I began my journey with accessible computing back in 1984 with an Apple IIE paired with an Echo internal synthesizer. I migrated to a DOS PC a few years later, and for the next 20 years I upgraded my way through a number of increasingly powerful computers running Microsoft Windows. Ten years ago I bought a used Mac notebook, eager to take part in a beta program for a new Mac screen reader called VoiceOver. Unfortunately, I found this new screen reader extremely limited and confusing, and it wasn't long before I gave up and sold the Mac.
I watched from the sidelines as VoiceOver was formally introduced with OS 10.4 (Tiger), and continued to stand aside as it went through many upgrades and improvements. After a year with an iPhone, I finally decided to jump back in with a Mac Mini running OS 10.7 (Lion), and today I enjoy switching back and forth between OS X Mavericks and Windows 7, depending on the task at hand and the strengths of each operating system.
Mastering a new operating system can be challenging, both for new computer users and for "switchers," Windows users who need to undo many years of muscle memory and learn new techniques to accomplish the same tasks using a Mac ad the VoiceOver screen reader. Apple does offer VoiceOver documentation, but additional third-party resources are always welcome. One such resource is a recent book entitled Learn to Use the Mac with VoiceOver: A Step by Step Guide for Blind Users, by Janet Ingber. The book is available for $20 from the National Braille Press in text, Braille, eBraille, DAISY, or MS Word.
Getting Started
If you ask any loyal accessible Mac fan why they prefer the OS X with VoiceOver experience over that of a PC experience, their answers will fall into three basic categories:
- Free screen reader: When you purchase a Mac you have already paid for your screen reader, a savings of up to $1,000 over some third-party solutions. However, with the advent of NVDA and Window-Eyes for Office this advantage is no longer as pronounced.
- A stable operating experience with fewer virus and malware incidents: VoiceOver users report that their machines operate for much longer between crashes and forced reboots, and at least to date, the Mac operating system is significantly less likely to contract viruses or experience malware attacks than the Windows operaing system.
- The out-of-the-box experience: When you purchase a Mac and start it up for the first time, you will be offered the chance to start VoiceOver and learn the basics with a few practice screens. Additionally, if you ever need to reformat your drive and do a fresh reinstall of OS X you can accomplish this using VoiceOver, a task not easily done with Windows. This ability engenders a much greater sense of "I can do it myself" independence.
Regarding this last point, unfortunately, Ingber gives this marquee feature short shrift. She assumes your Mac is up and running when you turn on VoiceOver with Command + F5 for the very first time. She glosses over the Quick Start Tutorial and does not mention that you can start VoiceOver immediately and use it to perform your Mac's initial setup. Nor does she mention what an Apple ID is or how to create one. It is possible to run a Mac without an Apple ID, but you will be prompted multiple times to enter one, and you will absolutely need one in order to use iTunes, which is covered later in her book.
Instead, the author begins with a touch tour of the Apple keyboard, and describes how it differs from a Windows keyboard. She then introduces the OS X Desktop, the Finder application, and the Dock. Ingber does an excellent job describing how to conceptualize and navigate these screen elements using VoiceOver. She takes you through the keyboard commands to access the application Menu Bar and the Menu Extras Bar. However the novice OS X user may be left wondering what the Menu Extras Bar is and what its purpose might be.
Judging from personal experience, I suspect a more detailed description of the Menu Extras Bar would have been welcome here—especially the Notifications area. When I purchased my Mac Mini and began learning with VoiceOver I was inundated with beeps and extra verbiage that came seemingy out of nowhere. Until I learned to control my Notifications settings, my VoiceOver experience was not nearly as pleasant as it could have been.
Ingber does help new users avoid a pair of other potential sources of confusion. She shows the user, step by step, how to change the default function key layout that controls hardware instead of VoiceOver and other software. She also demonstrates how to instruct the Tab key to move through all of a screen's controls.
Getting Things Done
The normal progression at this point would be to move on to a discussion of file management—copying and moving files, creating folders, etc. Instead, Ingber delays this discussion in favor of teaching the user how to set up Mail, add an e-mail account and send and receive e-mails. This is an excellent teaching strategy, as by now the reader is likely more than a little eager to actually accomplish something on their new Mac. It also gives the author the chance to introduce new commands and techniques, such as accessing an application's Settings menu, entering text into form fields, and navigating a folder tree to save an attachment.
Backtracking a bit, the reader is now taken through various file management and finder commands. We are introduced to Spotlight Search, and the concept of QuickNav. The author devotes a good deal of attention to QuickNav, an excellent decision, in my opinion, as this is among the most confusing concepts for the new Mac user to grasp and use effectively.
Using VoiceOver commanders can be extremely useful for accessibility, offering users alternative and often quicker ways to perform various tasks on the Mac. There are four commanders: QuickNav, Trackpad, Keyboard, and NumPad. Having already described the QuickNav commander, the author proceeds to introduce users to the Trackpad and Keyboard commanders. Here, the author offers the new user invaluable advice on how you might accidently mute VoiceOver speech and how to easily toggle itback on.
Ingber postpones describing the NumPad commander until a brief mention in the VoiceOver Utility chapter of the book, presuming, I suspect, that since most Mac keyboards do not come with a NumPad this particular commander is of limited use. I find the NumPad commander extremely useful, and well worth the price of an optional Bluetooth NumPad, especially for remapping VoiceOver commands that require an awkward, four-finger key combination.
The next major section of Learn to Use the Mac tackles Safari and how to use it to browse and navigate the Web using VoiceOver. Ingber's description of the various web page elements is clear and concise, and she does an excellent job interweaving learning new VoiceOver commands, such as the web rotor and Webspots, with standard Safari elements, such as Bookmarks and the Keychain.
Ingber describes navigating the Web using the trackpad and also using QuickNav. But neither in this chapter nor anywhere else in the book does she mention the VoiceOver Item Chooser, a useful way of breaking a screen down into its constituent elements to aid in rapid navigation. For example, if you are searching for a webpage's "Contact" link, you can press Control+Option+I (VO+I), and when the item chooser pops up you can move quickly to the Contact link by typing the first few letters, scrolling down, if necessary, and then pressing Enter.
Ingber also misses my favorite way to quickly navigate a webpage, via the VO+F Find command. She does mention this command later in a chapter describing how to search for and download additional apps from the App Store, but I think a description of using the VO+F Find command to navigate a webpage is needed here, as well.
In the iTunes chapter, Ingber does a thorough job describing how to organize and access music, videos, iTunes Radio, and such on the Mac. She mentions the ability to synch paid or imported content onto an iPhone or iPad, but as to the actual how-tos, she deviates from her usual step-by-step instructions in favor of a few quick tips.
Text Edit is covered in great detail, which is appropriate since creating and editing documents is one of the major reasons people use computers. It is also one of the main applications where basic functions differ significantly from editing text using Windows. Cursor positioning can be quite confusing to the novice switcher, and auto-correct works much differently than it does in MS Word, which many switchers may be accustomed to using. Ingber's expertise and teaching abilities are at their peak, here, and her text well-written.
It is in this chapter where, in my opinion, this book best displays one serious shortcoming. Nowhere in the book does the author state which version of OS X she is using. She only first mentions Mavericks in the iTunes chapter when she describes iTunes Radio. The iCloud is also first introduced in this chapter when she describes synching an iOS device with iCloud. Nowhere does the author discuss what the iCloud is, and how it affects your use of the Mac.
For example, in the Text Edit chapter Ingber urges readers to save their work frequently to avoid potential data loss. She does not mention that Mavericks now saves your work as you go, and even if the Text Edit app or your computer crashes, the text will likely still be there after you restart. She also does not discuss saving documents to iCloud. Novice users can too easily send their documents to iCloud, and when they use Finder to go looking for them they may be left wondering, "Where did my stuff go?"
I was advised by a National Braille Press representative that Mavericks was released midway through the writing of this book, and that the author had to scramble to incorporate the new features and other changes. I can well understand the pressures of meeting a publication deadline, but the apparent rush seems to have left this guide somewhat incomplete. I would imagine this book is in the process of receiving a complete update to incorporate the many new features we are expecting to see in OS X 10.10, Yosemite. Hopefully the author will also take the opportunity to include much of what was left out of this edition, including some much needed appendices with complete VoiceOver command lists, guides to using the Calendar, Contact, Reminders, and Maps apps, which are not included in this version, along with an upfront chapter describing how to pair and use a Braille display with VoiceOver so deafblind users can follow alng from the start.
Final Thoughts and Recommendations
This book has a wealth of useful information to offer, and most of it is presented in a step-by-step workbook-like format that is easy for the beginning VoiceOver user to comprehend and follow. The author also does an excellent job of clarifying and simplifying complex OS X and VoiceOver concepts. If you are new to the Mac, I recommend this book highly, despite its shortcomings. It's an excellent beginner's guide, though more seasoned VoiceOver users may wish to wait for an updated and more complete edition before adding this title to ther reference library.
Product Information
Learn to Use the Mac with VoiceOver: A Step-by-Step Guide for Blind Users, by Janet Ingber is available for $20 from the National Braille Press in your choice of:
- ASCII text (CD or download)
- Braille
- DAISY (CD or download)
- eBraille (CD or download)
- MS Word (CD or download)
Toll free: 888-965-8965
Comments from Author Janet Ingber
"I am happy with Bill Holton's review of Learn to Use the Mac with VoiceOver, including his perceptive comments about what I might include in future editions. Covering every facet of a book on using the Mac for the first-time user, as well as the seasoned one, was challenging—to say it mildly. And switching over to Mavericks when it was introduced did, as Bill pointed out, require some lane changes. While writing the book, Mavericks updates were installed as soon as Apple released them. Still, I'm happy he recommends the book for those of us who want to use VoiceOver technology as well as Apple accessibility on a dail basis. There's lots to learn and I hope this book helps people get started."
