[nfbcs] Practical Tips for Improving a Blind Person's Productivity on Computers

Sat May 17 02:11:36 UTC 2014

I have found that Text Detective will often read an err message or a menu in such a way that it can be followed and worked. Although this requires another device, sometimes it is easier than finding a reader or using narrator.

Nancy Coffman
Sent from my iPhone

> On May 7, 2014, at 5:32 AM, "Louis Maher" <ljmaher at swbell.net> wrote:
> 
> 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
> 
> 
> 
> 
> <Practical Tips for Improving a Blind Person's Productivity on Computers.docx>
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