BLYNX: Lynx Support Files Tailored for Blind and
Visually Handicapped Users
- Speech-Friendly Lynx Help
- Lynx Keystroke Help
- Navigating With Lynx: An Interactive Tutorial
- press 'd' to download a
speech-tailored lynx.cfg file
- press 'd' to download a
speech-tailored .lynxrc file
- Information About the Lynx-Learners Emailing List
Forcing Lynx to associate a number with each
individual link will completely revolutionize the way you perceive the
web. Linearly listed links will no longer present a near-impassable
sound barrier, and when you are listening to a news story or a hypertext
book or manual which contains embedded links, you'll a) know that they
exist, b) know exactly where they are, c) be able to follow them and
listen to the explanatory or complementary information they contain, and
d) return to the body of the document and resume reading where you left
off.
To force Lynx to associate a number with every hyperlink, using the
Lynx Options Menu,
- step one: type 'o' to raise the options menu.
- step two: press 'k' to activate the
"K)eypad as arrows or Numbered links"
field. there are 2 values for this setting:
"numbers act as arrows" and "links are numbered"
- step 3: use the spacebar to toggle between these
values. pause after you press the spacebar so that your synthesizer has a
chance to announce the current setting. when you hear your synth say
"links are numbered", press 'enter'.
- optional step 3.1:
At this point, you can press 'u' to activate the "U)ser mode" field and
press the spacebar until you hear your synth say "advanced", and then
press 'enter'. (There are three values for this option: NOVICE (the
default), INTERMEDIATE, and ADVANCED.)
- Why change the user mode setting? When the user mode is set
to NOVICE, Lynx displays two extra lines of keystroke prompts at the
bottom of the screen. While these prompts are designed to provide the
user with a quick visual reminder of Lynx's basic commands, screen-readers
have an annoying tendency to repeatedly read these prompts every time you
press a key. Changing the user mode setting, therefore, not only
eliminates this aural annoyance, and leaves more room for pages to be
displayed, but it allows you to listen to the URL of the currently chosen
link--an invaluable aid when navigating a site comprised of alt-tagless
links. But, you say, "I am a novice and i might not remember all
of Lynx's navigation keystrokes without the on-screen prompts!" Just
remember that you can always press 'k' at any point
during a Lynx session, and Lynx will display a complete keymap, which not
only lists all of the valid keystrokes available using your ISP's version
of Lynx, but does so in a far speech-friendlier manner than when the
prompts are displayed at the bottom of the screen.
- step 4: exit the lynx options menu by generating a
greater-than sign. (On most IBM-compatible keyboards, you generate a
greater-than symbol by holding down the shift key and typing a period.)
- Exiting the Lynx Options Menu with a greater-than forces Lynx to save this
setting in your .lynxrc file as a default setting, so that every time you
subsequently load Lynx, all links will be numbered. When you want to
follow a link, simply type the number associated with the link you want
to follow, press enter, and Lynx will follow that link.
This hypertext document is maintained by
Gregory J. Rosmaita as
part of the BLINUX and BLYNX projects, and is a participant in the
Lynx Developmental Consortium.
Please report any errors or problems encountered with this document to:
oedipus@leb.net
Diskspace for BLYNX is provided by leb.net, which is not responsible for the content of
these pages.
this page created December 12, 1996
this archive last modified September 16, 1997