The problem, as far as I know, isn’t with support for braille displays. From what I have heard that is indeed good. I don’t have one. The issue is that there is no full-featured brail publishing program such as Duxbury for the Mac. For even casual brail translation, if you want other people to see it, there does not appear to be a good option. I could not get Louis to work and from what I am reading it would not really be sufficient for any kind of serious braille translation/transcription work. I would love to know about it if I’m wrong.
> On Jun 27, 2016, at 4:33 PM, Ben J. Bloomgren <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Scott and all, > > > if you don't mind my asking, how is Braille the weak point of OSX? I'll have > to vehemently disagree with you hereon, and here's why. > > > I have an older Focus 40 USB Braille display, and I took it down to North > Carolina when I visited Chris Gilland a few years ago. He was thinking about > acquiring a Macintosh computer himself, so he wanted to see how Braille works > on OSX with Voiceover. > > > I had been in Windows since Christmas of 1997, when I received a computer > from my family. It was running Jaws 3.0, and I was using a hardware > Doubletalk PC. Yeah, that was back in em air days, Sunny? LOL! > > > I had become accustomed to plugging in the display, not getting much screen > reader feedback save for the fact that Windows sees the display. if it's the > first time, then of course Windows tries to pull the drivers et alia. Then, > I'd have to locate the Braille settings to the screen reader and tell it to > use the display. Then and only then, I'm live. Not with OSX that is, says > Yoda. > > > We plugged that mother into Chris's macBook. It had never seen this display a > day in its freaking life. I heard the little da-boong sound that Voiceover > makes when a Braille display is plugged in, and I was in! it was trippy. > Literally instantaneously, we were using Braille on OSX. I was floored! Then > when I heard that OSX Lion would bring the genie out of the bottle in terms > of languages, I was raring to go, and so was my Mid 2010 white stock > polycarbon MacBook! NVDA is amazing with Braille. Jaws has a ways yet to go, > and I don't know about Satogo or Window-Eyes. OSX takes the cake hands down > in terms of Braille support. > > > Ben > > > On 6/27/2016 12:27, Scott Granados wrote: >> Just to add to your comments, Braille is by far the weak point in my mind. >> Braille on OSX is bad or at least with my Focus 40. That’s a definite >> weakness you point out that I can attest to from personal experience. >> >> >> On 6/27/16, 2:50 PM, "Larry Thacker Jr." <[email protected] on >> behalf of [email protected]> wrote: >> >> It was Windows 10 that did it for me. I got tired of the inconsistency and >> the issues with accessibility. I’ve been reading and listening to podcasts >> about the Mac for years, so in March I bought my first Mac. It’s a Mini, >> with processor and RAM upgraded sufficiently that I feel comfortable running >> Windows from within if I find it necessary. I may in fact find it necessary >> for one primary reason. There really isn’t a good Braille production >> program for Mac, and I need one. Over all, I have been much happier with >> the Mac. It took a bit of adjustment and I still get tripped up >> occasionally by the differences. I don’t know if I’ll ever be totally >> comfortable with the way editing works, especially since I have to use >> Windows at work so I can never truly escape. If I had to answer the >> question in a word, it would be stability. My Mac doesn’t crash, doesn’t >> suddenly slow to a crawl for no reason, is totally booted and with >> everything I was working on last I used it before the windows machine has >> even presented a login screen, and integrates marvelously with my iPhone. >> Every time I boot the Windows machine, which is slowly becoming more and >> more unusable, I wish I could toss it out the window.! I am hoping that >> with Mac usage on the rise, we won’t be left out in the cold with braille >> publication forever. That will be the day I find an interesting and >> satisfying way to dispose of the big black box on the floor of my office. >> >> Not that the Mac is perfect. I’m replying to this reply because I tried to >> delete some of the messages in this thread and leave others. I went up too >> far and got the conversation group. Everything went away and undo didn’t. >> I can’t even find the messages in the trash. >> >>> On Jun 27, 2016, at 10:51 AM, Mike Arrigo <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Here are my reasons whyI think the mac is better and why I left the Windows >>> world, at least for home use. First, an excellent screen reader is built in >>> to the operating system. I think you said you were using a mac mini, you >>> can use the track pad if you have one, I use the numpad commander on my mac >>> mini, it makes navigating easier. You can change a voiceover setting so you >>> don't have to interact with most things if it's too confusing for you. You >>> can reinstall your operating system, even with a new hard drive without >>> requiring sighted help. I think the mac provides the best experience when >>> browsing the internet. This is not an accessibility feature, but the mac >>> operating system is much cleaner than windows. The applications are self >>> contained, you don't have a central registry controlling everything, or >>> shared files that need to be installed all over the place. Finally, Apple >>> has maintained the same interface over several versions of the operating >>> system, they don't feel a need to change it with each version the way >>> Microsoft changes Windows. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. >>> Original message: >>>> Please forgive the long message to follow. Just delete it if you don't >>>> want to read it. >>>> I have been messing around with my new Mac Mini over the weekend. I have >>>> the two books, Everything You Need To Know To Use The Mac With El Capitan >>>> And Voice Over, by Janet Ingber, and Mastering The Macintosh With Voice >>>> Over, by Tim Sniffen.I thoroughly expected not to know what I am doing for >>>> a while, at the moment, that is an understatement. I have it set up, >>>> thanks to Mr. Sniffen's book, Ms. Ingber seems to assume one will have >>>> sighted help to do that. I have been with windows since 2000, and Jaws >>>> 3.5. I still have Jaws, having bought, last December, the SMA through >>>> version 19. I have to figure out, by July 5, whether I want to take the >>>> Mac back to the Apple store to get my money back. So far, it seems like a >>>> bunch of incredible tedium to get things done, as compared to Windows. The >>>> track pad helps, it makes it a little more like my iPhone 6, that I love. >>>> Getting things done on the iPhone never seemed to have nearly the tedium >>>> as does the Mac,even when my iPhone 5 was new to me. For example, having >>>> to interact with things, rather than just hitting enter when I want to do >>>> something, or press two or three keys at the same time to get VoiceOver to >>>> do something, I have no doubt that I can learn it, but My nagging question >>>> during my 14 days is going to be: why? What is so much better about this >>>> than Windows? Is the Mac really better, or just different? Is, for >>>> example, iTunes really easier to use? What little I have investigated, I >>>> am not yet convinced that it is. Already having Jaws, I don't have the >>>> issue of having to buy a windows screen reader, and NVDA is making it >>>> unnecessary even for a new Windows user to do so. I paid over 50 percent >>>> more for this Mac Mini than I could have bought a Windows 10 computer. I >>>> wish I had 30 days, rather than 14, to figure this out. The time is >>>> ticking. What is so much better about this than Windows, which I already >>>> know how to use? >>>> Arnold Schmidt -- >>>> The following information is important for all members of the Mac >>>> Visionaries list. >>>> If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or >>>> if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the >>>> owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. >>>> Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara >>>> Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] >>>> The archives for this list can be searched at: >>>> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >>>> <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> >>>> --- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>>> email to [email protected] >>>> <mailto:[email protected]>. >>>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected] >>>> <mailto:[email protected]>. >>>> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries >>>> <https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries>. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout >>>> <https://groups.google.com/d/optout>. >>> -- >>> The following information is important for all members of the Mac >>> Visionaries list. >>> >>> If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if >>> you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners >>> or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. >>> >>> Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara >>> Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] >>> >>> The archives for this list can be searched at: >>> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >>> --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>> Groups "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>> email to [email protected]. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries > list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your Mac Visionaries list moderator is Mark Taylor and your owner is Cara > Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the Mac Visionaries list. 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