Hi Sarah and welcome to the list. This will be neet to be able to give feedback directly to a Microsoft employee without talking around them or behind their backs:).
I just got through reading 63 messages on this thread. I am pleased to hear that latest version of Office for Mac is now in Coco framework. This should help get the programs off to a good accessible start. But like others said already, the edit areas of the applications need to be compatible with VoiceOver. I also have avoided buying the Office products due to their past inaccessibility so at this point, I cannot offer more specific details of inaccessibility. While you are addressing VO compatibility with Office for the Mac, I wonder about this new Office 365 that is the online solution. How compatible will that product be with the Mac platform? Again thanks for joining our forum and if there are ways we can evaluate upcoming versions of Office for the mac, I would be glad to give them a try and offer more detailed feedback. I also see the lack of Office and accessibility as a common reason more blind people don't take up the Mac fully. I realize Microsoft is in the business to sell licenses to use windows and not help people migrate over to the Mac:) but For those who already have and use Macs for everything else, being able to use Office on the Mac would be a big plus and that concept would enable Microsoft to sell more Office licenses. On Feb 6, 2013, at 7:00 PM, Devin Prater <[email protected]> wrote: > One thing I hope the MS team doesn't do is just make a blindie work-around > for us, like making the TTS speak the items, but they not truly be accessible > with voiceover. This is seen in programs like Sodbeans, an "accessible" IDE > and RSGames. This, in my opinion, is cheap, hacky programming, and should be > avoided. > > Sent from my iPod with iCloud > > On Feb 6, 2013, at 4:44 AM, Sean Murphy <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi All. > > Ms Office for windows is equal to the Mac version. Only reason why it is so > accessible is by third party vendors, not by Microsoft. Microsoft provided > the DOM environment to permit third parties to create scripts in any language > to do custom actions. So JFW and Window-eyes, plus other window screen reader > have taken advantage of this, resulting in a very accessible program. > > So the MS Office team under Windows is not even that committed to > accessibility. Sure they have included the MSAA components for specific areas > like menus and dialogs. But the edit area within Word for example is just > equally inaccessible as the Mac. I haven't use the Windows provided screen > reader for a long time. But I believe it doesn't even access the document > area. If I am in error, then please correct in relation to this point. > > So Sara, this is an opportunity for MS to fix it on both platforms. Specially > with the improvements I understand are in the new version of Windows 8. > > > Also everyone, you must relies that MS Windows is industry standard and there > are not many companies who don't use Office. > > Just for the list, I will list some of the features that Office Word should > make exposed: > > Being able to navigate the document by character, word, line, sentence, > paragraph. > Detecting different fonts, attributes of fonts, point sizes, colour of fonts, > line heights, etc. > Styles being used. > tables and navigation of them. > Column detection and navigation of them. > Page detection > Detection of graphics. > Detections of borders and their properties > Bullets, list, indents and their properties. > detection of spelling and gramma errors. > > > Is there anything else I have missed everyone? > > Sean >> Blessings! Maria Joe and loving guide Karly. >> Email/ I Message: &fb [email protected] >> twitter: bubbygirl >> skype: bubbygirl1972 >> >> [email protected] >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On 05/02/2013, at 6:02 AM, Kerri <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> My input here is that what you are stating is that by the time Word and >>> Excel become accessible most people either won't switch or like something >>> better. >>> On 2013-02-04, at 5:31 AM, Max <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> A few notes on MS Office for Mac OS from my perspective: >>>> >>>> - In my experience both Word and Excel are unusable. In Word I >>>> cannot actually write and read back what I’ve written. In Excel, I can’t >>>> navigate and manipulate cells. For these reasons I do not use either >>>> programme on the Mac. Really, this is very basic and MS should be ashamed >>>> of themselves for shipping such an unaccessible product. >>>> >>>> - The fact that Word is broken on Mac has forced me to explore >>>> alternatives. I’ve leart to use both Pages and Scrivener. I am now a >>>> Scrivener fan and would probably not go back to Word even if it became >>>> accessible on Mac. I would probably never even have tried Scrivener had >>>> Word been accessible. >>>> >>>> - I am encouraged that MS is seemingly trying to take accessibility >>>> more seriously. However, good intentions only go so far. Even their own >>>> operating system is inaccessible without extremely expensive third party >>>> software like JAWS. Apple has put them to shame with Voice Over. I will >>>> only believe in change at MS once I see it. Until they start putting their >>>> code where their mouth is, I will encourage other blind people to switch >>>> to Mac. >>>> >>>> Finally, my criticism above obviously does not apply to Sarah, but rather >>>> to MS as a whole. Thank you Sarah for joining the list and taking the time >>>> to read all the comments posted here. Hopefully you can be part of a new >>>> more decent MS. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>>> email to [email protected]. >>>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >>> "MacVisionaries" group. >>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >>> email to [email protected]. >>> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >>> >>> >> >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. >> >> > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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