Am considering buying this scanner.  Will the software work with 
Window-Eyes 8.4?  Thanks.--Matt, N1IBB.

At 10:36 PM 8/13/2014, you wrote:
>The developer of the PSR-500 application has updated his app to include the
>new Whistler units. The software is pretty accessible with JAWS. I will be
>happy to correspond with anyone who needs some tips as they begin to use the
>software with their scanner.
>
>73,
>
>Ron Miller
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>On Behalf Of Jim Gammon
>Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 1:23 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: accessible scanners
>
>Martin and all interested.  I posted some emails to the list about Whistler
>Group making their new trunked scanners accessible.  This is important
>because Whistler bought the GRE America PSR scanners when GRE went out of
>business.  Currently, Whistler has introduced a scanner very similar to the
>PSR500 handheld scanner but the speaker is below the keypad rather then
>above it.  In any case, Whistler has plans to introduce new scanners which
>is why I approached them about adding a series of beeps at the very least,
>or at best, adding a plug like Kenwood has in their rigs so people can buy
>speech boards to make their scanners way more accessible.  I talked to a
>lady named Sheri Nolan in customer service who told me to write up my ideas
>and send them to her then she in turn, would forward them to the company
>engineers in Ma.  They are responsible for designing the new scanners.
>That's obviously where the universal design, or access needs to be
>introduced, from the ground up.  In my first email to her, I had put some
>questions that I originally had posed to GRE America about their PSR500.  I
>didn't expect answers, just thought they might like to see some of the
>problems I was facing with that scanner.  What did they do? They wrote me
>back with information from the manual that was supposed to answer my
>questions.  This included remarks like, just go to the menus and scroll
>through them until you get to the one you need.  Of course I'm
>para-phrasing, but clearly, the engineers did not get what I was trying to
>explain.  After getting that email from Sheri, I wrote back suggesting that
>the engineers take their handheld scanner and just put some tape over the
>display and see if they can figure out some work-arounds so they can use it
>without seeing the display.  She thought that was a good idea and sent it on
>to them.  So far, I  haven't heard back.  I hope that those of you who are
>interested would also give input to the Whistler Group by writing email to
>Sheri Nolan who's email [log in to unmask] I recommend trying to
>keep focused particularly on accessibility issues for their scanners and
>emphasize that there are many people with low or no vision who would really
>appreciate it if they would incorporate speech output or at least a series
>of different beeps in their up-coming scanners.  I for one, would like a
>handheld scanner with onboard accessibility where you don't have to drag a
>laptop around in order to achieve  some degree of access.  73, Jim WA6EKS
>
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Martin G.  McCormick" <[log in to unmask]
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Date sent: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 09:14:28 -0500
> >Subject: Re: accessible scanners
>
> >       Another useful feature is when one can communicate with a scanner or
>
> >transceiver via serial interface.  I have two Uniden scanners.  One is
> >now eleven years old and has a rather turse command set that one can
> >access via a terminal program much the way you can access one of the
> >old telephone dial-up modems.  All the characters must be upper case
> >and all the replies are also in upper case but you can read the
> >display, setup trunking systems, etc.  The only problem is that the
> >Motorola SmartZone trunking is now unusable since the new rebanded
> >frequency plans can not be fed in to the scanner as a flash upgrade
> >since the
> >bc780 does not have that capability.
> >       It is, however, accessible since the command set and responses are
>all
> >plain ASCII text.
> >       That sort of access is much appreciated.  I also have another Uniden
>
> >which was made around 2008.  It does P25 and the new rebanded Motorola
> >trunking just fine.
> >       It also has an ASCII command set and is potentially totally
>accessible
> >but one needs to either be running one of the Windows programs that
> >talk to your scanner or you must be willing to write your own
> >communications program in C or perl.  I am a Linux user so that is kind
> >of par for the course.
> >       For the BCD996 and the BCD396, the commands and responses are still
> >ASCII but they use CSV or Comma-Separated Variable strings.  These are
> >sometimes hugely long lines of text in which each field is separated
> >from it's neighbors by a , so a string for input or output might look
> >like 1,01453500,1,,,3,2,7,K5SRC Stillwater Repeater,14,0,9
> >       That is not a valid entry anywhere, but it is an example of what a
>CSV
> >string looks like.  You see them all the time in business applications
> >that may be used with spread sheets and tables.
> >       One of my next home projects is to take the C program I wrote for
>the
> >BCD996 and try to re-do it in perl as I may get it to do more than it
> >presently does.
> >       I would sure like to see more radios that have some sort of
>electronic
> >input and output like the Kenwoods and several others.  To me, that is
> >almost as good as having speech boards in the radio which, of course,
> >is the holy grail but may not have as much mass appeal as being able to
> >interface with a serial port on a computer or maybe a web interface.
> >       Let's hope that this period of totally inaccessible technology is
> >ending and we just might be able to really use some of this stuff
> >again.
> >       I remember the first truly inaccessible piece of amateur radio gear
>I
> >encountered.  It was in the mid seventies and was a two-meter
> >transceiver that had an Up and Down button pair for frequency, no
> >direct entry and no way to get to a known state except for that stupid
> >little LED display.  If you could even get it to start at 144.000 MHZ,
> >do you really want to count in 5 KHZ steps up to say, 147.925 and hope
> >there were no key bounces or missed presses?
> >       The guy in the store said, I don't think there is any way you can
>use
> >that and he was absolutely right.  Don't you just hate that?
>
> >73 Martin McCormick WB5AGZ
>
> >Jim Gammon writes:
> >>     John, I have been corresponding with the Whistler group
>regarding
> >> there
> >> trunked scanners.  Thought you would like to read the latest.
>Jim