Spoken interface for Mac OS X

[David Poehlman]

I think we have heard similar claims in the past by others which turned out 
to be a bit shy of the truth.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Janina Sajka" <janina at rednote.net>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2004 7:16 PM
Subject: Re: Spoken interface for Mac OS X


Well, Apple is fairly confident that many applications will talk out of the 
box. As I recall the demo I had, they're saying something along the lines of 
90% of the apps written with their new developer tools where accessibility 
support has been included since the tools where released two years ago. 
We'll see, of course, when we get a closer look.

Also, I suspect that "screen reader" may not be the right term. In fact, 
Apple isn't using this term, and I think they're correct. There's no 
"reading of the screen" going on. Rather the objects which make up the 
application all have accessible properties which are queried to support the 
spoken interface. So, while there's an on screen interface, the spoken 
interface is actually a synchronized parallel interface.

At least, this is how I understand what I heard during my half hour or so 
with Apple last Thursday.

Sean Murphy writes:
> Hi All.
>
> As the saying goes, don't count your chickens until they all have hatch. 
> I
> be very surprised if version 1 of the product works with many commercial
> applications other than the OS itself.  Think about the number of years 
> that
> the windows screen readers have taken to get to their current point. 
> There
> is a lot of issues that has to be taken into concideration when designing 
> a
> screen reader.  How flexiable will the product be, will it be like 
> Microsoft
> Narritor or the old Berkly Outspoken.
>
> Time will see.
>
> Also, the market share that Apple has is very small and it will be
> interesting how much of an impack it will have to the mark for 
> disabilities.
>
> Sean
>
>
>
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> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
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-- 

Janina Sajka, Director
Technology Research and Development
Governmental Relations Group
American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175

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