• Retweet: @vmwarefusion : Fusion 50% off today, one day only. Details: http://is.gd/9Gqi Coupon code "CyberMondayDeal" # 24 hours ago
• It's Thanksgiving Day in the United States. We're thankful for Apple's commitment to accessibility in their products. # 2008/11/27
• We've added social bookmarking and "Send this to a Friend" to the Mac-cessibility Site as a trial. Let us know what you think. # 2008/11/27
• Apple released Safari 3.2.1 today. No known accessibility changes, but a good update to have nonetheless. Stability is the focus. # 2008/11/25
• News: Comparing Accessibility of the Big Three Operating System http://www.lioncourt.com/?p=247 # 2008/11/21

In a lengthy article, ComputerWorld.com discusses access to computers for the blind and visually impaired. Though the article is extensive, covering topics from general computer access to web accessibility issues, there’s no acknowledgement of VoiceOver’s existence or Apple’s work to provide universal access to the visually impaired and other disabled groups. In fact, the article, in its description of free screen readers, seems to imply that "Narrator" the sub-standard offering included in Microsoft Windows, was typical of access solutions that come bundled with operating systems, or were otherwise free of additional cost to the end user.

VoiceOver was not alone, however. Orca, the popular open source screen reading solution for Gnome Linux was also omitted from the article’s coverage.

As more and more usersmove away from Windows, blindness organizations like the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), who were quoted in this article, will be forced to acknowledge the value of noncommercial, and non-WIndows, solutions. Gone are the days when GW Micro and Freedom Scientific enjoyed near total control of access technology for the blind and visually impaired. These days, like our sighted colleagues, we have choices.

Mac-cessibility Quick Tips is a feature of Lioncourt.com to provide brief tips and tricks to assist blind and visually impaired Mac users improve their Apple experience. Not all tips will be specific to VoiceOver, and most will work on either Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger or Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Now for this week’s tip!

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard includes a new VoiceOver feature to select text that is not editable. (i.e., text on a web site.) To do this, interact with the text in question, and then use VO-Return to start the selection mode. While this mode is on, move the VoiceOver cursor through the text that you wish to select. You will hear a sliding sound as the text is highlighted. When you’re done press VO-Return to stop the selection. VoiceOver will beep to confirm the action. Now you can perform a copy with Command-C or any other valid command with the selected text.

This function will work with any text that can be selected.

Until next time!