Screen reader support for NSIS?

scully13 · 14th April 2005, 14:26

Anybody have any experience getting NSIS to work with JAWS or any other screen reading software? I thought I saw a thread about this a few months back but couldn't find anything after doing a search.
Using JAWS I was able to get it to read some dialog text but it's currently kind of random in what it reads. It seems to like to read the branding text a lot and sometimes even twice in a row. It also only reads the highlighted Next button on the first screen and then won't read it again on the next screen unless you reselect it.

scully13 · 15th April 2005, 15:32

Ok, so not a lot of people are worried about screen reader support for installs I guess. I might have a work around but I can't figure out how to do it. While on a dialog in my install if I hit "Insert+B" it will force JAWS to read everything on the current dialog. So, I'm hoping I can just add something into my MUI_PAGE_CUSTOMFUNCTION_SHOW function for each dialog so that it will send the key strokes and cause JAWS to start reading the dialog for me. I already have code to detect if JAWS is installed and running so I would only do it if necessary. However, how can I send those key strokes? SendMessage? System plugin?

Comperio · 16th April 2005, 17:37

I'm not up much on JAWS (or any other screen reader for that matter), but the ones that I've seen can either be set to read each screen automatically or they require that the user decide what to read by clicking a button, typing a key stroke, etc. to make the screen read to them.

The problem with sending keys is that (1) the software vendor could decide to change the required keys or (2) the user may be allowed to pick their own keys to press.

A much better approach would be to find out if JAWS (or whatever screen reader you use) has support for any type of API interface, scripting support, or maybe a command line interface that you could use instead. Another option might be to record the audio for each screen/function manually in some type of WAV or MP3 file and them play the files back at the right moments during the the install.

Sorry if this isn't much help. (If I happen to find anything more, I'll post it here.)

scully13 · 18th April 2005, 13:35

I didn't even think about somebody changing the shortcut keys but your right. JAWS does have script support which is one of the things we used to get our application working with it. However, the scripts have to be installed and JAWS restarted in some cases before the script gets picked up. I guess I could install the scripts and ask them to restart but I would have no way to communicate that to them. The mp3 option would work I guess but would make my install too big. As it is now it's only a little over a MB and most of our users won't need the JAWS support anyway. Thanks, I'll keep digging.

14th April 2005, 14:26	#1
scully13 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 130	Screen reader support for NSIS? Anybody have any experience getting NSIS to work with JAWS or any other screen reading software? I thought I saw a thread about this a few months back but couldn't find anything after doing a search. Using JAWS I was able to get it to read some dialog text but it's currently kind of random in what it reads. It seems to like to read the branding text a lot and sometimes even twice in a row. It also only reads the highlighted Next button on the first screen and then won't read it again on the next screen unless you reselect it.

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15th April 2005, 15:32	#2
scully13 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 130	Ok, so not a lot of people are worried about screen reader support for installs I guess. I might have a work around but I can't figure out how to do it. While on a dialog in my install if I hit "Insert+B" it will force JAWS to read everything on the current dialog. So, I'm hoping I can just add something into my MUI_PAGE_CUSTOMFUNCTION_SHOW function for each dialog so that it will send the key strokes and cause JAWS to start reading the dialog for me. I already have code to detect if JAWS is installed and running so I would only do it if necessary. However, how can I send those key strokes? SendMessage? System plugin?

16th April 2005, 17:37	#3
Comperio Major Dude Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Oregon Coast Posts: 737	I'm not up much on JAWS (or any other screen reader for that matter), but the ones that I've seen can either be set to read each screen automatically or they require that the user decide what to read by clicking a button, typing a key stroke, etc. to make the screen read to them. The problem with sending keys is that (1) the software vendor could decide to change the required keys or (2) the user may be allowed to pick their own keys to press. A much better approach would be to find out if JAWS (or whatever screen reader you use) has support for any type of API interface, scripting support, or maybe a command line interface that you could use instead. Another option might be to record the audio for each screen/function manually in some type of WAV or MP3 file and them play the files back at the right moments during the the install. Sorry if this isn't much help. (If I happen to find anything more, I'll post it here.)

18th April 2005, 13:35	#4
scully13 Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 130	I didn't even think about somebody changing the shortcut keys but your right. JAWS does have script support which is one of the things we used to get our application working with it. However, the scripts have to be installed and JAWS restarted in some cases before the script gets picked up. I guess I could install the scripts and ask them to restart but I would have no way to communicate that to them. The mp3 option would work I guess but would make my install too big. As it is now it's only a little over a MB and most of our users won't need the JAWS support anyway. Thanks, I'll keep digging.