Double Tap

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…

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,…

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Should blind and low vision users install iOS 27 right away? Steven Scott and Shaun Preece explain why VoiceOver users might wait a month. Then they open the inbox for listener emails on Meta glasses problems, the best smart glasses for reading, Luna AI, Siri dictation and the high cost of Braille displays.

Is the AI industry sounding a real alarm, or is it about money? Tech journalist Will Guyatt joins Steven Scott and Shaun Preece to make sense of the AI pause warnings. Then it's a first look at Siri AI in the iOS 27 beta and a candid chat about Windows, the Mac and screen readers.

Apple's Surprise and Shine event brought the foldable iPhone Duo, AirPods 5 and a quiet RAM boost for Apple Watch Ultra 4. Steven Scott and Marc Aflalo of YourTechReport pick out what matters, what could have been a press release, and whether the Duo can replace an iPad for someone who travels a lot.

Honda Scenic Audio set out to describe the view from a car window for blind and visually impaired passengers, using computer vision and generative AI. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece revisit their 2024 conversation about the app, built with Perkins School for the Blind, and ask whether poetic AI scenery description is something blind people actually want.

Audio description was built for blind and partially sighted viewers. RNIB brought broadcasters to London to ask whether sighted audiences want it too, and what that would change for the rest of us. Steven Scott reports back from the Audio Is King event, before the show turns to Clipman, an Audacity 4 warning, and the Anthropic resignation that put AI extinction talk on every front page.

Apple's iPhone Duo, iPhone 18 Pro and Apple Watch Series 12 arrived at the September event, and Steven Scott, Shaun Preece and returning guest Michael Babcock came away distinctly unmoved. Here is what the new lineup actually offers blind and low vision users, and where all that money goes.

The Meta glasses microphone problem finally has a fix, and it was buried in a settings menu the Adventurer model never showed. Steven Scott and Shaun Preece explain exactly where to find it, why it should have been on by default, and what else has changed across Meta's growing glasses lineup, including walking directions and spatial audio that only work on some models. There is also an honest conversation about the smart glasses privacy backlash, whether blind wearers should start policing where they wear a camera on their face, and whether Meta donating glasses to blind charities is cynical PR or a story worth telling.