[nabs-l] SPSS info

Thu Mar 1 00:50:10 UTC 2012

Cari:

I unfortunately do not have any information about that. You could
email the address I provide above and ask. That goes to a personal
inbox, so I trust that you would get a reply faster than a generic
contact link on IBM's website.

I'm sorry I cannot be of more help.

Cindy

On 2/29/12, Cari Ford <carisuekness at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Cindy,
> My school uses the current version of Windoweyes. Do you or anyone
> else have any information about the accessibility with Windoweyes?
> Thanks for the information you posted about the program.
> Peace,
> Cari
>
> At 06:06 PM 2/28/2012, Cindy Bennett wrote:
>>A while ago, I mentioned that I would receive some training from a
>>grad student I know with JAWS and SPSS. She has been very helpful, and
>>I wanted to share what I have learned so far.
>>
>>Right now, she uses SPSS versions 16 and 19. 19 is the current
>>version, and most schools and research workplaces keep the current
>>version. She had to go through her school to get version 16.
>>
>>She has version 19 on her work desktop. Before she could even use it
>>with JAWS, she had to obtain a fix from Freedom Scientific. This fix
>>actually works. I remember trying one that came out for version 17
>>when I was in undergrad stats, and it didn't work, but this one does,
>>so that is an improvement.  Before she uses SPSS, she has to close all
>>programs, restart the computer, and only run JAWS and SPSS. She had to
>>add RAM to her computer so that it has 8 gigs which is more than the
>>typical computer has. Apparently, the computer cannot handle running
>>JAWS and SPSS with under that amount of RAM.
>>
>>Even after those accommodations to maximize the productivity of the
>>program, she says that after several analyses, the computer sometimes
>>restarts. That being said, she is working at a professional research
>>firm, so homework assignments for stats classes would definitely not
>>be working with data sets of 31 thousand.
>>
>>The version we practiced on was 16 since it works better with JAWS,
>>and since it is on her work laptop. She is using JAWS 12 and Window's
>>XP. I do not know if there is a version 16 of SPSS that works with
>>Window's 7 since it is updated so frequently.
>>
>>When you open SPSS, there are 2 windows, the data view, and the
>>variable view. The variable view is where you label your variables. It
>>is best to do this first. Each row represents a variable like age or
>>gender, and each column represents something about that variable that
>>you can set like how many decimal places to round to, what type of
>>variable it is, etc. this is where you can code for variables. For
>>example, you can specify 1 for males and 2 for females. This way, you
>>could just enter 1 or 2 into the gender column of the data view, and
>>the output table which I will describe later would then code the
>>findings accordingly.
>>
>>Pressing control t toggles between the variable and data views. The
>>data view can be described as a spreadsheet. Each column represents
>>one of the variables you specified in the variable view. The variable
>>you specified in the first row of the variable view is the title of
>>column 1 in the data view. Each row of the data view represents a
>>case, or one subject of the study. Typically, people would enter their
>>data into the data view. However, my friend prefers to save the SPSS
>>file as an Excel file at this point. The reason for this is that JAWS
>>lags when moving among cells, so she can enter data faster in Excel.
>>Also, each time you move down a case in the data view, JAWS specifies
>>the variable name. This would be somewhat tolerable if it simply said
>>the variable such as age or gender, but it says a lot of other
>>syntax-like crap as well which contributes to JAWS lagging. My
>>communications instructor at BLIND, Inc. said that there could be some
>>options in verbosity to eliminate some of what JAWS says, but I
>>haven't explored this.
>>
>>So, once you save as an Excel file, you can open the Excel file and
>>enter your data. The columns in Excel would correspond to the columns
>>in SPSS, so whatever data corresponds to the variable in row 1 of the
>>variable view should be entered in column A in Excel.
>>
>>At this point, I would close the SPSS file so as not to confuse it
>>with the SPSS file you will make later.
>>
>>Since the purpose of SPSS is the ability to run a variety of data
>>analyses, you have to save the Excel file as an SPSS file once you
>>have entered your data. You can then open the SPSS file. The analyses
>>are found in the menus. Once you run an analysis, an output table will
>>appear, but JAWS will not say anything. So, you have to export it (NOT
>>SAVE AS) to Excel. After doing this, you can then easily read the
>>results of the output table.
>>
>>My friend also prefers to explore data sets by saving them as Excel
>>files because of JAWS lags and because you cannot do searches for data
>>within SPSS.
>>
>>I am also working on Macs at BLIND, Inc., and we downloaded the trial
>>version of SPSS onto one of the MacBooks. I was unable to navigate
>>anything when entering the program, but now that I have a
>>conceptualization of what is supposed to be there, we will try again,
>>and I will let you know if I get anywhere with it.
>>
>>There are a ton of things I can go into about SPSS, but I think that a
>>lot of it can be explored or learned in statistics classes. I think
>>that the important thing is to gain a conceptual idea of SPSS. I had a
>>positive experience since I had run into so many dead ends. Although
>>version 16 is somewhat hard to find in school settings which are
>>constantly updating technology, IBM is doing beta accessibility
>>testing for version 20, and I am supposed to receive more information
>>about that in April. So, maybe that will be better. However, at this
>>point, I would fight for version 16. I know that it can be tedious and
>>that Excel and other free softwares are more accessible and can
>>perform some of the analyses, but SPSS is a really good skill to have.
>>It is the common software for schools and workplaces, and it seems to
>>be more comprehensive than other programs.
>>
>>If you are interested in learning more about the beta testing, you can
>>email lar at us.ibm.com. I have no idea if they are still taking beta
>>testers, and it was about a week before I got a response, so don't be
>>disconcerted if you don't get a reply immediately. Other than that, I
>>know nothing about the promised accessibility of future versions or
>>about the beta testing process.
>>
>>If you would like me to explain anything in more detail, just let me
>>know. And, if you have any more knowledge about the program like
>>accessible features I might have left out, please share.
>>
>>--
>>Cindy Bennett
>>B.A. Psychology, UNC Wilmington
>>
>>clb5590 at gmail.com
>>828.989.5383
>>
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-- 
Cindy Bennett
B.A. Psychology, UNC Wilmington

clb5590 at gmail.com
828.989.5383