My first impressions of VoiceOver.

[John G. Heim]

I have a couple of questions...

Are you saying  Mac os comes with a usable screen reader?  I mean, even if 
it is a little rough, it would be ahead of Windows.

Also, you said it talks during installation. Are you saying a blind person 
can install the operating system without sighted assistance? That too would 
be better than Windows.





At 09:09 AM 4/29/2005, you wrote:
>Hi all.





>I ordered a copy of Mac OS X 10.4 a week or so ago, and it arrived
>today. I am writing this message to give some of you an idea of what the
>screen reader is like, and how accessible everything is.
>
>First off, the installation is spoken, however it is quite slow. This is
>partly due to the fact that it is being read off a DVD, and also due to
>the fact I installed it on a second hand G3 powermac that I have. You
>simply turn on VoiceOver by pressing Command + F5. The command key is
>like the Alt key on a PC keyboard. In fact, I am using a PC keyboard
>with the mac, and the command key is in fact the Windows key used to
>bring up the start menu.
>
>I installed the OS as normal without speech, and activated speech once I
>was into the desktop.
>
>One of the biggest problems, is you have to use the Ctrl + Option keys
>to do a lot of your voice navigating, especially websites. Imagine
>having to press Ctrl + Option to read every line/paragraph on a website.
>It is not fun and not erganomic.
>
>So most of your navigation is done with the VoiceOver cursor, and
>practically no changes have been made to the interface of the OS to
>allow navigation with tab and the arrow keys, like in Windows.
>
>Feel free to email me with any questions or if you want anything in
>particular checked out. I would be happy to do so.
>
>Luke
>
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--
John G. Heim
jheim at math.wisc.edu
3-4189