Let me just say a few things. I have not like some of you perceive
attacked apple or the Mac, although I do think users of the Mac are
quite silly sometimes about their defense of the Mac, for example, you
seem to think I have some kind of personal grievance against Apple.
You couldn't be more wrong. I just happen not to agree with you about
all of the plaudits you are giving Apple. I like what Apple is doing,
but I have to ask, why did it take them so long to start? Ever since
I started working with the LISA you could see that Apple's equipment
had great potential for accessibility. Instead of putting a lot of
time and effort into making their systems accessible they chose to
only give this a minimal effort and were almost put out of business by
Microsoft. Now, I'm not saying that was the only mistake Apple made.
To my mind they made a lot of bonehead mistakes that caused their
problems. Now, back to the Itunes thing that seems to have gotten
your bowels in an uproar. I simply stated that it wouldn't be hard
for Apple to fix Itunes so that every time Itunes was updated you
didn't have to get sighted help to click on the button to agree to the
Itunes store terms. Calm down and take a stress pill. I won't be
publicly critical of Apple again on this list if it gets you'll so
upset, although the lists description is for the general discussion of
the Mac.
On Aug 24, 2008, at 5:37 AM, Scott Howell wrote:
John, your wasting your time because Tim just doesn't feel anyone is
looking out for his best interest and because we're blind, we're
subject to being snowed. Got news for you Tim , that isn't the case.
Instead of taking such a negative approach, why not take the
opposite and realize that things don't happen as quickly as we like.
Point is your statements might be based on personal experience, I
don't know, but they are way off the mark from my perspective. I
assume your using the Mac? If so, do you find anything about your
experience you do enjoy? I'm just a bit confused by this entire
thread once we got beyond the issue of iTunes. I use iTunes actually
a great deal as a musician. Itunes isn't perfect, but (and we go
full circle) it is over 90 percent accessible. I find the store is
the greatest challenge, but for nearly everything else, I've had
great success with it. YOu want to talk about software that's not
accessible, lets talk about iWorks which is something I'd like to
see Apple get going. Open Office is getting there, but it's not even
there yet. In the end Tim, you need to look at the amount of time
invested and the results of that investment. In the scheme of
things, Apple really is years ahead in terms of making OSX etc.
accessible as compared to how long it took for windows-based screen
readers to achieve the same results. Does this make sense now?
On Aug 23, 2008, at 10:59 PM, John Panarese wrote:
No Tim. You are falling back on a weak defense that is pointless
to debate. You are implying that the blind, overall, are lied to
or can be spoon fed anything from anyone. Both assertions are
baseless and foolish. One can make the same claim for the sighted
as well and be equally wrong. In regard to this topic, since the
advent of VoiceOver, I believe Apple's progress speaks for itself.
Thus, who is being forced or fooled into believing what? It amazes
me that when one personalizes an issue, the grounds to defend that
issue become blurred at best. The original subject was iTunes
accessibility. You don't think it's good enough nor will it
improve. Others believe otherwise. I think that's perfectly clear
after all of this, and, again, comes back to opinions. In this
case, though, the body of evidence indicates the latter, as opposed
to the former.
Take Care
John Panarese
