While I don't particularly have an opinion about general behavior when
you run a screen-reader while another is running, here is a case where a
screen-reader should shut down another one. If you are installing a new
screen-reader, even if it has a talking installer, you would want your
current screen-reader running when you run the installer. If it isn't
running, you would be unaware of any error messages or anything you need
to respond to such as Windows can't verify the installer and being asked
if you want to run it. Then the currently running screen-reader should
be shut down by the installer.


If you want to install a version of NVDA by running the installer and a
different version of NVDA is already running, my recollection is that
the installer shuts down the currently running version before the
talking installer is active.


Gene

On 12/9/2020 6:39 PM, Brian Vogel wrote:

On Wed, Dec 9, 2020 at 07:30 PM, g melconian wrote:

add this useful feature [if another screen reader is running,
force it to exit before moving further into starting] into their
screen readers as well.

-
Though I don't disagree, per se, there are trade offs and dangers to
this approach. I personally think that folks should be trained or
train themselves to shut down one screen reader before starting
another. There are things I want the user of specific types of
software to have to do themselves, mostly because it promotes
awareness on a number of levels.

I guess it's a matter of preference, really. But I've observed over
the decades that making lots of things occur "automagically" tends to
result in complete obliviousness as to how things work or what one
might do when something inevitably goes wrong and requires end user
intervention. Knowing where the sweet spot lies between entirely
manual in all respects (yuk) or fully automatic is not a simple thing,
and opinions of where that spot is will differ.

--

Brian -Windows 10 Pro, 64-Bit, Version 20H2, Build 19042

*/If you think that you can think about a thing, inextricably attached
to something else, without thinking of the thing it is attached to,
then you have a legal mind./*

~ Thomas Reed Powell