Podcast Summary:
At the 2023 NFB Convention in Houston, Texas, Blind Abilities podcast host Simon Bonenfant sat down with Nimer Jaber, Accessibility Analyst at Google, Inc. Nimer discusses his love for, and advocacy of, the Android operating system. He recounts his own path of blindness and his views about technology. We hear Nimer’s journey from resisting a smartphone, to becoming a tech trainer, to his current work helping the blind community through the Google corporation.
Our topics include:
- Improvements to the Talkback program, a built-in screen reader for all Android devices, including improvements when using a Braille display. Will be released in July 2023
- The new Bard application, Google’s AI chatbot
- The Lookout application, an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) service helping blind people with everyday tasks such as reading documents, currencies, bar codes, etc. Updates released in later half of 2023
- Android 14 operating system, scheduled to be released later in 2023
- Updates to Chrome OS and Chrome Vox screen reader.
For those who would like to learn more about Android, Nimer offers the following resources:
- Google Accessibility Website: offers an array of options relating to articles and links that may be of interest.
- Blind Android Users Website: locate a comprehensive offering of podcasts, articles, individual tutorials, unboxings, and more!
- The National Braille Press along with Mystic Access recently published a book entitled Getting Started with Android, Android and Talkback for the Beginning User.
- Google has a comprehensive overview of Android Accessibility settings
For those who would like to give feedback to google they can do so by visiting This Link
You can contact Nimer directly at mailto:nimer@google.com
We hope you have enjoyed this interview. If you would like to learn more and contact us, you can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities
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If you would like to contact Simon directly, send him an email at mailto:sbonenfant2@gmail.com