[blindlaw] Research and screen readers

[Tai Blas]

I echo Angie's comments. I have noticed some improvement with the crashing
problems I was having when saving items to my Westlaw Next folders and love
the folder functionality. The ability to save to folders is something the
text and traditional Westlaw sites do not have, and no fees are assessed for
accessing items you save to folders. I haven't changed jurisdictions in a
while so I am not sure if they fixed this crashing problem, but after I
called them about the crashes when saving to folders, it seemed to get
better so they must have fixed something. If you are experiencing crashes
when changing jurisdictions in Westlaw Next, please call their customer
support and ask them to fix the problem, as this seems to get results
quickly.

Thanks.

Tai


-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Angie
Matney
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 12:07 PM
To: Blind Law Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Research and screen readers

I am not a fan of Westlaw Text at all. It's harder for me to navigate than
other sites, and it doesn't provide the level of detail I need when search
results are displayed.

Except for some random crashes when I try to change my jurisdiction in
WestlawNext, the site is very accessible with JAWS, as is regular Westlaw. I
haven't used Lexis in a few years, but it was just as accessible back then.

I prefer all of these sites to the text.westlaw.com site. I can do more with
screen-reader keystrokes on Westlaw Classic and WestlawNext.
In JFW, x and shift-x take you to the next and prior checkbox respectively.
This makes jumping between search results a snap. I imagine WindowEyes has a
similar keystroke.

Also, each of these sites displays excerpts from your search results on the
results page. I don't know of a way to make Westlaw Text do this, which
means I have to click on each result to see if it is relevant--far too
time-consuming. If there is a way to have Westlaw Text display excerpts from
search results, I would really be interested to know about it.

Basically, I have found that it helps to learn about the different elements
on the page of your preferred database and then learn the corresponding
keystrokes for your screen-reader.

On 12/11/12, Susan Kelly <Susan.Kelly at pima.gov> wrote:
> I use a combination of MAGic and JAWS with WestLaw, usually the text 
> version (text.westlaw.com).  I was one of the people that WestLaw Next 
> was tested on for accessibility software, and it seemed fairly usable, 
> but I still prefer using the less "busy" screen on the text-only 
> version of WestLaw, as do a lot of co-workers with no vision problems.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
> Jeckel, Christopher
> Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2012 9:16 AM
> To: Blind Law Mailing List
> Subject: [blindlaw] Research and screen readers
>
> Hey Gang,
>
> So the tech support folks at G.W. Micro have explained to me that the 
> function on WindowEyes which allows a user to hover the mouse over 
> text for audio feedback will most likely not be compatible with most 
> online browsers in a few years.  Reason being is because of the new 
> way Microsoft is writing code for windows.  The program will still 
> work fine, just not with the hover function.  What this means for me 
> and other partially sighted WindowEyes users is that we will have to 
> learn how to use WindowEyes or Jaws only using the key commands, hot keys
etc.
>
>
> My question for you all is when doing legal research, have you found 
> any particular combination of Jaws or WindowEyes with Lexis or WestLaw 
> to be the most efficient?  Do you find one legal database easier to 
> navigate with a screen reader than the other using key commands, hot keys,
etc.?
>
> Love you guys,
> Chris
>
>
>
>
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