Re: GW SocialEyes: A Failure in Marketing, and a Resounding Disappointment
Kamlorn, you make a good point as far as closed source screen readers goes. Its entirely possible that Apple could simply stop VoiceOver development, let it fall behind so to speak, and that truly would be a disservice to the blind community and their customers. However, as has been pointed out we don't have any real evidence that Apple is going to abandon VoiceOver soon, and like Sebby I would like to think we could lean on Apple to fix problems in the screen reader rather than having to invent another NVDA for Mac OS X. Its one of those situations we will have to play by ear.
That said, most of the focus is looking at what Apple is doing with VoiceOver,but for some of us open source is also an alternative to the commercial screen readers free or otherwise. I'll be the first to say Orca isn't perfect, but Orca is now built-in and installed with many distributions of Linux such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, etc by default which is opening access to anyone looking for a free and open source alternative to Windows and Mac OS. One of the advantages of an open source solution like Orca is that anyone can take the source, upgrade it, continue development, or develop their own screen reader as needed. Meaning for the blind Linux community there is always hope that someone can continue developing newer and better accessibility software without worrying about a commercial company doing right by the blind users.
A case in point is the Vinux OS. The main Ubuntu distribution is constantly on the move, constantly upgrading, and as Canonical makes changes in the Unity desktop access is left hanging in the balance. However, the blind user base has taken matters into their own hands, developed an alternative distribution like Vinux 4.0 which is based on Ubuntu 12.04.2, and have tweaked it to get the maximum accessibility out of the screen reader and applications simply because the source is available to do so. Nor is Vinux the only option.
The re is now the Sonar Project which is also based on Ubuntu, but the current version of Sonar is based on Ubuntu 13.04. What makes Sonar a great option is the Sonar Project developers remove Unity and other inaccessible desktops and applications from the Ubuntu 13.04 distribution and replace them with Gnome 3.6, and a large list of accessible apps known to work well with Orca. Again, this is all possible because the source code is available, and there is no legal restriction against modifying the OS, desktops, screen readers, etc. Anyone who has the skills can do what needs done to make Linux very accessible.
The bottom line is including a screen reader as part of an OS probably is not a disservice to the blind users. We don't really have a case in point where that has been the situation yet.
As Sebby pointed out even Narrator has gotten a decent upgrade in Windows 8, and I am glad Microsoft is taking Narrator more seriously. While I do think it has a ways to go befor e I'd consider replacing NVDA or any other screen reader I could use it with most of the Microsoft apps if I could not afford Window-Eyes, Jaws, Supernova, and there wasn't a free alternative like NVDA. Its just one more choice among many.
To be fair to GW Micro though I get what they were getting at. Historically integrated screen readers like Narrator were never as good as one you could purchase from a third-party developer like Freedom Scientific or GW Micro. While VoiceOver is arguably good enough for most people there is little doubt that it could be better. There are features of Jaws or Window-Eyes that could improve VoiceOver, but don't exist in VoiceOver because it isn't Apple's main concern. At this point Apple's development of VoiceOver is to grant a blind customer reasonable accessibility not superior accessibility. That means, at least as GW Micro is concerned, they can do better by focusing specifically on screen reader issues rather than adding it in to the OS as an after thought. That may be true, but when I consider the cost of owning and using Window-Eyes compared to VoiceOver or Orca I am not all that sure Window-Eyes is worth the $1,000 price tag when I can have a reasonable alternative for a lot less..
URL: http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.php?pid=144119#p144119
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