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ALVA Delphi MultiMedia and Jaws for Windows
The ALVA Delphi MultiMedia 480 braille displays are compatible with most MS
DOS, Windows, Unix and OS/2 applications. You will experience ALVA braille
excellence in a Windows environment when you use the Delphi MultiMedia 480
braille dispay together with JAWS 3.2 for Windows screen reader software. This
is a very flexible screen reader. Most of its functionality is implemented by
scripts that can be user defined. Together with an ALVA Delphi MultiMedia
braille display comes a set of JAWS scripts that provide extended functionality
and extra information. This script set controls the First and Double Touch
Cursor keys and the braille display front keys of the Delphi MultiMedia 480
What will status cells tell you?
Five status cells on the ALVA Delphi MultiMedia 480 braille display provide
you with extra information about what is happening on the computer screen. JAWS
3.2 will address all five status cells on the Delphi MultiMedia 480. The first
three cells show the horizontal position of the active cursor (in pixels). The
forth cell indicates the active JAWS navigation mode (J=JAWS cursor, P=PC cursor
or I=Invisible cursor), and the fifth cell indicates the display mode (L=Line,
S=Structured or X=Speechbox mode). This information is shown in dots 1 to 6 of
each status cell. Dot 7 and 8 of all cells are used to form a scroll bar
representing the actual text line on the screen. The active dots indicate what
part of the text line is displayed in the reading cells.
First and Double Touch Cursor keys
ALVA's unique Double Touch Cursor concept is supported by Jaws 3.2 for
Windows. The keys of the first row of the Touch Cursor are used to simulate left
mouse clicks. In a text editor, by pressing a key of the First Touch Cursor row
the caret (text cursor) will be positioned at that point. In an Internet
browser, pressing a First Touch Cursor key above a link, that is displayed in
the braille cells, will have the browser follow that link. When a First Touch
Cursor key is used together with the Prog braille front key, JAWS will report by
speech the font attributes of the text at that point. Together with the Cursor
front key the First Touch Cursor keys can be used to select a block of text.
The First Touch Cursor keys above the status cells toggle spatial
representation and attribute marking on or off, switch between text and
attribute mode, between 6- and 8-dot braille and turn off attribute marking. The
First Touch Cursor keys above the status cells activated together with the
Cursor braille front key are used to cut, copy, paste text, and to undo the last
Windows operation. Together with the Home braille front key the First Touch
Cursor keys above the status cells take care of the JAWS cursor routing: JAWS
cursor to PC, PC to JAWS, braille to PC and braille to JAWS. Together with the
Prog braille front key the First Touch Cursor keys above the status cells allow
you to activate the JAWS Preferences Menu, the Configuration Manager, Graphics
Labeler, close JAWS and open the JAWS Manager List Box.
A Double Touch Cursor key activated together with the Cursor braille front
key on the ALVA Delphi MultiMedia simulates a right mouse click. In Windows this
will invoke a context menu, for example to cut, copy and paste text and to
format text and paragraphs (in Word). Using the Double Touch Cursor keys above
the status cells you can stop speech immediately, read a complete window of text
or document starting from the active cursor position, read selected text in an
active window (for example what item is selected in menu list) and toggle a
speech synthesizer on or off.
ALVA Structured Mode
The ALVA Structured Mode is a JAWS function especially designed by ALVA to
support Delphi MultiMedia braille displays. The ALVA Structured Mode function
can be used in JAWS Line Mode and allows you to move around in a window using
the JAWS cursor, the braille cursor or the invisible cursor, and ask for
feedback through a speech synthesizer activated by a Double Touch Cursor (DTC)
key. This will give you context sensitive information. Suppose in Word you
activate the search and replace function, the braille display shows the text
Search for: and you activate a DTC key above that line of text, you wil get the
speech message: 'This is prompt text to edit field Search for: on tab page Find
in dialog Search and Replace in application Mircosoft Word - Document 1.'
Depending on the JAWS verbosity setting the message may be shortened. This
information would otherwise be obtained in JAWS Structured Mode, however in ALVA
Structured Mode there is no need to have the braille display focus positioned at
a particular text item. Just pressing a Double Touch Cursor key in a dialog
window will give you this extra information. In the same way you can get
information about items that cannot have the focus, like tool bar buttons or
items in the status bar.
Extended key assignment for easy navigation and extra feedback
To use the Delphi MultiMedia together with JAWS 3.2 ALVA produced a new
braille key assignement. JAWS and Windows functions can be called for using just
one braille front key or two front keys that can be touched by one finger. Apart
from this, the arrangement of braille front keys and their functions are
reorganized in a more logical way, so they can easily be learned and remembered.
Windows functions - like open start menu, navigate through a dialog window, left
and right mouse clicks - can be accessed by activating one or more front keys
using only one finger.
In general. the keys at the front of the ALVA Delphi MultiMedia 480 braille
display are used to navigate and to call for various JAWS and Windows functions.
Use the Up, Left, Right and Down front keys for basic navigation of the braille
display. The Prog key lets you toggle between the three JAWS navigation modes
(Line, Structured and Speechbox). Home-Left and Home-Right combinations bring
you to the top or the bottom of a file. Cursor-Left and Cursor-Right allow for
navigation forward and backward through document windows. Braille front keys are
used to ask for spoken information about the window title, status bar, text
attributes etc, or to have a complete document read out loud. Other useful front
key combinations read the current word, line or read all controls in a dialog
box in tab order. Help and instructions about JAWS hot keys and other options
can be asked for using the Prog-Left-Right and Prog-Right-Down front key
combinations.
Focus commands like Open Start Menu, Minimize All Windows, Move to or
Activate Control, and Braille Tracking commands can also be invoked by using
braille front key combinations. The combination of braille front keys and
(Double) Touch Cursor keys brings you even further, as explained before. Since
the ALVA Delphi MultiMedia is the only braille display utilising Double Touch
Cursor keys, it is the most suitable candidate for an optimal interaction with
JAWS 3.2.
Call 800-317-9611 for more information.
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