It may be helpful to explain in some detail how to distinguish
between a screen-reader command and program or Windows commands.
In general, a command is a screen-reader command when it has to do
with doing something you have to read the screen for and that
doesn't affect a program or Windows, meaning it takes no action in
a program or Windows. Commands like read current line, read title
bar, and all the quick navigation commands such as move by
heading, are screen-reader commands. Say time is another
screen-reader command.
While a lot of other commands result in speech, that is because
the screen-reader is announcing the effects of commands that do
something in a program or Windows. Examples are move right by
character, right arrow, move left by character, left arrow, and
move right and left by word, control right arrow and control left
arrow. Those commands all move the application cursor. Move up
one line, up arrow, and move down one line, down arrow, are
program commands. You are moving the program cursor down or up a
line.
A screen review command that reviews the screen but doesn't do
anything in a program is a screen-reader command. tabbing in a
dialog. is a program or Windows command. The screen-reader
speaks the field in the dialog you have moved to but again, you
are taking an action that affects a program or Windows and the
screen-reader is telling you the result of the action, which field
you have moved to in the program or windows. Even if you weren't
using a screen-reader, the arrow keys and tabbing would do exactly
the same thing. You wouldn't hear speech, but the results would
be identical. A sighted person could move the program cursor in a
word processor, for example, or tab through a dialog, or open
menus, using exactly the same commands as a blind person would
use. They are all program or Windows commands.
If more people knew how to generally distinguish between
screen-reader commands and others, they would understand that most
commands they use most of the time are program or Windows
commands. They would then understand that they can have a main
screen-reader and one or more they use when the main one doesn't
do things well. And they wouldn't have to learn much to use the
second screen-reader for the limited purposes they would use it
for.
They might also be more willing to stop using obsolete programs
like Internet Explorer. The commands used in browse mode would be
the same, regardless of browser, if the browser supports browse
mode.
There are things to learn but you already know most of what you
would use.
