When Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the first Apple computer in a garage in the late 70s, I don’t think they realized how much of an impact their tinkering would have on the modern world, let alone the world of the blind.
My first experience with apple computers came when I was young and the CNIB hosted a program whereby blind and low vision children would receive computers as part of a technology training program. I qualified under the low vision category. The first computer I used was an Apple IIe, complete with a spinach screen and two 5.25” floppy disk drives.
The Apple went back and I lived for some time without a computer. That was until high school when I got my first Mac—a Macintosh LC with 4 megabytes of RAM and a 40 MB hard drive. The screen was a 12” 8-bit CRT display and I even got a microphone with it. The LC was a decent little computer for its time and I had loads of fun using Hypercard, SuperPaint and ClarisWorks to complete assignments for school and just have fun.
After the LC I upgraded to the Macintosh LC 630. Now, I had a CD-ROM drive and could enjoy CDs. I also had a 350 MB hard drive and 20 megs of RAM. That was huge in the mid-90s and I appreciated it a lot. Sadly, the monitor I had had an awful colour gamut, but was usable enough to do things like some sound editing, more Hypercard and communicating with FirstClass, a BBS client that allowed me access to Mac run bulletin board systems.
I used CloseView, the Macintosh’s screen magnification program, to enlarge the screen to the point where I could see menus, icons and other screen text.
I also had a Powerbook and used it during part of my first year of university. I don’t remember the specs, but its main purpose was as a note taker.
Near the end of high school, I began losing my vision due to a rare eye disease. Finally, the day I dreaded came near the end of my first year of university. I switched to the PC.
My first PC used JAWS which stands for Job Access With Speech. (Yes, I realize the W stands for “with.”) JAWS is a popular screen reader for the PC. It converts on screen events into synthesized speech, allowing me to control most Windows applications with the keyboard.
My history with JAWS is a shaky one. I initially used JAWS 3.2—a moderately effective package for creating and editing documents in Microsoft Word and Excel and an adequate piece of software for browsing the interwebs. This is when I quickly learned that not all programs for the PC were created for screen readers and that screen readers were very specialized pieces of software. For example, my initial purchase of jaws cost more than $1200 Canadian. Add a software maintenance agreement to that and the cost goes up to over $1500 and that’s not including applicable taxes.
Over the years, JAWS eventually improved to the point where I use it every day for work in programs like Outlook, Word, Excel, Internet Explorer and FireFox. I also use JAWS with Sony Sound Forge. I use SF to record, edit and mix commercials for the radio station, thanks to scripts from The Snowman.
JAWS, My Pcs and Windows were not without their flaws. Hardware conflicts, software glitches, the ubiquitous blue screen of death and other ailments plagued me for many years. I hung on though and each time I got a new JAWS release, I lived with the thought that things were getting better for accessibility to the PC. Unfortunately, JAWS seemed to improve marginally while applications and the web advanced at their own pace. JAWS always seemed to be playing catch up with these developments.
One day, I heard that Apple had developed their own screen reader for the Macintosh platform and I began reacquainting myself with Apple. I read blogs, listened to podcasts and communicated with several people who had taken the plunge and were using the Mac and its built-in screen reader, Voiceover. I held my breath, wondering if this was equivalent to Narrator on Windows. Much to my amazement, it was far from anything Windows could offer. Voiceover was a complete screen reader and allowed a blind person to use a Mac in a very similar manner to their sighted colleagues.
Since Voiceover was built in to OS X starting with Tiger, upgrades came in the form of software upgrades for the operating system and not software maintenance upgrades for the screen reader alone. Again, I held my breath to see if Apple was simply placating the blind with a screen reader for the sake of saying they did something for accessibility or whether they were really serious. OS X Tiger gave way to Leopard and Voiceover leapt ahead light years from where it was before. It had a new voice, better compatibility with Mac applications and a growing user base. This got me thinking a bit more seriously about switching, yet I was still very cautious.
After some more frustrations with JAWS on my current machine, I one day vowed that my next computer would be a Mac. I waited, read, listened and began to seriously follow Apple’s developments.
Last week, I finally took my Neil Armstrong first step and ordered a Mac Book Pro. It arrives tomorrow and I am very excited for what I see as a homecoming—my return to the Mac after a 12 year hiatus. I will report my experiences here with OS X Leopard and Voiceover and give you my impressions of how Apple’s screen reader works on the Mac. As I understand it, there is both a lot to be praised and room for improvement.
If you’d like more information on Voiceover, visit Apple’s accessibility page, or visit the Maccessibility website/a. Both are loaded with useful information, resources and links.
Until next time…
Tags: accessible computers, Apple, JAWS for Windows, Mac screen reader, OS X, screen reader, Voiceover
