In a previous post last year, I let you know that come January, 2024, Gmail would be abandoning its basic HTML view setting. Now, it’s January and Freedom Scientific has the modules to help us all make this transition.
You can find the presentation and its overview here. Yet, along with this, we know that adjustment can be a challenge for us going from a very familiar platform to something which may take longer to read or scroll down.
After all, while our JAWS commands don’t change, how they will read and interact with the screen might throw us for a loop if we don’t grasp the new layout early. Of course, remember, it’s not an impassible blocakde or unscalable mountain. Instead, we’re dealing with a new contour.
For those who are sighted, the change between screen navigation and reading can appear daunting. Productivity in the workplace may slow a bit. The employee using said software that undergoes changes may ask a few more questions than before and seek a bit more assistance until he or she grasps the new environment. That goes for more software platforms and screen layouts than Gmail’s standard view.
Think about it like walking or driving a downtown street experiencing some construction. Detour signs appear. Arrows point to short-cuts or work-arounds to drive the same route or similar path to get where you are going.
It’s true when navigating computers as well. So take your time with Freedom Scientific’s tutorial for navigating Gmail’s standard view; acquaint yourself with the new ways you will use keys like page-up or down-arrow. In this and any other web environment, the purpose of the screen reader remains the same: reading what anyone else can see with their eyes and inputting data in all the right places.
Happy New Year and happy navigating!
Boldly Blind 