Hi Jon;
Yes, I was thinking of Maine and the laptop initiative that went into
effect last year. I sure hope that Alva follows through on its
commitment to developing Out Spoken for OS X but it's hard to know what
this means. What are the blind/visually impaired students
with laptops doing now for access?
If Apple cannot support Alva in its efforts to continue development,
perhaps they can encourage another company to take on this piece of the
market through financial incentives or by transferring the source code to
some other company. After all, it is in Apple's best interests to
do so -- otherwise, they have computers that are inaccessible to blind or
visually impaired users! How disappointing that the company
that once led the way in accessibility has gotten to this
point. Anyone from Apple on the EASI list and would care to
comment?
Kathy
At 10:30 AM 6/11/2003 -0400, you wrote:
Hi, Kathy.
As you may know, the State of Maine purchased Apple iBooks for all
public
school 7th graders before the lack of a viable screen reader was
understood.
In the ensuing hoopla, Apple went to the trouble of bringing an
ALVA
representative to Maine to explain that ALVA would be developing a
screen
reader for OSX and that this would allow blind 7th graders to use the
same
programs and to participate in the same education activities as
their
sighted classmates. The development of that screen reader hasn't
yet
happened, and it's not clear if ALVA's announcement means that they
will
cease whatever Macintosh screen reader development work is currently
in
progress, or if the announcement only applies to future development
projects. At any rate, ALVA's decision certainly isn't encouraging
for
blind Macintosh computer users.
Jon
-----Original Message-----
From: Kathleen Cahill
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, June 11, 2003 10:16 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Alva ceases development of outspoken and enlarge for
mackintosh:
This is bad news for Mac users who are blind or visually
impaired.....is
there any other company stepping in to fill the gap? And what is
Apple
doing about this? Think of all the school systems that utilize Macs
-- what
will their students do who need these types of assistive
technology?
Kathy
At 09:17 AM 6/11/2003 -0400, you wrote:
the full story is at:
http://www.aagi.com/news/news.asp?44
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Kathy Cahill
MIT Adaptive Technology (ATIC) lab
77 Mass. Ave. 7-143
Cambridge MA 02139
(617) 253-5111
[log in to unmask]
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Kathy Cahill
MIT Adaptive Technology (ATIC) lab
77 Mass. Ave. 7-143
Cambridge MA 02139
(617) 253-5111
[log in to unmask]