Access, as a whole, is reasonably usable with Window-Eyes. In my
experience, Access 2003 is easier to navigate and use, while Access
2007, like the rest of its counterparts in Microsoft's latest office
suite, is bloated, cumbersome, and painfully slow. Any serious database
users, especially in a corporate environment, don't use access; they use
dedicated server-side database systems like MS SQL, Oracle, DB2, etc.
I've heard rumors that Microsoft finally added MSAA information to
Access 2007. If this is true, then it shouldn't be too hard to assemble
a basic script to voice this data. Otherwise, someone will need to sit
down and design sets and/or scripts that will make Access more
user-friendly. Keep in mind that GW's development staff is very small
compared to some other assistive tech companies. While this means the
output quality is leaner and more robust, it also means that they simply
don't have the time to do everything they might want. Adding support for
Windows 7 and 64-bit operating systems is no small task, and as a whole,
these features will be valued more in the corporate world than support
for a database system that larger organizations simply don't use.
The infrastructure to make Access, or nearly any other application, more
accessible is already here. What we choose to do about it is up to us.
One of the big advantages we can now enjoy in Window-Eyes 7 is that we
don't have to wait for GW Micro to add specialized support to
applications like we did before. Those who know how, or learn how, to
write these extensions to Window-Eyes can make Access, or nearly any
other program for that matter, speak exactly the way we want. The
question is: does someone care enough about Access to invest resources
in developing scripts to support it, even though Microsoft plans to drop
it in its next version of Office? And, would there be enough interest in
such a venture to make the investment worth the effort?
Regards,
Steve
On 5/6/2009 6:06 PM, Ray wrote:
I know of a few VI people who've had to use MS Access as part of training
leading to qualifications in using MS Office Apps.
I've never quite understood why GW Micro seems to shy away from making this
more "accessible" to W-E users. I've got the impression over the years that
GW is sort of hoping that Access would go away, and I seem to recall a
statement around SQL or other database programs overtaking MS Access. That
hasn't happened, seemingly. I do know people who use MS access, at least in
previous versions.
Maybe I under estimate the challenge, but surely something could, should be
done.
Ray.
Chip Orange wrote:
Thanks much for that update.
I don't like this, even though I don't immediately have a burning need
for Access, but because it allows those selling competitor's products to
say something like "brand X is, by GW's own admision, much better at
supporting MS Office than Window Eyes." it would be a misleading
statement of course, since most Office users don't use Access.
I did have a quick look at Access 2003, and MS seems not to have used
standard control types, nor did they even give each control a uniquename
name or ID, so it's going to be a difficult task to make it accessible.
Jamal's DB Dialog script is a wonderful start towards a replacement for
Access 2003 (a replacement for their interface; it uses the Access 2003
database engine). It's always possible the way around this is to write
an entire interface replacement in scripting.
Chip
------------------------------
Chip Orange
Database Administrator
Florida Public Service Commission
[email protected]
(850) 413-6314
(Any opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect those of the Florida Public Service Commission.)
-----Original Message-----
From: Gary King [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009 12:31 PM
To: GW-Info
Subject: Re: access 2007
Chip,
If you and others want to hear what GW Micro is saying about
future plans to
provide support for MS Access on a par with other MS Office
applications, go
to the Audio Video Archives Presentations and listen to the CSUN 2009
presentation entitled "Window-Eyes Freatures - Present and
Future." (A
little spelling correction needed there!)
Near the end of the presentation, a question is asked about
support for MS
Access. Unfortunately, Doug doesn't seem to make a firm
commitment for GW
Micro to develop support for the only MS Office application
that it doesn't
directly support. He expressed the hope that someone out in
scripting land
would ride to the rescue as they did for Java. So those of
you who need
access to MS Access for employment opportunities, I guess
it's time for you
to learn how to write scripts.
Gary King
[email protected]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chip Orange"<[email protected]>
To:<[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 12:44 PM
Subject: RE: access 2007
Hi John,
a friend asked me this very question over the weekend, and while I
didn't have access 2007, I did have access 2003. so, I
opened it up and
began to try some very basic things.
I was amazed and unhappy to see how badly window eyes worked with
access. I checked the manual, no chapter on working with access. the
latest set file was for access 2002 (xp), so I had no idea if that was
of any help; however, if it was, then god help those before that set
file!
it could be that ther are portions of access 2003 which work well with
window eyes and I just didn't find them, but the ones I found hardly
worked at all, except for using the mouse cursor. every
control was the
same type, making reclassing to improve things impossible, and there
were no scripts of course.
It's also possible 2007 has improved it's accessibility, so you won't
run into the problems that I did.
On a separate note, window eyes does not read any of the intellisense
dialogs for any office product in the 2003 family, and I
suspect in the
2007 version as well. I have a script which does this for me, and
assuming you'll be doing vba programming, you'll also need, so I'll
start working on packaging it up so you can test it. I do test on a
module name which may be specific to the 2003 release of
office, in that
case these scripts won't work for you until I can get that module name
for 2007 and adjust the scripts.
I'll be getting 2007 installed in a few weeks, but if you
want to hurry
things long, could you go into the VBA ide and get the module name for
me when in there? What I'm asking for is for you to go into the code
editor window, and use a script like the virtual explorer to see what
the module name and original class of that window is? in 2003 the
module name is VBE6 and the original class is VBAWindow. I
need to know
if these are the same for 2007.
to go into the code editor, you could go into ms word, press
alt-f11 to
go into the VBA development environment, and press f7 to go into the
code window.
I have a lot of e-books on access 2007 I could email you;
you'll need to
send me a request to my home address at:
[email protected]
and remind me what you need.
Chip
------------------------------
Chip Orange
Database Administrator
Florida Public Service Commission
[email protected]
(850) 413-6314
(Any opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect those of the Florida Public Service Commission.)
-----Original Message-----
From: John W. Carty [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 9:57 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: access 2007
Is anyone working with access 2007 and WE 7.01? I'm a long time
mainframe programmer and I've just been given a project to design an
access 2007 database application and I've never used access.
I'm most interested to learn how to best navigate access with
WE and how
to configure access for best use with speech.
Any information that could get me started would be great.
John Carty
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Ray
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