[gui-talk] Of Stupidity and Discovery

[Jen]

Hi guys,

I wanted to give you two updates on my assistive technology independence.

First, the "stupidity part. I'm an idiot.

Yesterday, I tried to reply to an e-mail, only to discover the top of my
message was gone! I could read starting from the bottom though. So I
automatically assumed it was an Office problem and spent about an hour
repairing it.

I went back in to Outlook after the repair and saw the problem still
existed. When I pressed Alt, the only item was a "system menu." There were
three items: "restore," "minimize" and "maximize." When I pressed Enter on
"maximize," my whole message magically became legible to JAWS again!

Up until then, I had never paid any attention to minimizing and maximizing
because I assumed they were just visual things. It turns out they do matter
because if something is not maximized, the whole thing isn't on the screen.

As for "discovery":

I am an unapologetic and avid YouTube video watcher. I was exploring one of
the video pages when JAWS said "seek slider" when I was on the YouTube video
player. I turned "Forms" mode on, pressed the arrow keys ... and started
moving the video around! I now realize what my sighted friends mean when
they talk about, say, "the best part of this video is at 11:00."

Also, JAWS tells me where the "skip ad" button is. This button will be
getting worn out very soon...