[stylist] Excited to have my first novella published!

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

April,

Don't feel bad about not automatically getting a screenreader. I would
hazard a guess that most people can't just sit down and pick it up
without any help. Yes, you can play with it without running into too
many problems, but not everyone has the ability to just pick up new
things without some help.

And screenreaders have their own, built-in keystrokes to accomplish
functions that are different than general computer keystrokes used in
place of the MOUS. I actually learned as a sighted person to rely on
keystrokes to operate a computer, but picking up JAWS keystrokes didn't
come naturally to me.

I did okay with JAWS, but it was my husband, one of the rare, lucky ones
who can just sit down and pick it up, who really helped me feel
confident and competeant with it. I did not frequently use a computer
before I lost my sight, so perhaps this helped, not allowing my visual
knowledge to get in the way of learning audio knowledge, who knows. And
it really wasn't until I went back to university and had to use a
computer for pretty much everything that I grew truly comfortable with
JAWS and computers in general.

I don't struggle using the voice-over with my I Phone, but I do with our
I Pad and MACS. Plus, having used JAWS for almost ten years, I'm use to
it as well as a PC.

I encourage you to keep trying. Have you had any official training with
a rehab voc specialist? Is there anyone competant with a screenreader in
your area who could help you? I think it will ultimately be worth your
time and effort.

Bridgit

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of April
Brown
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2014 5:38 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Excited to have my first novella published!


Good morning.

I am so excited to have my first novella published.

For the last year plus, I have struggled with trying to get training to
help me through my vision loss.  I tried various screenreaders on
Windows.  They bogged it down so bad that I couldn't even check my mail.
And I never did manage to figure out how to get one to work.

So in December I bought a Mac, since I was told VoiceOver was easy and
intuitive.  Five months later, and I still can't duplicate any set of
instructions I have written down.

It is too complex, and I can't duplicate directions the following day no
matter what I do.  And there are no step by step manuals.  Lots of "Rah!
Rah! You can do it!" No steps.   Yeah, I know how to turn it off and on.
That's the only command that mostly works.

    I was concerned about Monday and preparing my novella for Smashwords
and Amazon.  

After all, if I can't figure out how to use a basic screen reader that
any blind person with no computer training can use without thinking, how
could I ever hope to do something so complex as publish a novella?

    How much trouble did I have?

    I had to try a second time with the cover for Smashwords.

    That was it.  It was a breeze otherwise.  Less than two hours. And
that counted the time to reformat based on Amazon's directions.

    What does that say about me?



April Brown

Writing dramatic adventure novels uncovering the myths we hide behind.

aprilbrownwrite at gmail.com

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/uncoveredmyths/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/UncoveredMyths
Google Plus:  https://plus.google.com/116003267969710767555/posts

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