Absolutely. Anyone who thinks Apple is just supporting accessiblity for
good public relations is sadly mistaken. There is a commitment there, and I
honestly would not be surprised if Steve Jobs himself had been the one to
really kick that commitment into gear. Every release of a new Mac OS since
Tiger has included VoiceOver additions and improvements, and that has been the
same for the iOS area as well.
Is it perfect? No, but what is. Windows surely isn't a picnic either and
forget about the kind of commitment from third party developers for that
platform like the Mac community. Been there and done that.
Take Care
John D. Panarese
Director
Mac for the Blind
Tel, (631) 724-4479
Email, [email protected]
Website, http://www.macfortheblind.com
APPLE CERTIFIED SUPPORT PROFESSIONAL FOR MAC OSX LION
AUTHORIZED APPLE STORE BUSINESS AFFILIATE
MAC and iOS VOICEOVER TRAINING AND SUPPORT
On Jun 25, 2012, at 3:21 PM, Eugenia Firth <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi John.
> I think Apple did a really good thing for us in the last Key Note. They were
> saying to everybody that accessibility was a good thing they were happy
> about, and at a developer's conference at that. I think that more developers
> will get the point that accessibility is big time important.
>
> Eugenia Firth
> [email protected]
>
>
>
> On Jun 25, 2012, at 12:28 PM, John Panarese wrote:
>
>> I don't know quite what you are talking about with Dropbox. It is
>> surely accessible on the Mac and can be configured as well. The trick is,
>> during setup, not to place the dropbox app file in your application folder
>> and to run it where you downloaded it. For whatever the reason, that will
>> enable the setup to work as expected.
>>
>> As for your axe to grind about iWorks, there are other alternatives.
>> Before you make bold proclamations about Apple's shortcomings, look around
>> and try the variety of other word processor applications. There is also
>> Tables for spreadsheets. In addition, no one knows what the next update to
>> iWorks will bring, which I'd guess, is not too far off.
>>
>> As for a paid screen reader for the Mac, why would anyone want to
>> re-invent the wheel? Why spend a lot of needless money on a product Apple
>> has developed and supporting? I think the issue here is, as others have
>> said, communicating with developers and having to educate them. Many of
>> them are happy to respond and one can easily get productive discussions
>> going with them to fix or include accessibility. I just had one with the
>> makers of Disk Drill, for example.
>>
>>
>> Take Care
>>
>> John Panarese
>> [email protected]
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jun 25, 2012, at 11:03 AM, William Windels <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello Scott,
>>> about dropbox, it works fine when you have pasted the setup but, to make it
>>> up and running or reconfigure your account, it can be hard to do it on your
>>> self.
>>> I know, you can go into the package contents to chose another .app file but
>>> this gives not always a solution.
>>> as I have written slow me original mail: it's mostly the office packet
>>> iWork's that isn't fully accessible and so, main tasks on the mac for a
>>> administrative job, I can't do it on a comfortable way.
>>> kind regards,
>>> William Windels
>>> Op 25-jun.-2012, om 16:13 heeft Scott Rumery het volgende geschreven:
>>>
>>>> Hello,
>>>> I have not been on the Mac as long as you have, but after using a
>>>> Window computer for 20 years or more, I am extremely happy with my Mac.
>>>> You are correct when you say the Mac screen reader is more stable than the
>>>> Windows screen readers. I agree that this more than likely due to the
>>>> fact that Voice Over is part of the Mac OS which helps it to run more
>>>> dependently. I however do not agree with your statement that on Windows
>>>> more basic programs are accessible. First of all, what do you mean by
>>>> basic programs? You mentioned Drop Box. It is true that using Drop Box
>>>> on the Mac requires a certain level of expertise, but once you understand
>>>> how you need to use it on the Mac, it works just fine. I think you must
>>>> be referring to the fact that when you install Drop Box and you launch it
>>>> all Voice Over will say is "Drop Box has no windows". This frustrated me
>>>> to no end until I realize that on the Mac you can just go to your home
>>>> folder and arrow down to Drop Box and then access it like any other folder
>>>> on your Mac. I put an alias icon right on my desktop and now all that I
>>>> have to do is to open that, and then I can work in my Drop Box.
>>>> My point with all of this is to illustrate that even though at first
>>>> Drop Box may seem inaccessible on the Mac, it really isn't
>>>>
>>>> As for your question about a paid screen reader ever being made
>>>> available on the Mac. I seriously doubt that this will ever happen, and I
>>>> probably wouldn't use it anyway. I would not for one, want to go and pay
>>>> several hundreds of dollars for something that in my opinion would give me
>>>> a sub par experience on the Mac, especially when the beauty of owning a
>>>> Mac is that once I purchase my Mac, all I have to do after turning it on
>>>> to have accessibility is to hit command plus F5.
>>>>
>>>> Just my opinion.
>>>>
>>>> Scott
>>>> On Jun 25, 2012, at 8:08 AM, William Windels wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hello,
>>>>> After working for more than 3 years with the mac , it's my personal
>>>>> opinionthat more basic programs are accessible on windows then on the mac
>>>>> platform.
>>>>>
>>>>> I find it more stable to work on the mac because of the integration of
>>>>> the screenreader voiceover with the osx.
>>>>> The fact that the hardware is also adapted for us by the trackpad and the
>>>>> function-keys with the spoken values.
>>>>> And of course the flexible way we can install , manage the system with
>>>>> voiceover support everywhere.
>>>>>
>>>>> However, we can't e.g. configure dropbox with voiceover while this is
>>>>> possible on windows, office programs like microsoft office and also
>>>>> iWork's aren't fully accessible with lay-out tasks, in my opinion there
>>>>> are several usability issues with the browsers on the mac, some ellements
>>>>> of the os , like
>>>>> Tables, on websites and on numbers and pages, are very difficult to
>>>>> navigate e.g. you can't search for edit-fields on websites while they are
>>>>> in a table and in pages, you can't work with tables on a comfortable way.
>>>>> the icon's on the status bar, can't be reached on a normal way with
>>>>> voiceover...
>>>>>
>>>>> My conclusion: a paid screenreader for the mac that makes program's
>>>>> accessible with scripts (like screen readers on windows do), should be
>>>>> very welcome I think.
>>>>> With this kind of optional screenreader, blind users should be able to
>>>>> use all the equivalents on the mac of their windows favorites. Perhaps
>>>>> it should push apple to make their screenreader better on a faster speed.
>>>>>
>>>>> Why such screenreader doesn't exist yet?
>>>>> I see 2 reasons for this:
>>>>> 1. Apple should not be happy with this and the screenreader of apple
>>>>> should have more possibilities to integrate with the os then the external
>>>>> screenreader.
>>>>> 2. Other communities don't see a reason to make a screenreader for the
>>>>> mac while there is one built in.
>>>>> If it should be the second reason, any people with accessibility
>>>>> frustrations on the mac , should communicate this to other companies like
>>>>> gw micro, freedom scientific, baum...
>>>>>
>>>>> Any opinions about this meanings should be very welcome.
>>>>> kind regards,
>>>>> William Windels
>>>>>
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