Hello EASI friends and colleagues,

In August, a colleague and I organized usability testing of a new website
with blind computer users. It was fascinating to observe the approaches our
testers used to deal with an unfamiliar webpage. For example, some screen
reader users tabbed from link to link; many went straight for the Jaws link
list; a few used the brute force approach of reading pages from top to
bottom; and a couple used built-in JAWS commands to navigate from header to
header. The commands they used were activated by pressing 1, 2, 3, and
especially H.

The folks who developed an understanding of the page structure before
plunging in completed more tasks than those who, for example, used link
lists and brute force. Navigating by header (h1, h2, h3, etc.) seemed to
help them zero in on desired information.

After completing the study, I began wondering whether experienced screen
reader users, such as the ones who relied on HTML headers to navigate, also
make use of Microsoft Word styles. I know there are many screen reader users
on this forum, so I hope a few of you won't mind answering a couple of
questions. Feel free to forward this message.

1. When you are WRITING a Word document, to what extent do you use Word's
built-in styles? Do you use them religiously, ignore them, or something in
between? If you use styles, which ones do you apply most often? 

2. When you are READING a Word document that someone else has written, to
what extent do you rely on Word's built-in styles? Do you, for example,
navigate by headers as you might in a web page?

By "built-in styles," I am referring to Normal, Heading 1, Heading 2,
Heading 3, and so on.

My interest stems, in part, from my own struggles with Word styles. It seems
to me that style-related features in Word are overcomplicated, broken, and
possibly both. 

I will summarize the responses I receive and report back to the Equal Access
to Software & Information listserv. (Anonymously, of course.) When
responding, please let me know which screen reader you use with Word. 

Alan

Alan Cantor 
Cantor Access Inc.
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www.cantoraccess.com