I’m about to really annoy the moderators but, thanks Teresa for such a well-reasoned post. One thing to keep in mind is, Freedom Scientific doesn’t design computers, nor do they design operating systems. They design a screen reader that supports an operating system whose developers aren’t all that interested in accessibility. Yes, there are always problems when you’re an early adopter of a new operating system, and yes, there are times when I’m forced to use Windows because there is no Mac software that meets my specific needs. However, overall, VoiceOver is stable, reliable, and, I’m not paying $200 or more just to upgrade the screen reader, let alone the operating system!
You can have an off day, but you can't have a day off! ---The Art of Fielding Sent from my Mac Book Pro richr...@gmail.com On Dec 17, 2013, at 2:21 PM, Teresa Cochran <vegaspipistre...@gmail.com> wrote: > 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 > > -- > 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/groups/opt_out. -- 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/groups/opt_out.
