BrianHartgen's blog

The March update of JAWS contains considerable new enhancements to the Picture Smart functions. In my view this is one of the very best feature enhancements within JAWS for some time. The system uses both Gemini and Chat GPT services so as to provide descriptions of images from web sites, files or perhaps a screen-shot of an application.
You don't need a special account to use it. You can just enjoy it.

Today, I have sent the below letter to Vispero at Management level in the hope of eliciting a response and action from them. The purpose of the letter is in the hope of forging an effective relationship and action between the two companies so as to improve upon the already existing functionality of JAWS working alongside Remote Incident Manager for the provision of technical support and training.

The purpose of this very small set of JAWS scripts is to minimise the number of mentions spoken when using the Tweesecake application's primary window in a Mastodon session. The scripts were developed for my own use and have been tested with Windows10 and Windows11. You are very welcome to use them if you wish.
Maybe at some point in the future they will not be necessary and they can just be thrown away.

For the avoidance of doubt, these scripts do not function with global hotkeys.

RNIB's Tech Talk podcast is meant to be one of the primary methods for accessing information relating to technology within the United Kingdom. It has the added benefit of being supported by the leading charity for and of blind people in the UK. So when statements are made which are seriously inaccurate, and which are published, it is important they are challenged. If we don't challenge statements which are misleading and proclaimed by employees within the organisation then there is a danger of such advice being accepted as correct.

Introduction.

What is it like when your daughter has twice as much memory than you have, can carry almost double the amount of material, and can help you communicate with more people than you are able to do? That's exactly what Fleur, my BrailleSense Polaris, must be feeling right now since this week I took possession of the new BrailleSense 6. We call her Vicki!

Introduction.

This Blog Post was updated on 6 July 2021 at 7:35 PM.

Some of us get very attached to our favourite Twitter client in order to keep up-to-date and manage our Twitter activity. But it is always helpful to know when alternatives come along. After all, many of us have caught a cold due to the fragile relationship between Twitter and clients to manage it. For some time, I particularly benefited from using a mainstream client called OpenTween which came out of Japan. However this is no longer available.

As many people will know, the ElBraille is a portable computer combining the Windows operating system with the JAWS for Windows screen-reader. Let's not think of it in any other way. It is not a notetaker; it is a Windows computer. To that end, driving it and getting around all the applications required for day-to-day use to my mind is something of a tall order.

Introduction.

In July of this year, the inevitable happened. Two cells on my existing Braille display were not functioning correctly. This was becoming a fairly regular occurrence despite cleaning it in line with the recommendations in the User Guide, and this particular unit was quite new, having only been purchased three months previously.

Introduction.

Readers to my very occasional series of blog posts will note that, some time ago, I purchased a notetaker principally for reading documents I had prepared on the PC which I wanted to read in a portable way, sometimes to undertake audio production tasks. I also needed a product to use when out on the road so as to take notes of assessments I conduct for clients. Notetakers do much more than give you the ability to take notes these days as we will soon discover.

Introduction.

In late February of this year, RNIB, (one of the prominent organisations for blind people in the UK), reached a significant milestone. They began offering a service of making available their vast collection of DAISY books for download.

Up to this point, books were provided either online using the Overdrive platform (in lower quality MP3 format), or in DAISY format on CD, the latter service being in place for many years. DAISY not only offers a higher standard of audio reproduction but in addition allows a user to navigate through the book more easily.