There are only five actions to remember. They are "read the next
item", "re-read the current item", "read the previous item",
"activate the current item", and "switch lists”. Sometimes
we will use the phrase “switch modes” instead of “switch lists”.
If preferences are set to announce actions, the five actions will be called “change
mode”, “backward”, “repeat”, “forward”, and
“activate”.
There are only five “lists” to work with.
The five lists are “read”, “link”, “navigate”,
“frame”, and “cell”, but most of the time you will only use
three of them.
The “read” list is most important.
It includes all sentences, pictures, hyper links and other objects in a page.
The
“link” list contains only the hyperlinks and image links on a page.
If there are no links on a page, this list is empty.
The “navigation”
list contains all the navigation commands that control the browser. These are
grouped for easy access. To learn how to use the "activate" action to
move between these groupings, see "The Five Actions" in the
help files.
The “frame” list lets you move between parts of
a page that are called frames. The help files use frames. But most pages do not.
If there are no frames on a page, this list is empty and will not be shown or
announced.
The “cell” list lets you move between parts of a page
that are called cells. Many pages do not use cells. If there are no cells on a
page, this list is empty and will not be shown or announced. You can hide this
list if you do not find it useful.
You can use five keys
to do everything. You can use the computer keyboard or five programmable switches.
You can work the computer keys with five fingers on either one or two hands. Here
is one way to set up a computer keyboard for your left hand.
Little
finger on the Tab key is “change mode”.
Ring finger on the Number
2 key is “backward”.
Middle finger on the Number 3 key is “re-read”.
Pointer
finger on the Number 4 key is “forward”.
Thumb on the Space bar is
“activate”.
This is how the keys are assigned when
you install the Talking Browser with switch-based features. However, you can choose
and change key assignments on the View>Preference pages. If you cannot operate
five keys or five switches, there are other options.
You can use just
two keys to do everything. You can use the computer keyboard, or two programmable
switches. When you press on the first key the computer will focus on the next
one of the five actions. You do this over and over until the computer focuses
on the action you want to choose. Then you press the second key to trigger that
action. You can trigger this same action again by pressing on the second button
again. This may take some practice, but it allows the Talking Browser to be controlled
by just two keys or switches.
You can even use just one key or switch
to do everything. With this feature, the computer will automatically scan
through the five actions, announcing an action and then pausing there, then moving
to the next action. During the pause, you can trigger that action by pressing
on the one key or switch.
Both visible and audible cues help you remember
the actions and lists. Many of these can be turned off for those who don’t
need them.