Category: Geeks r Us
Are there any completely free jaws friendly programs in which you can access a sited person's computer to help them with a technical issue?
I don't know the details, but I'm thinking you can do remote stuff with NvDA now, somehow.
Thanks
You don't actually need to take over.
A seeing person can use the same keystrokes you do.
All you need to do is describe things by steps.
Go to. Click on. Tell me what you see.
Now do.
You can tell them how to get places exactly the same as you get places.
Not always, because a sighted person is looking at screen icons. So the sightie will be like, "Is that the icon shaped like.." Or they'll be looking at the positioning on the screen, and ask something like, "So is that on the right or left of the screen, or in this bar here?", and we're not going to have that same screen orientation. Or you tell them, pres these keys, and they have no idea where those keys are on their keyboard.
You have to be a good describer. I work with seeing people all the time as to problems with their computers.
It can be done.
If they don't know were a key is, you explain.
I also remember they are working with a mouse, so I will say right or left click.
Wayne's right. It's getting harder with more and more versions of Windows and the like, but at least the same location info is correct; where they'll find the menus, the buttons in a dialog, the tabs in a property sheet, etc.
I think everyone made good points. First of all however, there are a lot of sited people that aren't tec savvy that have a lot of trouble with and questions about keyboard short cuts, and I feel like after I have talked them through how to do whatever key board short cut(s) they have to do, it would be easier for me to do it myself via controlling their computer in order to demonstrate what happens when it is performed. I think this would giv them a better understanding and retention of what to do. Second of all, what if they can't describe what they see well enough? Again I think everyone made good points. Thank you.
I never tell sighted people to do keyboard shortcuts, you tell them where to
click with the mouse.
One of the things I really like about VO is that everything is positioned correctly, so if I tell a sighted person a button is at the top right, it really is, and vice versa.
If I'm instructing a sighted person where to find something, I try and contextualize it. If I can't tell them where exactly on their screen the menu bar is, I'll say something like, "Okay, hit the alt key, right next to your space bar. Okay, now you see stuff like file, edit, stuff like that? Go to edit, then select all. Now all your text should be highlighted. Now go back in there, and go to edit, then copy. There, now all your highlighted stuff is in the clipboard." I've had to explain this one a few times to sighted people who don't know how to copy and paste for some reason.
Voice-over is handy for this, for sure, but for a regular machine, either knowing where stuff is or being able to contextualize helps. Also, newer versions of windows than, say, xp allow you to use the search feature. This is often enough to get where you want to go, unless the help you're rendering is very technical.