[macvoiceover] Re: testing braille displays with leopard at acb convention
- From: "Babcock, Michael Alex" <mbabcock06@xxxxxxx>
- To: macvoiceover@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2008 18:33:16 -0800
what model was the fs display?
On Jul 9, 2008, at 5:39 PM, Travis Siegel wrote:
I took my macbook with me today when I went wandering around the
acb's exhibit hall. I first went to handitech, and after plugging
in one of their braille displays, was immediately able to use the
display, and except for the default 8-dot braille (I'll turn it off
tomorrow when I revisit) I had no trouble at all in using the
braille display with leopard.
Next, I went to humanware, and had pretty much the same experience,
plugging in their displays gave me no trouble at all, and everything
worked out of the box.
Interestingly enough, when I went to freedom scientific, and asked
if I could test one of their displays with my macbook, the first
person I talked to told me they didn't support the mac, and they
didn't have any displays that worked with them.
I explained that I'd checked the list of supported displays this
mrning, and that they were on the list of supported vendors, and
could I please try one anyway, even if you weren't aware it was
supported.
I got passed to a second person, who knew which display was
supported, though he did not know who wrote the driver for it. He
was very surprised that anyone at all had taken the time to support
mac os in general. When I told him that it was apple themselves who
had written the driver, he then let me know, that he had known that
mac osx was supported, but that he'd only found out by accident the
day before, and that he was a little surprised by the news. He
stated that fs should have been informed in advance that apple was
supporting their displays.
<shrug> I have no doubt that someone in the organization was fully
aware of the fact, but the lack of information flow was (in my
opinion) deliberate, since there wasn't expected to be any mac users
in the crowds at the convention.
But, once I managed to get plugged into their display, I was very
surprised by how well it worked.
There was a scroll wheel that worked perfectly. I had a web page
loaded in safari, and the braille was very clear, and a slight tap
of the scroll wheel took me to the next line of text with no need to
touch the keyboard of the mac.
To be honest, the fs display was the simplest and most ergonimic
display I tested today, and while the lack of knowledge of osx was
extremely disheartening, and the non-implementation of the braille
keys was only mildly disappointing, I have to say that if I had the
funds (which I don't) I would actually consider purchasing an fs
unit, because of the scroll wheel. I do a lot of reading with my
mac, and having the ability to scroll down with the single tap of a
wheel is certainly a nie feature.
The handitech display used dot 4 to do the same scrolling movement,
which works fine, but just isn't as intuitive or as nice as having
that scroll wheel on either side of the displayed text, to allow for
fast and simple scrolling without any intervention, and mostly
without having to move your hands from the reading surface.
The humanware device was crisp, and easy to use as well, but
handitech's indented cells made reading the braille extremely easy,
since the fingers fit very well into the dot placements.
Overall, I really liked the handitech displays best for readability,
but I can't throw out the fs display even though I'd really like to,
because of their lack of knowledge, and the flat denial that the
displays worked on anything but windows.
However, that scroll wheel is such a major plus, and makes things so
simple to use, that I'd be extremely surprised if those don't begin
showing up on other units in the near future.
So, as a result, I'd have to say fs gets my vote for ease of use,
while handitech gets my vote for best readability.
Humanware has some nice units, and I'd not discount them when
hunting for a display, but they don't have the indented cells, or
the scroll wheel, and even though I'd rate them third in this
particular instance, I'd certainly urge others to definitely give
them a look when considering a braille display for their mac
machines, especially if indented cells aren't all that important or
comfortable for you.
Hope this helps some.
Keep in mind, these are my own observations, and in no way reflect
the opinion of any business, organization, affiliate, agency,
government, corporation, club, group or general gathering of
individuals, and I take full responsibility for all views expressed
herein.
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