Re: Preview of JAWS 12

  • From: Alex Midence <alex.midence@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2010 09:23:13 -0500

Hmmmh.  I'd like to see Jaws behave itself when it encounters the
ribbon in other non-microsoft applications that incorporate the
ribbon.  Apparently, there are lots of developers out there who are
crazy about the ribbon interface and consider themselves as being
"hip"; "up with the times"; modern, when they put it in their apps
using something like c-sharp and the windows forms features of visual
studio dot net.  I have yet to encounter an application that was not
made by microsoft whose ribbon interface was accessible.  Has anyone
experienced anything to the contrary?  It is appalling to me that this
should be so three years after the interface has been around.  I am
sick and tired of having to use outdated methods of interfacing with
software because A.T. vendors can't keep up.  How many years was
Windows out before we could migrate to it from DOS?  I think it was
like 1996 or something before something truly viable came out as a
screen reader and that was already after windows 3.1, 3.11 and Windows
95 had come out.  Look at Apple's macIntosh computers.  A
little-remembered factoid for you guys not old enough to have messed
with pc's in the mid 80's is that Apple computers were among the first
to be usable by a blind person.  There was something called an Echo2
which was a speaker that plugged into something else called an Apple
II E computer.  This worked as a speech synthesizer and then you'd run
a program called Bex (Oh, lord but that was a horrible program and the
speech output was just horrrid!  Horrid!) but, you could write
documents and such with it.  Us kids thought we were regular geeks
using it!  When apple released the MacIntosh, however, noone cared to
make it accessible.  No blind person could use it until Apple
themselves coded a built-in screen reader.  Nobody else cared to
tackle it even though it's one of the most user-friendly operating
systems ever to hit the market.

Perhaps the ribbon interface other developers can code into the system
is dependent on UIA and it's hard to use because Jaws poorly supports
it.  I hope this also is something that changes in Jaws 12.  Pardon my
rant.

Have a nice day and thanks for the post.
alex M


On 8/3/10, Delaunay Christophe <christophe.delaunay@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Hi,
>
>
>
> Several things may help you get what sighted people see on your screen.
>
>
>
> (1)    Turn off virtual cursor. With real cursor, you won't get anything
> outside the screen.
>
> (2)    Pres <insert+v>. Then, arrow down to "Document presentation". In the
> tree view on the left of the screen, this item is just under "General
> options". Then press the space bar to hear "Screen layout" and <enter> to
> save your settings. This time, you have a quite poor geometric
> representation of the screen layout but if what you want is to "see" what
> sighted people see, it's better than nothing.
>
> (3)    If you have a braille display, put it in "line" mode and "8 pixles
> per space". This way, the braille display presents the text like it is
> written on the screen. Of course, it is far from being perfect yet but you
> can definitely know which part of text is above or below which other.
>
>
>
> I know that we are far yet from what Papenmeier did with their famous
> WinDOTS screen reader for windows 3.11 but who cares really? Seems that
> nobody does because WinDOTS was a real flop.
>
>
>
> HTH. Have a nice day. Chris D
>
>
>
> rom: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
> Cy Selfridge
> Sent: mardi 3 août 2010 14:36
> To: jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: Preview of JAWS 12
>
>
>
> Gerald,
>
> Speaking of the workplace one thing I would *really* like to see is JAWS
> actually reading what is on the screen as viewed by the Sightlings. (LOL)
>
> Even with JAWS 11 folks ask "where on Earth is JAWS reading fromn?".
>
> Cy, The Anasazi
>
>
>
> From: jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:jfw-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
> Of Gerald Levy
> Sent: Tuesday, August 03, 2010 5:50 AM
> To: JFW list
> Subject: Preview of JAWS 12
>
>
>
>
>
> Here's a brief preview of JAWS 12 I just came across:
>
>
>
>
> by Curtis Chong
>
>
>
> In early July, I attended a three-hour session conducted by Freedom
> Scientific during which the company provided a sneak preview of JAWS for
> Windows Version
> 12. Freedom Scientific has been working on this newest release of JAWS for
> more than a year, and it is hoped that JAWS 12 will be released before the
> end
> of 2010.
>
>
>
> Long-time JAWS users will be interested to know that in JAWS 12, Freedom
> Scientific proposes to replace the familiar JAWS Configuration Manager with
> something
> called the Settings Center. In the Settings Center, you can search for the
> setting that you want to change and then simply make the change. It is no
> longer
> necessary to explore a variety of menus to track down where, for example,
> you can change the level of punctuation that JAWS speaks or increase the
> speaking
> rate of JAWS. Also, in the Settings Center, your last 25 changes will be
> displayed at the bottom of the tree view, making it easier for you to fix a
> setting
> that might have been adjusted incorrectly or adjust settings that you change
> frequently.
>
>
>
> Another feature included in JAWS 12 is the ability to operate your computer
> from the Braille keyboard of any connected refreshable Braille display.
> Using
> the Braille keys, you can enter any character that would be entered through
> a standard QWERTY keyboard, and this includes all JAWS commands as well.
>
>
>
> Also, a proficient Grade II Braille user will be able to enter text in
> contracted Braille and have the result reverse-translated on the fly. I do
> not see
> much value in this feature for me, personally, but I hesitate to criticize
> the investment in time and effort that has been made by Freedom Scientific;
> I simply do not know how many Braille users out there have been longing to
> operate their computer from a Braille keyboard.
>
>
>
> The final noteworthy feature in JAWS 12 is the ability to use a Virtual
> Ribbon in Microsoft Office. Some blind computer users have expressed
> frustration
> with the ribbon that has been incorporated into Microsoft Office 2007 and
> now into Office 2010. What Freedom Scientific is proposing for JAWS 12 is to
> give the Office user the choice of whether to use the ribbon as is or to use
> the Virtual Ribbon provided by JAWS. This Virtual Ribbon provides a user
> experience
> that feels more like the traditional menus with which a lot of people are
> familiar. Time will tell whether this feature is worth the investment. As
> for
> me, since I feel quite comfortable with the Office ribbon as it is, I will
> probably choose not to use the JAWS Virtual Ribbon that comes with JAWS 12.
>
>
>
> In all, JAWS 12 seems like a bit of an improvement over JAWS 11. Certainly,
> Freedom Scientific has incorporated some new features which some people will
> like. As for me, I would wish for features in JAWS which make it easier for
> blind people to compete in the workplace-something which Freedom Scientific
> seems to have lost sight of over the years.
>
>
>
> Gerald
>
>
--
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:
To post a message to the list, send it to jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send a message to 
jfw-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word unsubscribe in the subject line.
Archives located at: //www.freelists.org/archives/jfw
Alternative archives located at: 
http://n2.nabble.com/JAWS-for-Windows-f2145279.html

If you have any concerns about the list, post received from the list, or the 
way the list is being run, do not post them to the list. Rather contact the 
list owner at jfw-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Other related posts: