OK, just gave that podcast a listen. Sure sounds interesting.
Yet, I strongly disagree in a solution that requires you to be online,
even if it is only for launching it. This kind of solution, is so deeply
digging into the way people will get access to their screen, that they
will become more or less completely depending on it. And then, what do
you do the day when your internet connection is down? You cannot even
launch the whole product, meaning that you now have to rely on the
built-in functionality of your screen reader. Since you have come to
depend on the info and operation of the AT Prime, you may have forgotten
- or even worse, never really learned - the way to operate the screen
reader itself. And, you may have learned to base your computer activity
on a software that the screen reader does not necessarily cooperate well
with. Now that your internet is down, you don't get a chance to launch
this extra piece of software, and are left out in the cold, dark blue;
with nowhere to go.
You know, it all reminds me of what recently has taken place on the
Android platform. First we saw the Eloquence voices hit the Android
market, and lately I think it was Ivona. In both cases, the
manufacturers decided to go for an online-based solution. Seems they
figured we live in a time and world, where internet is something
everybody are born with - a kind of an extension to our very body.
Sorry, but that is not the everyday of many users. The guy behind the AT
Prime, even is talking about developing countries who cannot afford. And
then, he forces them to pay expensive, unreliable internet connections,
for every time the product is going to be launched on your system.
Imagine, in those countries with an unstabil power supply. The computer
goes down ten times a day, due to power failure. And every time, you as
a blind user have to hope for your internet connection to be up running,
put aside a whole budget for online time, simply just to launch your
extra piece of screen reading technology.
Even in super-modern countries, like the North-Americas and Europe, we
know what a connection failure causes for trouble. Do I have to remind
people of the many complains GW received every time GWConnect did not
work? Why was that? Wasn't it namely due to the lack of connection for
an online service that people had come to rely on? And that was for a
chatting program, something people could do without. I doubt your
employer will accept you telling him, that you cannot read the screen,
just because there is some sort of connection-downtime. And it may not
even be on your side. It likely could just be on the service providers
side. Timezones are different, and when you in the North-Americas get up
in the morning, people in Australia have ended their working day. So,
the cloud is down, and you cannot get your job done, until tomorrow when
the Americas have had their lunch-break and got things sorted out.
At least, I am happy that Window-Eyes has not yet turned into a
cloud-based screen reader. Too bad, that people who develop good working
solutions, block their users from effective use, simply by relying on
third-party connections. The technology itself, may be well worth some
extra thought. And if the screen reader market would pick up the idea,
making the screens even more accessible, that would be great. But please
don't come this way around, and offer us cloud-based solutions. Too many
experiences have shown that to be far too unreliable.
To the one posting the link, thanks for doing so. It was interesting to
listen to the podcast, and I welcome the initiative behind the upcoming
product. I just have a strong reaction to the cloud-basing, and want
people to be aware how that actually could turn what was meant to be a
great leap forward into accessibility, into something that would even
worsen your daily computer activity. Or, do you really want to put
yourself on the spot of all the frustrations, whenever the cloud is
down, slow or incorrectly working, and you cannot get your daily
activities carried out?
David
On 3/18/2015 1:00 PM, Josh K via Talk wrote:
hey check this out!
http://www.vict-consultancy.co.uk/content/atprime.html
this could eliminate a lot of scripting!
and pass this on to everyone please! this AT prime software is gunna
revolutionise how screen readers read stuff to us! and it works with
everything from narrator up to window eyes and jaws and everything in
between!
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