[access-uk] Re: Happy 20th Birthday, JAWS for Windows

  • From: "Derek Hornby" <derek.hornby_uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2015 19:12:33 -0000

Well  I think most Jaws customers  are employers of the users!
or the  customers are the  government as in say access to work.

So most users won't care how much jaws costs,  if not paying
personally!

Derek 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Mike Ray
Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2015 12:17 PM
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Happy 20th Birthday, JAWS for Windows


And I don't suppose anybody else who is an avid Jaws user can afford
to
throw a party, after paying for the thing.




On 29/01/2015 10:42, Jackie Brown wrote:
> Wish I could throw a party, but I have no inclination! (smile).
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Jackie Brown
> Emails: thebrownsplace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Jackieannbrown62@xxxxxxxxx
> jackie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Website: www.thebrownsplace.info
> Twitter: @thebrownsplace
> Skype: thejackmate
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of
> Colin Howard
> Sent: 28 January 2015 20:26
> To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [access-uk] Happy 20th Birthday, JAWS for Windows
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> Seen on the VicugL group, thought it may be of interest! Shows how
rapidly
> time passes!
> 
> From: David Goldfield <david.goldfield@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 20:46:24 -0500
> 
> Episode 102 of Freedom Scientific's FSCast podcast reminds us that
2015
> marks the 20th anniversary of the JAWS for Windows screen reader. In
fact,
> Jonathan Mosen reminds us that January is, in fact, the month in
which JAWS
> turned 20. I remember installing and using JFW 1.0 back in  January
of 1995
> and I thought I'd dedicate this short blog post to some  of my early
> memories of that product and of that time in general.
> 
> In 1995, I was working for Blazie Engineering providing technical
support.
> Windows 3.1 was a fairly well-established operating system with
several
> Windows screen readers already available, including Blazie's own
Windows
> Master which I believe was already out at that time. While I had
used
> Windows 3.1 and was familiar with it on a very basic level, I was a
edicated
> DOS user. While I was very familiar with Vocal-eyes and JAWS for
DOS, ASAP
> from Microtalk was my screen reader of choice, along with a trusty
Braille
> 'n Speak as my speech synthesizer.
> It was during the end of 1994 or the very beginning of 1995 when we
received
> our boxed copy of JAWS for Windows 1.0, with January 19, 1995 being
the
> official launch date of that product. If you really want to read a
piece of
> classic assistive technology history, you can, courtesy of the
Internet
> Archive's Wayback Machine, read the December 1994 Henter-Joyce
newsletter
> which, among other things, contains the big announcement regarding
JFW 1.0.
> 
> Around this time, I found out I had enlarged tonsils which needed to
be
> removed. As I constantly used my voice to do my job, it was
recommended I
> stay home for two weeks during my recuperation. This was, I decided,
the
> perfect time to finally dive into Windows 3.1 with our new copy of
JAWS for
> Windows, version 1.0.
> 
> The box contained a collection of cassette tapes with tutorials
recorded by
> Eric Damery and Ted Henter. Eric's voice is very familiar to JAWS
users as
> he annually introduces the new features which are being added to new
JAWS
> versions. Eric has participated in these recordings since the very
beginning
> of JFW and, even in the 1.0 days, was a fabulous and professional
presenter.
> I think the product was often referred to as JFW or JAWS for Windows
more
> than it is today as Henter-Joyce wanted to distinguish it from the
other
> JAWS product which ran on DOS machines.
> Once I listened to some of the tutorials, I installed the product
onto my
> Windows 3.1 machine from the included 3.5 inch floppy disks,
followed by the
> authorization key, also on a floppy, a form of copy protection I had
> previously never heard of and was having some difficulty wrapping my
mind
> around. After all, in those days most software packages never had
any sort
> of copy protection; you installed it and then used it.
> Well, the installation and authorization process went smoothly and,
soon
> thereafter, I had JFW working with my trusty Bns 640. After all, for
the
> most part we had no software-based synthesizers at that time and so
you
> needed a bns, Accent, Artic, Audapter, Dec-talk or Doubletalk to get
speech,
> with no Braille support at that time.
> They wanted JFW to feel like JAWS for DOS by giving it a PC cursor
as well
> as a JAWS cursor. It included the insert-G hotkey to label graphics
and the
> insert-T hotkey to read the window title, two features we didn't
really need
> in DOS. Insert-down arrow was the "say all" key and the other keys
on the
> numeric keypad tried to emulate what we were used to with JFD. I
remember
> this first version crashing quite a lot but this was quickly fixed
in an
> update which I probably downloaded from the Henter-Joyce BBS.
> 
> If you're curious about what was added in JFW 2.0, you can go to
their
> announcement on an old version of the Henter-Joyce home page, also
courtesy
> of the Internet Archive.
> Those early versions would have seemed so limited to us compared to
what we
> have today, but back then it was cutting-edge technology. The JAWS
cursor
> could only move within the active window. When using the Internet,
you had
> to press insert-f5 to reformat the page, which you read using the
JAWS
> cursor. You couldn't freely navigate through a Web page using
standard
> reading commands with the PC cursor the way you can with any screen
reader
> today. If my memory is correct, that capability didn't get
implemented until
> version 3.31. In fact, the ability to use single letter navigation
keys,
> such as pressing H for heading or N to jump to the next block of
text wasn't
> even implemented until a later version, probably around 3.5.
> What more can I say, except a happy 20th birthday to JFW, or JAWS as
we now
> call it. JAWS has certainly come a long way in the past 20 years. I
wonder
> what it will be like 20 years from now. I'm sure that it will be
supporting
> Windows 43 or whatever OS Microsoft will have pushed out to us and
we'll all
> have fond memories of running our screen readers on those ancient,
primitive
> Windows 7 computers. It's too bad that the Internet Archive doesn't
supply
> us with snapshots of pages from the future.
> 


-- 
Michael A. Ray
Analyst/Programmer
Witley, Surrey, South-east UK

Don't judge my disability until you witness my ability

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