I sadly disagree that NVDA is competent enough to replace JAWS or Window-Eyes. Getting there as more and more apps are supported, for sure, but not there yet; that’s simply not how the Windows ecosystem works in practice, in my experience. The Mac has a large body of natively Cocoa software across the board; the Windows routinely has non-native Win32 apps, albeit a much larger number of apps overall. For portable apps, Windows generally wins, though not by a very wide margin, and then only because that is where energy is directed for accessibility purposes. So, yes, I think you do still get more for your money with a Mac, just now anyway.
I’m staying with Mac for the moment. I keep trying to love modern-day Windows but it never loves me back. Maybe Windows 8.1 with Classic Shell, after I’ve buggered about with it for a month trying to make it suck less? Win7 is impossible after you’ve used Win8, IMO. But OS X is still superior to both, technically and for the user experience. It’s just that Apple’s technical excellence is turning to mediocrity and its accessibility experience for Mac users is, to be charitable, lacklustre compared to iOS or even the golden age of VoiceOver (Leopard and Snow Leopard). The only real reason to recommend Mac now is that it isn’t Windows, or that it is the least bad. Not good. We have always, as the VI Mac community, been very robustly tolerant of the fact that accessibility has been incremental and to a certain extent have always had to make compromises (think the dock and iTunes in the early days, Flash on websites, or until recently Menu Extras). I like to think that we’re a more forgiving, adept bunch, willing to take risks and survive in brave new waters. It’s just that, now, fundamental issues are cropping up and it’s having real, everyday effects on productivity. And it’s been this way for three releases. Nobody would be complaining if they didn’t. Let’s be careful not to overstate the problem, though. I can’t decide whether people choose to go back to Windows but I’m definitely sympathetic to those who have given strong thoughts to it, because I’m very definitely one of them. I report bugs to Apple and I hope you do too. If we get the gumption to report bugs and they aren’t getting fixed, and if accessibility needs to meet a standard of access that it no longer meets, then I for one would feel justified in switching back. It might not be the golden age we’d be hoping for but it’d certainly be better than living with the uncertainty of whether Apple is truly committed to accessibility on OS X. It is better for all of us if we decide what we want and command Apple to reach that standard. Until then, perhaps out of sheer naivety or because of my love for the platform independent of accessibility, I’m really reluctant to move. Then again, I agree that system-wide spell check is wonderful. Gosh, I would miss that badly on Windows … Just my thoughts. PS: Oh look, composing this missive is made needlessly hard by the VO cursor not tracking the system caret properly. I think that bug is from Yosemite, actually. What a surprise … -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
