[gui-talk] Fwd: mac spoken interface (fwd)

[Travis Siegel]

The speech capabilities that apple is putting into OSX is really more of a
speech API than an actual screen reader.  They are modifying all of the
software that ships with OSX to use this api, and they're pushing it
*very* hard in their training sessions for programmers.  As it stands,
there are three methods of creating programs for OSX.  I can't remember
exactly what they're called, but it's basically, using apples pment kits
(this makes 90% of the program accessable) Build your own interface (this
is the most work to make talk, and unfortunately is what most developers
are doing from what I understand) and there's the one in the middle,
anything written for OSX (previous versions) is somewhere in the middle.
All of the methods can use the speech api, but each one takes differing
levels of work to make it behave properly.  Apple is really putting a lot
of work into this product, and although they're touting it as a screen
reader, it's really more of an API that other developers *should*, but are
under no obligation, to use.  However, since Apple is pushing it fairly
hard, I'd imagine there will be a good number of applications that will
work with the interface.
Unfortunately though, this reader is tied into the gui portion of the os,
and text-based (they call them terminal apps) do not at this time talk.  I
have offered to port YASR or speakup to the mac os, but I have yet to hear
back from Apple on what they'd like to do about that.
I did spend several hours talking to the Apple rep at the ACB convention,
and I honestly believe that apple is committed to making oS 10 accessable
to the blind and visually impaired users, and I also believe that given
time, they will ensure that *all* apps have at least some speech
capabilities.  Watch them, and see how it goes.  They are really working
hard on this, and I believe they can pull it off if enough blind folks
actually purchase their machines.  It's ff course still in alpha or beta
testing, (I don't own a mac, sou couldn't get into the testing team), but
the folks testing it are fairly good at it, and I think they'll keep
things straight.  I'd suggest everyone that wants an accessable mac,
email, call or write to apple, and tell them that you appreciate their
efforts, and ask if there's anything you can do to help.  I think if they
get enough requests, they may try to speed up the process if they can.