Blind Guys Chat
A place where the blind guys talk about the A to Z of life

#149: Scotland 3, FIFA AD 1, Water Breaks 8

8 days ago
Transcript
Speaker A:

Foreign.

Speaker B:

Welcome to blind guys chat, where oren o'. Nemeal. Hello. Jan bloom.

Speaker C:

Hello. And mohammed lashear. Hi there.

Speaker B:

Talk about the a to z of life.

Speaker A:

Well, hello, ladies and gentlemen. You're very welcome to episode 149 of Blind Guys Chat.

Speaker D:

Almost 100.

Speaker A:

Almost 150.

Speaker B:

Almost.

Speaker C:

We're almost there.

Speaker D:

Almost there. Yeah. Then we go for 180. Bullseye.

Speaker A:

We shall talk about 150 later, but I think we have to talk about. FIFA World cup is now in full swing. We are four or five days into it as we record for the first time ever. I heard now the teams are going to take a. Take a water break.

Speaker D:

Yeah, yeah, a water break. And now we have a commercial break. They. They are bullshitting. My God. They are really.

Speaker C:

It's very American. This is how America, you know. You know what was the most interesting thing? I, I, of course I lived there for a little while and I was watching American football with my, with my manager, who was nice enough to give me a place to sleep before I found my own apartment. And we were watching this game, this college football game. I think it was the, the finals even. And the commentators. And this blew me away. But the commentators actually read out sponsor ads.

Speaker A:

Oh, really?

Speaker C:

You know, while the, while the match is like sort of at a standstill.

Speaker D:

We have a break now.

Speaker C:

Let's just go for. No, no, they'll just go, coca Cola, the best drink in the world. And then they continue.

Speaker B:

Oh, my God.

Speaker C:

Like strange, like nothing has happen. Happened. And the first time I heard it, I was like, carl, what's, what's going on here? Yeah, what's the problem? What's. They don't hear it anymore. People from the US don't hear it anymore. But commentators out there actually just read out sponsored ads. They do.

Speaker A:

This is a bit of a bon of contention with me because I expected a lot more because I've been reading a lot about the World cup and in particular I'm going to talk. We're going to talk about audio description, but in particular I expected a lot more because I was reading that they FIFA expect to make 13 and a half. Sorry, about 13 billion from this World Cup. And they made seven and a half billion the last time. And I would have thought with seven and a half billion you would have had plenty of time to do really train your audio describers. But more importantly, what I found with the. And I don't know if you guys have been using the FIFA audio description app, but I was watching the Canada game in Canada on Friday night, I think it was. And it was, it wasn't too bad. And there was the. The big thing that I have issue I have is you could hear some of the effects behind the commentator, the audio describer commentator on the Canada match. And then I was watching the Brazil, Morocco last night. And then I forget the one in what I was watching in San Francisco later on.

Speaker C:

Us.

Speaker A:

Us.

Speaker C:

Oh, Switzerland.

Speaker A:

Switzerland, yes. Sorry, Switzerland.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker D:

Against Qatar.

Speaker A:

Yeah, Qatar, yeah. And audio description commentary was there on the FIFA app, but in both of those matches there was no background effects so you couldn't hear anything. Oh, and then Blind Gordon told me, texted me earlier on today to say that one of the matches he was watching, which obviously wasn't one I was watching, was that the effects were drowning out the audio describer.

Speaker D:

How can people download or install the iOS FIFA app?

Speaker A:

It's very easy. All you have to go is just go into. If you're on iOS, for example, just type in or dictate FIFA audio description

Speaker D:

in Safari or in the app Store. In the app Store. Okay.

Speaker A:

Then when you. It'll download very quick. There is no requirement for you to sign up, register or anything. You get straight into, Once it loads up, you get straight into the page. There's really only one, one page that you need to get into. You will see at the top of the screen the matches. What it will say is, and it's a bit disk, it's a bit off putting because what, what the top of the screen says is matches. I think it says something like matches that are live now. Right. And then if you swipe to the right it will say for example Brazil versus Morocco. And then if you swipe again it will say it will give you the time of the match starting in your own country. So in my case it was saying 8pm to 10pm now the problem was that I would. And it's just, it's a minor thing is that I was looking at this app, let's say at 5 o', clock, but yet it was saying the match is live now. And then you swipe and you hear it 8pm to 10, 10pm well which is it? Is it live now or is it on at 8pm or 10pm and then. Yeah, and then it's. It is good in the sense that like the Scottish match last night was what, 11 to 1? So. So it go 11pm to 1am so you knew that two hour window went across. And then it will give you tomorrow and then once you have selected the match that you want to watch or you want to listen to. You're then presented with initially a little dropdown box which has two options. And what I found, and I think BL Gordon found this as well, is at the default, the very first time you load the app, it will default to Spanish.

Speaker D:

Infantino.

Speaker C:

Infantino is from Switzerland, the Italian speaking part.

Speaker D:

Oh, but he is a.

Speaker A:

So all you have to do. All you have to do then is just swipe right and I will saying. It'll say English, double tap on that and then below that it will say play. So it'll say something Play media.

Speaker D:

Oh.

Speaker A:

And that's it.

Speaker D:

And do you have other languages as well? Did you see other.

Speaker A:

No, you don't. What you have is in. In Canada, on the. Canada. For the. For the matches that are being played in Canada, you have English, the option of English or French. Oh, in America you have the option of English or Spanish.

Speaker B:

Spanish.

Speaker A:

And in Mexico you have the option of English or Spanish. When you get into the match on the TV that I was watching versus the commentary on the app, there is a 17 second delay.

Speaker D:

17.

Speaker C:

That's very usual. So the thing is, live ad is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, not live ad. It's more about the Internet stream.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

If you watch cable tv. So I have cable TV here and I can use the streaming app from the cable TV provider. Yeah, right. I always have over 10 seconds difference between the Internet streaming and the cable. The cable is faster. That's always the case pretty much. Okay. So that's very normal. I don't think that is necessarily something that they can stop. So if you really want things to be closer, you as a sighted person can watch the Internet stream as well. That's available from your provider usually. And then you'll be a little bit closer to one another. But I'm not surprised that that's the case.

Speaker A:

Well, the games are available. You're quite right. You could watch them on YouTube, on the FIFA channel. And there's their sign language being provided for all the games.

Speaker B:

So I presume that's American Sign Languages.

Speaker A:

It is American Sign. I'm assuming that the. I'm assuming if you're watching it on YouTube and you're also listening to the ADC commentary on the app, they would be fairly well in sync. The main thing is to not hearing the effects in the background. That's a real. And then what you can't do then is I turned on the TV last night to watch, to try and listen to the effects. But then I was hearing the. The other commentators and there was a 17 sec second gap. What I couldn't find on the app itself and I haven't looked on the website. FIFA website is. I couldn't find on the app any place to give some feedback and asked him, can you please add in the.

Speaker C:

Infantino does not want feedback.

Speaker A:

Well, he just wants us all to chill.

Speaker C:

Yeah, that's what he wants. And you know what? I.

Speaker D:

17 seconds. Sorry, I'm a little bit behind. I'm now 17 seconds. So what do you say, Oren?

Speaker C:

Thank you, John. Thank you. What I really got from this, Oren, is that you should be very, very rich. You probably are. And you're just not telling us because, you know, FIFA made seven billion, seven and a half billion last, last World Cup.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

And they didn't even have enough money to pay audio engineers to mix correctly. So you guys ask more than seven and a half billion.

Speaker D:

Now we're talking.

Speaker C:

You must be, you must be rolling in money. That's right. That's what I got from this like

Speaker D:

Dacho Baduk, you know, he can do it.

Speaker A:

So you can see, you can hear these guys. You, you know, these guys are kind of commentators of American football and maybe basketball. And one thing that really annoyed me was instead of saying sideline for a corner kick or something, you know, or for a throw in, they were saying touchline.

Speaker C:

Oh boy. So they're American football guy.

Speaker A:

One guy was, was very adamant about. I think he was talking about the, I think he was talking about not the Moroccan go. Maybe it was the Moroccan goalkeeper. I'm not sure. But he was like. And you know, Mohammed Lashear is wearing blue, all blue and wearing white shoes.

Speaker B:

Oh, he got excited about something.

Speaker A:

Football shoes. It's, it's an interesting thing. I, I'd be really interested to know what, I'd love to hear what you got. What, what you guys think in relation to having heard audio description in your local stadium? Yeah, I mean they are making, they're making, they're giving it a go, I'll give them that. But they're missing like the guy last night, the start of the Morocco game. Mo all he was interested was telling us where the different Moroccan players were and where they were playing, who they were playing for and the Brazilians. While rather than focus on the game for about the first 10 years.

Speaker B:

There should be a preamble with that information.

Speaker C:

Yeah, yeah, there should be. There should be. And I think they were trying, maybe they tried to cater to people who don't really watch football ever, really. And so they tried to explain it, but Then, you know, is. Is it going to tell you anything to say, you know, Hakimi plays for Paris Saint Germain? No, it's not going to tell you anything. If you don't care about football at all. Like, you don't know that that team just won the Champions League and is the best of Europe. You have no clue.

Speaker B:

Like really, they should.

Speaker C:

These clubs are.

Speaker B:

Yeah. They should be aiming it towards people who are football fans, know how the game is played, it's not for beginners. And, and you know, and give them the information they need that they can't get from watching it themselves or not.

Speaker C:

Because really, because I grew up with like normal commentary. I honestly, I tried audio description for. For football matches and I prefer the normal commentary.

Speaker D:

Then I prefer the radio commentary.

Speaker C:

Well, maybe. Yeah, maybe the radio better.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

But you know, I'm so used to just a normal commentary that I, I barely even think of ad. It is useful to kind of have sort of.

Speaker A:

Here's a call out that I was. I got slightly confused by last night. Okay, see if you guys can. Can picture this one in your head. Okay, so the Brazilian. The Brazilian ball is five yards back from the halfway line and 20 yards down.

Speaker D:

Yeah.

Speaker A:

So, okay, five yards back. I can, I can. I understand. It's five years. It's five yards nearer the goal. Okay, but I.

Speaker B:

Further away. I would have thought.

Speaker A:

No, I would. No, near. I would have thought nearer. Near its own goal. And then 20 yards down. Go 20 yards down. I couldn't figure it was that. Was that further, was it? Was it?

Speaker C:

That's 20 yards down. Yeah, from the top of the screen. So normally, right. If you remember the, like the way a football match is filmed and this, this is where being. Having been cited in the past actually helps because they, they sort of film the pitch from. From one side. So you see like the, the. Yeah, so you see the field like from, from top to bottom, you see the, the narrow part of the field. And then from left to right you see the, the white part of the field. And then the goals, one go in the left, one go in the right. Right.

Speaker D:

So.

Speaker C:

And then 20 yards down means from the top of the screen, meaning that side of the field back to the middle at least. So. Okay, so a more lower lawyer disclosure. I. I don't actually know this, but this is what makes sense.

Speaker D:

Yeah, but it is a mode a lawyer. Again,

Speaker C:

I'm not, I'm not a lawyer, but I know everything about the law. But this, when I hear that. Right? Yeah, when I hear that like 20 yards down. That's what I think of if that's not true. These people are not logical and you know, should not be commentating. That's just all I'm saying. All I'm saying.

Speaker B:

It's hard to visualize it. I have to say.

Speaker A:

I knew, I knew. I know what you mean. But basically what I couldn't figure out was because I understand like I haven't been plenty of matches before and yes, you are right, the cameras are always on one side, which are most of the cameras now they, they have low

Speaker D:

now they have a drone also and they have the, they have now also a camera image from the Reverie.

Speaker A:

But what I use.

Speaker C:

They do.

Speaker A:

Yeah, yeah. Well, I couldn't figure out man was talking about was a 20 yards from. Was it 20 yards down from the halfway point or. It was a 20, as you say, was a 20 yards down from the top of the screen, let's say which, which to me would mean that the ball was on the left hand side of the player rather than the right hand side of the player or something like that.

Speaker B:

But also 20 yards down from the top of the screen isn't relatable because the screen isn't 20 yards high. Do you know what I mean?

Speaker C:

No, but it's 20 yards down from the line on top.

Speaker D:

From the line, yeah.

Speaker C:

So sometimes the line is not even visible. So it's not the top of the screen itself. It's. It's the line that is on top of the screen always. If you look through the standard camera, that's what they, that's what makes sense to me. So then it would be five yards back from the, from the, from the middle line. And then it would be 20 yards down from the top line. If you look at it through that

Speaker D:

from the long line then from the.

Speaker C:

Yeah, the long line on the other side of the camera. So not where the camera is, but the other side. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker A:

So just little things like that I found a bit, a bit off putting but. But yeah, they need to do. I need to, I need the feedback and I think everybody, anybody who's listened to the FIFA and whether you like it or don't like it, I think it's always good to, if it's positive, say to FIFA, but if it's negative, like this tournament's gone on for a month, so why not take the opportunity to say what you feel about it now, the Audio Descript app and see if something can be done before, you know, the end of the month.

Speaker D:

And do they describe also a Little bit about the audience or what you. What you see among it.

Speaker A:

Yeah. Like last night, Morocco were in red last night, weren't they?

Speaker C:

I believe they were, yes.

Speaker A:

And Brazil were in yellow. Yeah. He said. He said there was. He said there were small pockets and I could visualize. He said that, you know, where I'm looking about? He said, I'm looking across the field and I can see mostly yellow shirts with small pockets of red. So, yeah. Oh, yeah, he does describe a little bit. A little bit of that.

Speaker D:

Yeah. And then also, it is not also so. So cheap to go to the. To the matches.

Speaker C:

That's so cheap.

Speaker A:

Talk about this. This where your 150 comes in. My God, I'm doing an awful lot of talking and reviewing today. 150, right? You've mentioned 100. Nearly 150 episodes. I was reading in this. This morning's. No, Yesterday's app on the news app that in light of the feedback that FIFA have got for the outrageous prices for the World cup, they have now decided to reduce the price of a train ticket from the center of the city, wherever you're going to the stadium, from $150. Now, bear in mind, this takes about 10 minutes, usually from $150 to $98 for a trip that would usually cost you $12.

Speaker B:

How is you saying that money's going.

Speaker A:

Aren't they nice that money is going to FIFA? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B:

I mean, it shouldn't be going to FIFA.

Speaker C:

There's a lot of money that shouldn't go to FIFA. That goes to FIFA like that. That, that organization is corruption central, if you didn't know yet. Yeah, that's.

Speaker B:

Yeah, I don't.

Speaker C:

Yes, it was already telling you.

Speaker D:

Yeah, with the previous one, you know, with. What was it? What was the name of this previous champ?

Speaker B:

Before FIFA.

Speaker D:

Yeah, before Infantine and then. And also Michel Platini, you know, he was also.

Speaker C:

He was. He was. He was the. The European. Yeah, the European football.

Speaker D:

But they are both the same. Oh, yeah.

Speaker B:

Or in the. The. That drama that your man Lord Grantham is in.

Speaker A:

Oh, 2026.

Speaker B:

Yes.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

There's a. There's a TV, like, allegedly fictional drama about the background, the organizers of the. This World cup And it's called 2026. And it's on. What is it on?

Speaker A:

Well, it was on the BBC. It's. I think it's on the BBC iPlayer and it's also on the RTE Player. It's about this small team of absolute dimwits who are. Who are. Who are given the task of running the, the event.

Speaker B:

It's very funny though. You'd have to kind of.

Speaker A:

It's very, very funny. But it's like.

Speaker D:

Yeah, you don't need to. We will.

Speaker C:

I expect that to be fictionalized. I mean, there might be some. Some slight grades of truth.

Speaker A:

No, it's completely fictional program. It's completely fictional.

Speaker B:

But apparently there were some storylines in the last one that were very much, very, very close to some storylines that actually happened in real life. So you never.

Speaker C:

There's a lot of ineptitude in real life too. I guess so.

Speaker B:

Yeah, yeah. And just. Yeah, just very, very funny.

Speaker D:

We are enjoying nice weather also here in the Netherlands. I don't know about Ireland. Is it rain?

Speaker B:

It was raining last week was raining. Or this week is just finishing. Yeah, but today and yesterday were nice, weren't they? Yeah, it was 18 degrees today. It was 20 yesterday.

Speaker D:

Oh yeah. Mo and me, we. We had a nice outing yesterday. Mo, isn't it?

Speaker C:

Oh yeah, we did. We did. And I went for lunch. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker D:

Together.

Speaker C:

Not just, not just him and I. Well, we were on a date. Yes.

Speaker D:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Chef. Chef was there as well, you know.

Speaker C:

Chef was there. He was our chaperone.

Speaker D:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

Coming up to Chef's birthday. Birthday actually, isn't it?

Speaker C:

Keep it together, you two.

Speaker D:

Oh, yeah, well, yeah, yeah, we gave it for his birthday. It was. It's 21st of June.

Speaker B:

21st. Coming up soon. Yeah.

Speaker A:

So where. Where did. Where were you taking on your hot date?

Speaker D:

Amsterdam. The big city.

Speaker C:

Yeah, the big city. Yes, yes. We had some tapas.

Speaker D:

Yeah, yeah. But we were also. Yeah, you know, we were invited and also not by a simple man. You know, it is. No, no, you can say Mr. J.

Speaker A:

Well, that means that Mr. Damery. Cuz I.

Speaker C:

You win a prize.

Speaker D:

You win a prize.

Speaker C:

You get to cut this out of the episode. No, no, no.

Speaker A:

I win a fully audio described world Cup.

Speaker D:

Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But also lucky we were there. That we were not only shared by. By or with Eric, but his lovely wife Pauline was there as well.

Speaker A:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker C:

It was very nice to.

Speaker D:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker C:

Talk to him again. He's. He's enjoying himself, which is always important if you're retired. When you're retired, enjoy yourself. That's.

Speaker D:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker B:

And this is. He's on vacation in the Netherlands, is he?

Speaker D:

The Amsterdam was his final destination after he started in Budapest and he jumped on a nice cruise, you know, over the rivers in Germany and then he ended up finally at the Rhine and then he visited all those nice cities. Yeah. Along the river and then. So they were sailing nicely comfortable. They had no rough sea, so they were not seasick at all. You know, so it was comfortable with good food. Good. Yeah. Good drinks and nice company. Even Pauline was the youngest, Eric said, But they were able to. Even we. They made pictures that Eric was playing the captain of the. Of the ship, you know. Yeah, yeah. And he was steering whatever. So it was nice. And yeah, so they visited all kind of cathedrals and museum and so they had all nice tours in those. Yeah. Nice township like Curan Coblends. Also Amsterdam of course, and other nice towns along this. Yeah. Rivers. And it was. Yeah. Mu. Yeah. Munich they were as well.

Speaker B:

Oh, Munich. Okay.

Speaker C:

Yeah, we should invite him sometime.

Speaker D:

Yeah, we can ask. No for the.

Speaker C:

For the podcast.

Speaker D:

Then he can talk about it.

Speaker C:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker D:

So it's good. And he is really enjoying his. Yeah. His time. He is not missing work and anymore. You know, that is. In the beginning it was. Yeah. He was. Yeah. Also a little bit afraid, you know, how. How to deal with it. But nowadays I think. Yeah, he was really enjoy. But it was the same Eric again emo. It was really.

Speaker C:

Oh yeah, it was good old Eric.

Speaker D:

Yeah. Very involved and interested and how he sings and this. That, you know. And yeah, he was well up to speed and it was really still a

Speaker C:

lot of ideas about accessibility.

Speaker D:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And also Rosalie was having a dance performance of her yearly. She was wonderful.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker D:

Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. No, not surprised. And. But yes, she's. Yeah. Our professional drama queen, you know, that is

Speaker C:

as long as she only professionally brings the drama. Oh.

Speaker D:

You know, but she's practicing a lot at home as well, you know. But today they are. She is with Shantala and a friend in Utrecht of an festival, you know, with all the Dutch famous star. The bunk sitters, Roxy Decker and all the. Oh boy, all the famous. Well, the kids love it and Chantal is there to be the chaperone because the kids are too young. So she is a little bit bored, to be honest.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker D:

Oh yeah, yeah.

Speaker B:

Well, in a couple of years they won't need a chaperon, I guess.

Speaker D:

No.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker D:

Hopefully next year already because Chantal was not really that.

Speaker B:

She's had enough now.

Speaker D:

Yeah. You know, last year Rosalie was on her own, so then she was more mixing up with Chantal but now, yeah, she has a friend so she's standing in the front all the time.

Speaker B:

So she doesn't want her mommy beside her.

Speaker C:

No.

Speaker D:

So they. So it started at 1pm and it lasts till 8pm So I think she will meet again. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Chantal is having a long time.

Speaker C:

We'll see.

Speaker B:

She. She'll need a rest when she comes home, I'd say.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker D:

And then we jump into the. Yeah, into the, into the match. Holland against Japan. So that's.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker D:

Oh, yeah, we're going to watch tonight

Speaker B:

and tonight is Germany versus as well.

Speaker D:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker B:

The only thing I know about Curacao is the, is the cocktail thing that you put in cocktails. The blue.

Speaker D:

Yeah, blue, yeah.

Speaker C:

There's a big diaspora here in the Netherlands, of course, because the country is a country, it's an independent country, but it's part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands as well.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

So the Netherlands provides like. So, for example, Curacao does not have its own foreign affairs department. That's something that the Netherlands does. And it does not have its own army and navy. So the Dutch navy actually protects Curacao because it's, it's part of the kingdom. It's just not. It's a independent country within the kingdom.

Speaker A:

That's just a Windsor windsurfer. Yeah, that's the Dutch navy.

Speaker D:

Yeah, no, that's. That's.

Speaker C:

It's a one wind server with a bazooka.

Speaker B:

He's a busy guy.

Speaker C:

That's.

Speaker D:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker C:

He's very busy, but he does very well. No, the Dutch. The Netherlands is a proud seafaring nation. So don't insult. Don't insult us, Oren.

Speaker B:

So are Ireland. Ireland. St Brendan is supposed to have discovered America before anybody else, apparently. But anyway, I don't know about that. Is Aruba part of the Netherlands as well? No, no.

Speaker C:

Yes.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

It is an independent country also within the kingdom. So it's the same.

Speaker B:

Okay.

Speaker C:

Kind of arrangement.

Speaker D:

But they don't play football that well, I think.

Speaker C:

Well, they do play football. Not as well as Curacao because in the World Cup.

Speaker D:

Yeah, yeah, but, but they have a nice manager because the manager Deart forat. He is going to be from tonight when they perform. They. He's the eldest manager from the, from the, from the FIFA World cup ever. He's 78.

Speaker C:

Oldest Donald Trump.

Speaker D:

Yeah, and, and, and yeah. And then also he's famous in, in Scotland because he was the manager of Glasgow Rangers for years, you know, so.

Speaker B:

Oh, really?

Speaker D:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he got a lot of fans. Yeah.

Speaker C:

Email us on blindgashchat.com drop us a

Speaker A:

line and come along.

Speaker C:

Email us on blindguyschat.com drop us a

Speaker A:

line and come along. Email us on blindguyschat.com read it out

Speaker C:

loud in a song.

Speaker D:

We were doing the wave here. Yeah, we were doing it away.

Speaker A:

Ladies and gentlemen, I had a very important announcement to make before. Long before this, at the top of the show, I was informed by somebody that we were having dinner with during the week. They think that Muhammad is. And I, I, I'll quote, I'll try and quote in the same kind of inflection. He's very funny, you know.

Speaker C:

Am I?

Speaker D:

Am I? Oh, that's also so funny.

Speaker C:

I'm blushing now. I'm blushing.

Speaker B:

Well, you have a lot of fans, Mo. You do. But I don't have any fan mail free this week, unfortunately. We got an email. Speaking of eating out, we got an email from Rhys. I think it's Reese, R H Y S Welsh name.

Speaker A:

Okay.

Speaker B:

He is from Swansea in Wales. And he said, hi. Blind guys. Chat. QR code menus are becoming the norm everywhere, but so many of them are inaccessible or awkward with voiceover. Have you found any restaurants or chains that actually do digital menus properly? Cheers, Rhys. It's a good question and I have to say I have never seen a QR code that brings you to a digital menu that works, Works properly ever, I don't think. But we don't get out much.

Speaker A:

Digital menu, as in go to the website and look at the.

Speaker B:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that way, yeah.

Speaker C:

You know, I'm not supposed to say this because, you know, the blind, the blindness police will become very angry with me, but I let sighted people order when I go to restaurants like that.

Speaker D:

That's what we did yesterday as well.

Speaker C:

No interest in suffering. No interest at all.

Speaker B:

But like, you, you. They read out the menu for you though, right? So you get.

Speaker C:

Yeah, they'll read it all out sometimes I'll read it myself. I'll be like, I'm independent tonight. And then I'll read it out myself. But usually, no, no, I just, you

Speaker D:

know, and I always like also to ask the recommendation, you know, from the.

Speaker B:

Oh, yeah, me too.

Speaker A:

Yeah.

Speaker D:

And. And yesterday Eric did a good job and Pauline as well, you know. Yeah, we're reading out.

Speaker C:

Yeah, they were reading out Spanish names, so. Yes.

Speaker B:

Oh, okay. Restaurant you went to.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker D:

And the Boquerino.

Speaker B:

Oren would hate that, wouldn't he?

Speaker A:

Absolutely hate it. Yeah, I'd love it.

Speaker B:

He can't eat onions and garlic and basically, if you're Spanish.

Speaker C:

Yeah, that's all they eat. Onions and garlics. Or garlic and onions and.

Speaker D:

You had lamb, wasn't it?

Speaker C:

I had lamb with garlic and onions, yes.

Speaker A:

Yes.

Speaker B:

Okay.

Speaker A:

Okay.

Speaker D:

Meatballs.

Speaker B:

So we're not really answering Lisa's question.

Speaker D:

Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker B:

In Ireland, I don't. I have rarely seen a QR code menu that has led somewhere accessible.

Speaker C:

Yeah, yeah, I have. But of course, it's in the Netherlands.

Speaker B:

Right. Yeah.

Speaker C:

Well, that's good. There's one restaurant. Well, there's this one restaurant in a park where they have a QR code. And actually every meal is a heading. So it's very nicely done. But they just. I usually they have so many things that it just takes too long. Like. Yeah, the wayside that people glance on a menu and can just quickly tell you. But with voiceover, it's just. It just. It takes ages to get through.

Speaker B:

Painful.

Speaker D:

But then heading by heading, that's. Then you set the rotor to heading and then you can do it vertically. Then you can.

Speaker C:

Yeah, exactly. Well, I don't set the rotor. What I have is I have a special gesture for heading up.

Speaker D:

Yeah. You are so good. Oh, yeah.

Speaker B:

You're so clever.

Speaker C:

Yeah.

Speaker D:

You're so funny. You're so funny.

Speaker C:

I can taste a bit of jealousy, but it's okay. Gracious.

Speaker D:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

So. But do you guys use your meta glasses or anything like that with menus?

Speaker D:

No, I was wearing it, but I did not use it because we were. Yeah, Yesterday. We were. But I did it once. Yeah, and then that it was. Because then you can ask also. Well, you take a picture and then you. But yeah, still then you have only of. Of that current page. Of course.

Speaker B:

Right, okay.

Speaker C:

I sometimes do it with Be My Eyes. That does work well. Relatively well. So if I'm alone or if, like I said, if I. If I'm feeling particularly independent, I might do it with Be My Eyes. But again, that too takes. Takes too long.

Speaker A:

But again, it's reading out. I'm correct. I haven't tried it either, but I'm correct. Even with Be My Eyes, it's going to read out everything that it sees in the picture.

Speaker D:

No, but you can ask questions. What is a nice starter, for example? Or whatever.

Speaker B:

Yeah.

Speaker D:

Or, you know, you don't need to listen to what it originally started, but then you need to ask questions.

Speaker C:

The one thing I have not tried, which is something that I'm worried. I'm worried it will hallucinate a menu for me. So that's why I'm not trying it.

Speaker B:

That's interesting.

Speaker C:

With ChatGPT, what you could do, which Igpiti, what you could do is you could take a picture of the front of the menu and there. Normally there's the name of the restaurant.

Speaker D:

Yeah.

Speaker C:

And you can just ask it to go to the website and find the menu there and then you can ask it to summarize the menu for you. Yeah, and like I said, that would be fantastic. I'm not certain that it will work, but maybe I should try it someday.

Speaker A:

Well, would it not be a better and more fruitful experience if Reese was to invite us to dinner and then we could help him.

Speaker C:

Oh yes, we all go over to Wales.

Speaker D:

Yeah, we love to go.

Speaker B:

Welsh people are lovely.

Speaker C:

Welsh people are great.

Speaker B:

Yeah, really, really lovely. Really funny.

Speaker A:

So we got anything else?

Speaker B:

Yeah, sure, I have one. And I don't know if we're going to be very much used for this one either. But anyway, we'll give it a bash. It's Jamie in Newcastle. I don't know if Jamie is. I'm not sure the story is, but it's. Gaming with sight loss is the topic and it says hi BGCers, which I love. I'm a gamer with low vision and accessibility in games has improved massively recently. Have any of you tried accessible games like the Last of us part 2 or Forza with navigational assists? Would love a gaming themed episode someday. That's a really good idea, Jamie and I think we should maybe think of doing that.

Speaker C:

Yes, I know a guest actually, so we can, we can get him on the show and I think we should

Speaker B:

because none of us are gamers really, are we? Terribly.

Speaker C:

I am a bit, but I sort of stopped when I lost my sight completely. I am thinking of buying a PlayStation or an Xbox and trying those games. I really would like to play them but I haven't yet. We've already established that I'm lazy and so therefore I have not done so. But you know, I am very interested to know how well these games work. But yeah, I know of a guest so be on the lookout. There might be a gaming themed episode coming.

Speaker B:

I think that's a really good idea and if anybody listening is interested in gaming or has anything to add to the conversation, maybe get in touch with us and maybe we could invite them to that episode recording as well. Yeah, gmail.com that'd be lovely because there's been a few messages in fairness about accessible gaming and I think it's. I think it's a good topic. I think there's a lot of people interested in it. So yeah, can we put.

Speaker C:

It's an area that's exploding and there's a lot of also games that are not accessible out of the box. But there are mods that exist for those games that make it accessible. There are, there are quite a few of those. But then there's also the big, you know, the big ones that are accessible that have been made accessible out of the box by large, large companies such as Sony and Microsoft. One of the interesting things as well is that most consoles now have a screen reader. So on the Xbox you'll find narrator. On the PlayStation, there's a screen reader. And actually recently Nintendo brought out its new Switch 2. Well, recently it was last year they brought out its new Switch 2. And that thing has a screen reader. The only problem is that screen reader does not work on games. There's a bit of work to be done by Nintendo. The rest of the. The rest of the big companies have their houses pretty well in order.

Speaker A:

It'd never be as good as Call of Duty when you blow some guy's head off and you see the blood spurting out his neck.

Speaker C:

That's only if you're interested. Like you already. Blood and guts.

Speaker D:

Yeah.

Speaker B:

Yes, because everyone is.

Speaker C:

I am, I am too, by the way. So I want blood and guts. I don't get them anymore, unfortunately.

Speaker D:

What is this game name again? What is it with Bloody Call of Duty?

Speaker C:

There's every, every single game young just go look. And they all have blood and guts. But no, no, but all jokes aside, all jokes aside, there's. There could be quite good sound design in these games. And if that's done well, I think you can, you can get some of that like that visceral emotional experience that you get normally from.

Speaker B:

From visuals.

Speaker C:

Yeah, but it is, it is difficult because of course we've seen with audio description mixing that a lot of mixes are not very good. And so they sort of take away that emotional visceral experience compared to the normal, the non audio description version. So I think there's a lot to be learned still. And yes, of course, I mean, you know, you're blind, you're missing visual cues. That's always a miss. And I know there are a lot of people who are proud to be blind who think that, you know, being blind is just as good as not being blind. But you know, you miss input. That's just a fact. And so therefore, yeah, if, if there is a lot of that input, then you're gonna miss some things.

Speaker A:

Okay, well, let's try and organize that for soon for everybody to have a listen to how audio description for games and playing them.

Speaker B:

And Jamie, if you want to get involved in that.

Speaker D:

Yeah, let me know.

Speaker A:

Absolutely.

Speaker D:

Let him call?

Speaker A:

Yeah, please. So that's it for the show. Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for listening. We're off now to watch the another game of the FIFA World Cup.

Speaker D:

Yeah, FIFA.

Speaker A:

And remember, email is blind, guys. Chat Gmail.com. okay, bye.

Speaker D:

Bye.

Speaker C:

Bye.

Speaker B:

Thanks, guys.

As the world becomes more and more immersed in the FIFA 2026 World Cup, the Blind Guys assess FIFA’s audio description service for the games. Is it better than standard commentary or is it an own goal for FIFA?

Jan and Mo have been on a second date, and as usual they had chaperones; this time in the guise of former 'Big Cheese' at Vispero, Eric Damery and his lovely wife Pauline. The guys accepted no guilt for ordering 2 lobster salads and then running for the hills before the bill arrived!

Clodagh's got email questions about digital menus and QR codes, and a question about accessible gaming. If you’ve got big feelings (or small feelings) about accessible gaming, please get in touch – you might be included in a future episode about this topic! Email [email protected] and tell us all.

Finally, if you would like to hear and contribute to the next Audio Description Association VI User Group meeting, here are the details:

The next ADA VI user group will see Óran O’Neill speaking with James Flanagan from FSE. Football Supporters Europe’s Disability & Inclusion Fan Network is helping to ensure that supporters with disabilities have a stronger voice in shaping the future of football. James will talk to us about the vital role of Audio Descriptive Commentary in making football more accessible for blind and partially sighted fans, both in stadiums and on television. Drawing on his experience in disability inclusion and supporter advocacy, James tells us how accessible commentary can enhance the matchday experience and help ensure that football is truly a game for everyone.

Time: Jun 23, 2026 01:30 PM Dublin (GMT)

Join Zoom Meeting: https://tinyurl.com/ADAviUserGroup

Meeting ID: 873 1982 7571

So, strip down to your game jersey and shorts, run out into a field with painted white lines and prepare to listen to the best podcast this side of an overpriced subway train ticket: Blind Guys Chat - 18 out of 20 FIFA World Cup footballs prefer it to being kicked around!

Links for this show:

·       FIFA ADC app for iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fifa-audio-description/id6745691218

·       FIFA ADC app for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.fifa.adc.app\&hl=en_IE

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Blind Guys Chat 2020