Hi Ana, and all,
I've heard, though I haven't done it myself yet,
that with 8.1, which is upgradeable for free from
Win8 (which is the horror version for many
people), you can set it to bring you directly to
the Desktop, and you can also set it to run more
like Win7. While Win8 doesn't have the Start
Button we've had seemingly forever, Win8.1 does,
bringing it back to a more user-friendly, familiar
sort of Windows experience.
Here are some tips video's I've found useful in 1
way or another. Some of the videos offer visual
tips, but with many we know how to achieve the
same via the keyboard, so some is still useful
towards easier access and control:
Learn Win 8.1 In 8-Minute Tutorials:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSeWsBcH6w0
Win 8.1 Hidden Features -- PC World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBmsZhaVqkw
Win 8.1 -- Lesson 9: How to Resize Tiles &
Activate Live Tiles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Kahgng2VfQ
Win 8.1 Tutorial: Managing Contacts In the People
App -- Lynda.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-A05_vK278
Win 8.1 Preview Tips & Tricks --
NicksComputerTips.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awPxHvUsDwY
Strive On!
Everett
----- Original Message -----
> Now that I've been using Windows 8.1 for about a
> month, I would say the upgrade is worth it. The
> internet is a noticeably better experience than
> it has been in a long time. I don't have to
> fight Jaws forever losing focus, and I have
> fewer problems with links that don't respond to
> clicking with Jaws or NVDA. This is a big deal
> since we do more and more online yada-yada for
> work. also, for one of my jobs, I need to fill
> out a Google Docs spreadsheet to get paid, and
> it works well in 8.1 with Firefox and Jaws or
> NVDA. Just for giggles, I did a sample document
> in Google Docs. I was able to edit it: the
> screen reader says, "Blank," when you tab into
> the edit field, but it reads everything when you
> arrow around. I didn't work with it very long,
> and I'd certainly much rather work in Word or
> some other offline text editor, but the
> experience was much better than previous ones.
>
> Windows 8.1 has its quirks. There are a lot more
> situations where you have to press space or
> press enter, one of these, not one or the other
> as the spirit moves. There are also weirdnesses
> like not having This PC on the desktop by
> default. And Jaws is buggy, like it often
> announces, "Print view," instead of the name of
> my Word document, which is annoying since I
> often have more than one open.
>
> That said, over all, I think Windows 8.1 is a
> nice improvement for us in terms of
> accessibility. The Metro area needs tweaking for
> better keyboard support, but if you understand
> that its logic is that of a touch-screen phone,
> it makes its own kind of sense. Still, if you
> don't like it, you can mostly ignore the metro
> area by putting icons on the desktop and
> operating from there instead.
>
> I'm posting this because the blindness community
> has been more resistant than usual to Windows 8.
> I've heard lots of people who should know better
> say that it's inaccessible, and I've heard
> stories from other people saying they purposely
> bought a Windows 7 machine within the last few
> months because their AT person steered them away
> from Windows 8. NVDA works about as well on
> Windows 8.1 as it did on Windows 7. Jaws 15
> works well on Windows 8.1, but Jaws 14 is a
> mess. (Ana is about to go into one of her
> conspiracy theories.) When I installed Jaws 14
> from a disk, it worked just fine on Windows 8.1;
> problems began later when I decided to let Jaws
> 14 update. Since Jaws 15 was around the corner,
> I'm thinking FS boosted its sales of the latest
> model. (Conspiracy theory over.)
>
> Anyway, Windows 8.1 is accessible, and the web
> experience is better.
>
> Ciao
>
>
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