This is one of the issues which I find myself banging my head aganst
when trying to convince other potential VoiceOver users that the Mac
is indeed accessible and usable. Josh is correct, Apple is indeed
under no obligation. But you know, it wouldn't hurt, just for once,
to be cooperative! They don't seem to understand that in the case of
many blind individuals and, indeed, organisations, a Braille terminal
represents a significant investment. I can only speak from my own
personal experiences. My terminal is currently on its last legs, and
needs to be replaced. I am trying to put off the replacement until I
know which model or models Leopard will support. I require dual-
platform access, like many others I am sure. I have no concerns at
the Windows end. Most every display is supported. But for some
obscure reason, Apple is playing it very close to their chest.
Where's the problem this close to release? Surely its in everybody's
interest, including Apple, to ensure that their software can be used
upon release. They didn't hesitate to publish samples of Alex, and
dangle the proverbial carrot with regards some of the new and
improved applications in Leopard. I do work at a private level for
one of the Windows accessibility companies. They have never made a
secret of what will and won't be supported in terms of hardware. I
just don't believe it's true that at this stage in Leopard's
development apple is unaware of what will be supported. It just
doesn't make sense to me. After all, it surely cannot be long before
the operating system media itself goes for mastering. This must be
the case with a product whose distribution is global and of which
Apple can expect millions of purchases. Even assuming that the
release date has been pushed back as late as June, this must still
mean that they're cutting things fine. So personally, I just don't
buy the confidentiality stuff, not at this stage. If it is indeed
true that they really don't know what they're going to support, then
I would suggest that we all get ready for a huge disappointment where
Braille is concerned. And let's face it, VO has changed very little
since its initial release. I'm speaking in terms of overall
functionality here. Let's face it, we don't even have basic stuff
like drag & drop, which most computer users take for granted. With
Tiger's limitations on the cut & pasting of files, for instance, that
is a major issue. At least I think it is. I've never understood why
Apple chose not to add that into the operating system actually. But
that's another matter. Here's hoping that Apple will get their
proverbial finger out, and give their customers a little bit more
information so that they can prepare for the switch to Leopard.
On 17 Mar 2007, at 00:06, Cheryl Homiak wrote:
Yes, I'm not at all supprised.
I admit I'm spoiled because of how well brltty works for me,
especially in linux but even on the Mac terminal. Of course brltty
has all sorts of support for displays and language translation
tables, but hopefully the apple product will eventually do that for
Macosx.
