[gui-talk] Fwd: Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard with VoiceOver Review

[Steve Pattison]

Sent: Saturday, 29 August 2009 12:28 AM

Here's the Mac-cessibility review of Snow Leopard. Enjoy!

Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard With VoiceOver
by Josh de Lioncourt

The Cat's Out of the Bag
Every year or two, another big cat bounds onto the Apple tech landscape in
the form of a major revision to its Mac OS X operating system. In the past,
these releases were brimming with shiny new features for both everyday and
tech savvy users to sink their teeth into. This time around, Apple did
things a bit differently. They made it plain that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow
Leopard would not be a version that was overflowing with new additions.
Instead, they wanted to "press pause" on new features, and spend some
development time perfecting the already impressively rich feature set of
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Most of the changes, they told developers and the
press at their World Wide Developer Conference in 2008, would be under the
hood, as it were.

Well, Snow Leopard's here, and Apple may have understated things a little.
In respect to VoiceOver, OS X's built-in screen reading solution for the
blind and visually impaired, they understated them a great deal more.

I'll spend some time going over some of VoiceOver's biggest changes in Snow
Leopard throughout this review. If you're one of those folks who just wants
to cut to the meat of a review, I'll give you that here. Quite simply, the
update to VoiceOver, now in its third iteration, is spectacular. It is,
without a doubt, the most significant update to the software to date, and
at $29 USD to migrate from Leopard, it's unquestionably the most affordable
major update to any commercial screen reader in the history of access
technology.

Through this review, I will be assuming a basic knowledge of VoiceOver,
what it is and what it can do. I will not be discussing anything, beyond
what is new in Snow Leopard.

It's the Little Things.
Before we get into some of the heftier changes, let's take a look at some
of the smaller changes that VoiceOver users are likely to notice early on,
and that will improve the VoiceOver experience tremendously, despite their
size.

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet!
Apple boasts that Snow Leopard has been optimized for modern, Intel-based
Macs, and this shines through the entire system. The Responsiveness on my
late 2006 MacBook (black) with a 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 2 GB of
RAM was frankly amazing, and this of course spills over to VoiceOver as
well. Everything about the system is smoother and snappier.

A Sound Design.
Since the beginning, VoiceOver has used optional audio cues to provide the
user with a better and more productive experience. I'm a big fan of these.
In the same way that a sighted user can glance at an icon and recognize its
function more quickly than if he/she had to read some text, so too do audio
cues provide information in a faster, more succinct manner than if
VoiceOver had to articulate a description. In Snow Leopard, some of these
audio cues have been altered. If you're familiar with the iPhone 3GS,
you'll recognize many of these sounds, and the consistency between the two
platforms is an excellent idea.

I'm not going to go through all these changes in minute detail, but I will
draw your attention to a few of the most significant.

Two of the audio cues that I was not a fan of in Leopard were the "page
loaded" sound in Safari, and the "boundary" sound, when the VoiceOver
cursor can move no further in a given direction. I felt that in Leopard,
these sounds were useful, but far too jarring for my taste. In Snow
Leopard, these have been replaced with subtler and more elegant sounds.
Additionally, the "wrapping" sounds have also been replaced, giving the
audio cues a more coherent and consistent feel.

You may recognize all of these sounds from the iPhone 3GS, where they have
essentially the same usage. Old habits die hard, they say, and apparently
the same is true for hardly adolescent ones. More than once, while working
with Snow Leopard, I've reached for my iPhone.

Smooth MOves
Easily my favorite of VOiceOver's new smaller tricks is a feature called
"QuickNav". QuickNav provides, ironically, a quicker way to navigate with
VoiceOver, with the added bonus of only requiring a single hand. Pressing
the Left and Right Arrow keys together simultaneously toggles QuickNav on
and off. When it's active, the arrow keys, pressed by themselves, behave as
if you were holding down the VoiceOver keys. (Control-Option). Pressing the
combination of Down Arrow-Right Arrow interacts with an item, while
Down-Left Arrow stops interaction. The Up Arrow-Down Arrow combination
performs the default action on an item, the same as VO-Space does. This is
a feature that, half an hour after I started using it, I was fully aware
that the next time I had to sit down at a Mac running OS X 10.5, I was
going to miss it dearly. Apple, whoever it was on the VoiceOver team that
had this idea, give them a bonus.

Your Wish Is My Command
In Leopard, Apple introduced the NumPad Commander, a way of controlling
VoiceOver via the numeric keypad available on some Mac keyboards, or as
third-party USB devices. You could customize what commands were assigned to
which keys, and the feature was popular among many VoiceOver users,
particularly those on desktops.

Now, in Snow Leopard, Apple's taken this idea to entirely new levels, and
the possibilities are limitless.

There are three commanders available to the VoiceOver user now: the NumPad,
Trackpad, and Keyboard Commanders. You can assign virtually any VoiceOver
command to a control in any of these, and then some. Apple's provided the
ability to run applications, open files, launch Applescripts, and perform
Automator Workflows as well. Yes, you read that right. Script-writers,
Apple's given you what you wanted. The ability to customize and script
VoiceOver to your heart's content. Not only that, but the scripting is done
with a mature and powerful scripting language, for which there are endless
resources and examples online.

Among the commands available to assign to controls are several that do not
have VOiceOver key commands by default, such as a toggle to switch quickly
between DOM and Group modes while surfing the web.

The Trackpad
If you are one of those fortunate souls to have a MacBook or MacBook Pro
with a multi-touch trackpad, I envy you. Apple's added the same
functionality that has proved so effective on the iPhone into Snow Leopard
as well. You can control VoiceOver and explore the currently active window
via the trackpad, using the same and/or similar gestures as you would on
the iPhone. And, as it has on the iPhone, I believe this new interface is
going to truly alter the way we, as visually impaired users, interact with
our technology.

My MacBook sadly does not have a multi-touch trackpad, so I was unable to
test this feature. Having an iPhone, however, does give me some insight,
and I can't imagine a more productive or intuitive way of using a computer.
The first chance I have, I'll be upgrading to a newer MacBook, and this
feature is one of the reasons why.

Like with any Commander, you can assign gestures to specific actions if
your needs differ from the defaults.

Keyboard Commander
The Keyboard Commander provides additional keyboard shortcuts that
VoiceOver can utilize via one of the Option keys. You can choose whether it
will use the left or right Option key. Commands entered with the opposite
key will still behave normally.

By default, Apple's predefined some extremely useful commands.

Option-T announces the date and time automatically via an Applescript. If
you have not enabled the "Allow VoiceOver to be controlled with
Applescript" feature in VoiceOver's General preference page, this command
will fall back to the System Voice to announce the time. If Applescript
support is enabled in VoiceOver, however, VoiceOver will announce the time
itself.

Option-U will blithely inform you of all that unread email that is building
up in your inbox, in much the same way that a sighted user can glance down
at the Mail icon on the Dock to get this information. In my case, I'm not
wholly certain this is a good thing.

Option-S and Option-M open or move to Safari or Mail respectively.

Surf's Up!
Another area in which VoiceOver has been vastly enhanced is web browsing.
Both DOM and Group navigation methods have been improved substantially, and
the overall experience is superb.

Many new commands have been added for navigating by element types, (i.e.
tables and lists), and the improvement upon responsiveness of said
navigation is fantastic.

Rotors Can be Choosers
The Link Item Chooser has been replaced with what Apple's calling the Web
Item Rotor, a clunky name, but an accurate one. The name not withstanding,
this is an excellent enhancement upon the Link Chooser, and provides for a
tremendous amount of flexibility and functionality. It can be activated
with VO-U, just as the Link Chooser was, and can be customized in the
VoiceOver Utility in the Web settings page.

Essentially, a variety of element types are available, which you can select
from by moving left/right through them. Which items are included in these
types is entirely customizable, but some possibilities include links,
visited links, frames, form controls, images, and many more.

Once you selected an element type, arrowing up/down will cycle through a
list of all the items of that type on the currently loaded page. What's
more, just like in the Item Chooser, or the former Link Chooser, you can
type a few characters and shorten the list to only items which include
them.

Traversing Tables
The one significant area in which VoiceOver was lacking in terms of web
content in Leopard was its way of dealing with HTML tables. In Snow
Leopard, this problem is gone, and APple has provided a plethora of ways in
which the experience can be customized, such as grouping items together in
cells, (a must as far as I'm concerned), the announcement of column and row
numbers, etc. In the main, tables behave precisely the way they do in
applications like Mail or iTunes. Interacting with a table allows you to
move both vertically and horizontally through the table cells, and the
experience is both intuitive and superior to anything I've seen from any
other screen reading solution. Apple hit this one out of the park.

Not Only Snow Leopards Have Spots
Similar to VoiceOver's Hotspots, introduced in Leopard, you can now set as
many WebSpots as you like on web pages you frequently visit with
VO-Command-Right Brace. VoiceOver will remember all of these when you
return to the site in the future. You can then use VO-Command-Left/Right
Brackets to move backward or forward through your WebSpots.

If that isn't enough, you can set a WebSpot to be the SweetSpot, and when a
page first loads, VoiceOver will automatically place you on it.

Still not enough? VoiceOver uses some advanced logic processing to
determine areas on the site that it thinks may be of particular interest.
These "Auto WebSpots" can be perused in the Web Item Rotor.

WebSpots can be removed at any time with VO-Command-Left Brace, so don't
hesitate to experiment with them.

Tell Me a Story.
A long requested feature was for VoiceOver's Read All feature, (VO-A), to
support web content. Well, now it does, and they've even added an
additional command to read from the beginning rather than from the current
location of the VoiceOver cursor, (VO-B). Like VO-A, VO-B is available in
an applicable situation, not just on the web.

And That's Just the Beginning
There are countless changes, big and small, and enhancements to browsing on
the web, and I can't possibly cover all of them here. I've tried to hit the
big improvements, but many of the things that make the biggest differences
are not easily articulated. For example, Groups mode works far better in
Snow Leopard, apparently due to a better method of determining the layout
of pages. If you are a fan of browsing the web with Groups mode, as I am,
you will absolutely love the tweaks Apple has made in that regard.

Customization
VoiceOver has an enormous number of ways in which to customize its
verbosity. By default, there are three general verbosity settings; high,
medium, and low.

From there, you can adjust the speaking of individual attributes and
controls, and even reorder the items. If you prefer to hear a control's
type before hearing its label, not a problem. If you want to hear that a
checkbox is checked before you hear that it is a checkbox, or don't be want
to be told it's a checkbox at all, it can be done.

If you're the kind of user who likes to completely tailor your screen
reading experience to suit your taste, VoiceOver in Snow Leopard has enough
to keep you busy for hours.

"Give Me Labeling, or Give Me."
Since VoiceOver's inception, users have been asking for the ability o label
graphics and icons in applications that are not properly tagged. Apple's
one-upped this request. In Snow Leopard, users can label, or even relabel,
any control type that may not be properly tagged in any application.

This means, of course, that applications with unlabeled buttons or other
controls, can be made more accessible by VoiceOver users.

MObilization
VoiceOver has a variety of methods by which users can export and import
preference files, either to move them to other machines or to share with
other users. Have you spent an afternoon labeling controls in your favorite
application and wish to share your work with the community? Export your
labels and other users can import them into their VoiceOver to be added to
their own labels. The same is true of verbosity settings, and virtually any
other aspect of VoiceOver.

Squash 'em Bugs!
A tremendous amount of care has gone into insuring that the few remaining
accessibility-related bugs throughout Mac OS X have been eliminated. iChat
now works well, even when using Groups mode for web content, the
AddressBook is now a breeze to use, and most of the few unlabeled controls
throughout OS X's various components and applications have been properly
tagged.

A Few Quirks
Like any large software upgrade, there are bound to be a few quirks and
some rough edges that will be smoothed out over minor updates. So far, I've
encountered surprisingly few of these, likely due to the fact that Snow
Leopard is, in itself, largely a smoothing of Leopard's rough edges.

iTunes still exhibits some erratic behavior while moving through the
Sources table, as it did in Leopard.

Once in a while, when moving through the Finder in the Columns view, you
will need to interact again with the Column Browser.

The Bottom Line
Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard brings a host of improvements and enhancements
to VoiceOver that far exceed the $29 price tag in value. The additional
optimizations and new features of Snow Leopard make it not just a smart
upgrade, but a must-have for VoiceOver users.

http://www.lioncourt.com/reviews/mac-os-x-10-6-snow-leopard-with-voiceover

Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
MSN Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com
Skype:  steve1963