From: David Goldfield <david.goldfield@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 30 May 2017 20:13:46 +0000
The following is a blog post I just uploaded concerning my memories of
Window-Eyes, as well as my feelings about its disappearance.
On May 19, we celebrated Global Accessibility Awareness Day. It is
ironic that, four days earlier on May 15, GW Micro (VFO) announced the
news that the Window-Eyes screen reader would cease development. All
users who were using the commercial version of Window-Eyes would be
entitled to upgrade to JAWS, with users of version 9.0 or later being
given the chance to receive a JAWS 18 license at no additional cost.
Users of the free Window-Eyes for Users of Microsoft Office version,
such as myself, are an exception and would not be entitled to upgrade to
JAWS at a discount price.
This news was both sad and, for many, hardly unexpected. After AI
Squared became a part of VFO Group, Jonathan Mosen interviewed David Wu
on Freedom Scientifics FSCast podcast. Mr. Wu was formerly CEO of AI
Squared and is now VP of Software Business at VFO. While Mr. Wu tried to
keep the tone very positive and upbeat, reading between the lines made
it clear to me that JAWS and Zoomtext were VFOs primary products and
Mr. Wu seemed a bit less reassuring when discussing MAGic or
Window-Eyes, although these are clearly my own impressions of the FSCast
interview from June of 2016. Maybe he didnt mean to present that
impression but thats what I came away with when I heard the interview.
Perhaps its true that JAWS is the worlds most popular screen reader.
Ive been a user of JAWS since version 1.0 shipped on several floppy
disks, along with Eric Damery and Ted Henter providing tutorials on
cassette tapes, and Ive seen the program evolve into a powerful and
capable screen reader. JAWS 18 is most definitely one of the most
feature-rich screen readers you could install onto your Windows computer
and its popularity is certainly well-deserved. However, one of the
things which I value is consumer choice. While I regularly use Microsoft
Office to perform the majority of my word processing tasks I am grateful
that we have worthy alternatives, such as the free LibreOffice, to allow
users to perform similar tasks using quality software. While I respect
the feature set of Microsoft Outlook I prefer to use Mozilla Thunderbird
for sending, reading and sorting email while Im at home.
The same is true for screen readers. Ive already expressed my
admiration for JAWS and feel that its an amazing access package.
However, for financial reasons I use NVDA as my screen reader of choice
and occasionally have used the free version of Window-Eyes for users of
Microsoft Office. Consumer choice is an important thing when it comes to
access. One screen reader may meet the needs of an individual more than
another, for a variety of reasons. Sadly, VFO buying AI Squared has
taken one of these choices away from us, which I feel is a tremendous loss.
Ive been a trainer and, to some extent, a user of Window-Eyes since the
late 1990s. It offered some very unique features and capabilities which,
in some ways, werent always available in other screen readers and Id
like to take some time to celebrate the unique features Window-Eyes
brought to the table.
First, lets consider the way we browse the Web using our preferred
browser of choice. Nowadays, screen readers are able to reformat complex
Web pages and render them in the same way that a word processor opens a
document, allowing the user to navigate the Web page using standard
arrow key navigation. This is now a given and something weve come to
expect when using a screen reader on the Web. This capability exists
with JAWS, NVDA and in VoiceOver on the Mac. However, it was Window-Eyes
which first offered this feature, a year or so before JAWS implemented
it, if memory serves. True, in those early days it took a long time for
some Web pages to load and so the feature wasnt always a joy to use.
Admittedly, when JAWS implemented the feature they did it much better in
those days, with Web pages loading very quickly. Over the years,
Window-Eyes improved by also loading pages much faster but the point is
that Window-Eyes pioneered that feature which we all take for granted now.
Window-Eyes was also the first screen reader to support Mozilla Firefox,
something which we now enjoy with JAWS as well as NVDA.
Window-Eyes is probably the only screen reader with the capability of
launching with speech, when possible, in safe mode. This is a feature I
have yet to encounter in other screen readers.
If your systems volume was muted or at a low level, Window-Eyes could
be configured to load, forcing the volume to be unmuted and raising the
volume level. This solves the problem where someone accidentally or
intentionally muted your speakers, causing a minor nightmare when you
tried to load your screen reader and receive no speech output. These are
capabilities Id love to see in other screen readers, such as NVDA and
JAWS.
One of my favorite Window-Eyes features is actually something which was
probably in the earliest versions and was also found in the Vocal-Eyes
screen reader for DOS. The feature to which Im referring was known as
cursor keys. It differed from the other hotkeys in that, with hotkeys,
the function you assign to a key bypassed that keys original function.
In other words, if you assign the hotkey ctrl+L to read the current line
under the caret or cursor the line would be spoken when the key was
pressed. However, if you pressed that hotkey while in Word to left
justify your text the key wouldnt function, instead reading the current
line (unless you used the Bypass key first.) However, the cursor keys
feature was unique in that the original function of the key you chose to
define would not be lost. Therefore, if you wanted the Home key to speak
the current character you could assign that function to the Home key,
without interfering with the keys original function. When the key was
pressed, the key would move the cursor to the beginning of the line as
designed, followed by the function or functions you assigned to that
key. This allowed for some amazing flexibility which is not even
available with JAWS, unless youre willing to learn scripting.
Speaking of scripting, Ill end my Window-Eyes memories with a
discussion of that programs most amazing feature, utilized in a way not
found in other screen readers.
Starting with version 7.0, Window-Eyes added the ability for its users
to write customized scripts in order to add additional functionality to
the screen reader. Many people may be quick to remind me that JAWS has
had this feature since the very beginning, first with giving users the
ability to write macros and, starting with JFW version 3.0, calling them
scripts. While this is true, there are some differences in the way this
capability was being offered.
First, GW Micro allowed its users, as well as their staff, to upload
scripts to a central repository on their Web site known as Script
Central. Later, they made the brilliant decision to do a bit of
rebranding and scripts, which sound scary and challenging, became apps,
which sound like a lot of fun. Lets face it; nobody knows anything
about what a script is but anybody with a smartphone or tablet is an
expert on apps. With this change, Script Central became App Central and
Window-Eyes had its very own, user-friendly app store. Apps were quite
plentiful, grouped into categories and users could add their own
comments on the various apps which they liked. Window-Eyes even came
with an app which allowed for easy navigation to this specialized app
store. Apps could then easily be downloaded and installed, using similar
screens which you would encounter when installing any piece of software.
You could navigate through the Window-Eyes Apps menu to examine the list
of apps you had installed and could easily remove apps you no longer
wanted. Apps could even alert you when they had updates and those
updates could easily be installed. The concept was positively ingenious.
I never understood why JAWS, with its powerful scripting language, never
offered a similar repository. In the screen readers early days
Henter-Joyce did offer some scripts on its Web site but this is no
longer the case. If you want to locate scripts for your copy of JAWS you
must locate them on third-party Web sites.
To be quite honest, Window-Eyes was far from perfect. In spite of its
innovative features there were times when I felt I was using a not quite
ready for prime-time beta, rather than a final release. Of course, no
software is without its bugs but, to me, it always felt as though
Window-Eyes had more than its share of them and I sometimes found it to
be frustrating to use.
In spite of this I still feel that the assistive technology landscape
has been greatly diminished at having one less screen reader for users
to work with. It is a regrettable consequence of AI Squared becoming a
part of VFO Group and I am sorry for all users of Window-Eyes who are
now forced to switch to a new screen reader.
In closing, I would first like to ask VFO to respectfully consider
donating the Window-Eyes source code to the community for further
development. If you feel that you no longer wish to develop the screen
reader please consider releasing it to the community as there are many
Window-Eyes users who dont want to see the demise of their favorite
screen reader.
Finally, I would like to thank the developers of GW Micro, both for
their work with Vocal-Eyes for DOS as well as with Window-Eyes. You have
made an important and memorable contribution to users of blindness
assistive technology. I sincerely thank you for providing us with a
unique, easy to use and customizable screen reader.
--
--
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist Feel free to visit my
Web site WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info
From: Dan Tevelde <dan.tevelde@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 31 May 2017 10:17:50 -0500
Hi David,
This is a great blog entry. I have a few thoughts about the situation.
I took a two-day introductory WindowEyes class and was impressed with a few
features. I liked the mouse find function so I could interact with the
desktop. I liked the interface with the Outlook calendar which made
managing calendar entries much easier. In fact, the interface reminded me
of the interface found on some notetakers. I have never been completely
satisfied with the interaction between JAWS or NVDA and the calendar
especially in Office 2013. Jaws especially sometimes loses focus or fails
to speak the state of the calendar correctly. A case in point is the issue
where a user has created an appointment lasting more than a day. When
navigating the calendar by day JAWS will sometimes incorrectly announce the
number of appointments for the day even when the user was looking at the
calendar after an event was finished. I also find JAWS especially sluggish
in Outlook in general. NVDA is somewhat better in this respect.
In my WindowEyes class I did not have a chance to try WindowEyes with a
Braille display so I can't comment on that. One thing the trainers
emphasized is that they wanted the user to be able to focus on the cursor or
the mouse pointer, rather than having to be concerned by the extra cursors
JAWS uses to navigate. I wasn't able to give WindowEyes a chance on my job
as I needed access to Braille right away when I migrated to Windows. At
that time WindowEyes didn't yet have Braille support.
Some other thoughts I have relate to the number of screenreaders on the
market. I have always been perplexed by the fact that there is more
competition in the Braille display market than there is in the screenreader
market. The only caveat there is that for whatever reason Braille display
vendors either decided, or were forced to rely on screenreaders to drive the
displays. In this respect competition was somewhat limited based on the
amount of cooperation Braille display vendors got from Freedom Scientific
when the vendors wrote scripts for JAWS. I know of one case where
Papenmeier was shut out of the scripting process even though they had some
innovative ideas. I used to use a Papenmeier display but gave it up because
of the lack of cooperation from Freedom Scientific. This display had some
functions I have not found in any other display. Another case in point is
the slow response on the part of Freedom Scientific to Hims when both of
them were trying to write scripts. I have found that Braille display
vendors can't implement as many features they would like into their scripts.
I have also found that despite what Freedom Scientific claims, I have never
gotten a third-party display to autoDetect when JAWS starts. I think I
should have the right to use the display of my choice. When I configured my
Hims Braille Edge with NVDA, I didn't have any problems at all either with
the driver, or getting NVDA to detect the display.
Finally, I would like to point out that there are a couple of screenreaders
out there, but I don't know how well they work. There is the Cobra
screenreader from Baum which has been around since the advent of Windows and
was sold with various names like Virgo, and ScreenPower. I never had a
chance to try any version of a screenreader other than JAWS and NVDA and
wouldn't consider it now. There is also Hal, the screenreader from Dolphin.
Again, I don't have enough information to have an oppinion about it. Is
there a significant enough user base where a person could get assistance
from others when using either Cobra or Hal? I don't have the answers to
these questions.
Based on my most recent experience, I think NVDA will have more staying
power than JAWS. There is a vibrant user community where there are many
blind people who have extensive knowledge of current sofftware trends. I
find that when I call Freedom Scientific for technical support, that now
their technicians seem less and less familiar with third-party Windows
applications. In several cases I have missed career development
opportunities because I simply couldn't find enough information anywhere to
know how to configure JAWS with applications other than the Microsofft suite
of programs. Even sofftware like AttachMate terminal emulation for an IBM
mainframe emulation used to work well but now doesn't. When I contacted
Freedom Scientific for technical support they had a rather cavalier
attitude. They argued that since the scripts for AttachMate were developed
by a third party, Freedom Scientific didn't need to support them. Freedom
Scientific also claimed that nobody uses mainframe terminal emulation
anymore. I know from personal experience that this is not true. Freedom
Scientific also wasn't willing to work with Micro Focus, the vendor for
AttachMate to resolve the issue despite the fact that I had a conference
call with Freedom Scientific and Micro Focus. In order to do any work, I
need to run two versions of JAWS so I can do mainframe technical support.
Freedom Scientific also suggested that they could resolve the problem by
sending us developers to write scripts to work onsite, and then charging us
for it. I've never heard of a sofftware vendor not being willing to support
any part of their product even when scripts for a particular application
automatically installed with the product. I wonder what other screenreader
vendors do in this situation.
I'm sorry my post is so long but I want to raise some important issues blind
people should consider when selecting a screenreader.
Thanks,
Dan
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