[Electronics-talk] Electronics accessibility of apple productsandmainstream level playing field

[Gerald Levy]

What product does Apple offer that is comparable to Open Book or K1000?  Are 
there any text to speech programs that work with the Mac?  I have not heard 
much discussion about this.  Can you just buy a scanner , plug it into a Mac 
and presto, have an instant reading machine?  Inquiring minds would like to 
know.

Gerald


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "fred olver" <goodfolks at charter.net>
To: "Discussion of accessible electronics and appliances" 
<electronics-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 19, 2011 9:20 PM
Subject: Re: [Electronics-talk] Electronics accessibility of apple 
productsandmainstream level playing field


> 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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