From: Rick.Alfaro@f8.n369.z1.fidonet.org (Rick Alfaro)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: Access to GUI's
Date: 12 Aug 92 21:17:05 GMT
Reply-To: Rick.Alfaro@f8.n369.z1.fidonet.org
Organization: FidoNet node 1:369/8 - The Catwalk BBS, Davie FL
X-Fidonet: Blink Talk Conference

Index Number: 23837

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 GP> All,
 GP>    I addressed this to all because David has brought up a point
 GP>    that's of interest to all who have an interest in access
 GP>  software.  I suspect many are just ignoring the messages
 GP>  between us at this point, because our discussion seems to have
 GP>  passed the point of relevance.

 GP> David Tanner writes:
 DT>>         My hope is that IBM will come up with a product for OS2 that is
 DT>> so easy to use, so user friendly, and provides such
 DT>> complete access to OS2 and Windows that we will truly
 DT>> feel that the speech software has become transparent to
 DT>> our use of a computer.  Unfortunantly, their present

 GP> To borrow a phrase from my previous work in Ada compilers,
 GP> there's no silver bullet.  Unfortunately I don't think any
 GP> company is going to develop an access system for any GUI that
 GP> will be easier than what we currently have for DOS.  The
 GP> environment is inherently more complex, and the access software
 GP> is going to reflect that.  The high lofty goal that everyone
 GP> should be aiming for is for the access software to provide
 GP> blind users with the same benefits of a graphical user
 GP> interface that sighted users perceive they get from it.  If
 GP> that goal can be attained, then blind users will prefer the
 GP> graphical user environment for the same reason that sighted
 GP> users do.  Like I said, that's a pretty lofty goal. We'll see
 GP> what everyone can provide.

Greg,

I pretty much agree with what you are saying here, and feel that your
thinking is quite sound.  Unfortunately, the only 2 companies that
currently offer anything for windows or os2 are the only 2 companies
that offer no demo!  Slimware offers none with the ludicris excuse that
"blind people don't have access to windows", so why offer a demo...Maybe
you can figure out that reasoning?  I just read in a previous message
that a demo was being talked about at IBM and certainly hope that
something comes of it...

We have a very unique situation I believe with respect to demos and
windows.  Most demos have a time restriction on them as you probably
know.  This approach however may not be the correct one in this case.
The user has the very difficult task of evaluating the speech software,
while at the same time, being totally unfamiliar with the windows
environment.  Because of this unique situation, I feel that a demo of
this type should have some other type of restriction other than a time
limit.  Perhaps disabling a few features on the demo would be better
than having the software poop out after 20 minutes of use.  Those are
just my thoughts and I wanted to share them with you.  Please keep me
informed of any progress with respect to a Screen Reader demo...

Regards,
Rick

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