[NFBCS] changing cursor attributes to make a Windows application work with JAWS

Fri Jan 13 23:21:31 UTC 2023

John,

This is unusual.  Usually JAWS needs a blinking cursor to track it properly.  However, it could be that something in their blinking cursor logic was blocking JAWS somehow.  I will be interested to hear if this fix works on your work machine.  If it doesn't, though, it is possible that there is another option that changes the blink rate that might help.  I have seen software that has the options of slow, medium, fast and system.  Setting a blink rate to system may avoid blink logic within the software.  Again, though, if turning the blinking cursor off works, that is great and you are home free.

Best regards,

Steve

From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of John via NFBCS
Sent: Friday, January 13, 2023 5:02 PM
To: nfbcs at nfbnet.org
Cc: John <johnmillerphd at hotmail.com>
Subject: [NFBCS] changing cursor attributes to make a Windows application work with JAWS

Hello,

Software applications are constantly changing. There are applications that I use in the workplace that are outside of Office 365.

A few years ago I was using a terminal emulator program for data logging called Secure CRT.

To get it to work well with JAWS I needed to go into the settings of Secure CRT and change the cursor shape to line.

After that, it worked quite well.

There are two applications that I use today. One of them is "git bash" for interacting with a server that keeps track of software version control of software that developers are working on.

The other one is cygwin which is quite similar to linux but installs on top of Windows.

On a new work computer I found that both git bash and cygwin were not working right with JAWS.

I opened up a case with Freedom Scientific and started some more investigations.

I installed these two programs on my personal Windows 10 PC to see how they would behave.

Today I found that with brand new installs these programs do not work correctly.

But I found that with a very minor configuration change they work okay on my personal computer.

This time the configuration change is to go into options and uncheck the blinking option under cursor section.

Both these programs are quite helpful for the type of work that I do.

I guess it is just important to point out that periodically, say once a year or so, it is helpful to do a new download of any program that you depend on and take it through its paces. The new version may work just fine with screen readers, or it may need a setting change, or you may need to open a case with Vispero to problem solve making the latest version work with JAWS.

In the next week or so I hope to configure my work computer that has problems with these applications and see if the configuration above makes the problem I am having go away for the work computer as well.

No need to read any further if you are not installing these applications.

I wish to note that my personal computer reports the following with the winver command:

Windows 10 Home version 22H2.

I installed git bash on my personal PC.

The installer can be found at https://git-scm.com/downloads<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgit-scm.com%2Fdownloads&data=05%7C01%7C%7Ce2f7850f754e44577faa08daf5ba7d13%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638092478578074887%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=CWfIKW1uVyXhQuc2cWaOF402AhmCccU6imcddErhZpU%3D&reserved=0>

Using the command git --version, I verified the git bash version is: 2.39.0.windows.2

After install I could not route jaws to pc and successfully up-arrow up the screen to see information on the braille display.

I found a way that made the up-arrowing to get information work by changing something in options.

At the git bash prompt, I did a insert-* for right-mouse click, pressed down-arrow, pressed tab repeatedly until landing on cursor blink checkbox which I toggled to off by pressing the spacebar.

I selected apply and then save.

Visually the cursor was no longer blinking after this action.

Now route JAWS to PC and pressing up-arrow moves up the screen.

The braille is not brought back to the cursor location.

In short, git bash is working properly.

I also installed cygwin on my personal PC.

The installer can be found at https://www.cygwin.com/install.html<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cygwin.com%2Finstall.html&data=05%7C01%7C%7Ce2f7850f754e44577faa08daf5ba7d13%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C638092478578231167%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=%2B2NR0DgEUN%2B2rsa3HYLyWVWe66crmXzyFMnOPb9AEVM%3D&reserved=0>

Using the command "uname -v", I verified the cygwin version is: 2022-12-16 12:38 UTC