Not to mention Talks and Mobile Speak... and yes peoeple are still
purchasing these products as well as ongoing development for these.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Arrigo" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>; <[email protected]>;
<[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2012 9:24 AM
Subject: Re: [ATI] Windows Phone 8 Accessibility
Yes, let me try and clarify things a bit. Windows 8 is the version of
windows that runs on a PC. This has an improved version of narrator built
in and will run the screen readers we are used to.
Windows 8 RT is for tablets. Since it's an arm processor, it will not run
most desktop applications, it's similar to IOS and Android tablets. It
does have narrator built in as well, so the touch screen on a windows RT
tablet will be accessible.
Now for the bad news. The last flavor of the new operating system is
called windows phone 8. It is designed to take the place of windows phone
7. What you have said about accessibility for windows phone 8 is correct.
There is no screen reader, so, windows phone 8 is not useable by the
blind. I agree, shame on Microsoft for this. This is really the only smart
phone platform we cannot access since the iphone and Android have screen
readers for them.
Original message:
I just read an article on this, and unless someone has more information,
It doesn’t sound like it’s much better than in the inaccessible Windows
Phone 7. There was no talk that the menus or settings in the phone were
accessible with speech. You can turn on speech for reading of text
messages, called stupidly audio confirmation, you can turn on talking
caller ID, but nothing about access to the phones functions. This is a
disgrace on the part of Microsoft if this is the case. They have been
making empty promises about access to their Windows Mobile phone system
for the last 4 years at the blind conventions and in meetings. They have
also compounded the confusion by creating two other totally different
operating systems called Windows 8, and Windows 8 RT. RT won’t even run
our screen readers. If anyone has any more specific information on these
concerns I would love to hear it.
_______________________________________________
ATI (Adaptive Technology Inc.)
A special interest affiliate of the Missouri Council of the Blind
http://moblind.org/membership/affiliates/adaptive_technology
_______________________________________________
ATI (Adaptive Technology Inc.)
A special interest affiliate of the Missouri Council of the Blind
http://moblind.org/membership/affiliates/adaptive_technology
_______________________________________________
ATI (Adaptive Technology Inc.)
A special interest affiliate of the Missouri Council of the Blind
http://moblind.org/membership/affiliates/adaptive_technology
