I think that this was a very helpful post and I for one would be very interested in any updates as to any solutions Apple accessibility may send your way. While I also emailed them about issues with IWORK, I did not have the luck you seemed to have had as far as getting intelligent responses. All I got from them was a question asking if I was using IWork09 when the subject contained "VoiceOver and IWork9". I have also sent submissions through the "send feed-back" mechanism and I am disappointed to say that after two updates, I see nothing different.
I feel it necessary however to make one miner correction to something you said in your post. I am able to fully navigate to and read all of the controls in the template chooser screen. Therefore, I would not classify it as inaccessible. Some times I have found I have to click a template with the mouse, but that is not a complicated task if you can get the voiceover cursor where you want it. Now, after that observation, I feel compelled to make another addressing other postings I've seen in regards to IWork9 (IWork09): The assertion the IWork works fine with VO is misleading and has nothing to do with fact. I feel the need to address this because It is my belief that being overly positive when not warranted can be just as damaging to improvements in accessibility as too much negativity. Why would any want to spend time fixing problems if they think everybody is happy with it the way it is? This rant didn't really have much to do with your post which I found very constructive, but was more to do with something I've felt the need to get off my chest for some time now and this seemed like an appropriate time. Everyone live long and prosper. On Jun 6, 2009, at 2:08 PM, Gary W. Kelly wrote: > > Hi, > > When I bought my iMac this past December, I bought iWorks .08 with it. > I soon found it was not accessible, and that it was replaced by iWorks > 09. I bought that, and I have been trying to learn to use it. being > new to VoiceOver and the Mac, I did not find this to be easy. The > help > sections of iWorks are all mouse oriented--with no directions for > using > VO. The VO Getting Started manual has general commands, but they are > not specific to iWorks. > > In the course of exploring and learning VO and Pages, I found a > significant bug in Pages, which Apple now confirms. I did get > specific > directions on using some of the major features, such as the spelling > check, the thesaurus, and find and replace. Since I had difficulty in > using these functions, I thought it might be helpful to post what I > have learned and confirmed from Apple. > > Perhaps Mike Arrigo will do a Mac Demo 8 on iWorks? > > The template chooser in Pages is not currently accessible, unless one > uses a mouse to click the choice of template. I set my preferences > for > a blank template to avoid having to make the choice. > > > Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 18:26:15 -0700From accessibil...@apple.com Fri > Jun > 05 01:26:17 2009 +0000 > To: Gary W. Kelly > From: Accessibility <accessibil...@apple.com> > Subject: Re: Pages Questions--Using VoiceOver > > > Hi Gary: > > Please accept our apologies for the delay. > > We were able to confirm there is a bug that prevents accessing the > contextual menu for highlighted text in Pages. We've filed a fix > request and will work to correct this. > > Pages uses the Dictionary application which contains a thesaurus. Here > are the steps: > > In dictionary, Move the VO cursor to the Thesaurus button, then click > the button using VO-spacebar > Move the VO cursor to the tight to the HTML content area > Interact with the HTML content using VO-Shift-Down arrow > Interact with the group using VO-Shift-Down arrow > Move the VO cursor to read the text > > > Here are the steps for spell-checking in Pages. > Move the VoiceOver cursor to a text area and press VO-Shift-Down Arrow > to interact with the text in the text area. > > To move the VoiceOver cursor to the first misspelled word and to hear > it, press Command-;. To hear the word spelled, press VO-W-W. > > Sometimes words that the computer doesn't recognize are underlined, > but they're not actually misspelled. Continue pressing Command-; until > you hear a word that needs to be corrected. > > To open a shortcut menu of suggested spellings for the misspelled > word, press VO-Shift-M. > At the top of the menu are suggested spellings or alternative word > choices. Below those are other options, including a dictionary so you > can find the definition of the word. > > Navigate to the corrected spelling you want to use and press VO-Space > bar to select it. > > If you choose a corrected spelling from the menu, the new spelling > replaces the old one. If you don't hear an acceptable correction, > press Escape to close the menu, press VO-Shift-F4 to move the > VoiceOver cursor to the misspelled word, and then edit the word > manually. > > To continue to the next misspelled word, press Command-;. > > Repeat steps until you have corrected all misspelled words. > > When you're done, press VO-Shift-Up Arrow to stop interacting with the > text in the text area. > > You can also use the Spelling and Grammar panel, found on the Edit > menu in most applications. The panel provides additional options, such > as a choice of dictionaries. To display the panel, press > Command-Shift-;. > > > Here are the steps for find and replace in Pages. > Press Command-F to open the Find window > Type the text to replace in the first edit text field, called the Find > Text > Press tab > Type the text you want to substitute in the second edit text field, > called the Replace text > Move the VO cursor to the Replace and find button > Press VO-space to click the button. > > This will replace the next occurrence of the text with the new text > and move to the next occurrence. Repeat until you completed your > substitutions or use the Replace All button to do all of them for you > in one step. > > The Replace All button automatically conducts the find/replace > operation without your review. > The Replace button replaces the current selection with the replacement > text. > The Replace & Find button replaces the current selection with the > replacement text and immediately finds the next occurrence of the Find > text. > The Next or Previous buttons find the next or previous occurrence of > the Find text. > > *Note: I found that VO-Right arrow to move to the right after the > find, reached the replace field, but it took 2 entries, as the first > says "replace" but is not the right field. One has to go over one > more, where it says "blank". Doing a VO-right arrow further takes one > to the buttons for replacement. This is a lot of key strokes, and > could be more efficient, but this is the way Pages is designed. > > -Gary > > > Hi, > > When I bought my iMac this past December, I bought iWorks .08 with it. > I soon found it was not accessible, and that it was replaced by iWorks > 09. I bought that, and I have been trying to learn to use it. being > new to VoiceOver and the Mac, I did not find this to be easy. The > help > sections of iWorks are all mouse oriented--with no directions for > using > VO. The VO Getting Started manual has general commands, but they are > not specific to iWorks. > > In the course of exploring and learning VO and Pages, I found a > significant bug in Pages, which Apple now confirms. I did get > specific > directions on using some of the major features, such as the spelling > check, the thesaurus, and find and replace. Since I had difficulty in > using these functions, I thought it might be helpful to post what I > have learned and confirmed from Apple. > > Perhaps Mike Arrigo will do a Mac Demo 8 on iWorks? > > The template chooser in Pages is not currently accessible, unless one > uses a mouse to click the choice of template. I set my preferences > for > a blank template to avoid having to make the choice. > > > Date: Thu, 4 Jun 2009 18:26:15 -0700From accessibil...@apple.com Fri > Jun > 05 01:26:17 2009 +0000 > To: Gary W. Kelly > From: Accessibility <accessibil...@apple.com> > Subject: Re: Pages Questions--Using VoiceOver > > > Hi Gary: > > Please accept our apologies for the delay. > > We were able to confirm there is a bug that prevents accessing the > contextual menu for highlighted text in Pages. We've filed a fix > request and will work to correct this. > > Pages uses the Dictionary application which contains a thesaurus. Here > are the steps: > > In dictionary, Move the VO cursor to the Thesaurus button, then click > the button using VO-spacebar > Move the VO cursor to the tight to the HTML content area > Interact with the HTML content using VO-Shift-Down arrow > Interact with the group using VO-Shift-Down arrow > Move the VO cursor to read the text > > > Here are the steps for spell-checking in Pages. > Move the VoiceOver cursor to a text area and press VO-Shift-Down Arrow > to interact with the text in the text area. > > To move the VoiceOver cursor to the first misspelled word and to hear > it, press Command-;. To hear the word spelled, press VO-W-W. > > Sometimes words that the computer doesn't recognize are underlined, > but they're not actually misspelled. Continue pressing Command-; until > you hear a word that needs to be corrected. > > To open a shortcut menu of suggested spellings for the misspelled > word, press VO-Shift-M. > At the top of the menu are suggested spellings or alternative word > choices. Below those are other options, including a dictionary so you > can find the definition of the word. > > Navigate to the corrected spelling you want to use and press VO-Space > bar to select it. > > If you choose a corrected spelling from the menu, the new spelling > replaces the old one. If you don't hear an acceptable correction, > press Escape to close the menu, press VO-Shift-F4 to move the > VoiceOver cursor to the misspelled word, and then edit the word > manually. > > To continue to the next misspelled word, press Command-;. > > Repeat steps until you have corrected all misspelled words. > > When you're done, press VO-Shift-Up Arrow to stop interacting with the > text in the text area. > > You can also use the Spelling and Grammar panel, found on the Edit > menu in most applications. The panel provides additional options, such > as a choice of dictionaries. To display the panel, press > Command-Shift-;. > > > Here are the steps for find and replace in Pages. > Press Command-F to open the Find window > Type the text to replace in the first edit text field, called the Find > Text > Press tab > Type the text you want to substitute in the second edit text field, > called the Replace text > Move the VO cursor to the Replace and find button > Press VO-space to click the button. > > This will replace the next occurrence of the text with the new text > and move to the next occurrence. Repeat until you completed your > substitutions or use the Replace All button to do all of them for you > in one step. > > The Replace All button automatically conducts the find/replace > operation without your review. > The Replace button replaces the current selection with the replacement > text. > The Replace & Find button replaces the current selection with the > replacement text and immediately finds the next occurrence of the Find > text. > The Next or Previous buttons find the next or previous occurrence of > the Find text. > > *Note: I found that VO-Right arrow to move to the right after the > find, reached the replace field, but it took 2 entries, as the first > says "replace" but is not the right field. One has to go over one > more, where it says "blank". Doing a VO-right arrow further takes one > to the buttons for replacement. This is a lot of key strokes, and > could be more efficient, but this is the way Pages is designed. > > -Gary > > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
