So on this softphone question,

 Havs anyone used a cisco softphone for enterprise environments?

It's one we're currently looking at for work 

-----Original Message-----
From: 'Janina Sajka' via MacVisionaries 
[mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, 26 December 2017 10:08 PM
To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: To Janina Sajka Soft phones?

Hi, Donna:

My apologies for the slow response. I've been distracted by noncomputer 
responsibilities these past few weeks.

To answer your question  I'd need to know a bit more what your needs are. Let 
me explain:

Probably the most widely known soft phone is Skype. Howegver, I myself don't 
use Skype. Depending on your platform, you might find Skype accessible--or not. 
For instance it's not accessible on Linux today.

On Apple products we have Face Time. I've used it slightly, and my experience 
suggest it's accessibility is excellent.

There are other soft phone clients that people use for voice communications 
such as Face Book's Whatsapp, or Cisco's GoToMeeting or their Webex product. 
Accessibility of these varies from very accessible, e.g. Webex on Android, to 
not very accessible for anyone even when you're not using assistive technology, 
e.g. Webex on Mac.

Now, my situation is somewhat different. I have the particular requirement for 
an old fashioned phone number. I need the ability to recieve calls from any 
phone anywhere, and to call any traditional telephone number anywhere. I do 
this in two ways using the SIP protocol and a gateway service that routes calls 
between my SIP devices and the standard telephony world, usually abrieviated 
PSTN, which stands for "Public Switched Telephone Network."

1.)     I have hard ware devices that look all the world like old
fashioned telephones, but they're different. They're hardware SIP phones, and 
they connect over computer type network cables--what we call
Cat5 (or Cat6) ethernet cables.

        My current device of choice is the Snom D715, primarily because
        it's able to use IPv6, where Polycom phones do not. I have not
        investigated use of the SIP handsets from Digium--though they're
        on my list to look at the next time I'm in the market for a
        hardware phone.

        2.)     I use linphone, and sometimes the fs_cli application
        provided by FreeSwitch on my Linux computers for placing and
        recieving SIP calls. This functionality is critical to my work
        because it allows me to use a high quality headset that connects
        to my computer using USB, and still allows me to route the audio
        through a 12 channel audio hardware mixer on my desk. This way
        I'm able to have my screen reader as well as my telephone
        conversation in my ears, without the people I'm talking with
        hearing my screen reader.

Of course SIP phones can be used to place direct calls to other SIP phones, 
just like Skype and FaceTime calls can be made to others who are also using 
Skype or FaceTime. I believe Skype also provides the ability to call to and 
from the PSTN, but I don't know anything specific about that, or about any 
similar functionality among the other soft phones mentioned.

The biggest problem with all these services is that they don't interoperate 
natively, e.g. Webex can't call FaceTime, or vice versa.
The standards world is hoping to solve this with specifications called WebRTC. 
Time will tell how that goes.

Hope this helps!

Janina


Donna Goodin writes:
> Hi all,
> 
> I'm directing this question to Janina as she mentioned using a soft phone, 
> but would be interested in hearing from anyone else who uses one.
> 
> Can anyone recommend good accessible soft phone options?
> TIA,
> Donna
> 
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-- 

Janina Sajka,   Phone:  +1.443.300.2200
                        sip:jan...@asterisk.rednote.net
                Email:  jan...@rednote.net

Linux Foundation Fellow
Executive Chair, Accessibility Workgroup:       http://a11y.org

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
Chair, Accessible Platform Architectures        http://www.w3.org/wai/apa

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