JAWS, Zoomtext and Fusion

S1

Hello everyone! Welcome to Talking Tech. This edition available from November the 21st, 2023. I'm Stephen Jolly. Great to have you with us. Listening may be through Vision Australia, Radio, Associated Stations of Australia or perhaps the Community Radio Network. There is also the podcast. To catch the podcast, all you need to do is search for the two words talking tech and downer can all come usually on a Tuesday afternoon just after it's been produced. Another option is to ask your Siri device or smart speaker to play within Australia. Radio talking tech podcast vision Australian radio talking tech podcast.

with me, someone who can explain all this tech stuff very well. Vision Australia's national advisor on access technology, David Woodbridge. David, you suggested today we spend time talking about products of Whisperer or really a subset of Spiro, which we used to know as Freedom Scientific and still do a lot of the time. The screen reader, jaws, screen magnifiers, zoom text, and the one that brings both of those together really fusion. So let's break that down a little bit. Firstly, can you explain to those who are not quite sure what a screen reader is and what a screen magnifier is?

01:24

S2

Basically, a screen reader is a computer program which reads information off the computer screen. And what I mean by that just doesn't read the text off the screen. It actually reads everything on the screen when you're particularly using the keyboard and in some circumstances, the mouse. So it reads out your buttons on the screen, your labels of your fields in a database, it reads out menu bars, so it reads out everything that a sort of person would see. And there are certain things that make a screen reader a lot different to things that just, quote, talk to you on the computer. 

So that's screen readers. And then screen magnification software is what it sounds like. It magnifies the screen. Now what some people don't realise is when it magnifies the screen, it means that you're only looking at one portion of the screen at a time. So when we talk about two times magnification, it's basically, you know, two times wide, two times height. So you're only looking at one small portion. And then the the higher up you go in the magnification setting, the smaller the amount of screen you're visually looking at, and the more you have to use the cursor or the mouse. 

But then there's lots of features that you can use to then go on in certain parts of the screen, you can change a color contrast. You can change what your mouse looks like, all sorts of amazing things. Plus have a bit of speech feedback if you want on certain application screens or in documents and so on.

S1

So we're talking about software that runs in the Windows 10 and Windows 11 environment. Let's explain a little more about the jaws first.

S2

And look I know Windows 8 is still around and so on, but I just thought just to keep it nice and clean, let's talk about the current ones, which is Windows 10 and Windows 11. So let's talk about jaws. It's been around for over 25 years, and it's one of those screen readers that has developed a lot over the years. So it does stuff that most modern day screen readers do, including the free ones. So, you know, it reads out your screens and it runs at your door boxes and your labels and that sort of stuff. But what it does very well is that it's specifically programmed or scripted to use certain applications. So things like Microsoft Office, Edge and so on. So it's turned into a very powerful screen reader. 

And what it also does is it has little extra features that that have been added on through the years. So there isn't one that people may have noticed about is the the face in view function. So whether you're on a zoom call, you can check with your screen to make your or your faces in the video frame. But one thing in particular that make jaws stand out is that when I mentioned the word programmable, well, we call it scripting. And that's because particularly in the workplace and even to some extent in education, particularly higher education. 

So tertiary level, you are going to be using programs that are not really designed to work with a screen reader, like Jaws or Narrator or Nvidia, the free one as well. So what you can do with jaws, you can actually program it to work with the different buttons and labels and windows on the screen. And one of the extra features is called tandem. And what tandem allows you to do is to log in to that machine. And the person remotely that's logged in can then program jaws on the other end and make sure it actually works with that particular program. So that makes it extremely powerful. Indeed.

S1

There's pretty good training resources for Jaws, isn't there? From Freedom Scientific?

S2

There is. In the show notes. I've got a few links to the training page. And effectively, they're pretty much Daisy books where they take you through certain tasks to do with, you know, Outlook or Microsoft Word and those sort of applications. There's also built in daisy training inside drawers itself. And then Freedom Scientific has two podcasts. They've got cast, which is their main podcast for film Scientific, where they outline and talk to people that use jaws, zoom Text or fusion. And they also have a training podcast so you can subscribe to both of those in your favorite pod catcher and catch up with different highlights of different things that they're doing every month or two.

S1

Tell us more about zoom text. The screen magnifier.

S2

Zoom text started off like jaws said back in the old DOS days. That's how long both of them have been around for, and zoom text has grown into one of the most used screen magnification program, at least in Australia. And what it allows you to do is to do an image before lots of amazing, cool things to do with your screen so you can do a lens view, you can do a half a screen view, you can do a full view, you can color match. So for example, let's say for example, you have trouble looking at the color blue. Then you can actually color match that to a different color. You can have different preset magnification levels that you can jump into. Or you can actually change the magnification levels on the fly. 

If you've got low vision and you're getting a bit visually fatigued, you can have it so that we'll actually read out application windows or documents to, you know, that's not a screen reader function. That's purely a text to speech to try and save your eyes a bit. You can also get it so that when you take your mouse over items, it will also speak at what's under the mouse. So you not only get the the low vision large print icon, mouse cursor, but you also get a bit of speech feedback as well. And of course like Jaws, you can customise it to a range of applications. But again, it's not going to be as configurable as a screen reader because screen readers sort of they do or they don't work with large print, you've got a little bit more leeway. 

But the really cool thing that I love about zoom text is that you can use it with two screens. So if you're a person in the workplace in particular that uses two screens for data input or other reasons, and then the screen magnification will actually work with both. But again, you've got to have it set up properly. And that's again why the adaptive technology service at Vision Australia's also available is to get that right set up. Otherwise of course it won't work properly.

07:53

S1

Another option for people with low vision that is some or minimal useful vision. So they like to look at things as well as to get the speech feedback. The product fusion.

S2

So what fusion is, it's basically running Jaws and Zoom text together. So what happens is that speech component I was talking about zoom text and that's fully taken over by jaws. So you're literally getting a full blown screen reader running jaws and a full blown screen magnifier running zoom text. So together you're getting the benefit of running an absolutely fantastic screen reader for windows, and of course, an absolutely fantastic screen magnifier for windows. Now, just a bit of a caution because you're running two assistive technology programs together, you really have to make sure that your machine's capable of running both. 

And the second thing to keep in mind is that zoom text is currently not compatible with Arm64 processors, so you won't be able to run zoom text on that. Jaws will still run, but zoom text, right? So if you're trying to run fusion, you're going to end up with the fact that zoom text part of it won't run at all. So again, it has to be internal. If you're using fusion. And one final thing I want to say about jaws text or fusion is that they can also run in what are called terminal or remote applications. And the most famous one of that, of course, is Citrix. And that's where all your applications are coming off a central server. So you're not running the applications locally. 

And what Jaws and zoom techs can do is they can actually access those programs running from the remote server because it most of the time, that's where the Jaws and zoom text applications are also installed. And lots of businesses use Citrix because you only have to update the main server. The local computers are literally just almost like old dumb terminals that we used to see back in the old mainframe days back in the 80s.

S1

Another point about Jaws is that for people who like to use Braille, and particularly for people who are deaf, blind, but for lots of others who like to use Braille, jaws will set up. To use Braille devices.

S2

It is. And there's a huge range of braille displays now from scientific is very famous for their focus 40 and I might say their focus 80 cell Braille display. Now, if I had the room, I'd love to use an 80 cell braille display because you can fit that much content. It's just that it's so enormous. I probably should also add at this stage that remember that you can get demonstrations of all these programs. So if you're not sure if it meets your needs or if you want to spend lots of money on something, you can run all these in demonstration mode. 

Once the demo mode in particular, say for jaws, finishes after 40 minutes, you can restart your computer and use it for another 40 minutes, and so on. All these come in demonstration modes, and what some people do sometimes is they use their quite free screen reader like narrator in video, and then while they're learning or checking out jaws, for example, particularly on the internet, then they'll just use the 40 minute demo or the evaluation mode for for zoom text and or fusion.

S1

Jaws in particular does come at a fair price, doesn't it?

S2

It does. Now there's two versions of it. There's the home version, and then there's the professional version, and then there's also a live an extra version if you want to use it with remote Citrix, there's a, you know, a sort of a new added on license bit, and you've got two costs. You've got the cost for the initial software, and then you've got a software maintenance agreement that gives you two free updates every time there's a like a major update to the screen reader. So reasonably, you're looking at, let's say, between $1,000 ish for zoom text up to a Jaws license for professionals, which is about $2,500. 

Now, when you start thinking that you're going to be adding maybe zoom text on top of the price of jaws, it starts to be reasonably expensive and certainly be a lot more expensive than buying the computer. And that's why I say to people that you really need to get access, particularly for education and for for workplaces, that what you're getting is going to do the job for you and especially 100% the workplace. But of course, that's what funding for is through job access for the workplace.

12:21

S1

So for just private personal use, jaws may not be the go. One of the other screen readers might be the one for you.

S2

Absolutely. Because, look, most of us that use computers at home and we're mainly doing web browsing, we're doing mailing, we're doing word processing, but they're not horrendous things. We're not dealing with huge databases or complicated screens for customer service systems. And that's where it gets much more complicated in the workplace or doing statistical programs, doing a PhD or a higher education or mathematics and so on. So for home use, I don't think realistically people need jaws. I think NVDA, your narrator is quite good for those sort of purposes.

S1

The best way to get hold of these products in Australia can help.

S2

That's right. So you can contact the ATI helpdesk at Vision Australia to get support in the use and installation. And if you like training with the screen readers and screen magnifiers and so on. You can also contact the Vision Store to purchase licenses for both Jaws or Zoom Text or buy for them. Fusion. Because what you tend to do with this stuff, you download the software first, which will then be in the demo mode, and you then buy a license. And the license when you run these programs, comes up and says, do you want to run it as a demo or do you want to activate it? And that's the license that you would purchase from Vision Australia.

S1

And just before we go, a reminder of where people can find details of everything you've been talking about in this and previous editions of the program.

S2

Indeed. So as always, you can check out my blog site, which is David Wood Beer dot Podbean pad bin com.

S1

David would be our podbean podbean to right to the program.

S2

You can write to me at Business Radio where I work, which is David Dot Woodbridge how it sounds at Vision Australia-dot-org.

14:13

S1

David-dot-Woodbridge at Vision Australia-dot-org. This has been Talking Tech - with me has been Vision Australia's national advisor on access technology David Woodbridge I'm Stephen Jolley. Stay safe. We'll talk more tech next week. See you.