Hi Kelly I don't think anybody's told you about this yet, but there is a special accessibility number that Apple set up for blind and/or death customers. When and if you get your Mac, the number for that is 877-204-3930.
It is my understanding that you have to have a screen reader for windows on your Mac if you put Windows on your Mac. Others can tell you more about that, since I have not put windows on my Mac. Regards, Gigi Sent from my iPhone On Apr 5, 2013, at 12:41 PM, Shannon Gerdts <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello everyone, > > First I want to say thank you for all the responses to my question. I have > gotten such informative answers and I appreciate it. > This is Kellie, Shannon's wife. *smile* > > I will address all my comments and questions in this one post so that I don't > flood everyone's inBox with several messages. > > First, I want to explain that my concern isn't that I won't be able to > upgrade to the latest OS and Voiceover in 4 years or so. I know that with any > technology eventually older systems won't be supported by the latest and > greatest. I have read though that the Mac hardware has longer longevity then > does windows. That is the angle I am looking at. My first laptop was a Lenovo > and while I did get a longer life, it wasn't my favorite machine. Then, I got > my Toshiba, which I liked in terms of comfort, but was not impressed on how > it died so soon. It was a quad core I7, which I paid 900 for. Only a little > over a year after purchasing it, the motherboard acted up and had to be > replaced. It was within warranty but still the fact that it acted up upset > me. Then it started to overheat frequently about a year ago. It has always > run hot but seemed to get worse. Finally, it will no longer charge. This > happened after buying a new battery and charger and a trip to a computer > store only to discover that the motherboard is shot yet again. I have been > frustrated with the amount of crashes I had via Windows and Jaws. I had > Windows 7 and Jaws 12. And was frequently losing Jaws and even the dump > command of insert-windows key-f4 wouldn't allow me to get Jaws back. I never > could determine what exactly was interfering with Jaws. This is why I have > been contemplating a Mac. > > I have an IPhone and have been very happy with it. I started with the 3gs and > now have the 4s and would never switch. I rarely have issues with voiceover > getting squirrely. > > I know I would need to use windows if I wanted to continue using vipMud but > outside of that I think everything else can be done on Mac. Email, > entertainment, like music and reading, some writing though it isn't anything > intensive. I didn't even use office on my Windows machine. Garage band sounds > interesting to me. Is that accessible? > > Another question I have is that I have seen some posts saying that apple has > limited accessibility and that there isn't much flexibility. How so and in > what ways? I am pretty tech savvy and like to play with new techy toys, but > as I said want to get an idea about the Mac before I decide if I want to go > that option. If I end up with Windows 8, I will learn NVDA since I don't have > Jaws 14. I just want to know what I would be giving up in terms of > accessibility features if I switch to the Mac. > > Also, I have a question about running windows via boot camp or virtualizing. > Someone I know said that if I virtualize windows on a Mac I probably wouldn't > be able to use any screen readers with Windows. Is this accurate? I can't see > this being the case but... want to be sure. Also, I read that the system can > become sluggish when virtualizing Windows and that it is better to use boot > camp. > > Finally, I am looking at a Mac Book Pro which was released around mid 2012. I > know that apple is always closed-mouthed of when they have new releases. But, > does anyone have a rough idea of often they bring out new computers? It just > seems like a new pro might be on the horizon and I might want to wait on > purchasing one. > > Again thanks so much for all the advice and input. It helps me so that I can > make an educated decision. > > Kellie and Loki > > > > -----Original Message----- From: Red.Falcon > Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2013 7:25 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: Serious question about Mac vs. Windows > > Hi all! > Now I'm not sure if this is good or bad! > But from what I understand new Mac's have to be bought with everything you > think you might need because you cannot upgrade them yourselves I might be > wrong! > But as far as this one goes 4 and a half years old and only looked at by > apple once [through my own mistake] nothing has gone wrong with it otherwise! > And only had to spend about 20bucks on new OS! > Colin > > On 4 Apr 2013, at 12:53, Ricardo Walker <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi Mary, >> >> yes indeed it is. The upgrade cycle for mobile devices are 4 times as fast >> as desktops and laptops. If you by the latest and greatest laptop or >> desktop, you can be reasonably assured, that system will run any OS or, >> application with a few exceptions for the next 5 years. A mobile device? >> Two years tops. I think you can get stuck behind that upgrade 8 ball as >> easily on Windows, as you can on a Mac. For example, If you were one of >> those people who were swept up in the netbook craze, and you have your XP >> running with 1GB of RAM on an Atom processor, chances are, your not running >> windows 7 or 8 on there. ever, never, ever. haha. This has always been the >> case with hardware that runs desktop OS's pay more now, to save more later. >> I mean, a person who had a Macbook pro in 2008, or an iMac from 2007, more >> than likely can run mountain lion with no problems. >> >> Ricardo Walker >> [email protected] >> Twitter:@apple2thecore >> www.appletothecore.info >> >> On Apr 3, 2013, at 7:22 PM, Mary Otten <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Hi Donna, >>> You know, it is also possible to get stuck behind the no upgrade 8-ball >>> with a Mac. It isn't the screen reader, it is the hardware at issue, and >>> then you have to go spend a whole lot more than 200 bucks to get the latest >>> screen reader features that are only available with the new os. Same with >>> i-devices, but that's a different subject. iPad 1 anybody? >>> >>> . >>> Mary Otten >>> [email protected] >>> >>> >>> -- >>> 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.
