`Greg, Very well said.
Thanks. Chris -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Greg Kearney Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2007 7:16 PM To: General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by the blind Subject: Re: I was trying to be honest about the situation with VO and the mac I suspect what he may be referring to is the lack of off screen controls with in the VoiceOver environment. This is a fundamental difference between the Mac and Windows screen readers and one I would not expect ever to change. It is also the cause of considerable frustration to Jaws and WindowsEye users in making the transition from Windows to Macintosh. The off screen controls is what makes getting help from sighted co- workers nearly impossible for blind Windows users. They are always trying to figure out what the blind user is doing because the screen does not reflect that which is being done. In the Mac environment the screen is always reflective of the action of the user be he using VoiceOver or the mouse. While the lack of off screen controls will bother Jaws and WindowEyes users. Blind users who start out on the Macintosh should not find this a particular problem. Another aspect of the VoiceOver approach to screen reading is that unlike Jaws and WindowEye VoiceOver does not override the OS. In Windows screen readers it is common to has a Jaws command for everything, Jaws scripts to control a particular program. In passing it is possible to write scripts for Mac programs using the built in scripting language AppleScript. I was once asked by a person I was training what the VoiceOver command to close a window was. Of course there is no VoiceOver command to close a window, nor should there be because the OS already has several ways to do just that. With Windows the blind user learns a totally unique way to interact with the computer. With Macintosh the screen reader provides a alternate way to interact with the OS controls it does not attempt to overtake the functions of the OS. There are several reasons for this, as a system service VoiceOver attempt to retain as much of the OS operations as possible. This is part of the Mac's overall design approach and has been from the beginning of the OS. The other reason is that unlike Jaws and WindowEye VoiceOVer is designed to fill the need of more than just the blind. Dyslexics, such as myself and those will mobility impairments that prevent them from using the mouse are also target users. VoiceOver is far from perfect and many improvements in both navigation and braille support are coming. For a review of these improvement I would refer you to http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/features/accessibility.html Greg Kearney On Sep 1, 2007, at 4:53 PM, Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis wrote: > Nothing wrong with raising issues but could you possibly be a bit > more specific? > > James Jolley wrote: > > > There is little intelligence in the screen reader > > to detect specific details, the fact that we have to interact with > > everything slows us down for a start. > > What do you mean by "intelligence ... to detect specific details?" > Can you give an example? > > > Any respectible screen reader has > > the ability to work with the current controll with ease and not > expect > > the user to jump through hoops to interact with it. > > What unnecessary hoops does VO make you jump through? > >> As I said, if the mac is so perfect for blind people, what are we >> running windows with fusion or whatever on it for? > > This seems like a strawman argument, since people don't seem to be > claiming the Mac is perfect for blind people in general, only that > it is better for their own purposes. > > -- > Benjamin Hawkes-Lewis >
