Category: Geeks r Us
I know these are two separate topics, but since both are related to accessibility, I figured I would discuss both here. Has anyone noticed that, with both XP and Snow Leopard, it's impossible to install the latest version of Adobe Flash Player? I'm using NVDA with XP. Whenever I see the notification that I must update the player, all the buttons say is "q" and "i". I hit the "i" button and then nothing else happens. No other buttons are read when I hit tab or shift tab, and it doesn't bring up any other screen to continue the installation. In Snow leopard, I'm able to open the file, but then, it asks me to accept the license agreement, and no matter what I do, I can't check the check box. I know that, for Windows, there's Songra, but I still have to search on the mobile version of Youtube for nonmusical videos. There is also an accessible version of Youtube, but there, I have to search by keyword and can't just enter a url. I've heard of a program that's supposed to be an alternative to flash player, but can't remember the name right now. Has anyone tried this, and if so, how accessible is it? I know of nothing on the Mac side of things, which means that I can no longer watch Youtube videos there.
As for Ebay, a few days ago, the site became very inaccessible when it comes to searching. Take computers, for example. I used to be able to type in a keyword, choose computers and networking in the combo box and then narrow my search by pc laptops and netbooks, then screen size, ram, processor speed, price, location, an, and sort by lowest price plus shipping. Now, most of those options are some kind of hybrid between check boxes and links, and some of them just say "clickable" and aren't accessible at all! Even doing a normal search for whatever, I can no longer enter a price amount and sort things properly. Forget even trying Ebay on the Mac, as it won't work well at all! What on Earth is going on here? Can I get the old look back?
Thanks for any help given. These things are really upsetting me!
I can't help with any suggestions unfortunately, but I would also be interested to know about an alternative to Flash Player. I don't like the setup it has for updating either, as I never know if it has been updated or not. Plus, I'm trying to find as many alternatives to the mainstream programs as I can, as they are usually smaller and/or sometimes simpler to use.
I would be interested in reading a list of what you found so far. I do know of Launchy, which is a really nice program that installs a bunch of programs at once for you. You get to choose the programs and it just installs them without you needing to do anything. I just found the link here.
http://www.launchy.net/about.php
While their description is different from what I wrote, I do remember it asking me which programs I wanted, and when I clicked the check boxes, it installed them.
I do remember hearing about, and using, a website which let me update Flash Player. I remember you couldn't use it for automatic updates, as you had to do it manually. But I think it was for the blind. Maybe, I'm confusing Launchy with that? All I know is that it worked and I don't know the url!
Its not for the blind, but its:
http://ninite.com/
I haven't seen the one you posted, but I'm gonna take a peak.
Also i just did a search for Hard Drive on eBay, and went thru the catigories. I'm useing Jaws 14, IE version 8 and Windows XP Pro. No problems here.
Okay i checked out your site. I have no idea what this is or why you'd use it.
but ninite is something i think you'd like.
Maybe, I confused it with something else. I'll definitely check out ninite. I'm using the latest version of NVDA, with XP (I have Home on one machine and pro on another), and the latest version of Firefox. Do the links and combo boxes show up normally with JAWS for you? This only started a few days ago, so maybe, my results were somehow set to the new look without me knowing.
Everything shows up how it should.
Though how I do an eBay search is put in a keyword, search it, then use the linked catigory's to narow it down which jaws says is a menu.
But the combo boxes is there.
Has anyone seen Ebay as i have, with all of these checkbox links? I'm using NVDA with Firefox and XP, and this just started a few days before my original post. Now, when I hit f, I have to go through tons of these checkbox links and the combo boxes are there. This time, when I did a search, the price was stuck at $9.95 to $12.95. No matter how many times I entered a new range, it wouldn't work. Do I really need to install a demo of JFW just to be able to use Ebay or is there another auction site I can try?
This is very weird! I am now using my IBM Thinkpad X60, which came yesterday, and the latest version of Firefox with the latest version of NVDA. I went to Ebay, but didn't log in. So maybe all of that has something to do with it, but now it looks exactly as it did before these terrible changes. I'm going to log in to see if it continues, and then update everything on the desktop, just to see what happens. Either way, I hope this continues. It's really nice to be able to customise things!
For flash the OCR that both jaws and NVDA might help you install adobby Tiff.
I'm a bit confused. Could you elaborate? I know what ocr is, of course, but I've never seen this feature in NVDA and am not sure how it would help with installing a program.
OCR is Optical character recognition which will atempt to translate the text on your screen "the adobe flash player installer" to a vertual buffer so you can interact with the text VIA cursor keys or using the mouse cursor to click install. It is what Openbook, and other program's do to printed text for the PC, Mac, IOS and Android.
ninite is the way to go. It installs the latest version of programs silently which means not asking you the end user any questions. I use a ninite installer for every new computer i set up.
Well, my X60 was working fine with Youtube, only I kept getting a reminder to upgrade for better sound and video, even though the sound was compltely fine. At any rate, yesterday, Youtube, or I'm guessing flash, stopped working. So I just went to the ninite site, and yes! This is the wonderful program that I mentioned here earlier but whose name I forgot! I have no clue why I installed Launcy, but it was from there, and I got them confused. Anyway, I made my selections, including Flash for other browsers, since I don't use IE. Then, I let it install and closed Firefox. I reopened it and tried a Youtube video and got the same result, which is to say, no sound. I then rebooted and tried again, but with no luck. So either I have to install the IE version or I have to find an alternative to Flash Player. I have Songra, but I need to download things before I can play them with that. Trying to play them otherwise just brings me to the Youtube page and the same old problem.
That's strange. I use IE8 on Windows XP and i need to update my Flash, YouTUbe works fine.
I'll try installing the IE one. I use Firefox and have never had this problem, particularly when updating with ninite.
Youtube is working again. Stupid me, I had to disable java to use a particular site, and forgot to reenable it! That fixed the problem.
Wow Disable Java? Never had to do that.
Hope you updated that too while you were at it.
I did. I never have to do it either, except on this one site.
http://www.teeccino.com
For whatever reason, their links show up terribly when java is enabled and won't work properly.
Ebay is starting again! It was fine on this laptop, since I got it. But now, out of nowhere, the combo boxes are gone, and so are many of the regular links for searching. They've been replaced with these odd combination links/check boxes, which do nothing when I try to click on them, and the tab and shift tab can't go through the links on the site! Now, I'm stuck using the mobile version, which lacks most of the regular search features! Does anyone know how to rectify this?
No, considering i dont have any problems and my pages are set to look for new versions of the page every time I visit the site, instead of lookin at a cashed version.
Windows XP and IE8 here. If they were gonna stop supporting something , I'd think that would go first, since IE8 is an older browser
The Ebay problem started before hand, but today, I read something about firefox disabling my java because it's out of date. I could have sworn that I updated it recently, but maybe, it didn't work? Can anyone tell me a quick way to do this? I'm not sure if it will help, but something's s got to give! I'm not a shopaholic, but I do enjoy using Ebay, and it really is the only place that sells certain things that I like. So the sooner I can resolve this issue the better!
Ninite.com, use the checkboxes for firefox latest version and Java runtime. you'll be able to make sure they are up to date this way. I know you've used ninite, so just download your installer and then after it installs both firefox and java, try it and let us know how it works for ya.
I just saw a notification to update java, so I did so. I then manually updated Firefox, from the Mozilla site, and checked my plugins. The only two which were out of date were Adobe Shockwave and something related to Windows Media Player. I updated the Adobe, which actually said Flashplayer, and not only was it completely accessible, but it even allowed me to select an option to update automatically! That's a first for Adobe! On the bad side, none of that helped with Ebay. I closed and restarted Firefox, several times, and Ebay is still behaving in the same way.
Is your firefox set to check for a new version of the page when it loads?
I dunno how to set cash settings in firefox as I dont use it myself, but maybe someone else can help if you dont know how to do that.
I don't know where to find that option. But I do know it was working fine until a few days ago, and I didn't change anything.
have you tried IE to see if it works on that?
wonder if others who use firefox have problems
I had completely forgotten about Ie! I haven't really used it since version 6. But I tried it and it worked perfectly. I'm not sure if this is just for now or if it will continue to do so. But if nothing else, I'll be able to use Ebay properly for a little while longer. Oddly enough, when I tried WebbIE, just to see what would happen, it didn't even display the page as having links. It just showed text, and I had it set to normal, not crop page.
I think something may have gotten screwed up in your firefox somehow.
But every other site works, except Ebay. I could try completely uninstalling Firefox, and all information associated with it, but I really doubt that would help.
i dunno that i'd go that far, let somebody else suggest if they think that would be a fix.
Make sure your IE is as up to date as it can be. update flash for IE too.