[Blindmath] Computers and data analysis software

[Andy B.]

Another thing to note, depending on how much money you want to spend on a
MAC, bootcamp and Windows is not an option, and a VM of Windows is going to
stress the system beyond its ability. In some cases it is one, the other, or
both if needed.


-----Original Message-----
From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Michael
Whapples
Sent: Thursday, March 6, 2014 4:04 AM
To: Blind Math list for those interested in mathematics
Subject: Re: [Blindmath] Computers and data analysis software

I would basically agree with that.

A few additional things to add.
* Remember with modern Macs you can install Windows on it as well (either in
a virtual machine or directly on the system using bootcamp). 
This means you can have the advantages of both platforms and just buying a
Windows license isn't that much in the long term. Also you can choose which
version of Windows to use.
* I know you mentioned Jaws, but don't forget about the WindowEyes and
Office scheme which means you can get a free copy of WindowEyes on a system
with Office 2010 or 2013 installed. You may want another screen reader but
if you have one of those office versions then you may as well have
WindowEyes to add to the toolkit.

Michael Whapples
On 06/03/2014 04:37, Andy B. wrote:
> Windows 8/8.1 can be used completely from a keyboard. It does use a 
> touch interface, but no worries from a keyboard point of view. The 
> good thing is that JAWS 15 supports touch input. Of course, it is 
> limited in its gestures, but it's a good starting point. If for some 
> reason, you had to use a touch interface, and don't have a touchscreen 
> display, then you can turn on touch cursor in JAWS.
> I can't say much for SAS or SPS on either OS, but I do love my MAC. It 
> is a hard core fight between it and Windows. The only reason at this 
> point that I even use Windows is do to my degree program at school. 
> All I can say, is to experiment a little. If SAS and SPS have trials, 
> download them for each platform, then take them through their paces. I 
> have found some things work better on a MAC than in Windows, and other 
> things work better in Windows than a MAC.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blindmath [mailto:blindmath-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of 
> Arielle Silverman
> Sent: Wednesday, March 5, 2014 11:12 PM
> To: social-sciences-list at nfbnet.org
> Cc: blindmath at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [Blindmath] Computers and data analysis software
>
> Hi all,
>
> I just got a postdoc at the University of Washington Department of 
> Rehabilitation Medicine which will start this summer! (Yay!) The job 
> will be data analysis-intensive. They will provide me a computer to 
> use in my office, but I will have to negotiate screen readers with 
> them, and I may decide to buy a second computer to do data analysis at 
> home. (My current data analysis computer is more than seven years old 
> and I can't trust it to meet my needs for much longer). For my own 
> computer, I prefer a portable one and the smaller the better.
> So I have a few questions about your experiences:
>
> 1. Anyone had luck using SAS, SPSS or Mplus on a Mac with VoiceOver?
> Or if I go that route, should I buckle down and learn R?
>
> 2. Anyone know if the current version of SAS (I think it's 9.4) is 
> still accessible? I've been using SAS 9.2 for years, and it's great, 
> but I've heard that the later versions of SAS put all kinds of 
> annoying graphs into the output. Is all that stuff still accessible or
should I switch to SPSS?
>
> 3. How user-friendly is Windows 8 with the latest version of JAWS? I 
> hear Windows 8 involves some kind of touch input which scares me a bit.
>
> Thanks for any advice!
> Best,
> Arielle
>
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