[Blindmath] re math on apple products

Fri Dec 31 18:27:53 UTC 2010

Roopakshi:
You are so correct when math and science are concerned in the business
arena.  I have had a little more success in certain situations with my MAC.
I am still annoyed that I have to go between Linux, MAC, and Windows in an
attempt to keep up with everyone and then many things are still not
accessible.  Fortunately, my supervisor at work does have a MAC and A
windows machine and only turns his Windows machine on just to check his
Veterans Administration specific e-mail.

The sonnification lab at Georgia Tech where I do my school research is
primarily a MAC lab as well.  I absolutely love being able to just move
around the lab at will and make any computer talk with a combination
keystroke.  I still wish Apple would just lower the cost of every MAC by
about 200 dollars and watch their sales skyrocket and watch Microsoft
squirm.

With the Windows 7 mobile phone platform not being accessible and will never
be, it is quite obvious where we stand with Microsoft.  It seems as if MS
Windows is reasonable accessible and their other item of inters is making
sure that you can use the features in Office that everyone else uses.  Other
than that, we are in deep trouble.

I know I get truly sick and tired of writing scripts for a new program and I
still need sighted assistance to write the scripts.  Using three different
screen reading programs in Windows, using my MAC, and also Linux from the
command line and with the Gnome desktop, I keep such a plethora of
information in my head that it usually makes my colleagues head spin when I
"change" to a new platform or different operating system.  

With all of that being said, I still love my MAC and the other Apple
products I own such as my Nano and Iphone.

-----Original Message-----
From: blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of blindmath-request at nfbnet.org
Sent: Friday, December 31, 2010 1:00 PM
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Subject: Blindmath Digest, Vol 53, Issue 16

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Today's Topics:

   1. Accessibility of Math Applications on iOS Devices and	Related
      Observations (Roopakshi Pathania)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 30 Dec 2010 22:07:35 -0800 (PST)
From: Roopakshi Pathania <r_akshi_tgk at yahoo.com>
To: blindmath at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Blindmath] Accessibility of Math Applications on iOS Devices
	and	Related Observations
Message-ID: <615352.33708.qm at web38702.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Hi all,

So these days I?m busy playing with my new toy: a shiny squeaky new iPod
Touch and a plethora of accessible apps that can be downloaded.
Naturally, after a few days, my interest shifted to the discovery of
accessible science and Math based apps.
I downloaded a few, but they weren?t accessible enough to satisfy me. I have
recently found my first fully accessible Math app for iOS devices.
It?s called Equation Genius. The app solves equations for you: it can solve
quadratic and cubic equations as well as system of linear equations up to 3
unknowns. The fields are labeled with the coefficients you need to input.
Once you start editing, the labels disappear, or at least they are not
announced.
It is free for now.
http://itunes.apple.com/in/app/equation-genius-math-equation/id372919594?mt=
8#

Besides this, the default calculator on iOS devices is completely
accessible. If you turn your iPhone or iPod into the landscape mode, the
regular calculator becomes a scientific calculator.

Coming to some of my gloomy reflections, experimenting with the iOS
ecosystem has strengthened my belief that the future of accessibility of
productive applications on Windows in particular looks quite bleak from
where I stand.
The reason why I?m referring to Windows is because this is presently the
main platform used in corporate environments around the world. 
The ultimate purpose of studying science or math based subjects, according
to me at least, is to work in the same field in future. Unless you plan to
teach, in which case, you can skip the rest of my diatribe.
All technical fields today depend on specialized software to perform
particular tasks.
For a number of reasons, many of the software applications available have
little to no built-in accessibility.
Software for data analysis, computer simulation and modeling, business
intelligence tools, cloud-based office applications, financial accounting,
report designers and generators, trading platforms, mind mapping, some of
the developing environments and many other categories- are not usable right
out of the box.
 Of course, there are accessible software applications as well, but those
are just a handful.
Not to mention that companies quite frequently use in-house software which
is rarely accessible.
There is life beyond Microsoft Office.
And even if we consider only MS applications, accessibility issues crop up
especially while trying to use advance features. I can attest to that fact
since I use Excel regularly.

Have a happy new year

------------------------------

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