Here you will learn about how to control a screen reader. For this example, we'll show what's happening on screen so that you can follow along visually.
In a moment we will turn on the virtual screen reader. Before we do so, check out the buttons on the top navigation bar. There you can set speech on or off and set the speaking rate. Once you start the screen reader, it will make noise (if Speech is on), so make sure you're in an environment where that is acceptable. Whether speech is on or off, the words read by the screen reader will be shown in the black bar at the top of the screen.
For this exercise, we'll run the screen reader in the box below, rather than on the whole page. This example is an excerpt from Wikipedia's biography of the human Admiral Grace Hopper (not the cat).
When you start the screen reader, it will begin to read the text one sentence at a time. Use shift+up arrow to read the previous sentence, and shift+down arrow to read the next sentence. To try it, press shift+S to start the screen reader. Try reading a few sentences forward, then reading a few backward. If you want to turn it off, simply press shift+S again.
Note that most screen reader programs use a combination of system keys, such as Control, Alt, Insert, etc., to control the screen reader. To prevent collisions between Screen Racers and other programs, we mostly use shift+some key for Screen Racers commands.
Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (nee Murray; December 9, 1906 - January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first linkers. Hopper was the first to devise the theory of machine-independent programming languages, and the FLOW-MATIC programming language she created using this theory was later extended to create COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today.
In 1934, Hopper earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale under the direction of Oystein Ore. Her dissertation, "New Types of Irreducibility Criteria", was published that same year. She began teaching mathematics at Vassar in 1931, and was promoted to associate professor in 1941.
In accordance with Navy attrition regulations, Hopper retired from the Naval Reserve with the rank of commander at age 60 at the end of 1966. She was recalled to active duty in August 1967 for a six-month period that turned into an indefinite assignment. She again retired in 1971 but was again asked to return to active duty in 1972. She was promoted to captain in 1973 by Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr.
To complete this activity, use the keyboard to navigate to the end of the document.
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