Category: Geeks r Us
I'm still using XP and Windows 7, but recently I've been hearing a little about these touch screens. I'm curious about them because in theory, exploring something where the spatial information is important like a nested math expression could be easier on a touch screen than a one-line display. For any of you who use them, do they often come built in to laptops? How expensive are they, and which screen reader best supports them? And most importantly, how useful are they?
I have an Acer Ultrabook that has a touch screen. I'm running Windows 8 with Jaws 15. I don't really use the touch screen though. I just haven't found it to be all that useful. However, I haven't tried using it for what you've suggested though.
I'll play around with it a bit more over the next few weeks and post back. Hopefully someone who is far more techy than I will post back with some better info for you.
Thanks!
Hi,
My laptop has a touch screen & I've been playing with it using NVDA. My observations so far:
If you're not able to pivot the screen so that your device feels more like a tablet it's very hard to remember to use it.
I've yet to find a really good use case for using it other than it just feeling like a more fun method of interaction. In the long term I'm hoping for some way of us being able to feel maps; it's one thing doing this on an iPad but on my 15.4 screen I think it would be more enjoyable.
It's surprisingly hard to move your finger in a straight line accross a screen without deviating.
Most fun thing I've found so far is being able to feel the layout of websites; if I look at the code I can get a rough idea of where everything is but obviously this method is much more natural.
From a work point of view tables are much easier to read using touch than the arrow keys.
Your idea about reading equations is interesting, but remember that the equation will only take up a very small portion of the screen so it may be hard to jump to specific parts of it.
I'm convinced that if screen reader support is improved a bit touch screens could revolutionise the way that blind people use computers, but I'm still searching for the killer use case that will convert everyone.
Cheers & keep us posted.
Ben.
I think the tablets with touch screens are nice. You have a smaller screen, so there is a lesser chance of you deviating while on a control. I wish screen readers supported more gestures though. For example, using Jaws, the on screen keyboard isn't accessible, why?
Hi B3n,
You say, "It's surprisingly hard to move your finger in a straight line across a screen without deviating."
That's likely true now that I think about it, especially over a very large screen. What happens if you open the screen flat and move your fingers horizontally as if reading Braille? Do you move straighter then?
Interesting thoughts.
Hi,
Good question; I hadn't thought of that. Unfortunately setting the screen so that it's completely flat requires the keyboard part of it to be pressed against my chest, so it's not overly practical and for what its worth it probably looks quite strange as well. If your computer has a spinning disk, doing this frequently is not advisable.
Having said this, I do appear to be able to use it more effectively although I could still be a lot better.
Cheers.