Well that was not my personal experience with the Freedom Scientific
people I meet with at the NFB convention in Atlanta. They were helpful
in providing various PACMAT models for my testing. They have provided
their braille displays to Apple so that they may be supported in the
up coming versions of the OS. Now I will admit that neither of these
issues require any real effort on Freedoms part.
Perhaps Jonathan was referring to producing a screen reader for Mac in
the past. I know that they and GW Micro were both approached by Apple
about producing a Mac version of Jaw and WindowEye, both refused and
Apple went on to make VoiceOver.
I can only go by my personal experience with Freedom which has been
positive and helpful to this Mac user anyway.
Greg Kearney
On Jul 20, 2007, at 21:44 , Cheryl Edwards wrote:
Hi Greg and all,
I must say that I am rather perplexed about the comments made
concerning Freedom's willingness to work with Apple, and, especially
the comments concerning Jonathan MOSEN.. Why? Well, Mr. Mosen has
been a friend of mine for several years now and both while working
for Humanware and now for Freedom has made it very clear to me, as a
Mac user, there was no interest by either company to do anything
with Apple because the "user-base is so small". At the convention
of the American Council of the Blind, held the first week of this
month, I had lunch with Mr. MOSEN. where we discussed Freedom's
future involvement with Apple. He said that Freedom did a "once-a-
year check" to assess if they had any cause to become involved with
Apple and according to their evaluation they saw none.
We had a rather heated discussion about, what I see, as nothing less
than an arrogant attitude taken by Freedomcccct of the big boy on
the block who has nothing to worry about, safe and snug in the bed
of its reputation and "user-base". He did not share my opinion, but
instead saw Apple as a company who forsook the blindness community
in regards to accessibility and called them the "enemy" of the
blind. He was worried that Freedom would have anything to do with
Apple and saw that relationship as a negative, not a positive.
My apologies if my remarks cause any offence, but I have been a Mac
user since 1987 and for as long as I have been acquainted with
Freedom, asking them to look at issues of compatibility I have
experienced only attitudes of snobbery. Even so far as a vendor
laughing, asking me, "Why in the world would you every want to use a
Mac"?
Please, let it be stated here, very clearly, that my remarks are NOT
meant as an personal attack on Jonathan, not at all! My intentions
here are simply to communicate to a somewhat private list my concern
for mixed messages we are getting from vendors whom I am not exactly
certain have a real intention of doing anything other than pacifying
those of us who are making some much needed noise. I do not think
this is appropriate behavior; it is akin to being strung along in an
uncertain relationship. I think it behooves us to hold their feet
to the fire, to not settle in to a position of contentment by their
answer and sitting and waiting. I think we need to make it clear we
are just as viable a "user-base" as those who choose to use a
different platform.
The reasoning of third party companies seems to be that of a
ferris-wheel that does not stop to let anyone else on. "The user-
base is too small". Well, how can it get larger if you will do
nothing to include the needs of that small user-base, enabling more
people to join it? It's a difficult circle to get a secure vendor
to open and let others in.
With sincere and concerned regards,
Cheryl
