Note. You could pin apps to the taskbar in Windows 7 as well. LOL. That is not a windows 8 thing. Regards: Dallas
On 01/05/2013, at 17:00, Thomas Ward <thomasward1...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Charles, > > Well, one thing Microsoft has done in Windows 8 that is superior to XP > is they have a new API called UI Automation which acts as a bridge > between the graphical controls on your screen and your screen reader. > It is for this reason that all the virtual intercept drivers and > off-screen models that Jaws, Window-Eyes, Supernova, etc were using > before are no longer necessary. Your screen reader can now get the > identity of any control and its status directly from the Windows API. > Unlike MsSAA, which is now deprecated, UI Automation is now a core > part of the Windows API so software developers don't have to do > anything special to make their Windows 8 applications screen reader > accessible. They just have to follow some basic standards and > guidelines. > > UI Automation is in part why Narrator works so much better in Windows > 8 than prior versions. All of Microsoft's flagship applications like > Internet Explorer, windows Live Mail, Wordpad, Notepad, Microsoft > Office 2010, use UI Automation so they are suppose to be screen reader > friendly out of the box. A lot of the apps you can download for > Windows 8 are fairly screen reader friendly because they use UI > Automation. I found a few that needed some accessibility improvements, > but by and large I think once UI Automation becomes more mainstream we > will see access improve on Windows 8 and later versions in general. > > Microsoft SAPI has gotten a nice over hall as well. SAPI 5.5 comes > with a bunch more voices and they are light years better compared to > the SAPI voices for XP. Some of the new SAPI voices are almost as good > as the Vocalizer/Realspeak voices that comes with Jaws and they are > free. Plus they work with the SAPI 5 enabled games. While not > necessarily an accessibility improvement per say I think the new > voices is one reason to consider an upgrade. > > Another thing about Windows 8 is there are a lot of new Windows 8 hot > keys to do various things such as Windows+f to find a file, Windows+c > to go to the charm bar, Windows+i to open your settings, Windows+q to > search your apps, Windows+tab to cycle throughopen apps, Windows+w to > search your settings, etc. Basically, there are loads of hot keys > available to get around and use Windows 8 without the mouse or a > touchscreen. > > Something else that improves the access of Windows 8 is being able to > pin commonly used applications to the task bar. Let's say you use > Internet Explorer all the time. You can press the context menu key on > it right arrow to "Pin This Application to the Task Bar" and it will > always be on your Task Bar and you don't have to go hunting through > the Start Screen to find it.Even better if it is the first item pinned > to your Task Bar pressing Windows+1 will jump directly to Internet > Explorer no matter where you are in Windows 8. Cool eh? > > Cheers! > > On 4/30/13, Charles Rivard <wee1s...@fidnet.com> wrote: >> How is Windows 8 more accessible than XP? Also, is it more stable? How >> well do older games that we have purchased run using Windows *? >> >> One thing I will say is that Windows Narrator has undergone vast >> improvements over what was in XP. >> >> -- >> If guns kill people, writing implements cause grammatical and spelling >> errors! > > --- > Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
