I'm going out on a limb here Karen, but here's my spin on things.
First I'm sure that their are some at Apple who truly believe in
accessibility, there are some in the legal department who probably is
more interested in avoiding a lawsuit, and well so forth. The point
is the reason in my opinion that Outspoken didn't survive and ay if
I'm wrong, please don't beat me up, this is just my own thinking; the
market wasn't their. Ay until VO, I hadn't considered a Mac and
truthly until recently I wouldn't have considered a Mac. I remember
the cute little boxes and how they seemed more like toys and that is
a marketing thing I think backfired to some extent. I also believe
when Apple started using Unix as the underpening for the os, folks
started take notice and really giving the Mac is due. I for one am
thrilled stupid with my Mac even if those rat bastards brought out
the Intel-based boxes and oooooo that would be sweet. In any case,
Apple does have a chance to grab the market by the um well and really
do some damage to microsoft. Ay face it, brother Bill knew how to
make it happen at the right time and it really was ugly. The fact is
we are where we are and as long as we keep VO up front and do what we
can to hammer Apple on its importance, well you get the idea. Believe
me, I have a contact at Apple and I sent her a note expressing
concerns about some of the issues that have come up on the list. I am
also going to have a meeting with her via the phone in late January
for a few reasons and you can bet I'm going to dig for any gold I can
find.
Scott
On Jan 11, 2006, at 8:06 PM, Karen Lewellen wrote:
Jerry, may I ask a question?
I know that you were involved in the testing for Voiceover before
it came out, and that it took a while. Granted to me, and again i
stress I am not a programmer, integrating something into the
operating system translates into programs that are primarily
written for that operating system should work with this new element.
Unless of course you are Bill Gates who by his own admission
intentionally puts windows products on the market with bugs
included and working at 70% efficiency to force the market to buy
upgrades.
So, given Itunes was around during the testing of VO before its
release, did not Apple know that it would need to work too?
This is just not apple's style, or at least not the Apple's I have
always known. if VO is not a priority, why do it at all. Better
continuing the efforts of outspoken, or driving those efforts via a
company with the commitment, than a half effort that only makes
apple look worse?
Thanks,
Karen
On Wed, 11 Jan 2006, Jerry Halatyn wrote:
It's all about priorities. VoiceOver users are not a priority for
Apple, plain and simple. I don't buy the idea that applications
were on the drawing board long before VoiceOver was part of the
system. voiceOver was on the drawing board for a long, long time.
Podcasting, which hasn't been around for all that long, was part
of iTunes in a flash. Why? Because it was a clear priority for
Apple. Yes, iTunes will probably be accessible some day. Who knows
when. Is 2008 reasonable? Sorry, no. That's not reasonable in my
opinion and I bet nine out of ten people on this list would agree.
I've been a Mac user since 1989 and I've owned six Macs so far.
Loyal customer? I'd say so, but releasing VoiceOver without having
iTunes be accessible was absolutely ridiculous, no matter how you
slice or spin it. Apple's applications are coming out in universal
binary format in the next couple of months to support Intel Macs.
Now that's priority.
