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

[Jude DaShiell]

This isn't a State problem, it's a Federal problem.  The Computer 
Accommodations Program Office in the Pentagon buys thousand dollar screen 
readers for the Veterans as well as Federal employees and States pretty 
much use those same C.A.P. office contracts.  It's all been standardized.  
Deal with States and you only hack away at the tentacles of the octapus 
you need to go for the head then the tentacles in time will change.On Sat, 
19 Feb 2011, fred olver wrote:

> 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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> 
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