Hi, David;
Tom passed a few years ago. I don't recall exactly when. I knew him from
school. He was a year behind John and me. I would've attended his funeral but
wasn't informed of his death until months later.Tom and I were good friends
while in school but like many others I grew up with, we lost track of each
other until Jim O'neill put me in touch with Tom. Shortly afterward, I and
Martin, Marsha and several others joined their computer group, the one I
mentioned to you around the time you were establishing this one. Take care.
Lillian
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-philly-comp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-philly-comp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Goldfield
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 7:22 PM
To: Philadelphia Computer Users Group for the Blind and Visually Impaired
<blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Re: Farewell to Window-Eyes: My Memories Of a
Unique Screen Reader
Hi, Lillian.
I am so sorry to hear that Tom Gerhart is no longer with us on this side
of eternity. I met him in 1991 and he was actually one of the people who
was quite instrumental in getting me into computers. He sold me my very
first DOS-based computer in those days, with an early version of
Vocal-Eyes. While I eventually discovered JAWS for DOS and then became
quite attached to ASAP, Vocal-Eyes was my first introduction to screen
reading and it made a very good first impression. It was stable,
reliable and came with excellent documentation. It was Tom who first
introduced me to DOS but I lost touch with him shortly after acquiring
that old XT.
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist Feel free to visit my
Web site WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info
On 5/31/2017 4:48 PM, Lillian Way wrote:
Hi, David;
Thanks for championing our beloved WE. True, it's not perfect but is any
screen reader perfect? Still, those of us who trained with it, feel like
we're losing a loved one, with whom we've had a love-hate relationship over
the years of it's existence and willmiss it when support for it is no longer
an option. I got mine in September of 1999 from CAT, owned and operated by
Tom Gerhart, now deceased. It came with a version of Vocal Eyes. That version
I believe was 3.1 and was installed on my Windows 98 computer which was my
first and was replaced by my XP in spring of 2007. Take care.,
Lillian
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-philly-comp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:blind-philly-comp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Goldfield
Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2017 4:13 PM
To: Philadelphia Computer Users Group for the Blind and Visually Impaired
<blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Farewell to Window-Eyes: My Memories Of a Unique
Screen Reader
The following is a blog post I just uploaded concerning my memories of
Window-Eyes, as well as my feelings about its disappearance.
On May 19, we celebrated Global Accessibility Awareness Day. It is
ironic that, four days earlier on May 15, GW Micro (VFO) announced the
news that the Window-Eyes screen reader would cease development. All
users who were using the commercial version of Window-Eyes would be
entitled to upgrade to JAWS, with users of version 9.0 or later being
given the chance to receive a JAWS 18 license at no additional cost.
Users of the free Window-Eyes for Users of Microsoft Office version,
such as myself, are an exception and would not be entitled to upgrade to
JAWS at a discount price.
This news was both sad and, for many, hardly unexpected. After AI
Squared became a part of VFO Group, Jonathan Mosen interviewed David Wu
on Freedom Scientific’s FSCast podcast. Mr. Wu was formerly CEO of AI
Squared and is now VP of Software Business at VFO. While Mr. Wu tried to
keep the tone very positive and upbeat, reading between the lines made
it clear to me that JAWS and Zoomtext were VFO’s primary products and
Mr. Wu seemed a bit less reassuring when discussing MAGic or
Window-Eyes, although these are clearly my own impressions of the FSCast
interview from June of 2016. Maybe he didn’t mean to present that
impression but that’s what I came away with when I heard the interview.
Perhaps it’s true that JAWS is the world’s most popular screen reader.
I’ve been a user of JAWS since version 1.0 shipped on several floppy
disks, along with Eric Damery and Ted Henter providing tutorials on
cassette tapes, and I’ve seen the program evolve into a powerful and
capable screen reader. JAWS 18 is most definitely one of the most
feature-rich screen readers you could install onto your Windows computer
and its popularity is certainly well-deserved. However, one of the
things which I value is consumer choice. While I regularly use Microsoft
Office to perform the majority of my word processing tasks I am grateful
that we have worthy alternatives, such as the free LibreOffice, to allow
users to perform similar tasks using quality software. While I respect
the feature set of Microsoft Outlook I prefer to use Mozilla Thunderbird
for sending, reading and sorting email while I’m at home.
The same is true for screen readers. I’ve already expressed my
admiration for JAWS and feel that it’s an amazing access package.
However, for financial reasons I use NVDA as my screen reader of choice
and occasionally have used the free version of Window-Eyes for users of
Microsoft Office. Consumer choice is an important thing when it comes to
access. One screen reader may meet the needs of an individual more than
another, for a variety of reasons. Sadly, VFO buying AI Squared has
taken one of these choices away from us, which I feel is a tremendous loss.
I’ve been a trainer and, to some extent, a user of Window-Eyes since the
late 1990s. It offered some very unique features and capabilities which,
in some ways, weren’t always available in other screen readers and I’d
like to take some time to celebrate the unique features Window-Eyes
brought to the table.
First, let’s consider the way we browse the Web using our preferred
browser of choice. Nowadays, screen readers are able to reformat complex
Web pages and render them in the same way that a word processor opens a
document, allowing the user to navigate the Web page using standard
arrow key navigation. This is now a given and something we’ve come to
expect when using a screen reader on the Web. This capability exists
with JAWS, NVDA and in VoiceOver on the Mac. However, it was Window-Eyes
which first offered this feature, a year or so before JAWS implemented
it, if memory serves. True, in those early days it took a long time for
some Web pages to load and so the feature wasn’t always a joy to use.
Admittedly, when JAWS implemented the feature they did it much better in
those days, with Web pages loading very quickly. Over the years,
Window-Eyes improved by also loading pages much faster but the point is
that Window-Eyes pioneered that feature which we all take for granted now.
Window-Eyes was also the first screen reader to support Mozilla Firefox,
something which we now enjoy with JAWS as well as NVDA.
Window-Eyes is probably the only screen reader with the capability of
launching with speech, when possible, in safe mode. This is a feature I
have yet to encounter in other screen readers.
If your system’s volume was muted or at a low level, Window-Eyes could
be configured to load, forcing the volume to be unmuted and raising the
volume level. This solves the problem where someone accidentally or
intentionally muted your speakers, causing a minor nightmare when you
tried to load your screen reader and receive no speech output. These are
capabilities I’d love to see in other screen readers, such as NVDA and
JAWS.
One of my favorite Window-Eyes features is actually something which was
probably in the earliest versions and was also found in the Vocal-Eyes
screen reader for DOS. The feature to which I’m referring was known as
cursor keys. It differed from the other hotkeys in that, with hotkeys,
the function you assign to a key bypassed that key’s original function.
In other words, if you assign the hotkey ctrl+L to read the current line
under the caret or cursor the line would be spoken when the key was
pressed. However, if you pressed that hotkey while in Word to left
justify your text the key wouldn’t function, instead reading the current
line (unless you used the Bypass key first.) However, the cursor keys
feature was unique in that the original function of the key you chose to
define would not be lost. Therefore, if you wanted the Home key to speak
the current character you could assign that function to the Home key,
without interfering with the key’s original function. When the key was
pressed, the key would move the cursor to the beginning of the line as
designed, followed by the function or functions you assigned to that
key. This allowed for some amazing flexibility which is not even
available with JAWS, unless you’re willing to learn scripting.
Speaking of scripting, I’ll end my Window-Eyes memories with a
discussion of that program’s most amazing feature, utilized in a way not
found in other screen readers.
Starting with version 7.0, Window-Eyes added the ability for its users
to write customized scripts in order to add additional functionality to
the screen reader. Many people may be quick to remind me that JAWS has
had this feature since the very beginning, first with giving users the
ability to write macros and, starting with JFW version 3.0, calling them
scripts. While this is true, there are some differences in the way this
capability was being offered.
First, GW Micro allowed its users, as well as their staff, to upload
scripts to a central repository on their Web site known as Script
Central. Later, they made the brilliant decision to do a bit of
rebranding and scripts, which sound scary and challenging, became apps,
which sound like a lot of fun. Let’s face it; nobody knows anything
about what a script is but anybody with a smartphone or tablet is an
expert on apps. With this change, Script Central became App Central and
Window-Eyes had its very own, user-friendly app store. Apps were quite
plentiful, grouped into categories and users could add their own
comments on the various apps which they liked. Window-Eyes even came
with an app which allowed for easy navigation to this specialized app
store. Apps could then easily be downloaded and installed, using similar
screens which you would encounter when installing any piece of software.
You could navigate through the Window-Eyes Apps menu to examine the list
of apps you had installed and could easily remove apps you no longer
wanted. Apps could even alert you when they had updates and those
updates could easily be installed. The concept was positively ingenious.
I never understood why JAWS, with its powerful scripting language, never
offered a similar repository. In the screen reader’s early days
Henter-Joyce did offer some scripts on its Web site but this is no
longer the case. If you want to locate scripts for your copy of JAWS you
must locate them on third-party Web sites.
To be quite honest, Window-Eyes was far from perfect. In spite of its
innovative features there were times when I felt I was using a not quite
ready for prime-time beta, rather than a final release. Of course, no
software is without its bugs but, to me, it always felt as though
Window-Eyes had more than its share of them and I sometimes found it to
be frustrating to use.
In spite of this I still feel that the assistive technology landscape
has been greatly diminished at having one less screen reader for users
to work with. It is a regrettable consequence of AI Squared becoming a
part of VFO Group and I am sorry for all users of Window-Eyes who are
now forced to switch to a new screen reader.
In closing, I would first like to ask VFO to respectfully consider
donating the Window-Eyes source code to the community for further
development. If you feel that you no longer wish to develop the screen
reader please consider releasing it to the community as there are many
Window-Eyes users who don’t want to see the demise of their favorite
screen reader.
Finally, I would like to thank the developers of GW Micro, both for
their work with Vocal-Eyes for DOS as well as with Window-Eyes. You have
made an important and memorable contribution to users of blindness
assistive technology. I sincerely thank you for providing us with a
unique, easy to use and customizable screen reader.
