What is now crucial to Apple's efforts regarding Voiceover is
improvements to their Iworks and similar pieces of software. I have
already e-mailed Apple Accessibility on a few occasions with the view
to impressing on Apple the importance of making Iworks fully
accessible to visually impaired users if they were to continue in
their ambition to becoming a leading source of adaptive technology
for
blind and visually impaired users. I pointed out to Apple in my
communications that the visually impaired users who are increasingly
aspire to entering a working environment will not be able to switch
to
Mac operating system unless they can be confident that Mac os can
support their word processing and office related applications. This
is
not a luxury option for Apple but an absolute must. Most colleges and
related schemes that enable visually impaired people to enter the
world of work are focused on Windows and the third party very
expensive adaptive technology related to Microsoft and their
satillite businesses like Freedom Scientific or Dollphin. I despair
of the fact that Apple seems to be so relaxed about it. I feel that
they are relaxed about it because they have not so far made Iworks
fully accessible to visually impaired user. Nor have they fully
realised how important computers are to blind people, and visually
impaired individuals' ambitions to live as complete a live as
possible. I think it is one of the gravest mistakes of Mac and
therefore I fear that they may lose the argument regarding which
system is being chosen by necessity by a visually impaired user. I
know of blind people who have been staunch supporters of Mac, having
to switch to Windows in order to be able to work. Apple is being very
lax about addressing this issue. Computers are fun but accessibility
to Itunes or an ipod is not going to be enough to persuade a blind
job
seeker to buy a Mac computer. I don't know what else I can do to
impress upon Apple the importance of the needs of a blind job seekr
or
student. Apple does not seem to take on board the fact that most job
seekrs and students receive state assistance to purchase adaptive
technology for which they are being assessed by a rather undiscerning
group of individuals. (I emphasise absolutely here the word
"assessed"
because this is the reality. Blind people are assessed regarding
their
computer and adaptive technology needs by other non-disabled people
who have no knowledge of Mac os or Voiceover.) These individuals are
going to be more likely to be pursuaded by Microsoft related
products, not by Apple unless Apple takes a positive stance on their
proprietary office relatedsoftware. Indeed, if I were advising a
blind
job seeker as to which operating system to go for, I would have to -
breaking my heart of course - say that they would be better off
buying
a Windows computer with Jaws. Isn't it just horrendously painful for
me who has spent well-nigh 2 thousand quid to support Apple and enjoy
their technology? Forgive a sarcastic note here. I therefore rest my
case and upon Apple's head be it. If they want to entertain only,
they
will find themselves in the minority market. They miss the very
serious point of the predicament a blind person faces, i.e. work or
not to work. Or rather, what is gonna make it easier for me as a
blind
person to work or not to work. I don't have to tell anyone on the
list
that to work means to have a choice because work produces money and
money in the world that we have created gives man a choice. Like it
or
not, this is how it is.
I don't know how these things are in the US but in Britain, all the
government agencies are focused entirely on Microsoft and its
satellites like Jaws and Hal. Apple is being very inprudent in not
listening to the feedback that I and others have provided it with.
The
Market place is what it is, i.e. cut-throat. I have done my best to
make them aware of these issues. More than this I cannot do. It
absolutely baffles me why it is that Iworks is still inaccessible to
blind users. In my experience of the work place, employers are mostly
interested in wheter a blind person can use Ms Office or not. What
can
a blind person say at the job interview? "I'm sorry, sir, I'm waiting
for Apple to get their act together". Smile bitterly and let's hope
for the future. Employers are not easily persuaded of a blind
applicant's ability to do the job at the best of times. Unless a job
seeker can confidently say, "I can do so and so using a computer,"
forget it. I 0am not talking rubbish. In 2001-2 I was one of the
researchers responsible for the writing and delivery of a report on
"Disability and Employment in Wales", and I spoke to many blind and
other disabled people regarding their experiences of the work
place. I
also did a very indepth research of the issues for the purpose of the
research. I am not likely to be unduly emotional on this subject. The
legitimate emotionalism belongs to all those who have struggled and
failed to secure employment of whom I have met plenty. My thoughts
are
still with them.
Just for the record, I'm not being bitter or unkind towards Apple.
I'm
just baffled by their inability to understand what the their
advantage
might be in the market. I'm also sad because Apple has made an
ethical
choice to include a blind user on a sort of equal footing in their
technology in that I can now go to PcWorld and use a mac computer on
the display stand. All I'm saying is that this is not going to be
enough for Apple to move into a dominant position in the job market
for visually impaired computer user/employee. Apple needs to
understand its business potential when it comes to Voiceover. Unless
they realise that blind people have ambitions not only to play with
computers and the internet but also absolutely rely for their
livelihoods and the quality of their lives on a computer, Apple
will
not move ahead of Microsoft.
