As for the original question about Firefox, I don't really know. I haven't used it in a while, I now use Seamonkey. Last time I tried Waterfox, nothing read. But if it's good or is compatable with NVDA, I'll give it another look, it is supposedly very fast. SOmetimes I use Chrome. Then again I don't do a lot of advanced things with my web browsers, so perhaps I could still use Firefox without much issue.
In terms of Jaws 2018, I stopped actively using jaws 2-3 years ago. I still have a demo lying around if I need it though, and there are times when I do.
In regards to OCR, what does Jaws use? Does the Win10 one work better? IN the brief times I've used both, I found the win10 one to read better, but I haven't done enough to do a representative comparison.
The reason I stopped following Jaws was because in 2015 I needed to reformat my machine, and I was already several versions behind as it was, with no upgrades left. So it was either switch to NVDA or tell my parents I needed to buy upgrades. The latter, while an option, wasn't very tempting. That drove me to use and learn NVDA. And while I was savvy enough to be able to cope with the change, some people are not. It was truly not at all as terrifying to me as I thought it would be, and I am so glad that I was forced into that. I certainly wouldn't have done it on my own but I feel much better for it. The reason I bring this up is not to start a Jaws vs NVDA war, because I will probably cut my head off in complete agitation if that starts, but to address a very real concern I have now that I've sort of gotten out and talked to some blind computer users.
I'm now volunteering an at organization providing support to blind/vi people and one of our services is equipment training. So I sometimes go to people's houses or help them over the phone with computer problems, and every single one I know has either been told to get Jaws, or uses Jaws already. Perhaps 3-5 years ago I would've felt more inclined to stay in the know about what Jaws is doing; after all I was still using Jaws at that point all-be-it an old version, but now I am really wondering how the Jaws 2018 update will affect people. Admittedly I haven't met many Jaws users, but the ones I have met were on Jaws 13, I think? there was even one on 10 ish but I can't remember. Sooner or later these people are going to have to upgrade, and I fear that with every new version that comes along, it's going to get worse. What are these people going to do when they are forced, as I was, to either upgrade or make a radical screen reader change? Of course whether it was Jaws 19 or Jaws 2018 wouldn't have made an objective difference in the way of things, but I worry that the name change to 2018 alone will stir some things in present and future clients I've helped, though I suspect most of those won't really keep current on that stuff but whatever. Some may attempt to stay in the know, so I wonder if I/we'll be needed more in the coming months as Jaws 2018 gets out of beta and people want to upgrade. Not that I mind that per say, but that paranoid part of me still worries that this will become a problem. It's a stupid concern I know, and maybe some of these people will actually upgrade before we get a call asking for help with something that only an upgrade could fix. Though most of these people don't even know what Windows or Jaws version they're on so I have to figure that out before we go anywhere *sigh*. The thought of saying, "Sorry Jaws can't do that unless you upgrade to the 2018 version and it's going to cost a bit," is for some reason a little more depressing than, "Sorry, Jaws can't do that." I'd feel so bad for telling them how far behind they are that I'd tell them to use a third-party program. Heck I'm on the latest NVDA snapshot, running on Win10 about to get whatever latest updates are out since I haven't checked in ages. But I don't use the built-in stuff much, and the stuff I do use I've installed the old Win7 versions so they are used by default. So it's conceivable that if upgrading isn't an option, then people could go that route. I really don't know. With the way Win10 is/has been advancing, this becomes more apparent to me.
Once again I'm not out to say that Jaws 2018 or Jaws anything is useless. I have no authority to make such a claim. And as I said, I don't think it's Jaws 2018 that specifically brought on my concerns. It's just something I've woken up to over the past 3-6 months as I've started helping clients.
Make more of less, that way you won't make less of more!
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