Michele,
From the Desk top, if you will press the TAB key once you will land on a
Start button, which if you press enter on this, the start menu will open in
Windows 7 or earlier. Now, if you press the TAB key twice, then you will
land on the Task Bar. You can left or right arrow on this, and hear the
names of different programs, which you can open by pressing the Enter key on
any given one. Lastly, press the TAB key three times, and this will land you
on what is called the "Notification Area Icons", which is the System Tray,
and you must press the space bar to initialize this. By doing so, you will
see current status of the Action Center (if there are any issues with your
computer or not), the battery status, the state of your internet connection,
the current time, the Safely Remove Hardware button, which when pressed will
give you a list of External hard drives and USB drives you have connected to
your computer. You can just press Enter on the one that you want to remove,
and it will say it is OK to remove it. It also contains some other things
depending on the configuration of your computer.
I hope this helps you to understand these things a little better. As far as
the Tool Bars, there is probably a way to access them, but I have not
figured that one out yet, and I usually do not install them, because as you
stated, I once could see, and I know that they can junk up your screen.
Best,
Mike
blindb...@comcast.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Michele Thredgold
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2014 8:02 PM
To: JAWS List
Subject: [JAWS-Users] Task Bars and Tool Bars
Hi users. I have come across these terms time and time again
since beginning using JAWS back in the late 90's. I've never
really been able to comprehend what they mean. Can someone
please explain to me how they work and why JAWS can or can't
interact with them? Can you also explain where these bars appear
on the screen? I'm not sure if this makes sense but if I do not
have a hard copy page of tactile information in front of me, I
can only visualize linearly, either to the right and left or to
the top and bottom, but not both at the same time. That's why
thinking in columns is more difficult. Also, if I'm using the
tab key or the alt tab, I can only visualize what I'm on by what
it's been described as, unless I've been told where it is. I'm
saying this because some blind people, more-so, it seems, those
who have lost their sight later in life, have more ability to
visualize the outlay on a computer screen. Are these bars at the
top of the screen and if so, whereabouts on the top? Are they
necessary for JAWS users, particularly toolbars. I can handle
the taskbar but toolbars are annoying.
Many thanks in advance.
Michele
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