Re: [orca-list] Christmas gift preparation, accessibility concern

[Nick Wood <nick microlitesoftware co uk>]

Hi Doug,

I've had my Echo Dot for about two weeks now and have had no major 
accessibility blockers - sure some things could be better, and you need 
to think creatively sometimes, but overall its not been too bad.

Initial Setup:

When you plug in the Echo for the first time, it will create its own 
Wifi network.

You are supposed to use the Alexa app on your phone to set up the 
device, but I had some accessibility issues with the Android Alexa app 
that would have required some sighted assistance.

So instead, I used my laptop to set it up.
(Fedora 26/Orca 3.26/Firefox)

With my laptop connected to my LAN via Ethernet, I connected the Wifi 
adapter to the Echo's Wifi network. So my laptop now had two connections 
- wired to my LAN and wireless to the Echo.

I then went to alexa.amazon.com in Firefox and followed the setup new 
device prompts.

Everything went smoothly and the Echo was up and running in no time.

The Alexa web site works reasonably well with Orca - I'm not sure that 
accessibility has necessarily been given the priority it deserves by 
Amazon but its certainly not the worst website out there by far.

Alexa Skills Kit:

I assume you're planning on developing your own skills for Alexa if 
you're asking about the Alexa Skills Kit.  If so there are two websites 
you'll need to get familiar with:
developer.amazon.com is where you create yourself a developer account 
and access the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK).

console.aws.amazon.com is where you access the AWS console (Amazon Web 
Services) for hosting your LAMBDA functions.

Both these sites are mostly OK - there are a couple of areas where I 
struggled, but once you get to know the layout of the pages and where 
things appear or pop-up, they're not too bad.

Alexa can be a lot of fun - so enjoy playing around with it and if you 
do run into any problems feel free to contact me offlist and I'll do my 
best to help.

Regards,

Nick

On 04/12/17 03:36, Doug Smith wrote:
> Ok, I am getting an Amazon Echo for Christmas this year.  This sounds 
> like a lot of fun, doesn't it?  I wonder if anyone else on here has one 
> and can describe the experience of setting it up with the web interface 
> and using the Alexa skills kit.