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Feature Request: CakeTalking


Tony Shaffer

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Some years back, a company called Dancing Dots provided a program that incorporated the JAWS screen reader with Cakewalk to provide accessibility for visually-impaired individuals. Unfortunately, the CakeTalking program was pretty much abandoned after Cakewalk 8.5 because the company did not have the resources to maintain this effort along with the many other accommodations it provides. 

Current options for blind recording engineers would be Pro Tools or "semi-friendly" programs such as Reaper or Samplitude, but not everyone has or wants or can afford a Mac setup, and none of the other DAWs provide the range of control offered by Cake 8.5 with JAWS.

My feature request would entail incorporating screen-reader capabilities into Cakewalk for the visually-impaired. 

I have a blind friend who works in Cakewalk 8.5.3, with JAWS - without monitor or mouse -  and he navigates his computer impressively with registry editing and complex computer chores, and he uses a number of control surfaces for plugins. But he is unable to take advantage of the advancements of Cakewalk in the current version, or those in X1, X2, X3, and Sonar Platinum. 

From time to time, he will encounter issues such as Win 10 updates and new versions of plugins that require sight to set up and operate and when he reluctantly requests my assistance, he adds a monitor and mouse to his system to accommodate "my limitations." One he has things set up, he is incredibly fast and well-organized, and Cakewalk is his preferred DAW because of his detailed familiarity along with the fact that Cake is a highly intuitive and versatile DAW. 

I believe everyone should have music in their lives, be able to express themselves creatively. 
 

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@Tony Shaffer, I hope you will relay scook's information to your friend and that Steve's information proves useful.

On a related but side note PG Music's premier product, Band-in-a-Box , is JAWs screen reader compatible.  A PG Music forum user has been diligent in assuring JAWs compatibility is maintained.  I'm sure PG Music support can provide additional information upon request.

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On 12/12/2020 at 3:45 AM, Tony Shaffer said:

when he reluctantly requests my assistance, he adds a monitor and mouse to his system to accommodate "my limitations."

I just wanted to say 🤘 to being able to get one's DAW on without having to lug around a monitor and pointing device like most of us schlubs. Heck, I even have to have one of those gamers' keyboards that lights up 'cause I don't trust my touch typing.

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  • 5 months later...

Hi I use CakeTalking for Sonar.  I have used it since 2010  I have since bought Reaper at the beginning of this year and it is awesome.  I can't let Sonar go because I recorded 4 albums with it and 1 with Reaper.  I would love to have CakeTalking redone with NVDA because that is what I use with Reaper.  Their is an Addon for NVDA which is for the version of Sonar that I use but it only works on NVDA version 2019 and not the current one.  I like that we can do some things in the current Cakewalk but that spoken feedback would be most helpful.

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Great suggestion.  I wish the suggestion was made a long time ago.

Incorporating the JAWs screen reader into Cakewalk by Bandlab would be a feat that really sets this DAW above the rest.  It would also support Bandlab's educational effort too.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi I just installed Cakewalk on my new Laptop.  I noticed that the softsynths aren't beeing read by nvda when arrowing through the list.  So I have no idea where I'm at.  It just says menu once I enter the list can this be fixed.  It use to before and every since I used Sonar 8.5 which I still do to this day.

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