[blindkid] Last post of mine on Macs, I promise

[Heather]

Ok, I bow to the wisdom of my friend Amanda, because she was a media major, had her own radeo show for a while, is better than I am with Macs, Windows, etc, and so she is way more qualified than me to offer up an opinion.  Just to clarify, I never told her the names of anyone on the list, and did not show her any emails from the list whatsoever,  I just told her some of the very most basic arguements for and against that I was hearing, and she rose to the task beautifully, giving a much more informed opinion and information than I could ever do on this subject.  I did copy and paste the link, and only the link that someone shared with us, and she and I both tried accessing it, so that is what she is refering to at the beginning.  I am glad this discussion got started though, as I have never really given it that much thought, and as she and I have so much else to talk about, we have never really had an indepth conversation about Macs before.  So, here are some of the things she told me that I found interesting and enlightening and never knew before, in her words.  So, she knows none of you and she is just generally discussing her experience with aApple and Microsoft, so, please, don't anyone take it as a personal atack, ok?  Accademic discussions and happy vibes to all.  Here we go.

Unfortunately, all I see on that page are two links.  So, there is a point to some of the pros and cons you mentioned.    Except I pretty much disagree with everything else that you told me is being expressed.

Firstly, I don't believe that MS really cares all that much about accessability.  Why is Narrator, the built-in "screenreader" in Windows barely functional while VoiceOver allows me to access any part of my computer (including initial OS install and setup) as soon as I take it out of the box?  True, Apple hasn't been especially good with accessibility in the past, but I don't see Microsoft building native accessibility into their new Windows Phone 7 platform.  A few years ago, we thought we'd never have access to touchscreen devices.  But now I can use an iPhone or iPod Touch with no additional clunky software that only works some of the time.  Also, back in the day, nearly twenty years ago now, the first computer I ever used was an Apple II GS.  Because at the time, Windows 3.1 or DOS or whatever Microsoft was doing at the time was not kid friendly at all.  But with an Echo external Synthesizer and software produced by APH, I learned to play games, to type, and the basic ins and outs of a computer on, oh my gosh, an Apple.

Secondly, Adobe is the company who makes Flash.  Adobe has been notoriously bad when it comes to accessibility.  They also make a lot of desktop publishing and media software like indesign, photoshop, Audition, Etc.  These products aren't accessibile on either platform right now, and I don't see Adobe making them so anytime soon.  I used to study media.  I was an audio engineer.  The school I was attending at the time taught students to edit on Macs using ProTools.  ProTools is the industry standard as far as sound production goes.  It's made by Digidesign, who was bought out by, guess who? Adobe.  I eventually was forced to leave my media arts program in part due to Adobe's refusal to make their products accessible.

Apple has said that the iPad won't support Flash because Flash is becoming bloated, outdated and useless.  Adobe refuses to work with Apple on implementing Flash in its iPhone OS, so Apple can't exactly make a product it doesn't control accessible, especially if the software commpany responsible won't help.

Would I buy a Macbook Pro specifically for my blind young child?  No, probably not.   But if the kid's mom or dad has a Macbook and the kid wants to play games, there's no reason why a parent couldn't help out the kid.  Young children shouldn't have unsupervised computer time anyway, as far as I'm concerned.  Besides, if the child has some usable vision, as most blind people do, the whole point becomees moot anyway.  The child won't be solely relying on the screenreader anyway, so VO reading the flash content doesn't necessarily matter.

Would it be nice if my computer's OS supported Flash?  Sure it would be.  But is Flash a dealbreaker?  Not as far as I'm concerned.  The internet is full of so many great sites for kids, and not all of them have Flash content.

Okay. Getting off my soapbox now.
-Amanda

kWhat was interesting to me, this is Heather again, were the moral implications of what she told me.  There are some brands of clothing, food, body care products, etc that I won't buy for ethical reasons, even though the products are ok, not amazing, but better than others in some aspects and worse in others, a mixed bag, because of their business practices, treatment of the environment, lack of comittment to the consumer, etc.