Hi Laura, I tried various things like virtualizing the window with JAWS (very useful on many occasions, by the way). JAWS still only read the window title. I recruited my son to look over my shoulder, and he was able to read lots of stuff and to click buttons to move me forward. At one point JAWS was able to read some license information, but most of the time the info on the screen was totally lost to JAWS. I'm toying with the thought of just attempting to make a network connection to the modem. I understand, however, that there is some sort of signup procedure one is supposed to go through for the service, and they tell you you need to do that to begin using the service. I understand they have their own browser, as well, but it remains to be seen whether said browser is just another re-packaging of Netscape or Internet Explorer or what. It's times like this where I really wish folks would just let you use off-the-shelf software with a minimum of cutesy customizations. Oh, by the way, I did do some browsing around the CD to look for set-up programs, but the whole layout looked sufficiently complex that there wasn't an obvious "start here" point. In fact, I found an embedded setup.exe program that I thought might let me "cut to the chase", but that just got me back into the same inaccessible nightmare I started with. I have sighted help that can easily get us up and going, but I feel almost obliged to ring the fine folks in technical support to yank their chain and see if they've even heard of blind people. I sure didn't see anything about documentation in alternative formats when I did the web-based ordering of the service, and I have this nasty feeling that I've stumbled into one of SBC's curb-cut-free zones. I will try to keep notes on my experiences, especially if I decide to be pigheaded and try to make them help me around their accessibility errors. Perhaps this experience could turn into another article in one of the blindness technology magazines as Darrell was suggesting. Thanks, Jerry PS: I've been running Sygate Personal Firewall for some time, now, so I whould be in pretty good shape on that front. In addition, the SBC Yahoo! service I've signed up for doesn't give me a static IP, so at least the Internet-based troublemakers will have a moving target to hunt down <smile>.--Jerry "Laura Eaves" <leaves1@carolina To: <guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> .rr.com> cc: Sent by: Subject: [guispeak] Re: SBC Yahoo! DSL Accessibility guispeak@freelist s.org 01/21/2005 09:29 AM Please respond to guispeak Have you tried using the mouse cursor to get to a button or other control, then routing PC to jaws and see if that fixes the problem? Sometimes I run into this type of problem when starting a new app -- jaws simply gets stuck at the top, and I have to do this routing to get it off its original position. After that it works better, but of course I don't know about the app you are running. Hope you get it working! Oh but I have a question: Why do you need to install anything to use the DSL? Just do a little fiddling with your internet connections, get rid of the dialups, or else just disable the modem, and use the ethernet or wireless network to connect. Also, if you have never used broadband, I would definitely recommend getting a firewall. The reason is that you are suddenly online all the time, on a fixed IP address, and so snooping programs on the server can sniff you out and install all kinds of malware on your system quite easily. With dialup this is less of a problem since you are online for short intervals, and also you have a different IP address each time you dial up. So be sure to get or enable your firewall. There is one turned on by default in XP SP12. Also, if your family has a wireless router, that hardware has a builtin firewall and so all the computers on the wireless network in your house are protected, but of course, you should also have a software firewall enabled on your own PC in case there is spyware running on your system that initiates connections from the inside to transmit personal information and activity logs, etc. This really happens. Hope you have good virus protection and there are lots of spyware killers and programs that prevent spyware from being installed from web pages. In fact, coincidentally today I just downloaded spybot and other spyware killers and ran scans and immunized my new system. It actually found a bunchof suspicious keys in my registry and activity logs from known untrusted sites in my cookie folder. But thankfully it didn't find any running spyware... Anyway, hope this helps. Do you have to use a special yahoo email program with this? or can you just use the one you are used to, only connecting to DSL instead of the phone modem? Just wondering. I actually have cable modem for my broadband so have never used DSL. Good luck. --le ----- Original Message ----- From: <gerald.g.weichbrodt@xxxxxx> To: <guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, January 21, 2005 9:11 AM Subject: [guispeak] SBC Yahoo! DSL Accessibility Hi all, I'm writing from Michigan U.S.A. I just bit the bullet and ordered SBC Yahoo! DSL service for home. I got tired of tying up the phone line and slow Internet access, I guess. Setting up the equipment seems pretty easy, but I won't know for sure until I've actually seen it work. The trouble is that the installation package for the software included with the service is an accessibility nightmare. I started the installer and could only read the title of the window using JAWS 6.0. Having my son look over my shoulder demonstrated that there was lots of text on the screen as well as buttons for making choices. Moving onward through the installer a few screens (I didn't have time to finish the process this morning) demonstrated that it wasn't just the opening screen that posed problems. I wonder if anybody knows of any secrets that would allow a blind person to get through the installer using a screen reader. I'd also be interested to know if anybody has any secrets for where to e-mail a complaint on this issue. I have a phone number for assistance in setting up my service, but I'm afraid I'm just going to get a general-purpose technician type who won't know a thing about accessibility issues and blind users. I would really like to make SBC aware that they have a severe accessibility issue here and, hopefully, find a route to get somebody sympathetic to the issue working on it. Thanks, Jerry ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq ** To leave the list, click on the immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe] ** If this link doesn't work then send a message to: ** guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ** and in the Subject line type ** unsubscribe ** For other list commands such as vacation mode, click on the ** immediately-following link:- ** [mailto:guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx?subject=faq] ** or send a message, to ** guispeak-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the Subject:- faq