Re: JFW with Braille Window

[Harry Bassler]

Hello Lee,

I also use a braille 40 with the JAWS Eloquence synthesizer & am quite interested in building a list of Braille device users.

Connection through the parallel port functioned well for me when I was working with DOS.

When I went to Windows 3, the results were disastrous &, in one case, did not work at all through the parallel port.

It works quite well with the serial connection, though.

Would you care to send your private email address so I can include it in my list of Braille users?

I have hopes of possible organizing a Braille users group for purposes of swapping tips & ideas concerning Braille.

The high cost of these devices does keep the number of Braille users down.

Another factor, I suppose, is the decreasing acquisition or learing of Braille.

When I was employed with the Bell Atlantic Corporation (phone company), we had 13 visually impaired employees & only of us knew Braille.

Eight of these 13 used JFW.

I originally used ScreenPower for Windows ffrom TeleSensory but when they cast off support of it, I tried the JAWS timed evaluation or demo software.

The first week overwhelmingly convinced me of the superiority of JAWS. & so I purchased it outright.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Where are you situated?

Regards,

Harry Bassler

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Lee Maschmeyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wednesday, January 27, 1999 2:24 PM
Subject: Re: JFW with Braille Window

I've been using Braille exclusively at work for almost 20 years, the past six months or more with a Braille Window, and incorporated speech here only recently.

 

First of all, unless you have a spatial deficiency (such as exhibited by many people who were premature babies), structured mode is inappropriate and should be avoided.  Besides, there is a bug in its implementation which causes line mode to be adversely affected after using structured mode.  The default Braille mode should be set to Line in default.jcf.  I have written a script to go directly to line mode and another to go to speech box mode, so I can avoid structured mode entirely.  I have one to go to structured mode too, but never use it.

 

Besides these, I have a BrailleStartThisLine script to pull the display all the way to the left on the current line, BrailleStartThisPage to put the display on the top usable line of the display (that is, the line below the menu bar or toolbar), and BrailleStartNextPage which pages down the screen before doing the same thing.  These sometimes have to be tailored for specific applications.

 

I haven't used BrailleMovesActiveCursor since this was made optional.  It is far easier to move the display around and then use a routing switch to pull the cursor to the Braille when necessary.

 

The tracking problem may be the result of your just learning.  The Braille will be routed to the PC cursor only if the cursor physically moves on the screen.  If the cursor is on the bottom line and you pressed the PC down arrow, the screen will scroll but the cursor will not move.  If the Braille is on some other part of the screen when this happens, it will stay on that other part.  If you want the Braille to be on the PC cursor, press the PC cursor key.

 

I have found that the Braille Window works far better through the serial connection than the parallel.  This has been true on two different machines.  So far as I know, no one else has remarked on this.

 

Let me know if I can be of any more use or if you want any of my scripts, which are, of course, exquisite.  :-)

 

Lee