As I mentioned, Apple did have a large room with about 50 macs and did a
couple sessions on VoiceOver. These sessions had folks lined up down the
hall so I think there was a good positive experience to be had as well.
Two tidbits I picked up that were news to me (maybe I missed them on the
mailing list. I'm so far behind) were that there are currently 15Million
macs with voiceover and that the current beta of Open Office is supposed
to have a lot more accessibility in it.
Mike Shebanek was the presenter from Apple and he did hit on a number of
my favorite idioms such as easier collaboration between sighted folks
and VO users because of the focus box and on-screen caption/braille
panell, no longer a need for the "special" computer with accessibility
stuff installed, the USB thumb drive preferences profile and the ability
to self-setup without sighted assistance. Sounds like he's been lurking
on this mailing list :)
CB
Store wrote:
Some of you should see if you can gain Apple's interest in presenting at these
types of specialized conferences. Nothing builds interest like a smooth
presentation of a new system, and few things can kill it as quickly as a rough
one.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Chris Blouch
Sent: Thursday, March 20, 2008 11:28 AM
To: General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by
the blind
Subject: Re: [UACCESS-L] Audio of Dueling Operating Systems at CSUN2008
available
I actually attended this session and bailed out part way through. It was
just too painful to hear the Mac guy struggle along. The assumption was
that each platform operator was very familiar with their technology and
the Apple guy obviously was not. I know the Jaws guy is an expert and
the Orca guy was one of the developers of that screen reader. When I
left the Apple guy was still trying to figure out how to launch Safari.
He was trying to do it by searching his hard drive with Spotlight. I
guess that would work but I think it's far easier to pull up the
application list with Apple-shift-A, type S A to get to Safari and then
Apple-O to open it. These aren't even Voiceover related commands. I did
ping the Apple guy who was outside the room as I left about how sad the
VO showing was in there. He said he had talked to the presenter (who
claimed to know several platforms) and the presenter assured him he was
pretty familiar. He also thought that VO and the Mac was a strong enough
product that it would still succeed.
A nice positive viewpoint, but for anyone listening to the presenter
struggle to do the most basic things it really sounded bad. On a
positive note I also went to the Apple VoiceOver intro and heard a lot
of positive feedback from folks. It was a bit errie to hear 50 voiceover
sessions in a room all reading stuff at the same time since the
headphones had not arrived yet.
I also got to meet Josh De Lioncourt in person, who was there as an
invited expert to help answer questions. That would make anybody's day :)
CB
Justin Harford wrote:
Hello
I have listened to the discussion. It was sort of painful to listen
to on the mac side of things. In the past I have been critical of the
apple OS mainly when leopard came out, but mistakes made here could
easily have been fixed more effectively than they were. I guess all I
can say here is that it hurts to think that other blind users struggle
this much with their computers.
Please tell me it's not like this with everyone here.
Regards
Justin Harford
Into this wild abyss, the weary fiend stood on the brink of hell and
looked awhile, pondering his voyage
John Milton
Paradise Lost
On Mar 19, 2008, at 2:39 PM, David Poehlman wrote:
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jamal Mazrui" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 6:17 PM
Subject: [UACCESS-L] Audio of Dueling Operating Systems at CSUN 2008
available
-----Forwarded Message-----
From: Mika Pyyhkala [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 5:02 PM
To: Jamal Mazrui
Subject: CSUN 2008 Conference MP3 Presentation, Dueling Operating
Systems,
BLV-1002
Please find a link below to the blog text and audio for this
presentation.
The file is 1 hour and 52 minutes long, and about 52MB in size:
http://dcnightout.com/?p=137
I can add additional text or links to the blog entry if you like, e.g.
to the products used, to the presenters, other related entities, or
related resources.
The recording was made using an Olympus DS50 recorder, and has been
saved
as a mono MP3 file. I have reviewed the beginning and select parts
of the
recording but have not reviewed the entire contents.
In the presentation, an Apple Macintosh Voiceover, Orca Linux, and Jaws
For Windows user complete identical tasks using their assistive and
mainstream technologies. The presentation highlights the strengths and
weaknesses of each operating system, related assistive technologies, and
individual user experiences.
Enjoy,
Mika
Direct Link To MP3:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/dcnightout/DCNO_14MAR2008.mp3
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