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jazzyjjHi all and Happy Friday to you. I thought I'd combine this with some more thoughts regarding what is in the title, since my Mac ran out of juice. So here without further adieu and fanfare, are those thoughts.
In Wednesday's entry I mentioned being a long-time user of assistive technology. This includes screen readers as well as some other things. I learned Braille as a child and still use it for a few things. I think Louis Braille certainly did a good thing by inventing it, and it has done me well throughout my life. However, I've relied primarily on speech throughout the past several years. I currently don't have enough dough to purchase a Braille display. I have seen one or two though and they were neat. I owned a VersaBraille when I lived in another state, which had a display. But sadly, nobody in this state to whom I or my parents spoke had even heard of the VersaBraille or the Optacon. Both of those are obsolete nowadays so I guess it's okay, lol.
But I'm starting to really see where people are coming from who tout the iPhone as their "life-line" and a "game-changer." For a mainstream product such as this to be totally usable right out of the box by a blind guy like me is really cool. To those users who claim that Apple doesn't give a damn about VoiceOver and accessibility in general, I have this to say. Just think what would happen if the company never even thought to include any kind of accessibility in these things? Then those of us who rely on assistive technology would've been totally locked out. No trips to the store to buy an iPhone or anything from the company. The same holds true for other companies. Then we'd have missed out on a whole lot of things. But it's not like that, and I for one am very thankful for that.
In Wednesday's entry I mentioned being a long-time user of assistive technology. This includes screen readers as well as some other things. I learned Braille as a child and still use it for a few things. I think Louis Braille certainly did a good thing by inventing it, and it has done me well throughout my life. However, I've relied primarily on speech throughout the past several years. I currently don't have enough dough to purchase a Braille display. I have seen one or two though and they were neat. I owned a VersaBraille when I lived in another state, which had a display. But sadly, nobody in this state to whom I or my parents spoke had even heard of the VersaBraille or the Optacon. Both of those are obsolete nowadays so I guess it's okay, lol.
But I'm starting to really see where people are coming from who tout the iPhone as their "life-line" and a "game-changer." For a mainstream product such as this to be totally usable right out of the box by a blind guy like me is really cool. To those users who claim that Apple doesn't give a damn about VoiceOver and accessibility in general, I have this to say. Just think what would happen if the company never even thought to include any kind of accessibility in these things? Then those of us who rely on assistive technology would've been totally locked out. No trips to the store to buy an iPhone or anything from the company. The same holds true for other companies. Then we'd have missed out on a whole lot of things. But it's not like that, and I for one am very thankful for that.
