Kestrell

New book on using multiple screen readers to browse the web

2020-08-03T16:40:25Z

Kes: David Kingsbury is a technology instructor at the Carroll Center for the Blind and has an amazing knowledge of screen readers: I took three days of classes with him about a month ago and learned a phenomenal amount.

_When One Web Browser Is Not Enough: A Guide for Windows Screen Reader Users_ by David Kingsbury

In just the last few years, more web browsers have become accessible, and screen reader users can greatly benefit by becoming familiar with multiple browsers. Websites are complex animals. When things go wrong with one browser, your first line of defense is often to switch browsers. Each browser has strengths and weaknesses, so you can pick and choose features among them to get the best browsing experience. And once you are comfortable with one browser, it’s not hard to pick up the basics of the others.

When One Web Browser Is Not Enough: A Guide for Windows Screen Reader Users by David Kingsbury, Assistive Technology Instructor at the Carroll Center for the Blind, is meant to help JAWS, NVDA, and Windows Narrator users to effectively use the four leading web browsers – Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge – in ways that build on the strengths of each of them. Topics covered include: recent trends in web browser and screen reader usage; web accessibility criteria; screen reader keystrokes and strategies for efficiently accessing and navigating websites; browser menu structure; useful web browser features and commands; and JAWS, NVDA and Narrator customizations. Two appendices – a list of keystrokes and a glossary of Internet terms – are included for convenient reference.

The book can be purchased for $20 at:
https://carroll.org/product/when-one-web-browser-is-not-enough/

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New Microsoft Edge's best feature: Immersive Reader

2020-07-16T11:04:36Z

For all the things I don't like about the new Edge browser, the Immersive Reader function balances all that out.

What it does: strips out all the web page ads, bells, and whistles, and reformats the article you want to read to look like a page in an ebook reader.

How to get it: It's already built into the Edge browser: once you are on the page of the article you want to read, just press F9, and the page is converted to the Immersive Reader view.
You can also have the article read aloud by a high quality computer voice: just click on the button labelled "Listen to this article"

How to customize Immersive Reader: Read the article
How to use Immersive Reader on Microsoft Edge browser
https://www.windowscentral.com/how-use-immersive-reader-microsoft-edge-chromium

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Demo of NetEcho, an accessible phone-based Web application

2009-11-18T14:49:50Z

News Wire:

On Monday, November 23 at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard time, Larry Lewis, President, Flying Blind LLC www.flying-blind.com will be demonstrating netECHO, an accessible, phone-based web application that enables individuals who are vision impaired to perform a number of tasks using the world wide web.

netECHO, developed by InternetSpeech www.internetspeech.com allows its subscribers the ability to use either a land or cellular phone line to access its server and issue commands through the sound of one’s voice or via the telephone keypad. netECHO is the perfect solution for users who do not own a PC or mobile device as well as a desktop or mobile screen reader, or for users who do own such devices, but wish to have a secondary alternative for dealing with the complexities of a graphical operating system.
( more details below cut )

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