The adaptive technology market is a very small, concentrated group of people. There are those dedicated to furthering accessible solutions and enabling customers, those concerned most with profit margins and the bottom line, and those who fall somewhere in beteween. While that kind of broad, vague, generic statement pretty much sums up any collection of businesses, we in the AT field are very defensive and protective about our respective business missions. When those missions are questioned, we take it personally, as if our own personal ethics were under attack.
GW Micro's mission statement (found on our About Us page) states:
"We believe in equal opportunity for everyone, regardless of disability, and strive to provide products that enhance a person's overall wellbeing by creating tools that aid in obtaining employment, furthering education, and opening doors to a world of infinite possibilities through access to the latest computer technologies."
Some might complain about that kind of fluffiness, claiming that mission statements are nothing more than sales and marketing drivel devised to tell you exactly what you want to hear in an effort to gain your hard earned cash. And it's hard to argue with those complaints. But we did spend time thinking about what our ultimate (and honest) goal as a business was, and that's what we came up with. That's all we came up with, too. There aren't pages and pages of this crap. That's it. Simple, to the point, no BS.
So what does all this have to do with the price of beans? I experience the stress and frustration, the joy and excitement, the heart and soul of the development of all GW Micro products every five out of seven days (sometimes more). And as biased as I am, I can say with a clear conscience that we continue to stay true to our mission. And I believe Window-Eyes 7.0 is proof of that idea.
I'm not visually impaired. I don't know what it's like to depend on a product like Window-Eyes. Not just use it, but depend on it. But I know those who do. I talk to them all the time. I work with them. I know the accessibility struggles that can exist when things just don't speak right (or at all). And I understand the barriers that make living with a disability a substantial, yet surmountable, challenge.
I think I say this after every release, but I continue to feel exceptionally proud to be part of a team that can produce a product like Window-Eyes as a tool to make people's lives easier -- to "enhance a person's overall wellbeing." I think that philosophy rings true in the way GW Micro does business for the entire product line.
Well, enough self congratulations. Happy Window-Eyes 7.0, everyone!
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What's the story with your lotus notes 8 support? The message list does not speak.
I the Office Scan antivirus interface, Window Eyes does not speak the computer list interface. Ok, it's an application and you cant be expected to support every application out there. So, what about Symantec Antivirus. You still don't speak the main tree view in the enterprise version of that product. Office scan and Symantec antivirus are two of the main players in enterprise level security and you don't support either of them?
What about Windows Server Update Services. You don't seem to be able to support the web interface for that. Sure it's made up of mostly clicable elements but surely something can be done?
For people who work in technical support. What windows shaddowing application do you support? I fully except that VNC is almost impossible to support. Have you found any alternatives?
I've asked all of these questions in private messages but have not had answers.
As I say, this shortfall is not just with window eyes, it's with Jaws as well. But, what is someone like me suppose to do ?
One thing I will not do is read that the product helps it's users obtain employment! What got me employment in this organization was my unwillingness to except that this job was above me just because screen readers wouldn't support everything.
Looking forward to the slating now...
I fully understand your frustration with the lack of 64-bit support, believe me. Granted, XP X64 wasn't very popular, and it can be forgiven that you didn't support that. But Vista 64? Server 2003 and 2008 64-bit? We've got nothing, at least from any of the "major" screen readers. Zip. and these have indeed been around for years, so there is no excuse. GW Micro, you knew that Vista would be offered in 32 and 64-bit flavors. You knew that Server 2008 would have 64-bit. Yet, I see no 64-bit support nor mentioning of it, and you go silent whenever it does come up. So I call for an answer now.
Currently, OS X and the various UNIX-based platforms are the only 64-bit platforms we have access to (OS X will be fully 64-bit compliant in the next release, which will include Voiceover as it currently does). While I'm a Mac user myself, I believe access to all platforms is important. With 64-bit computing being around for years before Windows embrased it, this trend was very clearly coming. Now that it is here, we're in trouble yet again. Does this industry never learn? You need to be proactive, not retroactive. I should have thought Windows 95 would have taught you that especially, GW.
What can we constructively do? We yell as loud as we can, as often as we can, for 64-bit support. We become the most annoying squeaky wheel ever devised, and we squeak and squeak until everyone gets so tired of us that they do what we want and we shut up. Realistically, there's not much else we can do for the major screen readers. We don't have the code, so we can't fix it ourselves. What we can do is make a lot of noise, and maybe even refuse to buy products that don't suit us and who's companies are not willing to come out and answer this question. I'm looking at all of you here--gw, fs, and dolphin. The importance of this problem needs to be impressed upon the AT industry before anything will be done, at least in the Windows world. At this rate, though, NVDA will probably eclipse the "major" screen readers before we get it, and NVDA can be compiled for 64-bit quite easily at the moment. No fear, though, you guys have a long time to catch up before that happens. Use it wisely, else you will become as irrelevant on Windows as you already are on every other accessible platform.
And yes, I am speaking like this on purpose. I'm calling for an answer!