One nice thing is that the the voiceover focus appears as a black box
around objects on the screen so you'll be able to tell what they are
interacting with. Jaws doesn't do this so sometimes it's hard to assist
because you don't know what is being poked at. Since you already have a
mac you can also just turn it on to be able to walk through things with
them. Nothing to install. Voiceover tends to do a more geographic
navigation where you move focus from item to item by doing vo
up/down/left/right. This makes it parallel the sited user experience a
bit more than some other systems, especially in a web browser.
If you get stuck just speak up here. Lots of help to be had.
CB
erik burggraaf wrote:
Hi, I teach voiceover, as well as jaws and window-eyes. If some one is going
to pick up a computer for the first time, mac OS is definitely a hole lot
easier to teach than windows 7. The combination of jaws 11 and windows 7 is
extremely clunky in my opinion. It's not too bad for a guy like me who can
figger things out with a little patience, but for some one who just wants a
step by step list of things to do to get email and web sites and such,
voiceover has it and win 7 doesn't.
Voiceover works completely inside out from windows screen readers. That might
give switchers the impression that some things aren't as intuitive, web
browsing is a big one, but I haven't fount that to be the case.
The only problem I might for see would be the fact that VO is a bit keyboard
intensive. One task can require 3 or four buttons at a time. It's an issue if
some one has arthritis in their fingers or some such. In this case, you might
illuminate some frustration by teaching numpad commander with a nice tactile
numpad. You might even try trackpad commander. I've never gotten it to flow
for me, but if you can get the feel of it it is a really comfortable and handy
tool.
Best,
erik burggraaf
A+ certified technician and user support consultant.
Phone: 888-255-5194
Email: [email protected]
On 2010-03-15, at 8:47 PM, bilgerat wrote:
I'm not blind myself but have a blind friend. She's in her fifties and
has little experience of computers. She was sold a Mercury system by
RNIB a couple of years back but can't get to grips with it. Nor can I.
the system seems unstable and support is extremely limited. There is
also no tuition available at all except audio discs which are
seriously deficient in various respects.
So as a macbook user myself I wonder whether that might be a suitable
alternative for her. Basically she wants a computer for using the
internet, for such everyday things as reading a paper, ordering
groceries online, and using the BBC's I-player. But I'm really
concerned that it might be too difficult to learn. There doesn't seem
to be anyone at Apple UK who is actually experienced at using
voiceover. I found one guy at Apple who gives one-to-one tuition to a
blind user, but he told me they have given up on trying to use it to
navigate web pages because it's just too complex!
So I would be really grateful for advice on this - how difficult is it
for a computer beginner to learn to use; what kind of support if any
is available, any any other things that need thinking about.
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