Blogging while blindfolded or just plain blind

Here are a couple of questions I was asked:

just Jamie asked:
I try to imagine blogging while blind-folded. Even with the aid of technology that reads for me, I can't figure out how you do it, and do it well. Do you
drag a mouse over a text area, and it reads it to you? How do you embed photos, click the right tiny areas, etc?

and

Damama T asked:
If you have time, I, too, would love to know how you manage to maintain such a virtually flawless blog.


Thank you for the questions and compliments. Now to answer the questions.

Blogging… Well, I am able to do it because I was trained on how to use JAWS. No, no, no, (shakes head) not the shark and not my teeth either. JAWS is software. It is a screen reader that I have installed on my normal computer that reads to me.
JAWS has three cursors. Yes I said three. The arrow cursor is one cursor. It is called the JAWS Cursor. The little flashing line which you see when you are typing in programs such as Microsoft Word is called the PC Cursor. The third cursor is one that is used for the internet. It is called the Virtual PC Cursor. This cursor reads WebPages and easily finds forms and edit boxes. These three cursors read what the cursor is on. I do not use a mouse due to the difficulty of not being able to see the computer screen. I move my cursors and do everything on my computer with my key board. My number pad is basically how I control my cursors. I turn off the number pad and it turns into my JAWS controller. I can make my reader read the whole page, just a line, just a word, or even just a letter. My reader doesn’t describe pictures. So, if there is a picture I cannot tell what it is of unless a description is given in text. My reader won’t read pictures of text either.
I am on my computer almost every day if only for a second to check my email. So, I don’t necessarily think of what I am doing to navigate my computer I just do it. So even though it will take some thinking I will write up the steps I take to make a blog post.

1. I press the “windows key” and the “M” key to minimize all the things I have up on the screen.
2. I press the “I” key until JAWS says internet explorer
3. I press “enter” to open up internet explorer
4. I press “alt” to move my cursor up to the file menu
5. I press the right arrow key three times to reach the Favorites menu
6. I push the down arrow once then press the “L” key twice to reach a menu I have named login.
7. From there I press the right arrow once and the down arrow once. I then press the “enter” key because I have reached my link to blogger.
8. Blogger comes up. If I have to enter my user name and password I press the “F” key to find forms. I keep pressing “F” until I have reached the right spot. Jaws says “Username (email):”. I press “enter” because that is where I want to be.
9. I am now in the form. I enter my username.
10. I “tab” once and this takes me to the next form which is password. I enter it then either tab till I reach the sign in button or just press “enter” and this then logs me in.
11. So, I want to make a post I hold down “0” and the “F7” key at the same time. This takes me to a links list box. This box has all the links on this page.
12. I push “N” because I want the link that says “New Post”. I could push the down arrow till I got to the link but that takes longer. Then I “enter” to click on the link.
13. The form for a new post comes up. I press “F” to reach the title form field. I press “enter” when I get there. This enables me to type in what I want my title to be.
14. I then “tab” over to the “edit” and type what I want my post to say.
15. After finishing I “tab” over to the “publish post” button and press “enter”.
16. Then magically my post appears on my blog.

Wow step by step instructions. I think I did pretty well. I had to actually do the steps while I was typing them, because I don’t think about it while I am doing it.

I like to use Flickr for my pictures. So, to put pictures on my blog I first email them to my Flickr account. There is a way for you email and it goes directly on your blog, but I have had too many issues with that. So, I do it this way. I then go to my Flickr page and press the blog this button using my cursors. I enter in my title and post. I press enter. It magically appears on my blog.
Blogger is not as compatible with me when I want to put pictures in the middle of my post, because JAWS stops reading. So, to do that I need someone with working eyes to help. I would rather just do it on my own. That is why I only usually only have one picture per post and the picture is at the top of the post.

For the other things you see on my blog. I don’t want ads, because I just don’t. I know they could bring me a little money, but I like it ad free. I don’t have a blog role, because things like that take me much longer and give me much more frustration than they are worth. I don’t know how people put up pictures in their side bar. That would be nice, but I am fine with it the way it is. Right now my archives are monthly. If I continue blogging for another twenty years I will have to change that or just have a very long list.

Oh to further add I can connect the cursors. To explain better, suppose I have my Virtual PC Cursor on a spot on the internet and I want to comment. Well, for the most part I just push the “enter” button. Unfortunately, some blogs make me work a bit harder. So, when pressing “enter” won’t work I have to connect the JAWS Cursor to the Virtual PC Cursor. I do this by, holding down the “0” button and pressing the “-“. The “-“ is the JAWS Cursor. So anytime I want to use I push that key. The “+” key is the PC Cursor. The Virtual PC Cursor automatically comes on when I am using the internet and when the internet is on to use that cursor I also use the “+” key. I can turn the Virtual PC Cursor off with another command and the PC Cursor will come on but there really is not much point because that cursor doesn’t work well with the internet.

Wow! What a long post. I hope that answered your questions. If I missed anything feel free to mention it.

I have answered all the questions I had so if there are anymore floating questions about anything speak up.

Smiles!!!