Section A: Introduction
This Guide was written in an attempt to relieve some of the concern
about accessing Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs, pronounced gooeys),
in particular Microsoft (MS) Windows, by describing the fundamental
concepts behind Windows especially for visually disabled users, and
providing enough keyboard commands that the new user, already familiar
with computers, could comfortably start to work in this novel environment.
What is the problem caused by GUIs?
In the past, accessing DOS applications has been possible because all
the information on the screen is text-based: every item on the screen
has a coded value - an ASCII character value and a colour value. There
is a standard array of character positions arranged in 25 rows and 80
columns. Even when the applications became more graphical, using menu
bars, pop-up messages and pull-down menus, standard screen-readers (software
which interprets what is on the screen and passes it to a speech synthesiser
or to a braille display) were able to follow these developments. This
was because the more pictorial information was still based on ASCII
characters and was displayed in highly restricted positions on the screen.
The problem for screen-readers posed by GUIs is that now they can no
longer read exactly what is on the screen. This comes from the new way
in which the information is passed to the screen. Instead of displaying
ASCII characters with coded values, the screen is made up of hundreds
of tiny dots, called pixels, on a grid 480 by 640. These dots simply
have a colour, and depending on the grouping of these coloured dots,
different objects are displayed. This is what makes verbalisation of
the information on the screen much more difficult. Screen-readers must
now be able to pick out elements that will make what is on the screen
meaningful, so the user can respond appropriately.
To do this, program writers must build an overlay model of objects
and events in the GUI interface, which is called an "Off Screen Model",
which is used to guide how the access software looks deeper into the
program code, to make sense of that the dots really are, and to translate
it into something useful in speech or braille. In addition, Windows
can display information anywhere on the screen, in any size, and screen-readers
must be able to identify where to focus at any moment. DOS made this
easy, as tracking the position of your cursor focuses on the place you
are working. But Windows has multiple cursors and many possible screen
positions for these different cursors, which makes tracking events more
difficult.
The place where the information about these graphically presented events
and cursors can be grabbed by the access program - the step between
the traditional ASCII bits and bytes and the exterior graphic, is known
as a "hook". The encouraging news is that manufacturers of commercial
software are agreeing to demands that they leave these "hooks" available
to developers of access systems.
There seems to be a general feeling that visually disabled people will
never be able to work with Windows, but there is a lot of work in this
field which should encourage prospective users. Not only are there access
technologies making it possible to use GUIs, commercial writers are
leaving in hooks for these developers, and also training and support
are being developed to facilitate effective use of the GUI by the visually
disabled user. Although the GUI may not be everyone's favourite interface
to their computer (even among sighted users), it is a fact of life that
the GUI will probably replace most DOS applications in the next few
years, and this will have a dramatic effect on all of us at work, and
also in our homes.
This Guide is designed to dispel some of this anti-GUI feeling, and
to reassure prospective users that there is a good chance that they
will be able to work as effectively with GUIs as sighted users. The
author believes that once users understand the simple concepts behind
Windows and its applications, they will find it much easier to work
in Windows with whatever access technology they have available to them.
The training of visually disabled users in Windows requires a different
strategy to training users in a single-command line system, since users
cannot see the screen as a whole, and concepts are therefore not easily
recognised. This Guide is intended to help relieve this problem, and
is based on the training which was part of the EU project "Graphical
User Interfaces for Blind Persons, (GUIB) Project". During this training,
tactile diagrams were used, to illustrate the screen at various times,
which proved useful in making the descriptions clearer.
This document introduces visually disabled users to the concepts behind
MS-Windows, and describes enough of the basic functionality to get you
started in Windows. The description of the fundamental elements of Windows
and its applications, and what to do with them, should give you sufficient
knowledge so that you can start to work in Windows applications on your
own. However, it is certainly not the only documentation you will need
to work effectively in Windows. There are many books introducing new
(sighted) users to Windows, which contain useful introductory sections
on Windows basics, although the descriptions of interaction with objects
on the screen are often along the lines of "clicking on the minimise
button minimises the window to an application icon on the desktop",
with no further description. This is obviously not of great use to the
visually disabled new user.
However, as the importance of producing documentation for non-sighted
users spreads to those in authority, appropriate documentation is being
written, and Microsoft manuals are being made accessible, and institutions
are producing useful books, for example, Recordings for the Blind and
Dyslexic have an Introductory tape/disk on Windows 3.1, and a book "Windows
from the Keyboard" by Nicholas Baran should be available from the RNIB
library (UK) in braille by now, but National Braille Press are the distributers.
Microsoft in Reading also have a free "Microsoft Access to Windows Software
Pack", which includes details on keyboard mousing.
I am not trying to sell you Windows, but there are some very good reasons
why Windows has become so popular among sighted users. It has made DOS
more accessible for everyday use, and makes it easier for less experienced
users to work with their computer's disks, files and applications, by
providing lots of prompts. The graphical user interface allows for powerful
and flexible presentation of lots of information at the same time. Windows
allows you to run more than one application at the same time. There
is no restriction on the amount of memory Windows can use: its applications
can use as much memory as the computer can hold. To make life even easier,
Windows encourages a common look and feel for its applications. Windows
3.1 is not an operating system. It is an operating environment that
sits on top of DOS, and DOS remains the underlying control program for
the computer. Windows provides many new functions that DOS alone does
not.
This Guide specifically refers to MS-Windows 3.0 / 3.1. Microsoft's
latest version, Windows '95, does look different, but some of the basic
concepts still hold. This version was designed to be a more user friendly
Windows to replace version 3.1, and has a special, (though not essential),
keyboard with three extra keys for new functions.
Before the description of Windows concepts it is important to note
the difference between the use of the term Windows with a capital w:
the name of the operating environment, and of windows with a lower case
w: the rectangular areas on the screen in which you work. These differences
will be described in the next section, Section B.
Forward
to Section B
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