On Fri, 21 Jul 2000 10:34:45 -0600, karen lewellen wrote:
> greetings and salutations!
> i am new to the list and as of Thursday, new to arachne. i have
> downloaded arachne 1.65 for dos, and installed it.... i think.
> cannot be sure as i am using a screen reader, and am only getting
> silence. i understand from other listers here that arachne can
> be run with speech and am looking for some tips. can you advise?
On Sat, 22 Jul 2000 00:35:45 -0500, Glenn McCorkle replied:
> I am sorry to say that you have been misinformed
> Arachne will not work with screen readers.
> It is a purely graphical program.
> Since it does everything in graphics mode, there is no text for your
> screen reader to send to the speech synthesizer.
On Sat, 22 Jul 2000 01:44:07 -0400 (EDT), Karen Lewellen wrote again:
> um my!
> before yo break my hear
> heart into a million bits,
> it is my understanding that
> beneath the graphical images, are
> the ascii coded items, and that
> one can get speech if properly labeled and cnfigered.
> has anyone ever played with making such a driver?
> thanks
> karen l
Hello Karen:
Your understanding is correct. Glenn McCorkle is also correct. When
Arachne is used in the usual and normal display mode, only graphics are
displayed to the screen. Graphics, as you know, are not compatible with
screen readers and speech synthesizers.
With Arachne it is possible to escape to the DOS shell and bring up the raw
HTML ascii files, then convert them to normal text by means of a a utility
that will strip out the HTML tags. The resulting text files may then be
processed by a speech synthesizer. This is a hassle. For web-browsing
it will be much easier for you to continue to use Net-tamer, or Lynx, or
Bobcat.
If you don't like the way Net-tamer appends all your email messages into
long concatenated files, then you you might want to consider using NetDial
for DOS, or the Barebones DOS email system. These programs do not
produce concatenated email messages. They provide you with individual
files. Arachne also provides email messages in individual files which can
be displayed as normal ascii text after escaping to the DOS shell.
A problem you would have in using Arachne for email is that you would have
to use a graphics interface to use the program. There are buttons and ikons
on the screen that you will need to point to and click on. You don't have
to click on anything to use Net-Tamer and Lynx and Bobcat and NetDial and
DOS Barebones. Any of the above would be a much better alternative to
Arachne for use by persons who use screen readers and speech-synthesizers.
All the best,
Sam Heywood
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