[Blindmath] Computer operating systems and accessibility

[Tamara Smith-Kinney]

Hi, all.  Since my major considerations in purchasing a new computer system
have to do with whether I will be able to achieve my goals with it in the
future, I thought I would ask this question here.  I am not, by nature, a
lover of Windows and would like to make a change to Linux or Mac.  I'm
actually think of a dual- or even triple-boot set up, but while I'm shopping
want to find out what others are using and how.

 

 

How do Mac, Linux and Windows stack up in terms of accessibility and the
ability to interface with adaptive software and technology?  I was a
computer consultant when I got my beloved but now geriatric current system,
so I went with Windows because that was what all my clients used and I
needed to know how to answer their questions and do my thing with their
systems.  I was living in a very rural part of the state, so had a small and
not entirely savvy market to work with, so my services involved a little bit
of everything.

 

So then life happened - specifically violent crime - and three years later
I've got my body back to some sort of working order.  And everything has
changed!  I might as well have a nice resume as a dinosaur wrangler! /lol/
I love the rapid changes in technology and applications when I'm in the game
and racing to keep up with them, but it is very odd to once again be a total
ignoramus.  I had to go to the teenagers in the neighborhood to learn about
what's going on with the internet.  /lol/

 

Well, I have a long way to go, but the tech market here crashed and burned a
few months ago, so I'm back to consulting as my best option to get into the
field again.  I think I want to focus more on the application
design/development end of my skills and talents, since that's really the
best fit for me.  But I use graphs and flowcharts heavily, so need to be
able to work with them and create them.  I would also like to aim towards
systems design/analysis, so there's the math and graphing again.

 

That all may be a pipe dream, but I want to build in the foundations for it
when I buy my new system.  So the operating system's capacity for
interacting with adaptive software and tools is the Number One
considerations.  Besides, one thing I *will* do is go on studying math!
Last I check, three years ago, I can't go to any college in this city - and
it's our state's major metropolitan area - to study  math if I'm going to be
all unrealistic and want textbooks I can read or a means to complete
assignments and other such frivolities.  I would add a smile for sarcasm
there, but that's actually what I've been told, and I do not find it
amusing.  I like studying math in a university setting, being around others
who are studying math because they love it, soaking in all the extra
knowledge one can get from a professor, and I want the credit for my career,
but.  I'm a sort of compulsive self-studier anyway, and I can't stand being
a math ignoramus anymore, so I plan to learn to do math nonvisually, then
find materials to use in taking my skills to the next level, and the next
one after that.  Maybe domeday I will find a way to take a test so that I
can get that college credit for it, which is a good thing to have on the
resume!  /smile/

 

Thank you!

 

Tami Smith-Kinney