734 karma · joined September 14, 2010
(please do not take this as an endorsement of google maps support, merely an anecdote of what did work for me that I hope might help you)
Of course, if you already have meeting overload, standup is going to feel like the worst.
Is it everything? No. But according to WGBH's media access group, "All major studios now caption and describe all wide released features and nearly all independent studios caption all releases."[1] In 2014, that description was available on at least 88 films released on DVD or Blu-ray[2]. As for television, in the US, the networks and the 5 largest cable stations are required to air about 4 hours of programming a week with description[3].
My point is: The biggest problem is no longer a lack of described content, it's a lack of access, particularly through internet streaming services which have the potential to provide the most accessible experience of all.
[1] http://www.acb.org/adp/movies.html [2] http://www.acb.org/adp/dvds2014.html [3] http://www.fcc.gov/guides/video-description
It's sad that in the UK, VOD services are even further behind on accessibility. I do hope that Netflix is actively seeking out AD, but given their track record so far, I'll believe it when I see it.
Most of all though, I wanted to respond to one particular thing you said: "And for all the stick they get, Netflix actually leads the way in accessible content"
The lesson I've taken from this is that they don't get nearly enough, or perhaps the right kind of, stick. Advocates (and legislators in some countries) have been after Netflix on this issue for years, but what finally seems to have gotten Netflix to take action was when the mainstream media started picking up on the story. That action was swift and completely addressed the story that the media told. I therefore think it important to keep the story going in an attempt to ensure that Netflix keeps working on this problem.
this is the result of a multi-year fight by disability advocates, most notably Robert Kingett from the accessible Netflix project (https://netflixproject.wordpress.com/). What finally put them over the edge was the release of Daredevil, which made for a story the popular press finally bit: blind people can't enjoy a show about a blind superhero.
honestly, the fact that netflix remedied the situation so quickly once the PR situation got bad enough does not improve their reputation on this issue in my eyes. For a long time, I thought that maybe there was some great technical complication I just didn't understand that made this much harder than it seemed from the outside. Apparently that wasn't the case.
Also, as Kingett has said, "now comes the easy part." Adding description tracks on Netflix for all of the movies and TV shows for which they have been available all along.
The non-remote one does use a trigger word ("hi tv" by default) and it definitely does that processing locally (I know because i disconnected my TV from the internet and tried it). Basic commands ("channel up" etc) also worked. I don't know what else to try to figure out when it goes out to the internet. I'd also add that the camera/microphone have a very visible hardware off (which I keep off, because life is too much like 1984 already).
Again, this is a 2013 model.
I've actually had little to no trouble with DLNA overall, using among other things the ReadyDLNA server for a sparc readynas and rygel on ubuntu. i suppose it only takes one bad implementation among the components in your setup to ruin the whole experience, but i've been pleasantly surprised over the years how well it seems to work.
bubble doesn't have the best UI, but it's not bad, and there are other apps that are prettier (allcast comes to mind). in the past i would have totally agreed that most upnp controllers i had used had TERRIBLE usability, but most of those were embedded in A/V equipment (TVs, receivers), and what A/V equipment have you ever used with a good UI?
with a little experimentation, it seems that everything becomes horrible if you're not already logged in to the google account you need to use. if I am, I get exactly the desired result even if my only open tabs are using a different google account.
in short, the physical world can be treated as a user interface to computers.
There's a large technical distinction of course; in the case of the bat, getting the technology up and running to do this was sophisticated enough that the video i linked to spends a large portion explaining how it works. they used centralized computers and centralized sensors (echo-locators) to figure out where the device you are holding is within a known environment. Nowadays, we can put so much compute power and so many sensors in a device you are holding that it can figure out its own environment instead.
so, let's turn the web into another proprietary platform?