Accessible Security Software

A number of my readers have asked whether the programmes I talked about in a previous blog are keyboard accessible. Well ZoneAlarm certainly is. The messages it brings up are in HTML type format, so you can use your normal Internet strategies for reading and responding to them, like tabbing and looking for short cut keys. I'm afraid to say that Ad-Aware isn't so friendly. My apologies. However, there is there an alternative.

Thanks to Neil, one of my New Zealand readers, I can now tell you about Spybot Search and Destroy. During the installation, when you get to the "select components" dialog you can choose the "icons for starting blind user mode" check box and check it. Once installed, when you find the programme via the Start Menu, Programs, Spybot - Search and Destroy, there is a "for blind users" item. Once in there are icons and buttons that aren't totally accessible by the keyboard. But the good news is that everything you want and need to do is availble from its menus.

Just remember that you can can to the menu bar using the alt key. Then use the access key for each menu and each item on the menu. (I explain more about access keys in my book, if you're interested.)

You can download spybot from www.spybot.info.

This and all other recommendations are on a separate page of my website. Go to www.withoutamouse.com and follow the "recommendations" link.