Josh, Great points.
Chris -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Josh de Lioncourt Sent: Wednesday, June 20, 2007 11:33 AM To: General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by the blind Subject: Re: Macs and a Viable Alternative for State Agencies to Consider Focussing exclusively on the strengths or weaknesses of any platform is by its very nature a lack of objectivity. A balanced approach is the way to go. If one tries to enlighten people of the reasons to use the Mac platform by sticking primarily to its shortcomings....well, I think the absurdity of such an idea speaks for itself. Office 2008 for Mac should be out later this year, and it is important to point out that it is the first version of the suite to be released since the introduction of VoiceOver. It'll be interesting to see if it is more accessible than the 2004 version. Either way, many many programs have the ability to import and export to Office compatible formats, and I expect that to become more and more the case as XML seaps its way into everything. Nowadays, I have much greater success finding software that works decently to stellar with VoiceOver than I do finding software on Windows that works well with the screen readers available for that platform. This was not the case two years ago, but I think is very clearly the case now. This has a lot to do with the tremendous amount of custom controls being used without a thought to accessibility under Windows, even when it isn't necessary. A high number of apps for Mac developed over the last two years are accessible simply because Cocoa makes them so with little or no work on the parts of the developers. The VO compatibility database we've been contributing to helps illustrate this point. I expect this to continue to broaden options on the Mac for blind users. Josh de Lioncourt [EMAIL PROTECTED] ...my other mail provider is an owl... On Jun 20, 2007, at 1:07 AM, Abdul Kamara wrote: > Hello Harry or Linda, > > This is an excellent point. Bring it up, and many would accuse you > of being > an Apple basher. > > As it stands, Office is not accessible via Voice Over. Blackboard, > if it is > the same here as it is in the States, is a web Application, and > depending on > VoiceOver's capabilities, you should have no problems accessing it. > > The key here is intellectual honesty. Counselors have good reason > to be > skeptical of the Mac and its viability. As someone who is training > to be a > Barrister, I would say that key to unearthing any entrenched > positions and > switching them to yours is willingness on your part to acknowledge the > weaknesses of your position, and respecting why others believe > differently. > > Subsequently, any talking point devised to help counselors see the > light, > must take into account the reason why they get the computers for their > clients in the first place. It's all about the education and > jobs. And > they are going to support a platform that dominates, supporting more > applications for the disabled. As much as I love Apple, this is an > inescapable truth. > > To all who are planning on writing anything on this issue, I would > implore > you to do the following. Focus less energy on wy you think the Mac is > "superior" and put more on addressing the actual weaknesses > (because they > are there). They are not insurmountable, but failure to address > them will > lead to dismissal and more hardliner points of view on the part of > rehabilitation counselors. > > > > >
