Hi, Matt,
I am low vision due to RP, and getting worse each day, so I'll share
my experiences in the hopes it can help you.
For the longest time, I used Mac OS X 10.3 with only the built in
zoom functionality and speak text under mouse option enabled. I also
had speak selected text when a key is pressed option enabled too.
With these three options, I was able to do most everything I needed
on the Mac. I still find speak selected text the most useful feature
of Mac OS X. Although, in MS Word, I did not need these options
usually. I used the built in Word option to zoom page by x percent
and would usually have it at 150% so I could use Word without any
Universal Access help.
Today, I run 10.5 Leopard, and I think voiceover in this version is
much better than what 10.4 can offer. I no longer use Word to author
text. I will use text edit and cut and paste to Word for colleagues.
Actually, I'd say the Word and MS Office situation is quite annoying.
I personally feel that MS lack of VO support in Word falls under
public accommodations and is no different than not having a wheel
chair ramp. Any lawyers out there who want to pressure MS...? [ha
ha]
There is also an application add on called visiovoice that adds more
services in conjunction with voiceover. I personally do not own it
yet, but there is a free trial period and I may purchase it this year
as my vision gets worse.
You asked if apps usually work with voiceover. I'd say no. Most
coders are sloppy and support is not intentional (speaking
stereotypically and personally here as a Mac developer), if it works,
it's more by accident. That said, a developer who does nothing
usually will get some VO functionality for free. This core OS
support for VoiceOver along with some vision will make your Mac
experience much easier in my opinion. . I will use Eudora and
ircle as examples of apps that are not good for most, but could work
with low vision users.
Bottom line, there are usually applications that will do what you
want. However, you will most likely need to change some of your
behavior in order to do everything you want. But I think most of us
will agree that the Mac is a great platform and a very productive
tool to have.
Best,
Scott
Hello all. I'm a new member to the list and also new to the mac.
I've been using it in one of the labs on my college campus while
considering making the switch. It has mostly been a good
experience. The magnification features are not quite as developed
as in ZoomText which I am currently using on a Laptop with Windows
XP, but the screen reading features in VoiceOver are much more
complete. This is especially true with web pages. ZoomText
provides no additional navigation of web pages over simply tabbing
to links or controls. Reading any other part means pressing a
keystroke, finding the specific word you would like to start at
using magnification, and then clicking that word. Generally you
have to repeat that for each section you want to read and it is less
than usable for reading small pieces of text that are around other
page elements. VoiceOver has been a major improvement. the page
can usually be entirely navigated using the keyboard, reading as you
go (obviously). The navigation by groups and interaction has been
very efficient in finding sections of pages and skipping over
irrelevant content. The other feature that has impressed me is
magnification of the VoiceOver cursor. I have tried to gain similar
functionality by using ZoomText with Jaws and Window Eyes, but found
they didn't always play nice or communicate with each other.
It hasn't all been perfect though. The largest issue I have
encountered is with basic word processing. I attempted to get a
magnified view of what I was typing while it was read by word. This
is something ZoomText does effortlessly. At first I tried
magnifying just the voiceover cursor, but it kept the whole line in
focus. So the line would start out big, but as it expanded it would
reach the edges of the screen and necessarily have to become smaller
to fit until, by the end of the line, I couldn't read it. Trying
another option, I didn't magnify the VoiceOver focus but used the
zoom feature to magnify the whole screen and track the keyboard
focus. This kept text readable, but the zoom kept jumping between
the insertion point and the mouse pointer. It was a very annoying
behavior and it kept moving my text out of view.
So I've ended up facing a dilemma between 2 very common and basic
tasks: writing and web browsing. What I would like to know is if
there are any other low vision users out there who could share their
experiences. What have you found to work very well in OS X and
where have you had problems? How have you worked around them?
Finally I guess I should say I have been using Tiger. Maybe someone
knows if these issues have been improved in Leopard? In fact, I am
wondering, Just how well does Voiceover work in Leopard? I realize
that is broad so I will try and clarify it a little. Is the general
experience better? Are most applications that you download or want
to use accessible or are they hard to find? This got really long,
so if you made it this far, thank you for your patience and i hope
you can comment on your experiences.
--
--Scott
