2009-02-05 12:35:24

Hi there,

This has probably been covered elsewhere but I've neither the time nor the desire to really go digging.
I'm interested in getting on Skype and using it, but I have no clue how best to accomplish it. Therefore, what I'd like to know is the following:
1. What accessibility issues, if any, should I watch for, and how can I get around them should they exist?
2. I'm very inexperienced with microphones and whatnot...would having a headset mic while using Jaws on Skype cause Jaws's speech in my earpieces to trigger the mic if I was talking? Or would my partner in a chat only hear Jaws if I had it speaking while I was through a speaker?
3. Is it really even worth the bother? I see that some of you forum  folks use it and some of you don't...if there's a particularly good reason, I'm all ears, but if it's fairly useless and chatting voice-to-voice via MSN or something would be simpler, I can just do it that way.

Thanks in advance for any help you might render.

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2009-02-05 13:08:14

1. There are some options within skype that give better accessibility when activated. There are also jaws scripts, but I don't find them very useful...

2. Your(s) parthner(s) will normally not hear jaws, unless you missconfigured your headphones/mic set, or if your speakers are set to loud. Skype and/or windows is smart enough to configure correctly a microphone so that nobody hear your jaws.

3. MSN calls have a much worse quality than skype, but the major difference is that using skype you can do conferences with up to 8 users. It could especially be fun when playing multiplayer games, for example topspeed.

There are 10 kinds of people : those who know binary, and those who don't.

2009-02-05 14:36:25

It all boils down to whether you have much use for voice chat. I don't have much use, so I only fire up Skype as and when I need it which is quite rare.

Also just because people don't list their Skype details doesn't mean they don't have them, some of us are just very private about our contact details relating to outside of this forum. It isn't being anti social or anything, it is just part of your right to share as much or as little as you desire.

cx2
-----
To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2009-02-05 15:22:49

Yep, I have skype, and fire it up precisely when I wish to chat with people. I can't really give any access advice for Jaws, ---- but it certainly does work with Hal.

I will say though instant ways of reading status info do help, to know whether a given person is online or not. I do rather like Skype as a program and have got some good use of it, ---- together with my desk mike and speakers (me being in a flat on my own means there's no worry for over hereing). Configuration was a litle fun on my old pc mostly due to some sound card issues, but reconfiguring on my new pc was fine, and skype did all the work, so there shouldn't be a problem there.

In general it just comes down to how much you want to voice chat I suppose. I find it a great way of having real time conversations with people in other countries, ---- I've even spoken to my friend in Shicargo who I haven't seen for years, which was amazing.

On the other hand, I've never really bothered with msn either for voice chat or anything else, so I don't have much comparison standards.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2009-02-10 17:28:15

hi

skype has a few glitches - but you can get around those by going to the view menu, hit up aro and hitting enter on accessibility and checking both of those menu items. msn sound quality is absolutely horrible - especially if your on a laggy connection. skype can be used with dialup if need be msn can be used with dsl/highspeed, and it eats up your bandwidth ten t imes worse. dialup? forget it on msn. I use a headset, and most modern headsets have noise canceling capability built into the microphone. this means that whatever is being played through the headphones, or whatevers happening around you, the headset will do its best to try and cut that down. even on full volume, my headset with a bit opf noise canceling, jaws is bearly noticable - so much so that nobody comments on it. with this netbooks internal microphone i have some more options. echo cancelation is a good one - that means that if you wwere using speakers and so was i, if that wasn't enabled we would start having what's known as an infinit loop - a sound that keeps growing and growing - its sort of a screechy sound. there's also noise suppression which works even better. say I was near a computer with it off. well, you'd be able to hear the computer easy. with it enabled, my voice is slightly muffled but you can't hear one thing - except if its loud. I have my microphone set at 100 percent all the time, unless I'm in a really loud environment.

I love skype. Msn is no easier and calls drop so much easier using msn. Also, in skype you can have confrances with up to 8 people - i don't know if that would be fun with eight, but its certainly bearable with 3 or even 4. i had one with 6 - that was pushing it as everyone was talking and i couldn't hear a thing anyone was saying.

Something something something insert canine related comment here

2009-02-11 14:27:02

Well I'm sure up to 8 would be useful in specific situations, rather than just general chat. Online meetings and RPGs spring to mind, where everyone takes turns speaking in essence.

cx2
-----
To live by honour and to honour life, these are our greatest strengths and our best hopes.

2009-02-12 14:35:13

can we do text chat on skype?

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2009-02-12 15:18:39

yes sure..

“Get busy living or get busy dying.”
Stephen King

2009-02-12 23:00:11

> can we do text chat on skype?

Yes, but I don't find the chat window very accessible. MSN is much better for that.
Precision about MSN, I use miranda unstead of WLM.

There are 10 kinds of people : those who know binary, and those who don't.

2009-02-13 03:00:52

hi

The skype text chat window is quite accessible, asuming your using jaws. Its so cool because within that window you can scroll back and see every chat with every person with the latest scripts. also, I found meranda to be a pain in the neck, I couldn't get it to do anything.

Something something something insert canine related comment here

2009-02-19 01:30:37

If you go to the skype page, you will find out that in the latest version (4.x?) there isn't much of anything for accessibility I guess. They suggest to use V3.8 or something like that.

As far as making calls and such, I found that it's pretty simple and straight forward. I need to check out the text chat a bit  more now that i upgraded it finally. tongue

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2009-02-19 09:56:41

hi. maiby it will usefull jaws scripts for all versions of skype can be found at: www.dlee.org    i like this!

f.a.t.h.e.r

2009-02-19 12:49:19

timberwolf1991 wrote:

also, I found meranda to be a pain in the neck, I couldn't get it to do anything.

hehe nods, so did I had troubles with miranda twice tried twice gave up.
I just stick to windows live, and like others I fire up skype only when someone can't, or doesn't have, a different IM client, and I never voice chat don't have a mic, for me it slows me down, not so much but it does. but yes it's usable. I wish the scripts would make the emoticons accessible, now if I emote something I do the word in stars rather than typing in a symbol or picking from the list.

<Insert passage from "The Book Of Chrome" here>

2009-02-22 06:46:48

Hmm, yeah. I like having this mic. Only problem is, I seem to go through them at alarming rates. So do other people I know. It seems to be this:

I'll buy a headset. any headset. It doesn't matter how expensive it is. Anywhere from 6 months to a year later, it stopps working - iether the microphone starts shorting out or one speaker of the headset stopps working, etc.

I bought a USB headset. Technically, it still works. But whatever comes through it is quiet, and I mean quiet. That was in June of, oh, 2007.
So that went in June of 2008 or so. A bit later, actually. I buy the one I'm using now for 50 dollars and it connects directly to your soundcard. So far nothings gone wrong with it. But a few times, the microphones been finicky. Won't it be something if I have a headset that has shorted out headphones and another with a bad microphone? Combine the two good parts together...I wish.

Something something something insert canine related comment here

2009-02-22 10:37:15

i personally for chatting use yahoo messenger. it has an incredibly accessible chatting sistem. if in the chat window you press shift tab you can go and read the messages with arrows. for me this is pretty accessible.

“Get busy living or get busy dying.”
Stephen King