[nfb-talk] Mac with Voice Over

[John G. Heim]

I bought a Mac Mini about a year ago to give voiceover a try. Voiceover has 
a fantastic, human sounding voice. Response time is pretty good. But even 
though it is integrated into the operating system, voiceover doesn't work 
with all MacOS applications. And it takes way more keystrokes to use than 
does jaws.

Switching to a Mac comes with a steep learning curve. You will be trying to 
learn both a new operating system and a new screen reader at the same time. 
Be prepared for some frustration and don't give up your old machine. You 
will need it to google for answers on how to do things in Mac OS and 
voiceover.

I wouldn't try to switch to a Mac unless you have some compelling reason to 
do so. If you're starting from scratch and have to learn the operating 
system and the screen reader anyway, it might be a good idea to start with a 
Mac. But I have a compelling reason to try to learn to use a Mac. I do 
support for the Math Department at the University of Wisconsin and a lot of 
professors use Macs. I had to learn to use a Mac to do my job. Even so, I 
found it a laborious and difficult process. If I hadn't been so highly 
motivated, I think I'd have given up.

IMO, jaws is still considerably ahead of any of the free screen readers 
(although I have not tried system access). There's no way to compare them in 
terms of value because it depends on what you want or need. At $700, is jaws 
a better value than voiceover is for free? It's impossible to say. I would 
even say that comparing voiceover with nvda or orca is impossible because it 
depends on what you want in a screen reader.  In other words, if you want a 
simple answer like, "Yes, by all means, switch to a Mac because its better," 
you will be disappointed. And I'd be suspicious of anyone who give you such 
a simple answer.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Amelia Dickerson" <ameliadickerson at gmail.com>
To: <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 6:32 PM
Subject: [nfb-talk] Mac with Voice Over


>I wonder about the experiences people have had with Mac and Snow
> Leopard. I am solidly a PC user and don't want to give up any of the
> computer access that has come over the years. However, I am trying to
> figure specifically what people have found that they can and cannot do
> on a Mac. Can you use Open Book on it? What else is your experience?
> It is pretty awesome to think of a screen reader coming with an OS.
> --
> Amelia Dickerson
>
> What counts can't always be counted, and what can be counted doesn't
> always count.
> Albert Einstein
>
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