hi Rahul. I don't know if you guys are going to agree with me on this or not, but even though there are is System Access out there, for the most part, the accessibility of Windows is being handled by Freedom Scientific and G. W. Micro. Someone posted a survey result on this list once that said that about 70 percent of us have Jaws and a smaller number have WindowEyes. The cost of getting technology for us is getting ridiculous, and a lot of sates like Texas are setting some rigid restrictions on who can have it and who cannot. I'm just thinking that these companies providing Windows accessibility are really dependent more than Apple ever will be on the states. This was starting to make me uncomfortable about the future of Windows accessibility. Yes, I heard that Microsoft is adding a screen reader to Windows 8. But, hey, they are several years too late and, of course, behind Apple on that score.
The good thing about specialized companies is that they can and do provide better on-the-phone assistance and training for us. Recently I was on the phone with Apple Care for an hour and a half and spoke to three different people about something that I think should have been simple. If I had a VoiceOver wise person on the phone, I think what I wanted could have been resolved in ten minutes or less. I ended up going for a Genius Bar appointment, and it took them no time at all to fix things. Having said that, I am willing to do what I can to make things better for us on Mac and IOS because I can't indefinitely support financially the cost of completely specialized technology. It's a vicious circle to keep up updates with Windows and with notetakers. My husband, when I was talking about ultimately having to replace my PacMate once asked me if I was going to work just so I could get my technology. For example, I figure I'll save myself $2,000 by replacing my PacMate with not iPad and a braille display. The iPad is a much better computer, too. Getting back to the Mac, I think we're in a transition here and we're going to need to be as flexible as we can be. For instance, right now I have to do PDF forms on that Vista computer in the other room. It wouldn't surprise me at all if down the road, that's not the case. Regards, Gigi On Mar 7, 2012, at 3:21 AM, Rahul Bajaj wrote: > Hi friends, > > I don't post often here, but I regularly check all the posts. > I have a question. > I purchased my MacBook last July, so I've had it for more than 9 months. > A few months ago, I installed Windows on my Mac with the help of Bootcamp. > > So, the issue is that I'm always tempted to use Windows instead of the Mac. > This is because of the following reasons: > 1. On many occasions, I get an error message saying that my Internet > connection is not working properly. > If I try using Windows for using the Internet at the very same time, > then it works perfectly. > And, even on the Mac, the Internet starts working perfectly after > sometime, without me having to do anything. > 2. I still haven't been able to figure out an easy and effective way > of using Facebook on the Mac, and I use Facebook a lot, so this is a > major issue for me. > Even most of the methods that are known to work with VO don't work for > me, so I often end up getting frustrated because of this. > 3. As you all must be aware, there is no way of reading captchas on > the Mac with VO. > 4. I read books by downloading them through Utorrent with the help of > Adobe Reader on Windows. > I haven't yet been able to successfully download Utorrent on my Mac. > And I haven't yet found any decent application for reading books on the Mac. > > So, those are my main concerns. > I'd love to use the Mac like all of you, but I somehow can't find a > way to deal with these problems. > And I just don't find any major reasons for using the Mac instead of Windows. > I mean, people say that it's far better than Windows and all, but I > haven't been able to find even one accessible feature that is > available on the Mac, but not on Windows. > > So, please do share your views and suggestions. > > Cheers, > Rahul > > -- > 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.
