RE: PowerBraille and JAWS
- From: "Ron McEwan" <ron.mcewan@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 23 Sep 2009 12:54:51 -0600
I have a Braille star 80, handytech, and it is working great under 32bit
windows xp with beta 11.
In the Journey,
Ron
-----Original Message-----
From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of Voy44
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 11:17 AM
To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: PowerBraille and JAWS
Hi Moti,
I have a Handy Tech display, and this one doesn't work either on 32 bit
Windows.
I already contacted FS in Germany about this.
Regards,
Nermin----- Original Message -----
From: "Moti Azrad" <motia@xxxxxxx>
To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 6:16 PM
Subject: Re: PowerBraille and JAWS
> Nermin,
>
> As I wrote, I am tryng to use my Baum Supervario40 Braille display with
> Jaws 11 Beta 32 Bits without success.
> It sure worked well with the other previous Jaws versions: 10' 9 Etc.
> I do hope that FS will do the best that we, the blind pc users can
> continue using our third party Braille displays with Jaws 11 32 bits and I
> think that we the blind users must encourage and push all the companies
> that produce devices for us as Braille displays Etc, to make sure that
> they will work properly with the existing screen readers in the market at
> that moment.
>
> I wrote to FS but didn't get any response yet.
> When I get, sure I'll let you all know.
>
> Thanks
>
> Moti
>
>
>
> Moti Azrad
> Musician & Piano Tuner
> motia@xxxxxxx
> motiaz@xxxxxxxxx
> azrad_moty@xxxxxxxxxxx
> ISRAEL
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Voy44" <voy44@xxxxxxxx>
> To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 6:18 PM
> Subject: Re: PowerBraille and JAWS
>
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> the Powerbraille issue is surely to do with the new secure Braille Driver
>> iniciative FS started recently.
>>
>> This is from the J11 Help topic, and below that message, I am pasting an
>> article published in the GW Micro blog, since many concerns have been
>> expressed by Window Eyes users.
>> This is not meant as a flame war, just an information that everyone can
>> use and think for themselves.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Nermin
>>
>> JAWS Help:
>>
>> Third Party Braille Displays
>> When installing the 32-bit version of JAWS, all braille display drivers
>> previously shipped in earlier versions of JAWS will continue to be
>> provided and work with JAWS 11 as expected.
>>
>> For JAWS 64-bit, Freedom Scientific braille displays, such as the Focus,
>> PAC Mate Portable, and PowerBraille displays, will be included and
>> installed as part of the JAWS 11 installation. Third party braille
>> display manufacturers will be provided separately from the manufacturers
>> themselves. At the time of this writing, only Papenmeier in Germany has
>> completed and published their drivers for JAWS 11 and JAWS 10 on 64-bit
>> Windows.
>>
>> After the support files are installed on your computer, you will continue
>> to use the JAWS Synthesizer and Braille Manager to add a third party
>> braille display to use with JAWS.
>>
>> JAWS Help End
>>
>> GW Micro Blog
>>
>> I've been asked by many people what I think about the announcement from
>> Freedom Scientific entitled "Freedom Scientific Announces Secure and
>> Compatible Braille Display Initiative" dated August 11, 2009. The direct
>> URL
>> to this announcement on Freedom Scientifics' web page is:
>>
>>
http://www.freedomscientific.com/news/pressroom/2009/secure-compatible-brail
>> le-displays.asp
>>
<http://www.freedomscientific.com/news/pressroom/2009/secure-compatible-brai
>> lle-displays.asp>
>>
>> First, a little background. In order to get a Braille display to work
>> with
>> any screen reader, a driver has to be written to specifically support it.
>> This driver is responsible for communicating between the hardware and the
>> screen reader itself. This way the screen reader doesn't have to get
>> bogged
>> down with the technical details of each and every display. A simple
>> interface is provided and, as long as the Braille driver is written to
>> talk
>> to this simple interface, the screen reader will work with it "out of the
>> box." According to this announcement, starting with JAWS 11, the
>> developers
>> of these Braille drivers will now have to work with Freedom Scientific to
>> get their driver digitally signed by Freedom Scientific before JAWS 11
>> will
>> use the driver. Stated another way, until the Braille driver for your
>> Braille display is digitally signed, JAWS 11 will not talk to your
>> Braille
>> display. This is all being done in the name of security and in fact the
>> announcement starts by saying "The goal of this new program is to follow
>> Microsoft's move to signed drivers to improve security and compatibility
>> for
>> customers who use a Braille display with JAWS."
>>
>> There is much confusion regarding this announcement ranging from, "Does
>> this
>> make any difference," to, "Will this affect my copy of Window-Eyes?" Let
>> me
>> state, very clearly, that this will not affect Window-Eyes in any way.
>> However, I feel compelled to comment on this announcement as it does
>> affect
>> the screen reader community in general.
>>
>> It is true that digitally signing drivers is typically a good thing. This
>> is
>> why all of the necessary Window-Eyes executables and DLL files are
>> digitally
>> signed using a valid certificate unique to GW Micro. In fact, we go to
>> the
>> extra effort to have our mirror driver (which is used by Windows Vista
>> and
>> Windows 7) thoroughly tested by Microsoft in order to get Microsoft's
>> digital signature. That's security on top of security. You may not have
>> noticed but as you install Window-Eyes on Vista or Windows 7, you never
>> receive a "Windows can't verify the publisher of this driver software"
>> warning. This is because we have worked with Microsoft to properly
>> register
>> and sign our driver. There is a very minimal cost required for this
>> service,
>> and we only have to pay for this service whenever we change our mirror
>> driver.
>>
>> If you were to install JAWS 10 or 11 on Vista or Windows 7 you would
>> notice
>> the "Windows can't verify the publisher of this driver software" warning,
>> asking if you want to trust the driver or not. This indicates the JAWS
>> mirror driver has not been digitally signed by Microsoft.
>>
>> Security warning screen shot
>> <http://www.gwmicro.com/images/blog/security_1.png>
>>
>> Driver signing screen shot
>> <http://www.gwmicro.com/images/blog/security_2.png>
>>
>> I have a hard time accepting the concept of requiring digitally signed
>> Braille drivers in the name of security when the JAWS mirror driver
>> itself
>> isn't digitally signed by Microsoft.
>>
>> From unofficial sources I've heard that Freedom Scientific is charging a
>> great deal of money for the privilege of signing the Braille drivers.
>> Unlike
>> Microsoft's policy of only charging a nominal fee when the driver
>> changes,
>> they charge an annual fee, even if the driver isn't updated. Large
>> Braille
>> companies may be able to afford this, but smaller companies cannot, and
>> may
>> be forced to make undesirable decisions that end up putting the end user
>> at
>> a disadvantage. It is easy to see how a Braille display manufacturer with
>> these increased costs might have to raise their prices.
>>
>> I think it is worth describing how Window-Eyes communicates with its
>> Braille
>> drivers. Under Vista and Windows 7, both JAWS and Window-Eyes need to run
>> with UI Access. This means we are running at an elevated security level.
>> With this higher security level comes responsibility. Because we are
>> elevated, we have to be very careful of what we do and what we allow the
>> user to do. There are many things that we prohibit, ranging from not
>> running
>> any scripts on secure desktops (like the log on screen where you type
>> your
>> username and password) to not allowing a script to receive key presses
>> while
>> typing in a password edit box. We also do things like not allowing the
>> Braille driver we are communicating with to run at the elevated privilege
>> that Window-Eyes itself is running. This way, if a bad Braille driver did
>> somehow get installed (which would require admin rights to do, and a
>> confirmation by the end user) it still wouldn't have elevated privileges
>> to
>> do anything really nasty. These kinds of security features are built into
>> Window-Eyes automatically.
>>
>> So why am I writing about all this? First: Window-Eyes users should know
>> that Freedom Scientific's new requirement will not affect them in any
>> way;
>> Window-Eyes will continue to openly support Braille displays without
>> additional requirements or cost to the driver developer. Second: know
>> that
>> signing Braille drivers doesn't really help with security, especially if
>> security is greatly lacking in other parts of an application. Third: it
>> is
>> important that the blind community be mindful of what is happening in the
>> screen reader arena. Review the facts, and approaches behind the changes
>> you
>> read about, and make your own decisions.
>>
>> --
>> JFW related links:
>> JFW homepage: http://www.freedomscientific.com/
>> Scripting mailing list:
>> http://lists.the-jdh.com/listinfo.cgi/scriptography-the-jdh.com
>> JFW List instructions:
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>> http://n2.nabble.com/JAWS-for-Windows-f2145279.html
>>
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>
> --
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>
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