Hello Regarding your first point, I too came to the Mac after a very long time using Windows. Now, however, I need to use both and, moreover, on the same machine preferably at the same time.
I believe that I was the first in the visually impaired community to introduce the concept of VMWAre Fusion, way back in April 2007 whilst beta testing for VMWAre with Fusion 1.0. I produced a demo for ACB Radio main stream, which was well received in many quarters, I’m flattered to say. I worked closely in those days with the VMWAre engineering staff to ensure accessibility. This was because at that time the only other solution was Parallels Desktop 1.0 which was, and remains to this day, totally inaccessible. When I contacted VMWAre in the very early part of 2007, they were extremely receptive to my comment and, as I said, invited me to participate in what was then private beta testing. It went public not too long after my original demo which was compiled with their knowledge and permission. In recent times, however, I haven’t really given much thought to using it since about Fusion 4, which was very different. I find that the host system keeps grabbing control of the keyboard when, for instance, I hit Command+M which should produce the equivalent to Windows+M in the guest. I don’t want to go down the road of configuration of the guest on this forum because it would put me off topic, and my fellow moderator would probably banish me from the list, despite the fact that I own it! ;-) Seriously, however, if there is anybody who wants to take up this discussion and if they are a member of either Techno-Chat, or our sister group, Windows-Access, I’d love to hear from you as to how you avoid the conflicts to which I seem to be prone. For reference once again, I shall post here the links that people may use to join these groups if they wish: Techno-Chat, <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat/> Windows-Accesss, <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/windows-access/> Back to the original topic, what I was going to say was that I believe that it is essential if you want to cut the learning curve down a bit, to throw away what seems sensible on Windows or other platforms, and take VoiceOver for the beast that it is. Learning native functionality before venturing out to changing things seems, to me at least, to be a more preferable way to work. I’ve found when coaching new users that, if I can get the user to totally forget about Jaws, NVDA, Window-Eyes, Access2Go, Window-Bridge or any other such solution, the user seems to learn more quickly. VoiceOver is, as most would agree, a very different concept to the majority or maybe even all of those screen-readers with the possible exception of NVDA whose basic principles are the same. Anyway, I’ll end with another question. If you make this change, and the caps lock key is used as a VoiceOver key, what happens with your other solutions which also require the caps lock key? I too am using a MacBook, a 2012 MacBook Air in my case. OK, so that I can comment from the perspective of one who has at least tried the change, I shall go and make a total system backup, and then I shall make the change; see if I prefer it. If so, I shall then bow to the inevitable. Finally, to be very clear, I don’t want you to think I’m in any way ridiculing, patronising, disputing or in any way trying to be obnoxious. I’m just interested in the concept of why people find these changes advantageous. Perhaps, after trying it, I may come out on totally the other side of the fence. But I shall, rest assured, try it. I wouldn’t like to in any way be presumptuous. Kindest regards <--- Gordon Smith ---> <[email protected]> Information Technology Accessibility Consultant; Proudly Providing Braille And Alternative Format Transcription Services, Plus I.T Help & Support To The Staff And Students Of the Visually Impaired Department at: Sunnyside Academy Manorfarm Way Colby Newham Middlesbrough Cleveland Telephone: United Kingdom: Free Phone: 0800 8620538 United Kingdom Geographic: 01133 280547 Mobile: +44 7907 823971 Europe and other non-specified: +44 1642 688095 United States Of America And Canada: +1 646 9151493 Or: +1 209 436 9443 Australasia: +61 38 8205930 Or: +61 39 0284505 Fax: +44 1642 365123 Follow Us On Twitter: <http://twitter.com/maciosaccess> Skype: <skype:mac-access-dot-net?call> ------------------------------ On 25 May 2014, at 18:50, Geoff Stephens <[email protected]> wrote: For me at least, recently coming to the Mac after many years of Windows use, the idea that two keys are necessary to control VO seems nonsensical. Therefore, I immediately made the change. It also seems rather intuitive that the caps lock key would be the most logical choice since it allows one to leave the left hand on the home row. I do not have any problem with dexterity. More than a few of the keystrokes required to use VO if one leaves it at the default Control Option setting are needlessly difficult to accomplish. I only use VO on a laptop keyboard. Another reason the Caps Lock key is such a logical choice is that it is commonly used in Windows screen readers as the dedicated key for issuing screen reader commands in a laptop layout. <--- 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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