[infoshare] Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard With VoiceOver-- The Mac-cessibility Network - News [Lioncourt.com]
- From: "Luis Guerra" <jerseypalisades@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <"Undisclosed-Recipient:;"@freelists.org>
- Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:25:38 -0400
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard With VoiceOver
by Josh de Lioncourt
The Cat's Out of the Bag
Every year or two, another big cat bounds onto the Apple tech landscape in
the form of a major revision to its Mac OS X operating system. In the past,
these
releases were brimming with shiny new features for both everyday and tech
savvy users to sink their teeth into. This time around, Apple did things a
bit
differently. They made it plain that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard would not be
a version that was overflowing with new additions. Instead, they wanted to
"press pause" on new features, and spend some development time perfecting
the already impressively rich feature set of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Most of
the
changes, they told developers and the press at their World Wide Developer
Conference in 2008, would be under the hood, as it were.
Well, Snow Leopard's here, and Apple may have understated things a little.
In respect to VoiceOver, OS X's built-in screen reading solution for the
blind
and visually impaired, they understated them a great deal more.
I'll spend some time going over some of VoiceOver's biggest changes in Snow
Leopard throughout this review. If you're one of those folks who just wants
to cut to the meat of a review, I'll give you that here. Quite simply, the
update to VoiceOver, now in its third iteration, is spectacular. It is,
without
a doubt, the most significant update to the software to date, and at $29 USD
to migrate from Leopard, it's unquestionably the most affordable major
update
to any commercial screen reader in the history of access technology.
Through this review, I will be assuming a basic knowledge of VoiceOver, what
it is and what it can do. I will not be discussing anything, beyond what is
new in Snow Leopard.
It's the Little Things.
Before we get into some of the heftier changes, let's take a look at some of
the smaller changes that VoiceOver users are likely to notice early on, and
that will improve the VoiceOver experience tremendously, despite their size.
Faster Than a Speeding Bullet!
Apple boasts that Snow Leopard has been optimized for modern, Intel-based
Macs, and this shines through the entire system. The Responsiveness on my
late
2006 MacBook (black) with a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 2 GB of RAM was
frankly amazing, and this of course spills over to VoiceOver as well.
Everything
about the system is smoother and snappier.
A Sound Design.
Since the beginning, VoiceOver has used optional audio cues to provide the
user with a better and more productive experience. I'm a big fan of these.
In
the same way that a sighted user can glance at an icon and recognize its
function more quickly than if he/she had to read some text, so too do audio
cues
provide information in a faster, more succinct manner than if VoiceOver had
to articulate a description. In Snow Leopard, some of these audio cues have
been altered. If you're familiar with the iPhone 3GS, you'll recognize many
of these sounds, and the consistency between the two platforms is an
excellent
idea.
I'm not going to go through all these changes in minute detail, but I will
draw your attention to a few of the most significant.
Two of the audio cues that I was not a fan of in Leopard were the "page
loaded" sound in Safari, and the "boundary" sound, when the VoiceOver cursor
can
move no further in a given direction. I felt that in Leopard, these sounds
were useful, but far too jarring for my taste. In Snow Leopard, these have
been
replaced with subtler and more elegant sounds. Additionally, the "wrapping"
sounds have also been replaced, giving the audio cues a more coherent and
consistent
feel.
You may recognize all of these sounds from the iPhone 3GS, where they have
essentially the same usage. Old habits die hard, they say, and apparently
the
same is true for hardly adolescent ones. More than once, while working with
Snow Leopard, I've reached for my iPhone.
Smooth MOves
Easily my favorite of VOiceOver's new smaller tricks is a feature called
"QuickNav". QuickNav provides, ironically, a quicker way to navigate with
VoiceOver,
with the added bonus of only requiring a single hand. Pressing the Left and
Right Arrow keys together simultaneously toggles QuickNav on and off. When
it's active, the arrow keys, pressed by themselves, behave as if you were
holding down the VoiceOver keys. (Control-Option). Pressing the combination
of
Down Arrow-Right Arrow interacts with an item, while Down-Left Arrow stops
interaction. The Up Arrow-Down Arrow combination performs the default action
on an item, the same as VO-Space does. This is a feature that, half an hour
after I started using it, I was fully aware that the next time I had to sit
down at a Mac running OS X 10.5, I was going to miss it dearly. Apple,
whoever it was on the VoiceOver team that had this idea, give them a bonus.
Your Wish Is My Command
In Leopard, Apple introduced the NumPad Commander, a way of controlling
VoiceOver via the numeric keypad available on some Mac keyboards, or as
third-party
USB devices. You could customize what commands were assigned to which keys,
and the feature was popular among many VoiceOver users, particularly those
on desktops.
Now, in Snow Leopard, Apple's taken this idea to entirely new levels, and
the possibilities are limitless.
There are three commanders available to the VoiceOver user now: the NumPad,
Trackpad, and Keyboard Commanders. You can assign virtually any VoiceOver
command
to a control in any of these, and then some. Apple's provided the ability to
run applications, open files, launch Applescripts, and perform Automator
Workflows
as well. Yes, you read that right. Script-writers, Apple's given you what
you wanted. The ability to customize and script VoiceOver to your heart's
content.
Not only that, but the scripting is done with a mature and powerful
scripting language, for which there are endless resources and examples
online.
Among the commands available to assign to controls are several that do not
have VOiceOver key commands by default, such as a toggle to switch quickly
between
DOM and Group modes while surfing the web.
The Trackpad
If you are one of those fortunate souls to have a MacBook or MacBook Pro
with a multi-touch trackpad, I envy you. Apple's added the same
functionality that
has proved so effective on the iPhone into Snow Leopard as well. You can
control VoiceOver and explore the currently active window via the trackpad,
using
the same and/or similar gestures as you would on the iPhone. And, as it has
on the iPhone, I believe this new interface is going to truly alter the way
we, as visually impaired users, interact with our technology.
My MacBook sadly does not have a multi-touch trackpad, so I was unable to
test this feature. Having an iPhone, however, does give me some insight, and
I
can't imagine a more productive or intuitive way of using a computer. The
first chance I have, I'll be upgrading to a newer MacBook, and this feature
is
one of the reasons why.
Like with any Commander, you can assign gestures to specific actions if your
needs differ from the defaults.
Keyboard Commander
The Keyboard Commander provides additional keyboard shortcuts that VoiceOver
can utilize via one of the Option keys. You can choose whether it will use
the left or right Option key. Commands entered with the opposite key will
still behave normally.
By default, Apple's predefined some extremely useful commands.
Option-T announces the date and time automatically via an Applescript. If
you have not enabled the "Allow VoiceOver to be controlled with Applescript"
feature
in VoiceOver's General preference page, this command will fall back to the
System Voice to announce the time. If Applescript support is enabled in
VoiceOver,
however, VoiceOver will announce the time itself.
Option-U will blithely inform you of all that unread email that is building
up in your inbox, in much the same way that a sighted user can glance down
at
the Mail icon on the Dock to get this information. In my case, I'm not
wholly certain this is a good thing.
Option-S and Option-M open or move to Safari or Mail respectively.
Surf's Up!
Another area in which VoiceOver has been vastly enhanced is web browsing.
Both DOM and Group navigation methods have been improved substantially, and
the
overall experience is superb.
Many new commands have been added for navigating by element types, (i.e.
tables and lists), and the improvement upon responsiveness of said
navigation is
fantastic.
Rotors Can be Choosers
The Link Item Chooser has been replaced with what Apple's calling the Web
Item Rotor, a clunky name, but an accurate one. The name not withstanding,
this
is an excellent enhancement upon the Link Chooser, and provides for a
tremendous amount of flexibility and functionality. It can be activated with
VO-U,
just as the Link Chooser was, and can be customized in the VoiceOver Utility
in the Web settings page.
Essentially, a variety of element types are available, which you can select
from by moving left/right through them. Which items are included in these
types
is entirely customizable, but some possibilities include links, visited
links, frames, form controls, images, and many more.
Once you selected an element type, arrowing up/down will cycle through a
list of all the items of that type on the currently loaded page. What's
more, just
like in the Item Chooser, or the former Link Chooser, you can type a few
characters and shorten the list to only items which include them.
Traversing Tables
The one significant area in which VoiceOver was lacking in terms of web
content in Leopard was its way of dealing with HTML tables. In Snow Leopard,
this
problem is gone, and APple has provided a plethora of ways in which the
experience can be customized, such as grouping items together in cells, (a
must
as far as I'm concerned), the announcement of column and row numbers, etc.
In the main, tables behave precisely the way they do in applications like
Mail
or iTunes. Interacting with a table allows you to move both vertically and
horizontally through the table cells, and the experience is both intuitive
and
superior to anything I've seen from any other screen reading solution. Apple
hit this one out of the park.
Not Only Snow Leopards Have Spots
Similar to VoiceOver's Hotspots, introduced in Leopard, you can now set as
many WebSpots as you like on web pages you frequently visit with
VO-Command-Right
Brace. VoiceOver will remember all of these when you return to the site in
the future. You can then use VO-Command-Left/Right Brackets to move backward
or forward through your WebSpots.
If that isn't enough, you can set a WebSpot to be the SweetSpot, and when a
page first loads, VoiceOver will automatically place you on it.
Still not enough? VoiceOver uses some advanced logic processing to determine
areas on the site that it thinks may be of particular interest. These "Auto
WebSpots" can be perused in the Web Item Rotor.
WebSpots can be removed at any time with VO-Command-Left Brace, so don't
hesitate to experiment with them.
Tell Me a Story.
A long requested feature was for VoiceOver's Read All feature, (VO-A), to
support web content. Well, now it does, and they've even added an additional
command
to read from the beginning rather than from the current location of the
VoiceOver cursor, (VO-B). Like VO-A, VO-B is available in an applicable
situation,
not just on the web.
And That's Just the Beginning
There are countless changes, big and small, and enhancements to browsing on
the web, and I can't possibly cover all of them here. I've tried to hit the
big improvements, but many of the things that make the biggest differences
are not easily articulated. For example, Groups mode works far better in
Snow
Leopard, apparently due to a better method of determining the layout of
pages. If you are a fan of browsing the web with Groups mode, as I am, you
will
absolutely love the tweaks Apple has made in that regard.
Customization
VoiceOver has an enormous number of ways in which to customize its
verbosity. By default, there are three general verbosity settings; high,
medium, and
low.
From there, you can adjust the speaking of individual attributes and
controls, and even reorder the items. If you prefer to hear a control's type
before
hearing its label, not a problem. If you want to hear that a checkbox is
checked before you hear that it is a checkbox, or don't be want to be told
it's
a checkbox at all, it can be done.
If you're the kind of user who likes to completely tailor your screen
reading experience to suit your taste, VoiceOver in Snow Leopard has enough
to keep
you busy for hours.
"Give Me Labeling, or Give Me."
Since VoiceOver's inception, users have been asking for the ability o label
graphics and icons in applications that are not properly tagged. Apple's
one-upped
this request. In Snow Leopard, users can label, or even relabel, any control
type that may not be properly tagged in any application.
This means, of course, that applications with unlabeled buttons or other
controls, can be made more accessible by VoiceOver users.
MObilization
VoiceOver has a variety of methods by which users can export and import
preference files, either to move them to other machines or to share with
other users.
Have you spent an afternoon labeling controls in your favorite application
and wish to share your work with the community? Export your labels and other
users can import them into their VoiceOver to be added to their own labels.
The same is true of verbosity settings, and virtually any other aspect of
VoiceOver.
Squash 'em Bugs!
A tremendous amount of care has gone into insuring that the few remaining
accessibility-related bugs throughout Mac OS X have been eliminated. iChat
now
works well, even when using Groups mode for web content, the AddressBook is
now a breeze to use, and most of the few unlabeled controls throughout OS X's
various components and applications have been properly tagged.
A Few Quirks
Like any large software upgrade, there are bound to be a few quirks and some
rough edges that will be smoothed out over minor updates. So far, I've
encountered
surprisingly few of these, likely due to the fact that Snow Leopard is, in
itself, largely a smoothing of Leopard's rough edges.
iTunes still exhibits some erratic behavior while moving through the Sources
table, as it did in Leopard.
Once in a while, when moving through the Finder in the Columns view, you
will need to interact again with the Column Browser.
The Bottom Line
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard brings a host of improvements and enhancements to
VoiceOver that far exceed the $29 price tag in value. The additional
optimizations
and new features of Snow Leopard make it not just a smart upgrade, but a
must-have for VoiceOver users.
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and Maccessibility.net, Lioncourt.com, and related sites are not affiliated
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