[access-uk] Re: Accessibility of Tiger OS
- From: "Ray's Home" <rays-home@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2006 20:27:36 -0000
I'd only say Tink that it is very early days yet. I think people can have
legitimate doubts as to exactly how much development effort will go into the
field of accessibility for VI people with the Mac and the next couple of years
should show us how serious and how far Apple is prepared to go. I was only
trying to point out that at least, as far as I understand it, Safari now has
rather more keyboard support than it once did. I'm unlikely though to have the
money to spare to see for myself. I'd be very interested to know whether the
ability to assign keystrokes in the Apple operating system has any relevance to
our needs, and how much, if at all, Apple script can be enlisted in making
things easier for us.
The Windows screen readers, with some help from Microsoft it has to be said,
have come a very long way in the last ten years. For that reason I am not
about to rush out and buy a Mac, and most PC users who use mainstream office
applications won't either.
People working in the multimedia industry, including sound, might have some
hopes, seeing how dominant the Mac is there, but I think they'd better not be
holding their breath. (smile)
Ray
Personal emails: Email me at
mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
From: Tink Watson
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 8:12 PM
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Accessibility of Tiger OS
I'm not convinced about the accessibility of Safari, particularly with
Voiceover. It lacks much of the quick key functionality that Jaws does with
Internet Explorer and Firefox, which for someone who is used to jumping around
a web page from heading to heading, list to list etc, made page navigation very
slow and cumbersome.
Regards,
Tink.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Ray's Home
Sent: Monday, 06 March 2006 10:21
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Re: Accessibility of Tiger OS
No worries about the capslock Phil!
I've come across a guy on another list using the Mac with Tiger and screen
reader. he's become visually impaired fairly recently and I think it might
have been that his wife chose the computer for its looks, as women tend to do,
(smile). Anyway, he seems to be getting on quite well as he regularly comes
onto the mail list and does a fair bit of internet work too. I hear Safari,
which is Apple browser is much better than it used to be for accessability.
Not so though with all the Apple programs I'm led to understand.
Someone else who bought a Mac recently was Andrew Hodgson who we don't here
so much of on this llist now, but it might be worth emailing him for his
thoughts on it, learning curve, it usefulness and so on. I believe he bought
the Apple Mini which you can buy without a monitor or keyboard for £350.00-400
.00. It's very very small being little bigger than a CD in its width/depth
measurements, and maybe 2" thick. It has good connectivity, and reasonalble
power. Some folks are running audio applications on it. Of course it comes
with OSX Tiger with the bundled screen reader. That's not a bad price to pay
for getting into Mac computing if that's where you want to be headed.
Its early days yet for the Apple screen reader and one can reasonably hope
things will get better as the OS and screen reader are updated. Don't forget
too that the Apple does come with some screen magnification features too.
I don't know what support is like, but there is at least one email list of
blind Apple users you might search out.
HTH.
Ray
Personal emails: Email me at
mailto:ray-48@xxxxxxxx
----- Original Message -----
From: Phil Stephenson
Yup, have had a couple of total Mac fans raving about using apple mac'S. I
CURRENTLY USE WIN xp PRO WITH jaws 7 AND AM NOT UNHAPPY BUT I DID USE A MAC
SOME 10 YEARS OR SO AGO WHEN I COULD USE SCREEN-ENLARGEMNET SOFTWARE. so MY
QUESTION IS A GENREAL ONE AT THIS STAGE, ANYONE OUT THERE USING A Mac AND IF SO
HOW DO THEY FIND THE ACCESSIBILITY OF tiger AND THE RANGE OF Mac programs
available. Yeah I know any switch would require a lot of dosh but that's not
my key question at this stage.
Hopefully I won't be shot simply for even suggesting the switch from
windows to Mac!!
Look forward to receiving your comments,
cheers,
Phil
p.s. sorry about the caps lock being on for part of this!!!
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