Replied to Rachel's message yesterday and only just realised it went to her rather than the list, so here it is again in case anyone else finds it useful.
Rachel,
It's as accessible as any other version of Windows - more so in some places like the Control Panel, where you don't have to use the JAWS cursor so much, but there is no classic view of the Start Menu and WordPad has a ribbon rather than a menu system. This means you may have to learn different ways of doing things. JAWS 11 was the first version to officially support Windows 7, but JAWS 10 seems to work pretty well anyway.
Here are three messages from another list on this topic which you may find interesting:
-----Original Message-----
Sent: 07 December 2009 17:41
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [bcab] a couple of questions about windows 7
I have successfully installed windows 7 on my computer and it along with Jaws is running great. However, I have a couple of questions I would like answering. My first question is this. During the upgrade process I wasn't asked to put in any authorization number which is usually on the back of the packaging the disc came in. I was upgrading from Vista, so do I have to put this number in to get it working without expiring within sixty days or am I OK to carry on as normal? My second question is this, Are there any hints and tips anyone can give me to make windows 7 work more successfully from an accessibility point of view even though it seems very workable as it is?
-----Original Message-----
Sent: 07 December 2009 20:13
Subject: [bcab] Re: a couple of questions about windows 7
I'm not sure about the authorisation I'm afraid, as I went for a clean install instead. One useful thing about W7 is the shortcut keys.
- Windows key + 1 opens Internet Explorer.
- Windows key + 2 opens your libraries.
- Windows key + 3 opens Media Player.
- Windows key + 4 opens Messenger.
- Windows key + 5 opens Windows Mail/Outlook.
You can create libraries of shortcuts in W7. I haven't used this feature much, but it's apparently a way of grouping files together from different places on your computer, so you can access them all from one place. Very much like using shortcuts, but a bit more organised.
The other thing it took me a while to notice was that when you type something into the Start Menu search box, you can use the arrow keys to move through different auto-complete options. You probably know this already from using Vista, but thought it was worth mentioning anyway.
-----Original Message-----
Sent: 08 December 2009 16:12
Subject: RE: [bcab] Re: a couple of questions about windows 7
None of the following are necessary, but I find as a keyboard user they make my life easier, and they give an indication of what options you might want to explore further.
First thing to note is that you can customize the Start menu. For instance, some people like to have the Control Panel in a single list that can be browsed with UpArrow and DownArrow, and you can't get this in the Windows 7 Control Panel itself. What you can do is open the Start button's context menu (WindowsKey, Escape, applications key) and choose Properties to get to a multi-page dialogue where you can choose what appears on the Start menu and how it behaves. One option is to make the Control Panel entry into a submenu which can be browsed with UpArrow and DownArrow; once the dialogue is open, press the Customize button, move to Control Panel and then DownArrow to "Display as a menu" underneath it and press SpaceBar to select it. I've used this method to also remove things like Pictures and Devices and Printers, which I never use, from my Start menu, and to add Favorites displayed as a menu.
Second change is in Windows Explorer. I'd strongly recommend turning on filetypes so that when a file is listed you get information about what application the file will open in if you choose it. This is considered good form from a security point of view - so that you don't press Enter on something you think is a document only to find out it's a program - and it also allows me to distinguish easily between two files which have the same name but open in different applications - for instance I often have an Excel and a Word file for the same project so I give them the same name; by making the filetypes explicit I can easily tell them apart. To make this change, open the Tools menu and choose Options, then press Control + Tab to move to the View page, press H until you get to "Hide extensions for known file types" and SpaceBar to unselect it.
There are two areas of the Windows Explorer screen I think serve little purpose for most people other than to possibly frustrate a keyboard user, and you might want to consider turning them both off. The first of these is the Library pane. To demonstrate, if you press WindowsKey + 2, that should open your libraries and you'll be in a list view. Press Shift + Tab and you'll move to a tree view. If you've used Windows Explorer before, this should be familiar. Now, in the listview, press Enter on Documents. Focus is still in a listview, but you'll now need to press Shift + Tab three times to get to the treeview. This is because you've opened a library and so the library pane, which contains two controls, is added to the screen between the treeview and the listview. There are other circumstances in which the library pane contains only one control, and the upshot is that if, like me, you do a lot of moving between the listview and the treeview, you might - like me - find it annoying that there isn't a set number of Tabs or Shift + Tabs to move between them. Turn off the library pane and the problem goes away, and the features the library pane controls give access to can both be found in other places, so you don't lose anything.
The second area I'd consider turning off is the Details pane. Again this only appears at certain times, such as if you have Microsoft Office installed and focus is on an Office document in the listview. The Details pane appears between the listview and the address bar, and it can add up to nine controls to the screen which you have to Tab past to get to the address bar. I know there is a keystroke to go straight to the address bar, but I prefer the Tab method.
To turn these panes off, Tab around the screen until you get to the toolbar Organize button, SpaceBar or Enter to open a menu from it, DownArrow to Layout, Enter to open a submenu, and then choose the ones you want. The menu bar, by the way, appears on screen when you press Alt and disappears when the menu system closes, so you don't need to check it in this submenu unless you like it to be visible on screen when you're not using it. The Preview pane is off by default and I'd leave off - turning it on causes another pane to open between the listview and the Details pane in which a preview of the selected item in the listview may be shown. The two main effects are to steal focus, which jumps to the Preview pane when something appears in it, and to slow your PC. The Navigation pane is the Windows name for the treeview control; if you turn this off your Windows Explorer screen will more closely resemble the My Computer screen from previous versions of Windows.
Away from Windows Explorer, you can pin items to the Start menu or the Taskbar so that they stay in same place and you can find them easily. Find them in the Start menu, open their context menu and you'll find the relevant options. For Start menu items, you'll find some may have something a screen reader will refer to as a jump list or a submenu. In most cases this is a list of recently used documents for that application; press RightArrow on these items to go into the submenu, which is vertical. On any item on the jump list, you can press RightArrow and Enter (or use its context menu) to pin that item within the jump list.
For items pinned to the Taskbar, you can start them with WindowsKey + a single digit number - of the ones Léonie mentions, only the first three are on my PC. I don't know whether the others are down to options chosen during the Windows install, or applications that have been installed afterwards. You can only start the first ten Taskbar items with a single keystroke, so you might want to put some thought into which applications you use a lot, and put them there in the order you want them. To remove an item from the Taskbar, press Windows + T to get to the Taskbar, then RightArrow to move through them. Use the applications key to get a jump list which may have recently used items on it and will always have an option to remove it from the Taskbar (for pinned items) or to pin it to the Taskbar (for unpinned items). I don't know of a way to move items around on the Taskbar, so if you want to use WindowsKey + 1 for an application, you'll need to unpin everything that's there, then put your favoured item on as the first one, then add the rest again.
Some Taskbar icons have jump lists; move to that icon and press the applications key to view it - note, you can't use Shift + F10 to get this jump list. Once you know the placement on the Taskbar, you can use WindowsKey + Alt + its number to get its jump list. Items within a Taskbar jump list can be pinned like they can in the Start menu.
Along with the search facility on the Start menu, jump lists and a highly configurable Taskbar are good ways of keeping track of and starting applications or documents quickly with the keyboard.
By default the notification area doesn't show all icons - there may be a "show hidden icons" icon there (or it may just be called "chevron"). I prefer to have all icons visible so that it's easy to get to any icon quickly. My preferred way of making this change is to press Windows + B to move to the notification area, LeftArrow to move to the clock, applications key to get its context menu, C to choose "Customize notifications icons". That should open a dialogue; Shift + Tab once and you'll be on a checkbox, and check it to make sure all icons are always visible.
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Rachel
Sent: 15 December 2009 05:21
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VICUG-L] Windows 7 and JAWS
Can anyone tell me how accessible Windows 7 is at this time using JAWS?
Thank you.
Rachel
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