Hi, Kim.
I can definitely relate to your comments about the Mac. I've always had
a love-hate relationship with it and maybe part of my problem was that
I've been using Windows since the mid 1990s and the Mac was just unlike
it enough that it felt a bit too alien. I have mixed feelings about the
whole interaction paradigm and I think that some of that has been
reduced over the years. I don't totally dislike it but I can understand
why some users would find it frustrating. NVDA actually has a similar
interaction capability with the numeric keypad, although they don't use
the term "interacting." However, this is only when using the numeric
keypad to review text in what NVDA calls Object Review Mode. When using
arrow keys and other standard navigation commands there is no need to
either interact or stop interacting with various elements. I always
found the lack of a control key on the right side of an Apple keyboard
to be a tremendous oversight on Apple's part, causing me to be forced to
use my left hand for many VoiceOver commands. It was a stupid decision
which creates usability nightmares. The Web interface is what frustrated
me the most and I think that Apple should have done more to emulate the
Windows experience, which always felt so natural and intuitive to me. In
the early days of VoiceOver it seemed more innovative, as it offered
benefits not available in Windows at that time. These were things like
having a free, pre-installed screen reader which required no extra cost
on the part of the user and the ability to have the Mac speak during the
installation of new operating system updates, something which probably
made many Windows screen reader users very jealous. Nowadays, Windows is
catching up, to the point where these benefits are no longer unique to
the Mac. While Narrator is hardly a powerful screen reader, it's
actually quite good if you only plan on using software from Microsoft
but, more importantly, it will ensure that your Windows machine is
talking, even during an operating system installation. We also now have
NVDA, a free and open source screen reader, which also means free
life-time updates. A part of me would love to switch over to the Mac. It
does have several benefits which make it very attractive to me. It still
uses the old-school menu bar very consistently across different programs
which, as we know, is being used less and less in favor of the ribbon. I
think the Mac's spell checker works universally across applications,
including Text Edit, which is more or less like Wordpad. The iWork
suite, similar to Microsoft Office, is now free for new Macs, meaning
that the Pages word processor is now totally free and only costs around
$30 for older Macs. For me, though, the negatives I mentioned earlier
are enough of a deal breaker for me. Features and security aside, the
usability on Windows is, for me, so much nicer than what is currently
available with VoiceOver on the Mac. I think I might enjoy the Mac more
with a trackpad, which would give me an experience much more like what
we have with iOS, but even that still couldn't convince me to move to
the Mac. I also feel that the touchscreen interface of iOS is amazing
and I think Apple has done a fabulous job in making it accessible.
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist WWW.David-Goldfield.Com
On 5/31/2018 1:08 PM, Kimberly Starrett wrote:
This article is interesting even though I am totally blind and so couldn't
really relate to much of what the writer is talking about. One thing I can
comment on is how much simpler and more straightforward voiceover is on iOS as
opposed to Mac OS.
As you may recall, David, I was trying to make the switch from windows to mac
when we first spoke. I never did manage it and remain a windows user to this
day. One of the things I found so difficult in the mac world is the concept of
interacting with elements before I could take an action. Now I've been a
computer user for over three decades and what's more I am not a dummy. But I
think if the mac experience were more in line with the iOS experience I would
be able to adjust to a brand new tech universe.
-----Original Message-----You are invited to visit the moderator's Web site at WWW.DavidGoldfield.Info
From: blind-philly-comp-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:blind-philly-comp-
bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Goldfield
Sent: Thursday, May 31, 2018 12:41 PM
To: blind-philly-comp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-philly-comp] Article: Consistent Accessibility: How Apple Can
Make iOS and the Mac More Accessible – MacStories
As I'm not a low vision user and since I haven't been a Mac user for a little
over two years I don't have enough of a perspective to offer any comments.
For those who use both Mac OS and iOS I'd love to hear your thoughts.
From macstories.net
Consistent Accessibility: How Apple Can Make iOS and the Mac More
Accessible – MacStories Steven Aquino
Like all Apple products, macOS is an accessible platform. Blind and low
vision users can navigate their Mac using VoiceOver, while someone who
has physical motor delays can use Switch Control to edit videos in Final
Cut. And under the Accessibility pane in System Preferences, there is a
multitude of other features one can use, ranging from Zoom to Invert
Colors to closed-captioning and more. Whatever your need, the breadth
and depth of Apple’s accessibility software spans many domains. This is
why Apple is lauded as the industry leader in accessibility: the tools
run deep and they’re well-designed.
Still, accessibility on macOS doesn’t quite reach feature parity with
iOS. Amidst rumors that Apple is working on a cross-platform set of APIs
to bridge the company’s two primary operating systems, now is an
opportune time to consider what each platform does and what they offer
one another.
In the context of accessibility, the way Apple brings consistency
between iOS and macOS is by sharing features and technologies among the
two. As such, there are some iOS-first features macOS sorely needs,
while the Mac offers things iOS would benefit from as well. Such
enhancements would not only improve the user experience across devices,
but also would make iOS and Mac software richer, fuller products
overall. And most importantly, more accessible.
Large Dynamic Type
Dynamic Type was introduced to iOS in 2013 with the release of iOS 7.
Five years on, it’s hard to believe the feature has yet to make the jump
to the Mac. Of all the things macOS needs, Dynamic Type should be near –
if not at – the top of everyone’s list. It’s certainly at the top of mine.
While Zoom is an excellent tool for enlarging text, adding Dynamic Type
would make it even better. The purpose of Dynamic Type is simple: it’s a
set-it-and-forget-it slider that, when enabled, allows text size to be
consistent system-wide. (Apple told me at WWDC last year it did a “ton”
of work in iOS 11 to make text render better at the largest settings.)
As on iOS, Apple could make a public API for Dynamic Type so developers
could integrate it into their apps. Crucial, though, is the way in which
Dynamic Type could augment the Mac’s UI in general. For elements such as
the Finder and System Preferences, Dynamic Type would surely give those
menus a visual boost, as the labels and iconography today are still
fairly small, at least for me. Even something like the menu bar would be
enhanced by Dynamic Type.
The lack of Dynamic Type in High Sierra today is even more glaring when
you consider macOS runs on the 12-inch MacBook and the 27-inch iMac.
These sit at polar opposites of the screen size spectrum, but one thing
they have in common, in terms of accessibility, is that text and the
like are relatively tiny. If you use either (or both) of these devices,
chances are good you’ll increase the text size to see comfortably. This
is particularly true on 27-inch displays because the sheer physical size
of the screen means on-screen content is more spread out. Adjusting the
screen’s resolution helps, but it’d be better if it could be used in
tandem with Dynamic Type.
Larger Cursor Support on iOS
When I use the Mac, one way I make it more visually accessible is I have
the mouse pointer set to the largest size. I prefer using a Magic Mouse
with my Touch Bar MacBook Pro, and the bigger pointer makes it easy for
me to find the cursor and click things. Likewise, I prefer dark mode in
Ulysses on the Mac and iOS because the higher contrast makes it easier
to find the insertion point when I’m writing or editing.
Apple should take the larger mouse pointer slider from macOS and bring
it to iOS – particularly for text-editing, I’d like an option to enlarge
the cursor. The current mechanic for moving the insertion point is
fairly inaccessible, and it’s due to its small size. I find it
frustratingly difficult to use. (Bonus suggestion: Another setting for
enlarging the magnification loupe, akin to how you set the Mac dock’s
magnification level.)
Give the Touch Bar a Taptic Engine
One of my hopes for this year’s WWDC is to see Apple announce
improvements to the Touch Bar. I’m in the minority of people who like
the Touch Bar; I believe it is genuinely useful for accessibility. The
Touch Bar's Zoom feature is one of the best pieces of software Apple has
ever shipped. Hopefully 2018 brings more Touch Bar goodness.
One thing I believe the Touch Bar would benefit from immensely is haptic
feedback. While it’s great at making commonly-used controls more readily
accessible, the touch controls would be even better if they included
haptics. I don’t know how technically feasible this is due to the
incredibly small space the Touch Bar occupies, but it would be terrific
if I felt a buzz or pulse every time I tapped a button or scrubbed
through the screen brightness slider. The double dose of sensory
integration would make the Touch Bar experience a richer one.
Dark Mode Everywhere
macOS currently has a dark mode feature, but it only affects the menu
bar. It’s great and I use it; the higher contrast, especially when
selecting menu items, makes using the menu bar a better experience. My
only wish would be for Apple to extend the feature further into the OS:
apply it to windows, the Finder, and other interface elements. And make
it a public API for developers.
Likewise, iOS has a few apps (Clock, Stocks, the Apple Watch app) where
it uses a “dark mode” interface. It’d be equally great if, again, Apple
extended this dark mode to the entire system. It would help boost
contrast, but it also would make it so that app developers wouldn’t need
to roll their own dark modes. Make it an API and developers could let
users switch to Apple’s dark mode whenever they wanted, for reasons of
contrast, fatigued eyes, or whatnot. iOS is close to reaching its
twelfth version; a dark mode is a long overdue addition.
Make Mac Siri and Notifications Literally Front and Center
This is an admittedly esoteric request, but it bugs me often so I’ll
mention it here. When you invoke Siri on iOS, the UI takes up the entire
screen, and when notifications come in, they're centered on-screen; by
contrast, the Mac's counterpart Siri and notification features have been
relegated to the right side of the screen. At least in my experience –
because my right eye is my weaker eye, visually speaking – this makes it
awfully hard to focus my vision on Siri and notifications. Again,
esoteric, but I actually would prefer Apple take an iOS approach to Siri
and notifications on the Mac and center them on screen. At the very
least, it would make reading notifications or infrequent Siri queries
easier because the text would be right in front of me instead of off to
the side.
As Apple’s platforms continue to mature, particularly iOS in this case,
there are ripe opportunities to consider how they can be refined in the
aggregate. The feature suggestions I list here are effectively
design-oriented ones that are geared more towards usability than
aesthetics. The addition of these would boost the accessible design of
both the Mac and iOS, which ultimately makes the user experience better
for everyone.
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