Here we provide task-oriented overviews of several applications that System Access supports. To find out more about how you can use these applications with System Access, we encourage you to listen to the audio tutorials and demos. You can find listings of application-specific System Access hot keys in the Keyboard Command Quick Reference.
Internet Explorer
You can open Internet Explorer from the Start Menu. Internet Explorer should be the first item. Tap the enter key on the choice to open the application. From time to time you may hear a chime sound, along with a voice whispering C-SAW. This indicates that the current web site has been made accessible via C-SAW. We will begin our example by performing a simple search. Press F6 to move to the address bar, or you can also press Control+O to open a new web site from a standard open dialog box. In either case, type google.com. When Google's search page loads, and after the C-SAW sound is played, you will hear "search edit". System Access places you within the search edit box, so you can begin typing what you want to look for. Just type, "World History" and tap the enter key. System Access instantly begins to read the number of results, as well as how many results are displayed on the page. You can press Tab and Shift+Tab to move through the links, move up and down line by line with the arrow keys, or move by paragraph with Control+Up Arrow and Control+Down Arrow.
Try opening cnn.com. As with Google, System Access takes you directly to the content. When you open articles on the CNN site, System Access will continue to bring you straight to the content.
Some pages try to open what are called pop-ups. These are pages that spring up to block the page that you are reading. Windows will play a sound to let you know that a pop-up has been blocked. To access the pop-up just press Alt+N, followed by the space bar. You will then have the option of temporarily allowing pop-ups, or always allowing pop-ups on a given site.
Many people say that they love the variety that Amazon.com has, but, it's like pulling teeth to sift through all of the ads, tables, and so on, to find what they are looking for. As you will see when you open Amazon.com, System Access does a fantastic job of converting nasty sounding links to links that you recognize as actually doing something useful, thanks again to C-SAW.
Try searching at Amazon's home page. To move to the search area of the page, tap the letter F to move to the next form field. System Access places you on a drop down list of search categories. Open the list of categories by pressing Alt+Down Arrow, then choose your desired category and press Enter. Once you've chosen a category, tab to the search edit box. Type what you are looking for, then tap the enter key. Again System Access takes you right to the results.
System Access has several commands for navigating data presented in tables. For example, you can press Control+Alt+Left Arrow and Control+Right+Arrow to move by column. Likewise, you can use Control+Alt+Up Arrow and Control+Alt+Down Arrow to move by row. Press Modifier+R to read the contents of the current row and Modifier+C to read the heading of the current column. These commands are especially useful when filling out a complex form such as an invoice.
If you're browsing a web page with many links, you can put these links in a convenient list by pressing Modifier+F7. Then you can choose a link using the arrow keys or the link's first letter, and press Enter to activate it.
Outlook Express
If you are setting up email for the first time, System Access will automatically read all of the relevant information and prompts. Simply press Tab to move through the fields, and press Space to activate the "Next" button after completing each step. After the initial account setup, Outlook Express will place you on a web page from which you can access various parts of the program. You may prefer to jump directly to your inbox the next time Outlook Express starts. The web page displayed by default at startup has a check box that you can use to set this preference. While you're in the Outlook Express main window, you can jump to the inbox by pressing Control+Shift+I.
Once you are receiving email, simply use the up and down arrows to move through the list of messages. System Access will read all of the available information about each message, such as its sender, subject, and date. If a message is unread, has high priority, or has an attachment, System Access will indicate these as well. From here, you can also check the status bar by pressing Modifier+Page Down. The status bar will indicate how many messages you have in the current folder, how many are unread, and whether you're working offline.
Once you've found a message of interest, press Enter to open and read it. Note that Outlook Express displays email messages as web pages. This means that you can get a list of links, tab through the links, and use web page navigation commands. System Access also lets you jump to the list of attachments, if any, by pressing Modifier+A. Select the attachment you want and press Enter to open it. Alternatively, you can open a pop-up menu for the attachment by pressing the apps key. From here, you can open, print, or save the attachment. To reply to the message, press Control+R; to forward it, press Control+F.
It may be helpful to read the Outlook Express Help section. Just press Alt+H to open the Help menu for Outlook Express, then choose "Contents and Index". Find the topic that you want to read, and press F6 to read it. When you are done, press F6 again to move back to the index of topics.
Microsoft Outlook
As in Outlook Express, Microsoft Outlook's setup wizard works quite nicely with System Access. Of course, System Access automatically reads descriptions for fields, buttons, and radio buttons within the setup wizard. Once setup of your email is complete System Access again reads all pertinent information about your email messages, including sender, subject, date, and size. System Access also indicates whether a message is unread, has high priority, or has an attachment.
To read a message, just tap the Enter key. The message is read to you automatically. If the message has attachments, you can put them in a list by pressing Modifier+A; this list is very similar to the list in the System Tray dialog. You can reply to messages with Control+R, and forward messages with Control+F. System Access also works with the contacts folder for emailing contacts directly, or adding a contact either from a message, or manually.
Skype
System Access works with Skype, an Internet voice communication service that allows you to talk with other Skype users at no charge. You can also make phone calls to non-Skype users with Skype for a small “off network” charge. As you move through your contacts with the arrow keys, System Access announces various attributes of each contact, such as name, country, and local time. To call the contact, just tap the Enter key. If you want more options that pertain to a contact, just press the Apps key. A menu will pop up that allows you to call the contact, chat with the contact, send a file, send a voice mail, etc. By pressing Control+Tab one or more times, you can see a log of missed calls and completed calls, as well as the time and duration of the call.
Microsoft Word
System Access gives you complete access to Microsoft Word documents, reading tables, forms, font information, headers and footers, footnotes, etc. System Access provides a user-friendly way of giving you information about the document that you are in as well as other information that you may be interested in, without needing to check or uncheck selections in a complex set of dialog boxes (as is common with screen readers). System Access will works in the various Word wizards, such as the letter wizard.
PowerPoint
Important: At this time System Access allows you only to read PowerPoint presentations. Support for editing Power Point presentations is not currently available in System Access.
In order to read a PowerPoint presentation, open the slide show window by tapping F5. System Access will begin reading the contents of slides automatically. You can also use standard cursor movement commands to examine a slide more closely. Use the following keys to navigate within the slide show:
- Page Up moves you to the previous slide.
- Page Down or Space moves you to the next slide. You will be notified when you reach the end of the presentation.
- Escape closes the slide show window.
Excel
Important: At this time System Access allows you only to read Excel spreadsheets. Support for editing Excel spreadsheets is not currently available in System Access.
Once you open an Excel worksheet, just use the standard cursor movement and reading keys to read its contents. For example, the arrow keys move you from one cell to the next adjacent cell. System Access also provides hot keys for reading parts of the worksheet. Please refer to the Keyboard Command Quick Reference for details.
Command Prompt
System Access lets you use the command prompt, sometimes referred to as the console. System Access will work within the console window in its regular windowed mode, or in the full-screen mode. Note that console access is only supported on Windows 2000 and later, not including Windows Millennium Edition.
As the console displays text, System Access announces it automatically. (Note: Automatic speech output is not supported under 16-bit applications, such as older DOS games, or the old Command.com.) There are also several commands to review the contents of the console. Num Lock must be enabled to use the NumPad commands. For more details, please refer to the Keyboard Command Quick Reference.