Introduction and getting started with SpeakOn:
This comparison is only applicable from version 1.6.13 when the following keys were introduced:
Control - [Tab] key - To move between controls.
Task - [Ctrl + Tab] key - To move between tasks.
Main - [Alt] key - To bring up the Main menu.
SpeakOn has no visual interface. This means that a sighted user can see nothing on the screen but for a small Window with the word 'SpeakOn' and some copyright information written below. None of its components - applications, tasks, controls and menus - are visible. Having nothing on the screen means that screen readers cannot read anything; instead, SpeakOn is self-voicing. Therefore the comparison below is what a similar type of Windows application would have sounded like with a screen reader.
SpeakOn includes at present five applications: the Manager (which enables you to launch other SpeakOn application), the Media Centre, Radio Time, Last FM and VI Services applications. Each of these can be compared to a typical Windows dialog with one or more pages (sometimes called tabs); you may find it convenient to think of SpeakOn's tasks as similar in concept to pages.
Each page in Windows and task in SpeakOn contains one or more controls and in both cases you can move between controls using the [Tab] key.
Relevant controls in Windows and SpeakOn can be navigated with the [Home] and [End] keys as well as single character navigation to skip quickly to the item you want. Some of SpeakOn's controls such as lists have their equivalent in Windows; others like the Options and Player controls have no equivalent in Windows - in fact, to create a visual equivalent to these in a Windows application makes no sense.
You can move between pages in a Windows dialog using the [Ctrl + Tab] key. The same key combination enables you to move between tasks in SpeakOn.
In a Windows dialog, the [Alt] key moves the focus to the Menu Bar. In SpeakOn there is no Menu Bar; the [Alt] key brings up the Main menu which is a single context-sensitive menu that provides similar functionality to a Menu Bar through the use of sub-menus.
The [F1] key in a Windows dialog usually brings up Help topics. In SpeakOn the [F1] key brings the Help menu which provides a number of context-sensitive help features.
In a Windows dialog, the number of pages is usually fixed. In SpeakOn the number of tasks varies. Some tasks are available all the time and some appear to perform a specific operation and then once this has been achieved, the tasks ends.
In a Windows dialog, the only way to move between pages is to use the [Ctrl + Tab] key; the same key combination is used in SpeakOn to move between tasks. However, in SpeakOn a task can transfer the focus automatically to another task and an example of this is the Finder task transferring you to the Listener task to listen to something in the Player.
In a Windows dialog, depending on the type of dialog, you can either exit the dialog from the 'File' menu or by selecting the OK or Cancel buttons to confirm an operation. In SpeakOn you always end a task (or the application itself) using its Main menu.
In Windows, a number of applications can run at the same time and the user can switch between them using the [Alt + Tab] key combination. In SpeakOn only the Manager application is running all the time in the background. You cannot switch between SpeakOn applications; you start an application and end it before starting another one - this simple arrangement seems to work well and will only change in the future for a more complex arrangement if necessary.
Please note that of course SpeakOn itself is a Windows (program) application and you can always switch to another Windows application by using the [Alt + Tab] key combination while keeping the current SpeakOn application running in the background.
To summarize, with the introduction of a number of alternative Windows compatible keystrokes, new SpeakOn users should find SpeakOn intuitive and easy to use.