Harry,



I'd like to respond to your message concerning the state of Windows 

accessibility with a different perspective.





You wrote ...



 >Right now, a blind person cannot go to a store, and buy a windows 

computer, and bring it home, and it works out of the box, and reads 

everything.



This is no longer the case. In the past, referring to Narrator as even a 

basic screen reader might have been a stretch. However, Microsoft began 

improving Narrator with Windows 8 and even more so with Windows 10. 

While Narrator may not be quite as robust as NVDA, it offers enough of a 

feature set to allow for a reasonable amount of access with many 

programs. Of course, it needs some improvement but, based on what we've 

been seeing from Microsoft, I have no doubt that it will only continue 

to improve.

> Right now, a blind person can purchase a Windows-based computer, take 

> it home and immediately have access to it by pressing 

> ctrl+Windows+enter. As someone else on this list has suggested, the 

> customer can ask their sales associate to download and install NVDA 

> for them and I'm sure they would do it, considering that it only takes 

> about five minutes to download and install NVDA. Last year, I had my 

> computer in a local shop getting the hard drive replaced and they also 

> upgraded my operating system to Windows 10. I asked the person working 

> on my machine if he wouldn't mind downloading and installing NVDA for 

> me so that I could immediately have it available when I got the 

> computer set back up at home and he was more than willing to do it. I 

> would have been able to do it myself using Narrator but it only took 

> him an extra five minutes or so to install it.



> >If Microsoft really doesn't care, then, we're back to square 1, right 

> where we started, with nothing for windows, from out of the box.

>



I strongly disagree and feel that we are not back where we started. When 

I acquired my first DOS-based computer in 1991 there was absolutely no 

built-in access. In order for me to gain access to my computer I needed 

to install a speech synthesizer to my serial port and some users had to 

install them internally. We then had to install screen reading software 

which, since DOS had no built-in screen reader, we sometimes needed to 

do with sighted assistance. Compare that to where we are now where I can 

purchase any Windows-based computer, plug it in, wait about 15-20 

seconds, press a hotkey and receive instant speech feedback, without 

needing to install any additional hardware or software. While there's 

always room for improvement the fact is that we've come a long way since 

then and we're only moving forward.



> >I have the same attitude about this, that our friend David Goldfield 

> had about accessible antivirus.

>

With respect, I disagree. What you are asking for is robust 

accessibility and you want it to be free of cost. While Narrator is 

certainly not as robust as NVDA and especially JAWS it's a usable 

solution which continues to improve. What I'm asking for is that robust 

security solutions, which we already have, be as accessible as possible. 

I'm not expecting them to be free, as I'm more than willing to pay an 

annual cost for a good security program, which I would not be willing to 

do even for the best screen reader. While the accessibility which you 

are asking for is already available and continues to improve, accessible 

security solutions are few and far between and, by comparison, that 

particular landscape seems to almost be getting worse. I also don't see 

the lack of accessible security solutions as something which is immoral. 

Sometimes, it's due to a lack of understanding of our needs or a lack of 

understanding as to how visually impaired people can even use a computer 

but that's not what I'd call a lack of morality on the part of these 

software developers.

Also, I strongly disagree with you in your implication that Microsoft 

doesn't care. As I've already stated, Narrator has seen amazing 

improvements in the past several years that I think many of us felt we'd 

never see, such as the ability to browse the Web, read email, adjust 

hotkeys, choose between several scan modes, being able to use pleasant 

synthetic speech and the ability to read and even write in Braille, 

including Grade 2 input, which is a feature we don't even have yet with 

NVDA. Microsoft also has several blogs, including one written by members 

of their accessibility team, where they communicate on a regular basis 

with their users, often about features in development as well as what's 

ahead on their roadmap. Members of their accessibility team have made 

appearances on podcasts and they were just at the CSUN conference, where 

they presented 16 workshops just on accessibility. Their accessibility 

team also has a Twitter account, where they freely communicate with 

their users, not only offering tips and information but responding to 

users as well. Jenny Lay Flurry, their accessibility evangelist, was 

recently a guest on the BlindCoolTech podcast, where she announced 

Narrator's Braille support before anybody else at Microsoft announced 

it. Microsoft continually releases upcoming versions of Windows to 

people willing to test it and who are willing to offer feedback, which 

means that blind computer users are always able to examine and test any 

accessibility improvements Microsoft is developing prior to its public 

release.

I'd like to compare these facts to what we see from Apple. Based on 

searches I've performed, Apple has no public-facing blogs. I'm not just 

talking about blogs discussing their accessibility efforts but they 

offer no blogs whatsoever. While VoiceOver for iOS continues to receive 

new features, it seems to me that the development of VoiceOver on the 

Mac is not moving as quickly. VoiceOver on Sierra did receive some new 

features but most of what Apple is doing is implementing bug fixes. This 

is certainly a good thing but there are things which VoiceOver really 

needs for improving Web navigation and, as of a little over a year ago, 

I never found VoiceOver on the Mac to be as easy to use for navigation  

compared to what we have with Windows screen readers. VoiceOver on the 

Mac does some amazing things but I find its navigation to be extremely 

awkward, although I am sure that many Mac users will say that I may have 

a bias toward the paradigms of Windows screen readers and there may be 

some truth to that assertion.

Bear in mind that, with Apple, if you're like me and don't care for 

VoiceOver as a screen reader, you have no other choices for 

alternatives, at least for screen reading software. If I don't care for 

Narrator's way of doing things I am free to download NVDA or even, at 

least for now, the free version of Window-Eyes if I have a copy of 

Office 2010 or later installed. If even those solutions aren't to my 

satisfaction, I can choose to pay for a screen reading solution such as 

Supernova or JAWS, giving me five screen reading solutions and possibly 

more that I'm not aware of.

While Microsoft regularly engages in dialog with its users via their 

Twitter feed, Apple has no Twitter account dealing with accessibility. I 

have never heard about anybody from Apple's accessibility team appearing 

as a guest on a podcast. I know that Jordyn Castor from their 

accessibility team did speak at an NFB convention but that's not the 

same as Apple engaging in a dialog with its customers. I'll admit that 

it's possible that Apple may have presented at some blindness 

conventions but they don't seem to communicate with their customers with 

disabilities on an ongoing basis. Apple only allows customers to beta 

test their software later in the development cycle and, aside from that, 

is rarely transparent concerning what is currently in development.

In spite of what I've just written I absolutely love Apple and I feel 

that they have made and continue to make contributions to the visually 

impaired community, and the disability community in general, which are 

nothing short of amazing. I could go on and on about how they produced 

one of the first accessible touchscreen phones, a tablet which was 

accessible right out of the gate along with the Apple Watch, Apple TV 

and the Mac, which really was one of the first accessible computers out 

of the box. People who know me will agree that I'm hardly an Apple 

basher. I use an iPhone daily and I'd never want to be without it and I 

use it to perform so many functions from reading books, news, watching 

TV, listening to radio broadcasts and on and on I could go. In spite of 

my reservations about VoiceOver on the Mac, I greatly respect the Mac 

for its workmanship and for its security. If someone produces a product 

like NVDA for the Mac I would strongly consider switching from Windows 

to the Mac in a heartbeat. I no longer own a TV streaming device (except 

for my iPhone) but, if I were to purchase one, it would likely be the 

Apple TV. I also don't mean to imply that Apple doesn't care about 

accessibility because I believe they certainly do.What they've done with 

iOS, Watch OS, TV OS  and even with Mac OS shows that they most 

certainly care very deeply and passionately about accessibility. What I 

am saying is that Microsoft has clearly demonstrated that they have the 

same level of commitment to accessibility as does Apple, for the reasons 

I've already stated. The Microsoft of 2017 is a much different and more 

inclusive company than the Microsoft of 1991.

> >The problem with the mac is, all of it's password crap. I had tried a 

> Mac, 2 years ago, with OS10 Mavrix. Every time I put a program in, I 

> had to enter a password, so, I said, forget it.

>

I have not encountered this problem when I used to use a Mac and I'm not 

nearly as knowledgeable about the Mac as I am with Windows. However, if 

I had to guess I would say that what you were experiencing may have had 

to do with the type of account which was active when you were trying to 

install software. It is possible that you were not using an account with 

administrative privileges but you may have been using an account with 

standard user privileges. Windows has had the same capabilities since 

Windows Vista under its User Account Control Settings. When you use a PC 

as a standard user you must enter the administrator password before 

making any critical changes to the computer, such as installing and 

removing software or adjusting certain system settings. If this is what 

you were encountering, this is actually a good thing because it means 

that anybody who attempted to install software on your machine would 

first need to enter a password before doing so. This also means that, in 

theory, a virus or some other malware would be prevented from installing 

unwanted software or modifying settings on your machine without you 

first being notified. This is a very good thing and only increases the 

security of your machine, whether you're using the Mac or a computer 

running Windows. This is standard practice for me on my own machine. I 

have two accounts. One of them is one that I use regularly to perform 

daily tasks such as Web surfing and email. The other account is where I 

perform my administrative tasks, such as installing new software.



Again, I hope that what I've written might provide you with what I hope 

is perhaps a different perspective on the state of the state, so to 

speak, of Windows accessibility.



Respectfully,



David Goldfield





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