Work Space

Podcast 25.  This podcast introduces you to the new work space application for the Icon and Braille
+.

 

OTL025_Work_Space.mp3

Window-Eyes Training

 Window-Eyes,When:  Tuesday, September 30, 2008 to Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Where:  Portland, OR
What:  Training
Who:  Jeremy Curry, Kimberly Cline

Do you need to know how to use Microsoft Office products with Window-Eyes? Do you want to expand your employment opportunities by learning how Window-Eyes makes applications accessible? Are you a teacher or IT professional that needs to know how to use or support Window-Eyes? Then, Window-Eyes training is for you.
GW Micro is pleased to announce Window-Eyes training in Portland, Oregon! Come and enjoy the Pacific Northwest in all its glory, and learn all about the great features that Window-Eyes has to offer. Learn how to use Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more!
Unlike other advanced technology courses that cost up to $800 per day, the cost for Window-Eyes training is only $250 per day per person. You�ll get hands-on training and experience with trainers direct from the manufacturer. You�ll also get the entire Window-Eyes curriculum for both days on two CDs. You�ll learn how to use many of the functions in Window-Eyes, and how they can apply to your everyday life, along with training materials that you can review after the training.

The training will be held on Tuesday, September 1 and Wednesday, October 1 at the Oregon Commission for the Blind at the following address:

Oregon Commission for the Blind
535 SE 12th AVenue
Portland, OR 97214

Remember that GW Micro accepts most major credit cards, checks, and state agency authorizations. Space is limited, so register today at www.gwmicro.com/training by entering the code OR092008.

If you have any questions, please contact Jeremy Curry at  (260) 489-3671 , or email Jeremy at jeremy@gwmicro.com.

 Training

 

http://www.gwmicro.com/News_&_Events/Upcoming_Events/?eventID=175

PowerPoint 2003 Training with JAWS and MAGic

Learn how to create and give PowerPoint® 2003 presentations using JAWS® screen reading software and MAGic® screen magnification software. This lesson teaches you how to use the keyboard to create and give presentations, and includes a link to practice files.

Some of the things you will learn include:

• Use JAWS or MAGic and the keyboard to create and present slide shows
• Set a background color for all slides in the presentation
• Use a photograph as a background for an entire slide
• Label pictures and objects with alternate text
• Use design templates in PowerPoint to choose a variety of different slides
• Navigate at the object as well as the text entry level of slides
• Insert a button to play a sound on a slide
• Use slide animation effects to fly in bullet points one at a time
• Rearrange animation effects for a more effective presentation
• Insert and be able to read speaker’s notes during your presentation
• And much more!

Go to the PowerPoint 2003 with JAWS and MAGic training page now and get started, or use the link on that page to download the lesson along with practice files and work offline at your leisure.

http://www.freedomscientific.com/RSS/Training/rss.xml

DriverAgent

Are you tired of always trying to hunt down those drivers for that desktop or laptop?

I try my best to make sure that my laptop is running the latest drivers and is well maintained and have always found it to be a trick to stay current on all of  the newly released drivers.

Well, there is this fully accessible program called DriverAgent that will scan your entire computer and inform you of good and bad drivers, good meaning those that are current and bad meaning those that are out of date. It presents it in a very nice and straight forward HTML page.

I was surprised to find out that 33% of my drivers were considered to be out of date.

Now, you may be wondering about pricing, it is free to scan your computer but is $30 to purchase up to 10 licenses. I think that it is well worth it as you will be surprised of many out of date drivers you may have.

 

Check it out for yourself:

http://www.DriverAgent.com/

An Accessible Way to Manage Permission of the Programs on Your Computer to Use Skype

to access Skype. Follow these steps to control the use of Skype by the software installed on your system:

1. Run Skype or open it from the System Tray in the usual manner. In JAWS, press JAWS Key+F11, down arrow to Skype, press enter, down arrow to Open Skype and press enter to open the program’s main window.
2. Press alt+t to pull down the Tools menu followed by p to access the Options dialogue.
3. Down arrow to Advanced Settings.
4. Press shift+tab three times to select “Manage other programs’ access to Skype” and press the space bar to open this window.
5. Press tab to enter the list of programs about which Skype is currently aware. Arrow up and down this list. Notice that the program’s name is given along with information indicating whether or not it is allowed to use Skype.
6. Locate a program whose settings you wish to change.
7. Press tab to select the Change button and press the space bar to open the window.
8. Press tab to move into the group of two radio buttons used to determine whether or not the selected program is permitted to use Skype. If desired, press down arrow to change to the opposite setting.
9. Press tab followed by the space bar on the OK button to accept any changes made to the program’s status.
10. Press tab three times followed by the space bar on the OK button to accept all changes made for the entire list of programs.
11. Finally, press shift+tab twice to select the Save button followed by the space bar to save all changes made in Skype’s Options dialogue box.

OTL024 Docking Station

Podcast 24.  This is an introduction to the wOTL024__Docking_Station.mp3

SpokenText.net

“SpokenText.net allows you to record PDF, Word, plain text, PowerPoint files, RSS news feeds, emails and web pages, and converts them to speech automatically.

You can download your recording as an iPod book or mp3 file. And every member gets a personal podcast URL , which you can use to download recordings to iTunes or your iPod. You can also easily share your recordings on your web site or blog using SpokenText Badges or individual recording players. And best of all it’s COMPLETELY FREE!”

 

www.spokentext.net

Reviews for Avast Home Anti Virus version 4.8

Reviews For Avast Home Anti Virus version 4.8

Date: May 29, 2008, 12:10:44pm

user: jobhunter
computer: Pentium 4 3Ghz HT
operating system: XP Pro SP2
screen reader: Jaws 6.2
rating: 4
comments: After hearing about all the problems that Jaws users have encountered when upgrading to AVG version 8.0, I decided to try and avoid those problems and installed Avast Home version 4.8 on my XP computer running Jaws 6.2. This version of Avast is free for non-commercial use. My experience so far with the program has been very positive.Installation was straight forward and learning to use the program has been very easy.
A tip gleaned from one of the blind tech mailing lists instructed users to open the program settings from the Avast icon on the system tray. From there, tab into the common settings and be sure that the “use skins” item is not checked. I would also recommend to tab into the “update basic” section and set the program update option to automatic. Other than that, I left all other options at the default settings.

The things I like about Avast:
1. The whole computer scan ran in 20 minutes instead of 1 hour for AVG.
2. Besides viruses, it is always scanning for rootkits and spyware which AVG only did with the full paid product.
3. It monitors all web pages for malicious activity, which AVG did not do.
4. It monitors all network traffic for network attacks and works in conjunction with your firewall software.
5. If you use IM clients or Peer-to-peer networks, it will protect you on both of these fronts. If you don’t use this, you can disable those services to save resources.
6. I noticed that after installing Avast, my computer boot up time is about 1 minute faster.
7. I have noticed that overall computer performance is better, which is a nice unexpected benefit.

And a few negatives:
1. Avast does not allow you to schedule a daily or weekly computer scan with the free Home version. This really isn’t a problem for me, since I had disabled this in AVG and ran the scan when I wanted it run. You will need to manually run the scan with Avast, which is very simple to do from the desktop icon.
2. You are required to register the Avast Home product or it will stop working 60 days after installation. This is a very simple process but does require sighted assistance if done through their web site. You can alternatively send an email to the support team stating that you are a blind user who needs to register and they will send you your registration code, which you will need to paste into the registration screen. The registration is good for 14 months, at which time you will need to re-register. Not a big sacrifice for free access to such a great program.
3. I did notice that downloading a large number of email messages in a single batch was about 20% slower than with AVG. If you only use web mail and not an email client such as Outlook or Thunderbird, then this will not affect you.

I have now installed Avast Home on all three of our home computers. I ran full scans of the computers after the installation and Avast found malware on one of the laptops that had gone undetected by AVG, Adaware and Spybot. That experience gave me the opportunity to see how easy it was to remove this problem from the computer.

I had been a happy user of AVG for the past seven years and it served me well. Their decision to design a new program interface that does not play well with screen readers is disappointing but not surprising. This has given me the opportunity to discover Avast Home, which I believe is a superior product to the AVG Free offering. I just hope that Avast continues to maintain a product interface that is screen reader friendly.

accesswatch review system custom -designed  by Tyson Treasure