Why I'm still on a Mac: a guide for skeptics and those who feel that
grass may be greener with Windows
Submitted by Devin Prater on 28 January, 2018 and last modified on 28
January, 2018
Introduction
This article will show you, the reader who uses a Mac with the Voiceover
screen reader, exactly why I haven’t jumped ship and fled to Windows 10.
I’ll compare the state of accessibility of Windows and Mac as operating
systems, features of first-party apps, advancements in first-party
screen readers, and the outlook of accessibility at both companies. I
will attempt to be objective in this article, so as to present my
arguments in a logical and useful way.
The core of Windows and Mac accessibility
Windows and Mac have grown up together, battling for the space on our
desks and the pleasure of our minds. While accessibility has been a
small part of both companies’ focuses, their differing ways of
interacting with the user has translated into differing levels of
accessibility. While Windows gives assistive technology vendors the
ability to run on Windows with similar access as its own screen reader,
Narrator, Voiceover is the only screen reader that currently exists on
the Mac. While this seems like the stifling of innovation for some, most
Mac users are happy with this, possibly because they are used to only
Voiceover on iOS, Apple’s mobile platform which is extremely popular
among the blind.
While Microsoft’s accessibility API’s focus on one window at a time, the
Mac allows the user to know if a background app has been launched, and
even if that app has a new window. This extends to so-called “system
dialogues,” which are common on both systems, but whereas Windows
automatically tries to put focus on them, the Mac merely alerts the
user, and allows for the navigation to it at any time.
Windows uses keyboard access universally, as many Assistive Technology
companies have screen readers on Windows. Tab, shift+tab, arrow keys, F
6, and Alt+Tab are most of the keyboard commands one uses to navigate
Windows. This lends itself well for those who are good at memorizing
where everything is in tab order, but the visual information has been
lost, as focus can land either at the top of an app or wherever an app
developer wishes it to. On the Mac, with Voiceover, one can explore the
screen completely, either with the Voiceover keys and arrow keys, or
with a trackpad. Not only does this give the user a sense of where
things are, it also allows for some of that memorizing brain power to be
used for more important tasks necessary for utilizing a computer to its
full extent. App developers can still set where voiceover focus will
initially be, although that too is able to be configured via the
Voiceover utility, a blind user of the Mac isn’t nearly as likely to get
lost. At to that the ability for VoiceoveR users to interact, or focus
in on, a section of the screen, such as headers in email to read by only
that particular column, and the Mac user may be more productive than
their Windows-using counterpart.
Windows uses voices in many languages created by Microsoft. Apple has
purchased the ability to use voices provided by Nuance, but also has the
famous Alex voice, which sounds realistic, has the capability to
recognize parts of speech based on whole paragraphs rather than phrases
or sentences, and breathes, which may alert the listener to the possible
word which will start the next sentence. While Microsoft’s voices are
well-made, they are also very small and have a noticeable synthetic buzz
sound when they are made to speak. Apple’s voices, along with the Nuance
ones, do not suffer from those traits. While you can acquire other
speech engines for Windows, you must often purchase them, whereas all
voices that come with the Mac are free for Mac owners, and there are
plenty of high quality voices, in many different languages, to choose from.
Windows has a system of navigation wherein a user can type the beginning
of an item within the list they’re in, and the system focus jumps to
that item. This system is usually called first-letter navigation, even
though nowadays one can usually type multiple letters to “narrow down
the list,” as it were. This system works well, and I use it often.
However, this system isn’t always available, making it tricky and
frustrating to have to type one letter over and over again until the
right object is found. Within the Mac, this works everywhere, as far as
I’ve found. You can type “IT,” on the dock, to move directly to iTunes.
You can type “IB,” on the dock to move to iBooks. Note: “iBooks,” may
change to “Books,” in a later macOS update. In the finder, where you can
browse files, you can begin typing the name of a file or folder to jump
to it. In System Preferences, you can begin typing the name of a pane
you wish to explore, after interacting with the scroll area. Best of
all, you can open system preferences by simply putting focus on the menu
bar, pressing Down arrow, typing “SY,” then pressing Return (or Enter).
This makes navigation on the Mac a breeze compared to the plentiful key
presses required on Windows.
Writing is an essential part of using a computer. Word processors,
notepads, email clients, Twitter apps, browsing the web, and using the
Terminal all utilize written input from the user. How much help do we
get while we write? On Windows 10, spell checking is available in many
Universal windows apps, but nearly all desktop apps have no spell
checking at all. Word completion is making its way to windows 10,
although the current implementation isn’t very productive as words are
spelled out, rather than spoken then spelled out. Punctuation marks,
such as quotes, ellipses, and other such malleable symbols are simply
printed out plainly, without care of position or style. There is no way,
in Windows itself, to print symbols which are not on your keyboard
without memorizing Unicode numeric values for each symbol. On the Mac,
spell checking and auto-correct functions are available system-wide, as
is a comprehensive dictionary, thesaurus, and search mechanisms for
Wikipedia and other such databases. One can also have the Mac attempt
the complete typed parts of words, helpful for long words which are easy
to pronounce, but hard to spell. Symbols, like quotes, are paired into
their left and right symbols, making work on the Mac not only a joy to
type, but also a joy to read. Symbols, like • (bullet), ≥ (greater-than
or equal-to), é (E acute), … (ellipsis), and π (Pi), are easily created
by holding down the option key and typing a letter or symbol already on
the keyboard. If this isn’t enough, there is an emoji and symbols picker
which allows for the choosing of just about any symbol one can imagine.
All of these options, and more such as text replacement, are all
configurable in the keyboard screen of System Preferences, and all
usable in any app.
First-party app accessibility
Program accessibility has come a long way. From the invasive capturing
of information used in the last century to the accessibility API’s
utilized today, apps have grown not only more powerful, but also more
accessible. Within Windows, apps are caught between legacy desktop
implementations, and the new Universal Windows Platform standards. These
two standards handle accessibility differently. Legacy apps contain menu
bars, toolbars, and plentiful keyboard commands. Universal Windows apps
contain no menu bar, plenty of navigation buttons, and some have
keyboard commands for many options, and others have none at all. The Mac
in its current form, macOS, has one form of app, bringing consistency
across all of its apps. There are menu bars, toolbars, and plenty of
keyboard shortcuts in all of Apple’s apps.
Advancements in Narrator and Voiceover
Screen readers have been advancing nearly since the beginning of the
80’s. From text-based programs which could output text to a speech
synthesizer the size of a modern desktop CPU case, to the screen readers
built from web technology, third party screen readers have come a long
way. It wasn’t until the beginnings of the twenty-first century, though,
that Microsoft boldly stepped into the Assistive Technology game.
Narrator was a minimalist screen reader designed to allow a user to set
up their computer on their own before they receive their full screen
reader, likely JAWS or Window-eyes at the time. In the next few versions
of Narrator, this minimalistic design was perfected, and was pretty
complete at the time of Windows 7. During the creation of Windows 8,
though, something changed. Narrator became more robust, defying its
earlier reputation of being simply a crumb and growing into a snack.
During the years which followed, Narrator’s power grew, and now it can
hold its own with the likes of NVDA when browsing the web, has Braille
support, for now tied to BRLTTY, and can be used in many more
circumstances than just to wait for your JAWS disks. Voiceover, however,
took a different rout. Starting out as a prerelease module for MacOSX
10.3, Voiceover was designed from the beginning to be a full screen
reader. Released to the public with MacOSX 10.4, Voiceover was able to
not only read the screen, it could navigate the screen, allowing the
user to know exactly what was on the screen on their Mac and act on it
in an efficient manner. A year later saw the release of MacOSX 10.5,
giving the Mac the Alex voice, which is still being updated today.
Throughout the years, Voiceover was given the ability to work with
Braille displays, use the newly acquired Nuance voices, set different
“activities,” which allowed one to define a set of preferences for one
app or web site, read complex web pages and emails, and Mac apps grew
more accessible with it.
The Outlook of accessibility at Microsoft and Apple
Microsoft started out simple with accessibility. They allowed
third-party companies to make technology for their customers. Apple also
started out this way. Since Apple is very secretive, I don’t know if
they were researching accessibility before OSX or not. Microsoft took a
small but crucial set forward in creating Narrator, and Apple also took
a step, much larger, in providing Voiceover. Narrator stayed simple for
many years as Voiceover grew, but now Narrator is leaping forward
asVoiceover’s growth has slowed. Microsoft now speaks of accessibility
as one of its core values, but Apple is silent about this much of the
time, but still pushes forward on features for Voiceover and iOS.
Microsoft’s accessibility has improved over the last 6 years, but still
hasn’t caught up with Apple. Microsoft still allows third-party screen
readers to dominate on their platform, but Apple never had third-party
screen readers on MacOSX to begin with.
Conclusion
This article has shown why I, as a user of assistive technology, have
not turned from Mac to PC. I’ve discussed the accessibility of the Mac
and Windows operating systems, first-party apps, how the first-party
screen readers have advanced, and the outlook of the two companies
regarding accessibility and their screen readers. I hope this will help
someone choose an operating system to stick with, or an operating system
to try.
--
David Goldfield, Assistive Technology Specialist WWW.David-Goldfield.Com
