Bill, this is Damon. Here's what I can report as the man in charge of the
technology center that I work for.
Alva abt340--This battery-powered unit also works off of AC current, has a
parallel and serial interface and DOS software. It does not have a braille
keyboard on it though, so you cannot issue many jfw commands except for the
commands designated to the front thumb keys and the cursor routing buttons
over the status cells. I think three status cells may not be enough to
display status info, but it seems to suffice, even though I never use them.
I think out of the three displays we have here, the Alva, though a great
product, is the worst one for Windows, since it doesn't have many controls
on the display. You won't be able to do a lot of navigation without
switching constantly between the display and the pc keyboard.
Braille Window, (bw)--We have the 45 cell unit, it works off of batteries
as well, and AC of course, has a parallel and serial interface, and I think
it even comes with DOS access software as well. I have never used the DOS
software for any of our displays, but I imagine it works reasonably well.
What I like about the BW is its better handle of Windows. It seems to have
been designed with windows in mind. There are actually 46 status buttons
for routing the cursor, the extra one above the unused cell. The braille
style keyboard allows one to give commands to jfw directly as opposed to
going directly to the pc keyboard. The status cells give more information
than the alva. you can use the routing buttons to actually click the mouse
if the area you are clicking is highlighted, an easy way to figure since
doots 7and 8 will appear. This is a JFW function, so all braille displays
will do this. Out of all the siaplays, I like this second to the braille
lite. It is a great display overall, and works really well with JFW. It
offers great control of jfw from the display, much gbetter than Alva.
Braille lite 40, (blt40)--Two immediate shortcomings of the blt are its
lack of status cells, and its only interface being the serial port.
Hoewever, I believe that the braille lite offers great control from its
keyboard. I think it actually offers more control from the keyboard than
the braille window. There iks an extensive help file in the JFW help system
about commands for the blt and it is very involved. You can use the blt in
two way, to edit documents with the braille keyboard and give basic
commands, or as strictly navigational with many more commands open to you,
including some commands you can't get to from the pc keyboard to change
routing functions of the braille cursor. while the blt does not have thumb
keys, moving around the screen is done with thetwo advance bars, which I
happen to like better. While you can't click the mouse with the cursor
routing buttons, I think there is a way to click the mouse with a chorded
command from the blt, but don't hold me to that. I think it is actually
possible to do all or most of your navigation froom the blt's keyboard
without ever going back to the pc keyboard except for typing. In addition,
the blt offers outside of jfw braille display functions, the same functions
of the Braille 'n Speak with a great display. So, as I have said
previously, you have a braille display, notetaker and speech synthesizer
all in one box and for the approximate cost of any other 40-cell display.
Again, if you were to use the speech box mode of the blt40 to make the blt
do speech synth duties, you cannot use the braille display with jfw, a
feature that I hope somebody will fix soon. I would also like to see the
blt's built in translator that converts everything to grade 2 braille for
the display work in speech box mode, but i read that jfw 3.3 will access
this. The blt40 is smaller than most any braille display, and offers so
much more than a typical braille display for the money. I think the battery
life will even outlast the other displays. I have read about other
displays, but to me, if they are better, they are also more expensive, look
at the 80 cell display, the 2d displays, and other things. With the blt40,
you have a very portable package for notebook use. Try lugging an alva with
a notebook computer. It is bulky. This is why I love the blt40 as a display
so much. it does so much, it is crazy. I love the other displays as well,
but you just can't compare, in my mind, the features of the blt40. If you
want dos access for the blt40, you can get a bns program called nav-m,
which will basically turn the blt into a navigator display, and you can run
screenpower braille which is public domain software now, if I am not
mistaken. So there's your dos access question. I hope this post helped
anybody out. I have never used the 2d displays, or powerbraille or any
other jfw supported braille display, and I obviously may have a slight
bias, but I have tested all of these devices. If anybody wants more
information, please don't hesitate to ask.
--
Damon Fibraio, Associate for Technical Support, De Witt and Associates
Norma F. Krajczar Technology, resource and developement center
130 Livingston Ave. New Brunswick, NJ 08901, 732-937-6394
email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Visit the jfw ml web page: http://jfw.cjb.net
