No matter if you like NFB or not, they were correct in the need to
have independent screenreader options. Hundreds if not thousands of
blind people forced to use Windows by their employer would be out of a
job if JAWS did not exist. Narrator still doesn't have anything close
to the functionality or scripting capabilities of JAWS or NVDA.
On 8/16/2022 5:07 PM, Brian Buhrow wrote:
hello John. While we'll probably have to agree to disagree, I believe we're talking past
each other. Our argument was, and is, to encourage Microsoft to follow a path which would lead
to the most choices for the blind Windows user. If they had pursued the development of
Narrator to the exclusion of other screen reader developers, something they talked about and
which was absolutely within their control, that would not have been good for the blind
population in any way. The fact that Freedom Scientific benefited from that argument, both
because it was the dominant player in the screen reader space and because they were used as an
example in the argument, was orthogonal to the argument itself.
With respect to VoiceOver, I agree. For those who use VoiceOver and like it, that's
great. but I know a number of folks who switched to a Mac and found they had to switch back to
Windows because they couldn't work as efficiently or do as much as they had been doing under
Windows. And there's the rub; if VoiceOver doesn't work for you on the Mac, your stuck if you
want to use the Mac, unless you're willing to hire a reader to do your work. Under Windows,
you can use Narrator, Jaws or NVDA; all of them have their issues, but, between them, you can
probably find a way to get what you need done; that's not an option for a Mac user.
And,while I appreciate that I get VoiceOver included with my iPhone without having to pay
extra for it, I don't think of VoiceOver as a free screen reader. Apple products are very
expensive, relative to the Android or Windows alternatives, even with the cost of Jaws added to
the Windows side, but, of course, there's NVDA now, so I don't have to include Jaws in my cost
comparison. But really, the problem I have with Apple and Google is that I am potentially one
update away from having an unusable phone or Mac. That is a very scary place to be if you're
using their technology to hold a job. And that is why we argued against having Narrator become
the exclusive screen reader for Windows users. You have the luxury, as do I, of having the
knowledge and skill to make open source access technology work for you, allowing you to pursue
a successful career. Not everyone has that option, but we who can influence such things,
should do all we can to pursuade technologists to give non-computer blind folks as many choices
as possible in their use of access technology. In my view, and the view of the NFB, which is
where you and I disagree, encouraging Microsoft to develop Narrator with the possibility of
shutting out the third party screen readaers, is not the way to do that.
thankfully, they have not done that and we still have choice on the Windows platform.
-Brian
