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

[David Goldfield]

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.

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David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist Feel free to visit my 
Web site WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info