Using iA Writer (iOS and Mac) and Duxbury for the Mac in the Classroom Setting with VoiceOver
CSUN 2017
Bruce McClanahan, Assistive Technology Specialist
Washington State School for the Blind
2214 E. 13th Street
Vancouver, WA 98661
Information on all of the apps and training manuals referenced in this presentation is available at the following link:
There are several options available, depending upon the educational needs of the student, for producing correctly formatted Microsoft Word documents.
One option is to produce documents in Microsoft Word on a Windows computer using a screenreader. This requires extensive competency of the toolbars in Microsoft Word with a screenreader.
The second option is to produce documents in iA Writer, using either iOS or Macintosh and developing competency in using Markdown and VoiceOver. iA Writer says the following about Markdown, “If you are not familiar with Markdown, it might look a little scary at first. Once you get the basics, you will quickly love it as it allows you to format your text without taking your hands off the keyboard.” Information about Markdown is available at the following link:
iA Writer for the iPad
Information Architects, the makers of iA Writer have made a strong commitment over the last five years to making the product accessible;examples are correctly labeling all of the Menu Items for VoiceOver, all of the actions work as expected with VoiceOver, and have the Menu Bar always visible on the screen with VoiceOver is running.
iA Writer describes itself as a plain text editor for Markdown aficionados. They describe their product as a text editor for individuals who do not want to navigate ribbons, buttons, and complex menus.
iA Writer is a very responsive program that works very well with VoiceOver; entering text in iA Writer is much for responsive than entering text using the Google Docs app on the iPad with VoiceOver, and unlike Google Docs iA Writer has an accessible spelling checker.
The following iA Writer skills will be demonstrated during this session with VoiceOver:
- Managing files and folders, creating new files from within existing folders, understanding the iA Writer structure and the iA Library
- Naming files, renaming files, deleting files
- Exporting and importing to Microsoft Word
- Exporting and Importing to Google Drive/Docs
- Exporting to Duxbury
- Editing and navigation commands in the iA Writer document
- Using the iA Writer spelling checker
- Using VoiceOver search command
- Using basic Markdown formatting commands to produce correctly formatted work. When these documents are exported to Microsoft Word, they will be formatted correctly.
- Headings
- Lists
- Bold and Italics
- Footnotes
- Table of Contents
- And more…
iA Writer for the Macintosh
By default iA Writer is in full screen mode and not accessible for VoiceOver users when first turned on. The first time you use this program enter Control+Command+F to make the menus visible. The casual user may think that iA Writer for the Macintosh is not accessible, enter this command once and the program is accessible.
iA Writer states that their product “is a digital writing tool that makes sure all of your concentration goes into the text instead of the program.” It is very fast, the documentation even states that it works without a mouse, so awesome. It is very easy to format your document with Markdown syntax: heading, lists, structure, bold, italics, strikethrough, links, footnotes, tables, table of contents, horizontal rule, page breaks, and more...
All of the Markdown formatting options are accessible through the Menus, or the syntax can be entered directly. I advocate that the students initially use the menu system for learning how Markdown formats their document and then as soon as possible transition to entering the Markdown syntax directly.
Duxbury
Duxbury for the Macintosh with VoiceOver will be demonstrated. Documents will be created using Heading and Para styles and will be demonstrated with VoiceOver. Producing documents with outlines and a document for spelling words will be demonstrated. The coded view in Duxbury will be demonstrated.
Translating documents into Braille will be demonstrated.
Duxbury for Windows and Duxbury for the Macintosh are very similar. Anyone who is comfortable with Duxbury for Windows will have no difficulty using Duxbury for the Macintosh.
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