Finally, Apple Speaks to the Blind
From: Business Week - 03/16/2004
By: Alex Salkever

At the 19th annual Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference, Apple
Computer unveiled its Spoken Interface, a tool designed to help visually
impaired users navigate a computer desktop and Web pages by vocalizing and
giving sound cues to what is happening on the screen of their Macs. The
interface will be embedded within the next version of the OS X operating
system. The technology is advantageous to Apple from both a business and
public relations perspective: Without a screen reader, Apple would no longer
qualify for government contracts, while visually handicapped schoolchildren
would have little choice but to use Windows systems, which could further
isolate them from sighted students and earn Apple the enmity of advocacy
organizations. A Mac with a built-in screen reader is also a good bargain for
blind users in terms of cost. Mac developers will be able to set up easy
interoperability between their software and Spoken Interface through the use
of open application program interfaces for screen-reading modules. Moreover,
Apple's Chris Bourden says many of the programs developed using Apple's Cocoa
programming environment can work with Spoken Interface with no code
modifications, while others will require just minor modifications. Apple has
elected to get feedback on Spoken Interface from the assistive-technology
community, a strategy that flies against its traditional approach of keeping
mute about its software. "I think [Apple] is doing phenomenal work," notes
National Center for Accessible Media director Larry Goldberg. "I wouldn't say
[that] it's better than [leading Windows screen reader] JAWS yet, but it
could be." Beyond its short-term benefits for the blind, Spoken Interface
could have a long-term effect on how people--not just the disabled--use
computers. 

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2004/tc20040316_6454_tc056.htm

http://www.apple.com/accessibility/spokeninterface/
http://www.macnn.com/news/23862