Blind Guys Chat Oran O'Neill

Hello little bumblebees and welcome to episode 99. This week we welcome back guest host Brian Dalton. Brian joined the Blind Guys on a school trip to the Dublin Royal Convention Centre last Saturday. Yes, we've hit the big time - BGC were invited to speak at the Retina International World Congress 2024 about assistive technology and how it helps us in our daily lives. What a thrill it must have been for those 6 million attendees to see us in real life, eh?! Ah no, seriously, we had a wonderful time at this excellent event, and it was an honour to be involved. You can hear our presentation on this week’s show where you will hear us talk about IBM's Apollo screen reader, the EmBraille, Cobolt air fryers, and much more. A special thanks to Fighting Blindness who hosted RIWC24, AV Partners who allowed Clodagh behind the velvet rope to monitor the tech end of things, and to all the fab volunteers who worked at the event across the 4 days.

Also, on the show we talk about another field trip we took recently to Google's new Accessible Discovery Centre in Dublin. Brian, Clodagh, Óran and Larry went to have a look at all the cool stuff they have. Óran was particularly impressed with a low-tech device called a social barometer pin, while Larry was happy to see another doggy in the building. It was a great experience and the people at Google were fantastic. The guys thoroughly recommend you visit ADC Dublin. You can book your tour via this email address: adc-dublin@google.com. Tell them Blind Guys Chat sent you!

So, take an ice cream out of the freezer, pop out to the garden and soak up the wonderfully refreshing UV rays from the best podcast of the summer: Blind Guys Chat!

17 out of 20 conference centres prefer it to providing catering.

Links for items we talked about:
Google ADC: adc-dublin@google.com
Freedom Scientific training: freedomscientific.com/training
Cobolt air fryer: https://cobolt.co.uk/products/talking-air-fryer
Envision: https://www.letsenvision.com/glasses/home

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Hello our little flu germs and welcome to the show. This week Jan and Óran have been left doing the show unsupervised with no responsible adult to keep them in check so prepare for any kind of conversations.

We get the chat going with football/soccer. It appears that Jan's local team have not been doing so well in the last few games, losing 2-1 and 7-1 in their last 2 games. To celebrate this, some of the fans decided to offer the players their scarves and hats in an attempt to keep them warm out on the pitch. No, literally warm! They set fire to hats and scarves. After this fantastic display of sportsmanship, Jan decided to take our good friend Mohamed down to Frankfurt for Sight City 2024. But they did manage to break the train before they arrived. Naughty boys!

While in Frankfurt the 2 fellas were wined and dined on a menu of German cheese which apparently tasted worse than a wet sheep. Yuck!!

Are you interested in becoming the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands? Well, throw your hat in the ring because it appears that after 6 months of debate, no politician wants to become PM.

Óran, Clodagh and Larry recently travelled on a “vomit commit” - a plane so small that Larry had to be given his own seat because he couldn’t fit between the rows of seats. Larry rose to the challenge and is now a black belt in the call button, the air-con twisty nozzle thing, window watching on both sides of the plane, and getting attention from everyone, including the captain and co-pilot.

Óran tells us what it is like to walk under and into Concord, and what a Bristol 450 racing car feels like.

So, fasten your seatbelts. lift up that pointy nose, taxi out to the runway and enjoy the caviar of podcasts: Blind Guys Chat.

7 out of 10 prop-engine planes prefer it to supersonic flight.

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Hello our favourite little musical notes, and welcome to this episode of BGC. This week we are straight into it! Yes, back by popular demand and also because he's a cheap guest, we are chatting again with Kevin Sherwin; or as we like to call him "Mr Eurovision"! So, settle in and listen to us rant, rave, applaud and appraise, and generally share our thoughts on this year’s Eurovision song contest, which was held in Sweden last weekend.
 
It'll be a rip roaring, barn burning, parrot singing, dog crying, rabbit sunbathing show you won't want to miss.
 
Blind guys chat: 8 out of 10 non qualifying acts prefer it to watching the actual show.
 
Email us at: blindguyschat@gmail.com – oh and speaking of email – Clodagh has a new jingle at long last! Let us know what you think, ok?!

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Hello our little teardrops and welcome to episode 96. It's Eurovision Song Contest time again so do watch out for the odd Eurovision song title in the show notes and also during the show. Óran is asking listeners to email in with the total number of Eurovision song titles that are mentioned during the show and in the show notes and podcast chapters. You’d never know – there might be a prize – so get emailing! And yes, we have "All Kinds of Everything" on this show - so let your "Love Shine a Light" on our 3 presenters for this week, Clodagh, Jan and Óran.
 
Jan has been celebrating the King's birthday as it was King's Day in The Netherlands during the week, and His Majesty took his whole family on a day trip to visit the common people of Holland. He even brought his security detail with him and apparently, they have bullet proof suitcases, just in case any ne’er-do-well tries to shoot the King's underpants - "Ding a Dong!!!" Also, apparently the king's daughters are "lookers" as we would say here in Ireland, and this has not gone unnoticed in the Bloem household. Will Jan need to buy a hat for a special day out!?!
 
It's a welcome back to our own "Rock and Roll Kid", Kevin Sherwin, back on the show to tell us all about this year’s Eurovision Song Contest entries. Will Ireland make it past the semi-finals? Will Norway get any points? Will the eastern bloc countries all vote for Australia? Will there be "Euphoria" when it's over? Listen in to hear what our wonderful Eurovision correspondent thinks.
 
Óran's got another pain in his hoop. This time it's about the poor quality audio description on the Netflix series "Ripley" starring Andrew Scott. Have you watched the show? What do you think of the audio description. Let us know at blindguyschat@gmail.com.
 
Clodagh has an email from a confused person regarding Braille. Maybe they need to "Make their mind up"?!
 
So don't be a "Diva", leave the "Arcade" for a while and listen to the number 1 podcast as voted by the Tahitian Foreign Minister for Dolphins: Blind Guys Chat!

17 and a half out of 20 European countries prefer it to the Eurovision Song Contest.

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Hello our little Galway girls and welcome to 'De Chat' as some of our listeners are calling it. We hope you are well, dry, and safe. This week it's a welcome back to Gordon Anthony aka Blind Gordon, who guest hosts again. Gordon has been a busy boy while not on the air - it seems he managed to break his arm from signing autographs on the way to see Dundee United lose another football match. But luckily, he had set up 'fall detection' on his Apple watch and the device proceeded to call the cops, ambulance service, his daughter, the pope, the prime minister of Japan and Dominos pizza. There was some good news from his accident however as Dundee United managed to win the game that day; in fact, they haven't lost a game since!! Sadly, Jan can't say the same for his local team "Ado Den Haag".
 
While Gordon was recuperating, he managed to find a new A.I. tool called “Pi” which apparently is very good and well worth a go.
 
Jan has been doing some research of his own and recently attended the Dutch version of ‘Sight Village’ - does that make it “Ziezo Villagen”? 😁 Anyway, he touched the “Crystal Skull” (Raiders of the Lost Ark reference, don’t ya know!), and he touched the new Emotion Braille display from HIMS, plus the Activator Braille display from Help Tech and even the Mantus Q40 from HumanWare. Phew, that’s a lot of touching, Jan!! He also spoke to the developers of a new AI app from Belgium company called  EMVI, whose tag is “EMpowering the Visually Impaired”. The EMVI developers say their technology “doesn’t just assist; it empowers”. Their “scene understanding” feature opens up “new dimensions of independence for the visually impaired. Navigate with confidence, explore with ease, and embrace a more connected and informed way of experiencing the world.” – sounds amazing – we might just try it out for the next episode!
 
In TV Corner, Gordon is recommending ‘Meet the Romans’ which you can find on the BBC iPlayer, and also a movie on Apple TV called ‘Adjile’. Óran is suggesting ‘Sugar’ on Apple TV and ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ on Paramount+.
 
Clodagh’s got a voice message from Mohamed Laachir as he responds to Nora Nagle’s query on the last podcast regarding guide dogs in Muslim communities. And speaking of Nora, she writes in with some additional information on turkeys and one in particular called Terrible Tom.
 
So, catch that blind turkey and stick it in the oven while you chillax with a nice cup of Joe and listen to the most informative podcast this side of a hen party: Blind Guys Chat
 
7 out of 10 fall detection watches prefer it to falling.
 
Links in this show:
 
·        Pi, a new AI: https://pi.ai
·        HIMS Emotion: https://hims-inc.com/product/braille-emotion/
·        Activator Braille display from Help Tech: Activator Braille display from Help Tech
·        Mantus Q40 from HumanWare: https://store.humanware.com/heu/mantis-q40.html
·        EMVI, a new AI app: https://www.emvi.ai/


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Read transcript
Hello our little spring butterflies and welcome to episode 94 of BGC. Our guest host on this show is our good friend Nora Nagle, who joins us all the way from Boston, Massachusetts. Nora's retired guide dog, Larry, is also making an appearance every now and again with woofs and pleas for treats.

Nora has just returned from a world tour of Miami beach where her husband was able to give her a very detailed review of the local wildlife and their different coloured thongs. Jan and Óran may need a minute or two here for a short break.

We move swiftly onto this year’s CSUN conference which was in Anaheim, California. Óran is intrigued by 'JAWS Kiosk' which is already rolling out in the USA. This development allows blind and low vision customers to interact with the ordering stations in, for example a MacDonald's outlet, simply by plugging in their headset where a screen reader will provide feedback just like using an Apple or Android smartphone. Brilliant!

Jan is very interested in a prototype product called Glide, a self-guided mobility aid: the device uses "real-time data from an array of advanced sensors, and autonomously steers the way. It maps the best routes, identifies targets of interest, and avoids obstacles to get you safely to your destination." Apparently, it looks a little like a vacuum cleaner so you can vacuum up the pavements while you are walking to your location. Óran is also interested in the Orbit Q20 and Q40 Braille displays which offer 20 or 40 braille cells with a QWERTY keypad. Come on Vispero... get with the program!

Ever heard of "Birding by ear"? Ever wanted to know what birds are keeping you awake in the morning? Well then try this app Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University. Nora and Larry highly recommend it.

Our guest this week is Marcel Janssen from The Netherlands. Marcel is the Director of Education at Royal Visio, the Dutch centre of expertise for blind and low vision people. Marcel has been working in education for 40 years and is responsible for the education of 2500 visually impaired students and 5 schools in the Netherlands. Unfortunately for Marcel, he was responsible for looking after Jan during their 2 trips to Nigeria in the early and mid 2000's. Marcel is also involved with the organising of the tactile reading and graphics conference which is being held in Amsterdam in June 2025. The conference brings together people within the tactile reading field, academics, and practitioners, to share knowledge and ideas, and provides a forum for international collaboration. And if that wasn't enough, Marcel is also responsible for creating Braille chocolate letters in the Netherlands.

Nora has a tip for Mohamed regarding dates and Clodagh has emails from Olivia who is not very happy with Óran, and another email from " RuPatrick".

So strip down to your flooded thongs, throw your towel on a deckchair, and get ready to soak up the wonderful nontoxic rays of the coolest podcast this side of a jewel-encrusted Miami drug dealer’s wife: Blind Guys Chat

5 out of 10 turkeys prefer it to slamming into buildings. Gobble, gobble!

Links for items in this show:
CSUM: https://www.csun.edu/cod/conference/sessions/
Glide: https://glidance.io/
Orbit Q20 & Q40: https://www.orbitresearch.com/product/orbit-reader-q40/#content
Birding by ear: https://tinyurl.com/MerlinBirdID
Tactile reading conference: https://tactilereading.yellenge.nl/
American Braille challenge: https://brailleinstitute.org/braille-challenge/
Braille chocolate: https://www.purdys.com/assorted-chocolate-braille-gift-box-18-pc

Support Blind Guys Chat by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/blind-guys-chat