Okay I'll take this in order. Yep, for a while Thunderbird worked with Window-Eyes but this hasn't always been the case, I forget what version of WE support for Thunderbird was added but it was only recently, something like We 7.0 refresher upgrade and now the support is as good as gone and you're right, GW Micro should be absolutely ashamed of themselves.
Standard access controls are available in Thunderbird for all Screen Reading software to take advantage of and thus all the Screen Reading packages I've tried - including JAWS yesterday - certainly do so God Only knows what the people at GW Micro think they're doing. Yep, there's a App available on the GW Micro App Centre but as I understand it this app doesn't address the later problems and its more to do with reading status lines in Thunderbird wich again is a puzzle because the status lines are easily read at the bottom of the screen with the mouse pointer keys of WE, creating a user window and reading them that way etc. As far as browsers go I tend to use both Firefox and I.E. 9, the latter gets used for most of the time. It may be slower than Firefox however its certainly far more stable than Firefox is. WE users have reported problems with Internet Explorer 9, I've not had any apart from the stupid Skype toolbar which was causing no end of problems with I.E., this is a known issue it would seem. Forget about using Google Chrome with WE, its just not accessible however with NVDA it certainly is very accessible and extremely fast but not my favourite browser. On 12/10/2011, at 9:43 AM, Mrs. Lynnette Annabel Smith wrote: > Hello Dane and all > > I'm lead to belief that they are actually MSAA controls which, They say, > Window-Eyes and JFW and the rest of the bunch should pick up without a > problem. But based on what we saw when testing with the then latest version > of Thunderbird and the then latest version of Window-Eyes, there where some > pretty horrendous issues. > > I'm told also now that there is what GW now calls an "App" on their website > that you can use to use Window-Eyes and Thunderbird get along together. > > But really; you shouldn't have to muck around with scripting and apps just to > make a strait forward piece of software wok; and I think GW Micro should be > ashamed of themselves. > > Possibly they've hard fix the problem, just as they appear to have > hard-broken it. Thunderbird used to work so I am told. > > On the same sort of subject I wonder which is the best browser to use these > days; Internet Explorer version 9.0, FireFox version 6.0 or even Google > Chrome? > > I am hearing good things about Google Chrome but then again, the very name of > Google gives me the shivers. I know what their mail service is like. > > The description of "Windows" is perfectly correct, they are Windows. > > Lynne > > > On 11 Oct 2011, at 15:31, Dane Trethowan wrote: > > • Yep, Thunderbird is an absolute pain in the behind to use with Window-Eyes, > I use NVDA as my Screen Reading solution of choice these days and Thunderbird > has done and probably always will work very well with NVDA and why shouldn't > it as Thunderbird uses standard controls which any Screen Reading solution > should be able to access thus its a bit of a blot on the part of GW Micro > that WE has trouble. > > > • I'm not saying that NVDA is totally unusable with WE, there are a few > things one can do but most users would be extremely annoyed in a few seconds > <smile>. > > • Interface is perfectly simple, you toggle between panes of Thunderbird with > the f6 key, for example if you set Thunderbird to start displaying the "In > Box", pressing f6 brings up the tree view of mailboxes, pressing it again > brings up the table of messages associated with the particular mailbox you > have selected, pressing f6 again brings up any other window you have open and > so on through the cycle. > > • You can also use tab to move about. > > Remember that Thunderbird is extremely configurable when it comes to windows > and tabs so you could for example configure everything to open in one window > which I don't personally recommend or you could configure everything to open > in separate windows, for example 1 window with an open message, another > Window with the contents of a mailbox displaying and so on. > > Perhaps "Windows" is a bit of a miss leading description here because you use > alt-Tab to toggle between them like applications if you will. > > > On 12/10/2011, at 12:48 AM, Gordon Smith wrote: > >> Hi all >> >> This is something which I personally have my own thoughts on but I wanted to >> see what other people in the group think before I make a decision. It's >> possible that I'm overlooking something. >> >> We want a reliable, easy-to-use email and messaging solution for our >> NetBook. We're hoping that we'll be able to use this portably as well as >> here at home. So, here we go. >> >> We are looking for an easy-to-use and configure, reliable suite of >> programmes for use under Windows 7 for E-Mail and messaging >> w >> We are not afraid of buying if that's what it takes. But I'm way off when >> it comes to Windows applications. >> >> I have looked at the spec of Outlook 2010, but I haven't bought yet because >> I don't know how accessible or otherwise it is. I have tried Thunderbird >> from Mozilla, but to be totally honest, when I tied it I wasn't all that >> taken with the interface. It could be Window-Eyes; but I didn't find >> Thunderbird particularly nice to use. >> >> I'm not averse t the concept of ditching Window-Eyes completely, and >> switching to either NVDA or Thunder, both of which are distributed as part >> of the Acapela InfoVox InKey USB which we now have in our collection of >> accessibility tools. >> >> Newsgroups are something which doesn't really interest me and Facebook isn't >> my kind of thing either judging by what I've heard of it. Twitter is >> becoming quite boring to be honest. So, much as I dislike Outlook Expres >> and Windows Mail, I can only see two possibilities at the moment. It would >> seem to be a choice of either getting used to the interface of Thunderbird, >> or else buying Outlook 2010 which would set us back 120 Pounds. Not really >> something I wanted to do. >> >> Thoughts and opinions welcome. >> >> Gordon >> >> >> >> ======================================= >> >> The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus >> and worm-free >> >> To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web >> pages located at >> http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat >> >> You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at >> either of the following websites: >> >> http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html >> >> Or: >> <http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net> >> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. 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The feed is at: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net/maillist.xml> > > --------------------------------------- ======================================= The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web pages located at http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at either of the following websites: http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html Or: <http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. The feed is at: <http://www.mail-archive.com/techno-chat@techno-chat.net/maillist.xml> ---------------------------------------
