ACCESSING THE INTERNET FROM THE KEYBOARD BY JOHN WILSON Volume 2 COPYRIGHT 2006 ******** TABLE OF CONTENTS (To find a particular section or heading, use your word- processor's or editor's search facility, e.g. type ">section 6" to find that section. Ensure that you precede the word section with the greater than sign (>), which is the capitalised full stop, to be certain to find the relevant section first time and not any earlier reference to it. Type the string "What are Cookies?" or the specific paragraph number of 3.4.1. to find that sub-heading. Additionally, all main sections are separated by a centred row of eight asterisks.) Foreword and Restrictions Available Manual Formats Target Group Conventions Suggested Approaches for Effective Learning with this Tutorial Section 1: Introduction 1.1. What this Tutorial does and does not Cover 1.2. JAWS, HAL, Supernova and Window-Eyes Special Web Page Navigation Hot Keys 1.2.1. JAWS 4.0, 4.5, 5 and 6 1.2.2. HAL 5, 6 and 6.5 1.2.3. Window-Eyes 4.2, 4.5 and 5 1.2.4. Windows Operating System Shortcuts Section 2: HELPFUL TIPS AND CUSTOMISATION 2.1. Twenty Customisation and Other Tips Section 3: Internet Shopping 3.1. General Overview 3.2. Security Issues 3.2.1. Secure HTTP Websites 3.2.2. Ensuring that Your Online Transaction Details are Not Automatically Saved to Disk 3.3. UK Consumer Home Shopping Rights 3.4. Cookies and Spyware 3.4.1. What are Cookies? 3.4.2. Accepting or Rejecting Legitimate Cookies and Controlling them via Internet Explorer 3.4.3. Exporting and Importing Your Desirable Cookies for Use on another Computer 3.4.3.1. Saving/Exporting Cookies 3.4.3.2. Importing or Restoring Cookies to a Browser 3.5. Description of Typical Online Shopping Store Purchase Forms 3.6. Shopping Online--Three Step by Step Practical Examples of Making a Purchase with General Screenreaders to Work Through 3.6.1. The UK Cobolt Systems Products for the Blind Site 3.6.2. The Special Tesco Access Grocery Shopping Site 3.6.2.1. Introduction and General Information 3.6.2.2. Registering Yourself for Tesco Online Shopping 3.6.2.3. Shopping on the Tesco Site and Paying for Your Goods 3.6.3. The Amazon Website 3.7. Step by Step PWWebspeak Dedicated Web Browser Example of Making a Purchase on the Amazon Site 3.8. E-Wallets 3.9. Uk and US Shopping Price Comparison Sites 3.10. Some Good Places to Find Online Shops 3.10.1. The Amazon Shop 3.10.2. The Cdnow Shop 3.10.3. The Emusic Shop 3.10.4. The Expedia Shop 3.10.5. The Train Enquiry Shop 3.10.6. The Index and Argos Shops 3.10.7. The Cdwow Shop Section 4: Online Auctions 4.1. Auction Terminology 4.2. Different types of Online Auctions 4.2.1. The QXL Auction Site 4.2.2. The Morgan Auction Site 4.2.3. The Free Serve Auction Site 4.2.4. The American Blind Treasures Auction Site 4.2.5. The Ebay Auction Site 4.2.6. The Nochex Auction site 4.3. Step by Step Example of Using an Online Auction--The UK Morgan Site 4.4. Step by Step Example of Using an Online Auction--The US Blind Treasures Site Section 5: Realaudio Radio, News and Video 5.1. Basic RealPlayer 8 Hardware and software Requirements 5.2. How Does Web Radio or Webcasting Work 5.3. General Multiple Radio Sites to Listen To 5.4. Individual and Single Topic Radio Sites to Listen To 5.5. VI-Specific Multiple Radio Site to Listen to 5.6. Example of Streaming and Listening to Realaudio Using the Windows Media Player 5.7. Example of Listening to RealAudio Using Winamp 5.8. Installing and Using Realplayer 8 Basic 5.8.1. Pen-picture of the RealPlayer Basic Screen 5.8.2. Using RealPlayer 8 Basic 5.8.3. Loading a Clip for Playing in RealPlayer 5.8.4. Searching for things to Listen to or Watch 5.8.5. The Play List 5.8.6. The RealPlayer Basic Favourites Folder 5.8.7. Using the RealPlayer Help System 5.8.8. RealPlayer 8 Shortcut Keystrokes 5.9. RealPlayer 10 Basic 5.9.1. Basic RealPlayer 10 Hardware and software Requirements 5.9.2. Downloading and Installing RealPlayer 10 5.9.3. Tips on the Use of RealPlayer 10 on the Net 5.9.3.1. How to Listen to Audio Streaming from the Net 5.9.3.2. Essential Shortcut Keystrokes when Playing Streaming Audio and Audio from your Hard disk 5.9.3.3. Making Tonal Changes in the RealPlayer Equaliser 5.9.4. Using the RealPlayer 10 Help System 5.9.5. RealPlayer 10 Shortcut Keystrokes 5.10. How to Create Your Own Radio Station 5.10.1. On Live 365 5.10.2. On Yahoo Launchcast 5.11. Promote Your Own Station on the Streammadness Mailing List 5.12. Sharing Streaming Audio Content Over the Net by Peercasting 5.13. Recording/Ripping Streaming radio Audio to Disk 5.14. Shortcuts for use with the BBCs own Accessible Streaming Audio Player Section 6: Download Managers, Advertisement Banner removers, Cookie Crunchers and Spyware Removers 6.1. Where to Obtain Freeware and Shareware Download Managers 6.1.1. Download Accelerator 6.1.2. Download Wonder 6.1.3. RealDownload 6.1.4. GetRight 6.1.5. DLEXPERT 6.1.6. regit 6.1.7. Download Assistant 6.1.8. Download Butler 6.1.9. Tweakdun 6.1.10. Go!zilla 6.1.11. Winget 6.2. Where to Obtain Advertising Banner, Spyware and Cookie Removers 6.2.1. Ad-Aware 6.2.2. Popupkiller 6.2.3. Cookie Cruncher 6.2.4. Cookie Muncher 6.2.5. Karen's Cookie Viewer 6.2.6. Spyware Doctor 6.2.7. Spybot Search&Destroy 6.2.8. Online Cooky, banner and other Spyware Removers 6.3. Step by Step Example of Using a Download Manager--Download Accelerator 7.4 6.3.1. Download and Installation 6.3.2. Using Download Accelerator 6.3.3. Resuming a Lost or Paused Download 6.3.4. Changing Configurations with the DAP 7.4 Configuration Wizard 6.4. Step by Step Example of Using a Spyware and cooky Remover-- Ad-Aware 6.4.1. Download and Installation 6.4.2. Using Ad-Aware from its On-Screen Interface 6.4.3. Removing Detected Spyware 6.4.4. Emptying the Ad-Aware Quarantine Folder 6.4.5. Using Special JAWS Scripts to Automate the use of Ad-Aware 6.4.6. Updating Ad-Aware's Scanning Files Section 7: Internet Banking 7.1. Online Banking Introduction and security 7.2. A Selection of Internet Banking Sites 7.2.1. Smile Online Bank 7.2.2. Cahoot Online Bank 7.2.3. Halifax Bank 7.2.4. First Direct Bank 7.2.5. Barclays Bank 7.2.6. Natwest Bank 7.3. Step by Step Example of Opening and Using Online Banking--The ING Direct Bank Site 7.3.1. Opening an ING Direct Account Online 7.3.2. Transferring Funds from Your ING Direct Account to your Linked Current Account 7.3.3. Other Facilities Available on the ING Direct Site 7.4. Step by Step Example of Opening and Using Online Banking--The Nationwide Building Society Site 7.4.1. Making Arrangements with Your Local Branch and Providing Identification 7.4.2. What Happens Next 7.4.3. Activating a Branch Opened Account Online 7.4.4. How to Move Cash from One Account to Another Online 7.4.5. Other Facilities Available on the Nationwide Site Section 8: INTERNET CHAT 8.1. Microsoft Chat with Windows 95 and 98 8.1.1. What is Internet Chat? 8.1.2. Microsoft Chat Overview 8.1.3. What can Chat Rooms be Used For? 8.1.4. Pen-Picture of the Microsoft Chat Screen in Text Mode 8.1.5. Online Chat Rooms with Microsoft Chat 8.1.6. Using Microsoft chat Version 2.5 with windows 95 and 98 8.1.6.1. Group Chatting 8.1.6.2. Chatting in Private Chat Rooms 8.1.6.3. Microsoft Chat Modes 8.1.6.4. Microsoft Chat Commands 8.1.6.5. Practical Example of Joining a Chat Session with Microsoft Chat 8.1.6.6. Microsoft Chat Shortcut Keystrokes 8.2. Chatting with MSN Messenger 6.2 8.2.1. What Can You Use MSN Messenger For? 8.2.2. Signing on to the .Net Passport Service 8.2.3. Downloading MSN Messenger 8.2.4. Installing Messenger 8.2.5. Launching Messenger 8.2.6. Configuring Messenger for Optimal Use with a Screenreader 8.2.6.1. Stopping Messenger from Automatically Launching and Obtaining a Simple View of the Screen 8.2.6.2. Making Changes in Messenger Tools Options and Enabling your Virus Scanner 8.2.7. Pen-Picture of the Messenger Screen/Windows 8.2.8. How to Chat to One or More People with Messenger 8.2.8.1. Initiating a Chat without Using the Contacts List 8.2.8.2. Adding People to Your Contacts List 8.2.8.3. Initiating a Chat from Your Contacts List 8.2.9. Being notified that One of Your Contacts has come online and/or sent you a message 8.2.10. E-Mailing with MSN Messenger 8.2.10.1. Sending Someone an E-Mail 8.2.10.2. Downloading Your E-Mail 8.2.11. MSN Messenger General Shortcut Keystrokes and Specialist Screenreader Hot Keys 8.2.11.1. Windows Shortcuts 8.2.11.2. JAWS 4.5 to 6.0 Screenreader Hot Keys for Messenger 8.2.11.3. Window-Eyes 4.21 to 5.0 Screenreader Hot Keys for Messenger 8.2.11.4. HAL 4.5 to 6.5 Screenreader Hot Keys for Messenger 8.3. Other Chat Providers 8.3.1. General Providers 8.3.2. Specialist Blind-Friendly Chat Providers 8.3.2.1. A-Chat 8.3.2.2. The Million Web Chat 8.3.2.3. Accessible Chat Section 9: Using the Internet to Phone People 9.1. The Skype Internet Telephony Program--An overview 9.2. System Requirements 9.3. Downloading Skype and JAWS Scripts for Skype 9.4. Installing Skype and the JAWS Scripts 9.4.1. JAWS Scripts Installation 9.4.2. Skype Software Installation 9.5. Launching Skype 9.6. Pen-Picture of the Skype Screen 9.7. Skype's System Tray Context Menu and Skype Me Mode 9.8. Making and Receiving Audio Calls with Skype 9.8.1. Making a Call without using the Contacts List 9.8.2. Logging On and Finding Contacts 9.8.3. Calling Someone from your Contacts List 9.8.4. Answering a Call Someone is Making to You 9.9. Configuring Skype in its Options Dialogue 9.9.1. Viewing/Changing Options whilst Offline 9.9.2. Viewing/Changing Skype's Options whilst Online 9.10. Shortcut Keystrokes for Use with Skype 9.10.1. General Skype Shortcuts and Notification Sounds 9.10.2. JAWS Specialist Hot Keys for Skype Appendix 1: Where to Find More Internet Information 10.1. From the Internet Itself 10.2. In Braille 10.3. On Cassette 10.4. By E-Mail Appendix 2: List of E-Mail Lists Dealing with Particular Topics of Visual Impairment 11.1. List of VI-Related Lists and Examples of How to Subscribe to Them 11.2. Downloadable Comprehensive List of e-Mail Lists of Interest to Visually Impaired People Appendix 3: List of Hundreds of General Websites of Interest 12.1. Recommended Sites to Visit Appendix 4: Keyboard Shortcuts in Internet Explorer and Outlook Express 13.1. Internet Explorer 5 and 6 13.2. Outlook Express 5 and 6 Appendix 5: Glossary of Computer and Internet Terms 14.1. Glossary Appendix 6: Other Manuals Available from this Author 15.1. List of Tutorials with Brief Description of Each Complimentary Close ******** Foreword and Restrictions I have written this manual and tutorial for the use of blind and otherwise visually impaired computer users and/or their trainers. It is free of charge and only available from its author's Website and from no other distributer. No individual or organisation is permitted to sell copies of this tutorial either as a stand-alone tutorial or as an integral part of any other literary, software or training package. ******** AVAILABLE MANUAL FORMATS The manual is only available in ASCII text format, as a free download from the author's Website at: http://web.onetel.com/~fromthekeyboard This tutorial and guide has been created with a minimum of formatting, in plain text, so that any word-processor or text editor can read it. In this format it should also be suitable for any one to run it through an embosser but, with some embossing software, you may still wish to make some line spacing and heading format changes to suit yourself and your software. A simple construction such as this should also make reading by arrowing up and down in your word-processor less labour intensive than would be the case with columns, shorter lines, and the like. Colloquialisms, such as don't, haven't, doesn't, etc, have been avoided in this guide in order to make it easier to follow and understand via a speech package. Hopefully, any loss of conversationality and warmth will be compensated for by increased clarity. ******** TARGET GROUP Blind and other categories of visually impaired computer users are the target group for this manual. Keyboard access methods and descriptions, using screenreaders and no mouse or monitor, are the basis of this work. This second Internet tutorial is more likely to be useful to the intermediate standard Internet user who already knows the basics of Net surfing and something about Windows 95/98/ME/XP keystroke methods and is already connected to the Internet, rather than the complete novice. Volume 1 of this tutorial deals with the theory and more basic competencies required for accessing the Internet. This second volume of the Internet tutorial is intended to take visually impaired surfers from an already sound basis of interacting with the Internet to a more advanced level of usage. Moreover, it does not attempt to teach basic Windows 95/98/ME/XP operating system competencies. ******** CONVENTIONS In the writing of this tutorial, terms and keystroke combinations have the following meanings: ALT F, A Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst still holding it down press the letter f, then release both and press the letter A. CONTROL S Means hold down the control key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter S and then release both. SHIFT END Means hold down the SHIFT key and whilst keeping it held down press the END key. ALT E, C, and press ENTER Means hold down the left ALT key and whilst keeping it held down press the letter E key, then release both and then press the letter C key followed by the enter key. When a key combination such as ALT T (for Tools), O (for Options) is suggested to go into the "Tools" menu and run the "Options" menu item, the user may follow this method of operation or may prefer to ARROW up and down a menu and press ENTER. In this latter case, the keystrokes would be: press the ALT key, right ARROW to the "Tools" menu heading, then ARROW down (or up) until the "Options" item is spoken, then press ENTER. All individual and conbinations of keys you actually have to press during a procedure which have been referred to have been put in capital letters so that they stand out to anyone reading this tutorial visually, e.g. to bring up the Open dialogue box press CONTROL O. If, in a menu, your screenreader announces an arrow or says something like submenu, this means that pressing ENTER or right ARROWING on this menu item will take you into a sub-menu to ARROW up and down in and make a choice. If your screenreader announces a row of three dots or says something like dialogue, you will open up a dialogue box to work in if you press ENTER on it. Note that with some screenreaders you may encounter a conflict between the generic Windows shortcuts and the screenreader's own hot keys. If this happens, you may, for example, have to press such as ALT and then release it followed by T (for Tools) to get into the Tools menu instead of pressing ALT and T together. In other instances you may find it necessary to use your screenreader's bypass or skip next keystroke hot key to get your screenreader to ignore your next key combination and therefore allow that key combination to pass through to the program instead of intercepting it as a screenreader hot key, e.g. use the bypass hot key of INSERT B in Window-Eyes, INSERT 3 in JAWS and CONTROL NumPad 7 in HAL. ******** Suggested Approaches for Effective Learning with this Tutorial It is, of course, entirely up to the individual as to how they glean information and work through this tutorial, but a few suggestions might assist the learner who is relatively new to computers. I would propose that you read through the whole of a section before attempting to practise it to obtain an overview of what is being done. There are a number of approaches which might be taken to make reading the tutorial as a text file and simultaneously carrying out the instructions more fluid and easier to follow. Try one of the below methods. Ideally, if you have two computers, you can load the tutorial into your text editor or word-processor on one PC and have the software program running on the other. You can then listen to the directions on one computer whilst practising them on the other. Alternatively, as is likely to be the case, if you only have the one computer, you could launch your word-processor and load the tutorial into it for reading. You could then launch the program you wish to learn how to use in order to practise the lessons. You would have to keep cycling between each running program by pressing ALT TAB in this case. Yet another approach might be to take a tape recorder or dictaphone and get your screenreader to read the contents of a given section or sub-section onto the tape. You could then play the tape back and follow the instructions through on your PC without having to keep moving from one running program window to another. Other options would be for you to print out a copy of the tutorial in large print if you can use this and work from this hard copy, or you could get your local library or resource centre to produce a Braille version for you to work from if you have one in your area and you are a Braillist. ******** >SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1. What this Tutorial does and does not Cover This tutorial (Volume 2 of the Internet tutorial) is the follow-on or sequel to Volume 1 of Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard. It does not teach the basics of Internet surfing, file downloading, use of Outlook Express or go into a description of what the Internet is or the theory of how it works, nor does it explain the various protocols which are involved in using Internet services, etc. These are all covered in Volume 1 of the tutorial. However, do have reference to various of the appendices where I have listed helpful information, in particular Appendix 4 "Keyboard Shortcuts in Internet Explorer and Outlook Express" and Appendix 5 "Glossary of Computer and Internet Terms". I have also provided a sub- section just below with several of the most important JAWS, HAL and Window-Eyes hot keys for use on Web pages in it as a place for you to easily find and refresh your memory in respect of these. Additionally, I have supplied a section covering helpful tips and hints on using the Internet and related software and hardware. This volume of the Internet tutorial is intended to take users from an intermediate level of competence into the more advanced and likely more challenging areas of the Internet from a screenreader point of view. It takes over from where Volume 1 of the Internet tutorial leaves off. Alternatively, if you have not already downloaded Volume 1 of Accessing the Internet from the Keyboard, you should have gained a reasonable level of skill on the Internet in general and with your screenreader of choice in particular via other means, whether from other manuals or tutorials or by trial and error, so that you have reached a reasonable stage of surfing attainment before you take on these more advanced skills. Volume 2 of the Internet tutorial does not instruct the user in how to use any particular specific screenreader (although some screenreader special shortcuts are occasionally exemplified or reminders of their existence given) but instead concentrates on the general keystrokes provided within Microsoft Windows programs to get things done. In this way the visually impaired computer user should be able to reasonably function on the Net irrespective of the screenreader which is on the computer they are currently using--something which would not be possible if you only learned the special keystrokes which come with a given screenreader package to achieve your goals. One thing you must keep in mind is that the Internet is continually in flux, growing and changing. Some Internet sites and pages you accessed and viewed last week will no longer exist this week, others will have come into existence within the last few hours and yet others will still be there but will have been altered in their construction and general appearance since you last visited them. Therefore, whilst at the time of writing the keystrokes given herein were the ones to use to achieve a given end result, This tutorial aims not so much to get you to follow precise keystrokes on particular sites only but rather to give you a general grasp of what the changing Internet is like and the confidence to use it even if some sites and web pages have changed since both I and you last frequented them. To be able to derive the maximum range of experience in completing Internet forms, I would recommend that you go onto all of the Websites covered as practical examples in the body of this tutorial, even if you do not want to download a given program or join a particular bank. This is because all of the forms you will encounter in these examples are different and you will therefore get a broader idea of how they can vary and how to deal with a larger variety of them. You can always, at the point of download or submission of a form, duck out and abort the download or subscription, having gain the practical experience to get you to the final stage of forms completion. 1.2. JAWS, HAL, Supernova and Window-Eyes Special Web Page Navigation Hot Keys Here I list, as a memory jogger, the main JAWS, HAL, Supernova and Window-Eyes Web page hot keys when using Internet Explorer 5 and later as of March 2005. 1.2.1. JAWS 4.0, 4.5, 5 and 6 Most of the below JAWS hot keys work with versions of JAWS from 4.0 onwards but a few will only work if you have upgraded to later versions which have included extra hot keys. If you press one of these single hot keys and nothing happens, it is likely that this hot key does not exist in your copy of JAWS, otherwise you would get some kind of feedback as JAWS would at least report "no more divisions found" if you press Z and your version of JAWS does not feature this particular recent addition to its range of single hot keys. Please note that the large INSERT key at the bottom left-hand side of the number pad is also frequently referred to as the JAWS key. I will only call it the INSERT key throughout this tutorial, as this is its most common name when the number pad is turned off. It is often used in conjunction with other number pad and main keyboard keys to invoke special combined hot key actions and so is used in a similar way to the SHIFT key when capitalising letters. Press A: To jump to the next anchor on a page. Press B: To move to the next button on a page. Press C: To get the current column read out in a table on a Web page. From JAWS 6 this key's function changes and moves you between comboboxes. Press D: to skip to the next different element on a page, e.g. from a link to an editfield and then, perhaps, to another link or combobox. Press E: to skip past the next element on a Web page. This changes to skipping to the next editfield on a page from JAWS 6. Press F: to skip to the next form (editfield) control on a Web page. Press G: To jump to the next graphic on a page. Press H: to jump to the next heading on a Web page. Press I: To skip to the next list item in a list on a Web page. Press J: To jump to any line in the JAWS virtual buffer after entering the line's number. You use SHIFT J to return to the starting point before the jump. Press K: To jump to the next place marker on a Web page if you have previously inserted markers on that page. Press L: to go directly to the next list on a Web page. Press M: to move to the next frame on a Web page. Press N: To skip past links on a Web page. Press O: To go to the next object tag on a page. Press P: To move to the next paragraph on a page. Press Q: To move to the next block quote on a page. Press R: To get the current row read out in a table on a Web page. From JAWS 6 this key's function changes and moves you between radio buttons. Press S: to jump to the next same element on a Web page, e.g. from edit field to editfield. Press T: To jump to the next Table on a page. Press U: To go to the next unvisited link on a Web page. Press V: To go to the next already visited link on a Web page. Press X: To go to the next checkbox on a page. Press Z: To jump to the next division on a page. Press >: To step past the next element on a Web page. Press <: To step to the element before the prior element on a page. Note 1: Hold down the SHIFT key with any of the above single letter hot keys to obtain the reverse action, i.e. jump backwards through lists, tables, editfields, etc. Note 2: From JAWS 6 you can hold down the CONTROL key and the INSERT key together and then press any of the above single letter keys to obtain a list of that particular element, e.g. CONTROL INSERT Z will bring up a list of the divisions on the current Web page. Press ENTER: to turn MSAA mode off when on a form editing field to be able to type text in. Pressing Numpad + (the PC cursor) turns MSAA mode back on. INSERT F1: Obtains screen sensitive help. INSERT F1 twice: Obtains JAWS help for a specific application. INSERT A: Reads the contents of the Address Bar. INSERT W: Provides tips on general Windows shortcut keystrokes. CONTROL UP or DOWN ARROW: Moves you from one text paragraph to another on a Web page. INSERT F6: Places the headings on a Web page into a structured hierarchical order to quickly ARROW through and press ENTER on any one to jump there (but only if the page has been written using HTML structured heading tags, e.g. H1, H2, etc). Before JAWS 4.01 this command simply took you to the Desktop minimised. CONTROL INSERT HOME: Takes you to the first form field on a page, if JAWS has not automatically placed you there already. You will have to press ENTER to turn MSAA mode off and forms mode on before you can complete editfields on a Web page or in a form. CONTROL INSERT TAB: Moves you to the next form field. CONTROL INSERT SHIFT TAB: Moves you to the previous form field. CONTROL INSERT END: Takes you to the last form field on a page. INSERT ENTER: Jumps you to the next instance of text with no associated link to read that text. INSERT F7: Invokes a links list so that you can ARROW up or down the links on a page or jump straight to a link by pressing the first letter of its name. You can also select between A-Z or Z-A order, have them in the original page TAB order, have only unvisited links displayed, only visited links displayed, etc. Pressing ENTER on one of these links will activate it. INSERT F9: Provides you with a frames list of the same type as the above links list. INSERT F5: From Version 5 onwards, displays a listbox with all of the controls and forms on the current Web page similar to the above two list features. INSERT Z: Toggles the virtual PC cursor on and off. CONTROL INSERT F: goes into the JAWS Find dialogue to type text in to jump to this. CONTROL INSERT TAB: Moves you from the current form field to the next form field. CONTROL INSERT SHIFT TAB: Same as the above but backwards through form fields. Press INSERT DELETE: To route the virtual cursor to the location of the PC cursor. Press SPACEBAR: To toggle checkboxes, select radio buttons and activate buttons without entering forms mode from Version 4.51 onwards. Press ALT DELETE: To obtain information about how much of an online document you have already read as a percentage of the whole text. ALT CONTROL NumPad 5: Reads the cell in a table which has focus. ALT CONTROL left or right ARROW: Moves you left or right through table columns and cells on a Web page. ALT CONTROL up or down ARROW: Moves you up or down a cell in a table. ALT CONTROL HOME OR END: Moves you to the first or last cell in a table respectively. WINDOWS KEY down ARROW: Moves to the next row in a table. WINDOWS KEY up ARROW: Moves to the previous row in a table. WINDOWS KEY .: Reads the current collum in a table. WINDOWS KEY ,: Reads the current row in a table. CONTROL J: Is the jump to cell in a table hot key. Pressing the main keyboard numbers 1 to 6: Jumps you from one heading to another heading on a Web page, e.g. pressing 1 repeatedly keeps moving you through heading 1 level headings, pressing 2 repeatedly keeps moving you through level 2 headings, etc. In this way you can quickly move between headings at the same level and between different levels of headings. A new concept introduced from JAWS 5.0 is the place marker insertion, jump to and list dialogue box. You can insert up to 10 place markers on any Web page and give them individual names. You can cycle through these place markers by pressing the K key and you can open up the place marker dialogue and view the list of your markers, add new markers, name them, move them in the list, remove them and jump to any one you like. You can do this whilst on a Web page online on the Net or on a Web page held on your hard disk without being online. There are only three essential hot key commands involved, as listed below. Press CONTROL SHIFT K: To open the place marker dialogue box when on a Web page to insert a permanent marker or make a temporary marker permanent. Press K: to jump forward through markers. Press SHIFT K: to jump backwards through markers. In practice, what you do with place markers is: 1. Whilst on a Web page with your cursor at the desired place you want a marker to be inserted, press CONTROL SHIFT K to open the place markers dialogue box to permanently add, name, move, remove, change the name of or jump to any place marker. 2. Now TAB to "Add" and press ENTER. 3. Next type a meaning full name into the editfield you are in such as "phone number for Webmaster" and press ENTER, and you have now finished inserting and naming your marker. 4. You can now jump to these markers with the above-mentioned K and SHIFT K commands or you can again press CONTROL SHIFT K to open the place markers' dialogue and then ARROW to any marker by its meaningful name and press ENTER on it to jump to it. The place marker feature has a few other non-essential hot keys which you may also wish to try, as follows: Press CONTROL k: to insert a single temporary marker at the cursor position on a page. Press CONTROL SHIFT 1 through 0: To get the name of any of the 10 markers on a page spoken to you (this hot key failed to work for me but perhaps it will work for you). Press CONTROL SHIFT 1 to 0 quickly twice: To move straight to the marker associated with that marker number, e.g. CONTROL SHIFT 5 twice to jump to marker number 5. 1.2.2. HAL 5, 6 and 6.5 Please note that, with HAL 6 onwards, the CAPSLOCK key at the left-hand side of the keyboard is also frequently referred to as the Dolphin key. I will only call it the CAPSLOCK key throughout this tutorial, as this is its most common name. It is often used in conjunction with other keys to invoke special combined hot key actions and so is used in a similar way to the SHIFT key when capitalising letters. Please also note that, when either the CONTROL or SHIFT keys are mentioned in the below list of hot keys, it is the left key which should be pressed. Pressing the right CONTROL or SHIFT key may not work. The following hot keys are available in HAL: F1: Provides context-sensitive help for the control or other element which focus is currently on. F3: Activates HALs find feature to jump to a given word or words on a Web page. You type the word(s) in and press ENTER to get the first occurrence of the word found. F4: This is the find next occurrence of a word hot key, after firstly invoking the find with F3 as above. F2: Is the find previous occurrence of a word key, after firstly invoking the find with F3 as above. SPACEBAR: Activates (left clicks on) a link, rather than pressing ENTER as with earlier versions of HAL. ENTER (return or carriage return key): Puts you into forms mode whilst on an editfield on a Web page. You can then type information into an editfield. You may have to press ENTER each time you encounter such an editfield to type text in. From HAL Version 6.03 you enter forms mode by pressing CAPSLOCK ENTER and HAL should then automatically change from forms editing mode to reading mode and back again without you having to do anything more. NumPad +: Starts and stops continuous document read. INSERT: Is the left click simulation key. To left click and change to live focus press the A key and to left double click press the U key. DELETE: Is the right click simulation key. To right click and change to live focus press the D key and to right double click press the E key. Left CONTROL PAGE UP or DOWN: Moves you upwards or downwards through any elements of a page which are not links, e.g. buttons, checkboxes, editfields, etc. Left CONTROL SHIFT PAGE DOWN or PAGE UP: Moves you from frame to frame on a page. Left CONTROL SHIFT HOME: Jumps you to the first form editfield on a page. Left CONTROL shift right ARROW: Moves you to the next occurrence of text which is not associated with a link. Left CONTROL SHIFT right ARROW: Opposite of above. Left CONTROL SHIFT DOWN ARROW: Skips you downwards through links on a page. Left CONTROL SHIFT UP ARROW: Opposite of above. Left SHIFT Numpad 0: Gives you the URL of a link which is not entitled or which has a meaningless title, such as "Click Here". ALT T (for Tools) then ARROW down to "Dolphin Links Navigator" and press ENTER: Loads the Links Navigator to format the links on a page in a row to ARROW through in A-Z, Z-A or Tab order or jump straight to a link by pressing the first letter of its name. Pressing ENTER will activate the link. With the introduction of HAL 5.20 and later, the Links Navigator is replaced by what is known as the Dolphin List Utility, to do the same links listing and selecting job but more efficiently and it also lists frames and HTML headings. You can use it for complex Web pages and for finding your way around HTML help files. With HAL 6, you also have hot keys of CAPSLOCK 1 to list links on a Web page, CAPSLOCK 2 to list headings, CAPSLOCK 3 to list frames and capslock 4 to list what is in the System Tray. CAPSLOCK ENTER: From HAL 6.03 only, invokes HALs new forms mode to make such as online shopping sites easier to work on. After pressing CAPSLOCK ENTER, As you move through a Web page, HAL intuitively automatically switches out of auto-virtual focus mode into live mode every time it comes across an editfield or other similar control to which live mode is appropriate. It will also automatically return to auto-virtual focus mode when required to do so in order to allow you to continue reading the Web page to be able to do things such as activate links. CAPSLOCK Numpad 7: In HAL 6.03 onwards, speaks the name of a form label to the left of an editfield if this is not automatically spoken by HAL in its forms mode because it is out of HAL's normal zone of detection. CAPSLOCK Numpad 8: In HAL 6.03 only, speaks the name of a form label above an editfield if this is not automatically spoken by HAL in its forms mode because it is out of HAL's normal zone of detection. Note: With HAL 5X the general Windows commands of ALT left and right ARROWS to take you to your last visited Web page backwards or forwards respectively do not work. 1.2.3. Window-Eyes 4.2, 4.5 and 5 Most of the below hot keys apply to all versions of Window-Eyes from Version 4.0 on Web pages but the hot keys for using Window- Eyes in MSAA mode to navigate Web pages immediately below apply before version 4.5. for those which apply from Version 4.5, see the new list beneath this first one. CONTROL SHIFT F1: Brings up WE help but this is not context sensitive. CONTROL SHIFT F: Enables the WE find feature. Pressing INSERT F will continue the search in the same direction. ALT U: Reads the URL for the current page. CONTROL INSERT S: Reads the status line, which may have useful Web page download details. CONTROL SHIFT A: Toggles MSAA mode on and off whilst MSAA mode is in automatic loading mode. If you find that some links on a Website are not working properly with Window-Eyes and so not being activated when you press ENTER on them, you may find that you can cure this by turning MSAA mode off and then on again by pressing CONTROL SHIFT A twice. This is a known issue with some versions of WE, e.g. Version 5.0. INSERT A: Toggles automatic loading of MSAA mode on or off. CONTROL SHIFT R: Will read a Web page from the cursor to its end. CONTROL SHIFT S: Provides information about how many lines are in the current page and what line the cursor is presently on, plus advice about whether the page has frames. ALT SHIFT DOWN ARROW: Moves you through links only on a page, missing out any other elements or controls, such as editfields, buttons, checkboxes, etc. ALT SHIFT UP ARROW: Opposite of the above. ALT DOWN ARROW: Moves you to the next element on a page, e.g. a link, an editfield, a button, etc, but it takes you to another type of control which is not the same as the one you left, e.g. if you were in a textbox you would not go to another textbox but to something else such as a button, a link, etc. ALT UP ARROW: Opposite of above. INSERT ALT DOWN ARROW: Moves you to the next text-only block skipping all other controls. ALT CONTROL SHIFT DOWN ARROW: Takes you to a previously visited link on a page skipping all other elements and unvisited links. ALT CONTROL DOWN ARROW: Moves you straight to the first control on a page which is not a link or text line, typically a form field such as a search box, but you must do this from the top of the page. Another press takes you to the next control on the page. You will have to press ENTER to turn MSAA mode off before you can complete editfields on a Web page or in a form. ALT CONTROL UP ARROW: Jumps you to the last control on a page from the bottom of the page. ALT CONTROL HOME: Takes you to your last position on a page or to the place you were before you moved to a subsequent page if moving back to the first page does not land you there automatically. INSERT TAB: Invokes the Window-Eyes vertical controls list from where you can choose to view and ARROW through lists of frames, tables or links in A-Z, Z-A or to view links in their original Web page TAB order, etc. Pressing ENTER on a link will activate it. F6: Takes you to the attachments list in an e-mail. ALT CONTROL TAB: Takes you to the first table on a page, when you then use CONTROL + to enter table mode. CONTROL - leaves table mode. Pressing ALT CONTROL TAB again will take you to the next instance of a table on the Web page if there is one. ALT CONTROL SHIFT TAB: Moves you backwards through tables on a page. CONTROL SHIFT H: Lets you cycle through several ways WE will give you table information, e.g. announce top headings as well as cell co-ordinates and contents, side headings as well as cell co- ordinates, etc. INSERT right, left, up and down ARROWS: Move you one cell at a time through a table on a Web page right, left, up and down respectively. CONTROL INSERT right or left ARROW: Moves you to the end or start of a row in a table. CONTROL INSERT up or down ARROW: Moves you to the top or bottom of a column in a table. With the advent of Window-Eyes 4.5 and later versions, the hot keys for working with Web pages in MSAA mode have changed to those shown below but, of course, many of the above hot keys of general use on Web pages still work: Press A: to skip to the next anchor on a Web page. Press C: To jump to the next control on a Web page. Press E: to jump to the next fieldset. Press F: To skip to the next form on a page. Press H: to move to the next heading on a page. Press I: to jump to the next list item in a list on a Web page. Press L: To jump to the next link on a Web page. Press P: To jump to the next paragraph on a page. Press Q: To move to the next block quote on a page. Press S: to skip to the next list on a Web page. Press T: To jump to the next table on a page. Press V: To jump to the next already visited link. Press X: to jump to the next instance of a text field on a Web page. Press left BRACKET F: To go to the beginning of the current form. Press right BRACKET F: To go to the end of the current form. Note 1: Hold down the SHIFT key with most of the above single letter hot keys to obtain the reverse action, i.e. jump backwards through lists, tables, editfields, etc. Note 2: Your screenreader may have fewer, more or even none of the above single key shortcuts, depending on its version. However, slightly earlier versions than those mentioned here should have most of them and slightly later versions should have them plus a few more. You should consult the hot keys section of the online help which comes with your screenreader version. Press INSERT V: To bring up the MSAA verbosity settings list, where you can control how much information WE provides you with on Web pages in respect of listboxes, forms, tables, lists and other Web page elements. Press CONTROL Numpad +: To enter table mode. Press CONTROL Numpad -: to leave table mode. 1.2.4. Windows Operating System Shortcuts The description of Web pages and the Windows shortcuts you can use on them is given here in paragraph and dialogue form instead of in straight lists of key presses and resultant actions. A Website is a collection of interlinked Web pages on a particular computer on the Nett. The first page is the home or index page. Web pages can contain text, pictures, animations and audio and video clips. Pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR on a "link" on a Web page may take you to another link on that same page, to another page on the same Website or to a page on another computer altogether anywhere else in the world. When you have loaded a Web page of text and pictures and the text on that screen has all been automatically read to you (24 lines per screen), you press the PAGE DOWN key to hear the next screen of information. Pressing PAGE UP takes you back a screen of information and reads it. Pressing CONTROL PAGE down moves you to the next page and CONTROL PAGE up takes you back a page. Up and down ARROW keys should permit you to read the page a line at a time, otherwise do this in your screenreader's navigation or mouse mode. Pressing the TAB key moves you forward to the next element on the current page, e.g. link, button, editfield, etc, whereas pressing SHIFT TAB takes you back an element. If you want to go back to the link you were last at (previous page, previous site, etc), you press ALT LEFT ARROW key. If you want to go forward a link, you press ALT RIGHT ARROW key. (Remember, these two latter commands do not work if you are using HAL 5X.) To return directly to where you first started out, i.e. your opening page when first launching your browser, press ALT HOME. Internet Explorer also has a Go to visited page history feature, so that you can view and go back to any page you have already been to in the current surfing session. You get to this history by pressing ALT V (for View( and then O (for Goto) and ARROWING up and down the already visited page names and pressing ENTER on any of them. You are likely to find that every time you open a new page within a site, you are presented at the top of the page with the same list of pictures, advertisements, logos, navigational bars with image buttons on them, list of links to go to, etc. The relevant section of the new page you have loaded may only appear halfway down the new page. You will have to ARROW or TAB quickly past all of this time and again to find what you want, which is tedious but necessary, unless your screenreader has a special jump past header links shortcut or links only links list facility which allows you to go easily to a specific link, put links in alphabetical order, display only unvisited links, etc, such as is available from JFW 3.7 with the INSERT F7 and INSERT F9 commands, The Window-Eyes 4.0 onwards INSERT TAB and CONTROL TAB commands or by downloading MS Powertoys and using its SHIFT F10 and "Links List" option. Another way to quickly get past these repeated header links is to press PAGE down once or twice until you jump past them or, if the page has frames, press CONTROL TAB once or twice to jump past the header frames. As you move around a Web page, in addition to encountering readable text, you will come across icons and images (pictures) which are meaningful to a sighted person but may be meaningless to a screenreader. Your screen reader may only be able to announce such as "image" or "bitmap" (or just say nothing) when it falls on these pictures. However, if the Webmaster (the person who wrote the Web page) has done his job thoroughly, he should have placed text titles at the side of these icons which your screenreader can read out to you to clarify what the picture is or what will happen if you press ENTER on an iconised link. These text titles are known as "ALT tags". Some Websites employ what are known as "frames". A good screenreader should be able to allow you to negotiate frames but some older ones cannot cope with them very well. A frame is an area on a Web page where similar types of information is stored but there are likely to be several frames on screen at once and, depending upon what you do in one frame, the layout and content of another frame may change. this usually makes browsing such sites more difficult, although not impossible. The more up-to- date and better quality screenreaders can now deal quite well with frames and have special keystrokes to do this. The standard Windows keystroke to move from one frame on a page to another is to press CONTROL TAB until you get to the frame you wish to look at and then you can ARROW down the information in the frame you are currently on. CONTROL SHIFT TAB moves you backwards through frames. ******** >SECTION 2 HELPFUL TIPS AND CUSTOMISATION I have repeated this "Tips and Customisation" section, which also appears in Volume 1 of the Internet tutorial, as even more knowledgeable Web users may find something new that is worthwhile trying amongst the below suggestions. You may wish to make some of these refinements to your programs immediately or wait until later. Whichever way you approach this, it is nonetheless a good idea to glance through this section before you move on. 2.1. Twenty Customisation and Other Tips 1. You may, if your phone line provider is BT, wish to opt for the BT Friends and Relatives service in order to register your Internet Service Provider's phone number as your best friend number to obtain a 20 per cent discount; otherwise, register it for a 10 per cent discount. This is something which BT may disallow at any time in future. 2. World Wide Web addresses have the suffix "http://" but you do not need to type this in when going to a Web page, as Web browsers fill this part of the address in for you automatically. Thus, this suffix has not been given when any website addresses have been indicated in this manual which may not need it. 3. To print a Web page, with the page on screen, press CONTROL P. 4. A "link" on a Web page is a place where you can press the ENTER key to jump from one part of the page to another to obtain more information, or from one page to another on the same site or from one computer site on the Web to another computer anywhere else in the world. Web page links should be announced by your screenreader saying something like "link" but if this does not happen with your screenreader you should turn attributes (such as colour change and/or style change) on in your screenreader so that these changes will be announced to alert you to their whereabouts. Links are normally underlined and in blue text. Some of these links may be embedded in the middle of other text and form an integral part of the textual information. You have to navigate to links with the TAB key, the ARROW keys or your screenreader's special links list facility or hot key and press the ENTER or SPACEBAR key to activate the link. 5. You can copy links from a Web page (with CONTROL C) to the Clipboard and then paste them into the Address Bar (with CONTROL V) in Internet Explorer rather than having to retype them. 6. If a Web page comes down from the Internet scrambled, you can press CONTROL R to reload it or F5 to refresh the screen. 7. To obtain more screen space and not cause your screenreader to be distracted, in many Windows programs it is worth turning off the Toolbar by pressing ALT V, T, and unchecking any of the Toolbars which are checked, but this is not essential, e.g. in Internet Explorer and Word. So, in Internet Explorer, you may wish to uncheck (by pressing ENTER on them) the "Standard Buttons" and "Radio" options but ensure that "Links" is checked on. However, if you are likely to want to use a toolbar to effect a command, do not do this, or turn Toolbars on and off as required. Ensure that "Status Bar" is also checked on in the View Menu. 8. In Internet Explorer, to speed up page downloading (if you do not use a monitor), press ALT T (for Tools), O (for Options) and then CONTROL TAB to the "Advanced" property sheet and TAB once to the "Accessibility" button. ARROW down this long list of options and uncheck (turn off by pressing the SPACEBAR) "Play Animations", "Play Videos", "Show Pictures" and "Smart Image Dithering". Ensure that the following are checked on: "Always Expand ALT Text for Images", "Notify When Downloads Complete" and "Play Sounds". It might also assist some screenreaders if you then CONTROL SHIFT TAB back to the "General" sheet, TAB to "Accessibility" and press ENTER, then ensure that "Ignore Colours Specified on Web Pages", "Ignore Font Sizes Specified on Web Pages" and "Ignore Font Sizes Specified on Web Pages" are all checked on; but "Format Documents Using My style Sheet" should be checked off. 9. In order to facilitate faster initial page loading and avoid the introductory advertisements which present themselves when you first load Internet Explorer, you can have it load with a blank page. To do this, with Internet Explorer running, press ALT T for Tools, O for Options, and in the "general" property sheet TAB forward to "Use Blank" and press ENTER. Then TAB on to OK and press ENTER. In future, when you start Internet Explorer, it will open with a blank page and your screenreader may announce the word "About". You just continue as normal (see Section 4 for how to launch Internet Explorer). 10. Some screenreaders may read what is on the screen better if you surf in "full screen" mode. All you have to do to obtain full screen mode is press the F11 key or press ALT V and arrow up to "Full Screen"and press ENTER. Pressing F11 again returns you to normal mode. Experiment to discover which view is best for you but be aware that full screen mode makes a program completely fill the screen, so title bars, menu bars, status lines, etc, will disappear. 11. To speed up connection to your ISP and make site connections and downloads quicker, go To "My Computer" on your Desktop and press ENTER. Then ARROW down to "Dialup Networking" and press ENTER. With the ARROW keys, place the focus on your Internet provider, e.g. Onetel, Freeserve, etc, and then open up its context menu by pressing SHIFT F10. Now ARROW up to "Properties", press ENTER followed by pressing CONTROL TAB to the "Server Types" property sheet. Now TAB to "Advanced Options" and in here ensure that all of the following are unchecked: "Log Onto Network", "Enable Software Compression", "Require Encrypted Password", "Require Data Encryption" and "Record a Log File for this Connection". Then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. 12. With Outlook Express 5.1 and later, upload and download time (especially with a slow PC/MODEM/ISP server) can be saved by turning off "Request a Read Receipt for all Sent Messages" and ensuring that "Never Send a Read Receipt" is selected in Tools, Options, Receipts. 13. It is not advisable to use standard quality reel-type multi-strand phone extension wire to extend a MODEM cable to a far-off phone socket. It may work OK but is likely to cause your line to the Internet to be dropped more than would otherwise be the case. The wiring inside this type of extension, whilst fine for robust voice telephone communications, may not be of good enough quality to transfer the delicate signals of many MODEMS. You should extend any cabling with single strand, copper cabling, which can be purchased from BT shops. 14. What is known as the "gain" on a phone line is basically the speed at which or sensitivity with which a phone line carries messages. The standard gain on a BT phone line is set to zero. This is fine for robust voice communications but often not good enough for sensitive MODEM signal transfer, particularly if the line to your nearest phone exchange is at a considerable distance. If you are experiencing frequent failed connections to your ISP or regular line cut-offs, you may be able to remedy or at least improve this problem by ringing BT and asking them to increase the gain on the line. I am advised by BT that the highest level that they can increase the gain to is 4, as a gain above level 4 is likely to cause echo on the line and thus result in the line getting worse rather than better. 15. If your MODEM is inexplicably disconnected from the Internet frequently it could be that your MODEM is too sensitive to signal lapses. To increase the time that your MODEM stays connected during lapses you may find that the following helps: A. Press Windows key and then S (for Settings), followed by C (for Control Panel). B. Press M until MODEMS has focus and then press ENTER. C. TAB to "Properties" and press ENTER. D. CONTROL TAB to "Connections" and then TAB to "Advanced" and press ENTER. E. TAB to "Extra Settings" and type the following string in: s10=50 This is all you type if there is nothing else in this editfield. If some other information is already in there, you just leave a space at the end of the other details and type the s10=50 at the end of it. This will now mean that your signal can lapse for up to five seconds without your MODEM cutting off. 16. Whilst some screenreaders automatically make use of Microsoft's Active Accessibility facility (MSAA), others can only use it if it is specifically enabled. JFW and Window-Eyes automatically use MSAA but some earlier versions of HAL require that you manually install MSAA. To enable MSAA for Windows 95 and 98, so that ALT tags and other special screenreader friendly features can be used with HAL before version 5: A. Press the Windows key followed by F to open the Find facility, then press ENTER and type in the editfield which you will fall in: msaardk.exe B. TAB to "Look In" and ensure that C: has focus--you may have to ARROW up and down to achieve this--then press ENTER. C. The msaa.exe file will be found, so just press CONTROL A to highlight this file followed by pressing ENTRE. D. You will then be told that MSAA will be installed, so press ENTER on the "Yes" button. After about 30 seconds you will be informed that installation is finished, so press ENTER on the "OK" button. E. When asked to restart the PC, TAB to "NO" and press ENTER. u return to the Find dialogue box, so press ALT F4 to close this down. F. You now have to enable MSAA in Hal's control panel by pressing CONTROL SPACEBAR, followed by CONTROL TAB to the "General Settings" property sheet. Then press ENTER. G. Now Press TAB until you reach "MSAA Detection" and select it by pressing the SPACEBAR. H. You finish by pressing ESCAPE twice, when MSAA will be loaded and usable by older versions of Hal. All you now have to do is reboot the computer before going onto the Internet. 17. If, when using Outlook Express, you experience the system intermittently trying to take you back on line when you do not want this to happen, it may be that you are set up to check for the existence of new messages periodically. If you wish to stop this: A. Press ALT T (for Tools), then O (for Options. B. You drop into the "General" property sheet, so TAB down to "Check for New Messages Every" and press SPACEBAR to deselect this. Otherwise, if you still want periodically taking on line to check for new messages but less frequently, just TAB once more to the next line and alter the figure in their to a larger one, e.g. type in 60 if you only want the system to check for new messages every 60 minutes. C. TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. 18. When running Outlook Express, the program may from time to time, without you requesting this, attempt to take you online. If this is an annoyance to you, you can stop it by: A. With Outlook Express running, press ALT T (for Tools), then O (for options. B. CONTROL TAB to "Connections" and then TAB down to "Change" and press ENTER. C. Next TAB six times to "Always Dial My Default Connection" and ARROW down once to "Never Dial a Connection" and then TAB to "OK" and press ENTER. D. Now just TAB once more to another "OK" button and press ENTER to finish. 19. If you can make use of a monitor with Internet Explorer provided that the text on it is large enough, you can change the "Medium" size text on screen, which is the default (standard) way it is set up, by: A. Press ALT V (for View). B. Then press X (for Text). C. ARROW to "Large" or "Largest" and press ENTER. Conversely, if you do not use a monitor and this will not adversely affect anyone else using the same PC, you could select "Small " or "Smallest" to ensure that you get as much text onto the screen as possible. 20. If you are using JAWS 5.0 or later and you are having problems with Websites which employ Macromedia Flash, you can tell JAWS to ignore this and therefore view pages without such as unwanted frequent page refreshing, screenreader stammer, etc. You have to do this in the JAWS Configuration Manager by: A. Press INSERT F2 and then ENTER on "Configuration Manager". B. Press ALT S (for Set Options". C. ARROW down to "HTML Options" and press ENTER. D. Now hold down the CONTROL key and press the TAB key until you reach "Misc". E. On the "Misc" property sheet TAB down to "Ignore Flash on Web Pages" and press the SPACEBAR to check this off. F. Now TAB to "OK" and press ENTRE. G. Lastly, leave the Configuration Manager and save your new settings by pressing CONTROL S and then ALT F4 if necessary. ******** >SECTION 3 INTERNET SHOPPING Internet shopping can open up a whole new world of merchandise to visually impaired people or at least allow them to obtain everyday goods without having to risk life and limb going to high street shops to get them. However, If you decide to embark on Internet purchasing, you should take great care to ensure that you put the correct details in the right places on forms. If in doubt initially, recruit a sighted friend with knowledge of these things to advise you as to what is happening for the first time or two that you use an online shop, until you become confident about what you are doing. The author cannot be held responsible for any mistakes you may make whilst Internet shopping. You engage in this at your own risk. Remember, shop sites and completion forms may change from time to time and the whereabouts of there credit card editfields, address boxes, etc, may change. It is also recommended that you have an up-to-date, good quality virus scanner to avoid potentially devastating viruses whilst surfing the Web, e.g. McAfee or Norton Utilities. Or you can download a good free virus-checker called AVG from: www.grisoft.com Use of a good firewall would also be a sensible idea, e.g. Zone Alarm or Sygate Personal Firewall. You can download a free copy of Sygate from: www.sygate.com Additionally, ensure that you run a good spyware scanner on your system from time to time, e.g. Ad-Aware. You can get this free from: www.lavasoftusa.com 3.1. General Overview There are specific online only shops, such as Dabs, and there are online shops as well which are also listed in Directory Enquiries to place phone orders as well as online orders, such as amazon and jungle, and there are standard high street shops which have also created a mail order type Web shop, such as argos and Tesco. When you are at an online shop, you can usually search for goods you want in order to check if they stock them, what the price is, a description of the goods, etc. After launching Internet Explorer from your Desktop, you can go to an online store with it by pressing the usual CONTROL O and then type in the URL. Alternatively, you can go to a Net "shopping mall" which contains several shops that you can look through and you can search through the mall to find which shops stock what you want. Microsoft hosts such an online shopping mall. You can, of course, also find Internet stores by use of a standard or meta Web search engine, such as Altavista or Google, but the first two methods of locating online shops are the more secure. 3.2. Security Issues Be aware of the following security risks and safety measures. 3.2.1. Secure HTTP Websites Quality Internet shopping sites generally encrypt (scramble) purchase details via a secure information page, so that only the intended recipient can decode and read them. These pages are often referred to as secure "padlocked" pages. There is 40-bit encryption in the UK and 128-bit in the US. This makes online shopping more secure than shopping by phone or Fax. It is probably safer for UK residents to stick to UK online shops so that UK law and guarantees apply and can be enforced. You should try to limit your purchases to quality online shopping sites you know give a good service or those friends inform you are reliable. The site should clearly show their postal address, e-mail address and phone number and they should inform you of their return and refund policies. The site should have a confidentiality or privacy link which you should browse through. If there is no information of this type, ask them to post it to you. It is important to keep records of your internet purchases, e.g. if a company sends a confirmation e-mail save a copy to disk or print it out. Set up your own file to make notes of purchase dates, amounts, items ordered, reference numbers etc. Check your bank and credit card statements carefully and if you find any discrepancies, contact your credit card company or bank immediately. Do not provide your credit card details to any Internet site which is not padlocked. When you enter a secure padlocked page, a message should pop up to advise you of this and you will also be warned when you are leaving a secure, encrypted page and returning to standard unpadlocked mode. If you do not get the security advice message automatically on a site, it is possible to verify whether a site is padlocked visually by looking for the picture of a padlock at the bottom of the browser screen or you can go to your browser's address bar and check the address. Secure padlocked sites will change the "HTTP://" part of the address to "Https://" (the "S" indicating "secure"). If you would like the peace of mind of only using accredited Websites that have been approved by the "Which" Web Trader Scheme, you can guarantee security and consumer protection by only using UK sites which are listed at: www.which.net/webtrader which will provide more information and a list of approved, compliant shopping sites. (Note that last time I tried the above site it was not available due to reconstruction. Hopefully,it will soon become available again.) 3.2.2. Ensuring that Your Online Transaction details are Not Automatically Saved to Disk If you share a computer with someone else or if you are online for long periods and do not have a firewall to prevent hackers, others may be able to get access to your online transaction details, such as your bank account or credit card information. You can stop details of such transactions from being save to your hard disk by Internet Explorer in the temporary internet files folder (which would normally automatically happen) by: 1. Press ALT T (for Tools) and then O (for Internet Options). 2. Then CONTROL TAB to the "Advanced" property sheet. 3. Now ARROW down the long list of checkable options you will be in to "Do Not Save Encrypted Pages to Disk" and press SPACEBAR to check this on. 4. Lastly, TAB to "OK" and press ENTER to finish. Henceforth any secure (HTTPS) Website you have visited and possibly provided personal and/or financial details on will not be saved to your hard disk. BE aware, though, that you will also not now be able to view these pages offline as you would have been able to do otherwise. 3.3. UK Consumer Home Shopping Rights The under-mentioned UK internet shopping consumer laws applied as of January 2002 but may be subject to future amendment by Government so, if any aspect is very important to you, double- check it with Government sources, e.g. the Department of Trade and Industry. UK laws for shopping on the Internet apply to most goods and services but some areas are not covered, such as sale of land contracts, online auctions and financial services. Perishable goods, for instance, flowers, food and beverages may also not be covered. There may also only be partial cover of items such as transport and accommodation provided on specific dates. A seller should provide descriptions of goods/services, prices including all taxes and delivery charges, arrangements for payment and delivery, your rights to cancel and who will be responsible for the cost of returning goods. If you agree to purchase something, you should receive a letter, Fax or e-mail in confirmation and detailing your consumer rights. All after sales services and guarantees should be included. You have, by law, a seven working days cooling-off period during which you can freely change your mind and cancel your order. This is seven working days from agreeing to buy a service or from receiving a good. To cancel an order, a phone call is not sufficient; you will need to do this in writing, by Fax or by e- mail. However, if your purchase was for a service to start before the end of the cooling-off period, then the cooling-off period is cancelled. No cooling-off period will attach to computer software, video or audio goods in which the sealed packaging has been opened. If you have already paid, the supplier must return your money within 30 days. If anyone fraudulently misuses your credit card details on the Net, you should inform the credit card issuer immediately. The card issuer must make good your loss by refunding the sum lost to your account. For more advice (and more up-to-date advice) on your UK home shopping consumer rights go to the Citizen's Advice Bureaux site at: www.adviceguide.org.uk There is also a UK DTI consumer rights guide on these issues at: www.consumer.gov.uk If a seller fails to resolve any complaint you may have, you can contact your local Trading Standards via: www.tradngstandards.gov.uk or look them up in the phone book and ring them. When a courier delivers your goods, ensure that you check them before signing for them. Otherwise, make a note at the side of where you sign such as "Goods not examined" or ensure that the delivery man does this for you. 3.4. Cookies and Spyware Cookies can be either useful or wholly undesirable. No, they are not free biscuits, they are small files. 3.4.1. What are Cookies? Cookies are small text files which some Websites copy to your hard disk whilst you are on their Web site. Some cookies are desirable, such as those which record your account details when you are on a site to save you from having to enter them each time you log on or make a future purchase on that site, whilst others are called third-party or tracker cookies and are more like spyware programs and should be avoided if possible. The former type of cookie can normally be accepted or rejected by you, but you may find that the latter sometimes copy themselves to your hard disk without your permission or even letting you know this will occur. This latter kind of spyware cookie can then perform a number of different undesirable tasks and relay information back to the place where you inadvertently picked it up, such as monitoring your Web surfing sessions, tracking the types of purchases you make, etc. It is therefore a good idea to have a cookie removing program or a fully-blown spyware remover on your PC to get rid of the unwanted cookies (see section 6 for where to get Ad-Aware from for this purpose). 3.4.2. Accepting or Rejecting Legitimate Cookies and Controlling them via Internet Explorer When you first go onto a shopping site you may be asked if you want to receive a "cookie". If you are happy that this is a quality site which you are likely to want to use in future, TAB to the YES button and press ENTER to accept it. Otherwise, press N for no. Some sites will not allow you to use them if you do not accept a cookie, which should give you even more reason to doubt the legitimacy of that site and avoid it in future, unless you are absolutely sure that it is bona fide. AS already stated, a ligitimate cookie is a file stored on your hard disk which holds your personal details such as name, address, account number, etc, so that if you revisit this site you will not have to provide this information again. However, be aware that cookies can also be used by online providers to track your Net surfing trends, which may result in you receiving unsolicited e-mail or snail-mail advertising. Some sites copy clandestine third-party or tracker cookies to your hard disk without asking your permission or telling you about this. To use Internet Explorer's in-built cookie control filter instead of or as well as any of the later-mentioned spyware programs you can: 1. Launch Internet Explorer 6. 2. Press ALT T (for Tools) and then O (for Internet Options). 3. CONTROL TAB to the "Privacy" sheet and then TAB to "Advanced" and press SPACEBAR. 4. Press SPACEBAR to check on "Overwrite Automatic Cookie Handling". Then: A. TAB once to a list of three options for first-party cookie handling. These are: accept, block and prompt. The first of these lets all first-party cookies onto your hard disk (only allows cookies directly from the current site and not any from third- party sites you are not currently on), the second stops all cookies and the third (recommended for proper control of cookies without stopping them all) will ask you to say yes or no to allowing a cookie from the current site. B. TAB once again to another list of the same three options but this time for third-party cookies, i.e. cookies not directly from the current site but permitted onto your hard disk from any other site associated with this site--possibly market trends/goods purchasing and advertising tracking cookies. ARROW to your preference, e.g. to block all such usually unwanted cookies or to again ensure that you are at least prompted and can choose yes or no to each of these. C. Then TAB once more to "Always Allow Session Cookies" and check this on with the SPACEBAR if you are willing to allow cookies onto your PC for the current session you are in on that Website but which will then be removed after that session or leave it unchecked if you still want to be prompted, for instance, before these cookies are let onto your hard disk, depending on your choices in the last two steps. 5. Then TAB to "OK" twice and press ENTER on each. Note: You may find that asking for a prompt before a cookie is allowed on your hard disk causes you to have to choose yes or no too often and is more trouble than it is worth. This can happen very frequently on some Websites. You may, in this case, wish to accept all cookies and run a cookie/spyware remover regularly to get rid of the undesirable ones instead of asking for a prompt (see Section 6 below). Additionally, some sites will not let you proceed on them unless you firstly accept their cookies--make your own decision on this based on your knowledge about the site/company and its quality and bona fides. 3.4.3. Exporting and Importing Your Desirable Cookies for Use on another Computer With Internet Explorer, you can save and/or export both Internet Favourites and cookies for use on another computer, on another browser on your current computer or simply to have a back-up copy of them if you wish. You can even copy them to a disk and take them with you elsewhere. 3.4.3.1. Saving/Exporting Cookies For example, to export and save a copy of your list of cookies contents into one single text file: 1. Launch Internet Explorer from your Desktop and then press ALT F (for File) and then I (for Import and Export), and then TAB to and press ENTER on "Next". 2. You will now be in a list containing four choices, namely to import or export favourites or to import and export cookies. ARROW to "Export Cookies" and press ENTER. 3. You are likely to be on the "Export to a File" option and you can TAB through several options and information fields, e.g. the default place your cookies' details will normally save to will be in your My Documents folder with the filename "cookies.txt", but you can type another path and filename in here to save to if you like. Then TAB to "Next" and press ENTER. Note that if you have more than one Internet browser available on your computer, you may also have a second exporting option available at this stage, which will be to export to another application. 4. Lastly, TAB to and press ENTER on "finish" and then on "OK". Note 1: At step 2 above, if you had of chosen "Export Favourites", you would have been able to save copies of your saved favourites folder Websites for reinstallation if you ever lost them or for copying onto another PC elsewhere, such as your laptop. Note 2: for some strange reason, if you try to view the contents of your "cookies.txt" file in such as Notepad, your screenreader is unlikely to be able to "see" anything in it but the text contained within each separate cookie will, nonetheless, be in their. The text will typically be on single, double or triple lines, each cookie's entry being separated from the others by a blank line. If you are familiar with DOS, you will be able to view this with the DOS type command. Otherwise, you should be able to view it in a word-processor like MS Word but when you close the word-processor down, do not resave the file, because if you do this the formatting of the text file will change and it will become useless as a back-up and restorable cookies file. 3.4.3.2. Importing or Restoring Cookies to a Browser You can now import (restore) the above cookies file to your Internet Explorer cookies folder list or to another browser on another computer by: 1. On your current or another computer, go through the same procedure as outlined in the last sub-section but at step 3 select "Import Cookies" to overwrite the cookies list on that other machine with your saved cookies list. 2. If you have saved your cookies other than in the default My documents folder, use the "Browse" button to go to where it is. If you are importing the cookies into Internet Explorer on a different computer, you should have copied the cookies.txt file to a floppy disk or CD first and then browse to the file on that disk. 3. Lastly, TAB to and press ENTER on "Finish". 3.5. Description of Typical Online Shopping Store Purchase Forms Shopping sites can vary greatly but when you first transact business with an online shop you are likely to be asked for your name and to provide a password of your own creation. When doing this, if you do not remember passwords very well, use lower case letters so that you do not forget which letters you capitalised and which you left small. However, if you can remember these facts, it is certainly more secure to make some letters small and others capitalised in a password. You will probably have to enter this password twice before it is accepted. You will then have other form-type details to provide such as your postal address, e-mail address, telephone number, etc. These forms may have combinations of editfields, pick lists, check boxes (use the SPACEBAR to check a box on or off), etc. You use the standard keystrokes of TAB key to move forward through form elements and SHIFT TAB to go back. When the form is complete, TAB to the "Submit" or "Go" button and either press SPACEBAR or ENTER. If you are presented with another dialogue box to do with security matters, accept this by pressing ENTER on "OK", or you may have had to do this before reaching the form completion stage. If, on a form, you encounter a list of choices or a combobox which combines an editfield and a list of choices, it is usually good practice to press ALT down ARROW before you start to down ARROW through the list to ensure that the list opens up for you first and you do not mistakenly select the wrong option. Any personal details editfields which you may be presented with may simply require you to type such as your date of birth in as "12/08/1966 or they may expect you to type your day of birth in the first field, automatically move you to the second field for your month of birth and then move you to the year of your birth field for you to type this in as 1966. Alternatively, you may have to TAB from one date of birth field to another manually. Yet another frequent possibility is that your date of birth (or similar information requirements fields) may supply a list of the days of the week, months of the year, etc, for you to ARROW down and leave focus on before TABBING on to the next field. At this juncture, (after registering with the site) you should be able to browse around the online store but be aware that the layout and format of stores can vary greatly. You can choose items you wish to buy, which will mean that they will be added to your "Shopping Basket" or "Shopping Cart", following which you should TAB to the "Check Out". At this stage you will be asked for your credit card details and you can provide these each time you make a purchase or you may be able to check a box for the site to permanently record these in a cookie. You will more than likely then encounter a credit card list to ARROW up and down to put focus on your own type of card,such as VISA, then TAB on to a credit card number editfield to type in your card number. Next will come listboxes asking you for the expiry date of your card, from which you can pick the month and year of expiry. You may then be asked for your credit card issue number. You then TAB on to the "Submit" button and press ENTER. The site is likely to be able to record the above details in a cookie it puts on your hard disk so that you will not have to enter most of these next time you make a purchase. Note: With most screenreaders, when you encounter one of the above form completion editfields, you may have to press ENTER to go into forms mode before you can successfully type details in. HAL 6.03 and later requires you to press CAPSLOCK ENTER and should thereafter change from MSAA mode to forms mode automatically and back again as required. 3.6. Shopping Online--Three Step by Step Practical Examples of Making a Purchase with General Screenreaders to Work Through Provided that you have a reasonably up-to-date and good quality screenreader such as JAWS, HAL or Window-Eyes, you should be able to use it to achieve the two below example Website online purchase routines. 3.6.1. The UK Cobolt Systems Products for the Blind Site The Cobolt Systems site is designed to be accessible to screenreader users and so is a relatively straightforward shopping site to use and is not too large for shopping site beginners to tackle. To make a purchase online you would: 1. Launch your Web browser, e.g. Internet Explorer. 2. Press CONTROL O to bring up the Open dialogue and then type the Cobolt site address in of: www.cobolt.co.uk and press ENTER. 3. After a short wait the Cobolt Welcome home page will load in and you can then either ARROW or TAB down to view the links and general text on it. Have a look at some of the associated pages, such as "About Us", "News Page" and "Terms and Conditions", etc, by pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR on the links to them. Keep returning to the home page by pressing ALT left ARROW when you have finished viewing these sub-pages or press ENTER on the "Return to Cobolt Systems Home Page" link. Note that you have to have cookies switched on to use this site and you can select to have the site displayed with white text on a black background or vice versa. Remember, your screenreader will feature special hot keys to permit you to move quickly from one kind of element on a Web page to another, such as between links, editfields, lists, etc (see the appropriate sub-section above under the main heading of "JAWS, HAL, Supernova and Window-Eyes Special Web Page Navigation Hot Keys" to learn these hot keys for your own screenreader and for the general Windows shortcuts). 4. To make a purchase, for example, of their talking colour detector, ARROW or TAB to "Online Shop" and press ENTER or SPACEBAR. 5. On the Online Shop page, which now opens up, you can ARROW or TAB down links which will take you to further pages with information about given categories of products, such as "Batteries/Accessories", "Clocks and Watches", etc. When the "Personal Items" link has focus, press ENTER. You may be able to get here more quickly by using your screenreader's find hot key, e.g. CONTROL SHIFT F with Window-Eyes, CONTROL INSERT F with JAWS and F3 with HAL, and typing in "personal". 6. Now, on the new page which loads in, ARROW down the textual information on that page. You should then note that each individual item for purchase is listed in columnar form with three columns as follows: a link with the name of the product associated with it, followed by another link to see a picture of the product and lastly the price of purchasing one item is given. On the next line you will find a brief description of the product and what it is designed to do. Either press your TAB key several times until you reach "Talking Colour Detector" or use your screenreader's or browser's find feature to jump straight to the word "colour". Press ENTER or SPACEBAR on the "Talking Colour Detector" link. 7. The next page will come up and you should ARROW down the more detailed description of the colour detector and how it works. Note that there are links to click or press ENTER on to hear (in several languages) the type of speech you will get when using the detector. As you move down the talking colour detector page you will eventually come upon the price it will cost and below this a "Quantity" heading with, just below it, an editfield displaying the quantity of items you want to purchase. It will already have the quantity of 1 inserted, as this is the number most people want to buy, but you can press ENTER on this editfield and then press the DELETE key to remove this figure and then type in however many of them you would like if you want more than one. Now TAB to "Add to Basket" and press ENTER to add the item or items to your shopping basket. 9. Another page will now load in showing how many items are currently in your shopping basket in columns. The number of items will be shown and how much they will cost. If you decide you wish to change the number of items you want to buy, you can go to the number of items field, press ENTER or SPACEBAR to open it up (or whatever method your particular screenreader uses) and then delete the current figure and replace it with the new quantity. You then TAB to the "Update Basket" link and press ENTER or SPACEBAR. There are also buttons in here to remove particular items and to completely empty the shopping basket if you decide you no longer want any of your original choices. After making your item and quantity selections, you TAB to the "Purchase" button and press ENTER, SPACEBAR or left click on it. 10. A secure connection page will now load in to keep your personal details and credit card information hidden from the view of others and you have to press ENTER on an "OK" button. On this new page you have to make one of a number of personal circumstances declarations, e.g. whether you are a UK registered disabled person, a UK organisation working with disabled people, a person from abroad, etc. The default selection is number 1, i.e. that you are a UK-based person who is registered disabled and therefore exempt from payment of VAT. You can ARROW down the other choices and select one of these if option 1 is not appropriate to you. TABBING on from here permits you to provide your personal details in separate editfields, e.g your name, company, address, etc. You may have to press ENTER on the first of these editfields before you can start to type text into any of them to get into the correct mode with your screenreader. The country details you give is part of a listbox which you can ARROW up and down in until you get to your own country or press the first letter of its name to jump to it. There is also a "Special" or "Special Delivery Instructions" editfield if you want to ask Cobolt to take non-standard action for you, e.g. "Do not despatch the item before 31/3/05 as I will be on holiday up to that date". Now TAB to the "Continue" button and press ENTER. 11. The "Final Purchase Approval" page now loads in and confirms what you have ordered, how many of each item and the total amount which will be deducted from your credit card. There is an "Existing Account Holders" editfield for you to enter your name in if you already have an account with Cobolt, so that all your personal and credit card details are remembered and you do not have to provide these when you use the site in future. This will save much time with subsequent purchases. Under this you will TAB to a list of the five types of credit cards which Cobolt are able to accept, which are Master Card, Visa cards, Switch, etc. You will have to open this list to be able to ARROW up and down it and leave focus on the type of card you use, which can normally be done by simply pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR on it. As you ARROW or TAB down the various editfields you will note that your details are automatically entered for you from information you have already given. The next press of TAB should take you to one of four small editfields where you start to type in your 16 digit credit card number, so type the first four numbers in the first field, press TAB, type the next four digits in the second field, press TAB to the next field and continue until the last field is completed. TABBING again once or twice takes you to two date listboxes for your card issued date details but you need only complete these if you are using a Switch card. TAB again to the "Expire" listbox and then ARROW down to the month your card is set to expire on, e.g. 04 for April, then TAB again and in the next list ARROW down to the year of expiry, e.g. 2008. Keep on TABBING through the completed details editfields until you reach "Purchase Order" and then press ENTER or SPACEBAR. 12. The last page which now loads in is the "Purchase Confirmation" page. This will provide an order reference number which you should note and write down somewhere. It will be something like: GEB-5A-XKV". You have now completed your purchase and should receive your goods in a few days. This page also has a "Continue Shopping" link on it in case you now decide you want to go back and do some more shopping if you forgot something. You do not receive an e-mail confirmation from this company. 13. If you fail to complete any relevant information whilst making your order, you will be presented with another page advising you of this and inviting you to return to an earlier page to complete the fields you missed out or the selections you failed to make. You TAB to the "Go Back" button to do this. 3.6.2. The Special Tesco Access Grocery Shopping Site The UK Tesco supermarket online shopping site provides a text only series of pages which are easier to use for screenreader users. However, as of the beginning of April 2005, I have heard that the accessible Tesco site may soon be discontinued, as they are making their main Tesco shopping site more accessible. Currently the two sites do not work exactly the same. Another issue to note at this point in time (which, presumably, will not persist for long) is that if you place items in your shopping basket on the access site but do not purchase them immediately and then return to it later, your selected goods will no longer be in your basket. Strangely, they will have been moved to and saved in your main Tesco access shopping basket instead, from where you can still effect your purchase if you like. Conversely, if you place items in your main Tesco site basket and do not purchase them immediately and then return their, these goods will have disappeared and have been saved in the access site shopping basket! This may all mean, therefore, that before long most of the below special Tesco access shopping site information will become obsolete. One way you may find that you can fix this missing items in basket conundrum is to ensure, when you go onto the Tesco site, that you switch pictures on, as it seems to be this which can cause problems if turned off. You turn the downloading of pictures on in Internet Explorer in Tools, Internet Options, Advanced property sheet and in the list in here ARROW down to "Show Pictures" and press SPACEBAR to turn it on. You may wish to leave things this way if you are on broadband or turn pictures off again after using the Tesco site if you have a dial-up connection. 3.6.2.1. Introduction and General Information In mid-summer 2001 Tesco provided a special series of Web pages as part of their Website to enable people with special needs or slower connections, e.g. visually impaired people, people using mobile phone connections, etc, to be able to more easily use their online grocery shopping and home delivery service. As yet, you can only shop for groceries and not some goods, such as wine and the full range of electrical equipment. However, this may change over time. You cannot pay for these groceries in any other way than by credit card online. You have to live in an area close enough to be covered by a Tesco branch to make delivery feasible and there is a fixed charge for delivery of œ5. Whilst Tesco Access makes shopping quicker and easier for visually impaired people, you do sometimes miss out on several facts and opportunities which are available on the main Tesco site, e.g. no information about product ingredients, no access to the main electrical or wine departments, etc. Your shopping can be delivered the next or any subsequent day between the hours of 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. from Monday to Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday. You can specify a delivery time within any two hour slot, e.g. 5 August from 1200 to 1400 hours. 3.6.2.2. Registering Yourself for Tesco Online Shopping You would provide your details for Tesco registration as follows: 1. With your Internet browser, Go to the Tesco text only shopping home page of: www.tesco.co.uk/access 2. This page has only a few links. It is the Tesco Superstore Login Page and you can TAB to "If you are a new Customer Click Here to Register link". However, before doing this, have a look at some of the other links, such as observing that you also use this page to log on (provide your user password and registration number) if you are already registered with Tesco prior to starting to shop. Press ENTER or SPACEBAR on such information links as "Click here to Find out More About this Service" and "Click Here for Help on the Site", etc. After viewing the details on these pages, go back to the Login page as normal by pressing ALT left ARROW or ALT HOME. 3. Press ENTER on "If you are a New Customer Click Here to Register" and complete your registration details, after pressing ENTER on the "OK" button which the security screen provides. TAB to "Terms and Conditions" and press ENTER on it to be sure that you understand and accept these. After going through these, move back to the registration page with ALT left ARROW and TAB down the page and complete your details, remembering that you may have to press ENTER on the first editfield with JAWS and Window-Eyes to enter forms mode before you can type your details in. HAL 6.03s new forms mode is invoked by pressing CAPSLOCK ENTER. The "Title" field is a listbox, so you just ARROW up or down this until you have focus on your title, e.g. Mrs, Miss, etc, then TAB on to complete the rest of your personal details, such as name and post code. If you have no Club Card number, TAB to a Checkbox under where it would be entered and press ENTER to check this on and create a virtual/temporary number. Then TAB to "Send Details" and press ENTER to complete the first page of your registration information. You will be asked if you want the site to automatically complete your personal details when you go online in future to save you from having to do this and be on the "Yes" option, so just press ENTER to accept this and save yourself time in future. 4. A second personal details page now loads in where you will be told where your nearest Tesco branch is. TAB from the top of the page to an address field which might already have your address in it. If it does not, type your house number and street name in here, Then TAB to "Day Time Phone Number" and complete this plus all of the other editfields. After the e-mail field you will have to make up a password that you wish to use when login on in future of between six and 12 digits, so type this in and then TAB to the next editfield and retype the same password in here to confirm. When typing this password in, you will only hear *stars being spoken, so that no one else can see what you are choosing for your password. After completing all fields, TAB to "Submit" and press ENTER. 5. You will receive a welcome page congratulating you on your successful registration. You will also receive an e-mail confirmation of your registration within a few hours showing your ID number and password but these two registration and login numbers will also be on the screen for you to make a note of at this stage if you wish. Underneath this there is a link to press ENTER on to start shopping immediately but I would suggest that you first go to the "Help" link and activate this for more information on how to use the site first. It may take you 30 to 40 minutes to register, complete all details and observe most of the conditions and usage information. Note: If you have problems registering online in the above way-- but I know that you will not do this because it will nullify the object of this exercise!--you can register by phone by ringing Tesco Customer Services on 0845 7225533. This is not specifically set up to register people by phone but if you explain that you are visually impaired and having difficulty registering online, they can do this for you. They are open 9 a.m to 8 p.m. Monday to Saturday. 3.6.2.3. Shopping on the Tesco Site and Paying for Your Goods Basically, you use the Tesco site by login on with your browser, Searching for what you want, specifying what and how many of each item you want, placing the items in the "Basket" and then going to the "Checkout" to purchase them and give your credit card details. So, for example, you would do this by: 1. With your Web browser go to: www.tesco.co.uk/access 2. On this login page you will have to go into your screenreader's edit or forms mode by TABBING to and pressing ENTER on the first of the provided editfields and complete the fields with your ID number or e-mail address and your password. Some of these fields may already be completed if you asked the site to save this information for you, so you may only have to enter your password. Then TAB to "Click Here to Login" and press ENTER. You may get a "Yes" or "OK" button to press ENTER on to accept the login safety terms. 3. You will soon TAB to the "Search for Products" link and press ENTER but first TAB to and have a look at some of the links you can press ENTER on to view your past order history (previous purchases), a link to view your favourite items, plus a "View Your Shopping Basket and Proceed to Checkout" link. There is usually a help link at the top of each page and it is a good idea to activate this the first time you use the site for more detailed guidance. 4. After pressing ENTER on the "Search for Products" link above, you get a welcome page with links to such as "Department" and "Search for a Product". If you press ENTER on the "Department" option, you will enter a page which you can TAB or ARROW through links to given departmental areas of goods, such as bread, beer, baby items, etc. 5. On the "Department" page you are able to go directly to a particular department, followed by a particular aisle, a particular shelf of goods and, eventually, to the precise product you want. Alternatively, you can activate a "Search" editfield by pressing ENTER on it to have a given item found immediately for you which you then have to add to your basket of goods to eventually take to the checkout and pay for by credit card. Using the department/aisle/shelf way of finding things can be slow but will let you know the full range of goods available. The search method is preferable for quick shopping when you know exactly what you want. Remember, if you have pressed ENTER on any given link to view what is on the next page, you can always press ALT left ARROW to take you back to the previous page. 6. If you ARROW to the "Search for a Product" heading and go to the editfield just below this and press ENTER to open it up, you can then type such as "apples", "sausages", etc, to have the full range of one of those items displayed below on a results page. Do not use words like "the" or "and" in the search string, e.g. do not search for such as "apples and sausages". Then TAB to and press ENTER on the "search" button after typing your search item's name in the editfield above this. 7. When you are at the level where the individual goods, such as different types of loaves of bread or apples, are listed, you will be given information on each good as follows: Description, price and quantity. In the "Quantity" editfield you type in the number of individual items or packets/boxes of that item you want. Each time you type the amount of an item you want in this editfield you should press ENTER, when it will be automatically added to your shopping basket and this will be confirmed. You can now TAB to and press ENTER on "Go Back to Previous List" and add more items in the same way if you like. 8. If you want to be sure that you have got everything you want, the correct amount and nothing you did not want, TAB to "View Your Shopping Basket and Proceed to Checkout" and press ENTER. Here the quantity, product, price and total of what you have put into your basket for purchase are listed. Each individual item price is shown and the full total which will later have the œ5 delivery (or whatever they may change this to) charge added. 9. If you decide that you want to change the number of items of a particular product you want or get rid of a product altogether, you can just press ENTER on the "Quantity" field to go into forms mode and then delete the number currently shown and type the new amount in followed by TABBING to "Update Basket" and pressing ENTER. To remove an item from the basket, just delete the figure and type in a 0. Then press ENTER to have the basket updated. 10. Near the bottom of the page, you can TAB to "Checkout Your Order" and press ENTER or SPACEBAR on this to finish your purchase by providing your credit card details for payment. You are told that the cash transaction is done in a secure environment and have to press ENTER on OK. The cost will again be shown and you now provide the following details: A. TAB to "Please Select a Delivery Slot" and ARROW down through the choices. They have a day and two hour delivery time slot. Go into forms mode by pressing ENTER and put the focus on the day/time you want and then TAB to the next field. B. In the next field you type in the persons full name who owns the credit card. Then TAB to and complete the other fields one by one. Note that the "Expiry Date" field is a dropdown list which you ARROW up and down in until your credit card month of expiry is revealed, e.g. 04 for April; then TAB once to do the same for the year expiry date, e.g. 05 for 2005. C. Lastly, TAB to "Send Your Order" and press ENTER or SPACEBAR to finalise the purchase. 11. Notice, at the end of many pages, there is a "Logout" link which you should press ENTER on before leaving the site. 12. Now,if you have finished surfing, exit your browser as normal and close it down, e.g. with ALT F4 or ALT F and then C. All you need now do is prey that the Tesco delivery man does not turn up the following day with 480 tins of baked beans! Note 1: The Tesco site has many more features not covered here, so experiment by activating the links. The above should, however, provide enough to get you going and stop you from starving! Note 2: If you regularly buy certain commodities on the Tesco site, you can build up "Favourites" and speed up shopping by block selecting these followed by any extra purchases you need. Note 3: The standard Tesco home page for general public use is at: www.tesco.co.uk and if you want to see what is on the Tesco page which offers goods other than groceries, e.g. wine, books, DVDs, Cds, electrical items, etc, go to: www.tesco.co.uk/extra but be aware that these are not text only access pages and will be full of graphical pictures for people to look at. 3.6.3. The Amazon Website The following walks you through the standard famous Amazon online-only Internet store to buy a print book: NB: The Amazon site is a massive and therefore difficult site to navigate and make sense of with a screenreader. It has hundreds of links on its home page and features both new and second-hand goods, including books, music Cds, garden equipment, mobile phones, and the like. To have any chance on this site you need a good dedicated Web browser like PWWebspeak, Webbie or Home Page Reader or an up-to-date general screenreader because your whereabouts can be much clearer and the search forms, editfields and "Submit" buttons are found much easier than with older screenreaders. You will need such as JAWS 4X, Window-Eyes 4.2 or HAL 6 or later. Additionally, depending on which screenreader you possess and which version of it, after pressing ENTER on a given link or button, you may find yourself partway down the next page on the next link or editfield you require or you may find yourself back at the top of the next page and have to ARROW or TAB down the header links to where you next want to be. To make a purchase on the Amazon site: 1. Run Internet Explorer and press CONTROL O, then type in: www.amazon.co.uk (for the UK) or www.amazon.com (for the US) and press enter. 2. The page will open and you can press CONTROL END to the bottom of the home page and then press SHIFT TAB about 15 times until you reach a "Text Only" link and press ENTER to go straight to the text only page to avoid graphics. Alternatively, on this large page you will find it worthwhile employing your screenreader's list links feature to jump quickly to the above- mentioned "Text Only" link, for example, with JAWS press INSERT F7 and in the list of links you are now in simply start typing the word "text" and you will be taken straight to the link in question to press ENTER on it and load the text only page. The Window-Eyes links list is opened with INSERT TAB. The HAL links list for HAL before version 5.02 is open with ALT T and press ENTER on "Dolphin Links Navigator" and for later versions of HAL you are provided with the Dolphin Links Utility to list links on a Web page by pressing CAPSLOCK 1 but you will then have to repeatedly press the T key until you get to the "Text Only" link as typing "text" in will not jump you straight there. There are many header links on most pages on this site before you get down to the new information which opens up when you get to a new page, so use your PAGE down key once or twice to skip past much of this repeated information. If you like, to get an idea of the size of this home page and where things are, ARROW down from the top of the text only home page and listen to its contents and vast size until you reach the bottom. Note: with some screenreaders you may have to go into navigation/mouse mode to be able to ARROW down a page and may have to press PAGE down to obtain the next screenful of information. 3. Now go to the top of the home page with CONTROL HOME and ARROW down several times to the category of item you want to buy, e.g. the "books" link, and press ENTER. 4. After the next page loads in, you should already be on a search link called "Book Search" to press ENTRE on. If not, it comes about 16 TAB presses down from the top of the page. You will now be in the next page and on an "author" editfield and you should press ENTER to go into forms and editing mode. If you are not automatically on this editfield, TAB down to it or use your screenreader's jump to first editfield hot key, e.g. CONTROL INSERT HOME in JAWS and ALT Control down ARROW or just the X key in Window-Eyes from the top of the page. you now type in to this field the details of what you wish to have searched for, e.g. an author's name, such as Charles Dickens. Now immediately press ENTER or press the TAB key again until you reach the "Search Now" button and press ENTER or SPACEBAR to find these books, both should do the job. 5. You will be at the top of the page with all of the annoying header links below again, so you should skip past these again by pressing PAGE down once or twice and by ARROWING down a few times, when you will then find All Dickens' books supplied by Amazon will be displayed in all formats and you can ARROW down them and press ENTER on any book title link to bring up a details page called "At a Glance". 6. The At a Glance page will allow you to view such as editors' reviews on the book you chose, customers' comments about it, what Amazon's price for it is, and so forth. You can even give a book on their site a rating from one to five yourself if you have read it and want to do this. 7. Now press ALT left ARROW to return to the last page you were on and then ARROW down a few times to a "Add to Basket" link if you want to buy this book and add it to your shopping basket to be paid for shortly. Do this with each book you want to buy. Then ARROW down a lot more to the "Proceed to check Out" button and press ENTER or jump to it with your screenreader's find feature, e.g. CONTROL INSERT F with JAWS, CONTROL SHIFT F with Window-Eyes and F3 with HAL . Note that the Amazon site and checkout button changed in the last quarter of 2004 and with some screenreaders you may not be able to activate the Checkout button without first going to it and then going into Jaws or navigation mode and routing your cursers together before pressing your screenreader's simulate left mouse click button. 8. If you already have an account set up with Amazon, you will be thanked for your order and your name and the fact that the book will be sent to you will be confirmed. 9. If this is your first Amazon purchase, you will have a form to complete with your personal details , so TAB to the first editfield, which is the e-mail address field, and press ENTER to go into forms mode before typing it in. Then TAB to and complete the other fields in this way with the requested personal details and ARROW to the "I am a New Customer" option if you are not already on it. Then TAB to the "Sign In" button and press ENTER and also press ENTER on the security "OK" button when this comes up. After the above stage, you have to provide such as credit card details and you can create a password for future use here. 10. After completing the above form, you should then TAB to the "Submit" button and press ENTER to confirm. If you find this providing of personal details stage in these forms to be difficult, you might like to get sighted help at this stage. Thereafter, as someone who is signed on with all pertinent details recorded with Amazon and a password, it will be much easier to pay for your goods in future. 11. You will be advised that your order has been accepted and that you need do no more. The process is now at an end and you should receive your book in a few days. Note 1: If you want, in future, to skip the Amazon graphics home page and go directly to the text only home page, at step 1 above, you can simply type the below into the Internet Explorer Address Bar: www.amazon.co.uk/text or www.amazon.com/text Note 2: Because the Amazon Web site is so large, you would be advised to use your screenreader's place marker feature, if it has one, to mark where certain links, editfields and buttons are to be able to get to them quickly in future, e.g. CONTROL SHIFT K with JAWS. Note 3: Do not forget that if you get stuck or a little frustrated with this or any other Web site and if you do not have a broadband Internet connection and want to be able to take more time over finding your way around it without being online running up a phoned bill, you can always open as many pages on a site as interest you and then come offline. You can then re-launch Internet Explorer and type www.amazon.co.uk/text into the Address Bar and then press left ALT key and O when your Dial-Up Networking dialogue comes up to abort going onto the Net and instead load in the pages you have already displayed on the site and run them and move between them. They are all held on your hard disk in your Internet Explorer history folder, although any HTTPS:// pages will not be their if you turned off the saving of these types of pages for security reasons. 3.7. Step by Step PWWebspeak Dedicated Web Browser Example of Making a Purchase on the Amazon Site PWWebspeak is a dedicated and independent Web browser for visually impaired users. It comes complete with its own speech capability, so you do not require any other screenreader working along with it. It used to be a purchasable program but is now given away freely, although it is not kept updated by its makers. It works well on basic Websites. To download a free copy of PWWebspeak, go to: www.soundlinks.com/pwgen.htm You should then install PWWebspeak as normal, read its Readme.txt files and provided manual, etc, and when familiar with the basics of how it works, use it as follows. 1. Start up PWWebspeak and press F2 to open up the address editfield. Type in: www.amazon.co.uk or www.amazon.co.uk/text and press ENTER. 2. The Amazon home page will load in and you can either TAB forward or ARROW down the information and links until PWWebspeak speaks a "Books" link. Press ENTER on this and the books page will load in. 3. Now TAB to a "Book Search" link and press SPACEBAR. 4. TAB until PWWebspeak says "Start of a Data Entry Form and "TAB again until "A Single Line Text Entry Field" is spoken and press ENTER. Then enter the key words for the search, such as the author's name, book title, etc, e.g. Charles Dickens, then TAB to the "Go" button and press the SPACEBAR to submit the search string. 5. The full list of Dickens' books will be displayed and you can ARROW down through these and also see what formats they are in, such as paperback. If you press ENTER on the title David Copperfield, the "At a Glance" page will open where you can view reviews, customer comments, etc, about this book. 6. You will have to ARROW OR TAB down to get to the "Add to Shopping Basket" link and press SPACEBAR to add this book for purchase. 7. You should now ARROW down to the "Proceed to Check Out" button and press the SPACEBAR. 8. The check out page will load with guarantees and instructional information on it. You should ARROW down to a form where you will have to enter your personal details, select the "New Customer" button by ARROWING to it and press ENTER on the "Sign In" button to create a password, etc. You will then have your credit card details, card expiry date, etc, to provide, before submitting this information with the submit button. 9. You will be advised that your order has been accepted and that you need do no more. The process is now at an end and you should receive your book in a few days. 3.8. E-Wallets Internet forms can be difficult and time-consuming to complete, so some online stores permit you to set up an account with your personal details to speed up online shopping for frequent shoppers (as indicated in the above paragraphs in respect of cookies and online forms). However, a more convenient and flexible alternative to this is to use an "e- wallet", where all of your personal details are stored on your PC for transfer to a vendor's server quickly and easily. For example, Microsoft's offering in this field is called "Wallet" and is built into Internet Explorer 4 and above, but for it to work a vendor must agreed to participate in the scheme. Thus, e- wallets are not globally accepted by online shops and so have limited use, and may not be available in your version of Internet Explorer. I only mention them here for informational purposes. 3.9. UK and US Shopping Price Comparison Sites A UK-based prices comparison site for shopping is: www.Shopsmart.com This site ensures that you find the best price for an item by automatically comparing prices it has on books, music, DVDs, computer software, food and drink, etc, across various Websites. It then lists the prices it finds for you, so that you can get the best deal available. Shopsmart also has links to over 2,000 secure UK online shops for you to jump to. Other UK comparison Websites of interest on an energy saving theme are: www.energywatch.org.uk www.ukpower.co.uk Some equivalent US prices Comparison sites can be found at: www.pricewatch.com www.computershopper.com www.shopping.com www.lowermybills.com and Yahoo has a prices comparison search feature on its e- commerce page found at: www.yahoo.com 3.10. Some good Places to Find Online Shops Try surfing to and browsing through some of the below offerings. 3.10.1. The Amazon Shop www.amazon.co.uk (In the UK) or www.amazon.com (in the US) This has a vast choice of print books, music Cds and other goods and quick delivery. When on this site you can search for a book by its title, author, publisher or date, or peruse through the various categories of books. Sometimes only best-sellers are listed but other titles can also be purchased. You can complete the transaction and obtain delivery with a single click after registering, providing your home address and credit card number. If you change your mind, you can cancel the order online within 90 minutes. You can also store titles in your "shopping basket" for up to 90 days before finally deciding if you want them. Each book has a short write-up and there may be e-mail or Amazon editors reviews and customers comments. The site's search facility finds and mixes together audio books, hard backs and paper backs. Books can be gift- wrapped. Purchase of single items is likely to work out dearer than standard retail shopping but buying several books at once may work out cheaper. You can also purchase other items such as Cds and hear music online. Delivery is likely to be within two or three days and your order confirmation should be e-mail to you within ten to twenty hours. Early in 2004 Amazon created an ability on their site for people to view the whole content of a book before purchase. To be taken step by step through the Amazon site to purchase an item with both general screenreaders and the PWWebspeak dedicated Internet browser, see the examples earlier in this section. 3.10.2. The Cdnow Shop www.cdnow.com This US-based online shop sells CDs, DVDs and videos. You can sample selected tracks using streaming audio and download MP3s. The Web page has a list of options on the left and on the right special offers and many links. Cds cost about 30 per cent less than UK prices but may take up to five weeks to be delivered to the UK. 3.10.3. The Emusic Shop www.emusic.com This is a site where you can hear and buy music online. 3.10.4. The Expedia Shop www.Expedia.co.uk This UK Microsoft site permits you to book a flight, holiday, rent a car and obtain travel related information. You can use the flight wizard to search for available seats on given flights. You can compare available flight prices for a particular journey. The Places Section is an information magazine. The Resources Section provides information on insurance and health requirements. You can reserve a flight until midnight the following day. After placing an order you should receive an e-mail confirmation in ten to twenty hours and the tickets should arrive within a few days. 3.10.5. The Train Enquiry Shop www.thetrainline.com You can check UK train times, reserve seats, buy tickets and obtain rail-related information from this site. 3.10.6. The Index and Argos Shops www.indexshop.com and www.argos.co.uk These are the sites of the Argos and Index retailers which are found throughout the UK and also have many high street outlets supplying a full range of household, clothing and other goods. 3.10.7. The Cdwow Shop www.cdwow.co.uk Provides a UK site to purchase cheap music CDs, videos and DVDs without incurring a delivery charge. ******** >SECTION 4 ONLINE AUCTIONS Another aspect of online shopping--but with a different and more participative feel about them--are the online auction sites. You can get genuine bargains at some of these but others do no more than sell high street suppliers' goods at a reserve price equal to the shop price and if you bid more you end up paying more than the shop prices. If you bid for an item and win it, you have entered into a legally binding contract as normal. Some such auctions are as follows but first make yourself aware of some of the basic Website auction terminology. 4.1. Auction terminology Bid: When you offer an amount of money for an item, you are said to have made a "bid" for it. Hammer Fall: When the exact time for the auction to end on a given lot is reached the sale of that item is complete and the highest bidder wins the item (provided that any reserve price has been reached) and the "hammer" is said to fall at that time in favour of the highest bidder. Maximum Autobid: This is whereby you tell the auction site the maximum amount you are prepared to go up to for an item and when your last bid is beaten the system will automatically bid up for you by just enough to secure the item, until your maximum bid is reached, when it will then duck out for you. Lot: A lot is the name given to an item being bid for. Reserve: Some items in an auction have no reserve price and so can sell at the highest bid irrespective of how low that might be. However, some items will have a "reserve" put on them so that they will not sell if the highest bid is below that reserve. Win: If you make the highest bid for an item in an auction and it becomes your property, you are said to "win" that item. 4.2. Different Types of Online Auctions There are a large number of online auction sites these days and you can buy anything in the world from many of them. Have a general browse around some of the below examples. 4.2.1. The QXL Auction Site www.qxl.com QXL is a UK site where you can bid for anything from antiques and holidays to computer equipment. This is not really a bona fide auction, as they sell many things direct from new suppliers, so be sure you are getting good value before bidding over a certain price. You will have to register and give your credit card details to take part in substantial auction bidding but you can bid for second-hand goods without submitting your credit card details first. QXL auctions normally go on for a period of five to seven days but if you want something you should pay particular attention to the bids in the last hour or two of bidding. You can also use the maximum auto-bid facility, whereby you enter the maximum amount you are prepared to go up to and when your last bid is beaten the system will automatically bid up for you by just enough to secure the item, until your maximum bid is reached, when it will then duck out for you. If you need more information about a lot before deciding whether or not to bid, such as a better description, warranty details, etc, e-mail the company for this first. If you win a lot in the auction, you will receive an e-mail confirmation of your bid price and the cost of post and packaging on top. Your credit card will be debited automatically straightaway. The good should arrive in a few days by carrier. If the goods are not in good order when delivered, you should contact the company within 24 hours to complain. ask for a replacement and if none is available insist on a cash refund rather than accepting a credit note. If you have to ask for your money back, be sure to include any cost of posting the goods back to the company as well. If you have problems with auction companies, you have the same recourse to Trading Standards as usual, e.g. if the goods do not match the auction description. Most auction sites work very similarly to QXL, although many deal almost exclusively in second-hand goods and so these will be proper auctions where you can obtain many bargains--but also many bad deals, so be careful. Some other auction sites you may wish to look at are detailed below. 4.2.2. The Morgan Auction Site www.morgan-auctions.co.uk This is where new end-of-the-line and second-hand PCs and computer accessories and goods like mobile phones and dictaphones are sold off. Morgan do not have reserve prices, so you can get genuine bargains here. Morgan have a few high street shops where you can pick up your goods from or take them back to if they are faulty. Morgan give their own warranties on goods they sell. I walk you through using this auction site in an example at the end of this section. 4.2.3. The Free Serve Auction Site www.freeserveauctions.co.uk Here is Freeserve's auction site, with a wide range of goods such as new and second-hand computer hardware, holidays, etc, and you can even bid for personal lots from other members of the public registered with the site. Since Wanadoo took over Freeserve, their auction site has changed and much of it now links to the Ebay auction site. 4.2.4. The American Blind Treasures Auction Site www.blindtreasures.com/auction Here is an auction site set-up in September 2002 specifically for blind people to auction anything they like, not just IT equipment. There are no charges and the site simply provides an interface to bring competitive buyers and sellers together. It is US-based, so not everything may be suitable for UK participants to bid for, e.g. mains Electrical goods may have a different power rating and the cost of shipping goods may make it uneconomical to purchase them. 4.2.5. The Ebay Auction Site www.ebay.co.uk (in the UK) or www.ebay.com (in the US) Ebay, in the last couple of years, has become the world's biggest online auction site. You can buy and sell just about anything on Ebay's auction sites and you can pay for your goods using Ebay's own secure payment system called Paypal. Ebay has all of the procedures and notification systems that you would expect from a top auction site. 4.2.6. The Nochex Auction site www.nochex.co/uk Nochex is not itself an auction site. It is a service for paying money over electronically, instead of using a paper cheque or credit card, just like Paypal is. However, on the Nochex site, you will find a list of UK-based auction sites to surf to and examine for more information about auction sites and to try your hand in bidding, etc, if you like. 4.3. Step by Step Example of Using an Online Auction--The Morgan Site To use the Morgan computer auction site you must sign up with them and provide your credit card details and choose your own username and password. However, it is possible for anyone to have a look around this site before signing up and placing a bid. What you do is: 1. Launch Internet Explorer (or your browser of choice) and press CONTROL O then type in the Morgan site URL, which is: www.morgan-auctions.co.uk 2. TAB and ARROW through the elements and text on this site and press ENTER or SPACEBAR on some links to have a good look at the help and information pages which Morgan provide, e.g. "Customer Information", "FAQs", "Terms and Conditions", "Auction History", etc. Keep returning to the home page after reading these sub- pages by pressing ALT left ARROW. 3. Tab (or ARRow down) to "Register to Bid" and press ENTER to register (or do this later if you do not wish to at this stage). The registration form which loads in is basically as follows: A. The registration form comes up and tells you that you are on a Red Kanetics secure page which no one else can view. Press ENTER on OK and then ARROW or TAB down to the "Preferred Username" editfield and press ENTER to go into forms mode to be able to type this in, e.g. JohnW or whatever you like. B. Then TAB to "E-Mail" and ENTER your e-mail address, as they need this to e- mail your registration confirmation back to you and confirmation of any lots you have bid for and won. C. TAB to "First Name" and type your Christian name in as normal, followed by TABBING and completing the rest of the form in the usual way. D. In completing the rest of the information fields you will have to enter your password twice in both fields, sometimes you will have to ARROW up and down multiple selection lists and when you get to the "Expiry Date" field, you first type in the month expiry date of your credit card, e.g. 02 (for February), then TAB to the next field and type in the year expiry date, e.g. 2008. In the "Fax" editfield, if you have no FAX, type your standard voice phone number in, as the site will not accept you leaving this blank or just typing none in. E. You will eventually TAB to the "Submit" button, so press ENTER or SPACEBAR on this to send the completed form to Morgan. Your confirmation e-mail will be returned in a few hours or perhaps the following day. 4. After your username and password confirmation e-mail has been received by you, you can bid by TABBING to the "Current Bid" link on any of the offered lots and by pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR on this. If you are outbid by someone later, you will be e-mailed to advise you of this. 5. To get to the "Current Bid" buttons, you have to TAB (or ARROW) down the home page to where you encounter a table with four columns and about ten rows. This is where the lots which are nearest to reaching their final day of bidding are listed. The first column holds an item's name/model number in it, the second column contains the item's brief description, the third column advises you of the date/time the bidding will close and the last column contains the "Current Bid" link and tells you how much the last bidder bid, which is the amount you will have to beat if you are to have any chance of winning the lot. Continuing to ARROW down will reveal more lots with the same four columns of information. Remember, your screenreader may feature a hot key to jump you straight to the first and subsequent tables on a Web page, e.g. pressing T with JAWS and Webbie and pressing ALT CONTROL TAB with Window-Eyes. 6. If you TAB to the "View All Lots" link and press ENTER, you will be able to look at all of the lots currently available for bidding. You just make a bid for one of these in the same way as with the ten or so maturing lots shown on the above home page. 7. Make your bid by pressing ENTER or SPACEBAR on the "Current Bid" link, when another page will load in giving you more details about this lot, e.g. if it is a Pc, you will be told such facts as the monitor size, type and amount of RAM, make of CPU, type of sound card fitted, type and number of ports, etc. You will also be told if the item is new or second-hand and how many of this particular item are available. The Morgan warranty period will also be indicated. You may have to bid in multiples of œ10 or whatever this page advises. At this point you will have to go to the username and password fields to enter this information. You can also type a figure in the "Maximum Bid" field to tell the system how much it should automatically bid up to for you before you want to duck out--the bids will go up in œ10 stages in this example. After completing these fields and typing in the amount of your bid, you TAB to the "Bid Now" button and press ENTER. 8. This is the end of your current bid, unless you put a figure in the "maximum Bid" field. You should keep a check on the progress of bidding, especially in the last hour of the bidding period if you really want an item. 9. If you have any problems or want more details on a particular lot, e-mail Morgan or phone them on 0208 5750055. 4.4. Step by Step Example of Using an Online Auction--The US Blind Treasures Site The auction program used on the Blind treasures Website is freeware so is a little limited and inflexible. It is at: www.blindtreasures.com/auction 1. Registering to Bid for Items or to Sell Items A. To use the Blind Treasures auction service you must register your self first by going to the above URL with your browser and then TABBING to the "register Now" link and pressing ENTER. B. You then come onto a page to ARROW or TAB to and