RE: Has anyone ever considered using the Apple Mac?
Hi Rick, Though a bit pricy, I like the thoroughness of the website called, mac for the blind. It is done by a man who used the windows operating system for many years and decided that he likes using the mac better. However, he still keeps up with windows, because I believe he taches the use of windows as well. Check out his website. I don't have the link, but as I mentioned, the name of the website is, mac for the blind dot com. Paulette -Original Message- From: Talk [mailto:talk-bounces+paulette=evickery@lists.window-eyes.com] On Behalf Of Rod Hutton via Talk Sent: Sunday, May 27, 2018 3:56 PM To: Window-Eyes Discussion List Cc: Rod Hutton Subject: FW: Has anyone ever considered using the Apple Mac? Hi everyone, Further to my recent post which I quote below, I learned a hot key which gave me access to certain controls on my grocery website which, up to now, I could only access using my Windows 10 machine; therefore, while it was a guess that there was something inherently superior about the accessibility framework within Windows, my recent experience has rekindled my hope that perhaps I can trust my Mac to allow me to access all of the web resources I need after all. Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that web designers love to use pop-up dialog boxes on their pages, and I didn't realize that VoiceOver on the Mac has a special hot key which allows such a dialog to be accessed; for anyone using a Mac, and who might need it, this hot key is Ctrl-Option-Shift-End; I had been using Ctrl-Option-End, and had assumed that the controls I was looking for were at the bottom of the page, as, indeed, they were in Firefox on Windows. However, being a relative novice to the Mac, I am still learning, as, indeed, am I continually challenged by the often arbitrary decisions of web developers in designing their pages. At this point, then, I cannot honestly say whether, in the long run, I will say that Mac or Windows will prove to be the best tool for accessing the web, but I did buy a Mac with the intention of abandoning Windows if I could, and, today, this seems like a good bet. I just wanted to point to a couple of issues which might challenge anyone coming to the Mac from Windows. One is the need to learn a great number of hot keys, not just for the VoiceOver screen reader, but for the operating system as well, and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason behind their choice by the software developers. Perhaps the greatest challenge, however, is the fact that Windows users have been spoiled by the continual presence of a focused cursor where we can interact with the interface immediately, and our screen reader can quickly query the cursor status. This is not true in the Mac OS, since, as with IOS, the user must first review the screen to find a control, and then press the Interact hot key in order to work with it. Personally, I can still more quicly edit text on Windows than on my Mac or my IOS devices. I'm getting better, but over 30 years doing this on Windows is a long time to be spoiled doing it the easy way. No doubt I'll get better over time, but it still seems like a chore on my Apple devices. Clearly, I will put the time and effort necessary to become proficient on my Mac because I want the benefits associated with switching to the Mac, namely, a sleek and elegant computer with a builtin screen reader, built by a company with a reputation for producing high quality and digitally secure hardware and software. Incidentally, I find it interesting that the newest incarnations of Narrator on Windows 10 have a Scan mode, where the user can review the entire screen, and, once the user finds a control to work with, the Scan mode can be exited, and the control worked with. Obviously, the Microsoft developers see the advantage of the Apple screen review system. In truth, access technologies are becoming more uniform, and so, in a way, it really doesn't matter which device you purchase, since you need not spend extra money for adaptive technology. I also wanted to highlight a point raised by David on the issue of updates within the Mac operating system. I believe Macs used to have the reputation of infrequent updates; perhaps this is true of the core operating system. However, more recently, and, indeed, since I've had a Mac, I've seen a bit of a flurry of updates, especially to negate some security vulnerabilities which have surfaced, and some pretty dumb oversights that made Apple look stupid too. However, in addition, since I have Office 365 installed on my Mac, I'm noticing Microsoft updating Outlook and OneDrive almost weekly, in a attempt to deal with security issues, yes, but also in order to roll out accessibility improvements to their software, This does point to Microsoft's commitment to ongoing accessibility evolution, and so Apple users are benefiting from this commitment as much as are Windows users. And, indeed, when one sees the ongoing improvement to
FW: Has anyone ever considered using the Apple Mac?
Hi everyone, Further to my recent post which I quote below, I learned a hot key which gave me access to certain controls on my grocery website which, up to now, I could only access using my Windows 10 machine; therefore, while it was a guess that there was something inherently superior about the accessibility framework within Windows, my recent experience has rekindled my hope that perhaps I can trust my Mac to allow me to access all of the web resources I need after all. Without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that web designers love to use pop-up dialog boxes on their pages, and I didn't realize that VoiceOver on the Mac has a special hot key which allows such a dialog to be accessed; for anyone using a Mac, and who might need it, this hot key is Ctrl-Option-Shift-End; I had been using Ctrl-Option-End, and had assumed that the controls I was looking for were at the bottom of the page, as, indeed, they were in Firefox on Windows. However, being a relative novice to the Mac, I am still learning, as, indeed, am I continually challenged by the often arbitrary decisions of web developers in designing their pages. At this point, then, I cannot honestly say whether, in the long run, I will say that Mac or Windows will prove to be the best tool for accessing the web, but I did buy a Mac with the intention of abandoning Windows if I could, and, today, this seems like a good bet. I just wanted to point to a couple of issues which might challenge anyone coming to the Mac from Windows. One is the need to learn a great number of hot keys, not just for the VoiceOver screen reader, but for the operating system as well, and there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason behind their choice by the software developers. Perhaps the greatest challenge, however, is the fact that Windows users have been spoiled by the continual presence of a focused cursor where we can interact with the interface immediately, and our screen reader can quickly query the cursor status. This is not true in the Mac OS, since, as with IOS, the user must first review the screen to find a control, and then press the Interact hot key in order to work with it. Personally, I can still more quicly edit text on Windows than on my Mac or my IOS devices. I'm getting better, but over 30 years doing this on Windows is a long time to be spoiled doing it the easy way. No doubt I'll get better over time, but it still seems like a chore on my Apple devices. Clearly, I will put the time and effort necessary to become proficient on my Mac because I want the benefits associated with switching to the Mac, namely, a sleek and elegant computer with a builtin screen reader, built by a company with a reputation for producing high quality and digitally secure hardware and software. Incidentally, I find it interesting that the newest incarnations of Narrator on Windows 10 have a Scan mode, where the user can review the entire screen, and, once the user finds a control to work with, the Scan mode can be exited, and the control worked with. Obviously, the Microsoft developers see the advantage of the Apple screen review system. In truth, access technologies are becoming more uniform, and so, in a way, it really doesn't matter which device you purchase, since you need not spend extra money for adaptive technology. I also wanted to highlight a point raised by David on the issue of updates within the Mac operating system. I believe Macs used to have the reputation of infrequent updates; perhaps this is true of the core operating system. However, more recently, and, indeed, since I've had a Mac, I've seen a bit of a flurry of updates, especially to negate some security vulnerabilities which have surfaced, and some pretty dumb oversights that made Apple look stupid too. However, in addition, since I have Office 365 installed on my Mac, I'm noticing Microsoft updating Outlook and OneDrive almost weekly, in a attempt to deal with security issues, yes, but also in order to roll out accessibility improvements to their software, This does point to Microsoft's commitment to ongoing accessibility evolution, and so Apple users are benefiting from this commitment as much as are Windows users. And, indeed, when one sees the ongoing improvement to the Seeing AI app in IOS as well, the link between Micro soft and Apple seems pretty tight. Well, I will end here for now, and no doubt I'll write more as I find things worth sharing. All the best, Rod Sent from Outlook 2010 for Windows -Original Message- From: Rod Hutton Sent: Friday, May 25, 2018 10:46 AM To: Window-Eyes Discussion List Subject: RE: Has anyone ever considered using the Apple Mac? Hi Paulette, You'll probably remember me, Rod Hutton, from Canada. I called you some time back, when you needed some insight into podcast software for your iPhone. I can certainly call you again, but I can write a bit about my experience with this
