INTERNET ACCESS MANUAL

FOR

BLIND AND LOW VISION USERS



Editor
SHIGERU YAMAUCHI


NATIONAL REHABILITATION CENTER
FOR PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
JAPAN

(WHO COLLABORATING CENTRE)

March, 2004
　
The National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities was designated as the WHO Collaborating Centre for Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation in 1995.
Terms of Reference are:

1. To undertake research and development of disability prevention and rehabilitation technology, and to disseminate information on the use of such technology through education and training of WHO fellows and other professional staff. 　
2. To undertake assessment of existing technology which facilitates the independence of people with disabilities, and to disseminate such information on technology through education and training. 　
3. To undertake studies of community-based rehabilitation, primary health care, and other social support mechanisms for people with disabilities. 　
4. To undertake research and development of new equipment and devices in rehabilitation and daily life of people with disabilities. 　
5. To develop and prepare manuals for education and training of rehabilitation professionals. 　
6. To support organization of conference and/or seminars on rehabilitation of people with disabilities. 　

　　　　　　　National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities
　　　　　　　WHO Collaborating Centre for Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation
　

CONTENTS

Preface
Contributors

Chapter 1． Introduction
　1．　Outline on the Editor
　　1） What is an editor?
　　2）　ALTAIR's features
　　3） Logical lines and physical lines
　2．　System Requirements
　　1）　Supported PC
　　2） Audio environment
　　3）　Supported OS
　　4）　Memory requirements
　　5） Supported braille display
　3． Installation
　　1） From CD-ROM
　　2） From the package downloaded from the homepage
　　3）　How to install
　　4） Uninstall
　4．　AL.CFG
　　1） AL.CFG

Chapter　2． Basic Operation Guide
　1．　Starting and Quitting the Application
　　1）　Program name
　　2）　Startup
　　3）　Quitting
　　4） Current folder setting
　2．　Loading, Inserting, and Opening Files
　　1）　Loading
　　2） Inserting
　　3） Opening
　　4） Searching an input file
　　5） Importing Word, Excel, Powerpoint, PDF, RTF files
　　6） Loading a file by using a history
　3．　File Save
　　1） File save
　　2） Saving a part of a file
　　3） Saving all files
　　4） Saving additionally
　　5） File back-up
　4． Selecting Function Commands
　　1） Basics for function commands
　　2） Toggle type selection
　　3） Selection by the up and down cursors
　　4） Selection by the left and right cursors
　　5） Cancel
　5． Character Input and Cursor Movement
　　1） Character input
　　2） Cursor movement
　6．Deleting Characters
　　1） Deleting one character before cursor
　　2） Deleting the character where the cursor is positioned
　　3） Restoring deleted characters
　　4） Deleting the characters from the cursor position to the end of the line
　7． Deleting Lines and Full Text
　　1） Deleting lines
　　2） Deleting full text
　8． Search
　　1） Search
　　2） Upward search
　　3） Case incentive search
　　4） Continuing a search
　9． Replacement
　　1） Whole replacement from the cursor position
　　2） Partial replacement
　　3） Case incentive replacement
　　4） Whole replacement from the beginning of the file
　　5） Cursor position after replacements
　10． Reading
　　1） Current line reading
　　2） Continuous reading from the current position
　　3） Toggle between character reading and line reading
　　4） Reading the previous line and the next line
　　5） Line break display
　　6） Status information
　　7） Reading the current character code
　　8） Detailed reading of the current character
　　9） Line break skip
　　10） Read-inhibit function
　　11） Line break echo and empty line echo
　11． Block Edit
　　1） Specifying a block
　　2） Deleting blocks
　　3） Block copy
　　4） Block move
　　5） Continuous block copy
　　6） Block restore
　　7） Block save
　　8） Block append
　12． Marking and Copy and Paste
　　1） Marking
　　2） Jumping to a mark
　　3） Copy
　　4） Cut
　　5） Automatic save in a paste buffer
　　6） Paste
　　7） Search, replacement, and paste
　　8）　History buffer for file names
　　9） Quick copy
　　10） Saving marks
　　11） Copy into clipboard (clip-copy)
　　12） Paste from clipboard (clip-paste)
　13． Cursor Movement
　　1） Left and right cursor keys
　　2） Up and down cursor keys
　　3） Moving cursor to a specified line
　　4） Automatic cursor movement
　　5） Word jump
　　6） Jump between '{' and '}'
　14． Input Mode
　　1） Toggle between insert and replace modes
　　2） Specifying input data
　　3） Input of control code
　　4） Deleting extended ASCII characters
　　5） Swapping function keys
　15． Braille Files
　　1） Braille-to-text conversion
　16． Editing Multiple Files
　　1） Editable number of files
　　2） Toggle between file 1 and file 2
　　3） Toggle among file 1 to file 10
　　4） Block edit between files
　17． Folding
　　1） Folding
　　2） Wordwrap
　18． Setting of Speech Engine
　　1） sapi.cfg
　　2） Specifying a speech engine
　　3） Specifying a speech engine speed
　　4） Specifying a speech engine pitch
　　5） Beep
　　6） mysapi.cfg

Chapter　3．　Advanced Operation Guide
　1． Braille display
　　1） Braille display
　　2） Message mode
　　3） Operations of braille display side
　　4） Setting AL.CFG to use a braille display
　　5） On/off of braille cursor
　　6） Line number display
　　7） Setting tab value
　2． Telephone Dialing
　　1） Telephone dialing
　　2） Setting AL.CFG for telephone dialing
　3． Printing
　　1） Print
　　2） Emboss
　4． Hot File List and Batch Processing
　　1） Hot file list
　　2） Batch processing
　5． Search in CD-ROM Dictionaries
　　1） Main supported EPWING compliant dictionaries and electronic books
　　2） Setting AL.CFG to use CD-ROM dictionaries
　　3） Selection of CD-ROM dictionaries
　　4） Searching in CD-ROM dictionaries
　　5） Specifying a file to read a search result into
　6． Internet Access
　　1） Method to access internet
　　2） Basic operation
　　3） Link jump
　　4） Using a search engine
　　5） List management
　　6） Reading a local file
　　7） Batch processing
　　8） Saving a log
　　9） Getting source and converting to text
　　10） Form input
　　11） MAP and FRAME
　　12） Cooperation with FTP
　　13） Cooperation with MAIL
　　14） Using proxy server
　　15） Browser mode
　　16） Homepage management using FTP
　　17） cookie and authentication
　　18） SSL
　　19） RAS
　　20） Playing a DAISY book
　　21） Structure display mode
　7． Mailer
　　1） Mailer mode
　　2） Quitting
　　3） Various settings before use
　　4） Basic operation
　　5） Edit function
　　6） Short cut key
　　7） Multi-account
　8． Shell
　　1） Shell mode
　　2） Quitting shell
　　3） Command input
　　4） Edit function
　　5） No-linebreak command input
　　6） History
　　7） Sound play
　　8） File name completion
　　9） Shell setting option
　　10） Tag jump

Chapter　4．　Technical Guide
　1． Hot Keys
　　1） Hot keys
　2． Configuration by al.cfg
　　1） Configuration file
　　2） Specifying a telephone communication port
　　3） Telephone number header
　　4） Setting communication parameter for telephone serial port
　　5） Specifying a communication port for braille display
　　6） Types of braille display
　　7） Setting communication parameter of serial port for braille display
　　8） Size of braille display
　　9） Number of displayed characters
　　10） Wordwrap
　　11） Braille display and braille translation mode
　　12） Displaying a line number
　　13） Specifying book number(s) of CD-ROM
　　14） Displaying CD-ROM name(s)
　　15） Searching program selection
　　16） Specifying a file to read the result of CD-ROM dictionary search into
　　17） Specifying a name of local character table
　　18） Conditional search
　　19） Specifying CD-ROM drive(s)
　　20） Setting the options particular to a search tool
　　21） Setting a home page
　　22） Setting a search engine
　　23） Setting an user ID
　　24） Automatic log save for accessed home pages
　　25） Setting proxy server
　　26） Registering hot file(s) with labels
　　27） Registering hot file names
　　28） Line reading mode as a default value
　　29） File backup
　　30） Data type
　　31） Setting a voice display and a braille display
　　32） Saving marks
　　33） Not moving cursor after replacements
　　34） Line break display (for printable characters)
　　35） Line break display (for braille characters)
　　36） Folding
　　37） Wordwrap when folding
　　38） Limiting paste function
　　39） Specifying the current folder
　　40） Line break skip
　3． An AL.CFG Sample
PREFACE
　Access to the Internet becomes crucial factor of the social life in the Information Society.
　Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) access gap between North and South is one of the most important international cooperation issues identified by the United Nations Summit on the Information Society held in Geneva in December 2003. Active participation of persons with disabilities in all stage of strategic development of ICT is key to promote Universal Design of ICT in developing countries so that people with disabilities may have equal access to information.
　Voice output as well as braille output of what people see on the computer screen opens up a real digital opportunity for the blind and visually impaired persons, which so far has been blocked mainly by economic reasons in developing countries.
　However, awareness on environmental issues such as global warming helps for developing countries to take advantage of the recycled personal computers from industrialized world. This opportunity demands next step to lift the barrier against potential blind and visually impaired computer users; provision of affordable tools to assist reading and writing supported by voice output or braille.
　This book is a manual of Altair for Windows English Version developed by the National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities to support Internet access of blind and visually impaired persons in developing countries. The Japanese Altair was originally developed by the Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities in collaboration with Prof. Jun Ishikawa, the President of Japan Disability Study Association and at the same time an outstanding blind software developer.
　The release of the English version will provide a free software tool which will ensure access to documents in formats of Word, Excel and Power Point, Internet services, CD-ROM dictionaries, etc. as well as information dissemination via Internet by blind and visually impaired users.
　Altair English Version may be installed to both Japanese Windows and English Windows. English Text-To-Speech Engine, braille translation engine, filters for formatted documents including PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel, and high performance text editor are included in the package which is freely downloadable from http://www.normanet.ne.jp/~altair/index_e.html. Supported operating system is Microsoft Windows 95 through XP.
　I am looking forward to seeing that a lot of blind and visually impaired persons in developing countries make the most of Altair for Windows English Version for their full participation in the society.

S.YAMAUCHI



EDITOR

Shigeru YAMAUCHI
　National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities



CONTRIBUTORS

Hiroshi KAWAMURA
　National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities

Jun ISHIKAWA
　University of Shizuoka