1. nvda@nvda.groups.io

Re: Free JAWS licence that was anounced today

Devin Prater
 

At the AT department I work for, we teach NVDA. We don’t put $1000 licenses, or even $100 ones, on our clients. Really, I think all that NVDA needs now is good hints, like JAWS has “tutor messages.” I know, there is an add-on, where one has to remember to press a keyboard command to open a help message, but if we have help messages built in, and extendable by other addons to other apps, configurable right from the welcome dialog, and turned off for people updating NVDA, NVDA will be even easier to learn. My students have me to teach them, but not all blind people are so fortunate.

Let’s say that NVDA does become the industry standard. What then? There are professionals who just dump equipment on blind people’s doorstep and leave it for blind people to learn. There are blind people who are told to just go buy a PC and have sighted help to slap NVDA on it, with the blind person knowing little to nothing about Windows. Sure, blind people may always need training, but they understand the iPhone quickly, and JAWS too. Can’t we emulate them at least as far as giving good beginner hints on using controls, or even basic tips for using Windows, using Tab, Arrows, Windows key, and maybe a link to Windows keyboard commands? Narrator does some of this, and I could see it, after its web navigation is tightened up, gaining lots of usage for it.

On Mar 23, 2020, at 3:32 PM, Brian Vogel <britechguy@...> wrote:

On Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 04:24 PM, Jesse Farquharson wrote:
an opensource program, means that you can have someone who is qualified come in to externally audit the software and say, "yes, this program is absolutely safe," if you are inclined to do so.
Yep, and not just for NVDA.  It seems that slowly, but surely, many IT professionals are getting "the powers that be" to recognize this.  There is far less resistance to open source software in the business market than there once was.  But since that resistance started out as absolute, it's still nowhere close to the degree of acceptance that should prevail.

That being said, there are many ways that current security suites use to analyze closed source code to see if it's been compromised.  There is good reason, very good reason, to believe that commercial software makers are not going to rob their customers (of passwords or cash, anyway - data is another matter altogether).  
 
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Brian - Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 1909, Build 18363  

Power is being told you're not loved and not being destroyed by it.

       ~ Madonna

 
 
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