David, I fondly remember VO in the days of Tiger. I was impressed even then for what VO could do and I have sure grown to appreciate where it is going today. It is hard to believe how little time has passed in the scheme of things. Of course a lifetime can occur in the world of technology in the space of 10 years. :)
On Sep 17, 2012, at 8:49 PM, David Chittenden <dchitten...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello, > > Like Windows, Apple relied on a 3rd party program, OutSpoken, for blindness > accessibility back in the 90's. When Berkeley Systems went out of business, > another company bought OutSpoken from them, but only worked on the PC version > of OutSpoken for a couple years. The new company let the Mac version die > immediately. > > In the early 2000's (2002 or 2003 if memory serves), the Department of > Education informed Apple that they would no longer be able to purchase Macs > because of lack of accessibility for the blind. Education was one of Apple's > largest sales streams. According to a friend who will remain nameless, Apple > discussed developing a screen reader with him and others before they decided > to take development inhouse in 2003. The original VoiceOver was released in > OSX Tiger in 2005 (if memory serves), and was a decent screen reader. It was > more functional than Microsoft's Narrator, but was not super impressive. > > And yet, from those humble beginnings, a core shift occurred in Apple's > business model. Accessibility somehow became part of Apple's core structure. > VoiceOver in OSX improved by leaps and bounds with every update of the OS. > > More interestingly, Apple developed a purely touch-based screen reader, from > the ground up, for the iPhone 3GS. Apple stated at the time that the 3GS was > the first mobile phone which had enough processing power to accommodate their > screen reader. Considering that Apple does not apologise for what they do, > and they do not use focus groups, and they are driven by improving the > end-user's experience (not the computer-savvy "geek" experience), I strongly > suspect the screen reader had been developed much earlier and Apple was > waiting for the powerful processor to be ready. The initial 3GS VO was far > too polished compared with the initial OSX Tiger VO. > > Microsoft and Google cannot claim that the phone processor chips did not have > enough power for their screen readers. Android's screen reader is following > the expected progression of a new screen reader that is being developed. It > is finally acquiring something close to VO's polish of the 3GS generation. In > another year, if Google continues as they are going now, I expect TalkBack to > achieve VO's current polish. By that time, of course, I expect VO to be > further along. Apple is the market leader here because they truly have > accessibility as part of their core business. And, they continue appearing to > be the only company which has made such a complete core shift. > > I happen to know that Microsoft's accessibility department is available for > any other MS division which requests accessibility assistance. However, as of > a couple years ago, no MS division was required to consult with the > accessibility team. It is the decision of each MS division / department. > > According to a friend who did some technical consulting with Apple a few > years ago, divisions in Apple were required to consult with the accessibility > team. > > David Chittenden, MSc, MRCAA > Email: dchitten...@gmail.com > Mobile: +64 21 2288 288 > Sent from my iPhone > > On 18/09/2012, at 9:05, Scott Howell <scottn3...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> David, >> >> True, but my point is that although a small portion of the overall sales, >> APple still considers this segment worth the investment. I would love to >> know what the real numbers are across all Apple products including the Macs. >> >> On Sep 17, 2012, at 4:19 PM, David Chittenden <dchitten...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> Do not consider 100,000 iPhones to blind folk to be much of a market in >>> this case. This number represents 0.3% of 1 quarter year of Apple's iPhone >>> sales, but includes all models of iPhones for the past 3 years. In other >>> words, if Apple were to stop supporting VO, they wouldn't even notice the >>> tiny bump to their profits. Apple is not supporting concepts of universal >>> access for their bottom line. >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google >> Group. >> To search the VIPhone public archive, visit >> http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. >> To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. >> >> > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google > Group. > To search the VIPhone public archive, visit > http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/. > To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/viphone?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VIPhone" Google Group. 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