Experiencing a problem with VNC

[James Weatherall]

Keith,
I'm afraid that VNC in its present form is not in general suitable for use
by visually-impaired users via screen-reader techniques.  VNC uses the
Remote Framebuffer Protocol, which transfers pixel data from the server
computer to the viewer, without any actual understanding of what those
pixels mean, in most cases.  This means that the viewer has no access to the
details of text in window titles, dialog boxes, etc.
VNC Viewer will send the key events you type to the remote computer but will
not provide any feedback compatible with simple screen readers, unless they
actually try to make sense of the pixels it draws in its window.  I suspect
that most screen readers access the actual text data in window titles, etc,
rather than trying to "read" the text from the graphics.
Cheers,
Wez @ RealVNC Ltd.
 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: vnc-list-admin "at" realvnc.com 
> [mailto:vnc-list-admin "at" realvnc.com] On Behalf Of Keith
> Sent: 21 September 2004 05:23
> To: VNC-List "at" realvnc.com
> Subject: Experiencing a problem with VNC
> 
> Hllo all. My name is Keith, and I am experiencing an issue 
> with VNC. Not with
> running the server, but it is with the VNC viewer 
> application. First of all, I
> am using the VNC server under Windows 98 Second Edition. The 
> problem is, I
> happen to be a blind computer user. Because of this, I happen 
> to use a screen
> access software program to review the screen through Speech. 
> However, the
> Viewer application is completely inaccessible to the screen 
> reader, either the
> built-in viewer, or the Java viewer. Both are inaccessible 
> for anyone who uses
> a screen reader, weather  visually impaired, or blind. I 
> wanted to learn if
> there's any other possible way to connect to a VNC server, 
> rather then the
> viewer application? The reason I am asking this, is because 
> my Blind friend,
> was able to make my computer type things into other programs, 
> he managed to
> remotely open the start menu, all through the use of the 
> keyboard, and even
> made me shut down the system remotely, yesterday. He told me 
> that if I want to
> be able to remotely connect to VNC servers, I'll need to learn the VNC
> Protocol, and right my own accessible interface. But I don't 
> even know c++ or
> any programming languages. Any other suggestions? Any 
> alturnitive mothods to
> using the viewer program? As a blind user, we and the screen 
> reader relies on
> the keyboard alone for every computer operation, that a 
> sighted user would
> point and click the mous to perform. But I'm not sure within 
> the viewer window
> how to perform a remote alt+Tab, open the start menu, 
> navigate it, remotely
> through the use of the keyboard. Any suggestions/tips would 
> be very helpful.
> Regards, Keith.
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