I come from a background in software development under
Windows...something that I still do. I also worked professionally as
a Jaws script writer for Marriott International for several years, and
I'm totally blind. I'm well-acquainted with both Window-Eyes and Jaws
on the Windows side, as well as many many many other screen readers
and access solutions.
The Mac platform as a whole is a joy to work with on a daily basis.
Your everyday tasks tend to be easier and laid out more logically. As
for VO, it has a few shortfalls...what screen reader doesn't? And
accessibility on the Mac is extremely good, but of course not perfect
either. Of late I've been somewhat vocal of my disappointment with
Stacks and Spaces under Leopard. By at large, though, I've found it
ar easier to find accessible applications on the Mac than Windows.
If you need Microsoft Office, the current version, (2004), is not
accessible. 2008, being developed with Mac's native XCode Tools, has
the potential to be very accessible, but we won't know for sure until
it is released a couple of months. HOwever, you can do most of what
you need to with other applications, and many, if not most, Mac apps
are compatible with MS Office formats. TextEdit, despite its inocuous
name is a very capable word processor that comes with your Mac, and
there are plenty of other accessible word processing programs, both
free and commercial, that you can easily obtain. Bean is one that I
rather like, though I find that TextEdit serves most of my needs. If
you need spreadsheets, that's a bit of a problem at present, though
there is a commercial spreadsheet program in development called,
"Tables," which is being worked on with access in mind.
Software development for the Mac platform can be done, but it is
tricky. I'm still in the process of working out the best ways of
doing that and believe I have found them, but I need more time to fine
tune the process.
Web browsing, email, and so on, is all quite good on the Mac. I
consider myself a power user, and I do all my daily tasks on the Mac
excepting software development, which I currently have to continue
under Windows.
Browsing the web with VO is, in my opinion, better in most respects
than under Windows. As someone who enjoys building web sites, I also
prefer a more visual representation of the site, which you can get
with VO in grouped mode. Personally, though browsing has some
disappointments with VO, I think most of the frustration with it is
people not being willing to learn a new and different system.
And that brings me to my last point. The learning curve is a little
steep going from Windows to Mac. Be prepared to start over with what
you know about how to operate your computer. I highly recommend John
Panarese's article, "Memoires of a Blind Switcher" which you can read
at my site, (linked below), as well as "Ten VI Mac Myths," which is
also there.
As for negative versus positive comments in the community...I think
constructive criticism is very useful, and I think you'll find a great
deal of it here. The problems in this community tend to arise when
users become angry, or else make statements which are flatly false and
offer no evidence to support their assertions. I am one of the more
vocal and ardent supporters of the Mac, but even I have expressed my
disappointments with certain aspects.
Hope this helps.
www.Lioncourt.com
On 11 Nov, 2007, at 10:02 PM, Christian Gerhardt wrote:
Good morning folks,
I am following your discussions and flamings about how usable
leopard might
be, but I can't see anyone telling what really works and what not.
Althoug flmae wars might be amusing, it is of little help for those
who try
to decide buying a mac machine. I could go to an apple store and ask
them,
but I don't expect them to know the grade of accessibility and I
wouldn't
ask someone who wants to sell me something about it :-)
So I ask you all... do you feel able to work with leopard daily and
are you
able to solve _all_ your computing problems with the system? Is
someone
willing to be honest and tell potential new mac users what they can
expect?
And would you please don't stop people saying what they do not like
about
the system. Noone can build his opinion if 'negative' statements are
supressed. I suppose it to be counter productive and I suppose
further that
this is not, what people want inside this community, but maybe I am
wrong.
I want the _real_ picture or at least the picture about leopard that
is as
real as possible :-)
Special points of interest concerning your most wanted answers are:
-handling of security holes (how long does it take apple to fix
issues)
-accessibility of web browsing with safari
-accessibility of mail using s/mime
-support of IDEs (software development)
and of course everything you might consider interesting :-)
_every_ response (spam excluded) is most appreciated.
Regards,
Christian
