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Re: Usage Statistics? JAWS and IE

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From: Steve Green
Date: Jul 20, 2011 11:27AM

In our experience it is not unusual for people to be using JAWS versions
that are 4 versions old or more. The main reason is the cost of upgrading,
but that's not the only reason.

We recently did some work for the UK Home Office, and their standard desktop
had JAWS 8. They only update the standard desktop every few years, so they
can get well out of date in terms of browser and AT versions. This is not
uncommon with organisation that have to support tens of thousands of
desktops.

I know some people who always upgrade everything to the latest version and
others who never upgrade anything for the entire life of their machine -
there is no 'typical' behaviour.

Bear in mind that a disproportionate number of blind and visually impaired
people are unemployed or in low-paid jobs, so the cost of upgrading their AT
is very significant. Also some are wary about changing a system that works -
screen magnifier users have endless problems with ZoomText and Windows
upgrades, although JAWS does not appear to be as bad. If a user's AT does
not work after an upgrade, it can be especially difficult for them to fix
it.

Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd