[Electronics-talk] Electronics accessibility of apple products andmainstream level playing field

[fred olver]

Wouldn't it be nice if state services for the blind would consider the 
accessability of Apple products instead of having on-going contracts with 
sellers of thousand dollar products which can only do one thing.

Fred Olver

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sharon Ballantyne" <sballan at nexicom.net>
To: "Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances" 
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2011 6:33 PM
Subject: [Electronics-talk] Electronics accessibility of apple products 
andmainstream level playing field


> Hi again,
>
> As I said earlier I am  a brand new Mac user. I made the switch for a 
> number of reasons. The software is all there right out of the box and I 
> don't have to buy expensive software to be a screen reader or pay for 
> expensive SMA agreements. Not only is there support at the apple store but 
> any person who is a Mac user can simply turn their own voice over on and 
> start looking around a bit. Instead of being a party of one using JAWS (or 
> what can feel like that) I can have any number of conversations with 
> plenty of Mac users and they can more easily troubleshoot with me in a way 
> that I  not experienced as a PC user.  I also have the magic track pad 
> along with the keyboard and these gestures fully place me on the same 
> playing field with iphone, ipod touch and ipad users who can explain 
> gestures to me as I need. The help of keyboard description when turned on 
> voice over plus the letter k not only lets you sort out the keyboard but 
> the track pad is also put into a key describer mode as well, which is 
> really good for me as a new user.
>
> I agree the Mac product is not cheap but there are no added softwares to 
> add or a blind only niche market and while I am still brand new, even with 
> all my exploring I have never had voice over cut out or had things freeze. 
> The fact that Macs are not experiencing the windows crash kind of things 
> on the PC side I really look forward to.
>
> I am really enjoying the voice. It is different and there is actual amore 
> human sound to it. While I am quite accustomed to JAWS and am fine with 
> that, I have been experiencing that people can understand voice over Alex 
> whereas they can't get their head around the JAWS voice and call it robot 
> headache.
>
> If I don't get my head around this I am thinking about calling up the 
> local high school and speaking to the computer teacher there to see if he 
> or she has a bright teenager who would be willing to turn on voice over 
> and figure some things out and just hiring someone to come in and tutor 
> me. Our young people are not intimidated by these machines at all.
>
> That's my novel of feedback!
>
> Sharon
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