[Trainer-Talk] Using virtual ribbon menus in JAWS

Nimer Jaber nimerjaber1 at gmail.com
Thu Jul 29 17:55:17 UTC 2021


Hello,

I think Virtual Ribbons do users a disservice. Particularly in the
workplace. Thus, they are not something I teach or touch on, unless a user
happens to discover them and want to know what they are, or I am working
with a senior who has been used to using menus for a long time, and
employment isn't necessarily the goal. I don't find ribbons difficult to
teach or use, and I find that using the Tell Me feature more useful,
personally, than using the virtual ribbon.

On Thu, Jul 29, 2021 at 10:50 AM Nancy Coffman via Trainer-Talk <
trainer-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Are usually advocate for the less change the better. I think virtual
> ribbons could, in some circumstances, cause incompatibility issues. Other
> software that is running or macros might not work well with the virtual
> ribbon. I don’t mind if people look at it.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> > On Jul 22, 2021, at 11:58 PM, Brad Snyder via Trainer-Talk <
> trainer-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> >
> > I completely agree with Raul.
> > Couldn’t have said this any better.
> >
> > - Brad -
> >
> >
> > On Jul 22, 2021, at 22:09, Raul Gallegos via Trainer-Talk <
> trainer-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> >
> > I am personally not a fan of the virtual menus because I think that it
> ends up setting the user for failure in the future. If people will recall,
> many many years ago, Jaws had a special hotkey, insert with f6, to quickly
> take you to the desktop icon area. Of course, this was done to help people
> since Windows key with m or Windows key with d did not yet exist. However,
> because of this, when Freedom scientific removed that hotkey, it caused a
> big Ruckus because users were so used to doing it that way, they did not
> think that any other way would be valid. Therefore, using this example,
> along with several others, I always teach the real way of using a menu or a
> computer hotkey that belongs to the operating system or program before I
> will teach the screen reader way of doing the same thing. Yes, it might be
> easier today, yes, it might be more convenient today, but that could easily
> change and leave the user stranded. As to your question, I let my students
> know what the options are and I explained to them my reasoning for trying
> to learn the real way of accessing ribbons or other dialogues. In the end,
> if the student wants to learn the screen reader way, I will put the
> disclaimer out there that this may only work with that screen reader
> specifically and it may disappear. I hope this helps.
> >
> >
> >> On July 22, 2021 9:51:55 PM Kelsey Nicolay via Trainer-Talk <
> trainer-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hello,
> >> I currently am running JAWS 2021 and find that I prefer to use the
> virtual ribbon menus because I hate the ribbons in Microsoft Office.
> However, there seems to be a lot of debate on this topic; some sources say
> it’s a matter of personal preference while others don’t recommend it
> because it makes things more difficult to find. I am curious to know what
> everyone’s thoughts are on the virtual ribbon menus option in JAWS. Do you
> teach both ways and let the student decide what works best or should
> virtual ribbon menus not be used at all and instead learn to use the
> standard ribbons?
> >> Sent from Kelsey Nicolay’s iPhone
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> >
> >
> >
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-- 
Best,

Nimer Jaber

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