All that’s new at Mosen Consulting
Hi everyone. It’s been a fun, frenetic and productive few months at Mosen Consulting, and I have a lot to tell you about that I hope you’ll find of interest. Thank you so much for a couple of minutes of your time as I bring you up-to-date.
“iOS 10 Without The Eye” now available for pre-order.
Yes, I locked myself away, and experimented intensively with the gadgets. And I even wrote some words in the process. Now, I’m confident that it’s ready to go on the big day. I’ve spent months delving into iOS 10 as it has taken shape, writing up the advertised new features from an accessibility point of view, and uncovering a whole bunch of other goodies Apple didn’t talk about when they revealed iOS 10 at WWDC. The results of all that work can be in your hands with a low-cost purchase.
Even if you’ve participated in Apple’s public beta programme, chances are good that you’ll find some handy hidden tricks by reading “iOS 10 Without the Eye”.
There are plenty of technology blogs out there that showcase some of the new features of iOS 10, but much of this coverage doesn’t look at new features from the perspective of those who use VoiceOver, Apple’s built-in screen reader that makes the operating system accessible to blind people.
There will be some great podcasts demonstrating iOS 10 from the perspective of VoiceOver users, and they are informative free resources. But there are people who want a text-based, searchable, authoritative resource at their fingertips that they can skim at their leisure, and consult when they need to. They find that text lets them go at their own pace, skipping over topics that don’t interest them, concentrating on those items that are important to them. They want clear explanations and step by step guides to all the new features from a VoiceOver user’s perspective.
“iOS 10 Without the Eye” will get you up to speed in a way that’s easy to understand, easy to skim, and with clear language that explains it all. The eBook gives you a handy guide to the new OS as you install it, and come to grips with all that’s new and all that’s changed. And it’s available for pre-order for only $19.95 USD.
Check the order page for further details about what the book covers. Order now, and you’ll get it just ahead of iOS 10’s release, sent directly to your email box for opening in iBooks, Voice Dream, and any app that reads ePub files.
Something new this year is that if you are with a blindness agency and are part of an assistive technology team who could all benefit from the book, we now offer site licenses. Please contact me to discuss your requirements.
Brand New Website
This is no facelift, we’ve rewritten our website from scratch. As we’ll discuss shortly, Mosen Consulting is officially offering web design services now. Our web design team includes a graphic designer, so we have a shiny new Mosen Consulting logo. I have it on good authority that it looks rather swish. The new logo is black and orange. The O in Mosen Consulting is the computer power symbol, demonstrating that information is power. This is further emphasised in our logo by the word “information” which is included in Braille. We’re passionate about Braille at Mosen Consulting. It’s our key to literacy and employment, and we wanted Braille represented prominently in the new logo design.
It’s not all just about the fancy logo though. The information on our website is now streamlined and more clear, telling you more about the many services that we can provide, as we fulfil our mission of turning information into opportunity.
Check out the new website for all things Mosen Consulting.
Website Design.
After we launched our fully accessible E-commerce site, we started getting inquiries from organisations asking us to design websites for them. And under the radar, we’ve deployed a number of successful, thriving websites. Now, we’re making it official. As information on our website confirms,
the Mosen Consulting web design team can cover part or all of the entire website building experience. We have people on the team who can write copy for you, design an accessible site, integrate e-commerce tools, design you a logo, verify the visual aesthetics of the site, and even make sure you get the best domain to reflect your brand. Even better, at the end of the process, you’ll get a detailed user guide that explains what we’ve done, and how you can administer the site going forward.
If doing that part sounds like too much work, you can purchase a maintenance contract from us and we’ll help you maintain your site.
Mosen Consulting on Twitter.
Mosen Consulting now has its own Twitter account. If you’ve been following me on Twitter, and thank you if you have, you know that my Twitter account has been something of a hybrid of Mosen Consulting announcements, interesting tech news, personal thoughts and goings on, as well as other things. Now, you can follow @MosenConsulting on Twitter. That’s where we’ll share information about our services, but we’ll do far more than that. Consistent with our mission of providing blindness information for blindness opportunity, we’ll use Twitter to share interesting articles about technology, blindness-related news and more.
If you use Twitter on the web and have some sight, you’ll also see that we’ve taken care to provide a seamless blend between the colour scheme of our new website and the colours we use on Twitter.
On our website, we’ll also include tweets we’ve sent recently, so even if you’re not on Twitter, you can check back on our website and see regular, fresh content.
Because we are consolidating the Mosen Consulting and Appcessible brands, if you were following Appcessible before, you are automatically following Mosen Consulting now. Be sure to follow @MosenConsulting, and stay in the loop.
The Blind Side Podcast.
When I wrote last time, I mentioned The Blind Side, an experimental current affairs show that was being aired on Mushroom FM, which is the Internet radio station owned by Mosen Consulting staffed entirely by blind people. The number of podcast listeners to The Blind Side has been quite remarkable. That shows us that there’s a real hunger for this content, but people want to consume it on their terms. They want to be able to speed it up, skip through it, and pick and choose what they hear. A radio experience can’t offer that.
The Blind Side has now ceased being aired on Mushroom FM and will instead be a weekly podcast, sponsored by Mosen Consulting and Mushroom Fm. If you want to join the masses of people who are listening, you can now search for The Blind Side in any podcast client.
We’ll provide a range of information on The Blind side including news, interviews and the occasional product demonstration. The Blind Side is not exclusively a technology podcast. We also cover politics, lifestyle issues and matters that are pertinent to the blind community. Check out the Blind Side’s page on our new-look website.
We’ll also tweet on the @MosenConsulting account when we publish a new episode.
When an Internet radio station gets a facelift
And finally, rapping up all the change that has been happening here at Mosen Towers, Mushroom FM is about to sound very different, and we’d love you to give it a listen starting this Monday, 15 August.
Rather than be a forum where blind broadcasters can get together to do any kind of radio they like, we’re refocussing on our priority, you, the listener or potential listener. We’ll still have the occasional specialist show in the mix, but predominantly, when you listen to Mushroom Fm via any good mobile app or our accessible online player, you’ll hear four decades of magic Mushroom memories. The music selection covers the 1950s to the 1980s, and most hours, we’re playing an eclectic blend of all of that music. To make the mix more fun, we’ll even play the occasional ad from the period as well, since often, the ads were as much a part of the cultural experience as the music.
When a presenter isn’t hosting a show, we also put you partly in charge, with our new, interactive, accessible request system. Search for a song you’d like to hear from those four decades, and if we have it to hand in our system, you can queue it up and wait for it to be played. How cool to be an influencer, and have a little fun while you listen.
Mushroom FM has a new, fresh, highly professional sound, and we can’t wait to unveil it to you on Monday. We hope you’ll give us a listen and that if this kind of music is your thing, you might make Mushroom FM a regular habit.
You can listen in all the popular radio apps and directories, as well as through our accessible player on the website. Own a new generation Victor Reader Stream? Search for us there too, and you’ll find us.
So as you can see, we’ve not been idle.
We’re thrilled about our continued growth and all these exciting changes. Thank you for your support which has made it all possible for us.
Yours in opportunity.