Re: nvda: its achievements over the years and its drawbacks
Lol Assault, I totaly agree with that.
To address the NVDA VS Jaws issue...
I've been using Jaws for almost 15 years (since version 3.5 I believe). I've been using NVDA on and off for maybe 5.
Let's address the whole copying thing first. While it's true that NVDA and Jaws have copied things from each other, I don't see this as an issue. Personally I like it. Since Jaws was one of the most popular screen readers before NVDA, it doesn't make sense to me why you could attack either for copying from each other. If they're both doing the same thing, then what does it matter who took from who? That's like saying, this program put minimize, maximize and restore in the system menu, but I'll put those options in the view menu of my program. Yet nothing does it, because putting them in the system menu is a part of standard Windows basics, which by now are so concrete that many people are used to it. It probably doesn't seem li
ke that now because screen readers are not as common as computer programs, but I predict these things will soon be just expected of any screen reader, if we ever do get a huge amount of worthy screen readers to choose from. Realistically I doubt we'll ever have that many options but you never know.
Now, with that said, I love Jaws and NVDA both. Jaws because I'm used to how it reads things. It never says the word Paine by itself... at least not very often... you don't get the "dreaded unknown". Instead it's the dreaded "blank" which either means video intercept is acting up or that something is going on the screen that shouldn't be there like a pop-up. And in those cases NVDA acts up too. Jaws's auto forms mode I am more used to, and it has less of a habit of jumping around web pages. Its default browse mode settings I like much more than NVDA. I often am pulling my hair out in frustration because NVDA simply says too much by de
fault and I have to go hunting for what I am looking for, even on pages I know pretty well. For instance, I was browsing a web page the other day which had three tables inside each other. Instead of using a virtual cursor and putting elements on their own line, NVDA started trying to read the properties of all three tables in one large chunk. It was truly overwhelming. Could I change that if i wanted to? Probably, but people don't want that in a screen reader. I'd have to read the NVDA users manual to find out what I should change and then figure out what it all means. Manuals are good things but not everyone is going to be able to understand them if they know nothing about Windows. I'm not complaining, just stating how I felt during that experience. In that case I just switched to jaws and did it that way, since I prefer Jaws for HTMl documents. I've worked with just NVDA before so I could've stuck with that if I really had to.
A lot of stuff that many
people, including myself find as useless, are included for a reason, particularly with Jaws. If I recall there are options to uninstall most of those things or just not install them in the first place. So it goes both ways here. If you don't like installing NVDA add-ons, Jaws may be better for you in that respect. On the other hand if you like installing NVDA add-ons because Jaws is too cluttered by default, maybe unclutter Jaws. I had to do it with Windows, unclutter it. Don't use those features. I didn't immediately get mad at Dell for putting that stuff on, that's just what they do. If I didn't want it at all and didn't feel like dealing with it, I'd have taken steps to make sure it wasn't ever there. No matter what a developer does, someone is going to be unhappy.
Now, with that said, I am a fan of the Jaws cursor. I am not so much a fan of NVDA's object navigation. I like Jaws's OCR when it works. I haven't tried NVD
A's OCR because I haven't heard anything to support how much better it is than Jaws's. I am not a huge fan of Jaws's price tag, but i am of NVDA's. I am not a fan of how many FS processes Jaws uses and how easy it is to have a million FSSynth32.exe processes or how easy it is to crash Eloquents, but NVDA has neither of these problems. I think Jaws and NVDA are both responsive but NVDA does have an edge. I am not a fan of how hard it is to expand Jaws's functionality and how easy it is to break it. I am also not a fan of how certain features like Research it, which I am strongly opposed to using, are in Jaws by default. but NVDA really lets you make it your own. For instance, I like having Instant Translate, and that I can get rid of it if I want to at any time. If it came with Jaws, I wouldn't like it because it's not something I believe should be forced into a screen reader because it's like saying, "hey you sighted people don
't have it because Microsoft never put it in, but us blind people get it bundled into our computers." Having it as an option balances this a little. Now both blind and sighted people have to work to get language translation and neither will think the other is lazy, or be jealous of the other. With that said, I know many sighted people who want a links list in their browser. And I imagine if I were sighted I'd want a translate hot key as well. So it's not a perfect solution.
So, what's my verdict? I don't have one. I switch back and forth between the two probably a few times a week. I use Jaws for web browsing and most things, because I'm just used to it. I use NVDA for some word processing because of its responsiveness, it's more stable Sapi drivers and additional voices, and its other add-ons I have installed on it. It's a pain to switch back and forth, yes, but I'm not the only one who switches back and forth between things. I
t's no different than switching between Skype and IMessage for certain people. I'd rather Skype, but whatever's more convenient for us, I'll use. It could change from day to day, but I am their friend so I don't mind doing it. I am friends with my PC so I'll switch screen readers ten times daily if it makes it easier for me to do the things I am doing that day. And for the record, I have switched back and forth that many times on several occasions.
If I could only use one, it would have to be Jaws if it was totally up to me. But two years ago, my college wanted to set up a computer I could use in their testing center for me to take tests on. They were going to put Jaws on it but needed the contact info for Freedom Scientific and whatnot. Instead I pointed them to NVDA. Yes, as a Jaws user, I told a college which could've easily paid for a license not to do so, and to instead download and install NvDA. I since regret it for one reason. I so bad
ly want to put Eloquents on it because eSpeak drives me up a wall. And I could go into derogatory and outright inappropriate comments I have received about using Eloquents - yet another battle to fight in the screen reader war - but I won't go there because we've gone beyond the original scope of this topic enough. But I'm willing to do a little give and take without challenging one side or the other. It's something I've done ever since I became proficient with Windows. All in all it's easier for me to do that than to sit there fighting about which program not to use. I won't try to convince anyone to use Jaws, I will recommend Jaws if I think they'd benefit more from it than NVDA. But I think that we as a community in general have a tendancy to take strong stances on things and to not accept the other side's position until a few subjective and short-sighted remarks have been thrown at that side. It's human nature really but I'm
sad that it has to happen so often. I really hope this is the last screen reader battle I contribute to.
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