{"id":463,"date":"2022-06-17T01:10:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T01:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/?p=463"},"modified":"2024-11-15T01:14:55","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T01:14:55","slug":"the-future-of-system-access","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/sv\/the-future-of-system-access\/","title":{"rendered":"Framtiden f\u00f6r system\u00e5tkomst"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the wake of our farewell to Internet Explorer<\/a>, where we announced the coming end of System Access to Go (or SAToGo), there has been some unfortunate confusion about the future of System Access in general. So in this post, as chief technology officer of Pneuma Solutions, I want to personally set the record straight. This will be a long post, but I think it\u2019s important to be completely candid about where we\u2019re coming from and where we\u2019re going, so please bear with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The short version is that System Access isn\u2019t going away. Its scope will be changing, to better reflect the current assistive technology landscape and make the most of our limited resources as a small company. But if you use System Access to browse the web and access our Sero services, as Mike and I do every day, then the things that you love about System Access aren\u2019t going anywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s true that System Access hasn\u2019t seen any substantial new feature development in quite a while, particularly since I joined the Windows accessibility team at Microsoft about 5 years ago. And even though I moved on from that chapter of my career at the end of 2020, we\u2019ve remained focused on innovations beyond the screen reader, such as\u00a0Scribe for Meetings<\/a>,\u00a0Scribe for Personal Documents<\/a>, and coming soon, an exciting update to Remote Incident Manager (RIM).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, we\u2019ve put out maintenance updates for System Access as needed. We\u2019re aware that some areas of System Access need more maintenance; there are gaps in our support for modern browsers that frustrate us as well, and we understand that as people get new computers and upgrade their existing ones, support for Windows 11 is becoming a must-have. Rest assured that we haven\u2019t forgotten about these things, and we\u2019ll get to them soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what\u2019s next for System Access? First, let me tell you what\u2019s not changing. If you use our Sero service on a Windows PC, System Access fits that use case like a glove, and that will continue to be the case. And as I mentioned above, we know that many of you love the way System Access works with the web. Whether it\u2019s the smooth flow of the virtual cursor in and out of form controls, the lack of clutter when reading a web page, the ability for our community to fill in accessibility gaps with our Community-Supported Accessible Web (C-SAW) service, or the beeps that accompany links (a small touch that I\u2019m personally proud of), we\u2019ve created a web browsing experience that many of you love. And so do we. I once jokingly told Mike that our web browsing experience, going back to FreedomBox 2.0, was the worst thing that ever happened to my own productivity, because it made web browsing so much more enjoyable. As I said before, that experience isn\u2019t going away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But System Access can\u2019t do it all, and we believe it doesn\u2019t make sense for us to try. Even on the web, leaving aside the gaps in modern browser support that we will soon address, we know that our focus on simplicity isn\u2019t the best fit for all use cases. For example, in some complicated web applications, the distinction between browse mode and focus mode, or virtual cursor and forms mode, is really necessary. When it comes to Windows applications outside the web, we know we can\u2019t match the rich ecosystems of third-party customizations available for JAWS and NVDA. And when your primary screen reader or your PC as a whole gets into a sticky situation, or if you just need quick access to any Windows PC, there\u2019s nothing more reliable than Narrator. The other available Windows screen readers are great tools; we use them ourselves, and we think you should too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why we want to make it easy for you to use System Access side by side with other Windows screen readers, so you can use the right tool for the job. The plan is something like this: System Access will still fully support our Sero service, modern web browsers, essential features of the Windows operating system, and other tasks that everyone does on a PC. But when you switch to an application that we don\u2019t support, System Access will smoothly step back and bring up your chosen full-featured screen reader. When you move back to a task that System Access does support, it will unload your other screen reader and come back to the fore. And if you find that System Access isn\u2019t working well for your use case in an application that we do support, such as web browsing, you\u2019ll be able to switch back and forth with a simple hotkey. The devil\u2019s in the details, and we\u2019re still working out those details, but that\u2019s the current plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of you are probably wondering about Microsoft Office. We\u2019re still figuring out the details on this as well. Basically, we plan to support simple Office tasks that home users do every day, particularly around documents in Word. But when it comes to advanced productivity, particularly on the job, there\u2019s no substitute for the rich set of commands and features provided by JAWS and NVDA. Because the right choice of screen reader for Office will depend on what you\u2019re using it for, we plan to let you choose whether System Access will keep running or switch to your other screen reader when you open an Office application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve been relying exclusively on System Access for years, you may be concerned about these upcoming changes. So we\u2019re planning to do everything we can to make the transition painless. If you haven\u2019t yet set up another screen reader, or if you just need to get up and running quickly on a new PC, we\u2019ll make it easy to install NVDA with one command. And whether you let us install NVDA for you or have already been using it, we\u2019ll give you a way to smoothly use your System Access text-to-speech engines with NVDA as well, subject to appropriate license restrictions. Some readers may worry that we\u2019re playing favorites by choosing to integrate more tightly with one screen reader in particular. But the unavoidable reality is that because NVDA is open-source, it\u2019s the only screen reader that enables this level of integration. And from an economic perspective, while JAWS is now affordable for home users at $95 per year, that may still be an imposition for some of our users; it\u2019s hard to beat free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of NVDA integration, let me give you a sneak peek at the future of accessible remote technical support and training. Remote Incident Manager (RIM), our product for technical support professionals and trainers, has been in need of an overhaul, and that overhaul is finally coming. RIM customers can look forward to high-quality remote stereo audio from any screen reader or application that may be running on the end-user\u2019s machine, smoother screen output, the return of clipboard-based file transfer, and more. And when a blind technician connects to a sighted user\u2019s computer, the technician will be able to access that computer with NVDA, without requiring the sighted end-user to hear the speech output. We know that many tech professionals love the versatility of NVDA, and we look forward to bringing that versatile access to remote technical support. The private beta of RIM version 3.0 has begun, so stay tuned for more details about this upcoming release. And these exciting new remote access features will also be making their way back to our consumer offering, so Sero customers will be able to use these capabilities to help friends, family, and others in the Sero community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve already written at length about why we believe System Access is a great fit for web browsing. So while I\u2019m talking about new and updated products, let me tell you a little about the return of our own browser as part of Sero. The goal of Sero, all the way back to its beginning as FreedomBox, has always been to provide everything you need to use and enjoy the Internet, in an integrated, easy-to-use package. For many years, the centerpiece of that package was our own web browser. Unfortunately, due to limitations in our ability to make use of the Internet Explorer engine, we had to discontinue our browser about 6 years ago. But now, thanks to advances in the open-source ecosystem around the Chromium web browsing engine, we\u2019re ready to bring back everything that our long-time community members loved about the browser, and more. With features such as built-in ad-blocking, an automatic reader mode, and our own integrated PDF reader, we believe that our browser will be the fastest, most enjoyable way for blind people to access the web. And while our browser will work with all Windows screen readers, we will continue to provide the most optimized experience when using it with System Access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the return of our browser and our upcoming changes to System Access, we\u2019re going back to our roots. When we started Serotek in 2002, and even when we introduced our self-voicing web browser with FreedomBox 2.0 in 2004, we didn\u2019t want to develop a full-featured screen reader; we simply wanted to make access to the Internet affordable, easy, portable, and fun. But we saw the need for affordable, easy, and portable access to Windows as well, and we worked to fill that need with System Access. But as we said in our farewell to Internet Explorer, the assistive technology landscape has changed a lot since then. We\u2019re happy that blind people now have great choices for affordable access to Windows PCs, including truly usable built-in access to any Windows PC with Narrator, a great free screen reader with a rich third-party add-on ecosystem in NVDA, and even an affordable JAWS package for home users. If these things had existed in 2004, we probably wouldn\u2019t have developed System Access as we did. And now that they do exist, it\u2019s time for us to return to our focus on making Internet access as easy and fun as possible for our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So when are these changes coming? Estimating software projects is always risky, but we plan to begin the public beta of the new browser and the upcoming changes to System Access by the end of this year. As part of these changes, we will discontinue selling System Access as a stand-alone product and make it free for everyone using Sero on a PC. Stay tuned to the\u00a0Pneuma Solutions blog<\/a>\u00a0and email for more details as we get closer to release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In closing, Mike and I appreciate that the past 5 years or so have been a bumpy ride for our community. But please understand that they have been rough for us as well. The combination of my time at Microsoft and the unexpected illness of Mike\u2019s former business partner basically meant the end of Serotek as a company, requiring us to start over as a new, bootstrapped company with no investors. Add the pandemic on top of all that, and our efforts to sell our new products haven\u2019t gone as well as we had hoped they would. We appreciate the continued business of our loyal customers, but even with that support, our development resources have been very limited. Despite all of that, please remember that unlike most current assistive technology companies, Pneuma Solutions is owned by blind people who care first and foremost about serving our community; we have no investors, and this company is for us, by us. If you believe in what we\u2019re doing, please support us by buying our products if you\u2019re able, and by spreading the word. Whether it\u2019s\u00a0Sero,\u00a0Scribe for Personal Documents<\/a>,\u00a0Scribe for Meetings<\/a>, or the upcoming RIM version 3.0, we believe we have something for everyone in the blind community. And as I hope this post has made clear, the best, including for our loyal System Access users, is yet to come.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I k\u00f6lvattnet av v\u00e5rt farv\u00e4l till Internet Explorer, d\u00e4r vi tillk\u00e4nnagav det kommande slutet p\u00e5 System Access to Go (eller ...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_convertkit_action_broadcast_export":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pneuma-solutions"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":1,"label":"Pneuma Solutions"}]},"featured_image_src_large":false,"author_info":{"display_name":"Matt Campbell","author_link":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/sv\/author\/matt-campbell\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":1,"name":"Pneuma Solutions","slug":"pneuma-solutions","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":26,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":1,"category_count":26,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Pneuma Solutions","category_nicename":"pneuma-solutions","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465,"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions\/465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pneumasolutions.com\/sv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}