I liked the fact that VoiceOver was a part of the operating system and not a bolt on, third party product.
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I had read material about VoiceOver a few Mac user friends had sent me, and being that I had family and friends on Macs for many years happily computing without all of the problems and frustrations that I was experiencing as a Windows user, it very much intrigued me. So, in April of 2005, I heard that Apple had included VoiceOver, their screen access solution, as a part of their latest version of OS X, called, Tiger. Frankly, it has simply come with the territory that I had to become much more familiar with the nuts and bolts of the operating system and applications and their interactions with the operating system, and not a case of me trying to brag or boast. I have conducted my daily business tasks and my personal hobbies via a computer, and, to be honest, I have to say that my proficiency in utilizing a computer is probably more advanced and technical than most sighted folks by necessity more than by choice. All along, I dealt with the unexpected and frustrating crashes, the constant concerns for security, viruses and spyware, and all of the other insane elements of using a Windows computer that folks have seemingly just come to accept as the “norm”. Simultaneously, I made the jumps from Windows 95 to Windows 98 to Windows ME to Windows 2000 and then Windows XP (I won’t touch Windows Vista at this point at all). Well, Window-Bridge became JAWS for a while, which eventually became Window-Eyes for my screen access use as the years passed and screen reader technology progressed. I won’t try to convince anyone that it was an easy or smooth transition, yet I persisted and slowly became more and more comfortable with the whole experience to the point in which I was soon giving technical support help to customers. Slimware Window-Bridge was my screen reader of choice, which I literally learned at the same time as Windows 95 completely on my own without training. At that time, it happened to be Windows 95, and after all the horror stories I had heard and warnings from other blind people about trying to use a GUI, I was extremely uncomfortable and apprehensive. In 1996 or so, I reluctantly took the leap from DOS and command line computer use to Windows. Below are some of my reflections on this subject, which I hope might help or assist, or, at the very least, give encouragement to current or future switchers. Reading about the common problems and difficulties and, of course, successes encountered by new Mac users has prompted me to think about my own personal experiences involved in learning VoiceOver and the Mac. This is, in no way, an attempt at a tutorial or any kind of technical document. Note that this article was originally written shortly after the release of OS 10.4 and the birth of VoiceOver.Īs blind users investigate or actually make the switch from Windows to the Mac, there has been a lot of discussion about the aspects of this change on the blind Mac users email lists. Making the Jump Out of Windows: My Experience as a Switcher to the Mac
This page will offer general commentaries or non-specific posts that still pertain to accessibility on the Mac or iDevices which might not directly relate to any specific topics covered in the other pages on this site.
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