The story that I've heard, and I've heard this from multiple reliable sources, is that Apple was losing out to Microsoft on government and educational contracts because they had no accessibility story. this was after Berkley Systems and Outspoken went by the way side. Since there was no longer a screen reader for Apple products, and no 3rd party was going to develop a screen reader for Apple products, Apple opted to develop one themselves. I like to think, that even if this was their initial motivation, they've seen even greater benefits from developing their own screen reader and having such a good accessibility story.
On 12/06/12 13:45, Pete Nalda wrote: > I wonder about this myself. Although, I think it was because they knew there > were a lot of people who left apple, because the 3rd party programs were > unstable, then OSX had no accessibility in the early years (Not really until > Tiger), so people who were blind or had low vision were using PC's, and Apple > wanted them back. It's just a guess. Myself, I came back when Tiger got > Zoom curser tracking. I had used Zoom in Jaguar, but it wasn't really > feasible. As soon as Tiger came out, I bought a used iBook, sold both my > dell Latitude, and Compaq Presario, and never looked back. I also think they > had a good turnout in the then-called Spoken Interface beta testing seed. By > the time Snow Leopard got here, they knew we also wanted access to portable > devices and the iPhone, so it didn't hurt to add that as well. As for where > we're at now. I think we'll have to wait for both Mountain Lion, and OS 6 to > be available to really see what fixes have been made. I remain optimistic. > I challe nge anyone to find better accessibility than Apple, for *All* devices in a given platform. > > On Jun 12, 2012, at 1:26 PM, Teresa Cochran wrote: > >> As an aside, I'm intensely curious as to what was the inspiration/motivation >> for Apple to make their products accessible? Of course it's good marketing >> practice, but I'm thinking there's a bit more of a story to it than that. >> Was someone known to be having visual issues? A Family member or someone >> within the company? It's very curious. >> >> Teresa >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google >> Group. >> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit >> http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. >> 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/viphone?hl=en. > > Egun On, Lagunak! (Basque for G'day, Mates) > Louie P. "Pete" Nalda > http://www.myspace.com/musikonalda > http://www.facebook.com/lpnalda > http://www.linkedin.com/in/lpnalda > Twitter @lpnalda > -- Christopher (CJ) chaltain at Gmail -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. To search the VIPhone public archive, visit http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. 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/viphone?hl=en.
