Ari,
I hope you don't mind me replying to your email about screen-readers.
I have a Supernova Pen edition, can't remember the version number at
the
moment but it's only a couple of years old. Ten I think maybe?
I have stopped using Supernova and now use NVDA almost exclusively. I
dropped Supernova because my edition was not working at all with some
of the
software development tools I use, mostly I think because of the gradual
introduction of Windows Presentation Foundation for screen-painting,
and
because I was getting less than good support from Dolphin. Their mantra
seems to be 'give us more money and it will work'.
It's true I don't use the most up to date MS office products. If I do
use
office it's 2000 Premium and NVDA seems to work perfectly with that.
It's true that NVDA say on the Web site that it doesn't work very well
with
office but they list other products it does work with.
If you are doing work with voluntary or charity organisations I am
surprised
they are not making more use of Open Source software.
I think if I remember correctly, NVDA list these as tools to use with
NVDA:
Firefox browser
Thunderbird email client
IBM Lotus Symphony office suite.
I have not used Lotus Symphony but Firefox and Thunderbird work fine
with
NVDA.
NVDA supports a number of synthesisers. I use eSpeak almost
exclusively
because it is lean and mean. There is another nice little synthesiser
called svox pico that has a very real sounding voice. Of course I'm
not
sure about language support for languages other than English.
If your voluntary organisations wanted to save even more money it could
ditch Windows completely and go with Linux. There is a distribution of
Linux called Vinux that works with a screen-reader out-of-the-box so to
speak. But other people on here can tell you more about Vinux.
I would definitely look more carefully at NVDA to see if it will do
what you
want. The zero cost of it is a winner.
Mike Ray
UK
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ari Damoulakis" <aridamoulakis@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 8:46 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: WindowEyes V Jaws
Hi Steve
Can I please ask you, how good actually is Supernova Screen reader and
how does their activation policy work? Not really ignoring it, but
yes, what I do hate about jaws is, for example, I'm going to do some
voluntary work for eith a development or a legal NGO for a few weeks.
I want to do more with the NGO sector in my country and, because its
voluntary work and these ngos don't have much resources I have to make
my own plans about screenreaders anyway. Just because I have to use
someone else's system and bring my own jaws I have to use an
activation key (demo is not an option, can you imagine on a job having
to reboot every 30 minutes, mad). Then, because you have to use a key,
you have to justify yourself to fs to reset your keys. Not to mention
the even worse jaws feature (don't know if it still exists) the pro
version and standard version. I'm terrified my jaws won't work on the
computer I have to use anyway. Dolphin says they will give me 33%
discount if I trade in my jaws. I would go for that if SN is good, or
if their activation policy is different, or maybe I will try the pen
route, don't really know the difference between the pen and cd
version. I'm going to try the demo, but would be good to hear user
feedback. My other option is, here in South Africa we have a version
called the Sight Savers pen, but despite many emails to dolphin
support I still haven't got an answer, I know the cheap pen is a cut
down version of the full pen, but I want to know in what ways. Am
basically trying to find a propper solution here.
Instead of SN, how good would NVDA be with programs like excel and
outlook? I know you could put it on a pen, but I feel quite scared
that they will ask me to do something, nvda won't be up to the job
then I'll look really embarrassed (this would look awful and
unfortunately organisations are still very weary of hiring blind
people, so don't want to take the risk and, even though its voluntary
work, want to make a good impression) I've sort of played with nvda,
but never really gotten into it, I also hate the speech.
Like you say, the reason I don't do the WE is to me it does seem
unfair. Not really about the activation, I wouldn't mind so much if
everyone had it, but the fact that they have some sort of hierarchy,
like people in US, UK and Australia are trusted, so no activation or
protection, people in other countries aren't. I know of course they're
entitled to do that if that's what they want, and I probably would
admit that piracy occurs in the third world etc, but I don't want to
buy from a company who operates like that.
Ari
On 10/24/12, Michael Ray <mike.ray@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I think Dolphin are getting left behind.
I use NVDA. It's freeeeeee
Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ari Damoulakis" <aridamoulakis@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 5:24 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: WindowEyes V Jaws
Technically you can use jaws in safe mode. I can't remember if its
on
this list, but there's a registry change a person posted where it
starts up the audio device in safe mode. Look, I'm not saying we is
a
bad screen reader or anything like that, but like Collin points out,
if you're not in the UK you do have activation keys and all sorts of
stuff. Of course you can get someone in the UK to buy it for you as
a
workaround, but then how do you solve the problem of upgrading it
everytime?
There's also of course Supernova screen reader and the Cobra, but I
don't know how good they are and if they'd do what you want. Cobra
is
also nice because you can put it on as many computers as what you
use.
Ari
On 10/24/12, Colin Howard <colin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Greetings,
Jaws demands registration for everybody no matter where they are
and
far
as
I am aware, has only so many keys. Years ago, when I used
WindowEyes
at
work, this would have been in the mid 'nineties in the days of
Windows3.11
and W.E V.3 and around, UK users also had the hassal of
registration
and
number of keys Etc.
Colin Howard, living near Southampton in Southern
England.
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