[nabs-l] Basic Questions About Mac versus Pc

[clinton waterbury]

They work with a lot of braille displays.

For the full list, go to.

http://www.apple.com/accessibility/voiceover/devicesupport.html
On May 8, 2010, at 3:37 PM, Nicole B. Torcolini wrote:

> 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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