Using VNC with a Screen reader?

[cbeerse@gmail.com]

Dan wrote:
> Hey all, I'm totally blind here, so therefore I use a screen reader to
> access my PC.  And I wanted to know if there are any scripts for JAWS for
> windows, or set files for window-eyes for VNC to make it accessible, in
> particular, the VNC viewer.

Dan,

I'm sorry I have to tell that VNC provides a fully graphical view of the remote 
machine. It gives a screendump of the remote-side: just the pixels, no text 
information or such. I donnot know how your screen-readers work but as far as I 
know, they scan for character information in the screen buffer. Since the 
display is only a bitmap, this text information is lost. You do need a character 
recognition program to get the text from the vnc viewer.

If your can install a screen reader on the remote machine, you might be helped 
with a vnc variant that also provides a sound channel. I donnot know details but 
I do know there are more vnc variants around: For real-vnc I'm sure it does not 
provide a sound-channel. You can try with tight-vnc, true-vnc or maybe others.

If your remote machine is a unix or linux based machine, I think you are better 
helped with an X11 server on your desktop and use the X11 way to do remote 
desktops. This might give hooks for your screen readers. If your desktop is also 
unix or linux, just set the $DISPLAY variable on the remote system to your 
desktop machine.


Regards,

CBee


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