May 2017 - Blind-sysadmins - lists.hodgsonfamily.org

dd-wrt, or tomato USB
by David Mehler 19 Aug '17

19 Aug '17

Hello, Does anyone have experiences with alternative router firmwares? I've got an Asus RT-N66U and am wanting to put something other than stock or as it stands now the merlin firmware on it. I'm not liking the accessibility. OpenWRT had me until I saw that it's 2.4ghz was weak and 5ghz was unrecognized, for me that kind of defeats the purpose. I suppose my choices are down to Tomato USB or DD-WRT, both of which are supported by my device, but the DD-WRT installation fills me with apprehension. If anyone has experience with either Tomato USB or dd-wrt or has another suggestion please let me know. Thanks. Dave.

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SCCM accessibility
by Ryan Shugart 12 Jun '17

12 Jun '17

Hello: Wanted to share the below link for an article on SCCM accessibility posted a few days ago. I know there's a few SCCM admins on the list, so this may be of assistance. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sccm/core/understand/accessibility-features At this point the doc is pretty basic, it lists the specialized keyboard commands for the console and some basic tips for moving around, but do expect this to grow over time. We are continuing to work on access to the SCCM console, if you have any specific issues that we aren't already working on please feel free to contact me and let me know what they are. Thanks. Ryan Ryan Shugart Program Manager II, Cloud+Enterprise Accessibility Microsoft Corporation 425-705-1262

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Facebook groups
by Jad Wauthier 03 Jun '17

03 Jun '17

I have created two Facebook groups. the first is Tech Makers. My objective with this group is to provide a convenient medium for people who are technology creators to discuss relevant topics and get feedback from peers. I hope that anyone who is interested in collaborating about tech topics will join and add others who might be interested in participating. The other group is Project Connect. the goal for this group is to provide a convenient medium for developers, admins, and others to discuss and share ideas about their projects. Sometimes, you have a project you are excited about, but you don't know how to get others on board with it. Other times, you might want some side project to work on, but you're not sure of what things other people are doing. I hope that people will join this group and share their ideas and possibly connect with others. -- Jad Wauthier | Problem Solver Phone: 512.290.3494 Fax: 512.367.5925 It's all in the perception.

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visual studio 2015 enterprise, reading package manager console window with Jaws v18.
by Chamandeep Singh Grover 29 May '17

29 May '17

Hi All, I am following an online tutorial, which seems to use the package manager console quite a bit. When I go to the console, I can see my inputs, but not sure how to read the output window and confirm whether my command has been excecuted successfully? The only way I can read some of this is using the touch cursor and navigating to the text output section. But this is not efficient at all as I have to hear a lot of useless information before getting to the actual data. I don't know how much this will be required later on, but so far it is to enable migrations and to add migrations. Thanks for any help you can give. Regards, Chamandeep Singh Grover

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Accessibility of Intel AMT (Active Management Technology)
by Jason White 29 May '17

29 May '17

I'm considering buying a laptop that happens to have Intel AMT. Based on the documents I've read, serial-over-LAN may be accessible with a screen reader (there is the Linux amtterm utility, for example). Enabling AMT and setting the password would require assistance, unless there's a work-around to using BIOS configuration screens. I don't know how accessible the Web interface is. Vnc is a graphics protocol, which would not be accessible. Those with greater knowledge are welcome to comment, particularly if you've experimented with this on real hardware.

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Linux/Windows virtualization with screen readers and a braille display involved
by Jason White 28 May '17

28 May '17

I'm contemplating the purchase of a new laptop, having reached the conclusion that I'll probably need to run Linux and Windows alongside each other. The right way to do this (minimizing reboots) is to virtualize one of them. I can use screen readers in both environments, and also have a braille display that would need to be switched between the two. There are plenty of opportunities for problems and inconveniences here. Is there a virtualization environment that reliably works in this scenario? I've used KVM under Linux before, but only with a Linux guest OS. I know Microsoft have their own virtualization solution that could be used with Windows as the host system and Linux as the guest. Linux is the system with which I've had most experience. I've been using a Windows 10 machine at work, and there are some applications only available there that I know I'll need to some extent (principally, OCR tools and Microsoft Office, at least until LibreOffice accessibility under Linux improves sufficiently). There are also some teleconferencing applications such as WebEx that I may need. I'll probably also need Linux software that isn't compatible with the Linux Subsystem for Windows, which is why I'm preparing for the likely need to virtualize one of the operating systems. I'm just investigating my options at this stage. Relevant information would be welcome.

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Setting up Bit Locker on Windows 10
by Barry Toner 27 May '17

27 May '17

Hi all, Just curious when you reboot to turn on the TPM does it come back to the Windows login or into an environment where it's not possible to use even Narrator? In Windows 7 it could encrypt on the fly from within Windows. Thanks, Barry.

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Wireless N card recommendation
by David Mehler 25 May '17

25 May '17

Hello, I'm looking for recommendations for a new USB wireless card. It's got to be n compatible and can operate in both the 2.4 and 5 GHZ bands so it can connect to any network. Currently the two nano USB adapters have only 2.4 GHZ radios. Please let me know any recommendations and how you've found the cards you use and if you'd purchase them again? Thanks. Dave.

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Setting up Bit Locker on Windows 10
by Barry Toner 25 May '17

25 May '17

Hi all, Just curious when you reboot to turn on the TPM does it come back to the Windows login or into an environment where it's not possible to use even Narrator? In Windows 7 it could encrypt on the fly from within Windows. Thanks, Barry.

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JAWS 18 crashes more often than not on 32 bit
by Katherine M. Moss 25 May '17

25 May '17

Hey all, Thought I'd mention this, for it's been impacting my job performance on a negative level and was wondering whether or not you might have anything to say about it. I've noticed that JAWS 18 crashes all the time, hence causing me to miss calls; there is no rime or reason for this; it just happens. I have a few other things open, yet with my personal laptops, both running 64 bits, I don't have these same issues at all. It's only my aging work computer. My work device is an HP EliteBook 8300. My personal laptops are a dell Latitude E6540 and a latitude D630, and neither of them give me these issues. I'm curious what I can do to keep the crashes to a minimal level to ensure that my performance doesn't degrade further? Work device is running Windows 7 32 bit and my laptops run 10 enterprise. I run a couple of nonstandard things for between calls, though that's no different than anyone else around here. I've tried to isolate the problem to a particular application and I can't.

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