Actually, I've found shortcut keys to be far, far more consistent in
OSX than Windows. Right now, in my Parallels virtual machine on my
MacBook running Windows Vista, I have several programs open that all
have different commands to accomplish the same tasks. Alt+F4 in one
to close the application, while Control+Q does it in another. Control
+F4 to close a child window in one, while Control+W does it in
another. Windows is horribly inconsistent when it comes to short cut
keys, with or without a screen reader. Frankly, the heavy
dependence of Jaws users on the Jaws scripts and the interface that
Jaws provides is more dentrimental than helpful. If a new version of
a program is released, frequently the Jaws scripts will no longer
function properly, and the user is left waiting for FS to update
them. Likewise, by employing such techniques, Freedom Scientific
reenforces the use of their product over others, perpetuating myths
that other products are not as good, not because that's true, but
rather because users cannot easily switch from one technology to the
other, as they ahve no idea how to use their computer the way it was
intended.. Lastly, it makes it nearly impossible for a blind person
to offer any technical expertise or guidance to a sighted user, as
they only know the, "Jaws," way of doing things. All of this is
counter productive and one of the reasons I consider Jaws the worst
of the serious screen readers available for any OS, stability being
another key reason.
As for web content in virtual/browsing modes. I agree this proves
helpful on many web sites, but I browsed the net just fine for years
without it. Ideally, I'd like to see the ability to switch back and
forth between viewing web sites in virtual view like WE or JFW, or
the way they were intended to be viewed, as VO presents them.
Depending on the layout of the site, both can be beneficial, and I
have suffered far more aggrivation in not being able to view a site
as it was intended than I ever did in trying to work out a site with
VO or with the other screen readers before the virtual/browse modes
came along.
readers
On Apr 13, 2007, at 9:05 AM, Rich Caloggero wrote:
I have to chime in here too. I like Jaws a lot, in fact because it
does
change the interface. It lets the screen reader user work in a more
natural
way, without having to worry about how things are actually laid out
on the
2d screen. Keyboard commands are more consistent across apps (may
be more of
a windows behavior rather than specificaly Jaws), and to top things
off,
Eloquence is a nice clear and very responsive synth.
I'm not a huge windows or Microsoft fan either, but I do like what
Jaws has
evolved into. Believe me, it was terrible when it first hit the
streets.
One of the greatest achievements of the Windows screen reader is
the HTML
virtual view (both Jaws and Window-Eyes have this concept). It
really does
make many web sites easier to use. Of course, there is a trade off
especially when considering ajax applications, but this too has a
solution.
See the w3c and mozilla accessibility for more on current work to
make ajax
applications more accessible to users of adaptive technologies.
