Dear Graham
I also live in the UK, and in December I took the plunge and bought my
first Macbook not having used a Mac ever before. It is truly a
difficult experience and it is bound to different to what you know
about using a computer as a blind person with Widnows and Jaws.
There's documentation available on Apple website as a PDF file and
lots of people on the list here have their own pages as well as an
incredibly friendly and supportive atittude to those of us who are new
to Mac, and who do not have an indepth computer training. When you go
to www.apple.com look for accessibility link and then voiceover link
to find more info. Whilst Voiceover is a very successful spoken
interface for blind and visually impaired people, it is difficult to
start with. I think you were probably too optimistic to expect to surf
the internet right away. You will soon pick up some basic principles
of navigating round the web but expect to feel at times as if you
could have done things more easily with Jaws. That's just normal for
the time being. Things are developing all the time though, and thep
pressure is growing for improvements to occur.
With best wishes
Simon
On 7 Feb 2008, at 18:53, Graham Roby wrote:
Hi,
For a while now I've been contemplating buying a Mac and expanding
my knowledge of computing.
When I first got involved with computers seriously it was with
Windows98 and at that time having bought the pc and Jaws I used the
FS Jaws training cassettes to get me up and running and from there
kind of picked most things up as I went along.
As I'm now at the point of wanting to buy my first Macbook and never
having used one, is there somewhere I can find any documentation
similar to those old FS cassettes that will give me a grounding in
the operating system and Voice Over and how they work together?
I did walk in to an Apple store here in Manchester u.k and try
surfing the net thinking I'd pick it up especially on a site I knew
well.
It was like the men from mars had landed and taken over my computer
experience.
Not to be daunted or put off, I joined this group as I thought one
of you might have some ideas or advice to help me get up and running
without me losing any more of my hair through frustration.
Many thanks in advance of any anticipated help that might come my way.
Kind regards
Graham
