I'm just curious as to whether anybody has used the Leasey program. When
I purchased my annual JAWS home license I also splurged and purchased
Leasey from Hartgen Consultancy <http://www.hartgen.org>in the U.K., the
company which produces the software.
It is very difficult to concisely describe what Leasey is and what it
does, because it does so many things. I'll do my best.
Leasey is actually a set of cleverly written scripts for the JAWS screen
reader. This means that you need to have JAWS running in order for
Leasey to function. You can't use it with other screen readers.
Leasey adds a huge amount of tools and services to JAWS to enhance its
functionality and, ideally, enhances your productivity. It can be
purchased as two separate programs.
The first is called Leasey Total Package, costing a little over $100.00.
This is really designed for a very new and/or inexperienced computer
user. After JAWS begins running, you are placed in a menu containing a
variety of tasks, such as Write a Document or Letter, Visit a Web Page,
etc. You arrow through the menus and the items are announced in actual
human-narrated speech. Because it is designed for a new user, there is
no start menu or desktop to deal with. In fact, if you attempt to open
your start menu or desktop Leasey takes over and displays her own menu
of options. This means that new users can't accidentally leave Leasey
and go somewhere else because Leasey takes over Windows and becomes its
own operating system. There is always context-sensitive help, no matter
where you are, which is also read by Leasey's human voice. Even though
you can't access the start menu or desktop you can still access all of
your computer's programs. For example, if you choose the option "write a
document or letter", Leasey opens Microsoft Word, assuming that you've
installed it onto your system. Once you're in Word, JAWS takes over and
Word functions as it always did. However, Leasey does offer some
modifications such as a slightly more intuitive spell checker
experience, similar to what you had with older versions of Word.
The other version of Leasey is called Leasey Advanced, which is the
version I bought. It costs around $65.00, making it considerably more
inexpensive. Leasey Advanced has the same modifications found in Leasey
Total but it does not include the human narrated menus or human narrated
help and it does not include the Daisy training material found within
Leasey Total. It also, by default, does not lock you into Leasey's
walled garden but allows you to use your computer normally with your
start menu, taskbar, desktop, etc. JAWS is needed to do all of the
talking, making it ideal for users who are already comfortable with
Windows and with JAWS.
So, what does it do? I'm brand new to it and am still learning its
features and so there are still some things, many things in fact, that I
am still learning. Essentially, it's a huge list of tools and utilities,
as well as modifications to JAWS to make JAWS even more powerful.
Here is what I've learned so far.
Leasey Clips. This is, essentially, the ability to paste up to twelve
different pieces of text onto twelve different clipboards, any of which
can be pasted in any order within a document. These clipboards or Leasey
clips are even saved when you restart your computer.
Leasey Alerts. If a Web page contains certain pieces of text Leasey will
play a sound and then move the cursor to that point on the page. The
example they give is with Google. When you perform a search on Google,
the page containing your results has a heading titled "Search Results."
If you press the letter H a few times JAWS will eventually take you to
this heading. However, with Leasey Alerts you can set up the phrase
"Search Results" as an alert phrase on Google. This means that, after
you perform a search on Google, Leasey plays a sound and then moves your
cursor right to that heading, avoiding the need to find it.
Leasey Texts. These are pieces of text that you can save with short
titles that you can paste anywhere. As an example, I might have a Leasey
text titled "Signature" with my name, title and Web site address. When I
want to insert my signature, I can bring up the Leasey texts list, find
"signature" and press enter to paste it. I can also assign an
abbreviation, such as "sig" to paste it. Microsoft Word contains these
features already but Leasey can do this anywhere, in any file where you
enter text.
Leasey Search. This allows you to perform searches on a variety of Web
sites from anywhere. As an example, from Word I can invoke the Leasey
Search dialog, type in a phrase and it performs a Google search, without
my having to open my Web browser first.
In Word Leasey has an option to open your document and move your cursor
to the last place you were reading, rather than at the top of the file.
And, honestly, that's just scratching the surface with what this program
does. It's just awesome.
You can read more about it by going to Leasey Central,
<http://www.leaseycentral.com>which contains the full manual, audio
demos, little tutorials called Leasey Bites and demonstration versions.
--
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist Feel free to visit my
Web site WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info
