accessibility of ProTools?

[Carlos Taylor]

I work for a university and am trying to gather some information for a
blind student who needs to use ProTools for a class. The class has
ProTools 10.2 on Mac computers, but he is a JAWS user. I heard
ProTools is accessible on the Mac. Is version 10.2 work well with
VoiceOver? The
person who oversees the lab has set up a PC with ProTools at this
student's request, however, I don't know if JAWS will work with it.
Are there JAWS scripts for the PC version of ProTools? If so, what
version of ProTools and what version of JAWS are most compatible? If
not, the student will have to bite the bullet and start learning
VoiceOver which I can teach him. I just haven't had experience with
ProTools. I've only used a single track editor such as Sound Forge in
Windows. Is
there a resource on keyboard commands for ProTools? I'm hopeful for
the Mac solution, not very familiar with the accessibility of ProTools
on the PC side. Any information will be a huge help.
Carlos Taylor

[Poppa Bear]

Did you read the reply I wrote on the midi mag list? You will be best off
going with either PT 11 with the latest PT updates on Mavric or PT 9 with
the latest PT updates on Lion or Mountain Lion. On PT 9 the RTAS plugins are
accessible and AAX are usable with a control surface and in 11, the AAX
plugins are accessible from the keyboard.
HTH

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[Carlos Taylor]

Yes I did. That was very helpful. So my correct in thinking that there is no accessibility at all on the Windows side with jaws for Windows?

Sent from my iPhone

[Chris Smart]

CORRECT.

[Poppa Bear]

You are indeed correct. It just isn't worth avids time to go into the
windows platform and try and address accessibility when ProTools is really
geared towards the Mac.

[Christopher gilland]

To the best I know, that is correct.

Chris.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Carlos Taylor" <ceta...@gmail.com>
To: <ptac...@googlegroups.com>

Sent: Tuesday, January 28, 2014 10:12 PM
Subject: Re: accessibility of ProTools?

[Nick Daniels]

Unfortunately that is the case. It would be nice if some one could sit down
to write some jaws scripts for ProTools for windows, but it seems that no
one seems to be committed.

[Christopher gilland]

Not to be rude, but your statement that no one is committed isn't true. I'd
gladly do it myself, but I don't have the knowledge to do jaws scripting,
NVDA scripting, or for that mind, Windo-eyes scripting. Plus, even if I
did, I probably don't have the vision it would take to properly do it. If
it wasn't for those hurtles though, I'd do it. Point is, saying no one's
committed is really an unfair statement.

[Nick Daniels]

What's rood about that?

I would do it my self, but like you, i lack the skills in computer
programming.

[Nick Daniels]

Besides, i didn't say that no one is committed, i said that no one seems to
be committed. For all we know, there may be some one unknown who's
attempting to compose some ProTools scripts for Jaws in windows, and if he
or she is, that's fantastic.

[Kevin Reeves]

This was attempted in 2002.

It's not that no one is committed. The man hours it would take way
outweigh the return on investment.

Pro Tools doesn't have enough hooks like sonar does for Jaws scripts to
lock into.

Remember. Pro Tools was originally a mac app, then ported to windows via QT.

Cakewalk has always been native windows, hence why it was a tad easier
to script for. And I say a tad, as I know that David Pinto put in tons
and tons of man hours just to keep up with things that would break as
the version numbers ticked by.

Kevin

[TheOreoMonster]

Correction.

If you are using Mountian lion, you will need to use the latest version of 10 which is 10.3.8 or the latest version of 11, though mavericks will yield optimal results with either Version 10.3.8 or version 11. Earlier versions of PT 10 and any version of PT 9 has the bug where counters and edit fields will not be read on Mountain Lion (ML). Version 10 or Version 9 will work fine on Lion as well. However in Version 10 AAX plug ins are not accessible and you will have to remove the aax plug ins to force PT to fall back to the RTAS versions. The AAX Plug ins can be found in Macintosh HD/library.application support/avid/audio/Plug-Ins/ Find that folder and delete it and or move it to the folder or something. That way protools won’t see it when it launches and will thus be forced to use the older RTAS Plug ins. Once again this trick is only needed for Version 10 on Lion.

On Jan 28, 2014, at 9:53 PM, Poppa Bear <heaven...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Christopher gilland]

My apologies. I didn't hear the part about it doesn't quote: seem, end
quote. Forgive me. LOL!

[Christopher gilland]

Ewww! PT on Windows is QT? G'gr'roass!

[Christopher gilland]

I did that on Lion back in the days, by removing that folder you mentioned.
That was a nightmare! It then told me I practically had close to no plugins
whatsoever, RTAS or not. I had to reinstall PT to get things back to
normal. for this reason, I've not upgraded to anything above 10.0. I
thought of updating to 11 when I can afford it, but, I'm concerned 1, that I
don't have anyone sighted to help me with the ILok thing, and I don't have
time to sit on hold all day waiting for someone at Avid to answer my call.
that's time that I could be making money with my recording career. Plus,
I'm not sure if the new AAX plugins work in V11 with Mavericks. If not,
there's another issue I'm not willing to chance until I know. Plus, after
removing that folder that one time and seeing what it did, I'm real hesitant
to try again.

Nothing meant personal. Maybe I did something wrong when I did it, but I
did it about 2 or 3 times in a row then reinstalled and tried again just to
make sure I did it correctly, and each of the three or so times, it broke
really badly!

Chris.

----- Original Message -----
From: "TheOreoMonster" <monkeyp...@gmail.com>
To: <ptac...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 29, 2014 8:22 AM
Subject: Re: accessibility of ProTools?

[Nick Daniels]

that may explain it then.

Maybe some time in the future, PT will aquire enough hooks for sgreen
readers scripts to connect. but for the time being, i'm happy enough to work
on the mac if that's all it takes to work with ProTools. I mean I've nothing
against the mac, it is no doubt a great operating system to work with once
you get to grips with. But i have been a windows man for about 14 years now,
and am use to the way that Jaws works. While voice over is a great sgreen
reader as far as built in sgreen readers are concerned, i find it a bit
clunky. although that does not mean i can't get the job done, provided that
a, i know what the hell i'm doing, and b, weather certain plugins are
accessible or not. I profess to say, i am first and foremost, a sonar man,
but i do see the potential in using ProTools, and what ever the occasion
demands, i will use it from time to time.

[Chris Smart]

Probably because almost nobody is running ProTools under windows.

[Slau Halatyn]

That's true. Even according to Avid, the number of Macs running Pro Tools outweighs Windows machines by an enormous factor. Nowhere is it more apparent than in the broadcast and studio market. It seems the Windows machines were more of a phenomenon when they acquired M-Audio and went for the home market.

Slau

[TheOreoMonster]

That’s possible, has I have done it on every version of 10, and am currently running 10.3.7 on lion with no issues.
On Jan 29, 2014, at 10:08 AM, Slau Halatyn <slauh...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Carlos Taylor]

Ok. So I found out they are running ProTools version 10.2 on OS
10.6.8. I'll suggest they update to version 10.3, but will VoiceOver
from Snow Leopard work ok or should they update the computer to a
later OS? The student will need to create and edit audio. He isn't
working with any MIDI devices.

Carlos

[TheOreoMonster]

10.6.8 or Snow Leopard should be fine, Just remove the AAX plug ins in the manner described to force it to fall back to the RTAS Plug ins. 10.2 should work well enough.

[Nick Gawronski]

Hi, Possibley not Avid's time but other companies who write scripts for
screen readers could always address the issue if enough users want it.
I am not really a fan of scripts for applications as really the
developers need to do their jobs when the guidelines are out there and
if a set of scripts are written for a program and the developer has no
idea they could rewrite the user interface then those scripts would be
completely useless. I think Sonar is a great product for the windows
platform and have used it before with window eyes but the main issue is
telling your virus software and all other software that when Sonar
starts you need to shutdown as everything is fine when I am doing audio
recording then when Sonar stops they can restart themselves. There are
methods for doing this but I am not sure how to do them but I do know
they are possible as I have heard of people and even sited users who do
this stuff. I am not saying anything bad about Sonar at all as it is a
very good product and can do a lot of stuff but then I think lots of us
in the blindness community when we find software that is not accessible
just give up and say well someone else will fix this issue so I won't
even address the issue. I don't think this method works at all as we
have as much of a right to access this software as our sited friends and
if talked to in a very nice way and by pointing developers at the proper
resources I have been able to make some companies make their software
accessible or at least more accessible and even have helped beta test
software for accessibility as I find the best beta testers for
accessibility are the people who need it most. Nick Gawronski

[Nick Gawronski]

Hi, I had to only be on hold for about a minute before talking with
someone at Avid and the process took about two minutes to complete. If
you choose registration and explain to them what is going on they will
help you get the ilok license transfered to your ilok account and the
product registered then connect to your mac and get things working for
you and make sure your drivers are updated. I think I was on the phone
for around ten minutes probably even less then that. Nick Gawronski

[Carlos Taylor]

Where might I find a listing of ProTools keyboard shortcuts?

Sent from my iPhone

[Poppa Bear]

Many of the native PT keyboard shortcuts are usable with Voiceover. If this
student has no experience with Voice OVer on the Mac, then this will be his
largest hurdle IMO.

[TheOreoMonster]

Macintosh HD/applications/avid/pro tools/documentation/pro tools/ is where you will find all th pro tools refence guides manuals and the keyboard shortcut list. Before even opening pro tools however spend time going over VO basics and navigation as this will come in handy with getting around pro tools quickly. It’s gonna be tough learning a new OS and a new DAW at the same time.