[nfbcs] Practical Tips for Improving a Blind Person's Productivity on Computers
Rasmussen, Lloyd via nfbcs
nfbcs at nfbnet.org
Thu May 15 13:10:21 UTC 2014
I haven't listened to Doug's podcast yet. But I do similar things with an AM radio tuned to an empty frequency. These techniques are good not only for computers, but for recalcitrant appliances, mobile phones, new-fangled electric blankets, etc. When people come here for a workshop on the repair of digital talking book players, I demonstrate how this can be used to determine when battery charging is in progress or not. The sounds you get will depend on the frequency you tune to and the orientation and location of the "non-invasive logic probe", a.k.a. cheap transistor radio.
Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Staff Engineer
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress 202-707-0535
http://www.loc.gov/nls
The preceding opinions are my own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the Library of Congress, NLS.
-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Doug Lee via nfbcs
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 6:02 PM
To: Louis Maher via nfbcs
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Practical Tips for Improving a Blind Person's Productivity on Computers
This is not so much a tip as a general concept, but...
I have for years been somewhat famous for my use of telephone pickup coils as a means of monitoring otherwise obscure computer and other electronic activity. Recently, while dealing with a most bothersome and disabling mess on my laptop, I learned how to use a mixture of this tactic and some memorization, fueled by initial sighted assistance in a few places, to wind my way independently through a system recovery process. I posted an audio demonstration of this process at
http://www.dlee.org/lt2.mp3
This 26-minute audio file covers the following concepts:
- Use of FaceTime and Skype with video for remote assistance with
screens (brief discussion).
- The general principal of the coil-and-amp monitoring approach.
- A summary of things you can do with this in Windows.
- A demonstration of the items mentioned (most of the file).
The demo shows how I could use the coil sounds to
- Known when to hit F8 to interrupt the boot process and whether it worked.
- Learn some specific types of machine activity on your particular
computer, such as normal versus abnormal boot sequences.
- Detect the arrival of expected user prompt screens in a process.
- Log in safely regardless of whether the input boxes are
prepopulated.
- Verify whether a DOS-style command prompt has appeared when wanted.
- Determine whether a specific file exists.
- Determine whether a file copy or rename succeeded.
Of course, such computer use with absolutely zero access to printed output has its limits; and though not planned (and not edited later), the demo concludes with a demonstration of this fact as well. :-)
I mention this in the recording but will also say it here: Sounds from one computer will not necessarily equal those from another; you have to learn what to expect from a specific machine by listening at times when you know what is happening. Also, it should go without saying that a reader is a safer assistant in many speechless cases than a coil of wire; but I present my experiences for those who often find readers lacking, as well as, of course, for those who are just curious to hear what sorts of squeaks, squawks, and old-style sci fi noises can emanate from such a direct audio translation of a computer-generated EM field.
Do with all this as you like. :-)
On Wed, May 14, 2014 at 04:26:39PM -0500, NFBCS mailing list wrote:
Thanks Gary. That is what I am looking for.
Regards
Louis Maher
Phone 713-444-7838
E-mail ljmaher at swbell.net
-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Gary Wunder via nfbcs
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 9:03 AM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Practical Tips for Improving a Blind Person's Productivity on Computers
To go directly to a website without first going to your home page, use the run command and type the name of your website: www.nfb.org
-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Louis Maher
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2014 5:33 AM
To: NFB in computer science; 'Discussion of the Graphical User Interface, GUI Talk Mailing List'; Orca List
Subject: [nfbcs] Practical Tips for Improving a Blind Person's Productivity on Computers
Hello,
During the summer NFB national convention in Orlando Florida, the NFB in Computer Science will hold a meeting. In this meeting, we will have about a
30 minute discussion on "Practical Tips for Improving a Blind Person's Productivity on Computers". I have attached an initial list of these tips.
I would invite others to add their own tips to this list. Better yet, others could present their tips in person during the meeting, and receive their own one-minute of fame.
I have separated this list into Windows, iOS, and Linux. Please send me your suggestions. We are looking for an appropriate web location to display
this list.
I have also pasted the current list after my signature.
Thanks for your consideration.
Regards
Louis Maher
Phone 713-444-7838
E-mail ljmaher at swbell.net
----
Practical Tips for Improving a Blind Person's Productivity on Computers
----
Windows Computers
Place a shortcut to the favorites on your desktop.
Go to C:\Users\userID\Favorites, click the right mouse button, and select send to, and select desktop. You can then access your favorites with Windows Explorer.
If you have a Braille display, Control+alt+tab allows you to feel and hear the window you are on. Good for selecting another Window in high noise environments.
If you are using JAWS, JAWS key + f10 shows all your sessions in alphabetic order. To go to a session, arrow down to your choice, and hit enter.
To save attachments in an Outlook message: arrow up to the top line in the body of the text message, shift + tab to the attachment box, hit control + a to select all the attachments, hit control + c to copy all the attachments into the clipboard, in Windows Explorer, move to wherever you want the files to be stored, and hit control + v.
If you have a file, and you want to Copy its path into the clipboard, select the file in Windows Explorer, hit shift + applications, and hit the "copy as path" option.
For adobe, when controls disappear, you can still use the keystrokes like
control+shift+s for save as, and control+p for print.
To reliably start the Surface Pro Two with Windows 8.1: push the power button for half a second, count to fifteen seconds, hit windows + enter to bring up narrator, hit tab to get to the password field, fill in the password and hit enter. I have JAWS set to load automatically after the login process. JAWS does not come up for me reliably in the login dialog.
Windows + enter starts and stops Narrator. Narrator is much improved in Windows 8. Start the surface Pro Two with narrator.
To put the Surface Pro Two to sleep, exit JAWS, start Narrator (windows + enter), go to the desktop (windows + m), alt + f4, and pick the sleep option. Use Narrator for the wake-up process.
Map a SharePoint Website to a Disk Drive
To establish a link to a SharePoint site through Windows Explorer, go to the SharePoint website, hit alt+d for the address field, starting from the end of the address, delete all of the address until you get to the website just above the SharePoint site in question, hit enter which opens the website containing a link to your SharePoint page, tab down until you are on your SharePoint link, click the right mouse button (which is the context menu), hit the copy shortcut option, hit Windows + e to go to Windows Explorer, hit shift + tab to bring you to the left side of the screen (in tree view) and land on computer (which is my PC in Windows 8), click the right mouse button, arrow down to Map Network drive, hit enter, paste the SharePoint shortcut name into the folder field, hit shift + tab and select a drive, tab to "reconnect at startup and check it, tab to finish.
Now when you want to read or add documents to your SharePoint site, hit Windows + e for Windows Explorer, hit shift + tab to go to the tree view, arrow down to the appropriate disk drive, and your SharePoint documentation will appear in a Windows Explorer dialog. You can open, copy, and delete files just like any Windows Explorer dialog.
----
iOS Machines
Read Anna Dresner's book, "Getting Started with the iPhone and iOS 7, An Introduction for Blind Users" from the National Braille Press (npb.org) as an introduction to the iPhone.
For the focus 14: chord k turns keyboard help on, chord b turns help off.
This 14 cell Braille display works well with the iPhone.
-----
Linux Machines
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--
Doug Lee dgl at dlee.org http://www.dlee.org
SSB BART Group doug.lee at ssbbartgroup.com http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."--Theodore Roosevelt
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