Using Verbosity Schemes

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Chapter 5: Position relative to area type and focus - how verbosity works

On the previous page we described via examples how to manipulate the announcement of status information. How the status information is managed DEPENDS ON the settings of "Area status" list and the four radio buttons - before, between, after and off - found in the "Position relative to area type and focus" group box. However, the examples do not tell the whole story. Below, we will look more closely at verbosity settings and how it all comes together, clarifying exactly what position relative to area type and focus really means.

Consider the pressing of the ALT key in NotePad. The "File" item becomes the focus in the menu bar. With a high verbosity scheme selected, from speech we are told:

File menu bar, shortcut f

The focus is "File", the control type, which can also be referred to as the area type, is the "menu bar" and the area status information that is output is the shortcut key.

Now, consider the term "Position relative to area type and focus". Here the menu bar is the area type and File is the focus. If we look at this verbosity scheme we find, for the control type menu bar, the announcement of the control type is set to "After focus", hence, file menu bar. While in the "Verbosity for status" dialog we find the "Shortcut key" area status is set "After" in the "Position relative to area type and focus" group. This places the announcement of "shortcut f" at the end.

What happens if we now move the speaking of the control type from "After focus" to "Before focus"? When will the status information i.e. the shortcut key be announced?

What is actually spoken is the following:

Menu bar File shortcut f

Again, the position the status information is announced at remains unchanged. It is set to be announced after the area type and focus and this is where it is announced.

If we then adjust the announcement of the shortcut key status to "Before" in the "Position ..." group box, we find announced:,

Shortcut f, menu bar File

And, changing the announcement of the control type back to "After focus" we still have announced the shortcut key status before focus (file) and area type (menu bar). Speech says:

Shortcut f file menu bar

This just leaves the position of "between". With this selected we find the announcement of the shortcut key positioned between the area type and the focus. So, with the control type set to be spoken "After focus" and the shortcut key status to be "between" we are informed:

File shortcut f, menu bar

Set the control type to be spoken "Before focus" and we are told:

Menu bar, shortcut f File

The announcement of the status will continue to be between the area type and focus no matter whether the control type is announced "Before focus" or "After focus". The area status will always be positioned in the middle!

The final consideration is the area status list. As previously mentioned, the items in the list are announced in the order they appear, however, this is relative to their setting in the "Position relative to area type and focus" group box. The following table suggests a theoretical status list and assigned positions.

Cell area status and position list

Area status	Position relative to area type and focus
Column label	Between
Row label	Between
Selected	Between
Focus	Off
Type help	After
Shortcut key	Off
Colour	Before
Formula	Between
Error text	After
Comment text	After
Print area	After

As you can see from the table, the area status items are listed in a mixture of positions. What happens is that the screen reader examines the area status list and groups items that are to be positioned before, between and after together whilst keeping there relative list order. Items set to off are simply ignored. The above would then be output in the following sequence:

Before:

• Colour

Between:

• Column label
• Row label
• Selected
• Formula

After:

• Type help
• Error text
• comment text
• Print text

And that is all there is to know about verbosity schemes except where to find them! Verbosity schemes can be shared amongst friends and colleagues. Even those you create yourself. When a default verbosity scheme is modified it will have the filename SYSnnnnn.VSxxx, where nnnnn reflects your language code (e.g. 00044 for UK English) and xxx is a unique numerical value. New verbosity schemes that are created have the filename USR instead of SYS. And, finally the VS description means a speech verbosity scheme. A VB extension means a Braille verbosity scheme. Just copy them into your target PCs settings folder and you will find them available to use.

Applies to:

• Hal
• Hal Pro
• LunarPlus
• SuperNova
• SuperNova Pro

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