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Number of posts in this thread: 12 (In chronological order)

From: Goula, Gina
Date: Thu, Aug 02 2001 11:40AM
Subject: Setting up a lab?
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Hi all -
I am interested in setting up a "mini" Advanced Technology (AT) Lab for
accessibility issues. There's great info on different browsing alternatives
on the W3C site: http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/Browsing
Is there anyone out there who has set up an AT lab for accessibility issues?
What software(s) do you recommend? JAWS seems like a necessity - any other
suggestions would be a great help!
Thanks!!
Gina

From: Cohen, Lisa A.
Date: Thu, Aug 02 2001 11:48AM
Subject: RE: Setting up a lab?
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Hello Gina and all,
I'm researching the same requirement... I would add Window Eyes, and maybe
Lynx (text browser).
Beyond that, I'm not sure. Does anyone know if IBM Home Page Reader is very
widely used?
Thanks for any info available!
Lisa

From: Cyndi Rowland
Date: Fri, Aug 03 2001 12:00AM
Subject: Re: Setting up a lab?
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Gina,
Allow me to give you a great source of information. Kristine
Neuber at George Mason University has set up a fabulous lab for their
state's Assistive Technology Project. I would encourage you to
contact her and ask her about specific hardware and software. I can
tell you that I was very impressed when I visited in April. Her
email is < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > By the way, George Mason
University (and Kristine) is a partner in the WebAIM effort. Good
luck
Regards,
Cyndi

>Hi all -
>
>I am interested in setting up a "mini" Advanced Technology (AT) Lab for
>accessibility issues. There's great info on different browsing alternatives
>on the W3C site: http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/Browsing
>
>Is there anyone out there who has set up an AT lab for accessibility issues?
>What software(s) do you recommend? JAWS seems like a necessity - any other
>suggestions would be a great help!
>
>Thanks!!
>
>Gina

--
< = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Cyndi Rowland, Ph.D.
Project Director, Web Accessibility In Mind (WebAIM)
Center for Persons with Disabilities
Utah State University
Logan, Utah 84322-6800
(435) 797-3381
FAX (435) 797-2044
<http://www.webaim.org>;

From: Paul Bohman
Date: Fri, Aug 03 2001 12:28AM
Subject: Re: Setting up a lab?
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Does anyone know if IBM Home Page Reader is very
> widely used?
The numbers are quite low compared to Jaws, but the numbers are rising. In
general, Home Page Reader (HPR) handles Web pages better than Jaws, in my
opinion. The drawback of HPR is that it is only for Web content, so people
who use it would have to switch between their main screen reader and HPR. I
don't have any exact numbers of usage statistics, but HPR is _definitely_
something that I would want to have in a lab.
Paul Bohman
Technology Coordinator
WebAIM: Web Accessibility in Mind (www.webaim.org)
Center for Persons with Disabilities (www.cpd.usu.edu)
Utah State University (www.usu.edu)

From: Joy M. Hyzny
Date: Thu, Aug 02 2001 1:17PM
Subject: RE: Setting up a lab?
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Hi Gina,
Setting up a lab is very exciting! Are you setting this up for use in higher
education or elementary? What platform will you be using - Windows or Mac?
Would you be setting up something in the network environment and what ports do
you have available on the computers? Just some additional considerations!
I would include a scanner with OCR software such as OmniPage. Depending on
your budget, software such as the Kurzweil 1000 or 3000 or Open Book have some
terrific capabilities for student with learning disabilities. Another
text-to-speech program such as Read Please is also helpful. A variety of
low-tech typing aids, ergo mouse - trackballs - mouthsticks, etc., and
potentially a keyguard can be an asset. Depending on the needs of your
students and environmental considerations, you may want to consider a voice
recognition program (such as IBM Via Voice or Dragon Naturally Speaking).
JAWS and/or Window-Eyes are very popular screen readers for IBM. A screen
magnification program such as ZoomText can be helpful for users with low
vision. Thinking about universal design, a height-adjustable table that can
accommodate multiple users is advisable.
Just some ideas!
Joy Hyzny
University of Illinois at Chicago
(312) 413-0886

>===== Original Message From WebAIM forum < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
====>Hi all -
>
>I am interested in setting up a "mini" Advanced Technology (AT) Lab for
>accessibility issues. There's great info on different browsing alternatives
>on the W3C site: http://www.w3.org/WAI/References/Browsing
>
>Is there anyone out there who has set up an AT lab for accessibility issues?
>What software(s) do you recommend? JAWS seems like a necessity - any other
>suggestions would be a great help!
>
>Thanks!!
>
>Gina

From: AMY OILMAN
Date: Thu, Aug 02 2001 1:47PM
Subject: Re: Setting up a lab?
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We have a small lab at USPS. We have different operating systems,
versions of JAWS and versions of MS Office on our machines too. It
seems that the capabilities of the screen reader differ with the
operating system and version of office. We also have Dragon
Naturally Speaking and Jawbone in our lab and we are testing
different microphones including wireless ones. We also test new
applications for accessibility features like Adobe 5.0 and Capture
3.0 in our lab. We have a data center in St. Louis that has been
set up with the proper environment for Java and Oracle
accessibility. Our Assistive technology facilities are mainly used
by developers to test their applications for accessibility.
I hope this helps
Amy Oilman
United States Postal Service
Section 508 Technical Team

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Setting Up a Lab?
Author: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = at INTERNET
Date: 8/2/01 2:45 PM

Does anyone know if IBM Home Page Reader is very
> widely used?
The numbers are quite low compared to Jaws, but the numbers are rising. In
general, Home Page Reader (HPR) handles Web pages better than Jaws, in my
opinion. The drawback of HPR is that it is only for Web content, so people
who use it would have to switch between their main screen reader and HPR. I
don't have any exact numbers of usage statistics, but HPR is _definitely_
something that I would want to have in a lab.
Paul Bohman
Technology Coordinator
WebAIM: Web Accessibility in Mind (www.webaim.org)
Center for Persons with Disabilities (www.cpd.usu.edu)
Utah State University (www.usu.edu)

From: Briget Livingston
Date: Thu, Aug 02 2001 4:14PM
Subject: Re: Setting up a lab?
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We have a computer lab at the University of South Carolina with the following adaptive technology. You might want to consider some of these things depending on what your needs are.
Windows 2000 Computers:

From: tklm
Date: Fri, Aug 03 2001 5:22AM
Subject: Re: Setting up a lab?
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Paul wrote:
>
> Does anyone know if IBM Home Page Reader is very
> > widely used?
>
> The numbers are quite low compared to Jaws, but the numbers are rising. In
> general, Home Page Reader (HPR) handles Web pages better than Jaws, in my
> opinion. The drawback of HPR is that it is only for Web content, so people
> who use it would have to switch between their main screen reader and HPR.
I
> don't have any exact numbers of usage statistics, but HPR is _definitely_
> something that I would want to have in a lab.
I've been trying out HPR, and found it a little quirky in the order it reads
elements with title attributes. Also, this morning it refused to connect to
any web sites, even then my non-HPR browser window using exactly the same
connection was finding them (not from cache either). I haven't investigated
the cause.
Mally

From: tklm
Date: Fri, Aug 03 2001 5:35AM
Subject: Re: Setting up a lab?
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Briget wrote:

> We have a computer lab at the University of South Carolina
> with the following adaptive technology. You might want to
> consider some of these things depending on what your needs are.
>
> Windows 2000 Computers:
> <list of hardware and software>
Windows 2000 has a built in reader called Narrator as part of the
accessibility options. (I don't think 95, 98 or Me have it. I don't know
about XP). Details at:
http://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windows2000/utilities.htm#narrator
I don't know if anyone has tried this, or how many people are using it, but
I found it to be at least comparable to HPR, with the advantage that it
reads all windows and it's free (at least if you've already got Windows
2000).
By the way, the Text-Only option on the Microsoft Accessibility home page is
the 35th link! It takes forever to read through to it, and by then you're
switched off so you miss it. Great accessibility design there!
John Farrie
Accessibility by Design
"Design for accessibility and everyone can benefit"
http://accessibilitybydesign.co.uk

From: Robert F. Skinder
Date: Fri, Aug 03 2001 6:24AM
Subject: Re: Setting up a lab?
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Wow, Briget, that is impressive!
We ought to have you do a show and tell for the professional development seminars.
Bob
>>> = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = 08/02/01 06:10PM >>>
We have a computer lab at the University of South Carolina with the following adaptive technology. You might want to consider some of these things depending on what your needs are.
Windows 2000 Computers:

From: Goula, Gina
Date: Fri, Aug 03 2001 6:44AM
Subject: Re: Setting up a lab?
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Wooohoo! I agree...FYI - I just found the USDA lab out on the USDA web
site. It doesn't address specific software, but thought you would all like
to see it anyway:
main page:
http://www.usda.gov/oo/ontarget.htm
page listing technology used (but no specific software/hardware):
http://www.usda.gov/oo/assistive.htm
Gina

From: Joyce Kennedy
Date: Tue, Aug 07 2001 9:04PM
Subject: Re: Setting up a lab?
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Although Jaws is the thing for all-around computer access for the
blind, HPR is very good for public access situations because it is
much simpler to use and because it <does> have a GUI that
sighted support people can see and use when trying to assist blind
users.
We chose HPR for our public access library machines because of
support issues as well as the much lower cost. In the libraries, the
computers are provided mainly for access to internet.
I would definitely include HPR in the mix of screen readers to
check for accessibility.

On 2 Aug 2001, at 12:26, Paul Bohman < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = > wrote:
> Does anyone know if IBM Home Page Reader is very
> > widely used?
>
> The numbers are quite low compared to Jaws, but the numbers are
> rising. In general, Home Page Reader (HPR) handles Web pages better
> than Jaws, in my opinion. The drawback of HPR is that it is only for
> Web content, so people who use it would have to switch between their
> main screen reader and HPR. I don't have any exact numbers of usage
> statistics, but HPR is _definitely_ something that I would want to
> have in a lab.
>
> Paul Bohman
> Technology Coordinator
> WebAIM: Web Accessibility in Mind (www.webaim.org)
> Center for Persons with Disabilities (www.cpd.usu.edu)
> Utah State University (www.usu.edu)
>
>
>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joyce Kennedy
Adaptive Technology Specialist
144 Luther Bonney, Portland Campus
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = / (207)780-4029
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~