Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!uw-beaver!mit-eddie!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!wtm From: maner@bgsuvax.uucp (Walter Maner) Newsgroups: misc.handicap Subject: Re: OUTSPOKEN FOR THE APPLE MACINTOSH Message-ID: <15122@bunker.UUCP> Date: 24 Oct 90 03:29:01 GMT References: <15078@bunker.UUCP> Sender: wtm@bunker.UUCP Reply-To: maner@bgsuvax.uucp (Walter Maner) Distribution: misc Organization: Bowling Green State University B.G., Oh. Lines: 54 Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP Fidonet: Blink Talk Conference Index Number: 11245 >From article <15078@bunker.UUCP>, by CBLIH@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU (CB Lih): > Index Number: 11207 > > A few negative comments: > > The Mac operatiing system loses a lot of it's user friendly-ness > when you have to learn it with this product. Much of the friendliness of the Mac interface is due to the fact that it is largely mode-less. You do not have to be in a particular mode to do most things; you just do them. OutSpoken retains this important aspect of the Mac interface. The comparable product from I B M, Screen Reader, so far does not provide mode-less interaction with O S 2. For example, you cannot go directly from one open window to another without opening a window selection menu. Screen Reader may decide to provide mode-less functionality once it becomes an official product in a couple of years. A version of the I B M Screen Reader already exists for the DOS world. I have been talking about the version under development for O S 2. > However, you might think twice about asking a blind user to learn it if > they can use comperable software on an MS-DOS machine. Within five years or less, most of the DOS world will have made a transition to a windowing environment of some type which will pose almost exactly the same access problems as the Mac. > It doesn't work with HyperCard. ... HyperCard is just too graphic oriented > for this screen reader. Berkeley Systems is working on a new version of outSpoken which will support HyperCard. Greg Vanderheiden has also been giving HyperCard access some attention at the Trace Center. The problem is that HyperCard violates Apple's own guidelines for manipulating video memory. In particular, it often performs direct writes to video RAM instead of relying on the off-screen model used by most non-HyperCard software. (Maybe this has been fixed in HyperCard 2.0, but I doubt it.) In the past, outSpoken has depended on having access to the off-screen model, which rules out HyperCard for the time being. By the way, most programmers who write for O S 2 will probably use an off-screen model since I B M has made is very difficult to address video RAM directly. The original version of outSpoken released more than a year ago is still the current version of the product. In the next few months, Berkeley Systems plans to overhaul the code completely. WALT -- InterNet maner@andy.bgsu.edu (129.1.1.2) | BGSU, Comp Science Dept UUCP ... ! osu-cis ! bgsuvax ! maner | Bowling Green, OH 43403 BITNet MANER@BGSUOPIE | 419/372-2337 Secretary Relays @relay.cs.net, @nsfnet-relay.ac.uk | FAX is available - call