I have been invited to reply to the NFB blog post. Here is what I
wrote for them. -Greg
"Macintosh is not Windows and VoiceOver is not JAWS or WindowEyes." If
you start your investigation of the Macintosh experience with those
thoughts in mind you will find that you will be well on your way to
learning the "Macintosh way" of doing things.
Recently Tony Olivero wrote a post to this blog about VoiceOver for
Leopard. In that post he noted a number of issues with VoiceOver which
were erroneous and which I would like to correct here.
One of the early complaints with VoiceOver was that there was a great
deal of key pressing to take an action. This was justified and in
MacOSX Leopard this has been rectified with what is called the NumPad
Commander. This option permit the user to navigate and issue VoiceOver
commands using only the numeric keypad at the right of a fill sized
keyboard or an external USB keypad. NumPad commander can be activated
using the VoiceOver Utility which is accessed with VoiceOver running
with CONTROL+OPTION+F8. The NumPad commander can be configured in any
way you wish.
Once you have VoiceOver configured with things voice preferences and
such you can save that configuration to a USB pen drive and take
those configurations with you to any Mac running Leopard. Plug in the
pen drive and VoiceOver will ask if you want to use your configuration
from it.
One area which is difficult for windows users to understand is the
idea of interacting with groups of controls such as toolbars or lists.
While at first this may seem odd that you should have to choose to
interact with a group of such controls, in fact it speeds your use of
the computer by permitting you to skip over a number of controls and
interact only with those you need to.
Another item that was mentioned was the dificulty in using the menu
bar. However a MacOS features is that once you have activated the menu
with the VoiceOver command CONTROL+OPTION+M you can then jump to any
particular menu using the first few letters of that menu's name. So
for example if we wished to reach the "View" menu we would first
activate the menu bar with CONTROL+OPTION+M and then type the letter
"V" VoiceOver would then move to the View menu. You could then drop
that menu with a down arrow key and then select any item in that menu
with any number of means. For example you could use the arrow keys,
enter the first few letters of the menu item, or use VoiceOver to move
down the menu. Once on the item that you want pressing the Return key
to activate your choice.
Many menu items have keyboard shortcuts using the Command key such as
Command-W to close a window. This brings up an important part of the
VoiceOver experience. In VoiceOver everything you do done the same way
as a sighted user would do it. There is no "off screen mode" in
VoiceOver. If you wished to show a sighted co-worker how you do
something the screen will show the exact process as if you were using
the Mac with the mouse and keyboard.
VoiceOver help is found by pressing CONTROL+OPTION+? which will open
the VoiceOver help window. There is also VoiceOver Getting Started
Guide which can be found at http://www.cucat.org/books/vogs/vogs.php
this title is offered in print, DAISY, MP3, iPod Audio Book and
Braille. You can also order a hard copy braille version in two volumes
from Apple at 1-800-692-7753. You can learn much of what VoiceOver can
do by working the built in tutorial. With VoiceOver running (Command
+F5) go to the VoiceOver Quick Start CONTROL+OPTION+COMMAND+F8 which
will lead you through the various functions of VoiceOver. This is also
offered when you first start up a new Mac.
VoiceOver exists on every Mac running MacOS 10.4 or better. A blind
user can know that any such Mac is accessible to them without the need
of expensive third party software. It eliminates the need for a
"special" computer in the classroom or workplace. As the MacOS is
upgraded so is VoiceOver at no additional cost.
VoiceOver, in my opinion, represents the future of screen reading for
the disabled. Why should the blind and print disabled be expected to
buy and upgrade expensive software just to make a computer accessible
to them? Should not the blind have the same expectation that the
sighted enjoy that every computer will by default be accessible to them?
Greg Kearney
535 S. Jackson St.
Casper, Wyoming 82601
307-224-4022
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
