________________________________
From: Raaj <vennillaicecr...@gmail.com>
To: accessindia@accessindia.org.in
Sent: Tuesday, 30 July 2013 9:45 PM
Subject: [AI] The case for switching to the Mac
Hello everyone,
I just gone through this article and I feel it is interesting and this made
me to think of switching over either. So I do hope this could interest some
of you here.
The case for switching to the Mac
07/29/2012
By Christopher O'Meally
For blind users, the choice between a mac or a pc can be a daunting one.
Trying to decide what computer would best fit the needs of the user can be a
challenge in some situations, so This article will explain why the Mack
could be a viable solution and what to look at when making this choice.
Operating Systems.
The mac's operating system is quite different from Windows, but easy to
learn. Let's take a look at some of its features.
The finder.
When logging in, the desktop is the first window that appears. Unlike
Windows, the Mac's desktop does not contain much; most of the shortcuts and
files are located elsewhere. In addition, the computer's hard drive and
devices that are connected will appear in this window. Digging deeper in to
the finder, the user folder is shown first. The main user directory contains
documents, downloads, music, movies, pictures, and frequently used folders
specific to the user logged on at the time. . The finder is composed of
three main windows, with a tool bar and 3 buttons at the top. The tool bar
contains navigation buttons and these help control navigation in the finder.
Next is the side bar. This is used to quickly switch between the most
popular folders on the computer. By default, they will be the folders
mentioned in the user folder, as well as any network locations and external
devices. Things can be added to the sidebar, but beware that doing this can
make it a bit cluttered. Next is the vertical splitter. This just moves the
file group left or right depending on what the slider is set to.
Note: this is strictly a visual thing; it doesn't make a difference when
listening with a screen reader,.
Next is the file group. Once a folder is selected in the sidebar, enter the
file group to browse these files. Most, if not all finder windows will be
laid out this way. This is because if there are many elements on the screen,
it is not necessary to navigate through all of one group to get to another.
This eliminates the need for tabbing and groping around crowded and
complicated dialog boxes and interfaces. Selecting a file brings up the
quick look window. If the file is large, the size will be displayed. If the
file is video or audio, it will start playing. That comes in handy when
browsing unnamed tracks, so it is not necessary to open a new program just
to sample them.
In windows, the equivalent is windows explorer. Once logged in, as on the
Mac, the desktop is the starting location, which in most cases is a bit more
cluttered than the mac's. Most program shortcuts and folders will be put
here. Most programs will place icons on the desktop by default, but this
setting can be changed in setup. But all in all, it serves the same purpose.
Unlike with the Mac, there is no quick look option when viewing files. The
properties window in the applications context menu gives a bit of feedback
on the file, but quick look gives faster feedback when it's really needed.
A useful feature of OS 10 is the dock. Any IPhone users will know what that
feature is. It is a place at the bottom of the screen to store the most used
applications and folders, so navigation to them is possible, no matter where
the user is located in the operating system.
In windows, a fast way to get to applications is the start menu. The start
menu will show the programs used most frequently, as well as letting users
choose the most recent files opened in a particular program.
A notable feature of the Mac is spotlight. Searching by file type, name, and
location are some of its basic features. Locations can be added and removed,
and external drives as well as network shares can be included or excluded in
the indexing preferences.
This can be done by opening spotlight with command space, then command comma
to open preferences.
The search bar in windows can also be customized to include or exclude file
locations and types. This can be done by typing indexing options in the
search bar, or navigating to start, then control panel, and typing indexing
options in the search box.
The menu bar in OS 10 is a way of browsing most options in the system, and
the application that is currently open. First is the apple menu, where the
user can view their system information, perform software updates, get to the
app store, force quit applications, and shut down the computer. the
application menu, which changes names depending on the application one has
open, will always be there. The file, edit, and view menus normally stay in
the menu bar, unless the application does not include them, then the menu
disappears. But if an application requires a specific menu, it will appear
as windows change. The second layer of the menu bar, or the menu extras,
includes Wi-Fi settings, blue tooth, date and time, battery status, another
way of navigating to spotlight, time machine settings, and a drop box menu,
if Drop box is installed. To navigate to the menu bar, press command +
option + m, and on the track pad, it's a two finger double tap on the top of
the track pad.
Screen Readers.
There are many screen reader options in windows. A popular screen reader,
developed by Freedom Scientific, is called JAWS, or Job Access With Speech.
Although it is a bit pricy, for the most part, the buyer gets what they pay
for. Virtually every aspect of windows is accessible with this screen
reader; however, like all others, there are a pool of applications that it
does not work with. Every aspect of the program is customizable: speech
rate, punctuation announcements, verbosity, typing feedback, and braille
output. Additionally, there is the option of downloading several high
quality voices for it. From a user aspect, the main pitfall of jaws is that
it locks up quite a bit. Many Jaws users have to restart it more often than
other screen readers. As mentioned above, the program is expensive. The
professional version is priced at $1,095.00, and jaws standard is priced at
$895.00. Note: This does not include the remote desktop features or Service
maintenance agreements (SMA's).
Jaws was my first screen reader. I started using it as a kid, and so have
had about 15 years of experience with it. It has come a long way in this
time, and I find that I can get almost anything done with it. I have ran in
to a bit of accessibility issues, primarily in college, but again, most
screen readers would have issues with the programs I had to use. For
example, Auto cad is visual, so a screen reader may have problems telling me
what is going on in a set of blueprints. Things that I have observed pushed
me to start trying other screen readers. Jaws tends to be a bit resource
hungry, and when I went shopping for a new computer, I found I needed to buy
a pc with higher specifications, to help prevent jaws from locking up and
consuming a lot of my resources that I could use for other things. I have
had it lock up on me a lot. Sometimes I have simply had to restart jaws,
sometimes I had to sit for a few minutes and it would fix it self, others I
had to completely restart the computer, which more times than not, caused me
to lose work.
The next option in windows is NVDA, or Non Visual Desktop Access. This is a
screen reader that is made by blind people, for blind people. Like jaws,
virtually every aspect of windows is accessible, and like others, highly
customizable. It provides braille display support, and it can be used in
over 40 languages. Not only can NVDA be installed, but it can be extracted
it to a portable storage device, and run on any computer. However, it has
several pitfalls. For example, the default voice can be a bit hard to
understand at times. Also, it has limited braille support, and interrupting
the speech can be difficult sometimes. But it is updated often , and, best
of all, it's free.
As I mentioned before, I have tried many different screen readers, and NVDA
has come a long way for freeware. Most of the time I use it, I am using it
on another's computer, simply because of the portability feature. I keep a
flash drive with it installed in my pocket, and if someone needs me to fix
something, I just pop it in, and I am on my way. Some things I have noticed
are, the voice is a bit metallic, it can be hard to understand at higher
speeds, the braille support is lacking, and interrupting speech does not
work half the time, but all in all, you get a lot out of this free screen
reader. I have actually visited the sight and donated to the development
team.
The screen reader for the mac is called voiceover. Voiceover is integrated
in to all apple devices, and the Mac is no exception. Similar to Windows
screen readers, Voiceover makes every aspect of the system accessible. Users
who are familiar with the iPhone's interface will have an easier time
learning it, but like all screen readers, there is a learning curve. To
start voice over, simply hit command + F5. It is possible to learn voiceover
on your own, because of the quick start guide provided with the screen
reader. It can teach the basic features of voiceover, such as navigation,
settings, changing input and output, and how to find more about the advanced
features of the screen reader. What sets voice over apart from others, is
along with the keyboard commands, it offers screen reader specific multi
touch gestures on the computers track pad. ( Note that the computer must
have a multi touch track pad to use this feature. Older mac's will not
support it without an external magic track pad.) Also, pressing vo+h, or
command+option+h, will bring up a menu where you can find out everything
there is to find out about this screen reader, and its vast list of
commands. Voiceover does have a few pitfalls. The keyboard commanders tend
to be a bit frustrating. Anything over a 3 key combination is a bit much,
and people who may have dexterity limitations in the fingers may have
problems with the interface. The commands can be changed, but by default, it
is difficult. The support for applications not posted to the app store is
limited, but improving.
I started using mobile voice over 3 years ago, when the IPhone 4 was
launched. It worked quite well, although I noticed a few bugs that apple
fixed in later updates. At that time, I didn't even know voice over on the
mac existed. I got the chance to play with one about 2 years ago, and let's
just say I was blown away. I made the transition last summer, and I have not
been disappointed. Because of my experience using voice over on my phone, a
lot of the features and commands did not take long to figure out, although I
did have to ask quite a few questions from the users that I now teach. I
still find new features of voice over, after owning my mac for over a year.
But if you take a look at voice over, compared to jaws, it has come a long
way in a short amount of time. Jaws has been out for over 15 years, and
voice over has been out for just over 5. The progress apple has made
happened fairly quickly, and they are still expanding on the infant screen
reader.
Applications
The applications built in to OS 10 help the user optimize work flow, and
they are all fairly easy to use with voice over. Most can be learned
quickly, while others take a bit of hair pulling to learn the interface with
nested groups.
One of the most used applications on the mac is safari. Safari is the
default internet browser. All aspects of safari are accessible with voice
over, and the interface is well organized. Information only appears as
needed, and using your roader settings make web navigation easy and
efficient. The first element is the tool bar. The tool bar contains items
like navigation buttons, the downloads window, and sharing items. Continuing
on are the open tabs, the search window, and the HTML window. Interacting
with this element will place the voice over curser in to the web page. As
mentioned before, when navigating the web, using the roader settings allow
you to move by heading, link, edit fields, tables, buttons, and many more
forms of navigation categories.
The default internet browser in windows is internet explorer. Most elements
in this application are accessed by tabbing, and navigation is easy. But
with my own personal experience, it tends to lock up and crash more than
safari, and some web elements are more accessible on its OS 10 counter-part.
Mail is, well, the default mail application built in to OS 10. The
application is simple, Multiple mail boxes are easy to manage, And it has
many features you can manipulate to keep clutter to a minimum, and
organization to a maximum. The keyboard commands are easy to memorize, and
elements and groups are clearly labeled. It is one of the applications that
you can just open and use, without much frustration. All aspects of the
program work with voice over, apple made nested tables and groups easier
than most applications, and information only appears as needed.
I personally don't have any modern experience with mail applications in
windows, as my last use of outlook was back when xp was at its prime.
Word processing on the mac and its accessibility is widely debated in the
blind community, and many will say that it is not possible or productive.
For the most part, this is true. Pages, apple's word processing application,
is a clunky application, requiring a lot of interacting, switching in and
out of quick navigation, and fooling with popups that voice over doesn't
even see 90 percent of the time. Learning this application is possible, but
Using it in a school setting would not be possible without turning a
person's hair gray. An alternate application that takes most, if not all of
the features of pages, is IText express. This application is capable of
advanced formatting, and it gives quite a bit of feedback in a simple and
efficient manner. The application is structured similarly to safari, with a
tool bar at the top, elements underneath, and a window to interact with at
the bottom of the application where the text editing window is located. The
tool bar contains buttons like cut, copy, paste, undo, redo, and other basic
editing tools. Below that are various groups and combo boxes. You can change
the text color, background color, font size, font style, paragraph
formatting, line spacing, and anything else you could expect from a major
word processing application. I have personally tested most functions of the
application, and it works well with voice over. The interface is simple,
while still displaying all information needed for spell checking, viewing
text attributes, and advanced formatting.
The windows counterpart is Microsoft word. This application works well with
all popular screen readers on the windows platform, and it performs all word
processing tasks well.
Numbers is apple's spreadsheet application, and its voice over support has
come a long way in the past year. Like the other applications in the IWork
package, numbers was not accessible at all in the past. Because of this, the
mac was not a viable solution for a blind user. The voice over support is
there, and basic spreadsheet editing and navigation works quite well. Voice
over announces all of the information you need, and it works some, but not
all graphing and formula creation. According to a member of the apple
accessibility team, "we are working on voice over support in the IWork
package, so users should expect major voiceover improvements in the update
of IWork in the fall."
The windows counterpart is Microsoft xl. Xl works well with screen readers,
and simple graphs, tables, and advanced formulas are easy to use. Screen
readers tend to have trouble with the more complicated graphs and charts,
but in an academic situation, xl is easy to learn, and simple once you know
how.
Keynote, the third application in the IWork package, is the presentation
creation application in OS 10. The interface is like most on the mac,
simple, and organized, but some elements of the application are hard to
read. The full screen slideshow window is practically invisible with voice
over, and seeing how this is an important feature of the program, I would
not recommend expecting a lot from keynote until its update in the fall.
Its windows counterpart is Microsoft power point. Power point is completely
accessible with most screen readers, and slides are easy to edit, organize,
and view, even in the full screen slideshow mode.
Economics
People may argue that buying a mac is cheaper because they do not have to
purchase jaws. The fact of the matter is, there are free solutions like Non
Visual Desktop Access (NVDA), witch can do 90 percent of what jaws can. But
right now, the current MacBook air compared to a similarly configured PC
will be about the same price. Windows 8 will play ketchup at this point. SO
it all depends on the user's preference, how much people are willing to
research software, and if they are willing to sit down and learn a new
screen reader. emperorMuzz, a user on www.applevis.com
<http://www.applevis.com/> says the following.
"Although the following is not entirely true, this is how conventionally
things have evolved so make up your own mind: Are you a gamer? Do you make,
use or engage in a lot of flash content? Do you have a lot of videos in old
AVI, WMV or divx format? Do you use a Blackberry or Android device? Are you
still using that old Nokia phone with Talks or Zooms installed? If your
answer is yes, then you need a PC.
Are you into making or editing music? Do you edit and shoot films? Are you
interested in photography and photo editing? Do you own an iPhone, iPad or
iPod Touch? If your answer to the above questions is yes, then you are
suited to a Mac.
If you want to fiddle with your machine's hardware a lot, get a PC. If you
want to do old school software development, get a Mac. If you want to have a
lean, mean, sleek operating system not bloated with unnecessary software or
drivers you may never use, thereby improving your system's speed: it's a PC.
If you want things to just work out of the box for almost all basic tasks
from the word go: get a Mac. Productivity (word, excel, PowerPoint, pdf): PC
is better. Web browsing and creative work flow?: much better on a Mac.
Managing and making a website that is cheap and easy to maintain?: PC. Want
a stylish, modern standards compliant website? Mac. Want to choose from a
range of developers, programs, cost prices, from almost all across the web?
PC. Want a one stop shop for all your apps (nearly all your apps anyway!) :
Mac. Working a lot with a mouse or keyboard? PC Want a touch screen or track
pad? Mac. Working with other people who may not be techy or comfortable with
different technologies? PC. Working alone, or with designers? Mac. Want
cheaper costs up front? PC. Want longer lasting hardware with significantly
reduced after care costs? Mac. Want an unlimited online resource to almost
any program written on earth from a worldwide community? PC. Want excellent
personal assistance in a shop setting? Mac."
Let me expand on that a bit from my own personal experience. I am an IPhone
user, and I will say that if you did decide to purchase a mac, the devices
talk to one another so well. As soon as I linked my mac to my I cloud
account, all of my contacts, my mail boxes, my mobile pages documents,
spreadsheets, and my pictures downloaded on the spot. I am in to producing,
and I have had a lot less of an issue using garage band vs. using sonar on
the pc. I do have a lot of media that was originally stored on a windows
computer, and quick time cannot play them, but a simple application called
VLC player resolved that issue fairly quickly. There are a few unlabeled
buttons, but when you sit down and press each one to figure out what it
does, a bit of button labeling was all it took. If you don't want to take
the time to download programs and drivers to allow your computer to write to
ntfs drives, or to play all of your .avi files, a windows computer is for
you, and I still have a windows box at home that is used for entertainment
only. As a person who is in to computers, I love tinkering with hardware.
Sadly, big brother apple doesn't want just anyone metalling around inside
the shiny mac's, so it can be a bit harder to get your tinker on, so again,
this is why I keep a pc laying around for all of my experimental pleasures.
But because of the fact that the mac just works right out of the box, and
all aspects of the operating system are completely accessible without any
further instillations make it a hassle free computer to pick up and use for
the average person. Expanding on the programming segment of the article
above, I find Xcode to be complicated, and I personally have not taken the
time to sit down and figure it out. A podcast does explain how the interface
works though, and it can be found at
http://maccessibility.net/2013/01/17/the-maccessibility-dev-podcast-1-using-
xcode-with-voiceover/
Productivity has always been an interesting topic on the mac, and many will
argue that it is better on the pc, and for the most part this is the case.
But if you're like me, and you love making things work, you will find that
with a combination of programs, it can be done effectively. For me, web
browsing works a lot better on my mac, mainly because safari doesn't crash
on me as much as internet explorer does, but that particular activity
depends on preference. As to the one stop shop for apps, windows 8 now
includes an ever expanding app store, and it is just as easy to use. As of
late, the cost of the mac vs. the pc with similar configurations has
virtually equalized, though I have had a much better customer service
experience with apple over any other company. Its more like they are
building a relationship with me rather than working for a pay check. I will
say though, that on the windows side, it is a lot easier to find online help
if something breaks than with OS 10, just because windows is much more open
to tweaks, hacks, and exploration.
Resources
If something breaks, or if people have a question about their respective
screen readers, it helps to be around people who know how to use the
technology. Also, it is a good idea to find online resources that can answer
most questions that may arise. More likely than not, if there is a problem
with your screen reader, other users will be using a windows computer with
jaws, NVDA, or Window Eyes. Several online resources exist for these, and
phone support is also easy to come by in most cases.
Support for voiceover is out there, if people know where to look and who to
talk to.
A helpful resource many blind Mac users utilize for mobile voiceover, as
well as voice over on the mac, is
www.applevis.com/
It is a web site with guides, app reviews, tips, and podcasts on everything
voiceover. Its content is provided by apple device users, for apple device
users. They offer solutions to anything from productivity issues,
entertainment to coding and advanced usage.
Mac Access.net is a web site containing a helpful list serve, as well as
podcasts and guides.
Mac for the Blind is also a member run forum that has podcasts, articles and
useful links.
The process of choosing a computer can be a bit complicated. It can be made
easy by taking a few things in mind before making such a major purchase.
Patients.
Some people just want to be able to pick up a computer and use it. Some are
comfortable with learning new technology and welcome the idea of venturing
in to new territory. The mac is new. Some processes take a bit of time to
get used to, and the machine can be really flexible once they are learned.
But for users who just want to pick up a computer and use it, especially if
they are buying for school may find the interface a bit challenging.
Budget.
The mac is a bit expensive. Apple likes to always include the latest and
greatest in the mac line, and the physical features of the computers, while
appealing, add to the price as well. Most likely, a computer that has a good
balance of power and affordability will be around $1200.00, so making sure
pricing is considered can be a critical step.
Source:
http://www.applevis.com/blog/apple/case-switching-mac
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