You might want to rethink that thought after hearing this about
narrator. If not fixed i doubt if it will even help if jaws happens to crash.
From: John J Herzog [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2012 1:12 AM
Subject: windows 8 narrator, provides hype and not hope
Hello everyone,
I just completed a podcast explaining how narrator works in the new
windows 8. Here is the link, and below are my opinions. I urge you to
share this with every blind person you know, before our time to
change things for the newest windows has passed.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/15813782/windows%208%20narrator%20demo.mp3
Ok, now here are my thoughts. Long story short, Narrator is
incredibly disappointing, and yet Microsoft is emphatically stating
how great the upcoming accessibility will be on their developer blog.
I am sending this podcast to all of you with the hopes that you will
have ideas on how we can encourage blind consumers to pressure
Microsoft to do better. It is clear to me that Microsoft is
interested in nothing more than positive publicity for helping
everybody out, yet does not want to put in the effort to give the
blind a truly usable screen reader. Louis, narrator is no better in
the consumer preview than it was in the developer version of windows
released last September. Microsoft claims that over 100000 changes
were made from the first preview of windows to the current beta. And
yet nothing was done for accessibility in that time. If we do not
voice our disappointment as a community, then the final version of
windows will likely not contain further accessibility improvements.
To Marlaina and everybody else, you need to give this a listen to
understand what Microsoft claims they are doing versus what they are
actually doing. Scott, I know you were with me when I produced this
tonight. However, I cannot find the link needed to submit this to the
blind cool tech web site. Maybe one of you can get this posted to
serotalk? If not, then I hope you all will share this with every
other blind person you know. I normally don't get upset when things
won't work as advertised. However, Microsoft really should know
better than to produce such a flawed access solution. When better
screen readers can be found in free operating systems such as Linux,
there is a definite problem that needs to be addressed. And when they
market accessibility, they really should have a product that stands
up to the claim that it makes windows an inclusive operating system
for everybody.
I don't mean to rant, but give this a listen and let me know what you think.
Thank you,
John
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