[nabs-l] Mac Vs. Windows

[Sophie Trist]

Lizzy, I've always been a mac user, and I agree with everything 
Greg has said. The main thing to keep in mind is that neither 
system is perfect. Some things work better with a mac than with 
Windows and vice versa. To me, the greatest thing about a Mac is 
that you can use both OS and Windows on it if you employ a 
program like boot camp or something similar. When I was first 
learning to use a screen reader, I tried JAWS. To me, the 
commands seemed less logical and with fewer shortcuts. That's 
another reason I prefer the mac. Good luck in making your 
decision!

 ----- Original Message -----
From: Greg Aikens <gpaikens at gmail.com
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Mon, 20 Jan 2014 10:54:40 -0500
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Mac Vs. Windows

There are a lot of factors that go into this kind of decision.  
Others have asked similar questions on this list before, so you 
may want to check the archives in addition to whatever responses 
you get here.

I grew up using Jaws and Windows but switched to mac a few years 
ago because I got caught between VR cases and needed a laptop and 
screen reader I could afford to start graduate school.  As with 
any system, there was a learning curve but I soon found both 
screen reading solutions to be comparable in many ways.  Access 
to email, the internet, pdf’s etc. are similar on both systems.  
I now use Jaws at for work but am not as familiar with the recent 
additions to Jaws.

Here are the pros and cons of Mac+Voiceover, as I have 
experienced them.

Pros:
•Voiceover is a free screen reader
•Voiceover is integrated into the OS so that nearly all apple 
based programs work well and most third party stuff does too.
•Voiceover gets updated as the operating system gets updated
•Braille display support is built in and works quite well and 
requires minimal set up.
•There are lots of alternative voices available for free and in 
many languages.  Braille support for many languages is also 
available.
Cons:
•If you are used to JAWS and Windows, using VO can be a bit of a 
learning curve
•Pages, the apple word processing app works well with Voiceover 
but some advanced word processing features require complicated 
work arounds.  The same is true for Numbers (spreadsheet app) and 
Keynote (presentations like powerpoint).
•As of now there is not a good solution for embossing braille 
from the Mac.  This may not be important to you however.
•Mac laptops are generally more expensive than windows laptops.

I’m not as familiar with recent developments in braille support 
for Jaws and Windows.

I want to emphasize the learning curve involved in word 
processing using Pages and VoiceOver.  It took me a long time to 
confidently format my class assignments and papers and even now 
I’m not always 100% sure that I have things set up like I want.  
The new update to Pages has made some of that easier, but I still 
find it far simpler to do that kind of editing using Jaws..

Others may have different experiences/opinions so take this 
advice with a grain of salt.

Best of luck as you prepare for college.

-Greg

On Jan 20, 2014, at 10:04 AM, lizzy <lizzym0827 at gmail.com> wrote:

 Hi All,
 I'm looking into buying a laptop for college and I would like to 
know what you all think of the Mac Vs.  Windows computers.  What 
do you like and dislike about each one? Are there any features 
that you find significantly more helpful in one, or (vice versa) 
features that are a significant hinderance? What do you think of 
Voice Over vs.  Jaws? Has anyone put Jaws on their Mac? If so, 
how's it working out for you? I know that ultimately this will 
come down to personal preference, but I'm interested to see what 
you guys think.
 Thanks,
 Lizzy

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