Hi Dark,
As far as Windows Explorer goes I haven't experienced the issue you
described. Its true that Windows Explorer is different, has buttons all
over the place, etc but that's not effected me using it in the way you
described. I'm wondering if this is a screen reader issue as I'm using
NVDA without issue with Windows Explorer, or that you simply don't have
Windows Explorer setup correctly.
For example, if I press enter on Documents Explorer opens up and NVDA
lands on the first item in the list. Now, I have my copy of Windows
Explorer to display all of my items in a list which is more accessible
than the default, and that might be an issue for you as well. By default
I think Explorer is set to details which is less user friendly for me
and I have to arrow around to find things where setting the view
settings to display items in a list does just that so all I have to do
is up or down arrow through the list of files and folders.
Basically, what I am saying is many of the issues you mention have
workarounds. Windows 7 is very accessible. I've not had any serious
access issues with it and NVDA. I can't speak for Supernova, of course,
but I think if you have an issue with something like Windows Explorer
changing the view settings will go a long ways to correcting the issue.
Its just a matter of knowing how to reconfigure things in Win 7 to get
the most accessibility out of the OS. Its a clear case of "knowing is
half the battle."
Same could be said for Ubuntu 12. In its default state its not very
accessible, but I'm an old Linux user so know how to go in and set
everything up so that I have a stable and accessible environment. Just a
few days ago I put Ubuntu 12 beta 1 on on a virtual machine. When I
installed it I could barely use it because Unity is broken access wise.
No problem for me though. I switched over to a console, braught up
speakup, and downloaded Gnome 3.2 from the Ubuntu software repository,
edited a couple of files for lightdm, rebooted the virtual machine,
logged in, and came up with the Orca screen reader and an accessible
desktop environment. So what's the moral of the story?
Simply this. Don't assume something isn't accessible because you've had
bad experiences with it. If you educate yourself on accessibility, learn
what features an operating system has for accessibility, talk to others
how to resolve accessibility issues, chances are you can get the most
out of your operating system. Regardless if we are talking about Windows
7 or the latest Linux release knowing how to resolve access issues will
make it possible to stay up to date and be on an equal level with our
sighted peers.
I think what happens in all too many cases the average blind user tries
a piece of software, has trouble with it, and give up on it completely.
They assume because they ran into access issues early on that this or
that isn't accessible even though there may be ways to workaround the
issue or by changing a few default settings a piece of inaccessible
software is made accessible.
For instance, I remember I was on a tech list where a blind user said
Avast was totally inaccessible when he tried it. I asked him if he had
gone into preferences and changed a couple of settings. He answered no.
The sad part of this particular case is that he didn't know what
settings were needed to be changed to make Avast accessible, didn't ask
how to make Avast accessible, assumed it wasn't accessible, and
uninstalled it without any further investigation what-so-ever. Then,
told everyone else it wasn't accessible based on his experience which
was extremely limited at best.
I'll just sum up by saying that people need to take more time and have a
little more patients with software. They shouldn't just assume something
isn't accessible or can't be made accessible because they spent a few
minutes with it and gave up. Obviously the software is new to them, they
haven't learned how to get the most out of the software, and should take
some time getting to know it before just writing it off.
Cheers!
On 3/12/2012 4:08 AM, dark wrote:
Hi tom.
that is indeed a nice list of pros and cons, and it is true there are
a couple of features that would be useful, I especially like the sound
of full 5.1 sinse at the moment I'm working with virtual 3D sound,
which is fine, but probably not what it could be.
Just as another Ui question though, what about the desktop and windows
expllorer in windows 7? when I tried the system, this looked entirely
broken and hugely inconvenient for a screen reader, with random stuff
all over the place, no clear listed folder structure, and lots of
weerd buttons.
For instance pressing enter on a folder didn't seem to display it's
contents as in xp, it seemed to open it in yet another pain that I had
to tab too, and then give under each item some strange buttons to do
various things.
Is windows explorer really this bad in terms of access?
If this is so, then for me this is a major! con, sinse I use windows
explorer a great deal. yes, there is the search box, but I don't want
to be reliant upon that for everything.
All the best,
Dark.
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