[BlindRUG] [EXTERNAL EMAIL] Reading Output with Latest JAWS Version

[Robin Williams]

Hi Natasha,

Firstly, if you aren’t already I recommend using the R Terminal rather than the R GUI. The terminal can be launched by navigating to the your R installation directory, and then to \bin\x64\Rterm.exe. I recommend adding this as a desktop shortcut. On my system at least, I can then use the JAWS cursor to review the output of basic commands.

However, in my opinion this really isn’t a long term solution for anything even slightly advanced, i.e. anything that prints out more than a few lines of output. This is why I use Emacs with the Emacs Speaks Statistics package, which allows me to easily read the output and also to avoid needing to resort to the JAWS cursor. The Emacs learning curve is pretty steep, though, and this might not be appropriate for your needs.

I have read a lot on this list about the use of R Markdown, which allows one to produce output in HTML. I use R Markdown for writing presentations and reports, but I’m yet to be convinced on how I could make use of it for my workflow. I often have lengthy research scripts from which I want to run a few lines of code, inspect the output, and then likely modify that code before inspecting the output again. Compiling an R Markdown document to HTML and refreshing my browser every couple of minutes doesn’t feel like an optimal solution to me. It’s perfectly possible that I don’t understand the process others follow when using R Markdown for their research, however, so I would be grateful if someone could enlighten me.

Returning to the R terminal, I believe there is an NVDA add on to help with reading terminal windows, which may or may not be applicable here. I have just attempted to read some output in the R terminal window with NVDA (without this add on), but was not successful. However I have only recently started dabbling with NVDA, and am still primarily a JAWS user, so this is likely due to incompetence on my part. It is also possible to run R from within VSCode. I have briefly experimented with this and plan to do so again shortly, although others on this list have done more in this area. There are also other IDEs that could be worth investigating, including Eclipse with the StatET add-in.

The difficulties for an R beginner to fire up an R session and get to work seem like quite an obstacle to me, and it would be good to hear from others regarding their research workflows. I think this could make for a suitable topic in a Zoom session, where perhaps a few people could demonstrate some different options.

Hope this helps,
Robin


From: BlindRUG <blindrug-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Natasha Ishaq via BlindRUG
Sent: 30 June 2022 02:43
To: blindrug at nfbnet.org
Cc: Natasha Ishaq <natasha.ishaq2001 at gmail.com>
Subject: [EXTERNAL EMAIL] [BlindRUG] Reading Output with Latest JAWS Version

Hello,

As I am still in the process of teaching myself R, I am unable to get JAWS to read the output after I type in a command on the consul. I have attempted to route the JAWS and PC cursor but have had no luck. I am wondering if this has to do with the latest JAWS update? If so, what is the best solution?

Thanks,
Natasha
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