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You are here: MacNN Forums > Enthusiast Zone > Classic Macs and Mac OS > Disability accessibility options poor in Mac

Disability accessibility options poor in Mac
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RandallP2
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Join Date: May 1999
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Nov 3, 2001, 11:00 PM
 
One area that the Mac is falling down in, badly, is in the tools to make the Mac accessible to disabled users. The only tools Apple provided in the past were a CloseView control panel and Sticky Keys utility. Apple never took advantage of its great text-to-speech capability in any of its own applications.

Guess what?

1. CloseView doesn't even work on new iBooks, and if you try to run it in Classic environment, it locks up under OS9.2.

2. OS X doesn't even have a CloseView (magnification and screen inversion) capability, only a sticky keys capability.

3. Meanwhile, even Window ME has extensive accessibility options that let you tailor screen colors, magnification, etc.

4. Windows XP talks it even further, with a Narrator utility built into the operating system to allow system, Explorer, and basic applications to be used by the non-sighted.

As someone who works with some disable folks, this really stinks. And, given that 3 million yuppies will be losing their vision to macular degeneration in the next 20 years or so, Apple is blowing its usability reputation for a big chunk of the market.
     
jsteinborn
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Minnesota
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Dec 20, 2002, 03:28 PM
 
You may be interested in a couple of discussions taking place at the Closing The Gap Forums .

OS X Perspectives


Universal Access and Windows XP
     
Cipher13
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Join Date: Apr 2000
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Dec 22, 2002, 01:51 AM
 
Originally posted by RandallP2:
One area that the Mac is falling down in, badly, is in the tools to make the Mac accessible to disabled users. The only tools Apple provided in the past were a CloseView control panel and Sticky Keys utility. Apple never took advantage of its great text-to-speech capability in any of its own applications.

Guess what?

1. CloseView doesn't even work on new iBooks, and if you try to run it in Classic environment, it locks up under OS9.2.

2. OS X doesn't even have a CloseView (magnification and screen inversion) capability, only a sticky keys capability.

3. Meanwhile, even Window ME has extensive accessibility options that let you tailor screen colors, magnification, etc.

4. Windows XP talks it even further, with a Narrator utility built into the operating system to allow system, Explorer, and basic applications to be used by the non-sighted.

As someone who works with some disable folks, this really stinks. And, given that 3 million yuppies will be losing their vision to macular degeneration in the next 20 years or so, Apple is blowing its usability reputation for a big chunk of the market.
1. If you're bitching about OSX, post it in the OSX forum, not OS9.
2. If you're bitching about the MacOS in general, consider Apples latest OS, not the one they have officially proclaimed 'dead' (yet living, again?).
3. Before posting such gripes, get a clue. Open your System Preferences. Open the Universal Access panel.

WOW! Look at that! Inversion, magnification, narration, keyboard mouse control... isn't this COOL?
     
   
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