Thought this was relevant to our topic.
Jamal
----- Forwarded Message -----
From: "Peter Korn" <Peter.Korn@xxxxxxx>
To: "Discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by the
blind"
<Discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, May 05, 2005 1:16 AM
Subject: Re: How usable is Mac?
Greetings,
In all of the discussions about VoiceOver vs. JAWS (or other Windows
screen
readers), there is another important aspect to consider. VoiceOver is a
fundamentally different kind of screen reader. In fact, perhaps one
shouldn't
even call it a screen reader at all.
Like Gnopernicus for UNIX, VoiceOver obtains the text and other
information
it
speaks via a platform Accessibility API - a programming interface
specifically
for accessibility that must be implemented by all user-interface
elements of
all accessible programs. This is perhaps what MSAA was intended to be,
but
MSAA is too limited to provide even half of the information needed.
There
is
no Off-Screen Model, no patching the display driver, no "reading the tea
leaves" to figure out what an application is doing. Microsoft has said
they
will provide a comprehensive Accessibility API in Longhorn, so users of
VoiceOver and Gnopernicus will get a taste of what may be coming on the
Microsoft platform.
This approach has a number of profound implications:
1. There is now (hopefully) a clear definition of what an application
must do to be accessible. We get to move away from the
finger-pointing
of the Windows world (application at fault vs. screen reader at
fault
vs. platform at fault).
2. If there is an accessibility problem, there is a very good chance
that
the fault lies with the application you are trying to use and not
your AT - and the fix for it must come from the app you are trying
to use. In our case with Gnopernicus we found roughly 80% of the
accessibility bugs were NOT with Gnopernicus itself.
3. Scripting, while still very important for improving efficiency,
stops
being (also) about "getting around ill-behaved apps". This perhaps
suggests that scripting might get added later in the evolution of
a screen reader in an Accessibility API world.
At the end of the day of course what matters most is what you can do
with it
and how well it works for you - can you get your job done efficiently
and
perhaps even with some enjoyment and satisfaction? Nontheless, as you
use
VoiceOver, it may be useful to also think about how it works, and how
that
is
different from Windows (and what that means, both good and bad).
Regards,
Peter Korn
Sun Accessibility team
MacVisionaries wrote:
> Hi Laura, Leasa, Mary and all
>
> TThis is an indirect continuation of the thread between David
Poehlman
> and yourselves. I gave it a new subject to reflect the idea that
that
> argument should stop...
>
> 1. Screen readers aside, many sighted people would agree that there
> are things in Mac OS X which are better than in Windows. But that's
> not what we're discussing here.
>
> 2. I am now able to fairly preficiently use my Mac for word
> processing, web browsing, email, voice and text chat, access to the
> Unix terminal (though in 1.0 this isn't perfect), play and record
audio
> files, and a number of other things (oh yes I forgot the dictionary,
> chess, multilingual translations), and so forth -- in other words, I
> can do most things I need to.
>
> 3. We now get to the crucial point of efficiency, and I agree with
you
> all that this is very important. While learning the Mac you will
> inevitably be slower, but even once you've learnt the system (after a
> few months), you will miss a lot of shortcuts in JAWS/Windows which
> don't exist in the Mac. Jumping around a web site is one such
example.
>
> 4. And now I get round to discussing why the Mac is better. While
you
> will be slower in certain ways, I must stress that some of the
initial
> disadvantages, such as using multiple keystrokes, become second
nature
> after a while. VoiceOver is very simple on purpose, and thus is much
> easier to learn, and by extention, fix, compared to JAWS. Also,
Apple
> have made collaboration with sighted people very nice - if I am
sitting
> with my boss doing a report it would be nice if she knew what the
hell
> I was reading - this is possible with VoiceOver. Since it is built
> into the OS it also means that concepts and terminology is inline
with
> what sighted people already know, so you can learn much more easily
> from a sighted person with no knowledge of VoiceOver. There's also
the
> issue that VoiceOver will work on all ahrdware, and will work
correctly
> almost all the time. Maybe it is my bad luck, and bad choice of
> laptops, but over the past five years I have repeated problems with
> JAWS crashing every few hours, becoming more sluggish, not reading
> menus and so forth and refreshing the screen doesn't work. For
> example, today JAWS routinely crashed every time I closed Internet
> Explorer using the menu bar rather than alt+F4, and every so often it
> would stop reading the message list in Outlook, until I quite and
> loaded JAWS again. I also have problems with document reading
> repeating tables in MSWord, and being unreliable at reading text in
> Notepad. Please, I don't want to make this a flamewar on JAWS, but
> these are routine problems for me, and for the past five years I have
> had simialr problems. VoiceOver may be limited at this moment in
time,
> but it *does* work concistantly all the time.
>
> 5. This has already been brought up but VoiceOver is young, and it
will
> improve with time. Rumours have it that 10.4.1 will be out in May or
> June and I'm sure that even in that short time incremental
improvements
> will be made to VoiceOver. Furthermore, as a developer I can see how
a
> lot of the Apple technologies in OS X could be used to enhanse the
> VoiceOver user experience, but as we said, for those people making
> decisions, today is what matters. So, in a home environment I think
a
> Mac may be the ideal computer. But not in the workplace yet. Look
out
> for my short tutorial in the next fews days - that'll give a clearer
> idea.
>
> Saqib Shaikh
> Founder, MacVisionaries
> www.MacVisionaries.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discuss mailing list
> Discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://macvisionaries.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss_macvisionaries.com
>
_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://macvisionaries.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss_macvisionaries.com
_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
Discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://macvisionaries.com/mailman/listinfo/discuss_macvisionaries.com
To post to the list, send a message to:
ossrp-control@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe, send a message to:
ossrp-control-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
and set the subject field of the message to "unsubscribe" (without the quotes