I agree with this tip about using control F. Works good when you do google
searches as well. Just copy something they have as part of the description
right below the search result if it is what your looking for and it'll get you
right to the most relevant info.
Other than that, I use the page down button either once or twice, depending on
what webpage I'm on, and then peruse down by using the p key that moves you by
paragraph. That usually works in helping me find things fairly quickly and
navigating past the junk links.
I always look for landmarks on pages that can help me get my barings the next
time I'm on the website. A combo box on a webpage might be completely
irrelevant to you until you realize its one paragraph away from where text
usually is shown. Then you realize that if you Hit the letter C and then P,
(combo box and paragraph keys respectively), then you can get to where your
going much faster. Like I siad, some of these strategies become pretty
intuitive because despite the clutter, many webpages have very similar clutter
patterns and you just begin to get a feel for what clutter is typically where,
or what the clutter you find means in terms of the page as a whole. Its hard to
describe or explain aside from calling it intuition. Be patient with yourself,
you will get the hang of it.
Kate> Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 19:25:25 -0500> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> To:
jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com> Subject: Re: [JAWS-Users] Beyond Surf's Up:
Need tips for advanced real-worldsurfing> > > You're certainly not the only one
who finds web surfing to be a challenge > these days. Sometimes you can cut
through the clutter with judicious use of > the Find command. For instance, I
often only wish to read the product > reviews on Amazon.com without scrolling
through the rest of the garbage on > the page. So I type "see all my reviews"
or just "see all my" into the Find > dialog, and jump right to the first
review. When I finish reading it, I hit > F3 to jump to the next review and so
on. On comparison shopping web sites > like Bizrate and Pricegrabber, I type
"$" into the Find dialog to quickly > scroll through all the bottom-line
results. When I find the lowest price > for a product, I can scroll up a few
lines to find the merchant that's > selling it. The trick is to find a
recurring phrase or character > combination that you can pop into the Find
dialog to make it easier to skip > over the extraneous content you're not
interested in. This technique does > not always work, of course, but it serves
me well most of the time.> > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Deborah
Armstrong" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>> To: <jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com>> Sent:
Thursday, December 04, 2008 5:06 PM> Subject: [JAWS-Users] Beyond Surf's Up:
Need tips for advanced > real-worldsurfing> > > >I am an experienced user, so
I'm looking for tips more than perfect> > solutions.> >> >> >> > Do any of you
others have this problem? Web pages seem to be getting less> > convenient. I'm
not talking about inaccessible. You can read everything > > fine> > -- just
inconvenient. Kind of like putting the wheelchair ramp out back > > with> > the
dumpsters instead of near the building's front door.> >> >> >> > It used to be
that when I googled for information, I'd find a variety of> > mailing list
archives with interesting posts. Or I'd find pages that> > individuals created
about that particular topic. But today, I tend instead> > to find wikis and web
forums, and sites with so many ads that I have to > > read> > hundreds of lines
of irrelevant data only to discover a single line of> > content, like "no
search results matched your query"!> >> >> >> > In wikis, half the links you
select go to a page, with the same pleuthora > > of> > links and the message:
"You have followed a link to a page that does not> > exist yet." If it doesn't
exist, why do links take me there, anyway? I'd> > feel more charitable about
contributing to a wiki, if they didn't insist > > on> > wasting my time!> >> >>
>> > For another example, web forums will have more lines of text devoted to> >
trivia about who the user is, how many times he's posted, and when he > >
joined> > the forum and whether he's online, rather than what content his
message> > contains. And often the post turns out to be something like "I need
the > > same> > information" or "That's a good idea." This is the sort of thing
you might> > say on the phone to a friend, but wasting bandwidth posting it
seems > > really> > nuts.> >> >> >> > Ad-supported sites don't seem to have any
simple way to skip to the > > content> > directly. For a good example, just
look at amazon.com. If they hadn't> > invented amazon.com/access, I would've
stopped shopping at amazon a long> > time ago. But ten years ago, way before
JAWS had quick keys, amazon was a> > pleasure to navigate with screen access!
And it worked fine without any> > fancy virtual cursor!> >> >> >> > Web forums
are a nightmare. Every forum page has a list of posting rules,> > thread tools
and other clutter that I wish were in one place and not on> > every single
page. I don't want to reply, change my font size or submit > > the> > post to
digg -- I just want to READ the darned thing! I don't care if> > smileys are
on, and how many cups of coffee the user had, I want to know> > what he has to
say!> >> >> >> > Yet, other blind people are regularly accessing these things
and not> > complaining, so what am I missing? For example, the Hadley School
for the> > Blind and the AFB both have active web forums. There is a JAWS wiki,
> > though> > the only thing I could actually find in it was a list of JAWS
mailing > > lists.> > And many blind people put up blogs on sites full of
advertising! And even> > with blind bloggers' sites, you have to skip past
reams of the irrelevant!> >> >> >> > I am familiar with the quick keys for
surfing of course. But they rarely> > work in this Brave New Web-world. On
websites devoted to product reviews > > and> > downloads, using H or number
keys to move between headings takes me to> > headings with words like
"recommended" "other categories" and "download"> > only it's a link to download
something I'm not interested in. Try the > > winamp> > page for example -- it's
easy to download a trial version of the > > commercial> > product by mistake.>
>> >> >> > On wikis, headings only appear if the user who edited that page
added the> > appropriate HTML code. There are lots of links, visited and
unvisited > > links> > and many promising other page elements you can quick-key
around. But most > > of> > those wiki-links lead nowhere. It's like being in
one of those> > text-adventure mazes! You are enticed by promises of
cattegories, but how> > can you tell which lead to only empty pages? I had
planned to contribute > > to> > the JAWS wiki but after spending fifteen
minutes and finding nothing, I> > decided that a well-written contribution
belonged elsewhere!> >> >> >> > And on web forums, it is rare to see a heading
at all. In blogs, you see> > headings only if the blogger is a screen reader
user, and even then not > > all> > the time. I guess some of the readers have
more patience than I do.> >> >> >> > Typing N to navigate to the next non-link
text, usually takes me to an ad. > > I> > can learn all about increasing my sex
appeal or how to get a stuffed > > gorilla> > absolutely free, but it's not the
way to learn about a particular product> > I'm researching. Often a page will
have a full and fascinating product> > review, but I actually have to read the
entire text to locate it.> >> >> >> > Typing M to go to the next frame is
equally useless. It jumps between more> > ad frames and skips any content the
page might contain.> >> > And that's a big might. It feels like I could read
for hours before > > actually> > reading any real information. Sometimes I do.
Sometimes I am surprised to> > find a large hunk of information nestled among
the google ad frames and > > the> > invitations to create teknurati tags. But
sometimes, all that web page> > structure is there, but content is not.> >> >>
>> > I've tried lots of other quick keys too -- O for object elements, d for >
> next> > different element, L for lists, I for individual elements etc. I know
> > basic> > HTML, so I'm ahead of many JAWS users, but how should I know what
sort of> > HTML was used to create any particular page? The JAWS quick keys
help when> > reviewing content I'm familiar with, but if I'm familiar with it,
I often> > don't need to review it!> >> >> >> > The keystrokes for navigating
form controls are useful when I'm done> > researching -- actually buying
something. I do appreciate the hard work > > that> > has gone in to making it
easy to navigate a web page with structure. But > > it> > feels like these new
web pages lack structure. In a forum for example, > > there> > appears to be no
element you can navigate to position your virtual cursor > > at> > the top of
the text of an actual post.> >> >> >> > Yet there must be some sort of
structure. My husband, who is sighted can> > quickly find information, and he
certainly doesn't read the entire page to> > do it. When asked to analyze his
process he says that he skips past the> > menus and toolbars and ads. Why can't
this work so well for us JAWS> > users?Why do all these great commands for
skimming past unwanted material> > work best on web pages designed by or for
blind people?> >> >> >> > And more important, how do the rest of you JFW users
surf for information,> > without it consuming your entire life? I work
full-time, I sleep, I'm a> > homemaker, I try to fit in some exercise. I want
to be able to fix an > > audio> > problem on my PC, research the
appropriateness of a video for my little> > nephew, find a good recipe using
arugula, or locate a good mexican> > restaurant in Indianapolis. And I want a
simple search like this to not> > consume an entire night! The question is what
am I missing?> >> >> >> > --Debee> >> > Deborah Armstrong (formerly Norling)>
>> >> >> > Visit the JAWS Users List home page at:> >
http://www.jaws-users.com> > Visit the Blind Computing home page at:> >
http://www.blind-computing.com> > Address for the list archives:> >
http://www.mail-archive.com/jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com> > To post to this
group, send email to> > jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com> > To unsubscribe from
this group, send an email to> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For help from Mailman with
your account Put the word help in the subject > > or body of a blank message
to:> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Use the following address in order to contact the
management team> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]> > If you wish to join the Blind Computing
list send a blank email to the > > following address:> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >
> > Visit the JAWS Users List home page at:> http://www.jaws-users.com> Visit
the Blind Computing home page at:> http://www.blind-computing.com> Address for
the list archives:> http://www.mail-archive.com/jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com>
To post to this group, send email to> jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com> To
unsubscribe from this group, send an email to> [EMAIL PROTECTED]> For help from
Mailman with your account Put the word help in the subject or body of a blank
message to:> [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Use the following address in order to contact
the management team> [EMAIL PROTECTED]> If you wish to join the Blind Computing
list send a blank email to the following address:> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
_________________________________________________________________
You live life online. So we put Windows on the web.
http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/127032869/direct/01/
Visit the JAWS Users List home page at:
http://www.jaws-users.com
Visit the Blind Computing home page at:
http://www.blind-computing.com
Address for the list archives:
http://www.mail-archive.com/jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com
To post to this group, send email to
jaws-users-list@jaws-users.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
For help from Mailman with your account Put the word help in the subject or
body of a blank message to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Use the following address in order to contact the management team
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
If you wish to join the Blind Computing list send a blank email to the
following address:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
