[access-uk] Re: Happy 20th Birthday, JAWS for Windows

  • From: James English <james13english@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2015 10:27:01 +0000

Jaws is free if you know where to get it.

On 1/30/15, Eleanor Martha Burke <eleanormarthaburke@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> System Access magnification is not high enough for me, I need something
> better.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Saqib Hussain" <saqibh23@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, January 30, 2015 9:12 AM
> Subject: [access-uk] Re: Happy 20th Birthday, JAWS for Windows
>
>
>> Hi. I could never justify the cost of Jaws so I went for System Access
>> 7 years ago. I still now couldn't get use to using Jaws because my own
>> screenreader does everything so well for me and it just flows.
>>
>> On 29/01/2015, Eleanor Martha Burke <eleanormarthaburke@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>> I found when I started at the Opoen University, they knew all about JAWS
>>>
>>> as
>>>
>>> a screen reader and had it loaded on computers for accessability at some
>>> courses I attended but they didn't have a clue about Dolphin Supernova
>>> which
>>>
>>> is my screen reader on Windows.  While people do knock it, its great
>>> advantage is the magnification and speech together.  True there is Magic
>>> which can be used in conjunction with JAWS but at such a price!  Nobody
>>> has
>>>
>>> mentioned Zoomtext, though it has magnification and speech I favour
>>> Dolphin
>>>
>>> Supernova above it.
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "Derek Hornby" <derek.hornby_uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>>> Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2015 7:12 PM
>>> Subject: [access-uk] Re: Happy 20th Birthday, JAWS for Windows
>>>
>>>
>>>> Well  I think most Jaws customers  are employers of the users!
>>>> or the  customers are the  government as in say access to work.
>>>>
>>>> So most users won't care how much jaws costs,  if not paying
>>>> personally!
>>>>
>>>> Derek
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
>>>> Behalf Of Mike Ray
>>>> Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2015 12:17 PM
>>>> To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> Subject: [access-uk] Re: Happy 20th Birthday, JAWS for Windows
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> And I don't suppose anybody else who is an avid Jaws user can afford
>>>> to
>>>> throw a party, after paying for the thing.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 29/01/2015 10:42, Jackie Brown wrote:
>>>>> Wish I could throw a party, but I have no inclination! (smile).
>>>>>
>>>>> Kind regards,
>>>>>
>>>>> Jackie Brown
>>>>> Emails: thebrownsplace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>> Jackieannbrown62@xxxxxxxxx
>>>>> jackie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>> Website: www.thebrownsplace.info
>>>>> Twitter: @thebrownsplace
>>>>> Skype: thejackmate
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
>>>> Behalf Of
>>>>> Colin Howard
>>>>> Sent: 28 January 2015 20:26
>>>>> To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>>> Subject: [access-uk] Happy 20th Birthday, JAWS for Windows
>>>>>
>>>>> Greetings,
>>>>>
>>>>> Seen on the VicugL group, thought it may be of interest! Shows how
>>>> rapidly
>>>>> time passes!
>>>>>
>>>>> From: David Goldfield <david.goldfield@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>>>>> Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 20:46:24 -0500
>>>>>
>>>>> Episode 102 of Freedom Scientific's FSCast podcast reminds us that
>>>> 2015
>>>>> marks the 20th anniversary of the JAWS for Windows screen reader. In
>>>> fact,
>>>>> Jonathan Mosen reminds us that January is, in fact, the month in
>>>> which JAWS
>>>>> turned 20. I remember installing and using JFW 1.0 back in  January
>>>> of 1995
>>>>> and I thought I'd dedicate this short blog post to some  of my early
>>>>> memories of that product and of that time in general.
>>>>>
>>>>> In 1995, I was working for Blazie Engineering providing technical
>>>> support.
>>>>> Windows 3.1 was a fairly well-established operating system with
>>>> several
>>>>> Windows screen readers already available, including Blazie's own
>>>> Windows
>>>>> Master which I believe was already out at that time. While I had
>>>> used
>>>>> Windows 3.1 and was familiar with it on a very basic level, I was a
>>>> edicated
>>>>> DOS user. While I was very familiar with Vocal-eyes and JAWS for
>>>> DOS, ASAP
>>>>> from Microtalk was my screen reader of choice, along with a trusty
>>>> Braille
>>>>> 'n Speak as my speech synthesizer.
>>>>> It was during the end of 1994 or the very beginning of 1995 when we
>>>> received
>>>>> our boxed copy of JAWS for Windows 1.0, with January 19, 1995 being
>>>> the
>>>>> official launch date of that product. If you really want to read a
>>>> piece of
>>>>> classic assistive technology history, you can, courtesy of the
>>>> Internet
>>>>> Archive's Wayback Machine, read the December 1994 Henter-Joyce
>>>> newsletter
>>>>> which, among other things, contains the big announcement regarding
>>>> JFW 1.0.
>>>>>
>>>>> Around this time, I found out I had enlarged tonsils which needed to
>>>> be
>>>>> removed. As I constantly used my voice to do my job, it was
>>>> recommended I
>>>>> stay home for two weeks during my recuperation. This was, I decided,
>>>> the
>>>>> perfect time to finally dive into Windows 3.1 with our new copy of
>>>> JAWS for
>>>>> Windows, version 1.0.
>>>>>
>>>>> The box contained a collection of cassette tapes with tutorials
>>>> recorded by
>>>>> Eric Damery and Ted Henter. Eric's voice is very familiar to JAWS
>>>> users as
>>>>> he annually introduces the new features which are being added to new
>>>> JAWS
>>>>> versions. Eric has participated in these recordings since the very
>>>> beginning
>>>>> of JFW and, even in the 1.0 days, was a fabulous and professional
>>>> presenter.
>>>>> I think the product was often referred to as JFW or JAWS for Windows
>>>> more
>>>>> than it is today as Henter-Joyce wanted to distinguish it from the
>>>> other
>>>>> JAWS product which ran on DOS machines.
>>>>> Once I listened to some of the tutorials, I installed the product
>>>> onto my
>>>>> Windows 3.1 machine from the included 3.5 inch floppy disks,
>>>> followed by the
>>>>> authorization key, also on a floppy, a form of copy protection I had
>>>>> previously never heard of and was having some difficulty wrapping my
>>>> mind
>>>>> around. After all, in those days most software packages never had
>>>> any sort
>>>>> of copy protection; you installed it and then used it.
>>>>> Well, the installation and authorization process went smoothly and,
>>>> soon
>>>>> thereafter, I had JFW working with my trusty Bns 640. After all, for
>>>> the
>>>>> most part we had no software-based synthesizers at that time and so
>>>> you
>>>>> needed a bns, Accent, Artic, Audapter, Dec-talk or Doubletalk to get
>>>> speech,
>>>>> with no Braille support at that time.
>>>>> They wanted JFW to feel like JAWS for DOS by giving it a PC cursor
>>>> as well
>>>>> as a JAWS cursor. It included the insert-G hotkey to label graphics
>>>> and the
>>>>> insert-T hotkey to read the window title, two features we didn't
>>>> really need
>>>>> in DOS. Insert-down arrow was the "say all" key and the other keys
>>>> on the
>>>>> numeric keypad tried to emulate what we were used to with JFD. I
>>>> remember
>>>>> this first version crashing quite a lot but this was quickly fixed
>>>> in an
>>>>> update which I probably downloaded from the Henter-Joyce BBS.
>>>>>
>>>>> If you're curious about what was added in JFW 2.0, you can go to
>>>> their
>>>>> announcement on an old version of the Henter-Joyce home page, also
>>>> courtesy
>>>>> of the Internet Archive.
>>>>> Those early versions would have seemed so limited to us compared to
>>>> what we
>>>>> have today, but back then it was cutting-edge technology. The JAWS
>>>> cursor
>>>>> could only move within the active window. When using the Internet,
>>>> you had
>>>>> to press insert-f5 to reformat the page, which you read using the
>>>> JAWS
>>>>> cursor. You couldn't freely navigate through a Web page using
>>>> standard
>>>>> reading commands with the PC cursor the way you can with any screen
>>>> reader
>>>>> today. If my memory is correct, that capability didn't get
>>>> implemented until
>>>>> version 3.31. In fact, the ability to use single letter navigation
>>>> keys,
>>>>> such as pressing H for heading or N to jump to the next block of
>>>> text wasn't
>>>>> even implemented until a later version, probably around 3.5.
>>>>> What more can I say, except a happy 20th birthday to JFW, or JAWS as
>>>> we now
>>>>> call it. JAWS has certainly come a long way in the past 20 years. I
>>>> wonder
>>>>> what it will be like 20 years from now. I'm sure that it will be
>>>> supporting
>>>>> Windows 43 or whatever OS Microsoft will have pushed out to us and
>>>> we'll all
>>>>> have fond memories of running our screen readers on those ancient,
>>>> primitive
>>>>> Windows 7 computers. It's too bad that the Internet Archive doesn't
>>>> supply
>>>>> us with snapshots of pages from the future.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Michael A. Ray
>>>> Analyst/Programmer
>>>> Witley, Surrey, South-east UK
>>>>
>>>> Don't judge my disability until you witness my ability
>>>>
>>>> Interested in accessibility on the Raspberry Pi?
>>>> Visit: http://www.raspberryvi.org/
>>>> From where you can join our mailing list for visually-impaired Pi
>>>> hackers
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>>
>>
>> --
>> You can find me on Twitter @Saq5000 and Skype Saq5000
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