[nabs-l] Basic Questions About Mac versus Pc

[Nicole B. Torcolini]

Are MAC's compatible with Braille displays?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joe Orozco" <jsorozco at gmail.com>
To: "'Discussion list for NABS,National Alliance of Blind Students.'" 
<nabs at acb.org>; "'NFBnet NFBCS Mailing List'" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>; "'National 
Association of Blind Students mailing list'" <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 10:46 AM
Subject: [nabs-l] Basic Questions About Mac versus Pc


> Hello all,
>
> I keep hearing about all these wonderful things about Macs.  I was very
> interested in the iPad review on Access World, and my employer's offer to
> switch out my PC for a Mac just gets more tempting by the moment.  Still, 
> as
> I get older I am less tolerant of drastic changes to my office assembly, 
> and
> yet, temptations abound.
>
> 1. In the most recent platform upgrade, how has the accessibility changed 
> in
> terms of the screen reader?  Is the screen reader only updated with system
> upgrades, or are there ever updates between major upgrades?  If you had to
> compare Voiceover to JAWS, how does their functionality break down?  I 
> know
> it's not fair to compare one to the other because the logic is a bit
> different, but I'm hoping you can speak to the level of manipulation you
> have over the applications in your computer.
>
> 2. How has the compatibility changed in terms of Macs and software 
> packages?
> I originally hesitated, because it seemed the industry was more prone to 
> be
> compatible with PC products.
>
> 3. How easy is it to control documents in the word processor?  Do Macs use
> their own version of MS Office, or is there a native word processor that
> makes Office documents readable?
>
> 4. What can you tell us about their e-mail client?  Outlook has its quirks
> but is almost 100 percent accessible.  Sunbird, by contrast, would be 
> great
> but in my opinion still had some accessibility shortcomings.  I'm 
> wondering
> if the same is true of iCal and Mac-based applications?
>
> 5. How much freedom do you have with Macs to go outside of iTunes?  I 
> don't
> much care for proprietary packages unless it's unavoidable.
>
> 6. Are hardware repairs truly limited to Apple stores?
>
> I know the best thing is to play around with Macs yourself.  I intend to 
> do
> that when I visit our home office in California in a month, but I'm hoping
> those of you who are daily users of the system can give up-to-date
> information since reviews can quickly become outdated.  And, I'm sure that
> even playing with a Mac for an hour or so would not truly give me a sense 
> of
> how well they meet my daily task expectations.
>
> Thanks for any information and/or website recommendations.
>
> Best,
>
> Joe
>
> "Hard work spotlights the character of people: some turn up their sleeves,
> some turn up their noses, and some don't turn up at all."--Sam Ewing
>
>
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