Virtual Mouse is a method which allows you to explore what is being displayed on the screen in -the programs you use, and allows you to customize the way that graphics are labeled.
Sometimes, you just might want to get an overview of how an application is visually laid out. Virtual Mouse can help you do that by using your keyboard. When Virtual Mouse is active, you cannot edit text in a document or access the menu bar via the Alt Key, or the shortcut keys such as alt+F. Virtual Mouse takes over your keyboard for the purpose of navigating and manipulating the window with the mouse cursor.
Virtual Mouse is most valuable when an application's controls, such as list boxes, check boxes, buttons, or icons, cannot be accessed just by tabbing or arrowing around the window. When you encounter this in an application, just press Modifier+M. You will hear a sound and you may also hear a change in voice, depending on your synthesizer. Now you can use your Up and Down Arrow Keys to move through the controls in the window. Whenever you're ready to leave the Virtual Mouse Mode, you may press Modifier+M again, or simply press Escape to return to normal operation.
Note that as you are using the Up and Down Arrow Keys, you will hear only the first object on each line. To move left or right through the objects on a line, press Alt+Left Arrow or Alt+Right Arrow. If you want to hear the object that you are on, press Modifier+Up Arrow, which is the Say Line command or, in this case, the Say Object command.
Tab and Shift +Tab move you to the next and previous clickable object respectively, regardless of what that object is. To jump to the top of the window, press Control+Home. To jump to the bottom of the window, press Control+End. When you want to activate an object, press either the Enter Key or the Spacebar. When pressing Enter or Spacebar on an object, you are simulating a left mouse click. If you need to right-click instead, press Shift+Enter or Shift+Spacebar on the object.
You can also get a list of all clickable objects in the window by pressing Modifier+F7. This is useful if you don't want to tab or arrow around the window. After you've chosen an object from the list using the up and down arrows or the object's first letter, you can tab to the mouse function that you want to perform on that object. For example, if you wanted to right-click something from this list, just tab to Right-Click and press Spacebar to activate that button.
If an application, such as Internet Explorer, has a toolbar, you can use Modifier+F8 to get a list of the toolbar buttons. Then you simply arrow down through the list of toolbar buttons and press the Enter Key when you hear the button that you want to activate. Note that this command also works when Virtual Mouse isn't active.
If you find that a particular graphic is not labeled correctly or isn't labeled at all, you can label it by pressing Alt+L. Then, just type in what you want to call the graphic and press Tab. You'll then come to a checkbox, which you can check if System Access should treat the graphic as a clickable button. Then press Tab again, and press Space to label the graphic. If you want to have System Access try to auto-label the graphics in a window, just press Alt+A. When you are done labeling your graphics, taking care to ensure for accuracy, you can submit these labels to the Serotek community by pressing Alt+S. In this way, everyone can benefit from your work, and the program you've just labeled will be more accessible for everyone. To be eligible to submit your work, you will first need to have passed a short, simple test, found at http://csawtest.samobile.net.
Using this test, we'll verify that you have the knowledge necessary to label buttons and other elements correctly. Once you've passed this test, you will be able to submit program packs as we've discussed here, and you can also label webpages. Read the cSAW help.
Last modified December 10, 2014
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