[blindlaw] Re JAWS scripts as a remedy for inaccessible workplace software

[Anita Keith-Foust]

Good to know. I have an iPad and will try this out ASAP. These are great
tips!

Thank you for them.

Anita Keith-Foust
919-430-1978

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Elizabeth
Rene via blindlaw
Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2015 4:36 PM
To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blindlaw] Re JAWS scripts as a remedy for inaccessible workplace
software

When dealing with inaccessible workplace software, I wonder whether we
lawyers shouldn't be using more than one screen reader tool.  We're always
talking about whether JAWS will do this or do that.  What about Apple OSX
and iOS?

I find, for example, that working with PDF files in JAWS is a headache,
while opening a PDF document in iBooks lets me breeze right through it.  In
fact, Apple reads PDFs better than it does Word documents!  But Apple does
something else better than JAWS.  Now I have a tiny, tiny bit of eyesight.
I can read the Apple screen with a 10X magnifying lense.  So if something
isn't readable with VoiceOver, I can turn VO off and use the Zoom utilities
to enlarge the print as much as I need to, and scroll through text that VO
somehow isn't flexible enough to accommodate.  A simple click of the home
button allows switching back and forth, or, if you want to, switch back and
forth to reverse from white on black to black on white.  And you can flip
between portrait and landscape orientations.  No extra software needed!  And
you can do all of this at your desk, at a cafe or a pub with something good
in front of you, or on your backyard deck with the kids outside.

 For that matter, maybe WindowEyes does some jobs better than JAWS or Apple.

I think we should be skilled in every tool we can find and afford, to make
our lives what we want them to be, and not be held hostage to office
programs that one tool can't handle.

And even as I say this, our offices may have a duty to vet their software
for accessibility before they buy it.To me, that seems to be part of the
"reasonable" in "reasonable accommodation."

Elizabeth Rene




 
  

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