named DeepSeek, Perplexity, Hermes Agent and OpenClaw on stage, and showed a guided setup for agents that needs no terminal or config files. Steven and Shaun explain agents in plain terms: picture a thermostat that keeps working toward your goal without waiting to be told. The new search lets you type what you want, such as changing the volume or a setting. That raises an old question: why are Windows settings still so hard to read with a screen reader? The new Copilot can work with your files on your machine, and Autopilot chains tasks together, like bundling tax documents and drafting the email to your accountant. On the hardware side, the 15-inch Surface Laptop Ultra runs on NVIDIA RTX Spark with up to 128GB of unified memory. Along with the Surface Dev Box, it starts a wider conversation about data centres, more efficient models and why private, on-device AI matters for NDAs, transcription and business data. Steven's tip is to ask your AI assistant which local models your computer can actually run. The hosts also ask whether leaning on AI costs us skills, and remember the time an accidental prompt injection deleted 21 minutes of a show. Chapters 0:00 – Intro0:56 – Microsoft's Windows event and hybrid intelligence9:28 – What an agentic OS really means16:01 – New Windows search and settings accessibility21:18 – The new Copilot and Autopilot30:47 – Surface Laptop Ultra and NVIDIA RTX Spark37:31 – Which local AI models can your computer run?41:40 – Coming up: the NASA accessibility web...

Gemini Guided Vision Tested, Siri Frustrations and Android Help From Listeners

Oct 7, 2026 56 min

Google Gemini's new Guided Vision feature, built with Aira, gives blind and low vision Android users more detailed visual descriptions through Gemini Live. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece put it through real tests, then go through listener emails about Siri, iOS 27, Gemini settings and life on Android. Steven tries Guided Vision on a Pixel 10 Pro. He uses it to find a mug on his desk and to guide his finger to a button on the RØDECaster Pro II touchscreen. It does well once you hold the camera still, but it isn't truly live yet. The hosts compare it with Be My AI and Google Lookout, and ask why it's tucked away in settings and not on iOS. James from Missouri finds Siri on iOS 27 still sticks around after opening apps and puts reminder alerts in the notes field. That leads into a debate about on-device AI and privacy, and why Apple's image descriptions refuse some content for adults who have already verified their age. Tom in Colorado and Connor in Sydney reply to Negative Julian's Gemini problems. Connor's fix is to turn the old Google Assistant features, Hey Google included, back on in the Gemini settings. Richard in Louisiana is losing his sight and describes juggling Bixby, Gemini, Meta and Alexa on a Samsung phone while learning TalkBack. Chapters 0:00 – Intro and Steven's cold1:24 – Google Gemini Guided Vision, built with Aira5:40 – Testing Guided Vision: the mug test and a touchscreen12:29 – Live AI expectations, Be My AI and finding the feature18:34 – Guided Vision, Google glasses and Meta glasses21:24 – James on Siri in iOS 27, reminders and opening apps25:01 – Siri AI, privacy and dictation34:09 – Censored image descriptions and the right to access43:22 – Tom and Connor on Gemini settings for Negative Julian49:08 – Richard on Android, Bixby and learning TalkBack Tried Guided Vision or another live camera tool on Android? Tell us how it went. Email us, and like and subscribe for daily tech news and conversation from blind people. Relevant Links Guided Vision i...

A Tribute to Brett Halle and What Envision's News Means for Users

Oct 6, 2026 56 min

Envision has announced it may wind down. If no partner takes the company on, active development of the Envision and Ally apps stops on December 31, 2026. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece read the Envision founders' statement in full and look at what it means for blind and low vision users, for people who own Ally Solos glasses, and for other smart glasses makers. The episode opens with a tribute to Brett Halle, the Apple engineer who helped build Mac OS X. Brett Halle died on October 1, 2026. His friend Ray, a fellow blind woodworker, wrote in to share the news. You'll hear clips from Brett's 2024 Double Tap interview: his early days at Apple, the NeXT acquisition, a memorable meeting with Steve Jobs, and his advice to treat new software like a video game and explore its edges. Darren also shares the sad news that longtime contributor Shahzad has died, and asks when Double Tap Live will reach TuneIn outside North America. Karthik and Karthik explain how Envision went from a free app to AI glasses and then Ally, and why they say the blind and low vision market tops out at around a million reachable users. Shaun says the bigger issue was trust, because customers kept writing in and hearing nothing back. The hosts ask what happens to the warranties on glasses people have already bought, and call for the software and firmware tools to be released as open source. Is this a warning sign for companies like AGIGA, whose EchoVision glasses face Meta, Samsung, Google and Apple? The hosts weigh paying a subscription against free features on Meta glasses, and Steven's very short prompts to Claude. Gordon explains how hashtags help Mastodon posts get seen, and John in London talks about Meta glasses, lens choices and how police sometimes mistake a long cane for a weapon. Chapters 0:00 – Intro0:46 – Remembering Brett Halle14:47 – Remembering Shahzad, and Double Tap Live on TuneIn17:55 – Envision's statement in full26:30 – Envision, trust and communication34:12 – A warning sign for A...

Lumin Adds Outlook Support and Audio Reminders, With Sriram Ganesh

Oct 5, 2026 56 min

Lumin, the voice-first email app for blind and low vision users, now works with Outlook, Hotmail and MSN accounts and has a new audio reminders feature. Founder Sriram Ganesh announced both on our Double Tap Live special. This replay starts with his live demo, then he takes listener calls and talks about how AI is changing the way accessible products get built. Sriram asks Lumin to triage his inbox, draft replies and describe a conference photo, all by voice. Then the listener calls start. Gregory, Elizabeth, Amy and a caller from Ontario ask about deleting emails in bulk, using natural commands, and connecting Office 365 and other email providers. Elizabeth also explains how she uses Lumin each morning. Sriram describes how Lumin's three engineers work with dozens of AI agents and no longer write code by hand, while staying responsible for what ships. Steven and Shaun compare that with building the Double Tap app with Claude. The conversation also covers why AI still lacks lived experience of disability, and whether Lumin can hold its own against Siri, Gemini and ChatGPT. A listener email from Mike in upstate New York raises the question of future pricing. Sriram then runs through the new features: Google Calendar support, opening web links, more than 40 languages with translation, Outlook email and calendar, and audio reminders that let you leave a voice note for your future self. Chapters0:00 – Welcome and Double Tap Live recap1:02 – Live demo: Lumin reads and replies to email4:51 – Listener calls: Gregory and bulk deleting email9:28 – Elizabeth and Amy on voice commands and email providers19:49 – Office 365 and how email providers connect24:30 – AI as an accessibility tool and managing AI agents38:53 – Can Lumin compete with Siri and Gemini?46:00 – Mike's email and future pricing49:31 – New features: Google Calendar, web links and languages51:59 – Outlook support, audio reminders and wrap-up Have you tried Lumin yet? Tell us how you manage your email in the comm...

NVDA Bugs, Siri AI Frustrations and Your Emails on Mastodon and LiDAR

Oct 2, 2026 56 min

Siri AI on iOS 27, Gemini on Android and NVDA screen reader bugs all get a frank once-over from blind tech fans Steven Scott and Shaun Preece, along with your emails on LiDAR, Mastodon and smart glasses. Shaun has found two odd NVDA behaviours: sound split getting stuck on after he turns it off, and system audio staying ducked after Narrator closes. He's also looking forward to an NVDA 2026.3 change that tells developers when speech has finished. Steven sorts out his loud iPhone ringer, explains why he'd still hold off on iOS 27, and says Siri AI keeps letting him down, including a muddled attempt to add up four invoices. Negative Julian complains that Gemini on his phone won't place calls or create calendar events any more, which ties into Shaun's trouble with Meta Ray-Ban glasses offering Outlook features they won't use. Stephen from Kentucky picks up the LiDAR debate, and Shaun explains how both sides are right: a laser sends out infrared light. Scott in Sydney asks why his Mastodon posts get no replies. The hosts talk through followers, time zones, the absence of an algorithm, very long posts and when it's worth blocking someone. Pete in Robin Hood County is happy with Siri AI. Ian in Hull suggests Siri could recommend accessibility settings for your needs, which leads to a chat about how hard it is to switch from iPhone to Android. Chapters 0:00 – Intro and a performance review for the email jingle3:31 – NVDA sound split, audio ducking and the 2026.3 speech indicator8:39 – iPhone ringer volume and the iOS 27 public beta11:28 – Siri AI, John Ternus at Apple and Gemini on Android21:37 – Negative Julian on Gemini and Meta Ray-Ban glasses29:44 – Stephen from Kentucky on LiDAR, laser and infrared32:54 – Scott in Sydney on Mastodon replies and blocking48:28 – Pete in Robin Hood County on iOS 27 dictation49:55 – Ian in Hull's idea for Siri AI accessibility settings54:15 – Double Tap Live and how to get in touch Relevant Links Double Tap Live: https://doubletaponair.co...

Meta Ray-Ban Display Hands-On, Lumin Updates and the Double Tap App

Oct 1, 2026 56 min

Can a blind person get real use from smart glasses with a screen? Steven Scott has bought the Meta Ray-Ban Display and Meta Neural Band. He and Shaun Preece talk through the built-in screen reader, the wrist gestures, WhatsApp, Maps and what is still missing. Steven expected the in-lens display to be useless to him. He was wrong. The glasses have their own screen reader, and you switch it on from the Meta AI app. Setup walks you through the Neural Band gestures well: rub your thumb along your index finger to swipe, and pinch to double tap. WhatsApp turns out to be the standout, with full message history, dictation and voice messages, all without taking out your phone. The Maps app even works in the UK. There are still rough edges: the text size setting doesn't save, there's no screen curtain, and so far there aren't many apps. Earlier in the show, Steven and Shaun look back at the first Double Tap Live and the news from Lumin founder Sriram Ganesh, including Outlook support. That leads into Steven's mixed feelings about Siri on the iOS 27 beta, a VoiceOver volume bug when calls come in, and whether services that launch free can keep going. Now that blind people can build their own tools with AI, what does that mean for developers? There's news on the Double Tap app, which is waiting on Apple approval with Android to follow, plus the refreshed website. You'll soon be able to put forward podcasts for Double Tap Live. Listener Richard from Louisiana closes the show with how walking directions on Meta glasses actually work. He finds them more accurate than Google Maps, though they're fussy about street addresses. Chapters0:00 – Intro: glasses with a screen1:15 – Double Tap Live recap and Lumin news5:09 – Siri, the iOS 27 beta and VoiceOver volume8:25 – Paying for apps and building your own with AI13:10 – Double Tap app, new website and podcast submissions19:46 – Meta Ray-Ban Display and Neural Band explained29:05 – Screen reader, magnification and accessibility settings...

Meta Glasses Bugs, Smart Glasses Privacy and the Launch of Double Tap Live

Sep 30, 2026 56 min

Meta smart glasses bugs, privacy worries and region limits fill the Double Tap inbox, and Steven Scott and Shaun Preece work through them with blind listeners. The episode also marks the launch of Double Tap Live, a new 24/7 radio channel at DoubleTapOnAir.com. Listeners are running into the same Meta AI bug: an "available settings have changed" notice that switches Meta AI off. Callum and Gordon have lost the UK voices, Melissa finds the Meta AI app hard to use with VoiceOver, and Gordon says the microphone fix on his Adventurer glasses only partly works. Brian explains how he set up Meta glasses for a 93-year-old woman, including a Wi-Fi automation that opens the Meta AI app for her. Kevin wants people to stop calling smart glasses "pervert glasses", and the hosts discuss whether news coverage of blind users helps. Maya in South Africa gets "not available in your region" from Meta AI, which leads to a talk about unclear feature rollouts, the need for tech from outside the US, and learning to write Braille as well as read it. Shaun also explains why Oorion can be too chatty when it warns about obstacles. Camille tests the new AirPods in strong wind. John asks why blind users should care about touchscreens on Google Books, and there's news that Google plans to phase out ChromeOS by 2034. To finish, Trevor explains how the show helped him write and publish his first novel as a blind author, using AI as an accessible editing tool. Chapters0:00 – Welcome and the Double Tap Live launch3:08 – Meta AI "available settings have changed" bug and Oorion11:03 – Setting up Meta glasses for a 93-year-old17:24 – Smart glasses privacy and public perception27:56 – AMI Scholarship for students with a disability30:21 – Meta AI region limits and learning Braille38:16 – Meta app settings, microphone fixes and missing UK voices44:42 – AirPods in the wind47:27 – Google Books, touchscreens and the end of ChromeOS52:32 – A blind author's AI-assisted writing workflow Call to ActionListen to...

Feedback: Luna Glasses for Night Blindness, Claude Code Tips and Bricks for the Blind

Sep 29, 2026 56 min

Double Tap Live, a new 24/7 radio channel for blind and visually impaired listeners, launches this week. Listener stories also cover Luna night vision glasses, LEGO without sight and Claude Code tips. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece explain what Double Tap Live is: a round-the-clock channel showcasing podcasts from AMI and beyond, plus a monthly live call-in show. The first one features Sriram Ganesh from Lumin, the voice-first email app. Call 613-481-0144 to take part, or use the same number on WhatsApp. Alan in Forfar tells how Bricks for the Blind's text instructions brought back a hobby from his sighted years. He has built a Formula One car and a bonsai tree, and he uses Ray-Ban Meta glasses to check brick colours. Abhijit shares what building his own accessible API testing tool with Claude Code taught him: plan the architecture early, let Claude move files, and know what each permission request does before you approve it. Derry in Dublin talks about audiobooks, ElevenReader and reading braille on a Dot Pad X. Mike in New Zealand explains why the right Alt key turns into AltGr on some Windows keyboard layouts. Raheem describes a manager who was afraid of his guide dog, and the hosts discuss how guide dog owners and employers can make room for each other. Pete tells how Luna glasses let his wife, who has RP, see trees, faces and colours after dark for the first time in 40 years. It raises the question of why tools this life-changing are not easier to fund. Chapters0:00 – Welcome to Double Tap1:09 – Double Tap Live: a 24/7 channel6:22 – Lumin joins the first live call-in show12:05 – Alan builds LEGO with Bricks for the Blind19:55 – Abhijit's Claude Code tips and a DIY social media tool28:14 – Derry on audiobooks, ElevenReader and braille35:16 – Right Alt vs AltGr keyboard layouts38:10 – Raheem on guide dogs at work and in hospital47:42 – Pete's real-world review of Luna glasses Relevant LinksDouble Tap Live: https://doubletaponair.com/liveLumin: https://www.trylumin...

Feedback: Passkey Headaches, Seeing AI Rescues and the Smart Glasses Debate

Sep 28, 2026 56 min

Passkeys were supposed to replace passwords, so why are they still this hard to use? Steven Scott and Shaun Preece go through a full mailbag on passkeys, password managers, blind employment and the backlash against Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses. Listener Brandon explains why he's cancelling Microsoft 365: he says Microsoft pushes its own passkey storage over third-party providers. Steven shares his frustrations with 1Password and with Apple's app-specific passwords, and floats the idea of building a self-hosted password manager. He also tells how Seeing AI and an Aira agent helped him bring a silent Asus ProArt laptop back to life after it hit a BitLocker prompt. Cheryl, a legally blind hospital social worker in Australia, describes changing how health professionals see blindness, one colleague at a time. That leads into a frank talk about job interviews, giving up, self-employment, and how AI tools like Claude, Gemini and ChatGPT open up new ways to earn a living. Steven built a Ring camera describer in ten minutes, and Shaun then did the same for Blink. Allison refuses to be pushed out of wearing her Meta glasses. The hosts argue that people who misuse the technology should face prosecution, and that banning the glasses isn't the answer. Also in the mailbag: HumanWare's free audio tutorial for the Ray-Ban Meta glasses, a SmartVision 3 owner asking for more power, and news that the Clicks Communicator is due in December. Chapters 0:00 – Welcome and Meta glasses battery life4:09 – Passkeys, Microsoft and 1Password12:43 – A dead laptop, Seeing AI, Aira and BitLocker18:52 – Seeing AI reads on-screen TV text22:00 – Sighted family members and audio description24:18 – A blind social worker in hospital31:23 – Blind employment, self-employment and AI40:34 – Smart glasses backlash and privacy52:23 – HumanWare tutorial, SmartVision 3 and Clicks Communicator Relevant Links HumanWare Ray-Ban Meta support and audio tutorial: https://www.humanware.com/support/ray-ban-meta/Seeing AI...

OOrion on Meta Glasses: Hands-Free Object Finding and What Meta Connect Means for Blind Users

Sep 27, 2026 28 min

Meta's Wearables Device Access Toolkit is out of beta, and Meta chose accessibility apps to show it off. Stéphanie Robieux, co-founder and CEO of OOrion, joins from Meta Connect to explain what this means for blind and low vision people using Ray-Ban Meta glasses. OOrion finds objects and guides you to them with spatial audio. It now runs on Meta's glasses, so you can look around and ask where your keys are, which gate you're at, or what's in a tin, without holding up a phone. Stéphanie talks about Meta's new discovery platform, the coming "Hey Meta, open OOrion" command, and the Connect panel where she told Meta's Chris Barbour that accessibility is the most important thing these glasses can do. Steven Scott and Stéphanie also get into the business side. OOrion stays free for users, and venues like museums, hotels and train stations pay to have the AI trained on their spaces. A big deal with the French supermarket chain Intermarché may be close. The conversation also covers Europe's stricter rules, why running mostly on the device made the move to glasses easier, how feedback from OOrion users led Meta to cut latency and add Wi-Fi streaming, and what's next, including Find Anything and giving users context inside complex places like hospitals. Chapters0:00 – Intro: Meta's toolkit comes out of beta1:27 – Inside Meta Connect at Menlo Park3:37 – Discovery platform and "Hey Meta, open OOrion"7:50 – Why accessibility matters most on smart glasses11:02 – Museums, remote controls and design for everyone13:29 – Free for users: the venue business model and Intermarché16:28 – Listening to the community18:53 – Working with Meta, European rules and latency23:24 – Running locally versus cloud AI25:09 – What's next: Find Anything and smarter places Relevant LinksOOrion: https://www.oorion.fr/enMeta Wearables Developer Center: https://wearables.developer.meta.com/Ray-Ban Meta and Meta AI glasses: https://www.meta.com/ai-glasses/ ---- Follow on: YouTube: https://www.doubletaponai...

More From Zero Project: Rebuilding a Career After a Spinal Cord Injury: Ishaan Mehta of LinkedIn

Sep 26, 2026 28 min

A spinal cord injury took Ishaan Mehta's career in a single afternoon. This is how he rebuilt it, with assistive technology, a list of 50 employers, and a role at LinkedIn he never settled for. Most of the people on Double Tap were born blind or lost their sight gradually. Ishaan Mehta's disability arrived on 21 October 2016. He had eight and a half years at Vodafone behind him, a project management career and a Six Sigma black belt, when a C5-C6 cervical injury left him quadriplegic with very little movement below the neck. He talks Steven Scott and Shaun Preece through the practical problem first. How do you use a phone when you cannot use your hands? A clamp to hold the device, a stylus with an extension, and a baby's pacifier on the tip so it is safe to hold in his mouth. From there came QuadJoy, the sip-and-puff mouth joystick from QuadLife, which put a laptop back within reach and made employment realistic again. He is honest about the part people usually leave out. A fistula in his throat, a second surgery on the anniversary of the accident, over a year in hospital, and the point in March 2018 when he questioned whether he wanted to be here at all. What turned it was realising his life was not only his own, and that far more remained possible than had been lost. Then the job search. He found most employers treating disability hiring as a tick-box exercise with the role already decided for him, so he changed tactics: a list of 50 companies he genuinely wanted to work for, filtered for real evidence of inclusive practice. He ended up with two offers, and chose the one that told him he was overqualified for the role he had applied for. His argument is simple. Employment is a barter of skills for pay, and that does not change because you are disabled. Chapters0:00 – Welcome and why this interview stands alone2:01 – Meet Ishaan Mehta3:37 – The career before the injury5:06 – Working out how to use a phone again7:29 – QuadJoy and getting back onto a laptop9:37 – Com...

Early Dementia Screening, Inclusive Design and Employment in Mumbai: Zero Project Conference India Day Two

Sep 25, 2026 56 min

Early dementia screening from a consumer EEG headset, a blunt answer on whether a fully inclusive world is possible, and what India's own accessibility standard means for disabled workers. Steven Scott reports from day two of Zero Project Conference India in Mumbai, the regional edition of the conference that takes over the UN in Vienna every February. NEMA AI founder Nidhi built AI at Accenture before starting a company that maps the brain using off the shelf Emotiv headsets. Ten or fifteen minutes of recording, two minutes of analysis, and a doctor gets a picture of memory, stress, sleep and attention. The aim is catching mild cognitive decline at 45 or 50 rather than 65, where approved drugs can stretch what would have been one brutal year into ten. She keeps reports away from consumers on purpose, because a number you cannot interpret at two in the morning creates worry. She also has firm views on ADHD, which she says shows clearly in how fast neurons fire, and little patience for diagnosis by Instagram. Dr Sambhavi Chandrashekar is global accessibility lead at D2L, makers of the Brightspace learning platform, and chairs the Global Leadership Council of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals. She explains inclusive design as iterative work that is never finished, uses the curb cut to show how one group's fix can be another group's hazard, and lands on personalisation as the answer for digital interfaces. She is enthusiastic about India writing its own procurement standard, IS 17802, rather than adopting the European EN 301 549, and quotes disability rights lawyer Lainey Feingold on regulations allowing disabled people to dream. Steven pushes back on her position that Braille is literacy, and her doctoral research supplies the line of the day: if a website is not accessible, the blind participants did not consider it credible. Youth4Jobs hosted the conference and works on one thing, getting disabled young people in India into paid work, with...

Meta Connect 2026 Through an Accessibility Lens

Sep 24, 2026 56 min

Meta Connect 2026 brought Ray-Ban Meta Audio glasses with no cameras, Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3, a hearing enhancement feature and the Muse AI agent. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece go through each announcement and ask what it means for blind and low vision users. Steven and Shaun start with privacy. They look at how Mark Zuckerberg answered Joanna Stern's questions about camera glasses, then ask whether audio-only glasses make sense for blind people now that camera access opens up apps like Be My Eyes. Ray-Ban Meta Gen 3 gets slimmer frames, a longer battery and an action button. The Meta Ray-Ban Display, which has a screen reader and comes with the Neural Band, finally goes on sale outside the US, and Steven has already ordered a pair to review. The biggest accessibility story is hearing enhancement. It's software that turns supported glasses into an FDA-cleared over-the-counter hearing aid, but it costs extra. Shaun questions why an accessibility feature sits behind a paywall when direct hearing aid support still hasn't arrived. Steven looks into why the six-microphone glasses get the feature first. The episode ends with Muse, Meta's personal AI agent, the Muse Charm keychain device, and the 100-gram Meta VR Glasses, which could be interesting for low vision magnification. Chapters0:00 – Welcome and first thoughts on Meta Connect 20261:46 – Privacy and the Joanna Stern interview4:42 – Ray-Ban Meta Audio: glasses with no cameras12:39 – Ray-Ban Meta Gen 316:18 – Meta Ray-Ban Display goes international21:15 – Meta Adventurer, new styles and availability24:38 – Hearing enhancement and the six-microphone question36:14 – Muse, Meta's personal AI agent43:33 – Muse Charm45:22 – Meta VR Glasses Relevant LinksMeta Connect 2026 announcements: https://www.meta.com/blog/meta-connect-2026-everything-we-announced/Ray-Ban Meta Audio: https://www.meta.com/ai-glasses/ray-ban-meta-audio/Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 3): https://www.meta.com/ai-glasses/ray-ban-meta/Meta Ray-Ban Display: https://www.meta...

Ten Innovators, One Room: Accessible Tech Ideas From the Zero Project Technology Forum

Sep 23, 2026 56 min

Assistive technology innovation from the Zero Project Technology Forum in Mumbai: an audiobook library you reach on any phone, an accessible home pregnancy test app, and AI photo descriptions that know your family by name. Steven Scott reports from the Zero Project Technology Forum, hosted in Mumbai by the Tech Mahindra Foundation, where ten innovators pitched to around 25 funders and support partners. David Banes, who advises the Zero Project and has 40 years in assistive technology, argues that startups rarely need another year-long incubator. They need a match on the one thing blocking them, whether that is investment, distribution, user testing or protecting intellectual property without the money to patent. He also makes the case for talking about assistive features and functions rather than assistive technology, because procurement still resists paying for mainstream kit that already does the job. Prashant Ranjan Verma of the National Association for the Blind Delhi presents Shravan, an IVR audiobook library reachable from a feature phone or a landline with no internet and no app. It holds around 4,000 DAISY titles, has 74,000 users, offers voice search and AI-generated news bulletins, and remembers your number so you can pick up where you left off. He also runs Café Beyond Eyes in Delhi, where blind staff handle cooking, serving and billing. Gopika Kapoor and Moneisha Gandhi explain how their sons' friendship led to Buddy Up Network, a free community app for disabled people and their caregivers, built around privacy, reporting tools, video verification and women-only groups. Chetan Sharma of the Udbhav Vision Foundation in Jaipur describes an Android app that reads a standard home pregnancy test aloud in private, then connects the user to doctors, pharmacists and follow-up tests. Picstry AI turns generic photo descriptions into memory descriptions, recognising faces on device so your pictures come back with real names attached. Its founder, an AI scientist wh...

Apple's AirPods 5 Impress, But Google's New Laptops Leave Accessibility Unanswered

Sep 22, 2026 56 min

AirPods 5 open-ear noise cancellation put to the test by blind users, plus Google's new Googlebook Android laptops, the pricing, and the accessibility answers Google still has not given. Steven Scott bought the AirPods 5 expecting to be unimpressed and came away sold. The headline is the noise cancellation: Apple claims a 50 percent improvement over AirPods 4, and in a room with a laptop and NVDA speaking, the background noise all but vanished. Steven and Shaun Preece work through the open-ear fit that sits in the ear rather than sealing it, the comfort over long listening sessions, and why the transparency mode is convincing enough that he forgot an earbud was missing. If you buy a set, spend the extra on the wireless charging case version for the volume controls on the stem. The trade-off against the AirPods Pro 3 comes down to battery life, around five hours rather than eight, which matters when a call lands at the wrong moment. For books, podcasts and music in the Apple ecosystem, the value case is strong at the lower end of the price scale. Then the laptop story. Google has launched Googlebook, a new category running Googlebook OS, built on Android with ChromeOS foundations and sold on Gemini. Five machines from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo start at 899 US dollars, all with 16GB RAM, OLED touch displays and metal bodies, split between Intel Core Ultra and Qualcomm Snapdragon processors. Pre-orders are open, with US availability from October 4 and other markets a day later. The accessibility picture is blank. Google has not said what the screen reader experience will be, whether TalkBack behaves like ChromeVox, or what happens to Braille display support. For any school considering swapping Chromebooks for these, that is not a small gap. Steven has written to Google, has had no reply, and an interview with Asus is lined up for next week. Send in your questions. Chapters0:00 – Apple, Siri and a purchase Steven had to make2:01 – AirPods 5: which version to buy4:...

Kerbcut Launches, Meta Connect and the Googlebook Coming Soon: A Big Week for Accessible Tech

Sep 21, 2026 56 min

Finding assistive technology that already exists is still the hardest part of using it. Hector Minto, formerly of Microsoft, explains Kerbcut, his new AI discovery platform for assistive tech products, services and lived experience. Hector's case is blunt. Around 2.5 billion people need assistive technology today, a figure heading for 3.5 billion by 2050, and a billion still cannot reach solutions that already exist. Products are spread across thousands of manufacturers, services are split between health, education and community organisations, and the accessibility features built into everyday devices go undiscovered. Kerbcut lets you describe a need in your own words and returns products, services and content from disabled people talking about their real daily use. Steven and Hector get into the psychology behind that, including the man at Euston Station who quietly asked how he would ever read again, the rolling ten minute windows people get with professionals, and why so many end up searching Reddit instead. Kerbcut asks for no registration and no email address, strips out names, and lets you download or email your conversation to take into an appointment with you. The business side is covered honestly too. Service providers can pay thirty pounds a month to write their reports inside Kerbcut, companies get context driven leads, and any organisation from a bank to a university can install Kerbcut on its own site and keep its own question data. If the free built in feature is the right answer, Hector says, nobody earns a lead from it. Before the interview, Steven and Shaun look ahead to the Double Tap Live launch on 30 September with Lumin creator Sriram Ganesh, the new Googlebook and whether anyone will mention TalkBack, Meta's incoming glasses, the Meta AI app's audio routing problems in the UK, camera access on Apple hardware, and the 699 dollar Dell XPS 13 against the MacBook Neo. Chapters0:00 – Double Tap Live launches on 30 September3:34 – Lumin joins the lau...

Googlebooks, Aluminium OS and the Schlage Smart Lock That Opens Itself

Sep 20, 2026 28 min

Google is keeping the Chromebook and adding a pricier Googlebook line running Aluminium OS, built on Android 17 with Gemini baked in at system level. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece work out what that means for screen reader users, and Marc Aflalo finds out how Schlage's ultra wideband locks open the door before you reach for a key. The Chromebook is not going away. Google is holding that brand at the affordable end, aimed squarely at schools, while the new Googlebooks start around $999 and chase the same buyer who might otherwise pick up a MacBook Air. The bigger change is underneath. Aluminium OS is Android at heart, so Android apps run properly rather than through emulation, and handoff between phone and laptop becomes part of the design. That raises a question nobody has answered yet. ChromeVox is the screen reader for Chrome OS, but if the Googlebook is Android underneath, does TalkBack take over? With launch days away, Steven and Shaun note how little has been said about accessibility, and they wonder whether ChromeVox will ever support add-ons or scripting the way desktop screen readers do. Existing Chromebooks still get updates for up to ten years, and some hardware may be eligible to move across, though Google has not said which. Marc Aflalo speaks with Tim from Schlage, the lock maker that has been around more than a century and spun out of Ingersoll Rand into Allegion in 2013. The conversation covers the jump from mechanical keys to Encode, Arrive and the new Sense Pro, which uses Schlage Converge technology and ultra wideband to read the angle and speed of your approach, then unlocks at the right moment when your arms are full. Sense Pro ships with no keypad and no keyway, so the backup is a USB-C jump start port at the base of the lock that takes power from a phone or battery pack. There is also useful ground on scheduled access codes, firmware updates that add features to locks already installed, Matter support across Apple, Google, Alexa and Samsung hom...

Weekend: Lumin - The Voice‑First Email App

Sep 19, 2026 28 min

Discover how Lumin, a voice‑first email app for iPhone, is transforming email management for the blind and low‑vision community. Learn how AI and audio‑only design bring speed, precision, and independence to your inbox. This episode is supported by Pneuma Solutions. Creators of accessible tools like Remote Incident Manager and Scribe. Find out more at https://pneumasolutions.com/ Shaun Preece sits down with Sriram Ganesh, founder of Lumin, to explore the journey from video game programming to creating a fully voice‑controlled email client. This episode dives into:⁃ The development of Lumin as a voice‑only, AI‑powered email app.⁃ Real‑world challenges of managing email with low vision and how Lumin solves them.⁃ Live demo showing how to read, reply, archive, and manage email entirely by voice.⁃ Key insights into privacy, cloud security, and data control for users.⁃ The roadmap for future features, expansion to more platforms, and accessibility goals. Sriram Ganesh is a lifelong builder whose career spans high-stakes entrepreneurship and profound personal resilience. In his early 30s, Sriram was diagnosed with cone-rod dystrophy, an incurable condition causing progressive central vision loss. As he struggled to adjust to his new reality, Sriram confronted a world where accessibility tech lagged far behind innovation. This led him to create Lumin, a voice-first AI assistant designed for the blind and low vision community. Social Links• Lumin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talktolumin/• Lumin TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talk_to_lumin• Lumin X: https://x.com/TalkToLumin• Lumin LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/talktolumin• Sriram Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamsriramg/• Sriram TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@iamsriramg• Sriram X: https://x.com/sriramganeshSriram LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sriramganesh/ Relevant LinksLumen App: https://trylumen.ai/r/doubletap ---- Follow on: YouTube: https://www.doubletaponair.com/youtubeX (formerly...

Christine Malec on NASA's Accessible Artemis Webinar and Why Manuals Still Fail Us

Sep 18, 2026 56 min

NASA is hosting its first webinar built for blind and low vision audiences, and Christine Malec is on the panel. She joins Steven Scott and Shaun Preece to explain what the October 2 session covers, how sonification changed the way she experiences space, and why signing up matters even if astronomy has never felt like your thing. The two hour Zoom event focuses on the RS-25 engine that powers the Artemis missions. It includes an audio described video of an engine test, which is new territory for NASA, a Q&A with Artemis engineers, two of whom are blind, and a panel on accessibility in space science. Christine consulted on making the event, and the way it was marketed, genuinely welcoming to the blind community. Registration closes September 25 and also gets you the recording afterwards. Christine traces how she got here through sonification, the practice of turning astronomical data into sound. Her point lands hard: the images NASA publishes are constructs too, built from X-ray and infrared data that no human eye can see. Sound and tactile models are the same data in a different format, not a lesser substitute. She also makes the case that no question at the Q&A is too basic, because education is the entire point. Before the interview, Steven takes aim at the global Braille survey and its startlingly low response numbers, arguing we cannot keep debating whether Braille is dead while refusing to supply the data. Fill it in even if you only use Braille screen input. Then there is the BrailleSense 7 and its protective top layer that owners are peeling off before they reach the manual. That sparks a wider argument about out of box experience in assistive technology, and why a device costing thousands should offer a spoken welcome wizard and a keyboard help mode instead of assuming you will read the documentation. Chapters0:00 – Blind people in space and Jakob Rosin's Artemis II tracker4:11 – The global Braille survey and why the numbers matter11:32 – BrailleSense 7, pee...

Smart Locks, Braille and the iPhone 18: Blind Listeners Weigh In

Sep 17, 2026 56 min

Blind listeners share how they really use Meta Ray-Ban glasses, OOrion, smart locks and braille. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece also take a hard look at Siri AI in iOS 27 and ask whether the iPhone 18 is worth buying. Gavin in Edinburgh talks about using smart glasses carefully after the privacy stories, and points out how often mainstream coverage mentions blind users. Ross, who is new to sight loss, explains how he uses OOrion on his Meta glasses to warn him about lampposts, parked cars and doorways. Shaun gives an update on OOrion and the connection problems with Meta's Wearables Device Access Toolkit. Steven has updated his main iPhone and isn't impressed. Siri AI can search his messages but can't set a reminder, and it hangs around after opening apps. That leads to a debate about why Apple gets so much slack, why you might want to hold off on iOS 27, and whether anyone needs an iPhone 18. Tim Dixon explains how his Nuki smart locks mean he never has to fumble for a key. An assistive tech teacher in America makes the case for braille and tactile graphics, which starts a conversation about stock footage and how the media shows blind people. Cody explains why the original Nintendo Switch is being retired in the EU, and Gary Eadie sets the record straight on the AltGr key. Chapters0:00 – Welcome and upcoming Microsoft and Meta Connect events2:07 – Gavin on Meta Ray-Ban glasses and privacy5:13 – Ross on using OOrion with Meta glasses13:04 – Siri AI, iOS 27 bugs and the iPhone 1828:48 – Tim Dixon on Nuki smart locks35:56 – Braille, tactile graphics and how the media shows blind people47:52 – Cody on the Nintendo Switch and accessible gaming52:01 – Gary on the AltGr key55:21 – Wrap up Relevant LinksDouble Tap: https://doubletaponair.comOOrion: https://www.oorion.fr/enVoiceVista: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/voicevista/id6450388413RNIB: https://www.rnib.org.ukNuki: https://nuki.io/enMonarch by HumanWare: https://www.humanware.com/monarch/Hadley: https://hadleyhelps.org...

Local AI PCs, Home Networks and the Launch of Double Tap Live

Sep 16, 2026 56 min

Microsoft has set 7 October for a Windows and Surface event built around local AI, and the rumoured Surface Laptop Ultra with NVIDIA RTX Spark silicon could finally give Windows a proper answer to the MacBook Pro. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece work through what that means for price, build quality and blind users, then turn to the home network tools that keep solving real problems. The Surface conversation covers more than specs. Shaun makes the case for the Surface Pro form factor, Steven pushes back on using one on a train, and both land on the same point: build quality matters, and the cheap end of the Windows laptop market has quietly got worse while prices went up. Steven's hands-on with the MacBook Neo sets the benchmark that Microsoft now has to meet. Allison Sheridan of the NosillaCast writes in with a Tailscale feature worth knowing about. An exit node turns one always-on machine at home into your personal VPN, so your traffic tunnels home and back out as though you never left. That leads into why Tailscale is so hard to explain and so easy to use once it clicks, including the moment Steven had to edit himself out of an old episode to hear the explanation properly. Steven also walks through the Raspberry Pi 5 running Pi-hole on his network, set up entirely by asking Claude to do it. Ad blocking turns out to be an accessibility feature, since pages load faster and articles stop trapping a screen reader in ad after ad. There is a serious note too, on the 415,000 attacks logged against one unremarkable web domain in a single month. Scott from Sydney corrects the record with a full demo of port forwarding on eero, which is not behind the eero Plus paywall after all. Barry has thoughts on calendars, Robbie from Ohio defends the new Notepad, and Shaun explains exactly why he does not. Chapters0:00 – Microsoft confirms a Windows and Surface event for 7 October3:03 – Surface Laptop Ultra, NVIDIA RTX Spark and local AI5:56 – Build quality: MacBook Neo, Surface and Pi...

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Podcast details

Created by: Steven Scott, Shaun Preece, Steven Scott, Shaun Preece
Status: Active
Latest episode: Nov 13, 2026
Episodes: 600
Release period: Daily
Avg. episode length: 51 min
Explicit: No
Language: English

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