For the most part, scripts in any screen reader can't help you do anything that you couldn't have accomplished manually. So, in most all cases, scripts aren't necessary.
However, some tasks take many steps to complete, and you perform them regularly. In these situations, a script isn't necessary, but it can save you time by making it possible to perform all of those steps with just a few key presses. Because of how OSX is organized, scripts aren't quite as essential as they are on Windows, for example. That's probably why there hasn't been such a huge effort to produce scripts for VO. They might help in some cases, but they wouldn't help so much that enough people have been sufficiently inconvenienced to create scripts. Another argument against scripts is that, in extreme cases, people don't learn the screen reader. Some users of Windows screen readers don't know how to operate their applications without their scripts. On the one hand, that's great that they can work faster, and don't need to worry about the technical tricks. On the other hand, though, learning some of those tricks would help them when they run in to a program that doesn't have scripts. Sometimes, though, scripts are absolutely necessary. For example, VoiceOver can control some parts of software through AppleScript that it isn't possible to operate through the manipulation of the application's interface with the regular VoiceOver reading commands. In that sort of situation, the script provides access to new functionality, rather than making it easier to accomplish a task with existing tools. Hope this helps you understand the situation. Bryan -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of James & Nash Sent: Sunday, March 28, 2010 3:42 PM To: Mac visionaries Subject: Scripting with VO Hi list, I am currently listening to the latest Mac Accessibility podcast about scripting, and I am very confused. Well, I may just be stupid, but I'll let you decide after I ask this question... How is scripting VO different from scripting other Screen Readers? I'm asking this because the group just made a very interesting point that with other Screen Readers, when an application or part of an application doesn't work properly, someone writes a script for it. If the application then gets upgraded and the script no longer works, people are not sure what to do to fix it aside from getting the script again. Surely this is the same with VO - most general users would not know what to do except for the scripter? Also, is VO scripting different from Apple Script? Josh has also said that we don't necessarily need the scripting capability of VO. Why is this? When I've used other Screen Readers, I used very few scripts if any and still got all the info I needed? I'm not trying to start a flame war, and I apologise to the moderators if this is off-topic. Thanks TC James, Lyn, Nash & Twinny -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
