Hello Gordon, While I appreciate your sentiment, because I do not want your post to discourage others from contributing to this thread, I will offer a brief rebuttal to your comments.
First, my question was not meant to suggest that the visually impaired did not have accessible options prior to the modern version of iOS, Mac OS, etc. Consider, Even though mankind had harnessed the power of fire, thousands of years ago, few would argue that the invention of modern matches or a handheld lighter did not increase personal independence. Second, in my opinion, the learning curve of the legacy OS systems was tremendously more difficult to master than modern access technology. Third, many of the members in our community did not use any of the old legacy technology so arguing their existence, in my opinion, is pointless as my question was meant to share our Apple product experiences; not to compare Apple products to other technologies, modern or otherwise. Finally, I want to reiterate that I am only posting this rebuttal because I want everyone to continue to contribute to this thread and not to be, in anyway, discouraged by Gordon's comments. I am not posting this in order to engage in a debate. I hope that more of you will contribute to this thread, keeping with its intended purpose which is to simply share how Apple products have increased your personal independence. Mark -----Original Message----- From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Gordan Radic Sent: Saturday, May 25, 2019 3:43 PM To: viphone@googlegroups.com Subject: Re: Theme Question: In What Ways Have Apple Products, or Their Related Third-Party Apps, Increased Your Level of Personal Independence? Hi to all! I hope i won't be a party breaker but I read some emails on the subjectt and I can't agree with most mentioned. Just to refresh your memory, before iPhone got Voice Over there was a tiny little thing called Symbian, it was used on the Nokia smartphones and there were two screen readers called Talks and Mobile Speak. So, basic things such as calling, keeping up with the contacts, messaging, mailing, calendar, alarms, reading caller ID and even web browsing was available to the blind community times before first iOS with voice over. There wee also music and book players on those old Nokia phones. There were also social media apps and some other things but they weren't accessible with screen readers but, it's not Nokia or Symbian fault, it's the developers thing. We hame the same problems on iOS acasionally. Things we couldn't do on the phone we could do on our PCs. I don't know when exactly Mac got usable Voice Over support but Jaws, Window Eyes, Hal and NVDA are on Windows based PCs for ages. Almost everything mentioned in previous mails was possible for us allthe time and if you ask me, even more than on the iProducts. With all dued respect, I still regularly use my Windows PC for tones of tasks I can do on my phone. So, I can't say that iOS and iDevices in general are not great, they really are but we can't say we didn't live before them. Apple took us to the next level with mobility because we don't need to carry our laptops or whatever with us and we can do things on our iPhones on the go but we were able to do things before iOS with Voice over. S poštovanjem Gordan Radić 25.05.2019 u 19:49, Paul and Paula Jordan je napisao/la: > I was the one who swore I didn't want an IPhone no matter what. That was when > the 4S had just come out. I have had a 7 for the last 2-1/2 years so that in > itself says something. Hard to narrow down to 5 things even with some > honorable mentions, but I'll give it a try. In no particular order: > > 1. the ability to do some things that would otherwise require sighted help: > BE MY EYES, and VOICE DREAM SCANNER to name just two. > 2. The ability to send text messages to keep in touch with others when I'm > not sure they are able to take a phone call, or when I just want to leave a > brief message. > 3. Ability to schedule appointments on a calendar immediately. > 4. Keeping track of where I am either walking or riding a bus or > paratransit: BLIND SQUARE OR NEARBY EXPLORER. > 5. Playing games on my phone just for fun. > > Honorable mentions: 1. Shopping with the SHIPT app and perusing websites > like Chewy at my leisure. > 2. Watching TV using the spectrum app even when I don't have a TV right > where I am whether outside or in a different room from the set. > 3. Quickly finding business phone numbers or addresses. > 4. Using UBER instead of a taxi since they are quicker, I can contact the > driver directly whether than a dispatcher, and they are often cheaper. > God bless! > > I'm sure there are more, but that's a good start. Paula and Garçon > -----Original Message----- > From: viphone@googlegroups.com [mailto:viphone@googlegroups.com] On > Behalf Of M. Taylor > Sent: Friday, May 24, 2019 1:49 PM > To: viphone@googlegroups.com > Subject: Theme Question: In What Ways Have Apple Products, or Their Related > Third-Party Apps, Increased Your Level of Personal Independence? > > Hello Everyone, > > What are the 5 most significant ways that iOS, Watch OS, Mac OS, TV OS and/or > any of their third-party apps increased your level of personal independence. > > As for me:. > > 1. > The ability to manage and pay my bills via all of the financial apps such as > Capital One, Bank of America, Apple Pay, etc. > > 2. > The ability to navigate with infinitely more confidence with apps like Seeing > Eye GPS Xt, Apple Maps, Uber, Nearby Explorer, etc. > > 3. > The ability to read printed documents and acquire product information, on the > fly, with apps such as K.N.F.B. Reader, Money Reader, the native iOS camera > app, Seeing A.I., etc. > > 4. > The ability to quickly and easily access social media and news with apps such > as Twitter, the native Apple News app, NFB Newsline, Lire Full Text RSS news > reader, Good Reads, Yelp, You Tube, etc. > > 5. > The ability to quickly and easily access books with apps such as BARD Mobile, > Kindle, Apple Books, and of course, my beloved Over Drive. > > Honorable Memtions: > 1. > TV Guide Mobile. > > 2. > CA Lottery app. > > 3. > The Parcel Track package tracking app. > > 4. > Digit Eyes Bar Code reader. > > 5. > The My Chart medical App. > > I look forward to all of your replies, > > Mark > > > -- > The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. > > If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if > you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or > moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. > > Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: > mk...@ucla.edu. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at > caraqu...@caraquinn.com > > The archives for this list can be searched at: > http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/ > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "VIPhone" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone/000301d51258%24f7783550%24e6689ff0%24%40edu. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: mk...@ucla.edu. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at caraqu...@caraquinn.com The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/viphone@googlegroups.com/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to viphone+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to viphone@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/viphone/27b1caa5-5e08-bdb7-6404-7fd7f4b4a6dc%40gmail.com. 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