[gui-talk] Voiceover

Sun Jul 26 17:09:14 UTC 2009

The cable is made by Apple. It is designed to convert the Mac video  
output on the Mac Mini or other systems to straight analog. You can  
check the Apple store. I believe the price is $20.
The converter is only about six inches long. If one plugs it into the  
Mac Mini then one can run fine without any monitor plugged in.
-Kevin

On Jul 26, 2009, at 8:28 AM, Mike Arrigo wrote:

> 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
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> gui-talk mailing list
>>> gui-talk at nfbnet.org
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
>>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info  
>>> for
>>> gui-talk:
>>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/kfjelsted%40gmail.com
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> gui-talk mailing list
>> gui-talk at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info  
>> for gui-talk:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/n0oxy%40charter.net
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> gui-talk mailing list
> gui-talk at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/gui-talk_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info  
> for gui-talk:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/gui-talk_nfbnet.org/kfjelsted%40gmail.com