![]() ![]() What I like about macOS Integration with the Apple ecosystem While I have no direct experience with Macs with Apple Silicon, my takeaway from other users is that, while the chip makes it incredibly fast, the experience is still held back somewhat by VoiceOver being, well, VoiceOver. I have a 2018 MacBook Air with macOS Monterey 12.4, the latest stable version of the operating system at the time of posting. In fact, this post is being written using Pages on macOS and posted to AppleVis using Safari. ![]() The standard tasks I use my devices for are primarily personal, email, web browsing, communication, occasional social media use, and light word processing. I use these platforms exclusively with speech, so can’t comment on the quality or usability of braille support on any of them. I am a totally blind user of VoiceOver on macOS and iOS, and NVDA on Windows. Similarly, as the author of this post, I feel it is important for me to describe my use case now, so as to give relevant context to my perspective. When someone is evaluating whether a given technology product is right for them, it is important for them to consider their individual use case and base their research on what users in similar situations report. If you come upon this post in the future, you may want to post a comment or perform additional research to assess the current state of something referenced in this post that you’re particularly concerned about. Personally, I don’t unquestioningly love or hate any platform, and think all have their strengths, weaknesses, and appropriate places.įinally, I must stress that the observations and opinions in this post are a snapshot in time. In saying this, it should be noted that the things mentioned in this post are my opinions based on my use case, as well as my observations of other users’ reported experiences. As a totally blind long-time Mac user, I hope to provide a more nuanced perspective to this debate. No, I don’t have a hard number to back that up, just my observation.Īs more blind and low vision people consider whether or not a Mac is right for them, the common discourse may lead them to one of two conclusions, either that macOS is great and people who discuss bugs they’ve experienced or Apple’s failure to address them are “Whining” and “being negative,” or that Apple doesn’t care at all about VoiceOver on macOS, and thus the accessibility of the platform is hopelessly destined to decay. Indeed, as an AppleVis member, I’ve noticed an uptick in posts related to macOS, including from those who are potentially interested in buying their first Mac, those enquiring about how to complete various tasks on macOS, those experiencing issues, and others. Today, with the Mac’s transition to Apple Silicon and the performance potential that it’s helped to unleash, it can be argued that the Mac is experiencing something of a renaissance. Over that time, I’ve witnessed the various changes to VoiceOver, both major and minor, as well as how VoiceOver on macOS helped usher in a whole new world of mobile accessibility on iOS and iPadOS. Since 2005, I have used a variety of Macs, and have regularly used every version of macOS from Tiger to Monterey since then. ![]()
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