Dear AccessWorld Editor,
I wish to comment on Bill Holton's article appearing in the August, 2014 issue entitled Book Review: Learn to Use the Mac with VoiceOver: A Step-by-Step Guide for Blind Users, by Janet Ingber. Bill did an excellent job with this article. I just got my first Mac computer last year a couple days after Christmas, and have really enjoyed learning a new operating system. I am a screen reader user, and I find that VoiceOver is a perfect addition to the screen reader market. Apple certainly did the right thing by including it in their core operating system. I have found all the voices very easy to understand. However, I do have one problem. For a little while now I've been experiencing a rather odd problem with the speech on my Mac. It will randomly cut off in the middle of a sentence and become very choppy, and/or stop dead in its tracks. This issue started occurring this summer. It doesn't happen a lot, but I'd say about once or twice per day for about 3–5 minutes. I've tried repairing permissions, as suggested on the AppleVis website and a couple e-mail discussion lists. A friend also suggested to me that this issue might be occurring when the Screen Curtain is turned off. In addition, I recently removed Chromevox from my system thinking that it might be the cause. But the problem still exists. I'm wondering if any other AccessWorld staff or readers have experienced this issue, and if so, what solution worked? I have a 13-inch Mac Book Air, mid-2013 model. But other than the aforementioned issue, I have absolutely no complaints about my Mac.
I have not yet read Janet's entire book, but I did read the introduction and table of contents last week when I was at my parents' house. A sister of mine also uses VoiceOver, and she currently has a copy of the book. Additionally, the guys who assisted my parents and me at an Apple store in our area were fantastic.
Sincerely,
Jake Joehl
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
I read with interest and pleasure the article Series: The Work of the Smith-Kettlewell Institute Part V: Bill Gerrey: Profile of a Pioneer, Scientist, and Role Model who is Blind. Deborah Kendrick has done an excellent job of capturing Bill Gerrey's quirky but intriguing and insatiable curiosity. I had the pleasure of being Bill's rehabilitation counselor and played a small part in getting him started on his profession. I recall once being with Bill when he and I were asked to evaluate one of the major banks' attempts at making an ATM accessible for blind persons. Bill was underwhelmed with the model we were examining. He had an implement with him that looked like a small hammer. When he tapped the machine we were looking at, the gizmo made the sound like breaking glass. He didn't harm the machine but certainly gave the bank staffer the impression that he had damaged the model. The interview ended shortly after that. So, it is good knowing that Bill still plays with his tinker toys.
Gil Johnson
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
Thank you for featuring Mr. Gerrey in this month's AccessWorld in Deborah Kendrick's article, Series: The Work of the Smith-Kettlewell Institute Part V: Bill Gerrey: Profile of a Pioneer, Scientist, and Role Model who is Blind.
As a twenty-something blind guy interested in all kinds of tech stuff, including ham radio, I had the privilege of spending a number of weeks learning how to solder and assemble stuff at the "Little School" that Smith-Kettlewell permitted in Bill's lab (happily staffed and powered by Bill, Tom Fowle, and Jay Williams). More than just learning the joys of sticking hot globs of solder to my fingertips and building things (including a RF field strength tester/transmitter tuning aid which I still own and use), I was encouraged, educated and inspired by Messrs. Gerrey, Fowle, and Williams.
If Bill Gerrey has the chance to read this, I would just like to say:
Thanks Bill for the time and friendship you, Tom, and Jay generously gave to me and the others who spent happy and informative hours at the "Little School," and for the opportunity of spending a great evening with you guys from "the lab" and Monica at your great house across from the San Francisco Mint!
Sincerely,
Ron Miller
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
I am writing in response to a letter submitted in the last issue sent in by Mr. Harrison of Triumph Technologies about the article An Introduction to Accessible QuickBooks by Intuit and My Blind Spot, by Aaron Preece.
Mr. Harrison's personal and professional frustrations centered on his quest for a usable accounting program are quite similar to tose that motivated us to reach out to Intuit to open discussions around making QuickBooks usable and accessible for the first tme. As a nonprofit based in New York City, My Blind Spot needed…accounting tools to manage our day-to-day finances and we sought out and looked to the repeated suggestions made by so many other professionals in financial management: Get QuickBooks. But, before we could heed the suggestions of accountants and bookkeepers alike, we had to first address the accessibility and usability issues that were very prevalent and very obstructive in the QuickBooksproduct lines. The frustrations a great number of us felt were very real and very unfortunate without question. But that has changed now.
What is exciting for me, both personally and professionally, are the choices before us, for the first time, when it comes to programs for the financial management of our small businesses. Now accountants, bookkeepers and tax preparers transitioning into the community can stay gainfully employed and do so by choosing a program that serves their needs as professionals. Cash Manager is a good program without question, but now the community can actively make a choice between accounting programs that meet their needs and work with adaptive technologies used by people who are blind, visually impaired, or print disabled.
The concepts and realities around our community finding software programs that are tried and true has been ever elusive and continues to be in far too many instances. At My Blind Spot we happen to believe that this is unacceptable and that accessibility needs to be priority one for private an public sectors in addition to governmental agencies. My Blind Spot is committed to that and has dedicated our efforts to educating and guiding corporate America, governmental agencies, and community-based organizations about accessibility and usability when it comes to the needs for virtual access for people with disabilities. We believe that access to the right tools promotes ability and restores infinite possibilities.
Intuit now sees the inclusion of accessibility and usability in their product offerings as a nonnegotiable. The progression of our discussions and efforts centered on accessibility and usability introduced into QuickBooks has spread t the teams managing and developing Quicken as well as the other product offerings under the Intuit stable of brands. Intuit CEO Brad Smith has himself assured My Blind Spot of this dedication and I believe him completely.
Anyone wanting to confirm Intuit's commitment to accessibility simply needs to write to Brad or even Ted Drake, Intuit's Senior Accessibility Engineer to confirm this for themselves.
While it is true more work remains in order to infuse even greater accessibility into QuickBooks for Windows, the journey has finally begun. As Lori Samuels, the Accessibility Manager who started this ball rolling at Intuit once said, "This is not a sprint, it is a marathon."
In my opinion, the inclusion of accessibility and usability engineered into computer programs and websites happening all around us is promising and hopeful. That a global giant like Intuit has finally seen accessibility as a nonnegotiable is fantastic. That QuickBooks is more accessible then ever is monumental, and Intuit is committed to improving their customers' financial lives so profoundly they can't imagine going back to the old way of doing things. I am sure that none of us in the blind and print disabled community ever want to go back to the old way of doing things.
Anyone wanting to draw their own conclusions and form their own opinions about QuickBooks can contact us at info@myblindspot.org to set up a tandem session to experience firsthand the functionality and usability that has been re-introduced into the program. Consumers can also write to the CEO of Intuit to ask him about his commitment to the community, as well as what is in store for accessibility and for people with disabilities internally at Intuit.
We now have options and people who need to use QuickBooks for Windows for their accounting choices or for gainful employment are actually able to do so.
Looking forward to calculating a whole new future for our community!
Respectfully,
Albert J. Rizzi, M.Ed.
Founder and CEO, My Blind Spot, Inc.
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
Recently, Fred Gissoni passed away with his wife Linda by his side. I got online and was reading A Tribute, Fred Gissoni: The Legacy of a Matchless Pioneer by Deborah Kendrick and this was my response:
Fred was married to my mother-in-law. He was special in most every way. I always thought that Fred, although blind, saw the world better than most people could ever see it. He was genuine, caring, and gave his heart to all of us. He will be missed. He was a good man and did many good things for people in need. Great article, it truly described the man I was fortunate to get to know.
Todd Collard
Holy Trinity Parish School
Dear AccessWorld Editor,
I want to thank Deborah Kendrick so much for this delightful profile of my mentor and friend, Bill Gerrey in her September article, Series: The Work of the Smith-Kettlewell Institute Part V: Bill Gerrey: Profile of a Pioneer, Scientist, and Role Model who is Blind.
I have known Mr. Gerrey since the late 1980s when I came to him for soldering lessons as an undergraduate, and I have continued to learn from him ever since.
When I was a graduate student fellow at Smith-Kettlewell in the late 90s, I sat just outside Bill's office and got to listen in on his meetings and phone calls—and that was educational, too!
A few years ago I wrote a little piece inspired by some of that eavesdropping, as well as my admiration for Bill Gerrey, and published it on medium.com.
Again, thank you for your excellent profile of Bill Gerrey. I hope you enjoy my article on some of his other contributions.
Joshua A. Miele
Director, Smith-Kettlewell Institute
