- From: John M Slatin <john_slatin@austin.utexas.edu>
- Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2006 16:43:29 -0600
- To: <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>
Hello, I've been doing a little "research" today. I was very excited to discover the following: 1. JAWS 5.0 and later has a "Read current sentence" keystroke (alt+numPad5). Executing this keystroke when a link has focus reads the sentence without changing the focus; pressing the Enter key then follows the link. I tested this in IE with the link as first word in the sentence, link as last word in the sentence, and link somewhere in the "interior" of the sentence. All were successful. This keystroke also works in tagged PDF documents. 2. Window-Eyes has hot keys for "Read current sentence" and "Read current paragraph" (JAWS doesn't have "Read current paragraph"; it does have "read next paragraph" and "read previous paragraph"). The Window-Eyes keystroke is available in version 5.5 (the most recent one); not sure about earlier versions. I don't have Window-Eyes installed so haven't tested it. The Firevox screen reader (a free screen reader for Firefox which supports Windows, Mac, and Linux) has a "speak parent element" keystroke that reads the parent element wwithout changing the focus (e.g., if a Read more... Link is embedded within a paragraph, Ctrl+Shift+u will read the paragraph and leave focus on the link (if that link already has focus, that is)). I had no idea that the "read current sentence" was available in JAWS! But it's been there for at least a couple of years now-- I think 5.0 came out in 2004. For all I know this keystroke has been available even longer. I've added the information above (minus the bit about my not having known...) to the User agent and assistive technology support notes section of Identifying the purpose of a link using link text and text associated with the parent element At http://trace.wisc.edu/wcag_wiki/index.php?title=Identifying_the_purpose_ of_a_link_using_link_text_and_text_associated_with_the_parent_element_of _the_link John "Good design is accessible design." Dr. John M. Slatin, Director Accessibility Institute University of Texas at Austin FAC 248C 1 University Station G9600 Austin, TX 78712 ph 512-495-4288, fax 512-495-4524 email jslatin@mail.utexas.edu Web http://www.utexas.edu/research/accessibility
Received on Saturday, 18 March 2006 22:43:45 UTC