Re: Keyboard use (was Re: A few questions about using Denemo on Windows)

[Petr Pařízek]

Richard wrote:

> However, you would then face the problem that to save the score or to
> print it there is no obvious text-based method.

Well, I don't have an idea how a blind user works with Linux but to give
you an example of how it's done in Windows applications, there are
several generally accepted conventions about moving around the menu bar
and activating an item from there (no matter if its a word processor, a
sound editor or anything else). For example, I can either press the Alt
key alone to bring up the menu bar or I can press Alt plus a letter to
pull up a particular menu. Then, I can either press the left/right
cursor key to move around the menus or I can press the up/down cursor
key to move around the items inside a menu. And the Enter key works
either for activating the focused menu or for activating the focused
item in the currently open menu. These are things that work not just for
the purpose of blind users but also for the purpose of fast typers who
think that clicking the mouse slows their work down. So these keystrokes
work even if no screen reader is installed on the particular computer.
If a specific program does not offer such a kind of keyboard navigation,
that's usually because the authors wish to make the controls more
visually appealing on the screen (than those built into the operating
system). In contrast, if it does, then I can navigate to the File menu
and choose either "Save" or "Export" or later even "Exit". And if I'm
asked something like: "Save changes?", I might use the Tab key or
Shift+Tab to change the focus from "Yes" to "No" or vice versa. Also, a
lot of programs offer keyboard commands like Ctrl+O for opening a file
or Ctrl+S for saving the current file
So yes, there *are* ways a blind user can operate applications other
than those run from the command prompt. As I said before, it can be done
either if the basic keystrokes work the way most users expect or if the
documentation provides a detailed list of available keyboard commands
(so that the user can read through them before launching the program).

Petr



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