I've just have my first experience with an Apple machine, a brand new
Imac. My sister is seriously vision impaired, legally blind but able to
do things visually if the situation is right. This means that
everything has to be big and black on while. She had a very workable PC
system that was seriously aged, so she decided that she'd try an Apple
because their so good with accessibility.
In her case....WRONG!
Although with the PC, you have to add a zoom function program, the
versatility of being able to change operating systems fonts, colors and
contrast blows the Apple away. Mind you, all I know of the Imac right
now is what the 'intelligence-impaired' support person said, but here's
a blow by blow account.
In both cases, the operating system has to be modified by a sighted
person before the handicapped person uses it.
White on Black: This is also a wash since both can change the desktop
color scheme to this.
Cursor size: Windows can adjust the size of the cursor, even if it
means adding your own. But in general, there is, in the normal build,
some big cursors. Apple: "You cannot change the size of the cursor."
Cursor color: With windows you can do this, not with Apple. Cursor
color changing comes in handy because with a black & white scheme, the
cursor can get lost.
Fonts: Windows can change system fonts and font sizes. Apple,as we
were told, you can't. With Apple, if the smallest resolution doesn't
work for you, well.....
Zoom: This was a must for my sister and it was nice that Apple had it
included without having to add a program. What is missing is the
ability to have it enter zoom on boot-up. Cntrl-cursor ball is a little
awkward. The tiny cursor ball on the mouse does work, but is not always
responsive. Plus, if you push too hard, since the whole mouse is the
left-click, you run the risk of activating something while you're
zooming. One interesting item we ran into was an interaction between
scroll speed and the cursor ball response. When you Zoom, the scroll
speed can begin to get too fast. If you slow down scrool speed to min,
the zoom via the cursor ball does not work.
Now the mouse itself is very primitive-style, you have basically a bar
of soap with a raised dot on it. There are two side buttons of unknown
utility. When you 'click', the whole front of the mouse does down,
instead of there being an actual button.
Screen-Reader/Voice: Without adding another application, there is a
Voice screen-reader. Unlike Zoom, when you activate Voice, it behind
immediately, without have to hold a key. Now it may be because I didn't
know how to work with it, but the Voice seemed to read when it felt like
it and ignore other stuff. I finally had to turn it off as it would
start speaking randomly, even without cursor movement or windows
opening. And, when it would read, it seemed to have no discrimination
as to what was important and what wasn't.
The Dock Menu: At the bottom of the screen, you have a line of
application icons. This compliments a menu bar at the top of the
screen. Again, either the balloon text or bar text cannot be changed.
Neither can the icons. Even when you go to White on Black, the icons
remain colored. When zooming, the icons just get more blurry. Given
the problem with contrast that a lot of visually impaired users have,
the inability to do anything with the icons is a hinderance. If they
were just left alone, then the user can judge by counting over how
many. However, Apple also uses this bar for various announcements, so
the placement and number of icons change with certain situations.
One last bit. When we decided to call Apple support, I wanted to make
sure I had the serial number in front of me. When I clicked on the
Apple -> About this Mac, one of the boxes threw a line right through the
serial number, so that it could not be read. So we had to 'reset' the
system. This involved holding the Cntrl - Command - P - R keys as you
powered up and holding them for 4 resets. It took two people to do that.
Finally, the support person was not a genius, sorry, she had to keep
asking the 'applications person' on how to do things and had trouble
understanding how 640x480 gave a narrower font than 640x480(stretch).
Everything Mac looked pretty, but if you're visually impaired, the PC
gives you more options.
Steve
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