Hi Bryan, Great work man! I downloaded and installed VOXKeys and it looks very promising. One little minor snag I ran into was with the installer. For some reason I wasn't getting passed the second part of the dialog. The next button was dimmed. I tried a few times and then I tried just using the return key to activate the default action and I did get passed and all went well. This was with v1.1. I think this will be a great addition to Pro Tools accessibility and will try to help any way I can with future shortcuts. When you get around to the next release that includes Pro Tools support ,it would be helpful to have mouse clicks with more than one modifier added. For example Option plus Command with the mouse, but you may be planning this already... Again great work and looking forward to what else you have up your sleeve, Vinny
----- Original Message ----- From: Bryan Smart To: ptaccess@googlegroups.com Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 3:06 AM Subject: Announcing the VoxKeys project Hi everyone. Here is info about my project, VoxKeys, that is intended to encourage and coordinate the development of scripts for VoiceOver. The first test release didn't blow up anyone's computer, so this second release can probably be risked on a larger audience. Since most all of you here are fairly technical types, I'm enthusiastic about any feedback that you'd care to provide in any regard, from the installer, to the way that the system is organized, to just bug reports. I've included some intro copy below, but, in a nutshell, this is a collection of extensions for QuicKeys. VoxKeys is the name of the set of extensions. Once you install VoxKeys, you can look at the help file for an explanation of why I'm using QuicKeys, as well as technical info toward the end. It is my hope that by extending/scripting VoiceOver and other apps in this way, we all can build a collection of accessibility enhancements that can be installed in a single go. Though Pro Tools is mostly accessible, QuicKeys shortcuts could help dramatically increase our productivity by speeding up navigation tasks. At the moment, there aren't any PT shortcuts, but basic shortcuts for Pro Tools and GarageBand are on the road map for the next release. I'm planning to start out with some simple shortcuts to automatically move the VoiceOver focus around the PT and GB interfaces. Being able to quickly skip to areas of the user interface should make a big impact on increasing the speed that we navigate these programs. However, a general purpose part of VoxKeys that you all will appreciate is the extended shortcuts that it provides for mouse clicks. With them, you can, for example, option click or command click items from the keyboard. Pro Tools uses this in lots of places, and now its easy to do for VO users. There are lots of possibilities for the future. QuicKeys can trigger shortcuts based on MIDI activity. Down the line, we could take a simple external MIDI controller, and have it trigger functions that aren't even available on control surfaces at this point. QuicKeys can also watch the screen, and trigger shortcuts based on what it sees, so audio notifications for clipping meters, being able to set certain parts of the screen to automatically read when they change, and other similar possibilities await us. Okay, here's the copy for general audiences. If you use a Mac with the built-in VoiceOver screen reader, VoxKeys is intended to help you work faster, and access more, than would be possible with only VoiceOver. VoxKeys helps you work faster by adding new shortcuts to applications that will make it possible to quickly access program functions that would have previously required many keystrokes. Other new shortcuts make it possible for you to quickly hear important on-screen information without the need for you to move the VoiceOver cursor. Beyond speeding up tasks that you could normally accomplish with VoiceOver, VoxKeys opens up functions in applications that were previously inaccessible. VoxKeys can directly click and manipulate user interface elements on the screen that are invisible to VoiceOver. VoxKeys can also use Applescript to directly control applications, bypassing their user interfaces altogether, in many cases. These new capabilities are available through new shortcuts that VoxKeys adds to your applications. Currently, VoxKeys provides quick access to status announcements such as date, time, and power, adds new iTunes shortcuts for speaking track information and for quickly accessing controls that normally lack shortcuts (like repeat/shuffle), adds many Skype keyboard shortcuts including globally available answer/hang-up shortcuts, and provides shortcuts for clicking the mouse in ways that VoiceOver is unable. Perhaps its most interesting capability at the moment, though, is support for web apps. Through a combination of directly accessing the object model of a web page, and directly manipulating the mouse, VoxKeys can provide specialized access for web sites when accessed from Safari. Currently, the Netflix and Rhapsody web players are supported. With VoxKeys, you can, in these previously inaccessible players, play/pause recordings, navigate between tracks. Mute/unmute audio, control repeat and shuffle modes, switch to full screen playback, and more. For additional information and to download, go here: http://blog.bryansmart.com/voxkeys-project/ Bryan
