[gui-talk] Farewell to Window-Eyes: Fond Memories Of a Unique Screen Reader

[Brian Blair]

Great article!

Also, wasn't Window Eyes the first screen reader to provide remote 
access via Remote Desktop Connection?  I was pretty sure they were ahead 
of JAWS here.


Brian


On 5/30/2017 4:14 PM, David Goldfield via gui-talk wrote:
> The following is a blog post I just uploaded concerning my memories of
> Window-Eyes, as well as my feelings about its disappearance.
>
>
> On May 19, we celebrated Global Accessibility Awareness Day. It is
> ironic that, four days earlier on May 15, GW Micro (VFO) announced the
> news that the Window-Eyes screen reader would cease development. All
> users who were using the commercial version of Window-Eyes would be
> entitled to upgrade to JAWS, with users of version 9.0 or later being
> given the chance to receive a JAWS 18 license at no additional cost.
> Users of the free Window-Eyes for Users of Microsoft Office version,
> such as myself, are an exception and would not be entitled to upgrade to
> JAWS at a discount price.
> This news was both sad and, for many, hardly unexpected. After AI
> Squared became a part of VFO Group, Jonathan Mosen interviewed David Wu
> on Freedom Scientific’s FSCast podcast. Mr. Wu was formerly CEO of AI
> Squared and is now VP of Software Business at VFO. While Mr. Wu tried to
> keep the tone very positive and upbeat, reading between the lines made
> it clear to me that JAWS and Zoomtext were VFO’s primary products and
> Mr. Wu seemed a bit less reassuring when discussing MAGic or
> Window-Eyes, although these are clearly my own impressions of the FSCast
> interview from June of 2016. Maybe he didn’t mean to present that
> impression but that’s what I came away with when I heard the interview.
> Perhaps it’s true that JAWS is the world’s most popular screen reader.
> I’ve been a user of JAWS since version 1.0 shipped on several floppy
> disks, along with Eric Damery and Ted Henter providing tutorials on
> cassette tapes, and I’ve seen the program evolve into a powerful and
> capable screen reader. JAWS 18 is most definitely one of the most
> feature-rich screen readers you could install onto your Windows computer
> and its popularity is certainly well-deserved. However, one of the
> things which I value is consumer choice. While I regularly use Microsoft
> Office to perform the majority of my word processing tasks I am grateful
> that we have worthy alternatives, such as the free LibreOffice, to allow
> users to perform similar tasks using quality software. While I respect
> the feature set of Microsoft Outlook I prefer to use Mozilla Thunderbird
> for sending, reading and sorting email while I’m at home.
> The same is true for screen readers. I’ve already expressed my
> admiration for JAWS and feel that it’s an amazing access package.
> However, for financial reasons I use NVDA as my screen reader of choice
> and occasionally have used the free version of Window-Eyes for users of
> Microsoft Office. Consumer choice is an important thing when it comes to
> access. One screen reader may meet the needs of an individual more than
> another, for a variety of reasons. Sadly, VFO buying AI Squared has
> taken one of these choices away from us, which I feel is a tremendous loss.
> I’ve been a trainer and, to some extent, a user of Window-Eyes since the
> late 1990s. It offered some very unique features and capabilities which,
> in some ways, weren’t always available in other screen readers and I’d
> like to take some time to celebrate the unique features Window-Eyes
> brought to the table.
> First, let’s consider the way we browse the Web using our preferred
> browser of choice. Nowadays, screen readers are able to reformat complex
> Web pages and render them in the same way that a word processor opens a
> document, allowing the user to navigate the Web page using standard
> arrow key navigation. This is now a given and something we’ve come to
> expect when using a screen reader on the Web. This capability exists
> with JAWS, NVDA and in VoiceOver on the Mac. However, it was Window-Eyes
> which first offered this feature, a year or so before JAWS implemented
> it, if memory serves. True, in those early days it took a long time for
> some Web pages to load and so the feature wasn’t always a joy to use.
> Admittedly, when JAWS implemented the feature they did it much better in
> those days, with Web pages loading very quickly. Over the years,
> Window-Eyes improved by also loading pages much faster but the point is
> that Window-Eyes pioneered that feature which we all take for granted now.
> Window-Eyes was also the first screen reader to support Mozilla Firefox,
> something which we now enjoy with JAWS as well as NVDA.
> Window-Eyes is probably the only screen reader with the capability of
> launching with speech, when possible, in safe mode. This is a feature I
> have yet to encounter in other screen readers.
> If your system’s volume was muted or at a low level, Window-Eyes could
> be configured to load, forcing the volume to be unmuted and raising the
> volume level. This solves the problem where someone accidentally or
> intentionally muted your speakers, causing a minor nightmare when you
> tried to load your screen reader and receive no speech output. These are
> capabilities I’d love to see in other screen readers, such as NVDA and
> JAWS.
> One of my favorite Window-Eyes features is actually something which was
> probably in the earliest versions and was also found in the Vocal-Eyes
> screen reader for DOS. The feature to which I’m referring was known as
> cursor keys. It differed from the other hotkeys in that, with hotkeys,
> the function you assign to a key bypassed that key’s original function.
> In other words, if you assign the hotkey ctrl+L to read the current line
> under the caret or cursor the line would be spoken when the key was
> pressed. However, if you pressed that hotkey while in Word to left
> justify your text the key wouldn’t function, instead reading the current
> line (unless you used the Bypass key first.) However, the cursor keys
> feature was unique in that the original function of the key you chose to
> define would not be lost. Therefore, if you wanted the Home key to speak
> the current character you could assign that function to the Home key,
> without interfering with the key’s original function. When the key was
> pressed, the key would move the cursor to the beginning of the line as
> designed, followed by the function or functions you assigned to that
> key. This allowed for some amazing flexibility which is not even
> available with JAWS, unless you’re willing to learn scripting.
> Speaking of scripting, I’ll end my Window-Eyes memories with a
> discussion of that program’s most amazing feature, utilized in a way not
> found in other screen readers.
> Starting with version 7.0, Window-Eyes added the ability for its users
> to write customized scripts in order to add additional functionality to
> the screen reader. Many people may be quick to remind me that JAWS has
> had this feature since the very beginning, first with giving users the
> ability to write macros and, starting with JFW version 3.0, calling them
> scripts. While this is true, there are some differences in the way this
> capability was being offered.
> First, GW Micro allowed its users, as well as their staff, to upload
> scripts to a central repository on their Web site known as Script
> Central. Later, they made the brilliant decision to do a bit of
> rebranding and scripts, which sound scary and challenging, became apps,
> which sound like a lot of fun. Let’s face it; nobody knows anything
> about what a script is but anybody with a smartphone or tablet is an
> expert on apps. With this change, Script Central became App Central and
> Window-Eyes had its very own, user-friendly app store. Apps were quite
> plentiful, grouped into categories and users could add their own
> comments on the various apps which they liked. Window-Eyes even came
> with an app which allowed for easy navigation to this specialized app
> store. Apps could then easily be downloaded and installed, using similar
> screens which you would encounter when installing any piece of software.
> You could navigate through the Window-Eyes Apps menu to examine the list
> of apps you had installed and could easily remove apps you no longer
> wanted. Apps could even alert you when they had updates and those
> updates could easily be installed. The concept was positively ingenious.
> I never understood why JAWS, with its powerful scripting language, never
> offered a similar repository. In the screen reader’s early days
> Henter-Joyce did offer some scripts on its Web site but this is no
> longer the case. If you want to locate scripts for your copy of JAWS you
> must locate them on third-party Web sites.
> To be quite honest, Window-Eyes was far from perfect. In spite of its
> innovative features there were times when I felt I was using a not quite
> ready for prime-time beta, rather than a final release. Of course, no
> software is without its bugs but, to me, it always felt as though
> Window-Eyes had more than its share of them and I sometimes found it to
> be frustrating to use.
> In spite of this I still feel that the assistive technology landscape
> has been greatly diminished at having one less screen reader for users
> to work with. It is a regrettable consequence of AI Squared becoming a
> part of VFO Group and I am sorry for all users of Window-Eyes who are
> now forced to switch to a new screen reader.
> In closing, I would first like to ask VFO to respectfully consider
> donating the Window-Eyes source code to the community for further
> development. If you feel that you no longer wish to develop the screen
> reader please consider releasing it to the community as there are many
> Window-Eyes users who don’t want to see the demise of their favorite
> screen reader.
> Finally, I would like to thank the developers of GW Micro, both for
> their work with Vocal-Eyes for DOS as well as with Window-Eyes. You have
> made an important and memorable contribution to users of blindness
> assistive technology. I sincerely thank you for providing us with a
> unique, easy to use and customizable screen reader.
>