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Re: screen reader open source?

for

From: Joshue O Connor
Date: Nov 22, 2006 2:50AM

Alastair Campbell wrote:

>> As a not-very-often user, the experience is much nicer with Voiceover
>> than Jaws, mostly because of the smoother voice and the stability.

Many of our service users in Ireland have also been very impressed with
Voiceover and as Alastair mentions like the 'feel' of the application.
The whole experience of using Voiceover is smoother that JAWS, its much
less mechanical, and I don't think its just down to the voice synthesis.
I think that is also down to small things like the delay between
activating a keystroke and command activation (if that makes sense), it
just seems richer. I would love to see it developed further and hope
that Apple have plans to do so. Maybe the fact that Microsoft have
improved Narrator in Vista (and lets face it, that wouldn't be hard)
will mean that the development of a fully featured native screen reader
embedded in the OS could become a reality; In the year 2525.

At the ICCHP conference this year I did seriously suggest to Rob
Sinclair that Microsoft should just go ahead and buy Freedom Scientific
and merge JAWS with the Windows OS. Ain't gonna happen, but they have
the cash, so all you can do is ask. Or how about a higher spec version
of Windows for people with disabilities that has more developed AT apps
like a screen reader (licensed from FS or GW Micro) built in?

>> If it picks up on structural code in HTML, and gets (or adds) support
>> for some required apps, it will be a contender, especially at that
>> price.

Definitely. If Apple even added basic structural navigation capability
that would be a leap forward.

Josh

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