[guispeak] Re: SBC Yahoo! DSL Accessibility
- From: gerald.g.weichbrodt@xxxxxx
- To: guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 09:59:52 -0500
Hi Laura,
I tried various things like virtualizing the window with JAWS (very useful
on many occasions, by the way). JAWS still only read the window title. I
recruited my son to look over my shoulder, and he was able to read lots of
stuff and to click buttons to move me forward. At one point JAWS was able
to read some license information, but most of the time the info on the
screen was totally lost to JAWS.
I'm toying with the thought of just attempting to make a network connection
to the modem. I understand, however, that there is some sort of signup
procedure one is supposed to go through for the service, and they tell you
you need to do that to begin using the service. I understand they have
their own browser, as well, but it remains to be seen whether said browser
is just another re-packaging of Netscape or Internet Explorer or what.
It's times like this where I really wish folks would just let you use
off-the-shelf software with a minimum of cutesy customizations.
Oh, by the way, I did do some browsing around the CD to look for set-up
programs, but the whole layout looked sufficiently complex that there
wasn't an obvious "start here" point. In fact, I found an embedded
setup.exe program that I thought might let me "cut to the chase", but that
just got me back into the same inaccessible nightmare I started with.
I have sighted help that can easily get us up and going, but I feel almost
obliged to ring the fine folks in technical support to yank their chain and
see if they've even heard of blind people. I sure didn't see anything
about documentation in alternative formats when I did the web-based
ordering of the service, and I have this nasty feeling that I've stumbled
into one of SBC's curb-cut-free zones.
I will try to keep notes on my experiences, especially if I decide to be
pigheaded and try to make them help me around their accessibility errors.
Perhaps this experience could turn into another article in one of the
blindness technology magazines as Darrell was suggesting.
Thanks,
Jerry
PS: I've been running Sygate Personal Firewall for some time, now, so I
whould be in pretty good shape on that front. In addition, the SBC Yahoo!
service I've signed up for doesn't give me a static IP, so at least the
Internet-based troublemakers will have a moving target to hunt down
<smile>.--Jerry
"Laura Eaves"
<leaves1@carolina To:
<guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
.rr.com> cc:
Sent by: Subject: [guispeak] Re: SBC
Yahoo! DSL Accessibility
guispeak@freelist
s.org
01/21/2005 09:29
AM
Please respond to
guispeak
Have you tried using the mouse cursor to get to a button or other control,
then routing PC to jaws and see if that fixes the problem?
Sometimes I run into this type of problem when starting a new app -- jaws
simply gets stuck at the top, and I have to do this routing to get it off
its original position.
After that it works better, but of course I don't know about the app you
are
running.
Hope you get it working!
Oh but I have a question: Why do you need to install anything to use the
DSL? Just do a little fiddling with your internet connections, get rid of
the dialups, or else just disable the modem, and use the ethernet or
wireless network to connect.
Also, if you have never used broadband, I would definitely recommend
getting
a firewall. The reason is that you are suddenly online all the time, on a
fixed IP address, and so snooping programs on the server can sniff you out
and install all kinds of malware on your system quite easily. With dialup
this is less of a problem since you are online for short intervals, and
also
you have a different IP address each time you dial up.
So be sure to get or enable your firewall.
There is one turned on by default in XP SP12.
Also, if your family has a wireless router, that hardware has a builtin
firewall and so all the computers on the wireless network in your house are
protected, but of course, you should also have a software firewall enabled
on your own PC in case there is spyware running on your system that
initiates connections from the inside to transmit personal information and
activity logs, etc.
This really happens.
Hope you have good virus protection and there are lots of spyware killers
and programs that prevent spyware from being installed from web pages.
In fact, coincidentally today I just downloaded spybot and other spyware
killers and ran scans and immunized my new system.
It actually found a bunchof suspicious keys in my registry and activity
logs
from known untrusted sites in my cookie folder.
But thankfully it didn't find any running spyware...
Anyway, hope this helps.
Do you have to use a special yahoo email program with this? or can you just
use the one you are used to, only connecting to DSL instead of the phone
modem?
Just wondering.
I actually have cable modem for my broadband so have never used DSL.
Good luck.
--le
----- Original Message -----
From: <gerald.g.weichbrodt@xxxxxx>
To: <guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 9:11 AM
Subject: [guispeak] SBC Yahoo! DSL Accessibility
Hi all,
I'm writing from Michigan U.S.A. I just bit the bullet and ordered SBC
Yahoo! DSL service for home. I got tired of tying up the phone line and
slow Internet access, I guess. Setting up the equipment seems pretty easy,
but I won't know for sure until I've actually seen it work. The trouble is
that the installation package for the software included with the service is
an accessibility nightmare. I started the installer and could only read
the title of the window using JAWS 6.0. Having my son look over my
shoulder demonstrated that there was lots of text on the screen as well as
buttons for making choices. Moving onward through the installer a few
screens (I didn't have time to finish the process this morning)
demonstrated that it wasn't just the opening screen that posed problems.
I wonder if anybody knows of any secrets that would allow a blind person to
get through the installer using a screen reader. I'd also be interested to
know if anybody has any secrets for where to e-mail a complaint on this
issue. I have a phone number for assistance in setting up my service, but
I'm afraid I'm just going to get a general-purpose technician type who
won't know a thing about accessibility issues and blind users. I would
really like to make SBC aware that they have a severe accessibility issue
here and, hopefully, find a route to get somebody sympathetic to the issue
working on it.
Thanks,
Jerry
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