Hi, alll,
I wasn't going to post to this thread, but I've been thinking about this
issue of accessibility. When I decided to switch to a Mac, I knew I had to
consider the fact that buying a product off the shelf was going to mean
risking some accessibility features. Maybe mainstream developers are
sometimes not aware of how screen-readers work on a visceral level. Maybe
accessibility will not be as much a priority in this case as it would be
for an entity like Freedom Scientific. However, having tried Linuxx and
using various screen-readers and desktops on that platform, I still find
that Voiceover is far more stable and accessible than Orca screen-reader,
for example. I still explore and use various platforms, and believe me,
I've seen my share of bugs. So this update for Mac oSX is nothing to me.
It has some annoyances for sure, but imagine if it shut itself off every
five minutes or restarted the OS or just plain didn't read a good number
of apps.
Also, how much are we paying for these OS updates? How much did we pay for
this last full upgrade? Imagine having to pay an upgrade fee every time
you wanted to update just the screen-reader alone.
So I think that before one uses software extensively, one has to consider
some factors. Is this something I want to risk my productivity on? If not,
should I stay with what i know? Do I like to learn new things, and how
tolerant am I of bugs in software? How much hand-holding do I need? If I
buy a product off the shelf, can I work around the accessibility glitches
that are probably going to rear their ugly heads? If not, maybe I should
consider getting something exclusively blind-friendly if I don't want to
put up with accessibility issues.
In short, I really think Apple is doing a fantastic job, considering. And
yes, I would have higher expectations of a Freedom Scientific or
Humanware.
Just my two bits of currency. :)
Teresa
Sent using Alpine messaging system in Mac OS X Terminal
On Tue, 17 Dec 2013, Buddy Brannan wrote:
BTW, for those who think that Tim Cook just doesn’t give two s**ts about
accessibility, this is probably well worn a view. Be cynical and say it’s just
Tim spewing a line or whatever you like, but I kind of don’t get that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNEafGCf-kw
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