[Blindmath] SPSS accessibility file

Mon Sep 20 20:30:39 UTC 2010

Hi Roopakshi and others,

I'd would be very interested to hear from users of SPSS version 17 and 18 
about their experience of using the program. I've only used version 18 so 
cannot speak about any previous version. But I do read that version 17 is 
not to dissimilar from V 18 as far as screen readers are concern.

When I say that I find the program usable I simply mean that I've been able 
to do the required tasks using the GUI. This involves activating buttons  in 
the dialogue boxes, entering information like value and variable labels, and 
placing variables into variable boxix for running regression or  requesting 
frequency tables.

As I've said I cannot speak about any previous versions. I did read in the 
email archives of some email list and heard from users of spss that dialogue 
boxes in the previous versions are not well read.

I've shared the experiences I've had of using spss, and I hope other users 
do the same. So it can be established that is spss accessible or not.

And Roopakshi, I'd like to say few things about R's output and the notes you 
are developing. can I email you my thoughts privately?

Regards,
Faiz.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roopakshi Pathania" <r_akshi_tgk at yahoo.com>
To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics" 
<blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2010 11:23 PM
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] SPSS accessibility file

Hi Faiz, Phil, and others:

Back in the old days (when I still had all my teeth, etc); 3 to 4 years ago 
to be precise, when I used SPSS, its state of accessibility was more or less 
as what Faiz has described with the latest version.
This leads me to believe that it has neither regressed nor progressed from 
the perspective of accessibility.
On the other hand, a number of people have mentioned that the current 
version of SPSS isn’t accessible any more.
I think that these conflicting reports need to be resolved most likely by 
the SPSS fans; I belong to the R camp.

To provide more information than what Phil has originally requested, I’m 
going to list the procedure of making Java Access Bridge work with Java 
Swing based applications in general and SPSS in particular. This might even 
be useful Vincent who is working to get SPSS as accessible as possible.

1. Most applications come with their own Java Runtime Environment, and Java 
Access Bridge only likes to play with the already installed JRE. The result 
is of course that the application in question, in this case SPSS has no clue 
that it is suppose to be accessible.
2. You have to do some manual copy paste to get around the problem.
3. So you go to the following folder and copy all files (after making 
adjustments to the address path depending on your Windows version). 
C:\Program Files\Java Access Bridge\installerFiles
Note that this folder contains all the files including the 
accessibility.properties file and you don’t need to contact anyone.
4. Now you need to locate the Lib folder within SPSS (or any other 
application) to paste all those files you copied in the previous step. 
C:\Program Files\Application Name\lib
5. You don’t actually need all the files, but never mind, keep going.
6. There is another way of placing these files, but that is not for SPSS.
7. Now take a deep breath and start SPSS.
8. In the following URL, they also tell you to modify Environment Variables 
to indicate the location of the application, but I never read about this 
step in my younger days, and I could still navigate the dialog boxes, so...
https://docs.rice.edu/confluence/display/ITTUT/Screen+reading+software+(JAWS)+for+SPSS+set+up+instructions
9. Java Access Bridge most likely does not work on 64 bit version of Windows 
7. So either get a Mac, or buy both a 32 bit as well as a 64 bit version of 
Windows 7 CD as I did.
10. Let me know if this improves anything.
11. If you are still running Windows by this step, NVDA is likely to give 
you the best result with SPSS.

A final comment for those interested in R: I’ll soon write down some notes 
for putting R’s output in fancy formats like Excel, Open Document Format, 
and I don’t know what else.

Regards

--- On Mon, 9/20/10, Faiz Rasool <faiz7r at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Faiz Rasool <faiz7r at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Blindmath] SPSS accessibility file
> To: "Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics" 
> <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Monday, September 20, 2010, 2:18 AM
> Hi Phil,
>
> I came across the same problem you are
> having. I downloaded a demo version
> of spss 18 and didn't had the accessibility.properties
> file. I contacted
> SPSs support and they were happy to provide the
> accessibility.properties
> file.
>
> Copying this file only works when you have java
> accessibility bridge
> installed. Assuming that you have installed
> java accessibility bridge and
> copied accessibility.properties file into appropriate
> folder, SPSS should
> work fine with jaws. You can access all the menus and
> read dialogue boxes.
> You cannot however read the SPSs output window.
> The solution is to export
> it into any format of choice. The available options are
> rtf, txt, pdf, and
> so on.
>
> Currently I'm using SPSS 18, and have not came across any
> major
> accessibility issue so far. The menus are read
> properly by Jaws. I'm using
> Jaws 11.
>
> Trying to use any previous versions of spss is not likely
> to help. As I can
> attest, recent version 18 does work if you follow the
> steps outlined in
> SPSS help of how to use it with screen readers.
>
> I'll suggest you to contact spss support through their
> website. They'll be
> happy to provide you the accessibility.properties
> file. You can copy it and
> use the program.
>
> I hope this helps you.
>
> Best,
> Faiz.
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Philip So" <philipso101 at gmail.com>
> To: <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, September 20, 2010 1:01 AM
> Subject: [Blindmath] SPSS accessibility file
>
>
> Hi everyone,
> I am trying to get my SPSS 17 to work with JAWS 10 and 11.
> The instruction provided by SPSS says "Go to the
> Accessibility folder
> on the CD ROM and copy the accessibility.properties file".
> I have SPSS 17 installed on my computer, but I don't have
> the original
> SPSS CD anymore. Do we need any file from that CD to
> make SPSS
> accessible? Is there another way to do this?
> Thanks a lot in advance.
> Phil
>
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