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...
