I am presently trying to use the Focus Highlighter Add-on in a sort of haphazard way.
Can anyone help me to use it in a more constructive way to get the most out of the add-on.
Regards,

William

--

I've been using the focus highlight now for several years with no issues. I am blind and my purpose is to show sighted people where I am when pointing out something on a web page or in an app, and to also show my focus when I'm doing object nav to click on something. Remember it's a completely visual feature.
It's worth noting that just last week, JAWS finally added visual tracking as a feature to their latest update.  

Let me tell you, as a sighted person who tutors JAWS [mostly], that the Focus Highlight add-on is unbelievably helpful and one of the most appealing features available under NVDA for me.

It is very difficult for most folks, and particularly those of us with sight, to wrap our heads around the virtual cursor and the fact that, as a general rule [and for good reason from a practical standpoint], most screen reader software makes absolutely no effort to make the screen track with where the virtual cursor is located and match that up.  Even when you understand the virtual cursor and that what's in the window you're working on is buffered, if it's sufficiently complex it becomes well-nigh impossible for a sighted person to have any idea of "where you really are" once you've been working with things that are not visible on the screen.

Focus highlight makes it much easier for me as a tutor, and for any sighted assistant you might call upon, to know exactly what it is that currently has focus.  And for those who interact with it enough the various line colors and/or "squiggles" contained within those colored lines tell us exactly what screen reader state is currently active for that item with focus.

This add-on was, and remains, a functional stroke of brilliance for collaboration between screen reader users and the clueless or even clued in sighted folks who would like to help, but are hopelessly lost if they can't literally see what you're operating on.
--
Brian         Version 1703, Build 15063.296, Home 64-bit

     The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement.  But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

            ~ Niels Bohr

 

 

On Fri, May 26, 2017 at 09:56 am, Deborah Armstrong wrote:

It's worth noting that just last week, JAWS finally added visual tracking as a feature to their latest update.

Deborah,

           Is that under JAWS 18 or a test build?    If it's under JAWS 18 would you mind sharing what setting this is and where it's located in the JAWS settings hierarchy?  I'll be turning it on for every JAWS user I tutor, at least for the duration of tutoring and, if it has no negative impact on JAWS performance, leaving it on so that if they ask someone for sighted assistance it will be so much easier for that assistance to be given.

--
Brian         Version 1703, Build 15063.296, Home 64-bit

     The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement.  But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

            ~ Niels Bohr

 

 

Regarding the similar feature in JAWS; it was just released last week with the JAWS 18.0.2945 update which users were notified if they have updates turned on.

You can find it in the settings center but they say it's on by default.

The hitch is that it does not work everywhere; not with Windows 7 and only with certain programs, like browsers and tools that use the virtual cursor. The latest FS cast discusses it,but documentation hasn't caught up yet, so you won't find any references to it in help.

Call up Settings center and locate Visual tracking in the tree view. It can highlight the virtual cursor and the virtual ribbon. You can select the thickness, color and transparency of the highlight. For me only highlighting of virtual ribbons was actually on.

--Debee

 ,

         Thanks much.   It sounds like this is definitely a work in progress, and a very early one.   Still, it's definitely a step in the right direction.
--
Brian  - Windows 10 Home, 64-Bit, Version 1703, Build 15063.332

     The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement.  But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

            ~ Niels Bohr

 

 

VoiceOver does it per default, the focussed object is highlighted with a rectangle, its very usefull for visual impaired and to show something to a sighted person.

Let me tell you, as a sighted person who tutors JAWS [mostly], that the Focus Highlight add-on is unbelievably helpful and one of the most appealing features available under NVDA for me.

It is very difficult for most folks, and particularly those of us with sight, to wrap our heads around the virtual cursor and the fact that, as a general rule [and for good reason from a practical standpoint], most screen reader software makes absolutely no effort to make the screen track with where the virtual cursor is located and match that up.  Even when you understand the virtual cursor and that what's in the window you're working on is buffered, if it's sufficiently complex it becomes well-nigh impossible for a sighted person to have any idea of "where you really are" once you've been working with things that are not visible on the screen.

Focus highlight makes it much easier for me as a tutor, and for any sighted assistant you might call upon, to know exactly what it is that currently has focus.  And for those who interact with it enough the various line colors and/or "squiggles" contained within those colored lines tell us exactly what screen reader state is currently active for that item with focus.

This add-on was, and remains, a functional stroke of brilliance for collaboration between screen reader users and the clueless or even clued in sighted folks who would like to help, but are hopelessly lost if they can't literally see what you're operating on.
--
Brian         Version 1703, Build 15063.296, Home 64-bit

     The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement.  But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

            ~ Niels Bohr

 

 

-- 
Domingos de Oliveira
Accessibility Consultant
Karthäuserstraße 13
53129 Bonn
Tel: 0176 322 45 129
Web: www.netz-barrierefrei.de