So are you guys telling me that after three years of work and high
level meettings I still can't put my hands on Pro Tools, use it with
VO overr all without having to find a old computer and a piece of
software that isn't even in production. What platform are you doing
testing on? How can we join the team of testers?
On Jan 8, 2008, at 6:01 PM, Chris Blouch wrote:
Not to crank things up more but I thought Avid was partly owned by
Microsoft and Avid's big product line was high end video production,
the same target market for Apple's Final Cut. So there is at least
the appearance of some compulsion to not give the Mac platform a
huge win with their tools. I know Avid/DigiDesign has dropped and
picked up the Mac platform in the past so they haven't had a real
love for the platform.
CB
Slau wrote:
Shaun,
While I sympathize with your frustration, there are a few things
you need to keep in mind.
First, After Rick's work with Digidesign to make Pro Tools
accessible, we blind musicians and audio professionals who used the
Mac with outSPOKEN had years of excellent access to Pro Tools.
Where things fell apart was when Apple introduced a completely new
operating system and there was no third-party screen reader. This,
of course, had nothing to do with Digidesign and certainly didn't
diminish their track record for working with blind customers. So
it's not like we've had 16 years of no access.
Further, the whole issue of accessibility in OS X was a very long
process, throughout which, we didn't even know if the blind would
have access to the OS, much less any applications by developers. As
soon as it was clear that OS X Tiger was a viable system for a
blind person to use via VoiceOver, we began our communications with
Digidesign which led to several face-to-face meetings at their Daly
City headquarters as well as the NAMM show in Anaheim and the AES
show in San Fransisco and New York.
Keep in mind that the development cycle for products is not months
but years and this is not a simple application written in Coco.
this is a cross-platform application for OS X and Windows that
requires an enormous amount of work to create and update. Taking
two seconds to change one's mind, as you say, is not at all the
case when it comes to corporations that have production schedules
and development cycles like this.
Regarding beta testing, I assure you that, not only are there
plenty of beta testers for OS X who are aware of the issue of
accessibility with programs such as Pro Tools, I happen to be a
beta tester for Pro Tools itself and I was specifically invited to
the beta team in the hopes of future testing of accessibility.
All of this, naturally, doesn't mean that everything is fine and
dandy. It takes a lot of time and effort to continue our progress.
By all means, if digidesign doesn't produce some sort of results,
perhaps a legal action will be warranted but not before we've tried
everything to do it in good faith.
Trust me, I make my living as an audio engineer and there's nothing
more that I want but to ensure Pro Tools accessibility, for myself
as well as for others. While I'm aware that the squeaky wheel gets
the grease, I've been around long enough to know that there are
preferable ways of going about dealing with corporations and the
people who run them. Incidentally, the petition we drafted, which
Digidesign became aware of by word-of-mouth, prompted an invitation
from them to have a meeting even before we presented it. The
petition was delivered to the heads of Digidesign as well as their
parent company, Avid Technologies. Our communications are with the
senior product manager for Pro Tools as well as vice-president of
marketing and development. I do believe we're talking to the right
people.
Please be patient and have some trust that some of us who have had
a track record with Digidesign are working hard to ensure the
future accessibility of Pro Tools.
Best,
slau
