[nfbcs] The Mac Beckens

Mon Jan 18 04:32:29 UTC 2016

Hello Greg and everyone,

	I remember the Outspoken Screen Reader. They had versions for both
the Mac and Windows. This product has since vanished in to oblivion.

Peter Donahue

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Gregory Kearney
via nfbcs
Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2016 9:49 PM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Cc: Gregory Kearney
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] The Mac Beckens

Just a bit of history here. The MacintoshOS, the system used before MacOS X,
had a screen third party screen reader called outSpoken. It wasn't a bad
product and in fact I still have a copy. However the product went through a
number of hand before disappearing forever.

VoiceOver was the first and only screen reader for the UNIX based MacOS X

Greg

> On Jan 17, 2016, at 7:34 PM, John G. Heim via nfbcs <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
wrote:
> 
> Microsoft is probably responding to the requirements of the 21VACC. Mobile
devices have to have a screen reader. They probably figure it's too riskiy
to count on either nvda or one of the 3rd party screen readers for that.
After all, there was a 3rd party screen reader for Mac OS. But it went out
of business. At that point, schools and colleges had to stop bying Macs.
Apple couldn't let that continue so they developed Voiceover.
> 
> 
> On 01/17/2016 07:26 PM, Ronald Smith via nfbcs wrote:
>> Well, I thought I just recently read an article that the American Council
of the Blind is now working with Microsoft to turn Narrator into a full
fledge screen reader?
>> 
>> I guess they now want to compete with Apple with their free VoiceOver.
>> 
>> If so, now we won't have to be bitten by the shark for a thousand dollars
for their screen reader in addition to buying a computer...
>> 
>> ronsmith131 at gmail.com
>> 
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gregory Kearney via nfbcs" 
>> <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>> To: "NFB in Computer Science Mailing List" <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: "Gregory Kearney" <gkearney at gmail.com>
>> Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2016 3:12 PM
>> Subject: Re: [nfbcs] The Mac Beckens
>> 
>> 
>>> Everyone;
>>> 
>>> I would like to address this matter from a wider perspective. I will not
engage here in a Mac vs. Windows debate which is a bit like arguing about
whose religion is better than whose. Rather I would like to look at some
history and long term trends.
>>> 
>>> When Microsoft first envisioned Narrator, which was long before Apple's
VoiceOver. It was promoted as a built in full scale screen reader. Microsoft
at that time went to the NFB and presented the idea to various parties. What
they were told was that a built in screen reader would limit consumer choice
as having a screen reader as part of the OS would, in effect, wipe out the
market for third party screen readers such as JAWS or WindowEyes. This is
very likely true as later events would show.
>>> 
>>> Fundamentally there are two approaches to screen readers. The first is
like JAWS where the screen reader is adapted the programs which are run. The
other approach, followed in the Windows environment by NVDA is to build a
screen reader that follows all the accessibility standard of the OS and then
expect the applications to be modified to meet those standards. This by the
way is the approach that VoiceOver employs as well.
>>> 
>>> The problem for screen reader companies going forward is that the
computing market is undergoing a major change in the coming decades as we
move away from computers to mobile devices. The two major vendors of which
are Apple with it iOS platform and Google with the Android platform. In both
these cases the screen reader is part of the OS. No one builds a third party
screen reader for tablets and the ones that at one time existed for mobile
phones are no longer offered as the phones upon which they ran are not
offered either.
>>> 
>>> Given this state of affair the decision by Freedom Scientific to not
build a Mac version of JAWS so many years ago (pre MacOS X) now looks to be
a particularly bad given that Apple and then Google would end up in dominate
market positions in the emerging platform.
>>> 
>>> Another issue is one of the market for screen readers. While it is true
that the blind make up but a tiny minority there is a potential screen
reader market far greater in size. Persons with profound dyslexia are three
times as numerous as the blind yet this population of screen readers
consumers remains virtually untapped.
>>> 
>>> It would seem clear that moving forward the market would move further
and further away from the third party screen reader and towards ones that
are part of the OS given that the future of personal computing lies in
personal mobile devices which have come to dominate the world's, and in
particularly the developing world's markets where the real growth in this
century will be found.
>>> 
>>> At some point I would expect that Microsoft will either upgrade Narrator
to be the full scale screen reader they intended or buy out an existing one,
most likely NVDA given the technical design considerations involved. However
by that point the personal computer market will likely have shifted away for
the personal computer to the personal device which will have their screen
readers as a basic part of the operating systems of those devices and thus
will be the end of the screen reader market as we know it today.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Commonwealth Braille & Talking Book Cooperative Greg Kearney, 
>>> General Manager #320, 185-911 Yates Street Victoria, BC V8V 4Y9 
>>> CANADA
>>> Email: info at cbtbc.org
>>> Web: www.cbtbc.org
>>> 
>>> U.S. Address
>>> 21908 Almaden Av.
>>> Cupertino, CA 95014
>>> UNITED STATES
>>> Email: gkearney at gmail.com
>>> Phone: +1 408-780-6535
>>> 
>>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
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