[stylist] Excited to have my first novella published! Bridgit Pollpeter

[April Brown via stylist]

Hello Bridgit Pollpeter,

      I have not had access to email easily the last several days.  Been at the inaws a bit.  Thanks so much for your response.

     I've always been one who had to have written instructions.  Always kept them handy to refer to, whether I needed them or not at a later date.  My memory is so poor, I'd find myself verifying a step, even after using a program for years.

    Keyboard shortcuts.  So often, I think I've hit a certain combination.  However, my fingers actually hit something else, and I have no idea what.  I never learned them for that reason.  I'd use one, and it would delete a document, or send me somewhere in the computer, or even shut it down, and it would take me an hour to figure out how to get back to where I was, and hope nothing was deleted.  After a few of those times, I decided it was safer to not take the long way around.  Now I have to take the long way around, and hope it doesn't break anything.

     I'm supposed to be getting training through the state.  We will see.  Back in December, she was all set to set the date.  then realized, I needed the hearing evaluation first to make sure I get the correct set of equipment and training since my hearing is poor as well.  That evaluation will be soon.  And then, I was told a minimum of two months to get the hearing evaluation and make a determination.  So maybe by September I can get training, if they have an opening then.  Until then, I'm floundering on my own.

      I am sure there are people who can use screen readers in the city.  They just say wait for training, or maybe do a phone call to learn it.  I tried a phone call with Apple Accessibility.  Could not duplicate even opening the Internet the next day.  My hearing is too poor to hear, write it down, comprehend it, and be able to use it.  By the time I comprehend the first four or five spoken words, the speaker has probably been talking for ten minutes.  I don't get much out of spoken words anymore.

     My husband tried to learn VoiceOver with me.  Someone said that was a poor choice because he is sighted.  And yet, how is it any different than me, who has dramatically lost vision learning it?  We come from similar visual experiences.  Just, mine has worsened.

Have a great day,


April Brown

Writing dramatic adventure novels uncovering the myths we hide behind.

aprilbrownwrite at gmail.com

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/uncoveredmyths/
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On May 9, 2014, at 8:00 AM, stylist-request at nfbnet.org wrote:


Wed May 7 19:18:20 UTC 2014
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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

Good luck and congrats with the novella though, smile.

Bridgit