Re: Jaws2018 is out and possible upcoming firefox problem with jaws
I stopped actively using jaws 2-3 years ago. I still have a demo lying around if I need it though, and there are times when I do.
In regards to OCR, what does Jaws use? Does the Win10 one work better? IN the brief times I've used both, I found the win10 one to read better, but I haven't done enough to do a representative comparison.
The reason I stopped following Jaws was because in 2015 I needed to reformat my machine, and I was already several versions behind as it was, with no upgrades left. So it was either switch to NVDA or tell my parents I needed to buy upgrades. The latter, while an option, wasn't very tempting. That drove me to use and learn NVDA. And while I was savvy enough to be able to cope with the change, some people are not. It was truly not at all as terrifying to me as I thought it would be, and I am so glad that I was forced into that. I certainly wouldn't have done it on my own but I feel much better for it. The reason I bring this up is not to start a Jaws vs NVDA war, because I will probably cut my head off in complete agitation if that starts, but to address a very real concern I have now that I've sort of gotten out and talked to some blind computer users.
I'm now volunteering an at organization providing support to blind/vi people and one of our services is equipment training. So I sometimes go to people's houses or help them over the phone with computer problems, and every single one I know has either been told to get Jaws, or uses Jaws already. Perhaps 3-5 years ago I would've felt more inclined to stay in the know about what Jaws is doing; after all I was still using Jaws at that point all-be-it an old version, but now I am really wondering how the Jaws 2018 update will affect people. Admittedly I haven't met many Jaws users, but the ones I have met were on Jaws 13, I think? there was even one on 10 ish but I can't remember. Sooner or later these people are going to have to upgrade, and I fear that with every new version that comes along, it's going to get worse. What are these people going to do when they are forced, as I was, to either upgrade or make a radical screen reader change? Of course whether it was Jaws 19 or Jaws 2018 wouldn't have made an objective difference in the way of things, but I worry that the name change to 2018 alone will stir some things in present and future clients I've helped, though I suspect most of those won't really keep current on that stuff but whatever. Some may attempt to stay in the know, so I wonder if I/we'll be needed more in the coming months as Jaws 2018 gets out of beta and people want to upgrade. Not that I mind that per say, but that paranoid part of me still worries that this will become a problem. It's a stupid concern I know, and maybe some of these people will actually upgrade with the expanded OCR, and Win10 app compatibility etc. Though most of these people don't even know what Windows or Jaws version they're on so I have to figure that out *sigh*. The thought of saying, "Sorry Jaws can't do that unless you upgrade to the 2018 version and it's going to cost a bit," is for some reason a little more depressing than, "Sorry, Jaws can't do that." I'd feel so bad for telling them how far behind they are that I'd tell them to use a third-party program. Heck I'm on Win10, about to get whatever latest updates are out since I haven't checked in ages, with the latest NVDA snapshot. I still don't use the built-in stuff much, and the stuff I do use I've installed the old Win7 versions so they are used by default. So it's conceivable that if upgrading isn't an option, then people could go that route. I really don't know. With the way Win10 is advancing, this becomes more apparent to me.
Once again I'm not out to say that Jaws 2018 or Jaws anything is useless. I have no authority to make such a claim. And as I said, I don't think it's Jaws 2018 that specifically brought this on. It's just something I've woken up to over the past 3-6 months as I've started helping clients.
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