Instantbird is an instant messaging client,
which you download to your computer. It allows you to connect to
others via your current social media accounts. For example, you
can connect to: AOL Instant Messenger, Windows Live Messenger
(MSN), Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, Twitter, Facebook Chat,
XMPP (Jabber), IRC and ICQ.
To obtain your copy of Instantbird, please go
to the following link at http://instantbird.com/
When you are there, locate the "get Instantbird free" link.
Press the Enter key and then it will give you the option to
either open or save your file. Make sure you save it somewhere
easy to find (for example the Desktop).
When you have downloaded it to your computer, locate the file,
and click on it to set it up.
Make sure you note what the file was called (for example
instantbird-1.5.en-US.win32.installer.exe)
To setup the program, just press the Enter key on the file and
follow the directions. Once you have set the program up
successfully, an icon will appear on your desktop, as well as
under all programs.
When Instandbird is launched, it has the good
old style menus. Use your left and right arrow keys to navigate
the main menus, and the up and down arrow keys to navigate the
drop down menus.
One of the things you will want to do is customize Instantbird to your likings. When Instantbird is open, press the Alt key until the file menu comes up. Right arrow to the tools menu, then down to the options menu, then press the Enter key.
In this section, you can customize Instantbird
to your likings. It can be tabbed through easily. Make sure you
check out the different options under this screen (for example
General, Tabs, Content and so on). These are tabs, and the left
and right arrow keys can be used to navigate them. To go into
any of the sections, just use the Tab key. If you need your text
enlarged, while in this section, check out the contents tab.
Under this section you can enlarge the size of your text, change
it to a clear font like Arial, and so on.
With Instantbird, one of the things you will
want to do is set up an account. When setup, you will be able to
text chat to your friends on any of the accounts you have setup
(for example Facebook chat).
To setup an account, when Instantbird is open, press the Alt key
until the File menu comes up. Right arrow to the Tools menu,
then down to the Accounts tab, then press the Enter key. When
the next screen comes up, you will need to find the "New
Accounts" button. Press the Enter key on this button, and the
next screen that comes up will give you a list of Instant
Messaging Clients (such as Google talk, Facebook chat and so
on).
If your chat client is not found under the first section, check out the "Show all protocols" section for more clients.
Select the client that you wish to add (for example Facebook Chat) and click on next. It will ask you to enter your username for the facebook chat account. This is different to the one you use to log into facebook directly. Have a look under the (account...settings) section in Facebook to locate this. Once there, under username, it should say http://www.facebook.com/freddo.frog12). Enter only this last bit (for example freddo.frog.12 or whatever yours is). Once you have entered this, click on next. Enter your Facebook password and click on next. Enter the same information for alias as you did for username to make it simpler and click on finish. If you have entered your username and password correctly you will hear a noise and a list of available Facebook friends will appear that you can text chat to. Click on close. You should now see a heading called Facebook friends and underneath should be a list of those who are currently online. This will change as people log in and log out.
You may also choose whether to view only
online contacts, or all contacts. If you wish to show only
online contacts, locate "Facebook friends". (You may also hear
change your icon, display name, your online status and the
heading Facebook friends) if you tab in that area. Press the
NVDA key (for example the Insert) & the divide key on the
numeric keypad. This will route the mouse to the words "Facebook
friends". Right click by pressing the multiply key (the star
above the number 9 on the numeric keypad). Arrow to "show
offline contacts" and press Enter. This will allow you to
message a contact who is currently offline. To go back to
showing only your online contacts, simply repeat this process
and only contacts who are online will be shown.
Once your chat client has been added, it will
show all contacts that are in your chat client. When you log
into Instantbird, it will automatically put you into a treeview.
The treeview can be navigated with the arrow keys. Depending on
how many clients you have, will depend on the number of branches
used (for example Facebook chat and another).
If you wanted to use the Facebook client, you would find the
branch called "Facebook friends". You will need to open the
branch with your right arrow key. Then, it is a matter of using
the down arrow key to see which chat contacts are online.
When you have selected the person you want to
chat with, you can do either of the following.
1 Route your mouse to the contact you want to
talk to. To do this, press the NVDA key + the divide key on the
numeric keypad. When the mouse has been routed to the contact,
you can then right click with the mouse button. The multiply key
on the numeric keypad is used for this. A context menu will come
up. Arrow down to start a conversation, then press the Enter
key. NVDA will automatically default to the section where you
can type in your message. Type in your message, then press the
Enter key. Your message will then be sent.
While NVDA is in focus (on the person you are talking to), it
will automatically read out the messages to you as you chat. You
can also use the Shift/Tab keys to take you into the message
body of the chat. This is so you can see what was said
previously (if you missed what was said). You can use the up and
down arrow keys to review the chat. This chat session can also
be saved.
2 While focused on your
contact, if your keyboard has an applications key, press this
key. A context menu will come up. Arrow down to "start a
conversation", then press the Enter key. Now, type in your
message and press the Enter key to send your message.
When the person replies (as mentioned before) it will be read
out to you.