Blind and Visually Impaired Community
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Blind and computer usage (self.Blind)
submitted by sghokie
My father has been fully blind for about 10 years or longer now. He struggles with his windows 7 computer constantly. He has been using Jaws software with it. But as things go out of date its becoming a huge problem for him.
Things like firefox updating and then not being compatible with Jaws or Flash player constantly requiring an update.
I tried to set him up with Chrome, but then he says it doesn't work right or something for him.
He uses an iphone 7 with voice over and that seems to generally work okay for him.
What is a good set up for someone who can only rely on audio cues?
Things like firefox updating and then not being compatible with Jaws or Flash player constantly requiring an update.
I tried to set him up with Chrome, but then he says it doesn't work right or something for him.
He uses an iphone 7 with voice over and that seems to generally work okay for him.
What is a good set up for someone who can only rely on audio cues?
quanin 3 points 4y ago
Sounds like he's running a slightly older JAWS version. Depending on how recently he got this computer, he may qualify to receive updates to a later-ish version of JAWS. Failing that, there's $1, which may take a bit of learning coming from JAWS but should serve his needs.
sghokie [OP] 5 points 4y ago
Thanks, I just started reading up on NVDA, it looks pretty good. How hard do you think it is to switch for an older person?
Was just reading through $1
I am not sure I want to switch it on him. It might be more frustrating.
Was just reading through $1
I am not sure I want to switch it on him. It might be more frustrating.
quanin 1 points 4y ago
I'd love to provide you a solid answer to that question, but it honestly depends on the person. Even older, some catch onto it like nothing else while others take a small age.
It's worth seeing if you qualify for a JAWS update if NVDA isn't ideal. Unfortunately your options are limited to either making do or paying for a new version if you don't qualify and NVDA isn't an option.
It's worth seeing if you qualify for a JAWS update if NVDA isn't ideal. Unfortunately your options are limited to either making do or paying for a new version if you don't qualify and NVDA isn't an option.
bleeblat 1 points 4y ago
I use NVDA, because I'm not interested in paying for something like JAWS. But it depends what he needs as he may have gotten used to particular voices that don't ship with NVDA. Most of the keyboard commands end up being pretty similar, but I can't comment on his situation too much as I'm not an older person and I have different frustrations with accessibility. You could try NVDA and see how he gets on with it. I had no end of crashing when I tried to install the JAWS demo here, because it kept doing weird things to my video drivers and this weird sentinel system driver thing that they have is silly. You'd have to figure out if he's willing to put up with a bit of a learning curve. I guess it would depend what he's used to.
bradley22 1 points 4y ago
As far as I know, you can buy or download most of the voices that ship with JAWS.
I downloaded eloquence for free, for example. I'm not sure if the acapela voices are still around, I personally don't use the human sounding voices that much if at all.
I downloaded eloquence for free, for example. I'm not sure if the acapela voices are still around, I personally don't use the human sounding voices that much if at all.
quanin 1 points 4y ago
At least as far as I've heard that thing's been retired if you're on windows 10, so there's that. Of course I haven't played with it in production yet so what do I know?
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