[Athen] Help re Mac Accessibility

[Patrick Burke]

Hi Norm,

This just came in on the Webaim list. "Potential" (but not there yet) 
matches my experience of the Tiger version of Voiceover.

Patrick


>Date: Tue, 21 Nov 2006 21:29:00 -0000

>From: "Alastair Campbell" <ac at nomensa.com>

>To: "WebAIM Discussion List" <webaim-forum at list.webaim.org>

>Subject: Re: [WebAIM] screen reader open source?





> > And you can buy a Mac Mini for less than that; Mac OS X (since 10.4)

> > includes a screen-reader (VoiceOver) by default. I think Alistair at

> > Nomensa did a review a little while ago.

>

>I've been meaning to do an update to that, there were a couple of things

>that aren't quite as hard as I thought. I got halfway there with this:

>http://alastairc.ac/2006/08/the-potential-of-voiceover/

>

>But I need a little more time than I have right now.

>

>It has a lot of potential, from what I can tell the approach Apple have

>taken is solid and makes the step of creating accessible applications

>much easier for other developers. However, there are a few 'required'

>applications for some people (work wise) that aren't accessible (e.g. MS

>Office). iTunes is another sore point.

>

>As a not-very-often user, the experience is much nicer with Voiceover

>than Jaws, mostly because of the smoother voice and the stability. The

>voice aspect probably isn't much better for an experienced user who

>listens to it quicker than I do, but the next version is supposed to be

>optimised for that.

>

>If it picks up on structural code in HTML, and gets (or adds) support

>for some required apps, it will be a contender, especially at that

>price.

>

>Kind regards,

>

>-Alastair

>

>--

>Alastair Campbell         |  Director of User Experience

>t. +44 (0)117 929 7333    |  m. 07970 879 653

>

>Keep up to date with industry and Nomensa news, sign up to Nomensa

>newsletters:

>http://www.nomensa.com/news/nomensa-newsletters.html



At 10:20 AM 11/21/2006, Prof Norm Coombs wrote:


>I have been trying to get some clear report on how useful the new 

>mac accessibility tools really are.  I don't get anything very 

>definitive either for or against.  EASI got Apple to be part of our 

>CSUN track either a year or 2 years ago, but they were really 

>weird.  They were scared to death about saying anything and made us 

>turn off tape recorders and stop broadcasting and said their lawyers 

>wouldn't let them even talk to the press!!  It was really 

>strange.  So I no longer look to them to help me understand how good 

>its access is.

>

>I have the impression that its magnification and onscreen keyboard 

>stuff is good, but I get the impression that its screen reader stuff 

>is problematic.

>

>The real reason is a friend in Maine wants me to tell them how good 

>its tools for the blind is because Maine has bought tons of Macs for 

>grade school students.  U. S. Maine wants to put on a presentation 

>for the school teachers to help them understand how to use the macs 

>with students and are asking me how good or poor it is.

>

>Can anyone here pass along any first-hand experience????

>

>Norm

>

>

>------------------------------------------

>EASI Courses on Accessible Information Technology for November:

>Barrier-free E-learning (expanded and enriched with more multimedia)

>http://easi.cc/workshops/bfel.htm

>EASI has 3 Podcast series: http://easi.cc/podcasts/

>EASI Home http://easi.cc

>

>Norman Coombs, Ph.D.

>www.rit.edu/~nrcgsh

>(949) 855-4852  ** Pacific time zone!

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--
Patrick J. Burke

Coordinator
UCLA Disabilities &
Computing Program

Phone: 310 206-6004
E-mail: burke at ucla.edu