I can see where eyou are coming from, but I'ma person who relays heavily on abrevs as I have to so I just put them in and repute them in whenI upgrade, so once every 2 hers lol!
but I do see where you are coming from and I suggest you go to the bug reporter and suggest it as an improvement or enhancement and put it under UI usability lol! Take care. On Aug 31, 2011, at 6:40 AM, Travis Siegel wrote: > Here's the biggest problem with the screen reader interpreting for itself > what is on screen. > Let's say you're reading a book on a topic that has multiple acronyms (such > as a science book, or a computer programming book). > Now, let's say the screen reader is programmed to speak a particular text > when it encounters a particular sequence of characters. > (everyone with me here?) > Ok, now let's say that you're trying to replicate something mentioned in this > book, whether it be a measurement, or an experiment is immaterial, the point > is this. > You read the text using voice over's built-in algorithm which substitutes > what you're reading for what it thinks it should say. > Let's also say that there's some numbers in this information you require for > your task. > We all know that when things are measured, they're written down in some > manner, and some measurement system. > Now, here's the real problem. > (btw, the following didn't really happen, just for reference, but it could) > Let's say the text claims you need 2 meters of length for a particular item, > or perhaps you need 2 mililiters of liquid. > Now, if voiceover is programmed to interpret what it's seeing, depending on > the notation, voiceover may tell you 2 miles of material is necessary, or > perhaps it would state that only 2 milimeters of material is necessary. > When the actual length required was 2 meters, you can see where this may > cause great confusion. > Or, if it said 2 mililiters instead of 2 milimeters, or 2 meters instead of > the mililiters, you might be very confused as to what it was talking about. > Admittedly, something like this would probably be caught, because it's an > order of magnitude off, and would make the project at hand impractical. > But, if you're working with math equasions, and nasa is building a rocket to > go to mars, a 2 meter part instead of a 2 milimeter part would reak havoc > with production schedules, not to mention, it would probably force an abort > of the mission. This would waste millions of dollars all because someone at > apple preprogrammed a pronounciation into the screen reader that didn't > belong there. > Does this make sense now? > The biggest problem with this substitution is that vo gives no indication to > you as the user when it performs such a substitution, and you have no way of > knowing it has done so. This makes it impossible for you to know that a > substitution was done, so you would never know you read the wrong equasion, > or got the wrong measurement for a the length of something. (well, you would > after you spend the next 6 hours trying to figure out why this damned thing > won't fit into the space provided). > These are contrived examples, but I assure you all that I personally have > lost many hours of productivity trying to sort out what should have been > read, and what was actually read, because something vo said was wrong. > If you're a doctor, or a pharmacist, would you want your screen reader to > speak what it thinks is the proper dose for your medicine, or would you > prefer for it to speak what was written, and let you figure out what it means? > Engineers, financial analysts, stock brokers, programmers, as well as the > above mentioned doctors, and pharmacists and others not mentioned here > require extremely precise data, and when your screen reader changes that data > to something it "thinks" you want to hear, things get broken, and in rare > extreme cases, people could get killed. > This is why I'm strongly of the opinion that a screen reader's job is to do > what it claims, read the screen. Leave the interpretation of what the screen > shows up to me. > Luckily, nothing life threatening of this sort has happened (that I'm aware > of) but this reading things that aren't there, can (and I have no doubt) > eventually will lead to something of the like, and when it does, would that > make apple liable because it's screen reader told the operator something was > there that wasn't? Probably not, since apple is so large, and unless it's > another huge company of equal size, it would never come to that, but the > point is, it could, and I'd think apple would wish to prevent that. > All I ask for is something to turn off this substituting nonsense. If folks > want it, that's all well and good, I have no problem with that, and I'd > probably leave it on most of the time myself, but when I'm reading source > code, or pouring over mathmatical formulas, I don't want it, and in fact, it > hinders my ability to work efficiently in those cases. A feature to turn it > off, or toggle it on/off is all I ask, and I don't see why it's so mind > boggling to some that I'd want such a thing. > > <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> > > To reply to this post, please address your message to > [email protected] > > You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at > either the list's own dedicated web archive: > <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> > or at the public Mail Archive: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. > Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: > <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> > > The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and > worm-free! > > Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting > the list website at: > <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/> <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. 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