[jawsscripts] FW: Creating JAWS Scripts for station Playlist
- From: "Brian Hartgen" <jaws@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 22 May 2009 18:27:26 +0100
This message was originally sent to the Playlist Studio mailing list, but
given its subject I thought I should send it here as well.
Hi
Jonathan Mosen, who I understand has been using Station Playlist for some
considerable time, does so using the JAWS screen-reader. While the Station
Playlist program is extremely accessible, (one of the best programs I have
ever seen in terms of high quality accessibility), he realised it would be
nice to have access to specific parts of the screen very quickly and other
utilities accomplished through JAWS scripting and that they would be useful
to others. I have volunteered to take on this task and am looking for input
from anyone who may be interested in suggesting features for the scripts.
Some ideas Jonathan thought about, and which would be easy to do, would be
to create hot keys to read things like:
The currently playing track;
The elapsed time;
The next upcoming track;
The temperature;
The time remaining;etc.
A few additional thoughts came to my mind while initially getting to know
the application, as follows:
Extended Information Mode. Currently, using Up/Down Arrow keys causes jaws
to read the file name and time I think. However, there is a great deal more
that I can gain from the app due to the high level of accessibility already
built-in, rather than "scraping information from the screen". So when you
arrow through, you could hear the title, artist, category, full file path
etc. Pressing the SayLine key twice quickly could place this information in
the hvirtual viewer for closer inspection. This extended mode could be
enabled or disabled by the user.
There is information displayed in the main window which gives an
approximation of the time, perhaps as a broadcaster would announce it, such
as "half past eight" etc. This could be placed on the Insert+F12 keystroke.
Pressing this key twice quickly would output the regular function of jaws
announcing the system clock.
The other thought I had related to the jingle carts. My thought was that,
while the program contains a large number of hot keys for activating the
carts, it would be quite nice to bring them into a list. The list would
initially contain items such as "cart1", "cart2" etc, but I would give you
the opportunity of renaming them to something of your choosing. This in
turn would enable you to bring up the list, use first letter navigation to
choose what you are looking for, and press Enter to play the cart. I've not
used the program really, so that maybe is not what you are looking for, but
it just struck me it may be a good idea.
Now I've only been using the demo program for a day or so, and I can already
see potential here. You guys are much more experienced with it. So I
welcome any ideas or suggestions you would like to have included. It
doesn't matter how adventurous the idea may sound. I'm used to being
creative and thinking of ideas for script-based products, so what may seem
impossible may actually be quite achievable.
If there is enough interest, I'll start a temporary mailing list to discuss
these ideas and to share the scripts as their development undoubtedly will
evolve over time. But in the first instance, perhaps register your interest
by replying to this message or by writing to me at
jaws@xxxxxxxxxxx
and we'll see how it develops.
You can also follow me on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/brianhartgen
Thank you for reading.
Brian Hartgen
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