Hi,
You know, I switched last December and can feel your pain man. It just
takes time and, as I was hammered with repeatedly by the good people on this
list, you shouldn't liken your experience with Jaws to VO. Keep using Jaws
and Windows as you need but make conscious efforts to engage in new tasks on
your Mac. Its the only way you will learn VO. Use the help on this list;
Lord knows I did and read the help file about a dozen times and you will get
it. I can say that I was frustrated but now really appreciate that I made
myself learn how to use the Mac and VO. I still fall back to Windows for
some functions and when Apple makes this work better I will be the first to
tell my friends to go for it. Right now I tell them to go for a Mac but
with some hesitation and trepidation because I know they will struggle and I
know they will be knocking on my door for help.
Visit my home page at http://www.disabilitynation.net and subscribe to The
DisabilityNation Podcast.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Harry Bates" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS Xby
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 7:34 AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility look at Vista
I agree. While I have not yet even mastered the simplest rudimentary
commands of VO, I am definitely in no hurry to discard my JAWS screen
reader and my windows system. Learning VO has turned out to be more
difficult than I imagined. I know it has to be something real simple that
keeps stumping me in the learning process with VO and the keyboard
commands, but I haven't figured it out yet. It is probably something real
simple like pressing the spacebar at the right time or the return key or
something, but what is it? keeps stumping me. Or maybe it is making sure
that all three of the VO cursors are tethered together at the same point.
Is there a keyboard command to do that?
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Heim" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS Xby
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 10:11 AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility look at Vista
David,
Sometimes it's difficult to frame a question so that it doesn't sound
snotty. But trust me, I'm really just asking...
You said:
When the make their os seriously and robustly accessible such as what
Apple has done, I'll take them seriously.
What do you mean by the above comment? Voiceover is way better than
Narrator -- you've got to give Apple credit for that. But in large part,
the blame for that probably goes to the NFB. I suppose Microsoft could
have ignored the NFB's request that they *not* include a real screen
reader in Windows but that would have been extraordinary.
Other than that, I think Microsoft has really done an outstanding job of
making Windows accessible. Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and the
Office suite of programs are some of the best programs on the market in
terms of working with screen readers. And I haven't found anything in
Windows itself that doesn't work with JAWS. Everything in the control
panel works great. At one time, there seems to have been a problem with
the Users widget but that seems to be fixed. I can administer a Windows
system about as well as anybody.
Again, trust me, I'm just looking for info but it seems to me that the
best solution is still Windows and JAWS. It's *way* more expensive but it
is better. Don't get me wrong, I think Voiceover is excellent and given
that it's included, it's fantastic. I'm trying to switch from
Windows/Jaws to a Mac/Voiceover system. I'm just not sure that's
practicle at this point.
