Hi Jessica I listened to your piece with interest.
I have to say I agree with you on all points on accessibility and usability. In fact well said. Good luck with the job search. Mark --- On Wed, 14/1/09, Jessica L. Arnold <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Jessica L. Arnold <[email protected]> > Subject: access and use > To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by the > blind" <[email protected]> > Date: Wednesday, 14 January, 2009, 3:43 PM > okay. I just want to say to the person who said they though > usability was the word that was being looked for. > I just want to say that I agree with them and that is what > I was trying to say anyway. > A lot of people confuse accessibility with usability up. > And call usability accessibility. And although there are > similarties they are not the same. > An accessible applicaiton for example is an app that you > can access. YOu can use in some way shape or form. It may > not be friendly it may not be as nice as you would like it > butyoou can use it. With cursors and such and even mouse > clicks > And inaccessible applicaiton is one that for whatever > reason programming or other thing that makes the application > totally unusable you cannot access it in any way shape or > form no matter how hard you try. > Maybe it is just me. And yes I could be picking at things > here. > But one thing I have noticed in the blind communit that > really is beginning to bother me is this quesiton all the > time is something accessible. > When really what they are asking is can I use this > applicaiton. > I have ran into more applications that are > accessible/usable than I have run into applications that are > inaccessible. And don't challenge me on that please. I > could not name off to you all the applicaitons I have used > over the years. First there are too many and second I > wouldn't be able to remember them all anyway. > Even the dashboard on the mac is accessible an? d some > wigets that come with it. Now is it nice? No. It is not. Or > at least I haven't found it to be. But is it accessible? > Yes it is accessible. > I spent the last two days taking skills based testing to > see what jobs would fit me better. > And there was this app they used yesterday called career > scope. > Technically was that application accessible? To the sighted > perso with the muse. First it was accessible second in my > opinion it was way way over simplified. > But then I am classified as having a high iq anyway so > anything over simplified relaly annoys me. > But anyway. > They had it set up for me. the like and dislike test went > fine. But after that an hour was spent trying to figure out > why on earth what they set up for me wouldn't work > I tried to explain to them they could describe the patterns > to me and I could pick the irght one. But one the test was > timed. Two I don't think they wanted to take that time > to do that. > The other thing was the program sounded like it was totally > mouse driven and color specific. It was called career scope. > So what ended up happening is we passed the computer > program. And they tested me from papers instead. Which > should have been done anyway. > Either way though they read to me I answered the questions. > I put up with it because I do need and want to work. > But to be quite honest I am not happy with the results. All > the likes point to nature based jobs. Jobs with plants and > animals that to be honest I don't know if I could do > those as a blind person. It doesn't matter how much I > like to learn about animals and such. I am blind. And it is > unlikely I would ever be a vet or stuff. > So I am not very encouraged by the tests. And now I have to > wait till my counselor talks with me and such before some > decisions are made as to where we go from here. > Anyway I will say agian accessible and usability if you > prefer is in the eye of the beholder. > The only way any of us are going to find out if something > is or is not accessible and/or usable is if we can have > hands on use of that particular applicaiton or tool or > machine or whatever. > Thank you.. > Jessica
