Performing a Google Search with Window-Eyes This How Do I Do That? Tutorial will demonstrate how to perform a Google search using Window-Eyes. I am using a Windows 7 computer running Window-Eyes 8.1 and Internet Explorer 10. To get started, let's open our web browser and navigate to the Google home page. This task can be accomplished in a number of different ways. I will use the Run dialog to complete this task because this technique will work in any version of Windows regardless of how your computer is configured. 1. Press Windows-R to open the Run dialog 2. Type www.google.com and then press Enter 3. Make sure the web browser window is maximized by reading the title with Control-Shift-T (if it isn't you can maximize the windows by pressing Alt-Space followed by X) Disabling Google Instant Search Now that we have navigated to the Google home page, it is recommended that you turn off the Google Instant Search feature. Doing so will ensure a more user friendly experience when performing Google searches with a screen reader. This task only needs to be done once because your preference will be stored by Google and remembered when you return to the web site. 1. Press Control-Shift-A to toggle browse mode on (please note that WE 8.0 and higher automatically turns browse mode off when you navigate to a web page that places your initial focus in an edit box) 2. Press Insert-Tab to list the web page links in the Page Navigation dialog 3. Press S until the "Screen Reader Users Click Here to Turn Off Google Instant" Link is selected in the list 4. Press Enter to activate the link 5. Press Alt-F4 to close the web browser Performing the Search Now that we have disabled Google Instant Search, let's proceed with performing a Google Search. First we need to decide what we want to search for and develop the best keyword or keywords to use for our search. Google uses a very complex algorithm to determine what web page results to display. It is helpful to know that Google favors websites that uses descriptive page titles, headings and link names. So, you should try to envision the text that will be found on the page you are looking for and use that information to develop your keyword or keywords you will use for your search. For example, let's assume we would like to find the GW Micro webinar archive so we can download an archived training webinar recording and the associated study guide worksheet. I would expect to find the words GW Micro webinar archive in the page title and at least one heading on the web page, so I will use these four keywords in my search. Let's go ahead and perform the search to discover what search results Google will be provided for us. 1. Press Windows-R to open the Run dialog 2. Type www.google.com and then press Enter 3. Since our focus starts in the search edit box and WE already turned browse mode off automatically, we can start typing our keywords into the edit box "GW Micro webinar archive" 4. Press Enter to perform the search I always silence speech and move to the top whenever I navigate to a new webpage. Doing so, puts me in a good position to browse the page or search for information that I am looking for. If you do not silence Window-Eyes, you will hear Window-Eyes provide a summary of the page content and then it will read first 24 lines of the web page automatically. 1. Press Control to silence Window-Eyes 2. Press Control-Home to go to the top of the page Navigating Search Results Now that Google has completed the search, we are presented with a new web page that includes headings and links for each of the Google search results. Each search result on the page is marked up with a heading so moving by heading is a very effective way to navigate to each search result. Please note that Google will often present sponsored links and advertisements above the actual search results. Make sure you navigate past the search results heading to ensure you have reached the actual search results and skipped over any advertisements. You can navigate to the next heading on the page by pressing H. You can navigate to the previous heading by pressing Shift-H. There are several other important navigation keys you can use to navigate a web page including: l for next link, to for next table, e for next edit box, b for next button, etc. For a complete listing of navigation keys, please refer to the Window-Eyes manual or hotkey section of the Window-Eyes control panel. 1. Press H until you hear search results 2. Press H until you reach the first search result The first search result heading is GW Micro - Webinar Training. Each Google Search result normally includes a heading with the web page title, a link to the web page, the web page address and a description of the content on the web page. If you are unsure if the search result is a good suggestion, you can review these additional pieces of information to learn more about the search result. For example, if I arrow down through this search result the description of the page should help us identify if this is the web page we are looking for. Once you verify that the search result is the one you are looking for, you will want to activate the search result link to navigate to the web page. Let's give this a try: 1. Press Down arrow multiple times to reach the web page description 2. Press Shift-H to navigate to the previous heading on the page which should be the heading for the first search result 3. Press L to navigate to the next link and press Enter to activate the link. Now that we have reached the new webpage, I will silence speech by pressing Control and move to the top with Control-Home. As I navigate by heading, I am moving between each major section on the page and finding information related to the GW Micro webinar archive. This concludes the demonstration of performing a Google Search with Window-Eyes. Thanks for checking out this How Do I Do That? tutorial from GW Micro. If you have any technical questions about Window-Eyes, please contact our support team by email at support@gwmicro.com or by phone at 260-489-3671.