• RT @ppatel Webaim is conducting a screen reader user survey o gather more definitive data on screen reader users: http://tinyurl.com/3rmwte # 2008/12/18
• News: Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.5.6 http://www.lioncourt.com/?p=250 # 2008/12/15
• Retweet: @cookiecrook BusinessWeek: Apple is greener than Greenpeace says. http://tinyurl.com/57v4fp # 2008/12/08
• Retweet: @vmwarefusion : Fusion 50% off today, one day only. Details: http://is.gd/9Gqi Coupon code "CyberMondayDeal" # 2008/12/01
• It's Thanksgiving Day in the United States. We're thankful for Apple's commitment to accessibility in their products. # 2008/11/27

Most VoiceOver users are well aware of the wildly inaccurate and blatantly bias review of VoiceOver published by the American Foundation for the Blind back in 2005. There have also been allegations from multiple and separate sources that representatives of the AFB have commented that they would attempt to undermine VoiceOver, viewing it as a threat to commercial Windows screen reading applications.

In the May 2008 issue of Access World, an online magazine published by the AFB, they once again play down the capabilities of VoiceOver. The comments come in a piece entitled "From Vinyl to Digital: My First Experiences with Electronic Audio Players" by Darren Burton. To his credit, Mr. Burton’s comments are not nearly as outlandish as those put forward by Jay Leventhal, but it is important to call attention to a couple of the most inaccurate.

The most notable of the misstatements in this piece is also the most transparent. Mr. Burton writes that VoiceOver will give access to "some, but not all" of the applications on the Mac. While perfectly true, the same statement holds true for any screen reader for any platform. Not every piece of software will be wholly accessible with any screen access solution. This statement, coupled with his emphasis that VoiceOver does not provide as complete access as Windows screen readers serves no purpose but to undermine how powerful Voiceover is in reality without providing any real evidence.

The above is compounded by the fact that Mr. Burton says that he could not load songs onto his iPods with iTunes and VoiceOver, excepting the iPod Shuffle. This seems to indicate that he did not take the time to learn VoiceOver and its full functionality, as there are several ways of loading tracks onto your iPod through iTunes and all of them are perfectly accessible with VoiceOver. These include VoiceOver’s drag-and-drop functions, as well as iTunes myriad of methods for synching music in your library to your iPods.

If Mr. Burton did not take the time to learn VoiceOver, he is clearly in no position to claim that it is less capable than the Windows screen readers he is familiar with.

We encourage those of you who feel strongly about insuring that Access World publishes the facts about VoiceOver and accessibility on the Mac, to contact Access World.

Today, Microsoft released Microsoft Messenger for Mac 7.0, the latest version of their popular instant messaging client for the Live Messenger and Office Communications services. Unfortunately, Microsoft apparently paid little or no attention to accessibility.

Like most Mac software, Microsoft Messenger for Mac 7 could have been made accessible. In fact, it nearly is. Most controls in the program are properly tagged, and what minor access issues exist in the bulk of the user interface are cosmetic to the VoiceOver user.

The problem arises if you try to use the application for…well…instant messaging. From our initial tests, it appears that you cannot access the text areas of a conversation window without calling up a different window, although the other controls in the conversation window are available.

To read a conversation, for example, you can press Command-Comma to open the Preferences dialog. Focus, instead of moving to the Preferences Dialog, moves to the text of the current conversation window. You can then interact with the HTML content and read messages that have come in so far, or move focus to the second HTML content area to send a message. This might be an annoying but usable workaround if the HTML content area where messages come in displayed new messages as they come in. It doesn’t. To view new messages you have to close the Preference dialog, turn VoiceOver off and on again, then repeat the process.

This clearly appears to be nothing more than complacency on Microsoft’s part. Clearly this instant messaging client has everything in place to be accessible. Microsoft just didn’t care enough to check and fix the bugs.

If you’d like to see better access to Microsoft Messenger for Mac 7.0, we encourage you to contact Microsoft through their Accessibility Site.

Today, Forbes is reporting that Apple is to acquire microprocessor maker PA Semi. The deal is thought to be worth $278 million, and could see the Cupertino-based company providing its own microprocessors in some of its products. Speculation is rife that these products may include the iPhone and iPod lines. If so, it could potentially mean more powerful portable devices, better capable of supporting text-to-speech and other access technologies.

Apple does purchase smaller technology-based companies from time to time, and never comments on their plans for such acquisitions. Where this eventually leads is anyone’s guess, but more powerful devices can only benefit all users.

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.