Practical uses for the Apple Watch for People Who are Blind or Visually Impaired
On today's Tech Connect, Cory shows off his favorite practical uses for the Apple Watch!
Investing in a smart watch can be a big decision, and while its easy to get excited about all the cutting edge advancements, it is more important to consider how you will actually use such a device in your day to day life. Cory will demonstrate how he uses the apple watch from a blindness perspective.
0:00 Start
01:05 Notifications
4:30 Phone Calls
6:20 Apple Pay
7:45 Health
11:25 Complications: Voice Memos
14:30 Wrap Up Review
Be sure to leave a comment with your favorite Apple Watch feature so that others can enrich their knowledge!
Join us next time on Tech Connect, and be sure to leave your thoughts down in the comments below and ask plenty of questions!
Vision Forward's Tech Connect continues to bring you the information you need to make the most out of your devices. Our experts know there are many factors to consider, so if you have any follow up questions please post them in the comments and we will help you find the assistive tech that's best for you.
Join us, find the schedule by visiting out website: https://vision-forward.org/techconnect
Contact Vision Forward Association:
Call us: (414-615-0103)
Email us: infocus@vision-forward.org
Visit us online: https://www.vision-forward.org
Online Store: https://www.vision-forward.org/store
Want more Tech Connect in your life? Try us Live! Be sure to join us for the upcoming Youtube Live! show on November 9th at 11am CST.
Most Recent: iOS 17: What's New? https://youtube.com/live/w711KMzS0jY
Previous: Best Way to Start Your Smart Home https://youtube.com/live/L5sjLY2Hh4Y
Before that: Lazarillo: Accessible GPS https://youtube.com/live/5tTWAYoyBBk
Earlier: More Morphic! https://www.youtube.com/live/t-LqmxbRto8?si=L-iwmVlBzCiORkRv
Previous to that one: Orcam Read 3.0: https://www.youtube.com/live/x8jmbTA9_UU?feature=share
A bit before that one: LVI Magnilink S: https://youtube.com/live/l6pQvrMs9wA
And Microsoft Teams with a Screen Reader: https://www.youtube.com/live/Z8uVhGXb9oA?feature=share
Way before that: "Apple Vision Pro and the Future of Tech Connect Live"
https://www.youtube.com/live/iKAqrGbaNuk?feature=share
Long before that: "Live Grilling for People with Vision Loss!"
https://youtube.com/live/FWUCJe0PWA4
Even Older: "How to use our online learning program" https://youtube.com/live/oD1pW98xr9U
Yet Older Still! "Snow 12 vs Compact 10" https://youtube.com/live/_1pG7HEscrE
Investing in a smart watch can be a big decision, and while its easy to get excited about all the cutting edge advancements, it is more important to consider how you will actually use such a device in your day to day life. Cory will demonstrate how he uses the apple watch from a blindness perspective.
0:00 Start
01:05 Notifications
4:30 Phone Calls
6:20 Apple Pay
7:45 Health
11:25 Complications: Voice Memos
14:30 Wrap Up Review
Be sure to leave a comment with your favorite Apple Watch feature so that others can enrich their knowledge!
Join us next time on Tech Connect, and be sure to leave your thoughts down in the comments below and ask plenty of questions!
Vision Forward's Tech Connect continues to bring you the information you need to make the most out of your devices. Our experts know there are many factors to consider, so if you have any follow up questions please post them in the comments and we will help you find the assistive tech that's best for you.
Join us, find the schedule by visiting out website: https://vision-forward.org/techconnect
Contact Vision Forward Association:
Call us: (414-615-0103)
Email us: infocus@vision-forward.org
Visit us online: https://www.vision-forward.org
Online Store: https://www.vision-forward.org/store
Want more Tech Connect in your life? Try us Live! Be sure to join us for the upcoming Youtube Live! show on November 9th at 11am CST.
Most Recent: iOS 17: What's New? https://youtube.com/live/w711KMzS0jY
Previous: Best Way to Start Your Smart Home https://youtube.com/live/L5sjLY2Hh4Y
Before that: Lazarillo: Accessible GPS https://youtube.com/live/5tTWAYoyBBk
Earlier: More Morphic! https://www.youtube.com/live/t-LqmxbRto8?si=L-iwmVlBzCiORkRv
Previous to that one: Orcam Read 3.0: https://www.youtube.com/live/x8jmbTA9_UU?feature=share
A bit before that one: LVI Magnilink S: https://youtube.com/live/l6pQvrMs9wA
And Microsoft Teams with a Screen Reader: https://www.youtube.com/live/Z8uVhGXb9oA?feature=share
Way before that: "Apple Vision Pro and the Future of Tech Connect Live"
https://www.youtube.com/live/iKAqrGbaNuk?feature=share
Long before that: "Live Grilling for People with Vision Loss!"
https://youtube.com/live/FWUCJe0PWA4
Even Older: "How to use our online learning program" https://youtube.com/live/oD1pW98xr9U
Yet Older Still! "Snow 12 vs Compact 10" https://youtube.com/live/_1pG7HEscrE
Transcript
00:00 Hi all welcome back to another tech connect live. I'm Corey Ballard today
00:04 I'm riding solo, but don't worry Luke will be back in our next video today. We are focusing on the Apple watch
00:12 We're not going to be talking about
00:14 Exactly what the Apple watch is and how to use it
00:17 There's plenty of great videos that you can find on YouTube and even on Apple's website
00:22 But today I want to talk about the five ways that I use my Apple watch every day as somebody who is blind
00:30 The Apple watch has a lot of great features that can really benefit individuals, especially from an accessibility
00:36 standpoint from
00:39 Magnification or large font or even the inclusion inclusion of voiceover the screen reader which makes these devices
00:48 Accessible to people with vision loss, but the question is how will you use it? Is it worth the investment?
00:54 Stick around. That's what we're going to look at right now
00:58 The first way I like to use my Apple watch is to look at
01:09 Notifications if you're like me you get a lot of notifications that come in and depending on what you're doing
01:16 It might not be convenient to pull out your iPhone
01:19 Find out what that notification is and most likely ignore that notification
01:24 But being able to get the notifications across on your wrist on the Apple watch can really make things much easier
01:32 So one of the biggest notifications I typically get is text message
01:37 Notifications, so I'm gonna do a couple things here first
01:41 We're gonna show how you can use your Apple watch to send a text message
01:46 and we're primarily gonna use Siri because I find it to really be the easiest way and
01:50 Then hopefully we'll get a response from who we send a text to and we can see how that
01:56 Notification comes across the Apple watch and what it's like then to access it
02:02 So first we're going to go ahead and hold down the crown or the digital crown and that's gonna launch Siri
02:09 And we're gonna text Luke and check on and see what he's up to
02:12 Send a text message to Luke. Hey karma. We're doing a video. Where are you question mark?
02:20 Okay sending to cancel you can also press the digital crown on your watch
02:28 Send
02:33 To Luke's ribbon
02:38 9 18 a.m
02:40 Perfect. We've sent that text message using Siri. Now. We're gonna kick back wait, and hopefully we get a response quickly
02:47 All right, my
02:52 Watch just alerted me with a ding. That means I've got a notification most likely a text. I'm guessing it's from Luke. Let's find out
03:05 Alright so usually it's gonna pop right up on our home screen here for us to look at it
03:12 But for some reason it didn't do it this time, but that's okay from our home screen here
03:17 I can go ahead and swipe down and I'm gonna move to my notification center so I can go back and review any
03:23 existing
03:25 notifications
03:27 9 21 8 control sent notification center
03:31 Messages Luke's ribbon. You just woke me up. I was dreaming of Apple watches
03:35 All right, so I find it interesting that Luke said he couldn't make the video today
03:40 But now he's telling us that he is sleeping and he's dreaming of Apple watches a little odd
03:44 But to each their own as I mentioned
03:47 typically text messages and
03:49 Notification show right up on the home screen when they come in and you can use your swipe gesture
03:54 To go ahead and look at them and then there's typically action buttons depending on what that notification is
04:01 For example, if it's a message there might be a reply and one of the cool things too
04:05 Is there's usually some quick replies that you can just tap on and it'll send a short phrase that you might choose
04:13 And this instance it didn't do exactly what it was supposed to but not a big deal
04:17 We showed how you can go to the notification center from your home screen
04:21 And that's gonna allow you to go back and review any notifications
04:25 Including that message from Luke that came in
04:28 Besides getting notifications. I also like to use my Apple watch for phone calls both
04:36 Receiving calls and also making calls just like notifications
04:41 Sometimes it's inconvenient to pull your phone out of your pocket
04:45 I know it's gonna be such a tough thing to do
04:48 It takes so much energy, but we can just reach to our wrist and have Siri and the Apple watch
04:53 Make those phone calls for us. So Luke said he was sleeping. He was dreaming of Apple watches
04:59 I want to actually give him a call
05:01 Give him a hard time and let's demonstrate how we can use the Apple watch to make phone calls again
05:08 I'm gonna use Siri to do that. I'm gonna hold down the digital crown
05:11 Call Luke's driven mobile
05:16 Yes, how may I help you?
05:18 You don't exactly sound like you're tired like you just woke up
05:22 Oh, uh, no, I have a condition
05:24 You have a condition yes, I understand your condition
05:30 Well, let's you know what the condition is gonna be that we are gonna be in a bad condition
05:36 If we get no views on this YouTube channel because you're not here to be on the video
05:41 I'm very sorry, I think what we need to do Corey
05:43 I believe that the store sells large print alarm clocks with extra large numbers and extra loud as well
05:50 I think that's what I need here
05:52 All right, I will head to the store purchase one for you and this will never happen again
05:56 I promise all right two finger double tap
05:59 We're gonna go ahead and hang up this call that magic tap that we use so often on our iPhone
06:05 We can still use on our Apple watch not only to start and stop music playback or media playback
06:11 But just like on our iPhone we can start answer phone calls and also hang up phone calls
06:17 Third way I love to use my Apple watch is using Apple pay and make purchases
06:23 There's something really convenient about having that ability to use your phone and your watch to quickly make purchases
06:31 At locations that accept digital payments that accept Apple pay a lot of times
06:37 I forget my wallet and so it's nice to know that I still have a way to make purchases
06:43 We have a purchase we need to make Luke. We need to make sure he gets up again
06:48 We really can't have another video that he sleeps through
06:51 So we are at the vision forward store where we do accept Apple pay
06:56 We're gonna buy him a nice large print alarm clock and maybe that will help him out
07:02 So let's make our purchase
07:04 Our purchase is ready to go. We're gonna hit our digital crown two times to activate Apple pay
07:09 950 8 a.m. Duck activity bring it close
07:13 I felt the vibration on my watch letting me know that the payment went through
07:19 And it was that easy to use my watch to make a payment
07:23 I did get you your clock. I do not ever want to hear the excuse that you have overslept again
07:30 I'll think of a different excuse and I will you owe me $37 and 82 cents. I don't think so
07:36 I write the fourth way that I use my Apple watch on a daily basis is for the health benefits now
07:44 Looking at me. I am a specimen of a human being almost godlike
07:50 For those that are blind. I'm completely blind
07:54 I actually need to use the health parts of the Apple watch more often
07:59 But you know what? I at least have the watch here and it's got some really good benefits that can help me
08:05 So there's a number of different ways that I do use the health benefits of the Apple watch
08:11 And to be honest, that's really one of the biggest benefits of the Apple watch is all of the benefits
08:17 You can do from with it including having your heart rate monitored so that you can check your heart rate
08:24 Or get alerts if your heart rate ever is too high or too low
08:29 On certain models of the Apple watch you also have blood oxygen levels
08:34 So you can check and see what your blood oxygen is. I checked it before and it was a little bit low
08:40 But I can see that it's a little bit high and I can see that it's a little bit low
08:45 But I can see that it's a little bit high and I can see that it's a little bit low
08:51 I also use it for workouts too and there's a lot of pre-programmed workouts where it will track your activities
08:57 So let's take a look really quick on how we can quickly start maybe an indoor walk on a treadmill
09:03 I'm going to go ahead and hit the digital crown. I'm going to hit it once and that's going to open up a list of all of my apps
09:09 And I'm going to be taking a look at the workout app. I could also use Siri, but I do want to show swiping through all the different apps quick
09:17 932 am
09:21 Apps one password seven alarms
09:25 Now I have my app list in list view. You can change that. So mine's in list view
09:31 So I have an alphabetical order here. So I'm going to do some quick swiping
09:36 And we're going to get down to the workout. If it's too long of swiping
09:40 I can also do a two-finger swipe up and that will move by page
09:45 All right, we've made it to work out. We'll double tap to open it
09:49 And now we're going to swipe through and choose the workout type that we're doing
09:55 And there we go. We're doing an indoor walk open. So I'll go ahead and double tap to open it
10:01 All right, there's our indoor walk. We'll go ahead and double tap and let's start our indoor walk
10:06 All right, there's our indoor walk. We'll go ahead and double tap and let's start our indoor walk
10:13 All right, our workout is now started. So it will be tracking our heart rate, how long we're walking for distance
10:20 And all of those important things that you want tracked
10:24 During a workout. When you're done, you'll go ahead and tap the end button and that will give you a summary of your workout
10:31 And then automatically save it to the health app on your iPhone
10:35 Besides workout, I also like to check my activity. This is where I can go and look at the steps that I've done for the day
10:43 I'm going to go ahead and tap my digital crown again to bring up my list of apps
10:47 So I'm going to go ahead and tap my digital crown again to bring up my list of apps
10:51 I'm going to swipe to activity
10:55 And I'll swipe through activity
11:00 Now the day has just started. It's still early in the morning. I'm only at 902 steps
11:06 All right
11:10 So I can quickly check what my steps are for the day
11:16 So I can quickly check what my steps are for the day
11:22 So I can continue to make sure I hit my 10,000 steps
11:27 Last thing really quick on the face of our watch, the home screen, we have something called complications
11:35 These are little areas on the screen that you can configure to show any information that you choose
11:42 I have one of my complications to be my health ring
11:47 So on the Apple Watch, health related, they typically give you three rings
11:52 There's your exercise ring, your standing ring, and then your workout ring
11:59 I believe those are the three
12:01 So I've got that as a complication
12:04 So let's go ahead and just swipe through my home screen here
12:08 And we'll see how our progress is early in the morning
12:12 Battery 52%, 1130 AM, 12 feet, moving 15%, exercising 10%, standing 25%
12:20 All right, so we did see our moving goal
12:23 We saw our exercise goal and we saw our standing goal
12:27 And they're represented as percentages
12:30 So during the day, I can just check those and make sure that I'm hitting 100% by the end of the day
12:36 And the fifth and final way that I like to use my Apple Watch is voice memos
12:43 As somebody who is blind, I find making quick voice memos, voice recordings
12:48 The best way for me to jot down quick notes so that I can come back to them in the future
12:55 Especially if it's a to-do list or some kind of task I need to remember to do at work
13:01 So there is a voice memos app on the Apple Watch
13:05 We can go through that app list as we saw before and swipe all the way down to voice memos
13:11 But I like to use complications
13:13 As you saw in the health section, we had a complication designated specifically for health
13:20 I also have a complication set specifically for voice memos
13:25 Because those voice memos, the point of it is so that you can quickly create that voice memo
13:32 Alright, we're going to wake the watch up, go ahead and swipe through and find that voice memos complication
13:38 [Voice memo] 1130 AM, moving, 50 voice memos
13:41 There it is, double tap
13:43 [Voice memo] Voice memos, heading
13:46 And one swipe
13:48 [Voice memo] Record, button, record, stop, button
13:52 We are currently recording a voice memo
13:55 I will single finger double tap to stop
13:57 [Voice memo] Record
13:59 It's that easy and fast to quickly get a voice memo down
14:04 From this page I can continue to swipe and see the voice memo I just created
14:10 Or go back and listen to other voice memos
14:13 Or it's also automatically being updated and sent over to my iPhone
14:20 And I can bring up the voice memos app there in the future
14:23 And go ahead and access any of those voice memos
14:28 [Music]
14:30 The Apple Watch does a lot and sometimes it can be a bit of a decision
14:35 Do I want to make that investment to purchase this watch when a normal talking or braille watch is significantly less expensive
14:45 Again, today's goal isn't to go through what the Apple Watch is and exactly how to use it
14:50 You can find a lot of great videos on Apple Watch, how to use voice over and some of the other accessibility features
14:56 But what I really wanted to do today was just show you five ways that I use my Apple Watch
15:03 I love the ability to return quick notifications, especially text messages
15:09 I love the ability to make phone calls
15:12 Paying for things, knowing that I have Apple Pay right here on my wrist is awesome
15:18 And the health benefits, that's really very important
15:22 Especially for individuals who really need to focus on their health like myself
15:27 It's great to be able to have that Apple Watch there helping me track all those important pieces of information
15:35 And last, that voice memos is great being able to quickly get voice recordings down
15:41 Because I just can't remember everything that I used to be able to remember
15:45 But at the end of the day, it's up to you to decide if that Apple Watch is worth the investment
15:51 Hopefully this video helped you today
15:54 You know what, put it down in the comments
15:56 If you have an Apple Watch already, which I bet a lot of you do
16:00 Put in the comments the ways that you use your Apple Watch most frequently
16:05 That'll really help out other viewers get a better idea of how the Apple Watch could be used
16:10 Because there are so many other ways than what I talked about just today
16:15 So go ahead, like this video, please go ahead and subscribe to the channel
16:19 It really does help the channel out
16:22 Share this video, that also really helps
16:25 If you'd like to contact us with any questions, you can do so
16:29 Shoot us an email at techconnect@vision-forward.org
16:34 You can also check out any of our past videos and webinars on our learning management platform
16:42 At techconnect.vision-forward.org
16:47 Remember, we are live every other Thursday
16:51 Just head over to the YouTube channel you're on right now, 11am Central on Thursday
16:57 You can check out our live show
16:59 Thanks for joining us, and stay tuned
17:02 [music]
17:08 (whooshing)