Tech SingerAug 19, 2023
This is a weird request, but I figure the worst I can get for it is silence. I'm totally #blind and have very bad hearing. To set up a device through its inaccessible software, I'm in need of a sighted person for about an hour and a half to two hours who can access a computer remotely, speaks and reads English, and can describe images and graphs. The person needs to be quite patient with follow-up questions, needs to be willing to repeat if needed, as well as be able to click on items and describe what happens on the screen. The person needs to be fairly detail oriented because some of the images appear to have arrows and other ways to expand them, according to the manual. Though I'm happy to be reasonable, I have no clue how much to offer as payment, this is my first request of this kind. I'm posting it because I know we have some blind people here who may be able to point me towards someone who has done this before and may be willing to do it for such a short period. Boosts welcome, indeed, they're appreciated. #hearingimpaired #software #A11Y #accessibility #remote
Show threadSundew

@techsinger A word of caution - do be careful who you let access your computer!

This is essentially a classic telephone support scam in reverse! :)

The last thing anyone needs is to be dealing with scammers or identity thieves.

Aug 20, 2023 at 10:04amWeb
Show threadTech SingerAug 20, 2023
@sundew LOL at the classic tech support scam in reverse, I didn't think of it that way but do, of course, see the risks. I only do this because this is odd software (Phonak's target), and I have nobody here who is able to look at it and it's difficult to find someone through organizations. I plan to try to avoid the risks by, first, running the software on a VM (VMWare 17), secondly, having that VM on a host which is not connected to anything else, that is, the only network connection will be from the VM via hardware adapter to outside firewall where none of my other machines are, thirdly, having the machine running the host contain nothing interesting to anyone, fourthly, killing the connection if the screen reader goes silent or if the assistant leaves the Phonak Target window for a significant time and, finally, having the VM itself have nothing but Windows, the screen reader, and Target. The VM will be deleted after we're done. I mention all this just in case I'm missing something, if you have a second to think about this with me and see if I'm missing a hole, I would be deeply grateful. Thanks again for mentioning it.
Show threadSundewAug 20, 2023

@techsinger This sounds pretty robust!

I'm sure VM guest escapes are technically possible, but it sounds like you even intend to ring-fence the host. Great!

A couple of questions:
1. Would you be remoting to the guest VM the same way that your assistant is, or would you be connected to the host machine and monitoring to the guest using VMware?

2. If you are intending to remote in yourself, and given that this is all temporary, would you consider cloud hosting for it instead?

Show threadTech SingerAug 21, 2023
@sundew You know, if someone ever asks me why one should have several eyes on a setup, I'll just point them to this thread without any comment. Of course I ought to have considered putting it on a VPS and of course I didn't. I was planning to be at the machine myself and have it use the machine's soundcard for the screen reader with an air-gapped host (desktop, no Wifi, no BT, ethernet disconnected), but obviously a cloud setup is better. The difficulty is going to be in finding one with the desktop versions of Windows, I'm not sure if the program will install/run on Windows server which is all the VPS providers seem to want to let me use. If you know of someone, besides Microsoft's 365, who lets you use standard Win10/11 pro, I would really appreciate hearing of it. Thanks again for the hint, I have no idea why it was needed. Talk about lack of thought, it didn't even come to mind.