Hi, In theory, you can let a screen reader detect what type of device one is using (there are API’s that lets you do this). However, due to hardware-agnostic nature of software (including that of screen readers), this feature may not materialize for a while:
* Compact keyboards such as those found on smaller laptops map Numpad keys onto the alphanumeric keys directly. For this reason, a Fn (function) key is provided to access them. When viewed from a keyboard driver, it is like using a desktop keyboard. * Many software are programmed to assume common denominator approach – that is, they assume that many would use a particular layout. This includes keyboard layout settings in all screen readers. * There are keyboards (even desktop ones) that feature non-standard key assignments for extra functions. These keys, if pressed, are interpreted differently by the keyboard driver and the operating system, frustrating keyboard hook listeners such as screen readers such as JAWS. A note of concern is virtual keyboards (touch keyboard, for instance) that activate certain functionality if keys are “pressed”. For these reasons, screen readers ship with different keyboard layouts to suit the needs of users (I personally use laptop layout on my desktop). At one point, JAWS came with at least four keyboard layouts: desktop, classic laptop (using Alt key), new laptop (caps lock) and Kinesis. Cheers, Joseph From: Dave Carlson [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, February 5, 2016 11:23 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Keyboard Type Detection ...changed the subject line... Having an automatic keyboard detection function would be convenient, but not necessarily desired. I use a desktop layout on my laptop since I have a USB keyboard plugged in most of the time. If it switched to laptop on its own, I'd find that to be one more irritant with which to deal. But again, for a majority of users it would be useful. Dave Carlson Oregonian, woodworker, Engineer, Musician, and Pioneer ----- Original Message ----- From: Brian Vogel <mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Friday, February 05, 2016 11:08 AM Subject: Re: Improving my teaching approach and/or sensitivity On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 10:58 am, Londa Peterson <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: It doesn't automatically detect what kind of keyboard you have. That would be a nice feature though. Feature request, feature request!! It seems rather unbelievable to me (but I do believe it) that this was not implemented long ago. It's not rocket science to query hardware/device drivers to determine specific hardware present. I don't think, for instance, that I've ever seen a Num Lock key on any keyboard that does not have a number pad as part of it. I can only imagine what it must be like to have a fresh installation of JAWS on a non-number-pad laptop and starting out with it if no one you have access to who knows anything about JAWS can be reached and you don't know it's presuming a desktop keyboard layout (or anything about the fact that there *are* keyboard layouts as a concept). I envision bits of plastic and keys scattered about like so many Scrabble tiles within a few short minutes after the computer is hurled across the room with all available strength! Brian
