Hello Victor, Bravo on an excellent post.
While I did not hear the podcast in question, your comments are well balanced, thoughtful, and down right compelling. Most Sincerely, Mark On Dec 23, 2011, at 5:25 PM, Victor Tsaran wrote: > Hello "VoiceOver On" guys and everyone else on the list, > First of all, I'll start by saying that I am not a Mac fan or anything-one > else's, for that matter. I am only a fan of myself, <just kidding>. > I just wanted to share a couple of my thoughts regarding the latest > "VoiceOver On" podcast because, unfortunately, Twitter's 140-character limit > is way too limiting for my taste and for the purpose of this message. :) > > 1. I think you are correct in saying that many people forget to ask > themselves what they want to do with the computer. This often leads to > uninformed decisions and, subsequently, unjustified or unnecessary purchases. > We all in some ways affected by our friends's opinions, buzz words and > commercials. Regardless, we need to learn to ask those questions so we do not > regret our technology choices that will only slow us down and make less > productive. After all, a computer with an operating system on it are just > tools to help us live our lives like everyone else does . > > 2. Is VoiceOver a bad screen reader? Not at all, IMHO. Is it the best? Of > course, not. At times VO feels like a work-around altogether, while at other > time sit feels like the most innovative screen reader on the market. It > really has both. > > Pros: > - VoiceOver has a pretty good built-in help which most users probably never > read. > - VO is a pretty flexible screen reader, especially on Lion, EG through the > "Activities" feature. > - Good support for Mail, chat, Calendar, basic text editing with TextEdit, > Webkit-based browsers (Chrome, Safari, Lightning, iCab etc). > - A consistent support for applications that are designed wit accessibility > in mind, EG "YoruFukurou Twitter client" and many others. > > Cons: > - Too complicated system of shortcuts. However, Quicknav and Trackpad > navigation eliminates the need for many of of those shortcuts. > - Does not provide efficient environment with production applications like > Pages, Keynote and Numbers. > - Apple doesn't do a good job of promoting VoiceOver and/or interface with > the the end-user. > > If I had to pick one of the most innovative features of VoiceOver that will > have a profound impact on how blind people interact with technology in the > near future, it would be the "Trackpad Commander". I understand this > particular tool may not appeal to the generation of users who are fairly firm > in their computing habits but those young and adventurous should be taught to > give up their keyboards, especially for exploration purposes. > > 3. So, what's the problem and why VoiceOver doesn't let me be productive? > This is where I feel the podcast participants lead us down the wrong path of > thinking. Instead of blaming everything on VoiceOver, we should instead > concentrate our efforts on applications themselves. > A good example would be the following: Pages and Keynote are not accessible > because of VoiceOver but primarily because their developers, yes, Apple, did > not expose the right accessibility interface to VoiceOver. If you removed all > the JAWS scripts from the JAWS application directory, you would, to your > surprise, quickly find out that most of the Windows applications you thought > were accessible actually are not. > > I know that NVDA developers expressed a similar concern on several > occasions, namely, that blind users tend to blame their screen reader first > before they blame the application itself. > And you know what? I completely understand why users do this. A regular user > does not have any insights into what makes their computing experience > accessible. Since they interface with the computer via a screen reader, if > something goes wrong, the screen reader is to blame. > So, we simply need more education. And this is where I wish the podcast > authors could spend more time and energy. > > In summary, it is correct to say that newcomers to technology should first > familiarize themselves wit choices available on the market and decide which > ones are the most suitable to their needs. > It is , however, totally wrong to blame everything on VoiceOver and blame the > lack of productivity tools on the screen reader at hand. > > Just FYI, here is what I use my Mac for and the kinds of apps that serve me > well. > - YoruFukurou client for Twitter. > - Textedit for wordprocessing. > - Chrome and Safari for web browsing. > - Mail and iCal for my corporate needs. > - Garage Band, VLC and iTunes for music. > - XCode and Dashcode for programming. > - Cyberduck for FTP uploads and downloads. > - Terminal for all the Unix-related stuff (geeky). > - VMWare 4 with Windows 7 if I ever need to jump into Windows for testing or > otherwise. > > How is this not a productive environment? Well, for me it is. > > Thanks, > Vic > > > -- > 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. > -- 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.
