[gui-talk] Voiceover

[Mike Arrigo]

Do you know where I can get the null mac video cable? That would  
really come in handy at times.
On Jul 25, 2009, at 7:17 PM, Kevin Fjelsted wrote:

> Since there seems to be two questions hear one spacifically related to
> VoiceOver and the second related to the Mac I believe it is important
> to point out that windows including JAWS,or  WindowEyes... works
> perfectly fine on the Mac as a guest hosted operating system using
> Fusion by VmWare. Or the same system can be booted standalone on the
> Mac using the Apple Boot Camp solution.  One may   make a choice every
> time the computer is turned on. I have seen fusion for the Mac for as
> little as $40 with rebates so it is a very pragmatic approach to look
> at the solution this way and avoid being a totally Mac only user. The
> other interesting approach is to look at the Mac Mini because it only
> weighs three pounds and if one adds a null Mac video cable to it it
> can be run without a monitor. The Mac Mini can be had for under $600
> which includes the  OS  bundled with a mail solution and a text/word
> processor solution which are totally accessible by VoiceOver.  This is
> an amazing savings compared to purchasing a screen reader plus an
> office solution  separately. With the savings a school could opt to
> purchase a Braille display instead for example.   In general it seems
> that the entire accessibility field is heating up and competition is
> good.
> To me the most significant accessibility aspect that I have seen in
> the last two months is the accessible touch screen approach. The key
> there is that no matter what our experience has been with any of the
> accessibility tools it is important that no walls or absolutes be
> defined. If sighted people love touch screens there is no reason why
> we as the  Blind cannot access the same touch screen with the proper
> implementation. This is full access including entering letters and
> numbers turning on and off switches and sliders....
> Since it looks very likely that Apple will be introducing a touch
> screen tablet computer later this year from all the publication news
> that is floating around we can expect to see a lot more touch screen.
> Microsoft is working on touch screen as well. however there doesn't
> seem to be any commitment  by Microsoft directly to support
> accessibility out of the box. Based on Microsoft's poor profit record
> at the moment budget axes will try and cut non-essentials so we will
> have to be very attentive  if we have a prayer of Microsoft supporting
> accessibility development.
> -Kevin
>
>
> On 7/25/09, James Pepper <b75205 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Here is the AFB Tech, the American Foundation for the Blind's  
>> Technology
>> Center's review of Voice Over.  I highly recommend you check into  
>> the AFB
>> Tech Site because they test everything in their West Virginia  
>> facility.
>> http://www.afb.org/afbpress/pub.asp?DocID=aw090603
>>
>> Just note that in the past Apple has been very vocal against the  
>> AFB because
>> in the past you had to select text on the screen to read it and the  
>> folks at
>> AFB tech pointed out that the blind could not see the screen to  
>> select the
>> text.
>>
>> Here is a link to the braille version of the article:
>>
>> http://www.afb.org/afbpress/Braille.asp?DocID=aw090603&PageTitle=An+Evaluation+of+VoiceOver%2C+the+Macintosh+Screen+Reader+%2D+AccessWorld%AE+%2D+November+2008
>>
>> I would recommend staying with the PC environment because most  
>> accessibility
>> was developed on that system and especially when you are dealing with
>> Microsoft Office you will find that the mac versions do not have  
>> all the
>> features of the PC versions.  I know that will cause a lot of chaos  
>> here but
>> it is a problem.  Microsoft is the company that is focusing on  
>> accessibility
>> and especially on the PC, they are fed up with the way things are  
>> going now
>> and with their new ARIA standards, I would recommend staying on the  
>> PC
>> bandwagon.
>>
>> James Pepper
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>
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