I realize this isn't exactly a politically correct response, but ...
If he wants those things, then he could take the time to learn apple
script, and do whatever he likes with the browser, including using
spark to tie keystrokes to scripts, and doing whatever he likes with
safari. Virtual buffers aren't necessary if the content is
adequately represented as I believe it is in safari.
It bugs me that everyone wants things to work the way they're used
to, but yet they refuse to do anything to assist that effort.
Sighted as well as blind folks fall prey to this, so I'm not picking
on anyone in particular here, just stating a general observation.
On Apr 2, 2006, at 4:16 PM, David Poehlman wrote:
Ah, but safari with vo is not similar to window eyes / jaws. I
think it works well, but he'd want all those quick keys and a
virtual bufferr....
On Apr 2, 2006, at 2:02 PM, Travis Siegel wrote:
1. A web browser with a feature set similar to that in JAWS or
Window-Eyes
Safari works for *most* web browsing functions. I find it
misbehaves on sites specifically requiring IE browsers, but 90% of
the time,, this isn't consideration (at least with the sites I
visit) Only my online classes prove difficult to impossible because
they're coded specifically for ie, and if it doesn't detect it, it
won't send the content. I don't know if this could be fixed by
spoofing the id strings of the browser or not, haven't tried.
2. A fully featured word processor with an outliner and
collaboration
tools.
Text edit works for most editing tasks. Nisus writer works too,
though it's a bit more work.
3. A personal organization program like Outlook that can handle
calendar,
task list, contacts and email that can synchronize with my HP iPAQ
Several apps here, some are more vo friendly than others.
Mac doesn't have a all in one solution for this, nor would I use it
if it did, I'm not a fan of all in one apps.
Address book (can sync with phone, I do it all the time)
mail for mail (can take addresses from addressbook)
Ical for calendars, though it's not as vo friendly as it might be,
and I prefer squirrelmail with the calendar plugin anyhow. Softcon
uses it, and other providers too, it shouldn't be hard to find one.
4. Skype.
That's easy, use skype for the mac.
5. A spreadsheet with many of the JAWS augmentations so I can
work on
complex five year budgets and such.
No clue what you mean by jaws enhancements, but I've not found a
spreadsheet on the mac I like anyhow. There are terminal apps
that might fill the bill if excell compatibility isn't a concern.
6. A media player that can handle: audible.com, MP3, Daisy, OGG,
Real and
most anything I might stumble across that is highly accessible.
Itunes with the audible plugin will handle the audible content.
Quicktime, Real player, VLC, and others can do everything else
except for the daisy books, which is handled nicely by Katie player.
Of course, ITunes can play all the formats except perhaps ogg
(havn't tried) and daisy as well, but honestly, I don't use itunes
if I can help it.
7. A good compiler and development environment with which I can
quickly
slap together 3D audio and haptics experiments (Direct X does the
job on
Windows).
I'm not sure about accessible environment, but apple's Xtools has
everything needed for programming on the mac, including 2d/3d sound
support. However, since those tools aren't always the best
environment, quicktime's apis work nicely, and with the added
benefit of being available on the windows platform as well, so that
any programs written using standard c and the quicktime apis is
about 90% cross platform compatible. A few if defines, and you've
got a program that will compile on windows or mac.
8. UPNP control software for my research into smart spaces.
Can't help there, don't do that kind of thing.
9. High quality 3D sound, including HRTF for my research.
Again, quicktime apis will handle most of this, and if it doesn't,
the core audio frameworks will.
10. Ability to handle most haptic (force feedback) devices I can
buy at
Best Buy or Circuit City for my research.
I'd imagine a lot of the high-end devices will already have apple
drivers included, and if not, checking the manufacturer's web site
will yield a few not shipped with the devices I'm sure. Apple has
a *very* rich environment for game programming, and I expect we'll
be seeing a lot of mainstream game developers supporting mac
platforms in the coming years.
