Hi Greg,
I think it's a great response. Thank you for taking the time to
respond to them.
Take Care
John Panarese
On Feb 22, 2008, at 12:28 PM, Greg Kearney wrote:
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]
