Released:

In this free update for all SuperNova 13 customers:

  • Enhanced keyboard access to web pages and PDFs with SuperNova Reader Magnifier.
  • Improved default speech settings in Reader Magnifier.
  • Windows 8.1 and Internet Explorer 11 initial support.
  • Fixes for speech and Braille in: Flash in Internet Explorer 10, contact cards in Outlook 2013 and power settings dialog in Windows 8.

NEW: Keyboard Access with Reader Magnifier:

People with low vision can browse web pages and apps using familiar keyboard commands. Read the screen from the keyboard using your choice of magnification and/or speech in situations where no Windows cursor is available.

Web pages in Internet Explorer, PDFs in Adobe Reader and Windows Help read by: character, word or line, as easily as any text document. Plus, Reader Magnifier speaks alt tags on images that have been labelled.

Easily see your position on screen when cursoring through web pages with synchronised focus highlighting. Even works when the voice is switched off. The current character and line are emphasized with colour tints and shaped outlines that can be adjusted from SuperNova Control Panel, Visual menu > Highlighting submenu > Settings... dialog > Dolphin Cursor page.

Simply use the cursor keys to move around at your own pace:


UP and DOWN arrow keys move by line.


LEFT and RIGHT arrows move by character.


HOME and END move to the start and end of lines.


CONTROL+HOME or CONTROL+END moves to the beginning or end of documents.


CONTROL+LEFT/RIGHT move a word at a time.


TAB and SHIFT+TAB moves between links and controls.


H or SHIFT+H move between headings.


Review the screen from the keyboard any time by pressing NUMPAD MINUS on desktops or CAPS+Z on laptops. For example, when a dialog pops up you can use your keyboard to review messages from the keyboard by character word and line.

SuperNova intelligently recognises when not to use keyboard navigation. TAB in to a form field and you can start typing. Or pull down a menu and the cursor keys will select menu items as normal.


You can prevent automatic access with the keyboard by pressing LEFT CONTROL+4 on the number row.


Documents can also be read aloud by clicking the middle mouse button.


Speed up web page navigation from the keyboard with the Dolphin Item Finder. Press CAPS+TAB to list: headings, links and controls on web pages. Choose one of these elements and the "Route Dolphin Cursor" button will jump there instantly.

Important Note:

For complete screen reader keyboard access, try SuperNova Access Suite that also features:

Speech > Advanced > Dolphin Cursor settings page for toggling Forms Mode and Dolphin Cursor options.
Select and copy text to the clipboard with SHIFT+Arrow keys
F3 Find searches the screen for a particular word or phrase
More Quick Navigation keys on the web and in PDF to move by controls such as B to go to the next Button.

NEW: Improved default speech settings in Reader Magnifier

Following feedback from customers, the default speech output in Reader Magnifier now:
Announces words only when typing. You can adjust this behaviour by cycling through Character Echo options with CAPS+SEMICOLON.

Reduce the amount of common punctuation announced while reading documents. Change this from SuperNova Control Panel > Speech > Text Style Announcements.

Other Changes in SuperNova 13.52

Windows 8:

NEW: Supernova 13.52 installs and runs on the public preview of Windows 8.1. Note, Microsoft reserve the right to change Windows 8.1 before release.

FIX: Mail app. Speaks and brailles: To and CC fields in messages, Spell Checker and Font dialog.

FIX: File Explorer, Power Settings dialog and WordPad now speak and Braille more reliably. Offers greater certainty for blind users tabbing between controls in Ribbons and settings dialogs.

Internet Explorer 10:

FIX: Read playback position on YouTube. Flash updates should now Speak and Braille in Windows 7 and Windows 8. Previously only the initial snapshot of the Flash object was being reported.

FIX: Read more text on webpages containing inline frames. For example: oafe.net. 
Outlook 2013:

FIX: Reliably announce the focus when cursoring up and down in Conversation view.

FIX: Speak all controls when modifying contact cards.
Word 2013:

FIX: Correctly speak and braille the focus in the "Apply styles" dialog.

FIX: Russian users now hear meaningful announcements in their language.

General:

FIX: At logon you can now use magnification and Braille without speech.

CHANGE: With SuperNova Reader Magnifier, blank lines are prevented from being announced in Word and in the Doc Reader. Note, blank lines are announced by Supernova Access Suite and Supernova Screen Reader editions.

FIX: Cured problem of occasional screen corruption when using Clone or Span mode in a multiple monitor environments.

Notes:

Internet Explorer 11. Visual focus is not tracked as you move down web pages.
True Fonts, multiple video cards and Line View are available in Windows XP and Windows 7. Users relying on these features are advised to wait before moving to Windows 8.

Other v13 releases:

Complete Version History