From: mattioli@took.enet.dec.com (John Mattioli)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: review of Slimware Windows Bridge (LONG!)
Date: 29 Sep 92 01:45:34 GMT
Reply-To: mattioli@took.enet.dec.com (John Mattioli)
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
X-Fidonet: Split
Originator: wtm@sheldev.shel.isc-br.com

Index Number: 24536

			       Notes on

		 SLIMWARE WINDOWS BRIDGE Version 1.02

				  by

			John R. Mattioli, Jr.
		    Digital Equipment Corporation

		     Written: September 14, 1992

     DISCLAIMER:  The views expressed  in the  following document
are the views of the author and do not, in any way, represent the
position  of Digital  Equipment  Corporation or  it's  employees.
These are my views and mine alone.


			   1 - Introduction

     This  document  contains  notes  and a  review  of  Slimware
Windows  Bridge, a new ms-dos  screen reader that  allows a blind
computer user to access Microsoft Windows version 3.1 in addition
to  DOS  applications.   It  is obviously  not  intended to  be a
replacement  for  any  Syntha-Voice  documentation,  it  was  not
requested  by Syntha-VOice,  and it  should not  be construed  as
anything more then my babbling about an exciting new product that
I found works extremely well for a version 1 product.

		       1.1 - Some Brief History

     I began  working in a  somewhat serious  way with  Microsoft
Windows  about a  year  ago.   At that  time,  the only  adaptive
technology that  was  available to  me  that was  of any  use  in
accessing the graphical user interface (GUI) was the Optacon from
TeleSensory.  Several organizations had publicly stated that they
were working  on access hardware and/or software  that would work
in  a GUI environment.   IBM had been  demonstrating there Screen
Reader  for OS/2 for  a couple of  years, but no  product had yet
emerged.

     Note that  by product I mean a package that a user or agency
could pay money for and order.  IBM was, indeed field testing the
OS/2 screen reader, but no release had been announced.

     When,  in  June of  this  year,  Syntha-Voice announced  the
release of Slimware Windows Bridge the entire adaptive technology
industry was taken  by storm.  Syntha-VOice  had accomplished two
things that are very rare in the industry these days:

     1.  They released  a product  that claimed  to give  a blind
computer  user access to Microsoft Windows version 3.1.  To date,
this is the only product that I know of which does this.

     2. So far as I can tell, they produced a product in complete
secrecy  and, unlike most, did  not make promises  of products to
come by telling  everyone that  age old, catch  all phrase  "IT'S
COMING!"

     I received my  Windows Bridge kit a while ago  and have been
learning a great deal  since then.  I've been looking  forward to
writing  up this  review  for a  while, but  wanted to  wait long
enough  to  be sure  I knew  enough  to adequately  represent the
product.

		       2 - Product Information

     Slimware Windows  Bridge (which is becoming  known variously
as  "windows  Bridge" or  simply  "the  bridge"  for brevity)  is
designed and  produced by Syntha-Voice computers  Inc of Hamilton

				- 2 -


Ontario Canada (phone (800) 263-4540).  My kit came on two  three
and a half inch diskettes.  It includes the diskettes, and a very
extensive print manual.

     The kit layout is  quite good.  The first  diskette contains
the main  Slimware Windows bridge program,  it's documentation, a
manual  reading  program,  and  configuration  files for  several
popular  applications.   This  disk allows  a  limited number  of
installations  to be performed and is copy protected.  The second
diskette contains windows drivers and is used after the bridge is
installed to get windows talking.

     Although the documentation is quite good,  a blind person is
likely  to have some trouble getting started.  This isn't because
the installation  is difficult, but rather  because no documenta-
tion  is accessible  to  the blind  user  until the  software  is
installed.  For  this reason, I would  strongly encourage Syntha-
VOice  to make an cassette  tape available that  could talk a new
user through  the installation  of  Slimware.   This tape  should
include installation instructions, some instructions on how to do
basic  reading  with  the  screen  reader,  windows  installation
instructions, and an introduction to windows.

     I  have had  no trouble  what so  ever dealing  with Syntha-
Voice.   They have  made themselves  available to discuss  issues
with me whenever I called or  when I met their representatives at
their booth at the ACB convention in Phoenix.   Through a variety
of  reading on internet, blinktalk and Genie It would appear that
others  have had  less  luck dealing  with  the company  and  are
interested in  telling everyone  about their  problems.   I think
this is unfortunate.  I hope that the stories on  the network are
either  untrue or born out of misunderstandings.  In either case,
I'd like  to think that this is history and that the company will
get over an apparent reputation problem and be able to sell  this
product successfully.  As I say, I've had nothing but profession-
al dealings with Syntha-Voice.

			  3 - Product Review

     Upon receiving my copy  of windows bridge I did  the typical
software engineer thing.   Why not?  I'm a  software engineer.  I
put the  master diskette  in the  drive here  at work,  hooked my
computer up to  my DECtalk, and ran  install.  Moments later,  my
computer was talking.  The install program talked me through what
needed  to be done  quite nicely.   When I installed  at home the
story  was a  bit different.   The install program  allows you to
specify what port your synthesizer is attached to if you're using
an external device.  Here  at work, that device is on port 1.  At
home the device is on port 2.  The install  program spoke through
com2  just fine,  but  when the  install procedure  was complete,
slimware  still wanted  to talk  through com1.   I  switched some
cables around and I was off and running.

				- 3 -


     The  second phase  of installation  was to  install windows.
Here at  work I had sighted assistance and it went fairly smooth-
ly.  Again, the  home installation was somewhat  more of a  chal-
lenge.  As  I said earlier, I'm  no stranger to windows.   I was,
however, a  stranger to windows  bridge and  had an  unbelievable
time figuring out  how to get things read in a way I could under-
stand them.  This wasn't a bridge problem but a problem due to my
plunging dead ahead  rather than doing some  heavy reading first.
Because of the way the windows installation  procedure works, the
on-line  manual is not available  to you as  you install windows.
My home  installation of windows  took two to  three hours  but I
estimate it could have been done in half an hour had I known more
at  the time.   Again, there  are ways  to avoid  this: a getting
started cassette,  sighted assistance, or fluency  with the Slim-
ware command  set will go a  long way toward making  your windows
installation quick and easy.

     Since  finishing the  installation, I've slowly  become much
happier with the bridge.  I have used it primarily within windows
preferring the  use of a braille  display under dos.   The screen
reading  features under  dos seem  to be  competitive with  other
screen  readers, but my brain can  only deal with so many command
sets  and it's taking me a  while to get this  one stuck in there
good.

     It  should  be  understood  that MIcrosoft  Windows  is  the
perfect  product for the  pc world in  that it is,  in many ways,
just like the machine it runs on.  It is temperamental, runs with
many configurations but can  be screwed up by seemingly  harmless
changes  in configuration,  is  amazingly powerful  yet extremely
easy to  use up to  a point.   As with  the pc itself,  there are
certain areas of the  system a novice should think long  and hard
about entering.  As with any major pc product the new user should
expect a steep learning curve.  Think back to the days before you
knew dos when you were sat  down before a keyboard and typed your
first  commands.  If  you can't remember  those frustrating days,
windows will  cheerfully bring them back  to you.  It  is a large
system, there are  many ways to use it and  configure it, and the
complexity, when compared with that of dos, is much greater!

     Syntha-VOice has  done  what  they  can to  make  things  as
tolerable as possible.  There is always help available on windows
bridge commands, just press  control-shift-h.  The on-line manual
is  extremely good and the manual reading program (although a bit
short on features I'd  like) includes an extremely nice  table of
contents feature  and bookmark facility.  It would be nice if the
manual was available via  the standard windows help system  which
includes an extremely rich set of commands (including the ability
to add  your own comments  to help  text much the  same way as  a
person  using hard copy documentation would  make comments in the
margin).

				- 4 -


     As  you become more familiar  with windows you  begin to see
the real  power of the bridge.  Much of the information presented
on  the screen is read or interpreted extremely accurately.  Icon
labels are read when you select  them using either the arrow keys
or the  mouse.  Icons themselves  can be labeled and  added to an
icon definition library  so that  the bridge knows  what to  call
them in the  future.  Menu  bars and pull  down menus are  spoken
extremely  well!   Certain bitmaps  (such as  scroll bar  arrows,
control panel  selectors, minimize and maximize  buttons etc) are
recognized and spoken.  Other bitmaps (such  as those used by the
sound recorder,  media player, etc)  are not recognized  and thus
these programs  become somewhat more  difficult to use.   Syntha-
Voice is working to improve  their product and I can  only assume
that  later  versions of  the product  will  do a  better  job of
recognizing common windows bitmaps.

     COntrols  are  also read  quite  well.   There  are  several
standard windows  controls and  I've found that  Slimware Windows
Bridge reads all but one of them quite well.   Push buttons (such
as ok  cancel or whatever) are  read nearly 100% perfectly.   I'd
say they are  read 100% perfectly  but then  someone is bound  to
show me  a case where they're  not.  Check boxes  are read nearly
perfectly though this might need a bit of improvement in a  later
version.  What the program is supposed to do is read the item and
then say marked  or unmarked.   Sometimes the  program reads  the
item but  not it's marked status.   Often this is  not a problem,
but  it does  require the  user to  take a  few extra  seconds to
determine the marked status of the item.

     Where problems start to show up is with a control known as a
slider.  The most popular incarnation of a slider is what's known
as  a scroll bar.  Let's say you've  got a 800 line document on a
screen  that can only display 20  lines.  The word processor will
attach a vertical slider to the right edge of the window.  On the
top  of the slider is  an arrow pointing up,  on the bottom is an
arrow pointing down and  someplace in between is a  thumb showing
where you are in the document.  If you're 75% of the way down the
document, the thumb is 75% of the way down the scroll bar.  This,
then, is the configuration of a slider used as a scroll bar.

     Microsoft has  dictated that  applications with scroll  bars
shall  have keyboard commands  that perform the  scroll bar func-
tions.  For example, if you hit  the down arrow, you move down in
the document.  If you hit the page down key, you  move one screen
down in  the document.  Yet  there's one more thing  a scroll bar
allows  the sighted user to do that  I can not get windows bridge
to  do.  Let's say you're using  a spreadsheet application with a
spreadsheet 500  lines long by 20 cells wide.  Let's say you want
to go to an item that you know is  somewhere around line 400.  Oh
sure you  could page down 20  times or so.  You  could maybe even
hit the end key and then page up  5 times or so.  But, if  you're
sighted  you have an additional option of dragging the scroll bar

				- 5 -


thumb  about 80%  down  the scroll  bar  and dropping  it  there.
Slimware  has no  way either  to move  the  thumb directly  or to
report on the position  of the thumb.   SInce sliders don't  have
actual text associated with them, (unlike  buttons that might say
"ok" or  "cancel") the bridge will  not speak when you  land on a
slider.   None of  this is real  important in the  case of scroll
bars since,  as I've  described, the  keyboard interface is  well
defined  and nearly universal.  Sliders, however, tend to be used
for lots  of  analog-type settings.    Cursor blink  rate,  mouse
acceleration,  settings  like  these  are  very  difficult  using
windows  bridge.  Programs such  as the sound  recorder and media
player (both  utilities are probably  more in the  fun department
then the productivity department)  depend very heavily on sliders
and neither application has  a sufficient keyboard substitute for
the mouse in  terms of  controlling the position  of the  slider.
Simple access such as I've described here (reporting the position
of the thumb  and allowing the  user to modify that  position via
percentage)  would vastly  increase the  usability of  sliders in
both these mostly  fun programs, in  important utilities such  as
the  control panel and even  in applications that  use sliders as
scroll bars.

     And speaking of the mouse, Slimware Windows Bridge furnishes
several great mouse navigation aids for the blind user.

     To start  with, I  was amazed  at how hard  it really  is to
control a mouse.  I've been using an  optacon (which depends very
heavily  on being able to move a  mouse like object in a straight
line) for  15 years or  more.  I  used to think  I could  track a
straight line with the best of them.   I found out I was just  as
wrong  as I could be when I started  moving my mouse all over the
screen!  Sighted computer users have indicated to me that this is
not just a problem for the blind computer user but that a sighted
user rarely moves  in a straight  line either.   In order to  use
windows bridge  you must have a  mouse hooked up  to your system.
Syntha-Voice provides several features to help the helpless mouse
user  such as  myself.   Some involve  the physical  mouse device
itself,  others merely move the mouse pointer.  Having spent some
time  attempting to gain some  degree of control  over that pesky
rodent, I can now work both ways with varying degrees of success.
Some of the specific features I find useful include:

     Mouse  locking allows  the user  to tell  windows  to ignore
mouse movement  in either  the vertical or  horizontal direction.
If, for example, I want to move directly to the right (not up and
right or  down and right) pressing control-shift-x  will do this.
Once horizontally  locked, a user  can move the  mouse diagonally
and  only the horizontal component  of the motion  will be recog-
nized by the system.   Similarly, control-shift-y will vertically
lock  the  mouse so  that only  the  vertical component  of mouse
motion will be detected.

				- 6 -


     Mouse search allows the  user to type  in a string and  have
the mouse  pointer move to  that string on  the screen.   This is
useful  for finding  text that  would otherwise  be difficult  or
impossible to find.   In addition, icon labels are  also searched
which enables you  to move the mouse directly to  an icon if that
icon is labeled.

     The mouse join  command is also an  extremely useful naviga-
tion tool.  In applications that  use a caret (or editing cursor)
you can move  the mouse to  the position  occupied by the  caret.
This  is handy for "feeling out"  labels on fields that are empty
(that is have no text in them).

     Mouse  location works somewhat  differently than  the cursor
locating we're all familiar with in  dos.  A dos screen typically
contains  25 lines of  80 characters each.   Using a well defined
grid such  as this, and  a logical unit  of measure (such  as the
character  or line in this case) makes things very easy to under-
stand.  The Using windows bridge, the screen is 640 pixels by 480
pixels.   A pixel is  the smallest unit  of graphics that  can be
displayed on a  monitor.  If, for  example, your mouse cursor  is
centered on  the screen you're  likely to be told  that you're at
position 320, 240.   This takes some  getting used to because  it
doesn't, in any way, reflect the contents of the screen.  Because
of  the way  windows works,  it does  not make  sense  to present
things in terms of lines and characters.

			 4 - Some Criticisms

     What  good review  would be  complete without  some specific
criticisms?    No product  is perfect  and  Windows Bridge  is no
exception.  Here are a few specific problems I've had.

     Despite  it's  popularity,  Microsoft Windows  is  still not
completely  bullet proof.   A  windows setup  without the  bridge
installed can be made to crash on  occasion.  It is not an  envi-
ronment  as  stable  as what  we've  become  used  to under  dos.
Windows  Bridge, being a version  1 product can  also be somewhat
quirky.   I've found it extremely stable  for such a new product,
and  have had only one crash that  I can attribute to the bridge.
This  crash, which  occurred  while running  a  program loved  by
sighted  users but somewhat pointless for a blind user, has never
recurred.  Suffice  it to  say that  I've hear  many rumors  that
Windows Bridge is buggy, but it's stood up to  fairly tough tests
for me.  SOme apparent draw backs I've found include the  follow-
ing:

     Windows Bridge supports Microsoft  Windows in standard  mode
only.  This is somewhat of a limitation because you loose several
features of windows including:  virtual memory management, multi-
tasking of  dos programs and the ability to run dos programs in a
window.   Nevertheless, if you're  reasonable about the number of

				- 7 -


applications you've got  running at  any given time,  and if  you
don't mind  not running dos-based  telecommunications programs in
the background, you'll do just fine.  I suppose I should add here
that I've got 8 megabytes of RAM on my system  so internal memory
is plentiful.  A 2 meg machine might have more trouble.

     Windows Bridge does  not always read things correctly.  This
is particularly true  if you're on the right most menu item, move
right and then move left  again.  Also, the windows task  list is
often read somewhat inconsistently.   None of this is  so serious
it can't be  handled.  It simply can require  an extra key stroke
here and there which often takes additional time.

     Drag and drop, a version 3.1 feature that was highly praised
by sighted  windows users seems basically  unsupported by windows
bridge.   There seems to be no  way, using the keyboard, to simu-
late holding down the mouse buttons.   While I've not yet found a
program that requires drag and  drop functionality, I would  have
liked to have it for the sake of completeness.

     System  performance is  always  an issue  with any  software
these  days and windows makes it  more so because of the enormous
overhead required by the GUI system itself.  I am not easily able
to compare the performance of a straight windows system with that
of a windows and bridge system.  I have, however, noticed serious
speed problems  on my 386 machine  running at 20 megahertz.   The
worst of these problems came while playing a  midi file using the
media player program included  with windows.  At times  the music
being played would pause for several seconds presumably while the
screen  was repainted.  Again,  this problem can  not directly be
assumed to be a bridge problem, but it is mildly annoying.

			   5 - Some Praises

     It  is my  understanding  that most  of  the work  for  this
product was done by Syntha-Voice's small staff over the past year
and a half.  During that time, most of the popular screen reading
companies  discussed  with  consumers the  importance  of  making
windows accessible  but did  little  about it.   A  few did  some
research promising products in  the near future.  To  date, Slim-
ware Windows Bridge is the only screen reader for a GUI on a 386-
based platform.  OutSpoken seems to have enjoyed a reasonable run
of success on Apple's  Mackintosh, but many blind people  seem to
have  steered  clear of  mackintosh  presumably  because of  it's
highly graphical  nature.   IBM  is claiming  great success  with
Screen Reader/2 and plans to release a product this fall.

     Having  done a  great  deal of  reading  in the  Programming
Windows  book  (author:  Charles  Petzold,  publisher:  Microsoft
Press, available in e-text format from Recordings for the Blind),
I can assure  those who  are less knowledgeable  that nobody  was
kidding when they said that screen reading in a GUI is completely

				- 8 -


different than the  dos world.   Windows programs  (and I  assume
OS/2  programs) are  much more  complex then those  running under
dos.  Programmers must  learn a new environment and  new program-
ming style.  This  is not a trivial exercise!   I believe that it
is  near miraculous that a  company the size  of Syntha-Voice has
developed a product  of this quality  in such a  short period  of
time.   I'm  forced  to ask  myself  what new  levels  of success
they're likely  to have in  the future.   I hope that  many other
companies release products of equally  high quality and that  the
future GUI access arena  is as competitive and feature  packed as
the dos arena is now.

			    6 - Summing Up

     During  the 31st convention  of the American  Council of the
BLind I was fortunate  enough to have an opportunity  to present,
to the Visually Impaired Data Processors International (VIDPI), a
talk on  the  importance of  graphical user  interfaces to  blind
computer users.   At that time  I was encouraged by  the level of
knowledge  demonstrated by  my audience.   Previously,  I'd found
little more  than feelings  of hostility toward  GUI environments
amongst the blind people  I'd talked with and that  was bothering
me  quite badly.   I'm  pleased  to say  that this  sad fact  has
changed radically  over the past year or so!  I now believe it is
possible for blind consumers to make a difference in the develop-
ment of access to windowing software.

     What should you do?

     If you  have somebody (reader, friend,  family member, local
computer geek, whoever)  that you know well and that  you know to
be good at  explaining things to you,  have that person sit  down
with you  and explain what  a GUI  looks like and  how it  works.
Start simple (i.e. with a blank screen).  Don't start up windows,
get 5  windows on the  screen and ask  that they be  described to
you.  Do things slowly, one at a time and  ask lots of questions.
The learning curve here is fairly steep, don't be put  off by the
complexity.  A basic understanding will go a very long way toward
helping things out in the future.

     If  you have access to Slimware Windows Bridge, a demo there
of, or anything else like it that may come along, learn from it.

     Eventually, it would be very helpful to have people discuss-
ing (with each other  and with vendors)  how they'd like to  read
the screen.   Educated customers can go a long way toward helping
vendors improve  their products.  You'll be using these products.
If you have no input, you have no complaints.

     I wish all vendors doing work  in this area luck and hope to
see more  of us moving  into the world of  windows in the  not to
distant future.  I commend Syntha-VOice for being there first and

				- 9 -


for being there  with such a successful product.   I look forward
to answering any questions that people may have regarding windows
bridge or windows itself  (although a standard "I have a real job
to do" disclaimer aught to be thrown in here for good measure).

				- 10 -

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                 John Mattioli
                           (Put witty repartee here)

(DEC E-NET)	TOOK::MATTIOLI
(UUCP)		{decvax, ucbvax, allegra}!decwrl!took.enet.dec.com!MATTIOLI
(ARPA)		MATTIOLI@TOOK.enet.dec.com