Hi everyone and welcome to the beginning of August. Hope you're all doing well. Good, me too. I know it's a bit early in the week, but I wanted to get this out to everyone. I honestly wasn't going to publish this week, but recent events have led me to change my mind.
I would first like to draw your attention to the following blog post. Click this link to read it:
https://applevis.com/blog/end-era-message-founder-we-announce-closure-applevis . Some might've already seen it. I first discovered AppleVis a few years after its inception, which was when I acquired my first Mac. My brother sent me a link to the website, and I looked it over. I thought I'd register on there, so I did just that and you probably know the rest. I actually new a little bit about Apple though prior to joining AppleVis, because I used at least 2 of the AppleIIE computers with speech. VoiceOver hadn't come out yet, so the speech I used was provided by the Echo/Cricket synthesizer. Some of you might remember those days. I used a neat little program called Textalker. This was by no means a screen reader according to today's standards, but one could program various words and phrases into it. There was also an on-board demo which used a few different voices. I and my family had a lot of fun with that thing.
I'll skip over my use of DOS and Windows, although that was my foray into the full-fledged screen readers of today. I got my first Mac on December 27, 2013. That was 8 years after VoiceOver was released for the Mac. As you might expect, I had to get used to new ways of doing things on the computer. But it wasn't long before I was up and running. At the time Apple stores were conducting training sessions on various things, and I believe I only needed one of those. The trainer with whom I worked was very knowledgeable and patient with me. I acquired my first iPhone in 2018, and attended 2 training sessions at a different place. But the guy with whom I worked was also very knowledgeable and patient. What's more, he is a VoiceOver user so he was therefore able to patiently guide me through the initial steps of using my iPhone. I'm now on round 2 for the Mac and iOS.
I am saddened to see AppleVis go and hope that something can be worked out by the end of this month in order to keep the lights on. But I also have a deep understanding of what led to this decision. First and foremost, I for one am so glad that the founder of AppleVis is on the road to recovery and hope and pray he makes a full one. I also agree about the near-constant negativity plaguing the website as of late. I've said this before and I'll say it again. Nobody and nothing is perfect, with the exception of whatever deity one believes in or not at all. I realize that some do not like Apple's way of doing things, but please don't ruin it for the rest of us. I for one am very impressed with the work done by the company thus far, and know they will continue doing great things. For example, some of you are aware that I recently acquired a pair of hearing aids. I'm very happy with the hearing aids thus far, and thanks to the accessibility team at Apple I can independently adjust them if and when necessary. That is just one thing, but there are other reasons why I like Apple, not the least of which is that I like the fruit of the same name.
I was going to post about the recent political news, but I'll just say that even though I didn't vote for Donald Trump I'm glad he's okay. I for one don't want him to win again, for obvious reasons. That's it from me for now. As always please take care, and please remember to always wear a face mask where required.
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