Hi Cara,
Yes, Microsoft is working on improved accessibility by updating Narrator to be more like VoiceOver, but the beta I've seen still isn't quite VoiceOver quality. Although, some of the new voices like Microsoft David are certainly better than some of their older Sapi voices.
They've also started the push towards UI Automation which insures a high degree of accessibility of apps and programs in the future. So there are certainly improvements in Windows 8.
However, in typical Microsoft fashion they take one step forward and two steps back in terms of access. On one hand they have given us a much improved version of Narrator, Speech Recognizer, and Magnifier, but turn around and give us a less intuitive interface. The start screen is laid out like a table with groups and icons in columns and rows and it makes it difficult to actually find the program launcher we want. We can't just press w and jump to the Wordpad icon, but must hunt for it on the screen or type "wordpad" in the run dialog.Its the least accessible user interface I've seen on any modern OS to date.
On Ubuntu Linux 12, for example, in Unity we can press alt+f1 which brings the focus to the quick launch panel. The Launcher Panel is a nice little area on the Unity desktop to place quick launch icons for frequently used applications and folders which is easier than browsing the menus for the icons. Plus with the addition of the quick launch panel we can now use the super key with numbers 1through 0 to launch apps from the quick launch panel and bring focus to that application's window. In short, the features showing up in Ubuntu 11 and 12 are obvious ideas borrowed from Windows 7 which are certainly good things that will pay off accessibility wise for VI Linux users.
Anyway, I hadn't thought about picking up a used Mac Mini or MacBook for software development, but that is a good idea. It would probably save me some money, and as you said the Mac OS upgrades are cheaper than Windows upgrades. So its something to think about once my financial situation gets straightened out.
Cheers! On 4/3/2012 2:00 AM, Cara Quinn wrote:
Hi Thomas, wow, I wasn't aware Win 8 was as crazy as that. I thought they were supposed to be doing a big push for accessibility and are supposedly developing their own screen reader a'la Voiceover?… Yes?… Anyway, on the subject of Mac / iOS, remember that all the dev tools are free so yes, it will cost a bit up front but after that, with the exception of your developer membership ($99 per year) everything you need to write apps is free. Plus, the Mac OS updates are like $29 so even that is ridiculously inexpensive! :) If you wanted, you could also look for a refurbished Mac Mini which would be more than capable of running XCode. So you could use that for your development machine. -Just some thoughts… Smiles, Cara :)
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