Another one pasted from my outbox. This was borne out of a lack of response of any kind from Freedom Scientific's Blind/Low Vision software division to a note I sent (but didn't feel was worth saving) asking what it takes to get a new piece of software looked at for possible scripting by the JAWS folks at FS. For instance, there's this little-known program called Agent Newsreader (http://www.forteinc.com) that does a very nice job of both email and USEnet newsgroups in one program. Luckily, crazily, somebody at HJ way back when decided they liked this program and did some fine work with window definitions and other things to make it very accessible and easy to use. It's been my one and only email and news client for nearly ten years now, the best thirty bucks I ever spent on a program. But then Forte went and broke everything when they updated from Version 1 to Version 2 (now up to Version 3) and renamed all the windows, changed the values of all the window handles, basically made a nice program useless again without more work by HJ/FS-BLVG. I tried contacting them to let them know Version 2 of Agent was coming. I was on the beta test team for Agent Version 2. I told Forte that this was the situation, they encouraged me to keep working with both them (Forte) and FS-BLVG and hopefully FS-BLVG would wake up and smell the coffee. They never did. The scripts for Agent that come with JAWS Version 7 are the same ones I'm using for Version 1.93, the last Version 1 release. The same thing is happening now with SAM BC. I don't seem to be able to get a hold of anyone's ear at FS-BLVG who's interested in even listening to my plite, let alone doing anything about it.
Anyway, here's the last SAM letter. After that, I essentially gave up. I have better things to do than spend my time banging my head up against a brick wall several layers thick. It gets real discouraging when the author of a great piece o' software writes back and says his hands are tied corporately, and not having received word one from the JAWS people about how to request that new software be investigated for analysis by the software manufacturer of speech software so that we can all get together and make something happen. I know about the niche-market problem, we don't have to go down that road. But I can't believe there's not *something*, even something *small and quick* that couldn't be done with either the Delphi development environment, the JAWS developers, to make this system more blind-user-useable, not to mention -friendly. This is the second letter going to Freedom Scientific, asking the following question: What does it take to a get a piece of software looked at by the Freedom Scientific Blind and Low Vision Group with the idea of possibly making it more accessible through the use of JAWS and its scripting language? I'm also familiar with the old saw about making things work that the most amount of people would get the most anount of use/benefit from the effort. What I want to see in my inbox is a message telling/explaining to me the exact process involved in raising the level of awareness about a piece of software to the BLVG to get it at least evaluated. If BLVG says it's possible without re-coding and with just scripting, that's exactly what I would love to know, because then at least I can go away and do some work, write some scripts, and maybe come back with another question down the road, or maybe with a product enhancement/offering for folks who want to use this particular piece of software. I'm willing to work on it, the developer, while not able to actually commit himself to time spent on the project, has voiced willingness to answer the occasional question, and that might be enough for now. I just need BLVG to head me off in the proper direction, either with them or without them. And it may turn out that this whole thing isn't possible, but I'd like BLVG to be the ones to tell me that. If it becomes impossible/intractable, I'll pursue alternative solutions, of which there are a couple. Thanks in advance. -- Steve Matzura Resources Coordinator ACB Radio Interactive http://interactive.acbradio.org Tel: (888) 628-0872 _______________________________________________ PC-Audio List Help, Guidelines, Archives and more... http://www.pc-audio.org To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] This list is a service of MosenExplosion.com. To see what other lists we offer, visit us on the web at http://www.MosenExplosion.com
