Coming up this week on Mosen At Large, is visual description a step too far, new technology from Pneuma Solutions, changes to JAWS tandem and more

Kia ora Mosen At Largers. Last week, I got so entranced by the new ABBA album that I forgot to put a message together telling people what was coming up on the podcast! Outrageous I tell you! What a shame ABBA didn’t do a new song called “Keep an Eye on Jonathan”!

This week, I have a broken device. Oh no! I will keep you posted on my intrepid quest to get it repaired.

I am interested in your opinion about something. Last week, Microsoft held its Ignite conference, which is a significant event on the tech conference calendar. At the conference, which took place online this year, Microsoft encouraged people to describe themselves at the beginning of their sessions, for the benefit of any blind people in attendance. For example, “Hi, I’m Jonathan Mosen, I’m a Caucasian male in my 50s, and I am wearing a white shirt with a navy suit jacket, and a tie with pictures of rubber duckies on it. This is something I have seen creeping into some online meeting since the pandemic started. But since Microsoft has such a high profile, when they started promoting it, it resulted in quite a backlash. You know, the usual stuff, woke, political correctness gone mad. What do you think? Is this information that interests you? Are we asking too much of sighted people when we ask them to describe their visual appearance at meetings? I have a view on this. I’ll share it on the podcast but as I say, I’d like to know yours.

Matt Campbell and Mike Calvo have been cooking up technology at Pneuma Solutions and they’re about to launch their signature product. I’ve got the scoop, and we’ll talk about it this weekend.

Changes have come to JAWS Tandem, and if you’re running older versions of JAWS, there are things you need to do before your Tandem stops working altogether. Glen Gordon from Vispero joins me to discuss the changes and why Vispero says they’re necessary.

It’s already a busy show, so we’re taking a break from the Chromebook this week but I will be continuing the series in future episodes.

As usual, there’s a wide array of blindness and technology topics from listeners on which you may like to comment once you hear them.

If you want to raise something new, you’re very welcome. Please don’t be shy, I’d love to hear from you. What makes Mosen At Large special is the global community we’ve built and all the perspectives we share with each other.

To contribute, send an email with an audio attachment or just written down to Jonathan at MushroomFM.com, or call the listener line, +18646066736, that’s 1-864-60Mosen.

Catch Mosen At Large anywhere you get podcasts. Expect the next episode to drop on Sunday morning New Zealand time.

Thank you so much for listening and contributing to the show and see you soon for Mosen At Large.