[guispeak] Fwd: article from RNIB on apple voice over
- From: David Poehlman <david.poehlman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: GUISPEAK List <guispeak@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2005 11:48:32 -0400
Hi All,
The articles are beginning to come out now and I'd be interested to
see if anyone here has made the move towards using VoiceOver. I have
been using it since it's beginning and would welcome discussion,
questions and other concerns, but, please, unless you have actually
used it, don't tell us how good or bad it is from a user's standpoint
unless you name the source of your information? Also, opinion and
conjecture at this point would probably not serve either negatively
or positively.
Thanks and enjoy the article.
--
Jonnie Apple Seed
With his:
Hands-On Technolog(eye)s
Begin forwarded message:
From: Steve Pattison <srp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: September 3, 2005 12:33:10 AM EDT
To: GUI Talk <gui-talk@xxxxxxxxxx>,Access L
<access-l@xxxxxxxx>
Subject: Fwd: article from RNIB on apple voice over
From: Ian Blackburn blckburn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: vip-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Some of you may be interested to read an article that
we've written
about our experience of Tiger so far, available on the
RNIB
website or
using the following link.
http://snipurl.com/he6j
mirror at
http://home.adelphia.net/~bmss/vo/bfvo-sept2005.html
A New Era for Technology
by Paul Edwards
Excerpted from The Braille Forum, Volume XLIV September
2005 No. 2,
published by the American Council of the Blind.
On April 29, 2005, the Apple Computer company launched
the fourth
generation
of OS X (or 10.4). Each of the versions of OS X was
named after a
cat and
thus it was that version four was known as Tiger. With
the launch
of Tiger,
Apple signaled the beginning of a new era in access
technology. It
will
probably
take a while for the full effect of the revolution to
be
felt but
we, as
blind computer users, are clearly in a place we have
never been
before.
You see, with the release of Tiger, Apple included a
suite of
disability
access programs as a part of its operating system which
means that
a blind
person
can walk into a Mac store and buy a computer that is
accessible out
of the
box. There is a magnification program that will make
using
the Mac
easier
for
those with low vision but the real blockbuster news is
that
there is a
program called VoiceOver, which is shipped with every
new Apple
Macintosh
computer.
This is a full-fledged screen reader which certainly
gives blind
people
access to word processing, e-mail, Internet browsing,
music
storage, and
chess.
In addition, you can voice chat, send instant
messages,
read PDF
files, and
scan. There are actually many other things and
programs
that can
probably
be accessed, but this is a fairly impressive list.
Apple is to be commended for making sure that VoiceOver
is
a fairly
robust
and mature product at release time. As with the
Windows
operating
system,
most
of the products that are used on Macs are developed by
third-party
companies
that are not directly affiliated with Apple. Many of
these are not
currently
accessible. Apple is taking a proactive stance by
making
programming
guidelines available to such companies and, with luck,
more and
more content
will
soon be fully usable. The interface appears sensible
and Apple is
again to
be commended for its use of many blind people and a
public list to
beta-test
the Voiceover software.
The arrival of another screen reader on the scene is
not, by
itself, such a
big deal. In fact, the Mac operating system is
notorious for its
use of
graphics
and many people who are blind have shied away from
having much to
do with
Macs for that reason. There had been a screen reader
for the Mac,
OutSpoken,
which ceased to be available a little more than a year
ago.
It was
never
upgraded so it could work with OS X. So, essentially,
those
diehard Mac
users
who are blind were forced until now to stay an
operating
system
behind with
a product that was only ever mediocre at best.
What is significant about the release of Tiger and
VoiceOver is an
economic
reality. A blind person can now walk into an Apple
store
and get a
Mac Mini
and a keyboard for well under $600. For this outlay,
the blind
person will
not only get a computer with twenty software voices
built in, but
he will
not
need to spend any more money on a screen reader. Most
Windows
users would
have to find an additional $1,000 to purchase a screen
reader.
Imagine this. Every new Mac in every office, every
classroom and
every
computer lab and every library is accessible. What
will
this mean for
education
and employment? Is the training community ready for
the
influx of
requests
for training on the Mac that will undoubtedly come?
How
will
Microsoft
react
now that accessibility is built into computers by its
chief
rival?
Will
Windows become the platform of those who have money?
Will the Mac
become
the
computer of choice for poor people who simply cannot
afford more?
These are
tough questions which only time will answer. What it
is
important to
recognize
for now is that, for the first time, blind people have
the chance
to buy a
computer at the same price and in the same place that
sighted
people buy
theirs.
Families do not have to buy separate computers for
their blind
children.
Neither I nor anyone else knows what the future of the
Mac and
blind people
is likely to be. Many are entrenched Windows users who
will not
want to
learn
a new system. However, many blind people for whom a
computer was
just a
distant dream on the horizon will, for the first time,
be able to
look at
the
prospect of acquiring the freedom and productivity a
computer
brings at a
price they may be able to afford. Whatever the future
holds, April
29, 2005
was a pretty significant day in the lives of blind
people. Only
time will
show us just how much it means!
Bruce Bailey has pulled a number of Voiceover and Apple
resources
onto one
web page. The address is
http://home.adelphia.net/~bmss/vo/.
Regards Steve,
Email: srp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
MSN Messenger: internetuser383@xxxxxxxxxxx
Skype: steve1963
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