[Accessibility_sig] Jaws usage question

[Moore, Michael]

I don't know of any market statistics but given the cost of the AT and
the compatibility issues I would expect that extensive use of older
versions continues.  At our agency, where we have about 150 screen
reader users as members of staff, we are still using JAWS 6.1 and will
not be upgrading until we change computing platforms next spring.

I would expect to find similar circumstances throughout the community.
I recommend testing to standards, not to performance with any particular
screen reader or magnifier.  Although we test extensively with our
standard configuration of JAWS and ZoomText, we also spot test with
other versions of JAWS, ZoomText, Window Eyes and most recently Orca.
We do not test with AT until we have verified compliance with
accessibility standards through automated and manual testing.  The AT
testing serves as a final QC rather than a primary means of verifying
accessibility.

Mike

-----Original Message-----
From: accessibility_sig-bounces at knowbility.org
[mailto:accessibility_sig-bounces at knowbility.org] On Behalf Of Phillips,
Lewis D
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 1:25 PM
To: Discussion list for web and software accessibility issues
Subject: [Accessibility_sig] Jaws usage question

All,

I was wondering if anyone had any statistics on how many people are
using various versions of Jaws.  

I was thinking about how we test web pages with Jaws, but the newer
versions are guessing better how to read poorly coded pages and was
wondering if we should be testing with older versions to assure a good
user experience.

Thanks,
Lewis

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lewis Phillips
Web Developer/Accessibility Consultant
ITS - Applications
University of Texas at Austin
(512)232-6421
lewis.phillips at austin.utexas.edu

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