Dolphin Newsletter - November 2004
Index:
- New Maps released.
- Version 6.03 Released.
- Techshare 2004.
- Inland Revenue chooses Supernova for visually impaired staff.
New Maps released.
The latest set of new and updated maps for version 5.30, 5.21 and version 6.02 software are now available via the Internet Updater.
Version 6.03 Released.
Dolphin is pleased to announce the release of their latest version 6.03 software suite. Building upon version 6.01 and 6.02, the latest version 6.03 is available with over 200 new and improved features and is now available as a FREE update for users of Supernova, Hal, Lunar and LunarPlus v6.01 and v6.02. Select Maps menu, Update from Internet (Alt M U).
New Internet Explorer and HTML features include:
- Automatic Forms mode (Caps-lock Enter). Makes form filling easy by switching you in and out of interactive mode automatically when you TAB through a web page.
- Automatic announcement of form field labels.
- Hot keys to announce other labels:
- Label above: Caps Lock + Num Pad 8
- Label left: Caps Lock + Num Pad 7 - Web page summary announces number of links, frames and headings at the beginning of a new web page.
- Nesting level announcement for bulleted list items on a web page.
- Faster navigating in Virtual Focus.
- Faster Virtual Focus find.
- Faster Middle Mouse clicking (to move virtual focus to mouse position). Now also improved with web pages containing frames.
- Added support for abbreviation, acronym and select html tags.
- List of links (Caps Lock + 1) now informs the user if a link is hidden or if it has an 'onmouseover' event.
New features in MS Excel include:
- Formula text can now be spoken or Brailled automatically, according to the verbosity setting.
- Added three new lists for Excel:
- List of visible cells with formulas: Left Shift + Caps Lock + 3
- List of visible cells with content/data: Left Shift + Caps Lock + 4
- List of visible cells with comments : Left Shift + Caps Lock + 5 - Information about the active chart: Left Shift + Caps Lock + 8
New features in MS Word include:
- Screen reader announces Embedded Object, Page Break, Section Break and Hyphens.
- Announcement of bullet level (if set).
- Improved performance in Document Read.
- Faster keyboard responsiveness in MS Word and other MS applications.
- Announcement of controls in unprotected documents.
New Braille support includes:
- Added Braille tables for Turkish and Norwegian literary Braille.
- Papenmeier Braillex driver now supports EL40s including configuration dialogs.
- Harpo Braille Pen (EasyLink) Driver.
- Eurobraille (Iris) Driver.
- PACmate now uses Freedom Scientific interface to display.
- New Speech Output and Braille Output announcement option: 'no focus detected'
Further general improvements include:
- Focus Highlighting allows the highlighting of blank lines. The default has been set to ON.
- New feature in UCTEDIT allows the import of unicode descriptions for the current language file.
- New actions to simulate Ctrl-Home and Ctrl-End (eg. May be assigned to a Braille key if required)
- New hot key to announce current control label: Caps Lock + Num Pad 8 (label above e.g. group label); Caps Lock + Num Pad 7 (label left e.g. list box)
Techshare 2004.
Dolphin will be formally launching version 6.03 at the forthcoming RNIB Techshare 2004 conference, held on 18th-19th November 2004 at Jury's Inn, Birmingham, UK. The conference highlights the role of technology in the everyday life of people with sight problems. Dolphin will also be presenting two papers as part of the conference programme, one identifying Dolphin's screen reader solutions for PDAs and the other will detail Dolphin's DAISY multimedia solutions for education sectors.
If you are planning to visit the conference, please visit Dave at the Dolphin stand to experience the latest release of version 6.03.
Inland Revenue chooses Supernova for visually impaired staff.
Careers in call centres could be a step closer to becoming a reality for thousands of partially-sighted people thanks to pioneering work carried out by the Inland Revenue in conjunction with Dolphin Computer Access and Aspect Communications.
The technology solution has enabled the Inland Revenue (IR) to successfully transfer Jamie Branford, an IR employee for 16 years, from his service office position at an IR Office in Liverpool to a customer-facing role at its Bootle Contact Centre. The move was made at Jamie's own request.
Jamie, who is visually impaired, is now a Revenue Executive at Bootle. His role involves both managing a team of eight Contact Centre Advisers and handling phone calls from IR customers. Bootle Contact Centre is the first contact point for the Liverpool Sefton area and Jamie handles general enquiries on topics such as Pay as You Earn (PAYE) and Self-Assessment. The centre also handles 'overflow' IR calls from other parts of the country.
Jamie knew from the outset that, while he wanted a more challenging role, the technology used within the contact centre would present him with problems. "Having been in various jobs within the Inland Revenue - from working in local tax and training offices to being a Support Manager in a service office - I wanted to move to a job that involved less paperwork and that was customer-facing," explains Jamie. "Working at the Contact Centre in Bootle met those requirements - and was nearer to my home, however, it was clear that reading small type on a computer screen and using the keys on a telephone handset would present difficulties".
The IR called upon its key technology partners to work with Jamie. They approached Dolphin Computer Access to establish an effective means of computer access. After several evaluations the IR and Jamie decided that Supernova was the best solution, as it combined a screen reader and screen magnifier in a single package. Supernova allowed Jamie to magnify the screen focus area by up to 32 times, as well as providing a screen reader which gave Jamie additional voice output support. This helped Jamie to navigate around the computer screen using keystrokes rather than mouse clicks.
Jamie now had complete access to the IR computer systems in a which ever way suited him best. Jamie still, however, had difficulties distinguishing the functions printed on the keys of his telephone handset, making functions such as 'transfer' and 'hold call' difficult to achieve. The solution was to use 'Winset', a software programme from Aspect Communications. Winset can replicate the standard functions of a telephone handset on a standard computer screen. With minimal mapping, the Winset programme was integrated with Dolphin's Supernova software, enabling the telephone keypad to be magnified on Jamie's computer screen. Jamie can now handle all his calls with mouse clicks or computer keystrokes without having to touch the telephone keypad.
