yeah, those surfaces have been making quite a showing of late.
problem is though, like with any windows based device, the screen reader is 
third party, and therefore, many programs or apps won't work...unlike the 
IOS devices which have an integral screen reader built into the OS which 
means the vast majority of apps are accessible, or can be made to be 
accessible with some basic labelling etc.
Obviously the programs that are already accessible with NVDA will work fine, 
but I'd be interested to see how many of the surface apps and programs will 
be totally useless like with a normal windows machine.
Your typical word processing, email, internet and media players and so on 
are going to be fine as they are in a windows OS environment using NVDA, 
Jaws or whatever...but it's the rest of the non-ms type apps that worry me.
That is the true advantage to an IOS device, the apps are almost universally 
accessible.

73
Colin, V A6BKX
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Dan B Dyer Jr,/Danny" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, July 01, 2014 1:05 PM
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: 
SumWhatOT,InterstingPostReSumNewBlindUsableTec,FromABlindUserIDontKnowButWhosePastPostsHaveRungTrue

> Our local WallyWorld doesn't yet have this, so not sure of price and
> availability, but found this interesting, and I'm sure ham programs etc 
> will
> run on this, If any of you have occasion to play/work with this, Please 
> let
> us know.  Danny Dyer, Wb4idu.
> Quoted text follows.
> "Cheree Heppe here:
>
> Yesterday, I stopped by the Microsoft Store because they have one of those
> 3D printers.  One of my colleagues asked me to see about getting an 
> elephant
> printed for him.  I forgot about the elephant once I saw one of the new
> tablets.
> Usually, Windows stuff doesn't wow me.  However, this newly released 
> Surface
> 3 really seems to be a jump forward by Microsoft.  It acts and looks like 
> a
> cross between a PC notebook and an IOS device.
> One of the supervisors, Nikki, demonstrated the device.  The Surface Pro 3
> has a fold out kickstand for angled or vertical viewing and a mag strip
> along the bottom edge holds a keyboard.  The keyboard is slim and types
> okay, despite being so shallow.  It has a felt type backing that extends
> past the hard edges of the board.  I found this the only design oddity. 
> The
> Surface itself is slim and squarish and weighs more than an IPad Air.
> But, to make the tablet talk, Nikki downloaded NVDA and the tablet started
> voicing flawlessly.  Not only could the keyboard voice correctly, but if I
> touched the Surface screen, there was no mistake or hesitation about what 
> I
> touched.  The gestures worked correctly as well, at least, those I was 
> able
> to test in my visit.
> Being skeptical, I asked to try Word.  In the Home Screen, I think that's
> what they're calling it, I could type the word "Word" and the app would be
> right there to open with a press of the enter key.  Yes, Word worked on 
> the
> tablet.  My problem involved accidentally engaging the touchpad while 
> typing
> or spacing.
> There is a free app from Microsoft that allows the touchpad to be shut off
> and on.
> This tablet seems to combine the best of both the IOS model and the PC
> model, where one can spell check and edit effectively and connect a USB
> port.
> I think I might try for one of these tablets.
> If you get the chance, it would be a good idea to check the Surface 3 out.
>
> Regards,
> Cheree Heppe