Category: Geeks r Us
Hi all.
If you are a webbie user or a user of the accessible programs such as podcacher, rss news reader, bbc listen again etc, version 3.5.1 is available.
If you don't know about webbie and the other programs they are worth a try.
Below are the changes since the last release. I think this update is very good and much improoved.
The website is www.webbie.org.uk
New in WebbIE 3.5:
More links using JavaScript now work in WebbIE - so you can use Yahoo! Mail, for example.
You can now make WebbIE your default web browser: just select Options and Make WebbIE your default browser in WebbIE, then restart your machine.
More internal links on web pages work - like Skip to Navigation.
Pages are now better sectioned up with blank lines between big blocks to help you get a feel for how the page is laid out.
Form elements (like text inputs) that correctly use LABEL elements to indicate their names now get the name included in the line of the the control, so you can more easily understand what each part of a form does.
Accessible RSS News Reader now supports Atom news feeds as well as RSS news feeds. That means that many more feeds will work in it (but you don't have to know the difference, they just work.)
New program, Google Podcast and RSS search, lets you search Google for podcasts and RSS feeds and add them to Accessible RSS News Reader or Accessible Podcatcher.
Bugfix: subscribing to RSS News Feeds from WebbIE now works, so you get the feeds in Accessible RSS News Reader.
Bugfix: Accessible BBC Listen Again is now working properly again - more shows, and it'll remember what station you had selected when you exit.
Bugfix: Many more feeds will work properly in Accessible RSS News Reader thanks to a new mechanism for getting feeds.
Also there is another new program that the developer forgot to mention. Accessible podcast downloader. Simmilar to the podcacher but with this you download the podcasts and you can set it to download them automatically like mainstream podcachers.
Unfortunately you will have to download the hole package but during installation you can choose which programs to install.
Wow thanks Nikos. I'll have to check this out.
Since you first posted about web i e, I downloaded it and it's brothers.
I don't use it as my major browser yet, but I do use it for sites like the huffington post, which jaws has major problems with (at least my ancient version does).
It's definitely worth a look.
I've also used it's rss feeder which works well.
Bob
hmm, i use juice and sharp reader for podcasts and rss respectivey. will definitely give these a go though. the rss search utility sounds interesting too. thanks for that too nikos.
For me, the only program that I consider even worth remotely having is accessible BBC listen again. I do very occassionally catch some BBC shows, and it just has a really nice simple interface for listening. Just click and go. Now, i'm gonna piss off a few people here when I say this but do we really need a specialized browser for the visually impaired? All the major screenreaders, along with system access offer really awesome support with IE 7, so if you have a major screenreader, use IE or firefox. but if you can't afford the latest updates, it might be for you.
toonhead, different strokes for different folks really I reckon. Personally I find that, and the Project Gutenberg lister a bit handy. Haven't tried out the search tool as yet, but I can see that coming in useful too. Others may have different needs and so different experiences. Just my $0.02 on the matter.
My favorites are BBC listen again and BBC live radio. Also rss and podcacher are good. I don't use webbie much but i played with it a few times. I think it comes handy with free screen readers or even with narrator. Also i use hal and i don't like its web support much. It is not as good as jaws and system access. So sometimes i use it. But i agree with Simon. It is a matter of personal preference. Some people don't find webbie usefull and some do. And i think a lot of people use it because they report bugs and things like that and the developper always work to improove things.
Only thing i don't like about it is the fact that it gives numbers to the link. So it will say link1: zonebbs home, link2: If you like birds etc. I wish it just said link.
I sure do agree about the numbered links. I hate that. Maybe if you could magically go to a link by pressing that number or something, but, as is, there is no purpose to the numbers.
Bob
Well, I guess in a certain sense, it *does* give a blind person a way to sort of, maybe conceptualize how a site is laid out, and I fully realize that at times JAWS and Window-eyes don't always portray a site accurately, but with this whole idea of Document presentation layout that JAWS has, it might give someone a more accurate version of how the site is laid out. Maybe in the options of Webbie it could give you an option to hear, or not hear numbered links? i've been trying NVDA for the last while, and it does this cool thing where you hear an assending series of beeps indicating the progress of a page opening up. It's not something i particularly rely on but it is kind of cool. I guess my original point is, that we really don't need *specialized* programs for the visually impaired when the mainstream programs seem to be well enough, but like others say, I guess it's all in how you see it. At least, all the programs I use on a daily basis do.
I think it boils down to a matter of personal preference.
Sighted folks have choices, Internet explorer (with it's different flavors), firefox, netscape (does anyone use that one any more?).
Why shouldn't the blind have a choice of web presentation?
Bob
Another program is called webb formator. www.webformator.de
This one is a pluggin than a browser. It works in internet explorer and somebody can change web formator view and normal view with f12. The pages are also displayed as text only like webbie but a bit better in a more simmilar ways to what we are used to with other screen readers but if it is installed and we want to use normal internet explorer view it has problems sometimes so i uninstalled it. But it is free and you can try it if you want.