Hi, Terry. I like your suggestions. I especially like the one about
numbered bookmarks. We could indeed have 100 or maybe even more. That would
be great.
At 1/27/2004, you wrote:
I agree with what you said. I'd rather use KeyWord than my PC to create
documents because it's designed to meet my needs using my strengths.
I believe there are some improvements which could be made to KeyWord so we
could do more things with it:
1. the ability to change case
2. the ability to see page numbers displayed
3. the support for translating bold and underlining using the 4-6 dots
instead of the code
4. the ability to import and export .dxp and .dxb files
5. the ability to save documents in true MS Word, not rich text format
6. the ability to create true outlines
7. the ability to create running headers or footers
8. the ability to tell my printer I want to print something from the top
tray instead of the bottom one
9. one-inch margins all around
10. numbered bookmarks instead of letters, so we could create 100 bookmarks
11. the ability to create flush right with leader dots
12. the ability to create footnotes.
When I need to use any of these specific tools, then I must go to my PC and
use another word processor. I usually end up using Duxbury, because it's
the most user-friendly word processor I've got in this thing. I've been too
afraid to buy either Word or WordPerfect because I'm not sure how well I
would get along with either of them using a screen reader. WP was my
favorite word processor in the DOS days, but it doesn't seem to be supported
by screen readers as well as Word is and I hate to think of paying the steep
price for Word.
Another thing I would like to see is a good template for addressing an
envelope, the kind used for business letters, which has the return address
at the top left-hand corner. I haven't been successful in modifying the
envelope template to include the return address. If someone has succeeded
in doing this and prints envelopes using the BN, please let me know.
I don't expect the BN to ever take the place of my PC. My PC can probably
handle email and web pages faster than the BN but I haven't tested keyweb ye
t. My past experiences with keymail have been disappointing but perhaps it
has been improved in version 5. When I get time, I'll have to see.
It's a mistake to believe the BN will take the place of a PC or that a PC
can take the place of the BN. It's not realistic.
Terri, Amateur radio call sign KF6CA. Army MARS call sign AAT9PX,
California
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ann Parsons" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Braillenote List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 4:06 AM
Subject: re: [Braillenote] wireless cards for BNQT
> Hi all,
>
> I realize that some may disagree with me, but perhaps some further
> discussion about philosophy is in order here. I have used products
> which came of both the blindness and the sighted philosophy. Let me
> explain.
>
> A device which is designed for the blind in mind, as Jonathan says, is
> one which takes our blindness into consideration and expands upon our
> strengths so that we get a product or device that is made for us, not
> a device which is made for the sighted and then retrofit to suit the
> needs of the blind.
>
> There is, for example, a wonderful voice output system for Linux
> called Emacspeak. It makes no bones about the fact that it is
> designed with the blind user in mind. It is not graphical. It is
> text based. It is command driven. It is usercentric. Its creator
> T.V. Raman says that if you take away the Emacspeak desktop, it
> renders the user powerless. Here is his exact quote.
>
> "Independent test results have proven that unlike some modern
> software, Emacspeak can be safely uninstalled without adversely
> affecting the continued performance of the computer. These same
> tests also revealed that once uninstalled, the user stopped
> functioning altogether."
>
> Seems to me that PDI has that same philosophy. From everything I've
> read on the list here, those of you who have been without your BN's
> stop functioning.
>
> Now, I have also used and am using Windows, an OS which has been
> adapted for blind users. It works well enough, but it is a patch-up
> job, a fix, if you will. Screen readers are designed to allow the
> user to access everything which the sighted do, but the user must do
> so in the same way as do the sighted. There is no provision made for
> our strengths. We must bend. We must integrate. We must make the
> graphical interface understandable to non-seeing imagination. Yes, it
> works. Yes, you can use off-the-shelf software, but you are not as
> efficient because you have an entire layer of tasks you must complete
> before you can accomplish anything.
>
> Frankly, if I can access the same materials as my sighted peers and in
> the same efficient way without worrying about interacting with a
> graphical environment, then I'm all for it! Give me something that
> works for me as a blind person, not something somebody cobbled
> together so that I could access something. It's called universal
> design folks, universal design!
>
> If the BN had USB and Wireless connectivity, and if they added FTP and
> Telnet, then I'd be a totally happy camper.
>
> Ann P.
>
> --
> Ann K. Parsons
> email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> WEB SITE: http://home.eznet.net/~akp
> "All that is gold does not glitter.
> Not all those who wander are lost." JRRT
>
>
> ___
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> http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
>
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Paul Henrichsen
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<home.pacbell.net/paulh52>
