After 13 years, Talking Tech stops talking

00:08 S1

Hello everyone. Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from May 6th, 2025. I'm Stephen Jolley. Great to have you with us - listening maybe through Vision Australia Radio, associated stations of the Radio Reading Network or the Community Radio Network. There is also the podcast - to catch that, all you need to do is search for the two words Talking Tech and it can all come. Another option is to ask your Siri device or smart speaker to play Vision Australia Radio, Talking Tech podcast. Vision Australia Radio, Talking Tech podcast. 

With me: Vision Australia's national access technology manager Damo McMorrow. Hey, Damo.

00:49 S2

G'day, Stephen.

00:50 S1

Well, you are the Vision Australia National Access Technology Manager, but not for much longer.

00:56 S2

That's right. After 11.5 years, I am moving on from Vision Australia and taking up a position as Assistant Director of Accessibility and User-centred Design for the Administrative Review Tribunal.

01:11 S1

So just tell us quickly what the Administrative Review Tribunal is.

01:16 S2

So that's the body that you would go to if you wanted to appeal a federal government decision. So a lot of people think it's just NDIA, but it's not. It covers a whole range of things, including things like immigration decisions, child support, Centrelink... taxation, you know, all of those sorts of... federal government-type matters. And the idea is that it gives people an opportunity to... have the decision reviewed independently and to put their case and that sort of thing. So my role will be around making sure that the processes are fully accessible. 

It is a new organisation. It used to be called the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, but it was... sort of disbanded and set up as a new organisation and, you know, to make sure also that people's chance of a fair hearing is not impaired or impacted by, you know, accessibility barriers, whether that be because of disability, ethnicity or any number of other things.

02:23 S1

Quite a responsible role there. Congratulations.

02:26 S2

Thank you. It feels a little... bit scary after I say 11.5 years with Vision Australia. But you can't stay static. You have to sort of keep developing your skills and those sorts of things. And this will give me... some different challenges to the ones that I've had at Vision Australia. But it's still accessibility-related, which is something that has been extremely close to my heart, you know, particularly over the last 11 years. I wanted to stay in that... space, if you like. So... yeah, new challenges, but... hopefully exciting ones.

02:59 S1

Just briefly reflect on some of your special memories from being at Vision Australia.

03:05 S2

Ahh, there are so many. I mean, I guess probably the highlight has always been being able to help other people... being able to sort of make a difference or show someone that's maybe... losing their vision that, you know, hey, there's all this great technology out there that means you can still lead a full and independent and fulfilling life if you want to. 

You know, I love working with kids. I've worked with children all over the country out in, you know, the Northern Territory, in communities like Yuendumu and Wugularr and so on, as well as in, in Darwin and Alice Springs, uh, work with children in Tasmania, all over Queensland. Um, and I've worked with people in their, in their 90s who, you know, want to, want to learn how to use technology to stay connected and that sort of thing. So... done a lot of work with job access, doing workplace assessments, and that's something that I've always found very satisfying. 

And also, I think just training other people, supporting our access technology specialists out in the field and teaching them about access technology so that they can make a difference to our community as well. You know, it really has been an extremely rewarding... time and probably the... happiest... of my career.

04:26 S1

So Damo is leaving Vision Australia, and I'm sure many people listening are thinking, What about talking tech? Talking Tech's been running for 13 years, and we've decided for a range of reasons, that it's probably appropriate now to call time on Talking Tech. That doesn't mean there won't be technology covered in the future, and we might come back in some other form in the future, Damo.

04:54 S2

Yes, and it's something I've really enjoyed working with you over the last 7 or 8 months. And... it was always sort of a bit of a highlight of the week, sitting down and... recording next week's show. So, I will definitely miss that. And I'll miss the... interaction, the emails and so on from our listeners as well. So thank you everyone for your support and thanks for having me over the last few months.

05:16 S1

I just want to reflect on the 13 years of the history of blindness and low vision access technology that we've been covering in this program. It's been quite a change from the early days of the iPhone and the iOS and the Apple world, and then the Android world and lots of other things. And there are people who have been key to the success of the program. 

I think of my partner in crime, David Woodbridge, who for over 12 years drove the content and explained it so well on this program. David has made and continues to make an enormous contribution to access technology across Australia and around the world. He's with Humanware these days, making a difference for very many people behind the scenes. We've had people like Mark Ridout for many years at Vision Australia Radio. Nick Thompson now looking after the show, terrific support from Vision Australia radio manager Conrad Brown. 

I'd also like to acknowledge the the great support and encouragement from various radio stations across the Vision Australia Radio Network, the Radio Reading Network and the Community Radio Network. Without you connecting us with our vast audience, we just wouldn't have been able to get as far as we have got. And to all of you who have been tuning in through various modern radio devices, downloading the program. Damo, it's been really important to us, hasn't it, the appreciation and encouragement from our audience?

06:57 S2

It absolutely has... and I'm, you know, I'm so glad that, you know, people have found the content helpful and... enjoyed it. Hopefully it's made you think or helped you learn along the way. And, yeah, we certainly have enjoyed bringing it to you each week. So thank you, everyone for your support. It really does mean a lot to both of us.

07:17 S1

Another form of technology program will come to air in the near future. Keep an eye out for news of that over the coming months. In the meantime, things are happening. And Damo, you bought another toy the other day?

07:31 S2

I did, yeah, I can't help myself. The... I've always had a bit of an interest in drones, but I'd always dismissed it as something that wasn't particularly useful or that I wouldn't be able to... play around with - until the other day. And I was chatting to my brother about the idea of using a drone, as part of the filming for my YouTube channel. So to have something that can hover in front of me. Track me as I move around, just as an alternative to using my phone on a gimbal. And I know we've talked about that in a previous program. 

So I came across a device called the Hover Air X-1. It's probably about the size of your hand. And the idea of it, it has a camera on the front that can swivel and move up and down and that sort of thing. The I suppose you would call them wings where the the rotors are unfold from the main body of the drone. So you can, you can fold it away for... transporting. And... there's a couple of little buttons on the top of the device, and it has a number of different modes. So you can, for example, have it hover in front of you. And if you move to the left or right, it will turn and track you. You can have it follow behind you. So for example, if I was... wanted to film something while riding my tandem or while out in my boat, I could have it follow me. It'll do up to 25km an hour.

08:56 S1

And it's very small. You said, isn't it?

08:58 S2

Yeah. It's about the size of your hand and you can have it also do things like a bird's eye view so it can go up about 5 or 10m and sort of look down at you while you're doing something.

09:09 S1

And very accessible.

09:10 S2

It is. This was the cool thing about it. The device has spoken prompts so you can cycle through the various modes and it will say, you know, hover mode, bird's eye mode or whatever. And then if you hold the mode button down, you can adjust the parameters for that mode. So if you want it to hover for 30s or hover for a minute or hover continuously, you can adjust those parameters for each mode. You then point the camera towards you. You press the take off button and it'll beep for a few seconds and the camera will focus on on you. Then it will just lift off your hand and do what you've you've set it to do. And then when you want it to come back to you, just put your hands out and the drone will land in your hands and switch off the propellers.

09:59 S1

Sounds like an obedient budgie. Remember as a kid you have a budgie land on your hand?

10:04 S2

Yes. Yeah... the other... nifty thing, though, is that you can record audio - because the AI that's built into the iPhone app, which is also very accessible, actually cancels out the whine of the propellers. So the thing with drones is that people often use it for sort of B-roll footage or visual footage. But with this, because of that feature, you can also record the audio using your phone's microphone. So yeah, it was really impressed with how accessible it was. It comes with a couple of batteries. And as I said, lots of spoken prompts. The app is nice and accessible, and you can then download the footage from the drone... to your phone so you can then edit it or post it or do whatever you want to do.

10:50 S1

You're very good at finding mainstream devices that are fully accessible. How much does this one cost?

10:57 S2

So the price ranges from [$AUD] 499 to 649, depending on where you get it from. So you can get it off Amazon. But it's also available from places like JB Hi-Fi as well. So... and you can get it in a couple of different colours. You can get black or white, and I think you can get it as a combo with... two batteries and a little carry bag, which is what I got. And it has the... sort of a drop-in charger for the battery. So you can charge both batteries at once.

11:29 S1

And what's it called?

11:30 S2

It's called a Hover Air X-1. There is also an X-1 Pro and an X-1 Pro Max. The main difference is just being the quality of the footage... like the resolution that it can shoot and also the speed that it can travel. So for example, the X-1 will do 25km an hour, whereas the X-1 Pro Max, I think can do about 42 and it can cope with higher winds and things, whereas mine you probably wouldn't want to use it on a really windy day outside. But you know, for what I want to do with it, it was really just a bit of an experiment. I kind of wanted a drone, but I also wanted a flying camera. You know, it's perfectly fine for the stuff that I'm using it for.

12:16 S1

The Hover Air X-1. Now, tell us about Meta. I... it's hard to keep up with this Meta app.

12:25 S2

It is, isn't it? So people who already have the glasses, will know that the app that you currently use to control them is called Meta View. It's now been rebranded as Meta AI, and... it sort of serves as the means for controlling your Meta glasses, but you can also use it as sort of a an alternative to things like ChatGPT and so on. So you can, you know, fire iRequest at it from your phone as well. And I think it sort of gives them a new platform from which they can launch things like the... Meta Live AI feature when that's released and some of the other things. 

There is now a translation language translation option... and a couple of other things. The look and feel, you know, if you can, if you know your way around Meta View, you won't have any problem with Meta AI. And when you do your app updates, it will just automatically replace your Meta View app with the Meta AI app. So you don't need to do anything. All your settings and everything come across. But it does have a new name.

13:31 S1

So that brings us to the end of Talking Tech for this week. And it brings us to the end of a 13 year run of Talking Tech. For details of what we've been talking about in this and previous editions of the program, you can go to VA Radio slash Talking Tech... [VA radio.com]. Now to write to the program, Damo...

13:55 S2

People can still email me, [damo.mcmorrow@visionaustralia.org]... And that address will stay current until about the 16th of May. After that, people are welcome to contact me on Facebook or LinkedIn if they would like to stay in touch, and if they'd like to hear about sort of what I'm up to and what we might come back with in the future.

14:22 S1

Damo McMorrow at Vision Australia. And you could chase me down on Facebook too, if you'd like to do that. Thank you Damo, it's terrific working with you. This has been Talking Tech - with me has been Vision Australia's national access technology manager, Damo McMorrow. I'm Stephen Jolley. Take care. We'll talk more tech sometime. See you.