Re: Amaya with Window-Eyes 4.0

> Window-Eyes is like JFW in that you can use the numeric keypad to move the
> mouse around and read by lines, words, characters, etc.  Graphics on the
> toolbar had tooltips, and Window-Eyes was able to use these to
> automatically label them.  Menus are a little unusual, since you must hit
> Alt, then V, then a view option; the combination Alt-V or Alt-F does not
> work as it would work in most Windows programs.  Pull-down menus and the
> status bar read properly.

If you have a look at the CVS version of Amaya, you can see that the support 
of shortcuts on Windows platforms has been re-implemented and access-keys are
now available.
Amaya handles a lot of shortcuts: a set for browsing functions, a set for 
views,
a set for HTML editing, a set for MathML editing, etc.
I don't know if we made a good choice when defining the configuration file
amaya.kb, so your remarks/suggestions are welcome.

> The formatted view window seems to have the text drawn to the screen one
> word at a time; this means that Window-Eyes sees each line as a long series
> of separate "clips", and this causes a speech synthesizer to stutter or
> pause noticeably between words when reading a line or a whole window.  This
> means that it's much more comfortable to read the HTML documentation in
> Lynx/32 or in IE5.

This was due to a feature not already exploited that allows Amaya to show
with special characters normal-spaces, unbreakable-spaces, line-break, etc.
Amaya is also able to justified lines on the screen and displays words at the
right position in the line.
We may add a specific mode that displays line by line.

> I found that I could position the mouse pointer on any character in a
> window, use the W-E left-click keystroke, and the caret moved to that
> position.  But Window-Eyes could never recognize this caret.  I would be
> able to use this left-click method to position my cursor within a window
> and insert some text, which Window-Eyes can then read, but this is pretty
> unhandy.

I don't know what I can do for improving the current situation.

> I didn't try "reclassing" the nonstandard window to an "MDI Frame" or "MDI
> Client" but doubt this would affect much.  
> 
> Except for the fact that a cursor is visible, I have some similar issues
> with XML Spy, which I have been testing out.  It's a challenge.  If I had
> more time, I might be able to hack into a few more things and find Amaya to
> be really useful; at this point I'm not convinced.
> 
> At 09:54 AM 1/5/01 -0500, you wrote:
> >Hi Lloyd, thanks for that Data.
> >
> >(It is getting to be a pile of it - I'll put it on a Web page.)
> >
> >Do you have a few minutes to answer some questions about Amaya (feel free to
> >ignore this if you're busy - I realise that I am simply asking you to spend
> >time...)
> >
> >How easy/hard is it to read stuff using teh mouse pointer? And how do you go
> >about using the menus and buttons like that?
> >
> >Can you read the structure view? (it might be difficult to know without
> >a visual check...)
> >
> >I assume that the Table of Contents View, Links View, and Alternative
> >(text-only) View are more or less like reading the Formatted (default) View.
> >
> >Do you get alternatives provided for images in the formatted view (the alt is
> >rendered instead in the alternative view...)
> >
> >cheers
> >
> >Charles McCN
> 
> Braille is the solution to the digital divide.
> Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Staff Engineer
> National Library Service f/t Blind and Physically Handicapped
> Library of Congress    (202) 707-0535  <lras@loc.gov>
> <http://www.loc.gov/nls>
> HOME:  <lras@sprynet.com>       <http://lras.home.sprynet.com>
> 

-- 
     Irene.

Received on Tuesday, 9 January 2001 11:00:00 UTC