Apple Education and Screen Readers

Yea, I think this would be necessary for the education market.

Making this product open source would be nice, but not practical.

Universal Access in Panther also reads text aloud if you move the mouse pointer over it. Very much like how screen readers have worked in the past under Mac OS 9. They obviously missed that feature and probably why the third party stopped developing it for the Mac.

While the article goes on to suggest that Apple should release the Screen-reader software as open source, even by providing the software for a discounted price to Mac users, it would represent a significant savings advantage for consumers purchasing Macs. The same software costs between $800-$1,300 for licenses on Windows.

If those figures are true that would obliterate the up-front cost difference between Macs and PC's for school use. :D Assuming the school was required to buy screen reading software for the PC's, which I don't know the exact term of the law (wasn't it section 502 or something like that) but maybe they're required to now.

Actually, if we're talking about eMac that would make the Mac cheaper. No total-cost-of-ownership presentations or IT support opinions would be needed to show schools the value.

I would offer it for free and open source to canabalize Screen Reader sales. Give 'em the finger I say!:mad:

Although this is an important issue, I think this was one of the crappiest articles I've read in a long time. Just poorly put.

First, there's this quote:
"VERY ANNOYED."_ Equal-access advocates are up in arms. "I think it's horrible," says Curtis Chong, president of the National Federation for the Blind in Computer Science. Giving blind students Apples will "further isolate blind kids who are already isolated from the basic school population. I'm very annoyed at Apple," says Chong.

It is the software developer who quit Apple, and there's no information that Apple has anything do do with this decision.

Then, the article suggests that the solution is for Apple to create something open-source and release it to the world in some kind of altruistic gesture. While this sounds nice, it might make much more sense for Apple to make it and not release it outside the platform, thereby making Apple machines ADA compliant and furthering their attractivness to education buyers. They suggest that the software is over $1,000 on a PC, so providing it for free to Mac users might prove Apple to be a significant choice.

They also note that Apple has been on this for awhile and, as we all know, Apple does have a demonstrated commitment to Accessibility (just check system preferences, or try pressing ctrl-option-cmd-8 for a quick switch to white-on-black).

What I wish the reporter had done is asked for an official response from Apple for what consumers can do. After reading this article, I would have hoped to know at least the following:
1. Although the developer has ceased development, what versions of the Apple OS does it run on, and is it at least still for sale? No comment in the article.
2. If it doesn't run on OS X, can it run through Virtual PC?
3. What does Apple suggest to education consumers who might have blind clients? There has to be a company response, but this article makes it seem as if Apple missed the boat, dropped the ball, and said c-ya!

That rant over, I do hope that Apple finds a way to address this, and I do hope they release it as a free or low-cost piece of software. If they want to make it open source, that's fine by me. If not, that's OK, too.

Originally posted by gopher
Universal Access in Panther also reads text aloud if you move the mouse pointer over it. Very much like how screen readers have worked in the past under Mac OS 9. They obviously missed that feature and probably why the third party stopped developing it for the Mac.

it does in Jaguar also, and prob olders, but does it read things like the text on a Safari webpage or iChat messages, when moused over?

It makes sense to me. A great thing Apple could put in their sales pitches to the schools. I would love it if our school district would get us each an iBook to do work on!

Originally posted by dukemeiser
I would offer it for free and open source to canabalize Screen Reader sales. Give 'em the finger I say!:mad:

Hear hear! This was really mean of them. The educational market needs this!

get 'em apple, get 'em!

You have to realize that sometimes people with agendas will demonize the very people they want to help them... it's underhanded, but obviously it's effective. The article portrays Apple in a negative light, and suddenly Apple is on the defensive and is responsible for picking up where a third-party vendor left off. They are now required to act or their reputation will suffer.

It's funny that the person quoted isn't mad at Microsoft for forcing them to spend $1000 per seat, but I guess they think that's ok because the PC world doesn't see the same level of accountability Apple experiences... the downside of being so vertical is that you need to provide a total solution and can't leave it up to other vendors.