Access Technologists Higher Education Network: Mac Attack ... or ...

Baseball, Hot Dogs and Apple's [piece o' the] Pie

There has been discussion on the listservs recently regarding the accessibility of iPods and how to best provide students with mp3 files on these and other players. I noted that since the iPod craze we are seeing more students using Mac's. It is unfortunate that access tech [both hardware and software] continues to be scarce for the Macintosh. Admittedly, I am not a Mac enthusiast, but that should not matter. When a student is approved for access to their textbooks in alternate formats or has need of peripherals in the classroom and my office is unable to support their needs as easily as we could with a Windows based PC- this is cause for concern. The introduction of the new Intel-based Mac and the announcement that Apple is opening a flagship store walking distance from my office leads me to believe that the student switch to Mac's is not a passing fad.

My experiences with Mac accessibility have not been positive - a recent example being the need for a student running OS-X on a Powerbook to access DAISY books. To date we have been unable to get the one and only DTB player for Mac, something called KatiePlayer, to work - and that is before trying to upgrade it for RFB&D access. The student, who knows more about Macs than I do, sees to think the problem lies in her version of OS-X [Tiger?] or certain other programs she is running. I even posted a query to the alt-media and access-tech listservs and got nary a response - [cricket ... cricket ... cricket]. According to sources, RFB&D will soon have a Mac version of one of the other programs for playing their DAISY files.

Unlike Windows access - where either a single company holds the lions share of the market or brawls break out among enthusiasts of competing programs - there is far too little available for the Mac and, as is my understanding, what is available has been thrown a Wakefield worthy knuckleball with the introduction of the Intel chip - back to the drawing board sums it up.

My department is in process of procuring several new machines for alt-media production and I have asked for a Mac in some form so that we can learn about and experiment with issues of accessibility. I stopped just short of asking my boss to throw in an iPod. I do not see the point in testing its accessibility as I cannot imagine Apple giving up the lucrative after-market by adding functionality that competitors offer. I'd rather have a stable of iRiver, SanDisk and Creative devices to play with.

Word of my interest found it's way to our friendly campus Apple Rep [didn't even know we had one] and now he wants to meet with me to discuss my software compatability questions. This ought to be fun. Not to say that there is no access tech available for the Mac - a quick Google search located a number of sites with info and it appears that the Mac [Tiger] screenreader Voice-Over has gotten pretty good reviews.

Here is a non-comprehensive list of what I found. Personally I have not used a Mac since OS 8.1 and have no idea what or if anything on this list is worth knowing.