[nabs-l] Macs Verses PCs

Greg Aikens gpaikens at gmail.com
Sat Mar 5 23:45:18 UTC 2011


As far as I can tell, braille embossing is one area where you are better off with windows.  DBT and Tiger don't have a mac version.  Refreshible braille is quite good though.  

You can purchase a mac with some software preloaded if you like, such as the iWork suite, which is the apple competitor to MS Office.  Other than that I'm not sure what you mean by "everything you need."  

Learning the OS was not too difficult.  Voiceover comes with a great tutorial when you first set up the machine.  Learning some specific tasks, such as word processing, using spreadsheets, and power point has taken more time.  

-Greg
On Mar 5, 2011, at 4:41 PM, Brianna Scerenscko wrote:

> One of my vision teachers suggested I get a Mac, but another of the
> vision teachers in our school system said that Macs are hard to use;
> but I guess I could learn it. Is it the same keyboard set up on a Mac
> as on a PC? How does Mac work with braille embossers? Was it hard to
> learn the new opperating system? Do most of the programs you need come
> preloded into the computer?
> 
> 
> On 3/5/11, Ignasi Cambra <ignasicambra at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I like macs. What's clear is that if you're used to JFW or other Windows
>> screen readers you will have to take the time to learn and understand Mac OS
>> X and VoiceOver. For me, the great thing about OS X is that application
>> interfaces are generally very consistent. In other words, application
>> windows are really similar across programs because people usually write
>> their apps with the tools provided by Apple.
>> Also, remember that every time the operating system is updated, VoiceOver
>> also gets an update. Even minor system updates can contain updates to the
>> screen reader.
>> I've been playing around with OS 10.7 which should be out this summer, and
>> VoiceOver gets lots of improvements.
>> 
>> IC
>> On Mar 5, 2011, at 4:34 PM, Bernadetta Pracon wrote:
>> 
>>> Hey Briana,
>>> Personally, I think a Mac is a great machine to have. They're fully
>>> accessible with voiceover being a fully functional screen reader right out
>>> of the box. You are able to set it up by yourself without any sighted
>>> assistance, because the screen reader is on at the initial setup window by
>>> default. So that's just one of many advantages the mac has over the PC.
>>> Plus, Macs are extremely durable machines, where hardware is concerned.
>>> Because most of the software you would use on your Mac is produced by
>>> Apple, you would have the garentee that it is compatible and functional
>>> with voiceover, with few exceptions. You can use Open Office as a word
>>> processor, in place of Microsoft word, since word  for apple  isn't very
>>> accessible with voiceover as far as I know.
>>> Also, remember that you can always install windows on a mac, and you can
>>> do that without sighted assistance for the most part as well. This is
>>> great, because you basically have two computers in one. Your hard drive is
>>> partitioned in two when you install windows onto a mac. So if you weren't
>>> sure how to do something using the apple operating system, you could
>>> always complete the task on your windows side of the mac.
>>> Also, I've found that Apple's operating systems are more stable and less
>>> clunky than windows. There's a bit of a learning curve when transition to
>>> apple if you've been a PC user, but once you get the hang of it, it's
>>> extremely intuitive.
>>> I think getting amac is definitely a safe bet.
>>> 
>>> HTH
>>> 
>>> Bernadetta
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Email services provided by the System Access Mobile Network.  Visit
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>>> 
>>> 
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