[NFBCS] Accessibility Advocacy (was: Terminal emulation)

Wed Feb 12 18:16:18 UTC 2020

The problem is that there isn't anybody focusing on accessibility for 
blind IP professionals.  All the effort goes into mainstream devices and 
apps. Your phone has to be accessible but even if you are a computer 
programmer, the computer you use at work does not.  And that makes a 
certain amount of sense. the law that forced phone manufacturers to put 
a screen reader on their phones effected a lot more people than 
Hummingbird being inaccessible. So I'm not saying focusing on mainstream 
accessibility issues is bad. I'm just pointing out that there is nobody 
looking out for people like us.

Several years ago, a bunch of us blind IT professionals got together and 
tried to start an advocacy group. It fizzled out just recently. But 
maybe we can do something within the NFB.

On 2/12/20 10:14 AM, Cathy Schroeder via NFBCS wrote:
> Tracy,
> 
> I totally agree with your frustration. Everyone in my company is using Blue
> Zone for 3270 emulation and I am still on IBM PCSW because I can't get Blue
> Zone to work with JAWS. Now I am having great frustration with IBM PCSW so I
> need to look for a new option I suspect.
> 
> Thank goodness I have proven my ability to get the job done or I would not
> be able to keep my job.
> 
> It is very frustrating to require a different emulator because I have to be
> my own support. Every time I get a new laptop I am required to make sure
> they have installed my special emulator. It seems as though, as time goes
> on, I need to have more and more different software than my colleagues
> because less and less works well with JAWS. Currently I am required to
> submit time sheet changes to someone else to apply to my time sheet because
> I can't use our time sheet software.
> 
> Okay, I will step off of my soap box and just say that, as a blind person in
> the technology field, you need to be self-motivated to make sure your
> software works well enough to get the job done.
> Sometimes that means finding a different software package than other
> coworkers use that works more efficiently with JAWS.
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione via NFBCS
> Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2020 11:05 AM
> To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Tracy Carcione <carcione at access.net>
> Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Terminal emulation
> 
> Hi Steve.
> It is very frustrating.  My sighted colleagues get a nice, shiny, new laptop
> and go straight back to work.  For me, what has worked great for decades
> stops working, and I have to spend literally days trying to figure out how
> to make something work again, tweaking what I've got and trying demo copies
> of something else, with no real guarantee of success.  And the outcome has
> nothing to do with my skills as a programmer, or even necessarily the skills
> of Jaws tech support.
> It's not really a mystery why so many capable blind people are unemployed.
> Some people get tired of banging their heads against a wall, and some
> accessibility problems don't seem to have any solution.
> I'm lucky my old machine still works, and my boss is patient.
> Tracy
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NFBCS [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Steve Jacobson
> via NFBCS
> Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2020 10:37 AM
> To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
> Cc: Steve Jacobson
> Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Terminal emulation
> 
> Tracy,
> 
> I know I am not being of much help here and I'm sorry about that.  However,
> I found that with earlier versions of Windows 10, I'm not sure how early,
> the font that came with my terminal emulater would not always work.  JAWS
> would simply not recognize it.  In my case, it was the entire screen and not
> just when I typed, but it was an issue.  I had to use a different font to
> get around the problem as opposed to the font size.  In my case, though, the
> font that JAWS was not recognizing was also not displaying, so it might be a
> different problem entirely.  Still, my experience has been that sometimes
> things that don't seem to have any connection to a given problem seem to fix
> it.
> 
> I would probably want to determine if the characters that I type are
> recognized by the JAWS cursor.  If it does, does the JAWS cursor identify
> the font of the characters that you typed as being different than the other
> fonts on the screen.  Of course, the attributes could be different.  Also,
> does the Font of the character at the cursor look different when you are
> typing?  The point of doing this, if you aren't giving up completely, is to
> see if you have some kind of a font display problem or a cursor tracking
> problem.  I'm not sure how JAWS support could know for sure that the cursor
> size settings might not help unless they went through this with you, unless
> one can't use the horizontal and vertical settings to look for two different
> cursors.  It is very possible that could be the case, though and they might
> be right.  This is the sort of thing, though, that frustrates me about the
> accessibility issues that we face.  Sometimes it is just complicated and we
> don't even know who should
>    have the greatest responsibility.  Of course, Glen Gordon may have some
> better information on this.
> 
> Sometimes one has to just make a decision and look for something else,
> though.  I understand that.  As you can see, nothing will probably just work
> without any challenges.  Probably the demo version of QWS3270 is worth
> checking in case it is a good fit.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Steve
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione via NFBCS
> Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2020 10:40 AM
> To: nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Tracy Carcione <carcione at access.net>
> Subject: [NFBCS] Terminal emulation
> 
> I am really stuck.  Hummingbird works well, so long as I don't type.  Once I
> start typing, according to Jaws, the font goes to no font, and Jaws can't
> find the cursor.
> I called Jaws, and they just said to try a bunch of font sizes.  I did that,
> but it all works the same--typing turns to no font.
> 
> I asked Jaws if changing the cursor dimensions through the setting center
> would help, and the gal said no.
> 
> Hummingbird is what my coworkers are using, and it's so close to working for
> me, but not close enough.  I guess I'll have to try other software, when I
> can get someone with admin rights to install a demo copy for me.
> 
> I'd welcome any ideas more useful than randomly changing fonts.
> Tracy
> 
> 
> 
> 
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