Voice of Vision
Volume 5 Number 1 -- January 1997

Welcome to the January 1997 issue of Voice of Vision, GW Micro's
quarterly newsletter.  VV is available in large print, on audio
cassette, in Braille, and on computer disk.  For subscription
information, see the information given at the end of the
newsletter.

If you have been wondering if DOS or Windows is the operating
system for you, see Mike Lawler's look at the two operating
systems.  Roland Manning starts a series of configuring
Window-Eyes.  Peter Luichinger talks about the SET2TEXT and
TEXT2SET utilities for Window-Eyes.  Doug Geoffray discusses what
Microsoft's Active accessibility is all about.  Of course, the
newsletter contains its usual array of suggestions and
announcements.

____________________
Windows Verses DOS for Screen-Reader users
by Mike Lawler

Many of you are probably new to using Windows and like myself
many of you probably did not want to start using Windows at
first.  I believe that Windows and DOS complement each other and
that both can be used effectively by the blind computer user.  We
must take a somewhat different approach to Windows than we did
with DOS, but both systems can be used effectively.

You are probably asking yourself; what does he mean, Windows and
DOS complement each other?  Well, the answer is that Windows is
good for some tasks and DOS is good for others.  If you are the
type of person who is comfortable with the command-line for file
manipulation DOS is the operating system of choice for you to
use.  On the other hand if you find that you dislike having to
remember command-line syntax and that you would rather use a
point and shoot approach, then Windows is what you should be
using.  Fortunately, because of the multi-tasking abilities of
Windows you can have it both ways.  With one simple press of
alt-tab you can go from DOS to Windows.  This allows you to use
DOS for the tasks that you prefer to do from the command-line and
Windows for the tasks where you prefer menus and lists of
choices.  One of the strengths of Windows is that you can run
several programs at once; thus increasing your computer
productivity.

Now that I have established the merits of having both DOS and
Windows available at your finger-tips, I will discuss how you can
use features of Window-Eyes to transform the Windows screen into
something that is similar to the DOS screen.

Many of you are probably familiar with the review mode of
Vocal-Eyes.  Because DOS is a two dimensional system, review mode
or the VE cursor work extremely well in conveying information on
the screen to the user.  Windows, on the other hand is a three
dimensional system that does not lend itself well to the concepts
we used to access DOS.  To solve this problem Window-Eyes takes
the approach that what has focus is important, but background
information is not important.  We use the Window-Eyes mouse
boundary feature to accomplish this.  You can set the mouse
boundary to the focused window, active window, full screen, or to
a user window.

Setting the mouse boundary to focused window limits your
reviewing to what currently has the input focus.  By doing this
you effectively reduce the three dimensional Windows screen into
a two dimensional Windows screen.  By limiting your reviewing to
focus, you ignore all of the background windows which is exactly
what a sighted user does while they are using Windows.  For
example if you were working with Netscape, your focused window
would be the document area where information from web pages was
displayed.  By limiting your mouse reviewing keys to this area,
you can ignore Program Manager and any other applications that
you have running in the background.

Sometimes, it is necessary for you to set your mouse boundary to
the active window to work with your application rather than
focused window.  For example, if you are in the run dialog of
Program Manager and your focused window is the edit box where you
can type the name of the program to run, the focused window would
be that edit box while the active window would be the entire run
dialog.  You will probably find that in most dialog cases you
will want to use active window rather than focused window for
your mouse boundary while reviewing the screen.

The full screen setting of the mouse boundary does not restrict
your mouse movements while you are reviewing the screen; thus you
will see overlapping windows that cover each other up.  You are
seeing exactly what the sighted user sees; and although it might
seem confusing at first, with a little trial and error you will
be able to make as much sense from this with Window-Eyes as you
would with your real eyes.

Finally, the user window setting of the Window-Eyes mouse
boundary feature allows you to set your review mode to a specific
area of the screen defined by you.  You can use this setting to
cover a status line or two important buttons in a dialog where
the other three settings simply will not work.

The mouse boundary feature in Window-Eyes is a powerful tool that
you can use to turn the three dimensional Windows screen into
something that approximates the two dimensional DOS screens that
you are used to dealing with.  Using this feature effectively
will allow you to use Windows along with DOS to be as productive
as your sighted counterparts.

____________________
Configuring Window-Eyes
By Roland Manning

So you just bought a new Windows program and you ran to your
computer when you got home and installed it.  But once you
installed it, you didn't hear any speech!  Window-Eyes didn't
read that article in that new encyclopedia!  You didn't hear the
new text that just appeared in Internet Explorer!  What's wrong
with this darn thing!!!

Well, if this is the case, then this article is for you!  We're
going to go through the steps you might take with a new program
that appears not to talk.  For our example, we're going to use
Internet Explorer 3.0 for Windows 3.1.

So, now you have Explorer installed and running on your screen.
What's going on here anyway?  Well, a good way to find out what
is possible is to turn on the speak all toggle.  If you don't
have this hotkey defined, why not define it now?  To define it,
open the voice control panel with control+\ and tap the alt key.
From there, you can arrow over to the hotkeys menu by pressing
the right arrow key until Window-Eyes says "Hotkeys."  Press
enter there and Window-Eyes will present you with the hotkeys
dialog.  You could arrow through the list of choices, or you
could hit the letter "S" until you hear Window-Eyes say "speak
all toggle."  Now that you're there, to define the key, hit alt+c
to capture your choice of hotkeys.  A good choice might be
insert+s.  Once you've hit alt+c, to define the key as insert+s,
all you have to do is hold down the insert key and press the
letter "S."

Now we've defined the speak all toggle hotkey, and we've exited
out of Window-Eyes' control panel.  Let's just see what
Window-Eyes will tell us if we turn on speak all.  Now when you
press page down in Explorer, the new screenful of information was
spoken!  Great!  Or is it?  Let's try connecting to a web site
other than the one it comes up with.  Try opening www.gwmicro.com
and see what happens there.  Internet Explorer uses control+o to
open a new location, but when you pressed it, all that happened
was your computer beeped!  Why?  Control+o is a Window-Eyes
hotkey, which is read prior paragraph.  So what can you do?
Well, there are two solutions for this problem.  The first would
be simply to use Window-Eyes' bypass key, which is control+n by
default, followed by control+o.  That would work, but it might be
more convenient to simply undefine the hotkey.  If you wished to
do that, you could go into the hotkeys dialog as we discussed
before and instead of going to speak all, simply press the letter
"P" until you get to prior paragraph.  To undefine the hotkey,
simply hit alt+d, which will undefine it.  So now after that, you
tried to open www.gwmicro.com, but when you did, you got more
than just the web page!  You got the information from the status
line too!  So what can you do now?  Speak all worked, but it
worked too well!  There is a solution, through--the speak window.
It could be set up around the document area, but could exclude
the status line.

Here's how you might accomplish this task.  Since page up and
page down scroll the text, we can assume that the document area
of the screen is the focused area.  What that means is that your
interactions are with the part of the screen that is currently
displaying the current web page.  We use the mouse to define a
window around that area of the screen.  An easy way to do this
would be to set the mouse boundary to the focused window.  You
could do that by pressing alt+b until you hear Window-Eyes say
"focused window."  Then, after you've done that, and before you
define the window, it might be a good idea to select the user
window you want to define around the area of the screen.  To do
that, you just need to press insert+F3.  Window-Eyes will respond
by displaying a dialog box which you can type the number of the
window you want to define.  Let's use window 0 for this example,
so type the number 0 into the edit box and press enter.  Now, to
define the window, let's put the mouse in the top left corner of
the document window.  Since we've set the mouse boundary to the
focused window, all we have to do is issue a mouse top left
command, which by default is the numpad home key.  To set that as
the top left of your user window, all you need to do is press
insert+F5.  Now we need to define the bottom right.  To do that,
press the mouse bottom right hotkey, which is numpad page down by
default.  Window-Eyes will move the mouse to the bottom right
corner of the document window and say "bottom right."  Now press
insert+F6 and you will have defined the user window!  Now, to
make it speak all information that comes inside of it you need to
set it's definition to speak.  To do this, press insert+F7 and
hit the letter "S" until Window-Eyes says "speak" and press
enter.  Congratulations!  You've just defined a speak window that
speaks exactly what you want it to in Internet Explorer!

Now that you have Window-Eyes speaking the information in the
document window, wouldn't it be nice to have it help you move
from link to link?  Once again, Window-Eyes provides a hotkey
that will help you do this.  Internet Explorer underlines each
link on a web page.  We can have Window-Eyes look for the
underline and move the mouse pointer to the next occurrence of
underlined text.  We can do that by first choosing the attribute
Window-Eyes should look for.  Open the Voice Control Panel and go
to the mouse pull down.  Select attribute search selection and
press enter.  You'll get a dialog with some check boxes in it.
Tab through it and find the underlined check box.  To check it,
all you have to do is press "space."  Now all that's left is to
go to the hotkeys menu and define the mouse prior attribute and
mouse next attribute keys.  Try tab for mouse next attribute and
shift+tab for the mouse prior attribute hotkey.  Now, when you
press tab, the mouse moves you to the next visible link on the
page and speaks it for you, and shift takes you to the previous
one.  Not bad.

Now all we need to do is define 2 more hotkeys and we'll be done.
The mouse prior control and mouse next control hotkeys will help
you fill out forms with Explorer.  A form, for those of you who
don't know, is just what it's name implies--a form on a web page
where you give information, such as a form for a search engine.
Try defining the mouse prior control hotkey as control+shift+tab,
and the mouse next control as control+tab.  Now, when you go to
your favorite search engine, just press control+tab, and
Window-Eyes will automatically move you to the first field on
your form and speak the field name for that field.

That's it!  Internet Explorer is now talking perfectly, with a
minimum of work.

Dealing with other programs is really just as simple.  The real
key is to understand the program you are dealing with.  A good
way to start would be to read through the help file for your new
application.  Most programs will speak a lot of things with
little or no configuration at all, but for those that do require
that extra little bit of work, your best defense is to understand
the program.  You'll find that the online help in Windows
programs is very good.  In many cases, the online help is
actually the printed manual!

Next time, we will look at how Microsoft Excel was configured,
and we'll look at window offsets, how to use them, and why
they're important.  Happy setfile writing and good luck till next
time!

____________________
Old Utilities for a New Platform;
Window-Eyes Set2Text and Text2Set
by Peter Luichinger

Since the initial release of Window-Eyes, many customers have
wanted the use of the two Vocal-Eyes .SET file utility programs,
Set2Text and Text2Set.  These two utilities have now been
released with the latest version of Window-Eyes.  Those of you
who are familiar with the earlier versions of these utilities
will find that the new versions work just like their VE
counterparts.

Set2Text can take any Window-Eyes set file and reduce it to an
ASCII text file, which contains all the settings within that set
file.  This text file can then be read from any standard word
processing program.  Set2Text can decompile one or multiple set
files, and can even compare two set files for identical settings.

Text2Set does the reverse, changing an ASCII text file into a
Window-Eyes set file.  Text2Set can also use one text file to
globally change multiple set files, and can search set files for
a specific setting.

The introduction of these two programs will allow you, the user,
to examine your Window-Eyes settings without changing your
current configuration.  Or you can change multiple set files to
the settings you are most comfortable with.

Currently Window-Eyes Set2Text and Text2Set are DOS only
applications.  We are beta testing new versions of these
programs, which will run in either DOS or Windows.

The DOS versions, other than the command line, do not offer any
user interface.  You simply supply all the necessary information
after the utility name at the DOS command line and press ENTER.
This is normal for the DOS world.  However, under Windows this is
not very acceptable.  We have added a Windows look and feel to
both of these utilities.  When you launch either of them you are
given a dialog which asks for the input and output file names.
There is also a checkbox indicating if you want a certain feature
enabled or not.  Simply type in the necessary file names and
press ENTER.  The output information is displayed in the window.
You can cursor up and down a line at a time if you wish.

For those of you who would rather use the command line approach
even in Windows, you still can.  Simply execute the utilities
from the RUN dialog within Program Manager.  After the name of
the utility, supply the necessary command line information just
as you would at the DOS prompt.

Although there are two utilities and two operating systems, you
still only have to deal with two applications...SET2TEXT.EXE and
TEXT2SET.EXE.  When you execute either utility, it senses which
operating system you are in and executes appropriately.

As stated above, the Windows version of these utilities are
currently in final beta testing.  They will be available for
download from our FTP site in the very near future.  All of this
is part of GW Micro's policy of meeting the customers' needs and
requests.

____________________
What is Active accessibility?
by Doug Geoffray

If you have been following the Graphical User Interface (GUI)
arena you surely have heard the term "Active accessibility."
Actually, it has gone through several name changes but I believe
this is the one Microsoft will be sticking with.  Although many
may have heard the term, I believe few understand what Active
accessibility is and how it is going to help.  Hopefully I will
be able to explain on a high level why Active accessibility is so
important.

First, let me start by stating what Active accessibility is not.
It is not a stand-alone application.  In other words, Active
accessibility does not replace your screen reader, large print,
or voice recognition application.  Active accessibility can not
be used with Windows 3.1x.  Currently, Active accessibility is
only supported under Windows 95 although NT support is scheduled
sometime later in 1997.

Active accessibility specifications are basically architecture
and interface standards which support the integration of
accessibility tools (such as a screen reader) with
accessibility-aware applications (such as a word processor).
Stated another way, it is a tool which allows an accessibility
tool to talk with an off-the-shelf application.  Microsoft is
responsible for designing and implementing this technology
although they have had much input from accessibility vendors.  So
why is it important for a screen reader to talk with an
application program?  Well, who knows better about what is
displayed on the screen than the application that placed it
there?  So it only makes sense to ask the application what the
images on the screen actually represent.

If Word, for example, placed a pretty little graphic on the
screen, Window-Eyes would need to guess at what it is.  Not only
the name of the image but what the image is capable or not
capable of doing.  But if Window-Eyes were allowed to say: "Hey
Word, what is this image you placed on the screen?"  Then Word
could say: "Hey Window-Eyes how's it going?"  Okay, they really
don't get this friendly but it could say: "The image you are
referring to is a checkbox.  It is currently unselected.  The
field name for this checkbox is "blah" and the field data is
"blah blah."

This type of communication is very exciting.  No more guessing at
what is going on.  The user no longer needs to spend hours and
hours figuring out what the application is doing.  The blind user
doesn't need sighted assistance to label graphic images.  It's
just all-around good stuff.  Or, using Microsoft's terminology,
it's really cool.

So if Active accessibility allows this friendly communication
channel between the accessibility tool and applications,
shouldn't everything just work beautiful?  Shouldn't Window-Eyes
be super intelligent about every application and speak exactly
what you want to hear?  As a blind user, shouldn't you be able to
use any off-the-shelf application with Window-Eyes as good as
your sighted co-worker?

Theoretically, the answer to this question is yes.  But we know
the difference between theoretical and "real world" situations.
Active accessibility is very new.  It has not even been released
yet.  As of this writing, Microsoft just shipped the third beta
copy.  As each beta is released it becomes more stable and
functional.  However, as I said before, Active accessibility is
simply a communication channel.  If the application program was
not written to handle this communication, Active accessibility
is, for the most part, totally useless for that application.

In other words, every application on the market would need to be
modified to be Active accessibility aware.  Obviously this will
take time.  Even with Microsoft itself it will take years before
they incorporate Active accessibility fully within each of their
applications.  However, the new Office 97 will be using Active
accessibility.  This in itself is very important since this new
release of Office is extremely visual and different than any
other Windows application on the market.

Microsoft is placing pressure on other software manufacturers to
incorporate this technology.  For example, in order for a third
party software manufacturer to use the Microsoft logo, it needs
to adhere to certain requirements from Microsoft.  Currently
those requirements strongly suggest the application be Active
accessibility aware.  Microsoft has hinted that sometime in the
future this will go from "strongly suggest" to "it must" be
Active accessibility aware.

It only makes sense for a new application to incorporate this
technology.  This would automatically make that application
accessible for all types of disabilities.  However, convincing
manufacturers to upgrade existing applications may be more
difficult.

So far I have mainly shown Active accessibility as an interface
between an accessibility tool and an application program.  This
is certainly a big part, but the other important aspect is the
integration of the accessibility tool and the operating system
itself.

Under Windows 3.1x it is relatively easy to get, or hook, into
the operating system.  This allows the screen reader, for
example, to see what exactly is going on.  However, by allowing
an application to hook into the operating system on this level
sacrifices both system integrity and security.  The Windows 95
operating system has improved on this but not as much as Windows
NT.  Window-Eyes for example would not be allowed to hook into
Windows NT as it does with Windows 3.1x and 95.  One of the main
design goals of NT is to make the system as stable and secure as
possible.  This means if you have an ill-behaved application, it
won't take down the entire system.  You simply close down the
badly behaved application.  All the other applications will be
untouched.

Because of this security, the only way for accessibility aids to
reliably get the needed information is to use Active
accessibility.  All operating systems from 95 on up will
eventually incorporate Active accessibility as a core component
to the operating system.  Assuming you are using an accessibility
aid which supports Active accessibility (such as Window-Eyes) you
are guaranteed access to the operating system and its tools.
Also, if you are using an Active accessibility aware application
you will again be guaranteed access to that application.

We at GW Micro strongly believe in the importance of Active
accessibility.  We are currently in the process of fully
integrating Active accessibility to the 2.0 release of
Window-Eyes.  Although it would be possible to release a 95
version of Window-Eyes which does not support Active
accessibility, we feel it is much better to take a couple steps
backwards today than be forced to take many steps backwards in
the near future.

I strongly believe the future of Windows and blind people is not
as gloomy as many believe.  Granted, the road is extremely rocky
today but in the near future things will improve.  As long as
Microsoft continues integrating Active accessibility in its own
products and pressures other software manufacturers to do the
same - the future looks very promising.  I know GW Micro is doing
everything it can with Window-Eyes to help this process.

____________________
Hints
by Roland Manning

Here are some cool ideas you can try with Window-Eyes:

Ever had a dialog that had controls in it but you couldn't tab to
them?  How about defining the Mouse Prior Control and Mouse Next
Control hotkeys and giving them a try.  Go to the Window-Eyes
control panel and then to hotkeys.  Type "M" until you get to the
Mouse Prior Control entry.  Press alt+c and then press the hotkey
you'd like to try.  I find that F11 and F12 make good temporary
hotkeys.  Now define Mouse Next Control the same way.  It's right
below Mouse Prior Control.  Now try your new hotkeys in the
dialog.

Having trouble with terminal communications programs giving you
choppy speech?  Hearing part of a line, and then the line is
repeated along with the rest of the line?  Try setting the value
for trigger delay to a higher number.  Try 30 or so to start
with.

Ever wished you could get Window-Eyes to ignore a graphic?  Get
the mouse onto the graphic you don't want to hear anymore and
then pop up the capture graphic dialog.  To do this, press
control+shift+g.  Type a dash (-) in the edit box and press
enter.  Save the graphics dictionary and you won't have to hear
that graphic again.

Did you know that you can have Window-Eyes read an entire
document to you in a word processor or editor?  Try pressing
alt+r in Word Perfect and sit back, relax and listen away!  To
stop it, just hit escape and Window-Eyes will stop about a line
below the last one it read.  This feature is called Read to End.

Did you know that Window-Eyes could route your mouse pointer to
the item on the screen you were currently on, such as a button,
item in a list box, or to the caret in a word processor?  Hold
down the insert key and hit the numpad plus key.  It's the long
key just below the minus key on the top right corner of the
numeric keypad.  When you hit this hotkey, Window-Eyes will say
Pointer routed to button, or whatever control you happen to be
working with at the time.  Focus is a great place to start when
you want to know what's going on the screen.

____________________
Announcements

Window-Eyes 1.1 is Shipping

If you're a registered Window-Eyes user, be sure to get your free
Window-Eyes 1.1 upgrade.  You can download it from our BBS by
calling (219) 489-5281.  Or better yet, you can get it through
our FTP site at ftp.gwmicro.com.  For a standard upgrade use the
file name WE11.ZIP.  The other files available are: WE11DMH.ZIP
-- 1.1 upgrade for overseas users using a MemoHasp dongle.
WE11DMP.ZIP -- 1.1 upgrade for overseas users using a MemoPlug
dongle.  WE11EVL.ZIP -- 1.1 upgrade for overseas users using
EVERLOCK.  WEDEMO.ZIP -- full working 1.1 demonstration version
of Window-Eyes.  Use this if you currently do not own Window-Eyes
but wish to try it.  The demonstration version is limited to
thirty minutes.  After thirty minutes you must exit Windows and
re-enter.  At this point you can use the demo version for another
thirty minutes.

If you can not download from our FTP site or BBS, we can mail it
to you; just call or write us and confirm your address and we'll
get it right out to you.

Version 1.1 is the final free upgrade we will be offering
existing Window-Eyes users.  If you registered your copy of
Window-Eyes with us and we show you are not using 1.1, you will
be receiving a notification in the mail about this final free
upgrade.  If you previously downloaded 1.1 from us, you can
simply ignore this notification.

The upgrade will include a README.TXT file which describes all
the changes from prior versions.  Version 1.1 has many great
improvements.  You are strongly encouraged to get this free
upgrade.

VoiceCard Upgrade

A new version of the VoiceCard is being released with several
enhancements. The highlight of which is Windows 95 Plug-and-Play
compatibility.  The model range of the VoiceCard has also been
simplified considerably and one model is now available that
provides a multi-lingual solution for DOS, Windows 3.1x and
Windows 95. Finally, provision has been made for using the
internal speaker of multimedia laptops for output from the
VoiceCard.

All existing VoiceCards can be upgraded to Windows 95
Plug-and-Play compatibility.  If you purchased your VoiceCard
through us directly or through one of our dealers, there is no
cost for the upgrade other than shipping charges.  Please call
for details before sending us your VoiceCard for the upgrade.

An Open Book Unbound version 3.0

Arkenstone is planning on shipping version 3.0 of their popular
Open Book Unbound sometime in February.  Following is the top ten
reasons to consider upgrading to version 3.0.

10. Visual settings for low vision users.  Used with a monitor,
An Open Book Unbound can enlarge text, change background and text
colors, and cursor type.

9. Automatic contrast control available for all supported
scanners.

8. New, robust and more accurate Caere recognition engine.

7. Very easy beginner levels, designed for the true beginner.

6. You can reconfigure hot keys to match your screen reader.

5. ScanFix.  Better scans from any scanner supported by An Open
Book Unbound means better accuracy.  Plus, now you can read
reversed -- white on black -- text.

4. Launch your favorite program, right from Open Book.  Run
WordPerfect and other programs on the pages you just scanned in
Open Book.

3. Use Open Book to read almost any text file.  Get the benefits
of the talking browser on word processing files, document files,
ASCII files, almost any file.

2. New, easier-to-use interface.  Only one menu to handle reading
and scanning.

1. Background scanning.  Read while you scan... The number one
requested feature is here.

Arkenstone has set up the following upgrade pricing policy for
the 3.0 English version only.

1. Open Book Unbound 2.x purchased new after June 30, 1996:  No
charge.  (Includes Open Book software installed on upgraded
reading systems)

2. Version 2.x purchased January through June 30, 1996:  $100.00

3. Version 2.x purchased before 1996:  $200.00  Note:  Deduct
$40.00 upgrades purchased in 1996

4. Version 1.x:  $300.00

Please give us a call if you wish to upgrade your copy.

Atlas Speaks special

Arkenstone has extended its half-price special for Atlas Speaks
until March 15th.  For more information, please give us a call.

____________________
Subscription Information

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receive a subscription for $10.00 for each format.  VV is also
available on GW Micro's bulletin board and ftp site at no charge.
Payment can be made by check, MasterCard, Visa, American Express,
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We seek reader input.  If we use an article you've submitted,
you'll receive a year's subscription at no charge.

Please send articles on IBM compatible diskette or in print to:

GW Micro, Inc.
725 Airport N. Office Park
Fort Wayne, IN  46825

If you have any questions or comments, please contact us at:
Voice: (219) 489-3671
Fax: (219) 489-2608
BBS: (219) 489-5281
Web Page: www.gwmicro.com
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EMail: vv@gwmicro.com
