Unfortunate as it is, most software around for Windows these days does not have a simple keyboard interface so therefore one must use the other tools a Screen Reader has to offer in order that the user is able to make the most of the software they're using or write some scripts to hide these flaws and make a near keyboard interface.
As you've seen, Tune-Up Utilities is a case in point, its half usable with keyboard commands and by no means the worst offender at this sort of thing, I have software here which is reliant on the user using the JAWS cursor, mouse pad or whatever the term applying to your Screen Reading software is. Yep, some people would call that sort of software inaccessible when obviously nothing could be further from the truth, an inaccessible piece of software is exactly that, one that the user cannot use whatever! Now I'm not referring to anyone in particular here as this is a general observation. I don't think a lot of people using Screen Reading software fully appreciate just how far we've come when it comes to accessibility and perhaps some people just cannot appreciate this fact for obvious reasons. For instance when I started out using an Apple Mac, one didn't get much feedback at all with regard to what was happening, you had Microsoft Word for example and you were left to your own devices to type a document, spell check and correct that document if required and so on. If a dialogue or an alert box came up then that's all you heard, "Dialogue" and it was up to the user to examine the screen to find out what was going on. If you think that was bad then go back a further few years to the days of CP/M and Wordstar, obviously I was too young to use such a system at the time they were hugely popular but I did use one in my work some 25 years ago because the firm I worked for then saw no point in upgrading their computer system to MS DOS as the CP/M with Wordstar had worked for years! and was still working. When working with that system I got no feedback whatever, perhaps a beep every now and then to let me know that I was in caps lock but that was it, you typed your document and then used special keystrokes to examine that document, examine the screen and so on. On 01/11/2011, at 11:06 PM, Mrs. Lynnette Annabel Smith wrote: > Hello Dane > > On 1 Nov 2011, at 07:06, Dane Trethowan wrote: > > • I'm not an expert and all I was trying to say was that there's more to > accessing a piece of software than using the tab and cursor keys. > > I fully appreciate that; I simply didn't realise that this utility suite > didn't possess such a keyboard interface. This is new to me; and I will try > to learn. > > • If you want to think of Tune-Up Utilities as being unusable then fine! > > I don't recall saying that. > > Lynne > > > ======================================= > > 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> > > --------------------------------------- ======================================= 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> ---------------------------------------
