Well, Im seriously wondering if I must pay for an upgrade of WE next
year. If NVDA
makes such progress
*From:*David [mailto:[email protected]]
*Sent:* 17 June 2013 12:57 PM
*To:* WE English mailing list
*Subject:* WE and NVDA
In late May, GW released the locale version of WE8.2, in my region.
Great news, since I finally could start to benefit from the upgrades
that came in the 8-series of the screen reader. And, it also meant, that
I now could bring out my new machine - which unfortunately has Windows8
installed. Yet, I have to say, the joy was somehow mixed, and has been
so for the last few weeks. I now hope that someone can tell me what I am
to change for settings.
First thing I do notice, is that the set files do not always load
automatically. For instance, it took a while, before I realized that the
newly - all fresh - installation of WE8.2, did not load the Firefox set
file automatically, when I opened Firefox. I then went through the
process of manually loading and associating the set file with Firefox.
Seems to work OK now, but still wonder why this did not happen
automatically in a brand new installation.
Yesterday, I decided to register my new PC, with HP. This is a fairly
easy process, since the HP machine comes with a pre-installed piece of
software. Running this software, up comes two consequtive screens,
holding edit boxes that you need to fill in. The boxes are quite a
standard form version, asking your first- and lastname, along with your
contact info. But with WE loaded, there was simply NO chance -
whatsoever. The first field on the screen asked my firstname, but
landing my cursor on it, WE would read to me the "Submit"-label, which
is the last bottom line button of the screen. Tabbing once, landing on
the field for my lastname, WE reported that this field was for my Email,
which actually was the third field of the screen. If I tabbed and
shift-tabbed back and forth on the screen, WE would read the labels of
fields that would be two or three fields away from the actual one I was
focusing. This even if I tabbed very slowly through the form. OK, I
thought, Yet another one of those totally inaccessible screens we so
often are presented with. But I have come to learn, not to stop there.
So I loaded NVDA. Guess you all have grasped the end of the story
already. Sure thing, NVDA did read the fields of that form - totally
correctly - and exactly as you would have expected. It was the matter of
less than thirty seconds to fill in the form and have it submitted, with
NVDA loaded. I even tested things, running both NVDA and WE
simultaneously, to see the difference in behavior. NVDA kept steadily
reading the field-tags correctly, While WE just as stubbornly kept
reading the tags arbitrarily.
If I give my computer a cold-start, I can hit the Win-D and get to the
desktop. WE will now read the different items of my desktop, as I move
up and down. If I leave the desktop - for instance by loading Firefox
from the desktop - and then return by hitting Win-D, all I hear from WE
is "No Item Selected, List". Loading NVDA, I can leave and return to the
desktop as much as I like, and I will hear the items on the desktop read
out to me. Why not with WE? Why all this stuff about "no item selected",
which isn't even true, since the current item is being focused and
selected. I know it is, because NVDA reports it to be, and I can hit
Enter, and the attached software starts. This doesn't seem much reliable
to me, for the part of Window-Eyes.
Sometimes, when starting a software, you get up the safety screen asking
if you will permit this software to make changes on your computer. When
this screen comes up, NVDA will read it, but WE does go quietly dead.
The Eloquence of WE, will not start to speak again, until you have made
your choice in this safety screen. Not even if you Alt-Tab to another
screen or software. As I said, NVDA reads the safety screen just fine.
Other times, some background software - like a security scan - will
pop-up a message on the screen. If this message in any way conflicts WE,
things like the mouse-keys of WE, stop to work. They keep dinging at
you. Alt-Tabbing through the list of software, does give you no clue.
And, window-eyes did not inform you that a background message had popped
up on the screen. In many cases, I have noticed that NVDA does work far
more smoothly with these cases.
More and more, I find myself having to load NVDA several times aday,
just to perform even plain tasks, like choosing a software from off the
desktop. After having paid the upgrade price for Window-Eyes 8.2, I
really don't feel this should have been necessary. WE is being claimed
to be a stabil and solid screen reader, and it does cost several hundred
dollars. Then I also feel we are in our rights, to expect it to do its
job. But when you cannot even read the info on the desktop, or have
speech through the vital parts of the security screens, I really
question the reliability of the screen reader. My hope now, is that
someone out there has a workaround for these issues. Maybe some setting
I have to change, so as to have things working properly. Further, I hope
that such workarounds will be included in upcoming shippings of the
screen reader. As it stands today, it definitely was no
"right-out-of-the-box" experience to install and run WE.
Finally, GW, why do you automatically load all those apps that ship with
the screen reader. OK, most of them, I can see will be helpful. But the
ones that are shipping, and which are supposed to make the jump from
things like Jaws easier. For most of us, this kind of apps are only in
our way, since they do change certain keystrokes. Why not have a
checkbox in the installation process, that would tell if I am migrating
from Jaws. If I check this box, which by standard could be unchecked,
these extra apps wil be installed. Same thing goes with the quickstart
app, which I think could do its job in setting things up, and then be
deactivated. Just some ideas...
