[Athen] Question re Mac and voice recognition

[Nettie Fischer]

Thank you very much, the links you provided have been very helpful.  Gee, I
think I fell asleep at the wheel on this one since I was totally unaware of
the release.

Regards,
Nettie

On Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 11:40 AM, Karlen Communications <
info at karlencommunications.com> wrote:


> Norm:

>

> In terms of using VoiceOver as the Mac screen reader, there are some limits

> you need to know about. First, there are some of the settings and dialogs

> on

> the Leopard OS that won't be read or won't be completely read to

> you/end-user. Second, there are no "robust" office suites like there are in

> the Windows environment. Open Office latest version will let you use their

> word processor and some of the spreadsheet application with VoiceOver but

> Microsoft Office for Mac and iWorks are not accessible. First character

> navigation will only work on some of the file and icon items in drives and

> folders. Although VoiceOver will work with Safari, there are web sites that

> are not designed to be accessible when using a Mac. These might include

> banking and government sites. A friend of mine found this to be true even

> for those not using adaptive technology on a Mac.

>

> The mail program on the Mac seems pretty accessible and some web sites are

> usable but if you want to do anything productive in terms of business or

> academic writing, you will need Windows and a Windows Screen reader plus

> Microsoft Office.

>

> I have a MacBook Air and am very limited in terms of what I can do and what

> I can access related to word processing/document formatting, spreadsheet

> and

> presentation applications. I don't know of any accessible presentation

> software for the Mac.

>

> For voice recognition there is MacSpeech http://www.macspeech.com/ and You

> Tube has a video on how to use it

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbjG3gQxv-8

> as well as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX1sS6lsQrc

>

> Of course Dragon NaturallySpeaking for Mac

> http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/products/macintosh.asp

>

> There is iListen: http://hubpages.com/hub/ilisten

>

> I haven't used any voice recognition with my Mac yet and don't know how it

> would integrate with VoiceOver.

>

> Let me know if you have any other questions.

>

> Cheers, Karen

>

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On

> Behalf Of Prof Norm Coombs

> Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 1:37 PM

> To: athen-athenpro.org

> Subject: [Athen] Question re Mac and voice recognition

>

> I have an acquaintance whose wife recently became blind.  They have a

> recent Mac computer.  I told him he should check as it will have screen

> reader technology that came with it.

>

> However, the real question relates to the fact that his wife has no touch

> typing and hopes to use voice recognition.  What voice recognition programs

> are available for the Mac and which one might be the best?

>

> Norm

>

>

>

>  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

>

> Norman Coombs norm.coombs at gmail.com

> CEO EASI Equal Access to Software and Information

> phone (949) 855-4852 (NOTE pacific time zone)

> ****READ ABOUT THE DICK BANKS MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP:

> http://easi.cc/scholarship.htm

>

>

>

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-- 
Nettie T. Fischer, ATP
Assistive Technology Practitioner
nettiet, ATP Consultants
www.nettietatpconsultants.com
[916] 704-1456
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