Hello all,
Thanks Anna for the fantastic info which you provided below.
Jim
On Sun, 28 Sep 1997, Anna Byrne wrote:

> Following is an exchange with JFW concerning the latest and greatest
> version of the product.  fyi, the icon is new, too.  It has a shark fin on
> it.
>
> I just received JFW 3.0 and hope to have it installed on the windows 95
> computer by the end of the week.  A couple of questions, to begin with:
>
> 1)  When using a software speech synthesizer, does the audio card trip over
> the speech?  Do I need a second audio card?  is this more trouble than it's
> worth on a desktop machine with good audio and speakers?? Will the speech
> boom out of the speakers and gross out my family???
> Support:  The software synthesizers control the speech to the sound card,
> so you have to have a software synth in addition to JFW.  When you say
> "trip
> over", DECtalk Access32 software does stammer sometimes when large lists
> are
> being drawn to the screen.  I don't recommend that you install a second
> sound card, as it might be more trouble than it's worth.  In general, you
> can hear CD ROM music and speech simultaneously, as well as MIDI and speech
> at the same time.  Some soft synths allow wave files to interrupt speech
> and
> some don't.  I'm going to try to keep track of this so if you have any
> personal experiences with them, let me know and I'll add any notes you have
> to mine.
>
> 2)  Is JFW3.0 for windows 95 only?  (seems to me, yes.)
> Support:  Yes, JFW 3 is for Win95 only or later, NT 4.0 as well.  Two
> separate
> versions of 3 will be released.
>
> 3)  can I install it from DOS or do I have to  use Windows?
> Support:  Currently our JFW install program is a Windows only install.
>
> 4)  will it make Office 97 accessible?
> Support:  JFW 3 for 95 works pretty well with Office 97.  Much better than
> JFW 2
> worked with Office 97.
>
> 5)  Will it read the DOS stuff before Windows comes up ('Your computer was
> not properly shut down....run scandisk?')
> Support:  JFW won't read the stuff that comes up before windows 95 is
> loaded, like
> scandisk stuff, but you can choose to "have JAWS run first" from the file
> menu in JFW and it will read your password dialogs and other info that
> comes
> up prior to programs loading, but after Win 95 loads.
>
> 6)  will it read 'Now it is safe to shut down your computer?'  (Window
> Bridge does.)
> Support:  No, JFW won't read the "safe to shut down your computer" message.
>
> My experience is that JFW3.0 is a big step up from JFW2.29.  It doesn't
> change the fact, though, that the whole accessibility thing is a big pain
> in the brain.
>
> Ann Byrne
> [log in to unmask]
>