Andy, Judging by your opinion about the role of a screen reader, I would suppose that you think that GW Micro should not have provided an alternate interface to the Outlook Calendar. The Virtual Ribbon provided by JAWS 12 is optional; the user can use it or not. As for the Insert key being called the JAWS Key, actually the JAWS Key can be either the Insert Key or the Caps Lock Key depending on which keyboard layout is being used. If Users don't know that these keys can be used for other functions, you can't blame that on the screen reader. It's more likely due to poor training. I see you've also once again brought up that old thing about the JAWS key combination to minimize applications and focus on the Desktop. As I recall, that nice shortcut goes back to the days of Windows 95 when there were still many keyboards around that didn't have Windows Keys. Without a Windows Key, it took a couple of different key combinations to get the job done. That keyboard shortcut has been gone from JAWS for quite a while, but apparently not from the minds of the screen reader purists.
In my opinion, any feature in a screen reader that increases a user's productivity is a good feature. Gary King [email protected] ----- Original Message ----- From: Baracco, Andrew W To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2010 2:02 PM Subject: RE: suggested feature I disagree here. The ribbons can be learned with a little study, and there are add-ons that you can buy that provide an alternative interface to the ribbons. I believe that the role of a screen reader is to provide access, not necessarily to provide an alternative interface. JAWS has done many things over the years to wed customers to their program. Older versions of JAWS used the F6 key to go to the desktop, even though there was an easy to use Windows hot key that would do the same. Research-it is an example of another such gimmick. It doesn't do anything that Google doesn't do, and it breaks every time one of the URLs it points to changes, requiring users to download and install another build of the program. And, if you are on the JAWS listservs, you will notice that the NUMPAD-INSERT key is referred to as the JAWS key, and JAWS users don't even know that it can perform other functions. These kinds of gimmicks are a way to hook customers and to make it much more difficult to contemplate switching to another product. Andy From: John W. Carty [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2010 11:40 AM To: 'gw-info (List)' Subject: suggested feature The competition has lots of problems and this is why I've switched over to WE. However, in the latest release of the competition they came out with a virtual ribbon. The user has the choice to switch this feature on or off. This offers a dramatic improvement for navigating the menu ribbon in ms office. I'd like to see gw do the same. Thanx, John If you reply to this message it will be delivered to the original sender only. If your reply would benefit others on the list and your message is related to GW Micro, then please consider sending your message to [email protected] so the entire list will receive it. GW-Info messages are archived at http://www.gwmicro.com/gwinfo. You can manage your list subscription at http://www.gwmicro.com/listserv.
