Chess, anyone?

[leadinglabbie]

I just signed up for Hadley's chess courses. I think you get a free accessible chess set (and I think you get to keep it, though I could be wrong about that). I also just ordered a chess set from Independent Living Aids, which has a wooden one (the site doesn't say it's wooden, but it is--I checked) on sale. So, either way, I will have a chess set

Comments

[rauldandrea]

Cool username :-)

[rauldandrea]

I know the rules and have played, but I'm weak on strategy I guess you could say... If any of you studying the game want to discuss what you are learning, I'd find this interesting...

[jamitch3]

Haven't played in quite a while, and what playing I did was somewhat erratic. (Generally depending on whether I could focus on the game.) When I come out to C'ville in April we'll have to play!

[leadinglabbie]

That would be fun. Maybe by then I'll actually knwo what I'm doing. :)

[etana]

I do play chess - been a while so I'm rusty but man I heart it. The chess game on the mac is accessible buuuut you don't has a mac :)

[leadinglabbie]

Still haven't heard one that can talk as fast as my JAWS. :) Also, I've become rather attached to being able to use footnotes. (Is it true that VO doesn't let you access them in Word files?) But, you know, one day...

[etana]

Ah see there are ways to speed up VO so that you'd hear what you want. We need to talk - what verbosity do you currently have JAWS set at? I'll fiddle around and get you the same on a mac, you wait and see.
Also Word/iWorks doesn't work great with VO it's true - but open office does - DOES - I tell you - and it's free. The spreadsheets in Open OFfice are better than excel with JAWS on a pc even - and Open Office can read any file (microsoft et al) and convert back and forth. Definitely an investment I've made - and it's open source so accessibility gets addressed with every new release and they're only on release 3. I love Open Office and I love using footnotes again.

Send me your verbosity level in JAWS and I'll get back to you within the next day about how to set VO to that rate.

Also what other qualms did you have? Let us discuss.

[leadinglabbie]

My JAWS rate is 123, or 75%. Sometimes, I speed it up to skim through something, but that is generally how I have the default set.

So, you can access footnotes and endnotes with Open Office?

Basically, all of my qualms relate to being able to utilize advanced features of programs. I am troubled that Apple hasn't addressed these accessibility issues, so I'm not so sure I can fully and enthusiastically jump onboard. I do know, though, that things are changing. Also, I'm not necessarily saying that *some* accessibility shouldn't be released until *all* things can be made accessible. But I'm troubled by the blind community's acceptance of partial accessibility in so many situations. Still, that is another rant for another time. :) Why do you prefer a Mac to a PC? Are there reasons other than VO?