Nermin,As I wrote, I am tryng to use my Baum Supervario40 Braille display with Jaws 11 Beta 32 Bits without success.
It sure worked well with the other previous Jaws versions: 10' 9 Etc.I do hope that FS will do the best that we, the blind pc users can continue using our third party Braille displays with Jaws 11 32 bits and I think that we the blind users must encourage and push all the companies that produce devices for us as Braille displays Etc, to make sure that they will work properly with the existing screen readers in the market at that moment.
I wrote to FS but didn't get any response yet. When I get, sure I'll let you all know. Thanks Moti Moti Azrad Musician & Piano Tuner motia@xxxxxxx motiaz@xxxxxxxxx azrad_moty@xxxxxxxxxxx ISRAEL----- Original Message ----- From: "Voy44" <voy44@xxxxxxxx>
To: <jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 6:18 PM Subject: Re: PowerBraille and JAWS
Hi,the Powerbraille issue is surely to do with the new secure Braille Driver iniciative FS started recently.This is from the J11 Help topic, and below that message, I am pasting an article published in the GW Micro blog, since many concerns have been expressed by Window Eyes users. This is not meant as a flame war, just an information that everyone can use and think for themselves.Regards, Nermin JAWS Help: Third Party Braille DisplaysWhen installing the 32-bit version of JAWS, all braille display drivers previously shipped in earlier versions of JAWS will continue to be provided and work with JAWS 11 as expected.For JAWS 64-bit, Freedom Scientific braille displays, such as the Focus, PAC Mate Portable, and PowerBraille displays, will be included and installed as part of the JAWS 11 installation. Third party braille display manufacturers will be provided separately from the manufacturers themselves. At the time of this writing, only Papenmeier in Germany has completed and published their drivers for JAWS 11 and JAWS 10 on 64-bit Windows.After the support files are installed on your computer, you will continue to use the JAWS Synthesizer and Braille Manager to add a third party braille display to use with JAWS.JAWS Help End GW Micro Blog I've been asked by many people what I think about the announcement from Freedom Scientific entitled "Freedom Scientific Announces Secure andCompatible Braille Display Initiative" dated August 11, 2009. The direct URLto this announcement on Freedom Scientifics' web page is: http://www.freedomscientific.com/news/pressroom/2009/secure-compatible-brail le-displays.asp <http://www.freedomscientific.com/news/pressroom/2009/secure-compatible-brai lle-displays.asp> First, a little background. In order to get a Braille display to work with any screen reader, a driver has to be written to specifically support it. This driver is responsible for communicating between the hardware and thescreen reader itself. This way the screen reader doesn't have to get boggeddown with the technical details of each and every display. A simpleinterface is provided and, as long as the Braille driver is written to talkto this simple interface, the screen reader will work with it "out of thebox." According to this announcement, starting with JAWS 11, the developersof these Braille drivers will now have to work with Freedom Scientific toget their driver digitally signed by Freedom Scientific before JAWS 11 willuse the driver. Stated another way, until the Braille driver for your Braille display is digitally signed, JAWS 11 will not talk to your Braille display. This is all being done in the name of security and in fact the announcement starts by saying "The goal of this new program is to followMicrosoft's move to signed drivers to improve security and compatibility forcustomers who use a Braille display with JAWS."There is much confusion regarding this announcement ranging from, "Does this make any difference," to, "Will this affect my copy of Window-Eyes?" Let mestate, very clearly, that this will not affect Window-Eyes in any way.However, I feel compelled to comment on this announcement as it does affectthe screen reader community in general.It is true that digitally signing drivers is typically a good thing. This is why all of the necessary Window-Eyes executables and DLL files are digitallysigned using a valid certificate unique to GW Micro. In fact, we go to the extra effort to have our mirror driver (which is used by Windows Vista and Windows 7) thoroughly tested by Microsoft in order to get Microsoft's digital signature. That's security on top of security. You may not have noticed but as you install Window-Eyes on Vista or Windows 7, you never receive a "Windows can't verify the publisher of this driver software"warning. This is because we have worked with Microsoft to properly register and sign our driver. There is a very minimal cost required for this service,and we only have to pay for this service whenever we change our mirror driver.If you were to install JAWS 10 or 11 on Vista or Windows 7 you would noticethe "Windows can't verify the publisher of this driver software" warning, asking if you want to trust the driver or not. This indicates the JAWS mirror driver has not been digitally signed by Microsoft. Security warning screen shot <http://www.gwmicro.com/images/blog/security_1.png> Driver signing screen shot <http://www.gwmicro.com/images/blog/security_2.png> I have a hard time accepting the concept of requiring digitally signed Braille drivers in the name of security when the JAWS mirror driver itself isn't digitally signed by Microsoft. From unofficial sources I've heard that Freedom Scientific is charging agreat deal of money for the privilege of signing the Braille drivers. UnlikeMicrosoft's policy of only charging a nominal fee when the driver changes, they charge an annual fee, even if the driver isn't updated. Large Braillecompanies may be able to afford this, but smaller companies cannot, and may be forced to make undesirable decisions that end up putting the end user ata disadvantage. It is easy to see how a Braille display manufacturer with these increased costs might have to raise their prices.I think it is worth describing how Window-Eyes communicates with its Brailledrivers. Under Vista and Windows 7, both JAWS and Window-Eyes need to run with UI Access. This means we are running at an elevated security level. With this higher security level comes responsibility. Because we are elevated, we have to be very careful of what we do and what we allow theuser to do. There are many things that we prohibit, ranging from not runningany scripts on secure desktops (like the log on screen where you type yourusername and password) to not allowing a script to receive key presses whiletyping in a password edit box. We also do things like not allowing the Braille driver we are communicating with to run at the elevated privilege that Window-Eyes itself is running. This way, if a bad Braille driver did somehow get installed (which would require admin rights to do, and aconfirmation by the end user) it still wouldn't have elevated privileges todo anything really nasty. These kinds of security features are built into Window-Eyes automatically. So why am I writing about all this? First: Window-Eyes users should know that Freedom Scientific's new requirement will not affect them in any way; Window-Eyes will continue to openly support Braille displays without additional requirements or cost to the driver developer. Second: know that signing Braille drivers doesn't really help with security, especially if security is greatly lacking in other parts of an application. Third: it is important that the blind community be mindful of what is happening in thescreen reader arena. Review the facts, and approaches behind the changes youread about, and make your own decisions. -- JFW related links: JFW homepage: http://www.freedomscientific.com/Scripting mailing list: http://lists.the-jdh.com/listinfo.cgi/scriptography-the-jdh.comJFW List instructions: To post a message to the list, send it to jfw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxTo 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/jfwAlternative archives located at: http://n2.nabble.com/JAWS-for-Windows-f2145279.htmlIf 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
-- 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