Fix WP2021 Not Accessable to Screen Readers

To whom it may concern,

Since transitioning from Microsoft Word to WordPerfect back in the early 90s, I have found your company’s product (version 5.1 back then) to be superior to that which I left behind. Due to qualifications for using Window-Eyes, a screen reader, I was forced to regress back to Word some fifteen years ago. When my previous computer crashed in January 2025 and the version of Microsoft Office which I had been running would not run under Windows 11 which came on my new machine, I was forced to “rent” Word/Microsoft 365 for $99/year. It was only recently that I rediscovered WordPerfect (version 2021) with which I am generally well pleased.

I have identified a tiny number of compatibility issues with my accessability software, which is now Fusion (the combination of JAWS the screen reader and Zoomtext the magnification program) from Freedom Scientific. These include:

1. The Tooltips associated with the WordPerfect toolbar not being verbalized by JAWS (or Zoomtext Reader, or Narator which is built into Windows 11).

2. The other issue concerns the presentation of text sent to the PacMate 40 refreshable braille display (which is a device about the proportions of a laser printer toner cartridge, across the top of which is a series of 40 “cells” consisting of 8 dots each that deploy and retract to create the braille characters.)

While the latter issue is quite clearly not in the wheelhouse of the WordPerfect technicians and instead will be broached with the suggestions inbox at Freedom Scientific, the ability for WordPerfect’s toolbar to lend itself to verbalization by a screen reader seems to one who, admittedly, have no technical background, save for the use of such software, to be within the scope of that with which WordPerfect staff might be in a position to address.

While Freedom Scientific has indicated that they do not have WordPerfect with which to experiment with addressing the braille display issue, Fusion is downloadable from Freedomscientific.com and will run in 40-minute mode (after which the computer running it need only be restarted and the software run again) by which your company’s staff could address the toolbar issue.

Thank you.

Best regards,

Douglas Gauntner

Purchase serial number: WP21R22-4XUSVL3-7EQ6NNS-LZG3TCA

Activation Code:AD91-47D2-A670-6C4F-854B