Everybody,
Since Dave is blind -- I thought maybe the rest of you would like to know how he
operates his computer. I asked him to send it just to me but he gave such a good
explanation that I thought the rest of you would like to know also.
Millie
----- Original Message -----
From: David Bond
To: 'Millie Myers'
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2012 1:31 PM
Subject: RE: Description of reading for the blind
Hello, Millie,
People tend to misunderstand how blind people use a computer. They either think we have special computers, or that we somehow talk to our computers. In fact, our computers, normal computers, talk to us.
Software, referred to as "screen reading" software, is installed on a perfectly normal computer. Once it's installed, a blind person interacts with the computer in very much the same way a sighted person does, except, we don't use the mouse. Everything we do is via keyboard commands.
The screen reading software, in my case JAWS, is very powerful, and it knows how to interpret most of what's happening on the screen. Reading the active windows, and if things are in columns, reading the text as if everything was in a single column.
For example, once I get to a web page, I can either arrow up and down (using the inverted t, or the number pad directional keys), or I can use "quick navigation" keys built-into JAWS. If I hit h, it goes to the next heading. If I hit p, it goes to the next paragraph of text. Also, JAWS has its own search feature, so I can enter a word or phrase I might have been looking for, and if it finds it on the web page, it will go right there.
Similarly, when using Word, I can use keystrokes to navigate quickly back and forth through the document. Dialogue boxes and prompts are usually spoken when they appear, and I can read the bottom status line via a certain keystroke.
The synthetic voice is not exactly human-like, but it's not bad. You get used to it! And it responds instantly, so the speed I can do things is often not much different than a sighted person. Having said this, sighted people still hold a great advantage, since when they see a screen of information, whether it's a web page or a document, they can get right where they need to get with a mouse click. We have to read down through the text, or in some cases, as I described, use quick navigation and/or the JAWS search feature.
Hope this helps!
Dave
Sweet Music is here! The sequel to The Attaché.
Read about it here, including an excerpt: http://www.authordavidbond.com/newest.php
"Like" David at his Facebook author page: David Bond
From: Millie Myers [mailto:mylmy@gogreencroft.net]
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2012 11:48 AM
To: David Bond
Subject: Description of reading for the blind
Dave,
I'm sending this just to you because the others have already gotten it.
But if you want to send it to every body again-- that is fine.
I accidentally deleted your description of how you get messages from your
computer and how it tells you what keys you press.
Would you please send that to me again?
Millie
mylmy@gogreencroft.net
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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