Mac OS X Accessibility Takes A Step Forward And A Step Backwards
by
Kyle Buckley (Senior Editor)
on September 17th, 2009 at 03:28 PM 
Apple has been one of the few software developers that has made a valiant effort to make their software accessible for users with special needs. The new Mac OS X Snow Leopard improved on their VoiceOver technology, and is much more advanced. But this advancement takes other accessibility tools, and Mac OS X, one big step backwards.
Last month, I wrote my thoughts on the accessibility tools in Mac OS X, focusing mainly on those tools that assist blind and visually impaired users. Snow Leopard, the most recent release of Mac OS X, makes great leaps forward with its screen-reading tool—VoiceOver (visit the above link for details). In my opinion, and as someone who is blind, VoiceOver is the best screen-reader on the market, beating those found in the Windows world.
For some users though, this advancement causes an issue—a big enough issue as to not upgrade to Snow Leopard. When VoiceOver is activated, the keyboard shortcut to invert the screen's colors is deactivated. Many visually impaired users with limited sight prefer to invert colors, making backgrounds dark and the text white. Using this in conjunction with VoiceOver empowers many visually impaired users with the ability to painlessly use their Mac. Not the case in Snow Leopard though.
You may understandably suggest simply inverting the colors before activating VoiceOver, but such a workaround is hardly productive. To help you understand, here is a theoretical example:Suppose Microsoft released a new version of Word, complete with a bug that prevented you from capitalizing characters by use of the Shift key. Also, the Caps Lock key cannot be toggled on or off while Microsoft Word is running. Would you be satisfied by closing your document every time you need to toggle the Caps Lock key and then reopen your document to continue working on it? No, you would expect Microsoft to fix the issue.That is how inconvenient this issue is with VoiceOver and color inverting. And yes, many sight impaired users frequently invert colors back and forth. No two webpages are alike, some are easy to see with regular colors and others are easier to see with colors inverted. Visually impaired users need the ability to invert colors at will to accommodate web surfing and even switching between some applications.
Apple's reason for deactivating the toggling of color inverting is to accommodate hotspots, a new feature in VoiceOver. The keyboard shortcut to access hotspot 8 is the same keyboard shortcut used to invert colors. Deactivating the shortcut to invert colors is understandable, but there needs to be a mechanism to allow quick color inverting to work while VoiceOver is active. Having an option to deactivate hotspot 8, changing the keyboard shortcut for color inverting, etc. And for the record, I have attempted to change the shortcut to something that does not conflict with VoiceOver commands, but apparently Apple has set a global deactivation of inverting while VoiceOver is active. And thus far, there is no indication that Apple is going to change this major productivity killer. Because of this I already know several blind and visually impaired users who will not be able to upgrade to Snow Leopard despite the fact that they want the latest version of Mac OS X.
In order for those with special needs to use Mac OS X, all accessibility tools must work in synergy with each other. Putting emphasis on one accessibly feature takes accessibility away from others.
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