Learning assistive technology software: Jaws and Magic
I’m now learning new software to help me work and use the computer. Magic is great, I can still use my eyes and it zooms in the screen for me and makes all the text bigger so that my eyes are straining and can actually see the words. It also has a feature which allows it to read text to me.
Jaws is a whole other world. Jaws is software for blind people and you use keyboard short cuts to completely navigate your computer. I turn the monitor off so that I don’t use my eyes and can (well am learning to) open up my email and read and respond to them and opening and editing or writing word documents. It’s crazy and totally amazing in one.
To go from using my visual sense for computer work to relying on auditory sense is completely amazing. Doing simple tasks like responding to the latest email or opening up a word document is ok, but searching my inbox for an email when I don’t know what it’s called is a long and slow process and trying to prepare a word document is totally weird. It’s like going back to pre-computers, when we had to plan our documents out on paper and then write up a final version. How do you chop and change and move words around when you can’t see what you’ve written?
This is going to be one tough journey, but it’s an important one, especially if i end up losing my sight.
I am at peace with what is...
Miss Nat
xoxo