Hi Jim, Sure. Access is always a serious consideration. For us upgrading an operating system often requires purchasing one or more upgrades of our screen reader in order to get equal access to what a sighted user has access to just because he/she can see what's presented on the screen without any access technology.
And I here you about some people not being comfortable with change. For instance, the majority of Microsoft's new flagship products like Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, Internet Explorer, Windows Mail, the Windows 8 beta, etc all now have ribbons instead of the classic menu bars. It is not so much they aren't accessible, which they are with most modern screen readers, but more it is harder to locate a specific option on the ribbon since you have to move up/down or left/right until you locate the option you want to use. I've used them enough to remember where a specific option is and can locate it quickly, but for a user just coming to the new ribbons they can be confusing and a bit frustrating. I don't fault anyone for not exactly jumping up and down with joy over that kind of change in user interface as its something of a step backward for us. However, I'm a realist about it. I realize that there are probably plenty of mainstream users who find the ribbons easier to use because they were designed with pointing and clicking with a mouse in mind. As we all know what might be simpler for a sighted user with a mouse isn't necessarily going to be as accessible or as user friendly for us. My feeling here is that as a blind user I know Microsoft and other companies aren't going to go out of there way to make their user interfaces more accessible for us, and that we don't have much of a choice but to adapt to the changes as they come. I'm willing to relearn the interface as long as its A, accessible to me, and B, there is an advantage in upgrading to the new software. However, as I said before a lot of what makes upgrading worth while depends on what exactly you use your computer for and what you can get out of the upgrade. On Windows 7 there is a program called Windows Live Writer which I can use to compose and update my blogs. Oh, that's all well and good for someone like me who has a blog, but someone who doesn't do much blogging wouldn't find the application of any use to them. Thus how important or unimportant an upgrade is depends on if those upgrades are personally useful or not. Cheers! On 12/12/11, Jim Kitchen <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Thomas, > > Yeah, you know allot of people just do not like change. Routine is > comfortable. And learning a new way of doing things may not be easy for > some. And then there is that often our access is behind. That is our > screen reader of choice may not support the newest version of an operating > system as it comes out. And then I don't think that the graphical user > interface is as intuitive for us as it is for sighted folks. So when it > totally changes it may be harder for us to get a grip on what is going on > with it. Heck it took allot of blind people a very long time to move on > from the text based command line to the graphical user interface. > > BFN > > Jim > > A long time ago I changed my name from Ron Moore. > > [email protected] > http://www.kitchensinc.net > (440) 286-6920 > Chardon Ohio USA > --- > Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] > If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to > [email protected]. > You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at > http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. > All messages are archived and can be searched and read at > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. > If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, > please send E-mail to [email protected]. > --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
