Meeting Topic: a Demo of the Leasey Software

Group: the Philadelphia Computer Users Group for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Date: Friday, March 13, 2020

Time: 8:00 PM Eastern

 

Introduction

If you’ve been a user of the JAWS screen reader for even a short time you know that it’s rich in features and capabilities and possesses an impressive array of configuration options. However, as powerful as JAWS may be there is a third party program which you can add to your existing copy of JAWS which offers even more tools and capabilities to make using JAWS even easier. Many of these features will allow you to more easily complete tasks and will definitely increase your productivity. Meet Leasey, which I will be demonstrating during the next phone meeting of the Philadelphia Computer Users Group for the Blind and Visually Impaired.

Leasey is a program written by Hartgen Consultancy. It consists of over 50 separate features but it can be broken down into two components, which are Leasey Basic and Leasey Advanced.

Leasey Basic

Leasey Basic consists of a menu-driven interface to access the programs and functions of your computer. Instead of dealing with the start menu and the desktop pressing a single key opens the Leasey Main Menu, which contains options such as Write a Document or Letter, Check Your Email, Surf the Internet, etc. Pressing enter on any of these options opens a submenu with even more options. Leasey Basic also contains context-sensitive help which provides information on where you are on the computer and what you can do. These menus and help screens are spoken by a friendly, female human voice known as Leasey. This can help users who are new to the computer to slowly transition not only to using synthesized speech but in using their computer. Leasey Basic is ideal for new or novice users, users with cognitive disabilities or those who want a friendly, consistent way to access their computer.

Leasey Advanced

Some readers who are more experienced users may be wondering if Leasey has any features which are relevant to them. This is where Leasey Advanced comes in and will be featured during the bulk of our upcoming demo. Leasey Advanced contains so many features that we won’t be able to show you all of them in the time allotted. However, here are some of the features which we’ll be demonstrating.

·         Leasey Clips. This allows you to store up to twelve separate blocks of text into clipboard-like areas which can then be pasted in a document. These text blocks are preserved even after restarting your computer.

·         Leasey Texts. You can store an unlimited list of text blocks, such as names, addresses, signatures, etc. These blocks of text can be named using a title of the user’s choosing and can be recalled from a list. Optionally, you can use an abbreviation to paste a block of text, such as typing “addr” to paste an address.

·         Leasey Select. Easily select text by using intuitive hotkeys to mark the beginning and end of the block. There’s even a way to mark the end of a block of text and then have that text copied to the clipboard.

·         Leasey Search. Search for information from a variety of sources no matter where you located. Examples include Google, the NLS catalog and databases to look up information about music or TV shows.

·         In Microsoft Word press hotkeys to move the cursor to the next or previous spelling error as well as to the next or previous grammatical error without the need to toggle the virtual cursor.

·         A simpler interface to Word’s spell checker.

·         How to quickly unprotect a Word file

·         How to obtain help on accessing All Leasey commands and to remind yourself and/or to learn Leasey keystrokes

Following the demo we’ll be happy to answer questions from participants.

How to Participate

You can join our meeting using Zoom by opening the following link.

https://zoom.us/j/3565857579

 

Meeting ID: 356 585 7579

 

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Meeting ID: 356 585 7579

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-- 
David Goldfield,
Blindness Assistive Technology Specialist
JAWS Certified, 2019

WWW.DavidGoldfield.org