Join BVA’s VetTech Team this Wednesday, August 30, at 2:00pm Eastern Time as the Weekly Wednesday Webinar welcomes Liz Whitaker, Product Manager for User Education and Research at Vispero. In Windows 11, Microsoft changed many of the core elements of Windows, including the Start Menu, Explorer, the Notification Center, and much more. The alterations require blind and low vision users to re-learn how to interact with these elements. Fortunately, Freedom Scientific has optimized JAWS and Fusion, simplifying how blind and low vision individuals deal with Microsoft’s new user interface. 

Do not miss this VetTech session! Participants will learn:

• How to use the Start Menu.
• How to use the new File Explorer.
• How to use the Notification and Message Center.
• How other tips and tricks can enhance the Windows 11 experience.
• How the Braille Display auto detection functions.

In a slightly more informal setting and discussion format than the webinar, VetTech Talk is held weekly on Thursdays at 2:00pm Eastern Time. The sessions generally consist of a recap, review, and additional discussion of the previous day’s webinar. Thursday’s session (August 31) of VetTech Talk will also cover the use of the MacOS Finder, which is Apple’s version of the File Explorer on all Macs.

If you are not a BVA member, no problem! All VetTech webinars and talk sessions are currently open to everyone—blind and low vision veterans and nonveterans, family members, caregivers, blind rehabilitation specialists, and all other parties interested in assistive, adaptive, and accessible technology that can result in greater independence. Membership in BVA or attendance at previous sessions is not a pre-requisite to join the VetTech webinars or VetTech Talk sessions.

Did you somehow miss the most recent virtual sessions? No problem in that regard either! VetTech is now available as a podcast on major platforms. Interested parties can listen on demand to missed Weekly Wednesday Webinars as well as original content published solely on the podcast by asking their Smart speaker, Siri, or Alexa, to “play the latest episode of the Blinded Veterans Association VetTech Podcast.” They can also follow the channel via Apple Podcast, Google Play, and Amazon Music.

The VetTech webinar and talk sessions this past week focused on the technology presented at the BVA 78th National Convention, either in lunch and learn presentations or through the approximately 45 booths situated in the event’s Exhibit Hall. Convention attendees were encouraged to visit each booth as part of an Exhibit Hall Blackout Bingo activity.

To enter next week’s VetTech Weekly Wednesday Webinar using the customary Zoom meeting credentials and link, click here. For additional information about the VetTech initiative begun one year ago, click here.