Hi Simon, Graham and all,
You said: 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.
TK: I would venture to say that it is difficult to start with if you maintain the JAWS style of navigating. Think of it as learning a new language or simply a new way of doing things. consider learning to type on a keyboard properly. Sighted folks who are used to the "hunt & peck" method often tell me it's too hard to type properly and that they can do it faster with two fingers. For a while they're probably right but I guarantee that typing properly with all your fingers will make you much faster in the end. Now, relating that to JAWS vs VoiceOver, it's not that VO is difficult to learn, you just need to do your best to pretend that your JAWS skills are for the Windows and let the VO skills develop on their own. Listen to the VoiceOver QuickStart, read tutorials, ask lots of questions and keep an open mind like it sounds that you are.
Oops, sorry, I got on a bit of a rant there. Later... Tim Kilburn & Carter the Canine Fort McMurray, AB Canada
