Ah okay thanks Greg,
No I know AFB run access world, smile
On 6 Aug 2007, at 01:53, Greg Kearney wrote:
Just to be clear Access World is published by the American
Foundation for the Blind not the National Federation of the Blind.
The review was worse than just misguided it as a deliberate attempt
to scuttle VoiceOver. The author told me to my face before the
review was published that "We're going to make sure this blows up
in Apple face." There are those out there in the blindness
community that fear the built in screen readers that Apple and now
Ubuntu and Sun provide.
Greg Kearney
On Aug 5, 2007, at 18:40 , James Austin wrote:
Was this jay from AFB? I read his review it was "interesting"
On 5 Aug 2007, at 20:51, Dane Trethowan wrote:
Ok, well I've been using Apple computers on and off for 21 years,
I could be wrong but I don't think Apple really paid much
attention in the past to those people who were blind who wished
to use an Apple computer.
When I first started using computers, I used an Apple 2/E and I
wouldn't have been able to use that machine at all had it not
been for the products sold by Computer Aids Corporation now GW
Micro, they had a talking word processor, talking database
package, talking communications package etc and all these
products were designed from the "ground up" to talk, in some ways
these applications surpass what we have now as far as
accessability is concerned.
I used my first Apple Mac in 1995 with Outspoken, again this
product was developped by a Third Party developer called Berkley
Systems, later to be handled by Alva.
Now I'm not knocking Apple, its great they've taken it upon their
shoulders to develop VoiceOver and its really nifty that we have
great people out there who know what they're talking about on the
beta team but let's face it, as someone else once said in a
famous TV commercial, "Its a long time between drinks" and in
that time, Windows along with third party screen reading packages
such as JAWS and Window-Eyes have pretty much claimed 90% of the
computer market for blind people.
Yes, I'm sure that Apple will pick up some of this market but it
will be very small thanks to the above fact I mentioned and
thanks also to allot of myths and bias reviews written about
VoiceOver and Apple circulating in the blind community. I've said
it once on another list, got a carpeting for saying it but I'll
say it again because I believe this to be only too true, blind
people as a whole would rahter knock a product than actually try
it to see how good or bad it is. Regarding bias reviews? Well we
only have to look at that piece of rubbish written in NFB'S
Access World last year, the author couldn't even get his facts
right and quite frankly, that review was the worst review I've
ever seen written on any product and puts the NFB to absolute
shame as far as technology reviews is concerned, this review let
their members down very badly because of its lack of factual
information, no research being done whilst the review was written
and general distortions of the VoiceOver software.
On 06/08/2007, at 5:34 AM, Richard Gardenhire wrote:
There was a time when more blind people used Apple products and
Apple had the best tech support. This is pure speculation on my
part, but I believe there are long-time company brass who are
fully aware of that and want to recapture that market; at what
price, it's hard to say, but as the numbers grow and Apple is
enundated with comments and inquiries, as one commercial once
said, "You got to break eggs to make real mayonaise, and af
Kraft, we do." I believe Apple is taking a similar approach--not
with eggs, but research and development, as well as input from
those of us who have been loyal, Mac users. Sure, these features
won't come to us overnight, but it is my hope that we work with
Apple, with helpful suggestions, comments, and known things that
we know works, that can be fully implemented by Apple and
developers for Apple products. Just my two cents. Richie
Gardenhire, Anchorage, Alaska.
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