Following on the training elders at the VA: I couldn't agree more. I have seen far too many smart people walk away from computing because JAWS and/or Window-Eyes require far too much memorization. Having lots of very specific commands is great for the advanced user but having the ability to build "bundled" commands can be very powerful when we start looking at short term memory, the psychology of attention and learning theory - all of which need to be considered when exporting any sort of interface for people with disabilities or not.
cdh On Sep 7, 2009, at 2:42 PM, timsniffen wrote: > > I think it would be a shame to lose the ability to script VoiceOver. > I work with the Veteran Administration Blind Rehab service and am > interested in helping older Veterans learn to use the Mac -- either > because they were Mac users before losing vision or because they are > just getting into computing and need a simple interface. For the > elderly, problems with memory are at least a great an issue as > problems with vision, and anything we can do to make important > everyday computing tasks easier for elderly people with vision loss > will greatly increase their adoption of the Macintosh. The ability > to collapse many steps involving several applications into one or two > steps is vital to this effort. As one who has struggled to teach > Windows screen readers to elderly Veterans for decades, I can't tell > you how excited I am by VoiceOver's new tools in Snow Leopard -- > AppleScript among them. > > > On Sep 7, 10:32 am, "James & Nash" <james.austin1...@googlemail.com> > wrote: >> Absolutely, I think the thing to remember, is that the scripts are >> an option >> and only an option. Developers are still going to have to make >> their apps >> accessible, especially now that most if not all of the operating >> system is >> now Coaco. I quite like the idea of these scripts. Perhaps we can >> add our >> own features to VO just a they do for Orca which is also an >> extensible >> scriptable Screen Reader. >> >> Perhaps others who are more informed on these subjects could add to >> or >> corect me if I'm wrong. >> >> Take care >> >> James >> >> >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Ryan Mann" <tiger0...@earthlink.net> >> To: <macvisionaries@googlegroups.com> >> Sent: Monday, September 07, 2009 6:25 PM >> Subject: Re: Voice Over with Apple Scripts, must get this off my >> chest >> >>> I think that if you don't like using scripts with screen readers, >>> then >>> don't use them. It's silly to ask Apple to take out a feature of >>> VoiceOver that some people might want. If the mac gets more >>> popular, >>> some blind people might have to use an application for a job. If >>> that >>> application doesn't work out of the box, custome scripts should be >>> an >>> option. >>> n Sep 7, 2009, at 1:17 PM, Jes Smith wrote: >> >>>> That sounds like a good idea. >> >>>> On Sep 7, 2009, at 12:58 PM, dannyboy wrote: >> >>>>> I am in full agreement that voice over needs not to be full of >>>>> scripts >>>>> to do everything for us. Maybe we could write to >>>>> accessibil...@apple.com >>>>> and share our thoughts on this. >>>>> On Sep 7, 2009, at 7:52 AM, Jes Smith wrote: >> >>>>>> Hi all. >> >>>>>> I am greatly concerned that voice over now has support for >>>>>> scripting. >>>>>> Especially now that you can make voice over launch an application >>>>>> with >>>>>> a single script. I'm not talking about glancing at the time or >>>>>> seeing >>>>>> how many unread messages you have in mail. I'm talking about >>>>>> opening >>>>>> up apps like mail or Safari from within Voice OVer. I am >>>>>> concerned >>>>>> that voice over is starting to become a bit like Jaws, and that >>>>>> if >>>>>> we >>>>>> don't get a grip on it now, voice over will become Jaws for >>>>>> Macintosh. >>>>>> I, like Mike Arrigo, don't feel that launching apps is something >>>>>> that >>>>>> should be implemented in a screen reader. Also, I fear that the >>>>>> use >>>>>> of >>>>>> apple scripts will replace the responsibility of an application >>>>>> developer to make their application accessible right out of the >>>>>> box. >>>>>> On the Windows side, if something isn't accessible with Jaws, you >>>>>> just >>>>>> download scripts for it. What if you go to another person's >>>>>> computer >>>>>> and they don't have the scripts for the app you are trying to >>>>>> use? >>>>>> It's my belief that a certain article from the NFB prompted this >>>>>> scripting support. Folks, the thing I like about voice over is >>>>>> that >>>>>> it >>>>>> gives the blind user the same conceptual layout and information >>>>>> as >>>>>> it >>>>>> appears on the screen to a sighted user. No other screen reader >>>>>> does >>>>>> this, and we should keep voice over as a screen reader, and let >>>>>> it >>>>>> be. >>>>>> If we don't, eventually, when we try and contact an Apple >>>>>> developer, >>>>>> they will either ignore us, or will say, "Well, just download the >>>>>> scripts for my application and you will have access." >>>>>> Any thoughts? If someone disagrees with me, I'd love to hear your >>>>>> arguments, not so that I can persuade you to agree with me, but >>>>>> so >>>>>> that I can have a new perspective. >> >>>>>> Jes > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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