brianhartgen's blog

In writing this blog post and announcement, I am somewhat reminded of a Parallel set of circumstances occurring at the moment with an app which many blind people use.

During the past 10 years, we have offered the StationPlaylist scripts for JAWS at an extremely low financial value, and in recent years, no value at all. Indeed, the scripts for StationPlaylist have always been the product with the lowest price.
We've been very glad to do this principally because we use the scripts ourselves heavily and have a passion for producing high quality radio. Further, we wanted to help other blind people who equally enjoyed broadcasting as much as we do.

However, in recent months our company has had to make some very hard financial decisions due to rising costs of facilities and services used. Given that the majority of our other scripting packages usually incur an annual cost of some kind, we need to take the same approach with the StationPlaylist scripts. I will now go onto explain what this means and the implications of it.

Let me start out with the most important point. Noone is going to stop you using the existing scripts. They will be there on the web site to download for as long as they can be sustained. If there comes a point where they are not usable with an upcoming JAWS release, that may need to be addressed. But that is most unlikely.

However, if you would like to take advantage of new features, bug fixes and other improvements, it will be a requirement to pay for the annual subscription. This will particularly be important when the new release of StationPlaylist is to be released later this year.
A major update to the scripts is almost ready to go. That does contain new features and changes. It will be released at the very start of May 2024. This will be the first release forming part of the annual subscription.

The cost of the annual subscription is £30 per year which is approximately $38 US.

Let me conclude by restating that if you do not wish to pay the annual subscription, you can still use the existing scripts. You can also still be part of the StationPlaylist scripts Email list. However, if you require technical support outside of the Email list, together with script updates and features, you will need to be part of the annual subscription.

If you wish to purchase the annual subscription and to receive the first major update, you can do so here.
https://www.hartgen.org/studio

Alternatively, an invoice can be sent to you which you can pay using PayPal, or any major credit or debit card.

We do have a system in place which will advise you by Email when your subscription starts and to be reminded when it is next due.

Excel is a spreadsheet program from Microsoft and a component of its Office product group. Microsoft Excel enables users to format, organize and calculate data in a spreadsheet.

By organizing data using software like Excel, anyone and other users can make information easier to view as data is added or changed. Within study or employment, many people use Microsoft Excel and indeed data is often tabulated in spreadsheets where in point of fact Microsoft Word tables would be a far better fit.

Learning how to use Excel is one thing, but blind screen-reader users face other difficulties. Due to inadequate formatting and presentation, screen-reader users can become lost within spreadsheets to the extent that it is either difficult to find the data or to associate it with the context, such as determining how cells relate to each other. Many people leave blank cells in spreadsheets purely for visual layout purposes and it is difficult to overcome this major obstacle.

Our new training course, Excel Yourself, will give plenty of strategies to overcome these and many other issues. You will learn the basics of how to work within Microsoft Excel with a particular focus on the screen-reading strategies built into the JAWS screen-reader so as to greatly assist in terms of efficiency, navigation and data composition.

Sample spreadsheets will be included as part of this training course, the topics for which include:

• Customising Excel for optimum accessibility.
• Definitions including worksheets and workbooks.
• Basic navigation.
• Rows, columns and cells.
• Entering and editing data.
• JAWS commands for reading and accessing cells.
• Selecting cells, rows, columns and regions.
• Inserting rows and columns.
• Row and column totals.
• Ensuring Excel workbooks are accessible to JAWS.
• Formulas.
• Autofill.
• Formatting cells.
• Resizing columns and rows.
• Changing the height and width of cells.
• Merging cells.
• Sorting.
• JAWS Custom Summaries.
• Monitoring cells.
• Linking to documents, web pages and Email messages.
• Microsoft CoPilot and Excel.

As is customary with Hartgen Consultancy training courses, you will learn the above concepts within the context of real-world examples which make sense.

Excel yourself will comprise four meetings held using the Zoom conferencing tool beginning on Wednesday 29 May at 7 PM UK time (2 PM US Eastern) and weekly thereafter. If you are unable to make this time, an audio archive and text transcript of each lesson will be made available after the session. As far as we know, we are one of the few companies offering both text and audio. People find the text useful for easily referring back to sections later. Each lesson will be at least one hour and probably a little longer.

The cost of Excel Yourself is £80 which is approximately $100.

Alternatively an invoice can be sent to you which you can pay using any major credit or debit card.

Conclusion.

Due to the nature of the subject matter and the complexities of layout, this training course will be fairly demanding. However, it is hoped when you have completed the course you will have a far greater understanding of how Excel functions and its relationship with the high quality support given within JAWS for Windows. Even if in your employment you only are required to use Excel a small amount, having taken this training course you will be in a far better position to work with it than you were before.

New in Leasey Version 9.0.

Significant increase in performance.
Any Leasey user would want this version just for the considerable changes which have been made to responsiveness when using Leasey functions and working with the keyboard overall. A great deal of attention has been devoted to this area.

Amazon.
The Amazon component of using Leasey Search is faster than before. Leasey advises you that the keyboard should not be used while the search is taking place. Response times may vary but it is faster than was the case previously.

BrailleEas.
This is the revised version of Elegance for ElBraille and can be used with a greater range of Braille displays. If you find it is not working with your specific Braille display model, we will work with you to ensure it does so in the future. We cannot possibly test with every model of display.
Instructions to BrailleEas can be written in contracted Braille.
Refer to the section of the documentation relating to BrailleEas for details.

Web Browsing.
1. When moving back to a previous page, greater efforts have been made to ensure JAWS sets focus to the position where you left off reading rather than a random position.
2. keystrokes have been added for use with Windows CoPilot to move to the New Topic button, to read the most recent message and to upload an image.
Please refer to the internet browsing chapter of the documentation for details.

LeaseyCloud.
A lot of effort has gone into refining Leasey when files are stored in the cloud. Note that Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox are recommended for best performance.

Leasey Alarm Times.
If chimes are enabled to be heard periodically throughout the day, these will now play out if an alarm is set and they occur at the same time.

The Old Reader.
Leasey now provides comprehensive support for the Old Reader RSS client.
Please refer to the section of the Leasey documentation concerning the Old Reader.

Microsoft Outlook Reading Pane.
If enabled with the Leasey key then Control+Shift+R, you will hear the Reading Pane content as you move through messages in a mail folder.
Please refer to the Email section of the documentation for a full description.

Leasey Tags, LeaseyCuts and Web Favourites.
Adjustments have needed to be made for upcoming builds of Windows11 so that these tools can work correctly in the modern release of File Explorer.
There is a strong likelihood that if you are using a previous version of Leasey, together with Windows11, these features will stop working.

Leasey Radio.
You can now set up to 20 presets for most frequently listened to stations rather than 10.
Please refer to the Radio section of the documentation for details.

Speech History.
Leasey now contains a way of rapidly working with JAWS Speech History so you can interact with it from within any application.
Please refer to the section of the documentation concerning Speech History.

Viewing Leasey Documentation.
For some time, Leasey has had a facility where you can view the documentation section by section. Each section contained links to move back to the list of documentation sections.
Unfortunately, the new Results Viewer in JAWS is causing some difficulties in this area. From this point forward, press Escape so as to move back to the section index.

List of Keystrokes.
A new item has been added to Hotkey Help to view a complete list of keystrokes.
This opens up a document in your web browser divided into headings for easy reference and lists all the keystrokes. There are over 1100 keystrokes.

append to Clipboard.
Leasey now has some comprehensive and flexible support for JAWS power users concerning appending text to the Windows Clipboard.
Please refer to the section of the documentation concerning Leasey Select and the Clipboard.

Copy Web Page Title and URL.
When inside a browser, the keystroke of ALT+Control+Windows+T will copy to the clipboard the title of the web page which has focus together with its corresponding URL.

Twitter and X.
Moving through posts with Up and Down Arrow is far more reliable. In addition, the names of accounts distributing promotional posts are not truncated.
There is an additional feature to come for X/Twitter but that will not be available until after the primary installer.

Podcasts.
When results are rendered containing details of episodes, the title of each episode is not only enclosed within a heading as before, but it also contains a hyperlink pointing to the web page for the item. This is for podcasts where it is not possible to download or stream an episode directly and where it is necessary to play it from within the browser.

YouTube videos.
When using Leasey Search to find YouTube videos, the results are displayed in date order of publication with the most recent at the top.

Toggling Between Leasey Basic and Advanced.
For those people who need to use Leasey Basic for beginners, the method for changing between these two modes is slightly different.
Press Control+Grave accent twice rather than once.
This keystroke will not be used often.

LeaseyPoints on Web Pages.
It is now possible to locate the position on a page where a LeaseyPoint is set even if Forms Mode is active.

Leasey Hotkey Help.
All newly added and changed keystrokes are available in Leasey's Hotkey Help and in the search tool.

Expected release date: 15 March 2024. This date is subject to change in the event a significant problem is discovered which requires resolving prior to the release.

Priorities for the Next Update.

There does come a point where new features have to be deferred, especially if a great deal of testing, development and documentation changes are required. The following therefore did not make it into this initial release of 9.0.
1. To give users the ability to answer a WhatsApp call from within any application. This work is almost complete.
2. Access to the Apple Music app. This work has been started.

You may have heard of the StationPlaylist suite of products, allowing you to host your own show through to running your own radio station. But what you might not realise is that the JAWS scripts for the entire StationPlaylist suite go way beyond reading what is on the screen, giving you access to pertinent information relating to the products or making the application accessible. They go much further and adapt the program specifically for use by blind broadcasters.

As you can imagine, the StationPlaylist products are designed ultimately for anyone especially sighted users and by and large they are accessible to screen-readers. But there are aspects of a program that blind people need especially in high pressure broadcasting situations which you perhaps wouldn't think about unless you are blind and use the tools themselves. Here are just a few of the many adaptations which help.
1. When using a screen-reader with StationPlaylist Studio, and you move through your playlist with the arrow keys, there is a slight lack of responsiveness from the time you press the key to receiving useful feedback through the screen-reader. That is fine for a sighted user as he or she will not be using such a tool. But that's not the way blind people work. We need to be able to skim down a playlist rapidly to find what we are looking for. To this end, JAWS contains Quick navigation Mode. This takes a snapshot of the playlist and allows you to browse it rapidly. The very moment you strike an arrow key you get an instant response. Want to add or remove items? No problem. Quick Nav mode constantly updates its snapshot so you can continue browsing quickly with the new content.
2. When you search for a song in the Studio product, and if you did not use JAWS, you would have no idea that the list of results had been computed. So you would not know to press the built-in shortcut key which is ALT+R to set focus to the results list. JAWS takes care of this by automatically setting focus when the list appears.
3. Browse a playlist, and inadvertently press the Escape key. Then try inserting a new song. We've all done it. As blind people, Escape is something we have a habit of pressing quite a lot. Because you pressed the Escape key, that unselects all items so that the newly inserted song is placed at the bottom of the list. JAWS prevents you from doing this. If you are blind, you cannot see that has happened and you would think the track has not been inserted.
4. Search for a song and insert it into your playlist. As a blind person, you think the song is highlighted ready to play out. But it isn't. JAWS will automatically select that if desired so you can get it to air right away.
5. Create a voice break using the StationPlaylist voice-tracking tool, then save it. Ordinarily, focus moves back to the top of the list which seriously decreases productivity. With JAWS and our solution for SPL, focus automatically moves to the point where the voice-track was created so you can move onto the next one.
6. Would you like to do a lot of voice-tracking to make life easier? With our accessible solution for StationPlaylist, you can play many jingles and effects directly into your VT's. Sighted users do not have anything like this flexibility, but it goes a long way to giving your shows that extra professional feel.
7. StationPlaylist has a concept called Break Notes; sets of instructions you can send to SPL Studio to carry out specific actions. If you do not have StationPlaylist Creator, (containing a special dialog box for inserting Break Notes), it's more than quite a bind to insert them manually. Our solution for JAWS and SPL has its own Break Note dialog, not only allowing you to insert the special Break Notes, but you can even save favourites and context sensitive help is built right in.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Creating a truly accessible and efficient interface for a program is about a great deal more than reading the screen. It's about taking into account the needs of blind people with varying levels of ability. We're not "dumbing down" the interface or over-simplifying it. It's guarding against those problems in which some people may find themselves through to making it ultra-efficient for those who want to get things done quickly.

Best of all, there is plenty of training available. Our training courses in many aspects of using StationPlaylist have a total running time of 22 hours, so there's plenty to get your teeth into.
More information about StationPlaylist is here and our training course page can be accessed here.

Introduction.

By very popular request our training course Jaw Muscles returns! Following the Jaw Muscles training course in 2022, we've had plenty of suggestions as to topics to cover and they have been taken on board. Here is a complete list of what was covered last year.

People often want to be more efficient when using the JAWS screen-reader. Particularly when in the workplace, this is especially important as they want to be able to demonstrate they can carry out tasks at a similar speed to their sighted colleagues. But it could also be helpful for people within education or within leisure pursuits.

In our experience, many people claim to be efficient screen-reader users. It transpires however that what they mean by that is that they've increased the speech rate significantly. While this is helpful, they are not familiar with the many shortcut keys and facilities built into JAWS to increase productivity. Our new training course will not only give you lots of shortcut keys to aid efficiency, but it will also show you the best ways to find what you are looking for, and demonstrate many JAWS gems with which you may not be familiar.

The topics covered are as follows:

• Introduction.
• Various Ways of Restarting JAWS.
• Speech History.
• Virtualising the Contents of a Window.
• Virtualising a specific Windows control.
• Are the correct scripts running?
• Reverting to the default settings if necessary, backing up good settings and restoring them.
• Refreshing the screen.
• Obtaining the application version number.
• Using Leasey to gain a full computer report.
• An introduction to AI chat.
• Google Bard.
• An overview of the Google Bard page.
• Setting up Placemarkers.
• Using the Placemarkers.
• JAWS Find.
• Moving by specific heading level.
• Bard conclusion.
• An Introduction to Custom Labels.
• Basic Usage of Custom Labels.
• Creating Custom Labels Intermediate Example.
• Custom Labels in a Challenging Environment.
• Backing Up Custom Labels.
• Modifying and Deleting Custom Labels.
• Obtaining the URL for a Link Particularly in Outlook.
• An Introduction to Smart Glance Highlights Using Amazon.
• Smart Glance Highlights On Audible.
• A Basic Introduction to Braille Options.
• An Introduction to Braille Split View.
• Assigning a Keystroke to SetBrailleView.
• An Overview of Basic Split Views.
• Specialist Application Split Views.
• Defining Key Assignments for Split Functions.
• Showing the Clock on the Braille Display.
• An Introduction to Face In View.
• Face In View Keystrokes and Additional Notes.
• Face In View Demonstration.
• Introduction to Cursors and Using the Scan Cursor.
• The Touch Cursor.
• Introduction to JAWS OCR.
• Scanning Documents.
• Processing Image Files.
• Scanning Contents of Application Windows or the Screen.

There are so many tools and utilities hidden inside JAWS to improve efficiency. It's just a question of finding them.

Who Is The Course For?

This training course is certainly for JAWS users who wish to improve their screen-reading skills. But it is also for trainers of Assistive Technology. We've seen many instances where people are trained to use the Microsoft application shortcut keys, and this is all very fine. But as trainers, we would suggest it is our duty to teach people about the added JAWS benefits provided by other keystrokes. If we can avoid unwanted key presses, not only does it make someone more efficient at using a computer but it also avoids the onset of conditions such as repetitive strain injury. All the unnecessary key presses a person has to do add up over the course of a day.

This training course is suited to anyone using recent releases of JAWS or ZoomText Fusion. The training course is provided in both audio and text formats so is ideal for anyone who is unable to hear audio content or for quick reference. A DAISY audio rendering of the course is also included.

The total running time for the training course is just under five hours.

The cost of the course is £50 which is currently 62 US dollars.

While it is by no means a requirement for course participation, we are offering an additional package if you do not have our Leasey product. One of the main advantages of Leasey is to add even more productivity tools to those already available within JAWS. JAW Muscles with Leasey is available at a substantially reduced rate for a combined total of £80 which is approximately $100 US.

Please enter your JAWS or Fusion serial number here.

Alternatively, anyone can purchase either package by sending an Email to jaws@hartgen.org, whereupon a fully accessible electronic invoice will be sent to you which can be paid through PayPal or any major credit or debit card. Orders can also be processed by telephone.

Summary.

While many people can use computing applications with the keyboard at a basic level, we want to lick your screen-reading skills into shape, especially in modern computing environments. We'll show you plenty of strategies you probably didn't know about. Once you've completed our new training course, you will be able to show everyone your screen-reading muscles!

In the wake of the noisy takeover of Twitter last year, people have been looking for alternatives to the microblogging social media platform. Many of those fleeing or hedging their bets have turned to Mastodon, which has attracted millions of new users since Twitter's acquisition.

Like Twitter, Mastodon allows users to post, follow people and organizations, and like and repost others' posts. But while Mastodon supports many of the same social networking features as Twitter, it is not a single platform.

Instead, it's a federation of independently operated, interconnected servers. The interconnected Mastodon servers, along with other servers that can talk to Mastodon servers, are collectively dubbed "the fediverse". Sound confusing? It isn't when it is explained to you in easy to understand language, and that's the subject of our training course.

For five hours, you will learn that using Mastodon with Windows is not as difficult as you perhaps suppose. Undoubtedly, when considering the various social media platforms, Mastodon is by far the most accessible. So it's important to encourage as many people as possible to be part of it. Moreover, new features and ways of doing things are being discovered all the time.

There is a myth that it is not especially easy to sign up to Mastodon. If you think that, or you've been told that, don't worry. If you don't have a Mastodon account. We'll help you set one up.

We will begin with some theory before getting to the practical. In addition to demonstrating the Mastodon procedures, the central concepts are thoroughly explained in each case. The topics covered are as follows:

• A lengthy discussion as to the advantages of using Mastodon.
• Signing Up using a conventional mainstream instance. Which server to choose.
• Registering on the Tweesecake instance.
• Profile configuration including composing the Bio.
• Installing Tweesecake and linking it to a Mastodon instance.
• Exploration of timelines and configuring the order of Tweesecake buffers.
• Configuring essential options in Tweesecake including modifying templates.
• Creating an introductory toot using the introduction hashtag.
• Pinning an introductory toot to the profile.
• Defining the privacy options, such as followers or mentions only.
• Using the Tweesecake auto-complete facility.
• View toot in edit field, favourite, boost, replying, following and accessing the local timeline.
• Additional functionality in the View dialog and accessing conversation elements.
• Working with profiles and timelines.
• Uploading an audio post and changing the soundpacks.
• Content warnings.
• Thread mode.
• Editing and deleting posts, together with creating a new conversation derived from a mentioned user.
• Setting a nickname.
• An alternative method for composing a direct message.
• Working with different keyboard interfaces.
• Searching for users and working with hashtags.
• Bookmarking.
• Muting sounds, blocking users and showing or hiding boosts.
• Trending hashtags.
• The profile directory.
• The federated timeline.
• Tweesecake portable mode, multiple accounts and JAWS scripts.
• Attaching a picture to a toot and creating alternative text.
• Working with filters.
• Setting default privacy options.
• Scheduling toots.
• Updating.
• The new separation of mentions and notifications.
• Keystrokes to move through posts more quickly.
• Exporting a buffer to a text file.
• Applying alternative text to media.
• Recording audio from within the Tweesecake application.
• Working with polls.

Questions from the course participants are given at appropriate times.

Accessing Mastodon.

At the time of writing, our preferred method of accessing Mastodon is using a Windows application called Tweesecake. Tweesecake makes it super easy to undertake many of the tasks being discussed and demonstrated. Even if you cannot remember all the keyboard shortcuts, there are other ways of accessing everything you need.

Time is devoted to accessing some aspects of the platform using a browser and even that is highly accessible. It is less convenient on several levels but there may well be reasons why you would want to at the time of writing. In summary, at the present time one specific method of access may not allow you to do everything you want, so it may be necessary to use a combination of these.

Training Course Structure.

In the training course you will receive:

• A recording of the sessions.
• A text transcript of the sessions.
• A DAISY audio book of the sessions.
• Access to a web page containing lots of resources referred to in the training course and some which are not but which are nevertheless useful.
• Access to an Email list for course announcements and to ask questions.
• A text guide containing shortcut keys covered in the training.

Please note: The demonstrations are delivered using the JAWS for Windows screen-reader. You are welcome to join us if you are using an alternative screen-reading program, however the same results cannot be guaranteed.

The training course comprising close to six hours of audio is available now.

The cost of Masto-Done; Riding the Elephant is £50 which is approximately $61 US.

Alternatively you can request an invoice and this will be sent to you by Email. The invoice can be paid by any major credit or debit card. Send an Email to brian@hartgenconsultancy.com.

Conclusion.

Join us to find out how truly accessible and usable Mastodon is when using Windows. You can start chatting with people in no time!

Since the demise of the majority of the specialist third party clients to support the Twitter social networking tool, people have been attempting to navigate the official web site or Windows app with varying degrees of success. It is achieveable but very unsatisfactory. There is a great deal of additional verbosity, there is no way of discerning how many characters of a tweet have been typed and there is the need to move in and out of the JAWS Forms Mode frequently, to name but three aspects.

Third party Twitter clients made it possible for screen-reader users to access the social network in a convenient and efficient way. While those days are gone, we can at least improve the experience somewhat by a set of JAWS scripts to support both access to the Twitter web site or app. Through the use of more logical shortcut keys and a little creativity, we have a solution which at the very least will allow you to access Twitter with some logic and efficiency.

The JAWS scripts include:

• Easy to remember shortcut keys, such as Up and Down Arrow to move through tweets, Control+N to compose a new tweet, Control+R to reply, Control+Shift+R to retweet, Control+Shift+Q to retweet with quoting, etc.
• A keystroke to cause JAWS to output the number of characters entered and a sound which is heard when too many characters have been entered, especially helpful with freely available Twitter accounts. This keystroke is sensitive as to whether you are a Twitter Blue subscriber or not.
• Abbreviated Mode which will condense what you hear (or see in Braille) as you move through tweets. For example, the default output for a tweet when browsing the Twitter web site, even with its dedicated shortcut keys, might be as follows: "BBC Breaking News @BBCBreaking 57 minutes ago Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years", etc, whereas Abbreviated Mode would give you, "BBC Breaking News Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years".
• Easy to remember keystrokes to move to core sections of Twitter, such as Home, Mentions, Direct Messages, to switch accounts and more.
• A keystroke to activate the Context Menu for a tweet, so as to carry out common tasks in relation to it, such as Unfollow or Mute a user.
• A keystroke to copy the focused tweet to the Windows Clipboard.
• Full list of keystrokes in the JAWS Hotkey Help.
• Documentation to provide descriptions of how to use the various functions.
• Online Update facility.

Hear a demonstration of the scripts in action!

Important Notes.

• Users of our Leasey product do not need to purchase these scripts as they are included already.
• The JAWS scripts for Twitter in no way violate Twitter's Terms of Service.

The cost of the JAWS scripts for Twitter is £30 which is approximately $38 US.

We're very pleased to release Leasey version 8. This is a major new release of the product which we hope you will enjoy. It contains new features and we expect to have many updates to come this year in the version 8 series which you will be entitled to receive as a Leasey 8 user.

This document contains details of the new features. It also contains help if you are upgrading from a previous version of Leasey and details of remote assistance if you have difficulty.
Each new feature is fully explained in our documentation. You can access the documentation online, in RTF format, DAISY Text and HTML.

There is a demonstration of each new feature in an audio tutorial through our LeaseyBites.
LeaseyBites are available through a link on every page of our web site, or by subscribing to a podcast feed from Apple's podcast service.
They are available on the BrailleSense, Humanware's Victor Reader products, Amazon and Audible.

Changed in Leasey 8.1.

Completely compatible with JAWS 2024.
It is hoped that the majority of difficulties with the new Results Viewer have been overcome.

When in the Placemarker Dialog Box, ALT+A should activate the Add button.

Pressing the Leasey key then ALT+K should route the JAWS cursor to the focused area of the web page and left click.

ALT+Windows+Grave Accent starts Microsoft dictation.

Within Microsoft Outlook, and you press the Leasey key then ALT+Windows+N, you should now be able to create a new Leasey Note.

The following keystrokes are available when Face in View is active. These keys are pressed by themselves:
O: Close Face in View.
D: Face in View description.
L: Face in View brightness.
P: Face in View Picture Smart.
U: Face in View change confidence threshold.

Previous Changes.

WhatsApp.

WhatsApp is an ideal service for sending instant text or voice messages, making calls or sharing files. Last summer, Leasey included support for what is known as the WhatsApp Web client. Now, that support is provided to the Microsoft Store app. Having used it extensively, we know you can move around the application quickly and the Leasey support makes it super easy to work with. This really is the ideal time to give it a try!

Listen to the Audio Tutorial.

When searching for WhatsApp in the app store, you may prefer to search for "WhatsApp Beta". The official app works just fine, but there are some accessibility tweaks in the beta version and more are coming along every day. One was noticed this morning.

A group on WhatsApp has been created for those people who feel they may like a little assistance as this is a new platform for a number of us. To join, please let us know. We will then send you a link which you can activate so as to join the group.

Leasey Virtual Notes.

It is more than possible that you would like to work in one application while referring to notes in another one or within a series of applications. Here are some examples.
You may be writing a report in Microsoft Word, but you've made notes relating to a client which are stored in a text file which would typically be opened up in Notepad or another text editor. To get to those notes, you may have to press alt with tab a number of times to find it, especially if you have several applications open.
alternatively, you may be a person who does quite a lot of audio recording, and you need to read text which you have compiled from a number of documents or web page sources. You would need to start the recording, and then press alt tab often several times in order to move to the web page or document of interest.
a new feature in leasey version 8, called leasey virtual notes, makes referring to text a very easy process. You can stay within the primary application, such as Microsoft Word or your recording application, and still have access to your important text. It's a bit like a sighted person having two monitors side by side: one containing the document and the other displaying the text notes. Best of all, these notes can be from a variety of different sources.

Listen to the Audio Tutorial.

Mastodon Address Book.

Mastodon is a social network which has become popular in recent months. One of its attractions is that you can express yourself more fully, as some of the server providers allow you to send messages comprising thousands of characters. after all, if you have to condense a message into a small number of characters, this can lead to misunderstanding and frustration. But one problem can occur, and this relates to how to remember the different addresses of the people you would like to write to. Meet the Mastodon Address Book which can help.

Listen to the Audio Tutorial.

Mapping Folders to Drive Letters.

If you are fond of typing a folder path into the Windows Run, Open or Save As dialog boxes, you could find yourself entering something which is quite lengthy.
If the path to a folder location is reasonably difficult to get to, and you use it regularly, it would be good if you could save yourself some time in
order to save items there more quickly. A feature available in Leasey allows you to map folders to drive letters.

Listen to the Audio Tutorial.

The Leasey Start Menu.

This feature arose as a direct request from a number of customers.

The Leasey Start Menu serves two purposes. It allows you to access computing applications you may wish to frequently launch. But it also allows you to
open common utilities in Windows it may be more difficult to get access to. One could assume that such a feature is designed for computer beginners. However,
we already know that experienced users of JAWS are benefiting from it.

Listen to the Audio Tutorial.

Continuous Tagging in File Explorer.

Since version 1, Leasey has contained a feature called Leasey Tags.
LeaseyTags is an intelligent application which allows you to manage files within File Explorer.
For example, if you wanted to select files 1, 3 and 25 in a File Explorer list, perhaps for copying, cutting or deleting, this could be difficult. It can
be done using the keyboard but there is the potential for mistakes to be made. LeaseyTags makes this and other similar functions simple!

Leasey version 8 contains the ability to tag files in a continuous range. Activate the mode with Control+Windows+T. Then, press Down Arrow to tag files continuously. If you change your mind, and you wish to cancel tagging, press Escape.

Elegance for ElBraille and Focus Displays.

In some situations, we have found that pressing Enter to terminate Elegance mode on the Focus Braille display is not working correctly. Please try pressing Z-Chord instead.

Upgrading From a Previous Version, Obtaining Support and Other Notes.

As described in the documentation, when the computer is restarted following the installation, Leasey will check online to see if an activation file is available for you.
Assuming the file is found, it will be installed onto the computer and you will be prompted to restart JAWS for Windows. Please press the letter "Y" for JAWS to be restarted.

If a message box appears stating that an activation file is not available, please contact us immediately! This may occur if installing Leasey within a company or organisation, since the Firewall or virus checking software may block the activation file. If so, we can arrange for a manual activation file to be sent to you. Please include your JAWS serial number!
You can always copy the JAWS serial number to the Windows Clipboard by pressing the Leasey Key followed by letter U.
If you do not send along your JAWS serial number, all you are doing is delaying the fixing of the problem you have.

If You Need Remote Technical Support.

Remote Technical Support means that we can with your permission connect to your computer to resolve any difficulties with the Leasey program.
Please note this is not training!
If you require individual training, this can be arranged for an additional cost.

The following paragraphs will assist you in downloading and installing the Remote Incident Manager software which we use to provide advanced technical support and allows us to connect to your computer.

If you have Leasey installed, you can always press the Leasey Key then Backspace. If the Remote Incident Manager client is not installed, Leasey will install it in the background.

Alternatively, the software can be downloaded here.

Please go ahead and install the software. The installer is extremely straightforward. Just press Enter if necessary repeatedly so as to work through the various screens. When the install begins, it is likely to take a minute or two to complete but it will prompt you when the process has concluded.

When the software has been installed, you will find a shortcut on the Windows Desktop entitled Remote Incident Manager. Press Enter to launch the program.
Alternatively, you can press the Leasey Key then Backspace.

A web-page-like environment will be available with an Edit Field which should be focused.
The title of this page is: Remote Incident Manager: Receive Remote Help.
Some text is below this which is as follows: Please enter the keyword you received from the person helping you.

When prompted by the technician on the phone, type in the key word which you will mutually agree between you, then press Enter.

Thank you for your interest in Leasey!

WhatsApp is a popular, free, multi-platform messaging app that lets users make video and voice calls, send text messages, share their status, and more with just a Wi-Fi connection. Part of what makes this app appealing is that it works on various phone and computer operating systems, so you can continue your conversation anytime, anywhere. It can also take advantage of Wi-Fi and cellular data to make one-to-one or group calls, reducing the need for expensive calling charges. You never miss messages, but even if you miss notifications while your phone is off, the app saves recent messages for when you re-open it.

WhatsApp can identify people in your contact list who currently use the app, so you typically don't have to add them manually. You can also invite people who don't have WhatsApp or connect with other users you know but who Are not on your contact list.

In 2022, our Leasey product began offering support for WhatsApp. We're now pleased to extend the same functionality so as to support the app downloadable from the Microsoft Store. We've now got this to the point where our new interface is an absolute pleasure to use and where you can be super efficient when using WhatsApp.

Script Features In Brief.

• Keystroke to toggle between whether identification is given as to whether a person is typing or recording a message. This has four conditions: Disabled, Play Typing Indicator Sound, Indicate Who Is Typing, and Play Sound And Indicate Who Is Typing. Having these options on a quick keystroke is ideal because there will often be situations where you will want to disable this functionality.
• Keystroke to enable or disable the automatic speaking of incoming messages as they arrive.
• Option to reduce the speaking of incoming messages, so as to remove the time stamp and status.
• Keystroke to identify who is typing or recording.
• Keystrokes to read the last 20 incoming messages. Press twice quickly to play an audio message, place into the JAWS Virtual Viewer for closer inspection or to activate the Context Menu.
• Keystroke to identify the focused conversation and status.
• Plenty of keystrokes to move around the WhatsApp interface quickly without having to press Tab and Shift+Tab.
• Keystrokes for ending a call and learning if the microphone is muted or if the camera is enabled.
• Option to set a nickname to reduce spoken output for a long name or phone number.
• Keystrokes for working with attachments.
• Keystroke to virtualise profile information, ideal for obtaining the user's phone number.
• Keystrokes for managing aspects of recording, such as Pause and Send. We ensure that speech output from JAWS does not intrude into the recording.
• A keystroke to verify whether recording is in progress or has been paused.
• Sounds to indicate important status, such as when a message is sent, when recording is started or paused and to denote audio messages when moving through a Chat List.
• A dialog box when you cancel a voice message to ensure you do not accidentally discard it.
• Hotkey Help.
• The ability to bring into view a list of links in the chat.
• Update Facility.
• Supports most modern versions of JAWS, not just the latest.
• Full documentation.
• And More.

Hear an Audio Demonstration of the Scripts in Action!

The scripts are priced £30 which is approximately $37.

Hi Everyone!

We would like to wish you all happy holidays and a very merry Christmas. As some of you may know, we are closed for business as of next Monday at 12 PM UK time, and I wanted to ensure all our Email lists and social media outlets had this notice before we go away for the Christmas holidays.

This has been an incredible year for us at Hartgen Consultancy. We would like to thank those of you who have purchased products from us, our beta testers for the hard work and time they have invested in getting the products to where they need to be, and our wonderful product distributors who sell and support what we have to offer. We're very grateful to everyone.

Let me choose some highlights to celebrate this year.

Leasey has had an amazing year in 2022. More features have been added during the past 12 months than any other year. Those which particularly stand out are all our new search tools, such as Amazon, EBay, time conversions, holidays, recipes etc. Support for WhatsApp was introduced and that will be extended next year. The help system was improved which included the ability for people to create their own custom notes for applications. And we mustn't forget being able to store settings in the cloud so they can be used on multiple machines.

The LeaseyBites have made a return in the form of a podcast, and new episodes are set to be recorded in the early new year. One of the reasons for their continuation is because we will have new features to show you in version 8 of the product. The new release is being worked on right now!

Another area which has seen significant growth this year would be training and scripting. This is particularly true in the area of JAWS script writing for government departments and organisations, but it also includes our range of training courses. We had a training course this year called Jaw Muscles (containing useful JAWS for Windows tips), a huge course entitled SenseAbility devoted to the BrailleSense 6, Opening Windows (useful Windows tips and procedures), and Catching Up With JAWS (to get people up-to-date with the latest features in the screen-reader). Using the Brave browser is first on the list for next year.

All the segments in the Webinars are divided into separate files for easy navigation, and people love the text transcripts too. The archive and text is usually available within 12 hours of an individual Webinar. We think that is fast.

Our other products have also had updates this year including J-Say for voice recognition. Many people are benefiting from J-Say as each week goes by.

The only fly in the ointment is Microsoft Teams. Development to improve some major flaws in the accessibility of Teams is exceptionally slow, and it would be good to see some improvement in that area next year.

The ability to support customers more effectively took a giant leap forward this year with the new update to Remote Incident Manager from Pneuma Solutions. This not only makes it possible to resolve difficulties more quickly, but also assists in the area of training and demonstrations. It really does make the world of difference in terms of what can be achieved.

And finally, we were thrilled to be presented with an award for excellence by the Pennsylvania Council of the Blind. This was the 2022 Impact Community Award. You can check out the full details of that on the Home Page of our web site.

Again, thank you all for helping make 2022 the wonderful year that it has been and we look forward very much to helping more people use their computers next year!

Brian Hartgen