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8. Other matters and remaining wishes
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8.1. "R.A.P." (Enlarged notes)
==============================
 
Author/Supply: Eike-Peter Falk, Kaiserstr. 100, 76133 Karlsruhe
               Tel. 0721/23623, email: falk@ira.uka.de
Price:         DM 10 (shareware)
               Extra equipment: for about DM 100 you can buy a foot controller

1) What does the program achieve?

This program provides a full-screen representation of the notes that have been
read in with a scanner in PCX format. You move through the line of notes by
softscroll with adjustable speed. This makes it easy for low vision users to
read notes (and to make music). If the hands are busy (musical instrument!),
the scroll operation can be carried out with a foot controller which has to be
acquired in addition.

2) Tips for testing

3) Detailed operating instruction

A detailed operating instruction can be found in the files "KRZBSCHR.DOC"
(ASCII-text) and "NOTEN.RP" in the directory NOTEN on diskette 4.

4) Experiences/Evaluation

There were no problems, except that you won't do without foot controller in
the long term if your hands are busy playing an instrument.



8.2. Actual remaining wishes
============================

For low vision computer users there are small and great open wishes (cf.
introduction, section 4). Part of the great wishes particularly are the
following items:

a) Software should be designed user-friendly for people with low vision already
during its development; in this process the people concerned should take part
giving systematic advice.

b) Specific low vision user programs (e.g. text enhancement ...) and tools
(i.e. special setting features) should be financed by the state (or
organizations such as EU, WHO, UNESCO) and put at the low vision user's
disposal free of charge.

c) Help and self-help in detail: Organizationally a field in the internet
could be created in which programmes are collected and experiences are
interchanged.

The small wishes consist in a longish list of concrete individual wishes of
which I want to point out a few standing in for all the others:

1. We lack a program that represents the text cursor in word processors under
Windows as a square instead of a fine vertical line. The program CHARCUR
(Carets&Cursors) in ch. 2.2.3 allows this, but not error-free.

2. For an acoustic check of keyboard inputs in Windows a program similar to
KLICKIT (ch. 1.1.3) would be desirable; KLICKIT only runs with DOS.

3. On the whole there could be an improved acoustic support of computer
processes (and shareware speech outputs).

4. With regard to shareware text enhancements there hasn't been a great hit
yet. BPOP/BEDIT in ch. 4 only run with DOS (and not too well); the programs
LENS and ZOOMIN (ch. 2.2.4/2.2.8) don't offer many functions.

5. For a great number of widespread user programs there are no descriptions of
operating features for low vision users.

6. Comparative surveys for the different fields of user programs (e.g. word
processing, spreadsheet, graphics, ...) would be very helpful with regard to
their suitability for low vision users.