As users of screen reading programs, us blind folk are offered numerous units by which to navigate documents. The trouble is despite living and studying at a college specifically for the blind, very few people that I know actually seem to use them...
Dated: Wednesday, January 23, 2008.
This is something of a rant, more than an article; but it does contain useful information so I feel justified. I've observed it for a while now, so figured I'd mention it.
The problem is that nobody knows about the alternate ways of navigating documents with screen readers. The two that everyone seem to use most are reading line-by-line (with the cursor keys), or character-by-character (with the other cursor keys). A sweeping generalisation, of course - but that's sometimes what's necessary to ensure people actually pay attention.
Well, lets look at them. We'll take JAWS, firstly because I use it, and secondly because its the most popular screen reader at the college here. And we'll even stick to the basics, for now, and keep our eyes on the arrow keys.
First, there are lines.
This is a single line
and so is this. You can read those with the up and down cursor keys, of course - everyone knows that.
Then there are characters, as already mentioned - words are made-up of letters, and you can go between each of them with your left and right buttons! I realise I'm not going through them in any sort of increasing order of size, but I'm picking what seems to be used here from my very spotty research and observation.
After characters you can do words - add your control key to the left and right arrows. Thus far, nothing really JAWS specific - if you can see a cursor, try it out yourself, I tell the truth. We're talking standard windows functions here.
Now, we can move on to sentences. The cat sat on the mat. That's a sentence. With JAWS, combine the Alt key with your up and down cursors and you can skip through a document like that, one sentence at a time. it's quite smooth and slick - if a sentence is quite long and happens to go over a line, or be a long, rambling one; you'll still be able to get it all with one key.
And then there are paragraphs. The whole bit further back about sentences was a paragraph, just to confuse you. Seriously - The ctrl key with your up and down cursors do paragraphs and it really is a quicker way of navigation.
Certainly - remember, that navigating a document for our purposes means moving through it, rather than having your computer sit there and read it all to you.
Of course if you aren't using JAWS, there will probably be other keys to do what you want. You really should look into it. Of course if you are using JAWS, there are even more things you can learn about - quick keys, skimreading and all sorts.
Anyway - that's my little rant over. It seems to me that, if everyone knew this simple set of keys, they'd be more productive. I'm probably preaching to the converted here because you're doubtless quite good website users which implies a pretty good level of computer use. Still: I hear far too many JAWS users arrowing through a long document bit by bit, repeating a whole line when they just need the last sentence again, and skipping breaks in paragraphs by hitting down three times and hearing "blank... blank... blank..." I've touched on only the basics, as I said. I must admit that I didn't use the quick keys in MS word until a year or so ago, and now find them invaluable for navigating my complex documents. so the point of this article was to remind you all that, however much you might know, there's bound to be something you don't. Find that something. It just might make you a little more productive.
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