Hi Sarah,
Skype won't go away, but as I said in past, it
became less and less accessible for the blind, and this especially under
Windows.
We can use it, but if it becames too bad and too hard or impossible
to be scripted, it is a good idea to talk about this with the hope that somebody
might know about another solution which is more friendly for us. The talk is a
positive one, not a negative one.
--Octavian
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2020 8:19
PM
Subject: Re: [skypeenglish] Skype issues
that I see, response to several messages on this list today
I'm not letting go of skype, it's part of my job, at least for now. We also
are trying to find other means though so we'll see.. And now that apple
working actively to stop electron apps from being on our systems, it's
imperative that those of us doing our jobs on mac must find a solution.
Sarah Alawami, owner of TFFP. . For more info go to our website.
to subscribe to the feed click here and you can also follow us on twitter
Our discord is where you will
know when we go live on [twitch.](http://twitch.tv/ke7zum] Feel free to give
the channel a follow and see what is up there.
For stream archives, products you can buy and more visit my main lbry page and my tffp lbry page YOu will also be able to
buy some of my products and eBooks there.
Finally, to become a patron and help support the podcast go here
On 8 Apr 2020, at 9:10, Mike DeZinno wrote:
Good day
All, Just to way-in on this topic; I am also finding the need to explore
other software like Team Talk, Zoom, and others I feel badly for
Doug Lee, who has now for several years tried against all odds to make Skype
work for us like it once did, only to keep having to fix something that
keeps getting more difficult to keep up with because of Skype's constant
changes and quirks. . Just like we all had to let go of Skype 7.xx
versions I guess we should maybe get ready to some day do the same with
Skype in general and be open to finding software that is more naturally
accessible to the blind community. I say these things not out of
anger but rather out of an honest feeling of guilt that we keep needing so
much of Doug's time spent just trying to not get too far behind with all the
work he needs to do and re-do just to keep Skype almost working day to
day. Many heart felt thanks to you Doug for all you do for
us. Stay well all, Mike in SC At 10:57 AM 4/8/2020
Wednesday, you wrote:
Hi
Doug,
Thank you for the list of Skype alternatives. I tested some
of them, and I will test TeamTalk, TeamSpeak and Zello, because the ones I
tried are not at least as good as the old Skype for
Desktop.
--Octavian
----- Original Message ----- From: "Doug
Lee" <dgl@...>
To:
<main@skypeenglish.groups.io>
Sent: Sunday, April 05, 2020 3:38
PM
Subject: Re: [skypeenglish] Skype issues that I see, response to
several messages on this list today
I can confirm that Skype can
be slow to switch chats. I'm pretty sure that happens regardless of
whether you run scripts, or even JAWS; but someone please prove me wrong
if possible.
The hotkey for moving to message history is also not
working as well as it once did, but I may be able to fix that one. I
noticed it earlier this weekend but did not include it in my message
because I wanted to test it
further before commenting on
it.
As for Skype alternatives, here's a somewhat complete list of
what I've worked with lately, in no particular order. This list includes
of course only the clients and platforms I've seen and/or scripted in a
non-professional
setting; i.e., I've scripted other clients under
contract and am not listing those here.
I have scripts for
Unigram, the Windows 10 Telegram client that is most accessible. The app
comes from the Windows Store; the scripts come from https://www.dlee.org/unigram/
In fact, my
use of Unigram includes hosting my project update announcement channel
there, along with a paired discussion group for the things I release.
See my contact page for current details: https://www.dlee.org/contact/
A while ago, I
did a bit of Discord scripting for a couple of folks; but those are
surely pretty out of date by now. I'm told that Discord text chatting is
still pretty accessible though.
I have fairly comprehensive
scripts for Slack at https://www.dlee.org/slack/ and some very soon to
be significantly updated scripts for Microsoft Teams, which will replace
Skype For Business (SFB), at
https://www.dlee.org/teams/
Both of those
are more for the professional arena I think, but I think they can be
used outside of that environment.
I am not listing my SFB scripts
here, though I have three different sets of those for different SFB
versions, because as I said, Teams will be replacing SFB. Also, SFB is
exclusively for professional settings as far as I know.
Of course
there's also Zoom, which is probably the most popular of the platforms
now for voice. It also supports text chatting, and scripts for that one
are included in JAWS 2020 and also are available from Bryan
Hartgen.
Then we have TeamTalk and TeamSpeak, which I scripted as
well: https://www.dlee.org/teamtalk/ and https://www.dlee.org/teamspeak/
Those are
also more known for voice but do support texting. TeamSpeak will at some
point move to a new structure that has global text chat support much
like Discord, but the date for that has remained uncertain for quite
some
months by now.
And I guess I will complete my list with
that old but amazingly still kickin' client known as Zello. I still have
scripts for that one at https://www.dlee.org/zello/ though I rarely work on
that one because I long ago got
tired of wrestling with bugs in the
Windows client. Still, the platform survives and gets used, especially
in emergency settings from all I hear, though again, more for voice than
for text I think.
On Sun, Apr 05, 2020 at 03:09:30PM +0300,
Octavian Rasnita wrote:
Even worse then those things is that the
hotkey Control+Insert+Y to move to
the list of chat messages is not
working anymore, sometimes after opening
Skype nothing happends when
pressing Shift+Tab or Tab for moving there, and
this for several
minutes, also sometimes Skype appears as locked for several
minutes
when pressing Alt+1, so if somebody sends me a message, I am not
able
to read that message immediately until Skype starts working
well.
This happends when using latest Skype with your scripts under
Windows 7.
Under Windows 10 there are many more other bad things that
appear in many
other applications, so passing to Windows 10 is not a
solution.
You tested more text and voice chatting apps. Do you know
if there is one
that's better accessible for the blind and easier to
use than Skype?
--Octavian
----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Lee" <dgl@...>
To:
<main@skypeenglish.groups.io>
Sent: Sunday, April 05, 2020
12:09 AM
Subject: [skypeenglish] Skype issues that I see, response to
several
messages on this list today
Let me address some claims
I've seen, today on this list and elsewhere
over time, about Skype
for Windows, and some of my own claims besides:
Claim 1: Skype
online status is sometimes wrong.
True. In the past few weeks,
I've seen a Skype status of "Last seen days
ago" for contacts I saw
less than six days earlier. To my initial alarm,
that message has
for some time been widely recognized as meaning that
you
are
blocked by the contact. I find this no longer to be the
case; I've seen
friends and professional colleagues alike display
as "Last seen days ago"
without having blocked me.
Claim 2:
Skype mood text can be wrong.
True. For quite a while and
through several Skype 8 versions, I've seen
the mood text for one
contact stay active while I switched through chats
with several
other contacts, until I happen to open a chat with
another
contact
who actually has a mood text. In short, the mood
text does not clear until
it is changed to a new message. I have
repeatedly reported this bug to
Microsoft but have not seen any
sign of it being addressed.
Claim 3: "File sent" no longer
speaks after a file transfer.
Not sure about this one. I do
know that "File sent" finally stopped
speaking after the sending of
a chat message, but I don't send files much.
I also know that both
of those messages are not likely to speak if you
split your
chat
windows out from the main Skype window, because of the way the
Skype
notifications work.
Claim 4: Skype UWP for Windows 10
is going away.
Mixed. Reliable indications exist that Skype UWP
will become like, or
become equal to, Skype for Windows Desktop in
some way. I don't know if
the Store app is going away entirely; but
since it comes with Windows 10
now, I
doubt it. Those on the
Windows Insider program, which I am not, can
probably say more
about this one.
Claim 5: Focus sticks to the "1 star" button
after a Skype-to-phone call.
Uncertain but reliably reported.
If anyone else has seen this one, please
let me know. I have not
seen this one on my machine, and I make a fair
number of
Skype-to-phone calls; but I may have just jumped past it
too
fast.
I hope this message helps clear up a few
uncertainties for people.
--
Doug
Lee
dgl@...
http://www.dlee.org
Level
Access
doug.lee@...
http://www.LevelAccess.com
"Believe, when you
are most unhappy, that there is something for you
to do in the
world. So long as you can sweeten another's pain, life is
not in
vain." --Helen Keller
--
Doug
Lee
dgl@...
http://www.dlee.org
Level
Access
doug.lee@... http://www.LevelAccess.com
"The most exhausting
thing in life is being
insincere."
- Anne Morrow
Lindbergh {American
Author}
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