There's a number of errors in this article.

Article:
> The good news: This is a case where Apple can take lemons and make some
> tasty lemonade. What it needs to do is build a screen reader and then
> release it into the open-source domain, much like it did with the
> Safari
> Web browser.
>

Truth:
(a)  Safari isn't open source.

Article:
> Programming a screen reader from scratch could cost tens of millions of
> dollars and would require at least a handful of highly competent
> engineers.
> It's not a trivial undertaking.

Truth:
(b) Programming a screen reader from scratch would NOT cost tens of
millions of dollars.  This is just plain wrong.  The work is already
half-done, at least, on the Mac OS X platform because of built-in
speaking
capabilities and a robust and effective accessibility API.

Article:
> If Apple wants a quick leg up, it could
> always buy an established player such as GW Micro, a small Terra Haute
> (Ind.) outfit that makes an increasingly popular Windows screen reader.

Truth:
(c) Buying GW Micro won't give them any advantage in writing an Apple
screen reader, and it would effectively put WindowEyes out of business.
This would be great for Freedom Scientific but would suck for Windows
users, who now have one less choice.

Article:
> Or it could take on the task itself.

(d)  Apple is already working toward this.  They've been advertising for
an engineer to build a screen reader for months.

If I have time, I'll try to post a full rebuttal to this article (even
though it's a month old) on Maccessibility.com.

--Kynn

> --
Kynn Bartlett <[log in to unmask]>                     http://kynn.com
Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain                http://idyllmtn.com
Author, CSS in 24 Hours                       http://cssin24hours.com
Shock & Awe Blog                                http://shock-awe.info
Inland Anti-Empire Blog                   http://inlandantiempire.org


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