Hi Ray,
I think BEX was the Braille Edit or Express program you are talking about. I hated the speech for the Apple II Es. They sounded so harsh and mechaniacal. For someone who was just starting to use a screen reader at the time, it was hard for me to adjust because I hated the sound quality of the speech. No we have these wonderful programs like voice over and the sappy speech voices to choose from with Jaws. The screen reading and speech technology has sure evolved for the better since the 1980s. I do miss though playing Wagons's West. That was a computer game for the Magic Slate program for the Apple II E. You were like the travelers going west on a wagon train. It was a lot of fun! Sarah From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com [mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Ray Foret Jr Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 1:02 PM To: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: introduction Wow!!! I have fond memories of the Apple II E and the Echo II speech synthesizer. Back in those days, just about all we had were the 5.25 floppy drives and a program called "Work Station". That was a group of five small programs encoding a word processor which could deal with a grand total of five pages. Yep, just five pages. Wow! Of course, then came "Word Talk TM. That was on two 5.25 floppies. Then, "Braille Edit Express". Remember those? Kind of wish they still made Braille Edit Express for the Mac. Now that was one very utilitarian program if I say so myself. Sincerely, The Constantly Barefooted Ray!!! Now a very proud and happy Mac user!!! Skype name: barefootedray Facebook: facebook.com/ray.foretjr.1 <http://www.facebook.com/ray.foretjr.1> On Apr 1, 2011, at 12:46 PM, Sarah May wrote: Hi Charlie, Thanks for the warm welcome. I am very lucky to have a family that is able to afford buying me a Mac right now. I am a very lucky person indeed! I understand what it is like to go from being able to read the screen to using just a screen reader. It was many, many, years ago, but before the RP took most of my vision when I was twelve, I used magnification software as well. Back then I had an Apple II E and was using Magic Slate. How have the times changed from then. LOL Still, I remember how it was such an adjustment for me to go from trying to read what was on the screen to using what I thought was the horrible mechanical voice reading what was on the screen to me. At first I used an Apple screen reading program called BEX. Then I learned how to use The early versions of Jaws with dos programs for Word Perfect. After that the rest is history. I never really got a choice if I wanted to learn Jaws or another company's screen reading program for Windows PC computers. I was stuck with Jaws and that's all I had to go by. Anyhow, I know it may take you some time to get use to using just the screen reading program, and only listening to what's on the screen instead of looking at it, but your eyes will so appreciate you not abusing them. I no longer have the ability to read any size print. I haven't since I was fourteen years old. So I had to make the transition to learning how to use the screen reading software and Braille for my ways to read pretty fast. Yes, everyone on the list seems so friendly and helpful. If I have any questions I will ask. I'm not afraid to ask questions. It also helps me that I have a friend who has a Macbook who uses voice over. He said if I needed his help to call him any time. Well again, thanks for the welcome Charlie. Sarah -----Original Message----- From: macvisionaries@googlegroups.com [mailto:macvisionaries@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Charlie Bates Sent: Friday, April 01, 2011 2:00 AM To: MacVisionaries Subject: Re: introduction hello Sarah Congratulations! what fantastic presents you received for your birthday! i wish I had a lovely family like yours! Welcome to the world of mac - you will never look back! It really is a more user friendly platform. I am learning voiceover too. I have low vision and have previously just used the zooming feature within OSX but now feel like i want to use voiceover full time to avoid straining my eyes and harming my body with bad posture. It's quite difficult for me as even when i was on windows I was just using magnification software (zoomtext) so i don't have a screenreader background. The people on this list are really great. Dont be afraid to ask questions. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
