#Mactracker alternative how to#
#Mactracker alternative software#

#Mactracker alternative how to#

Maybe I could force myself to learn how to use VoiceOver if I committed to doing a Tech Talk at Macworld while blindfolded. I was starting to get the hang of it, and then I got a crazy idea. I doodled around with it here and there, trying to figure out how it worked.

#Mactracker alternative software#

Eventually, I started getting interested in the built-in screen reader software on all Apple products called VoiceOver. I enjoyed learning along with the Podmom about assistive tech for the blind. It’s an intelligent assessment of the book reader, and she even makes fun of me, so there’s that. If you’d like to hear her back in 2010 telling us about it, there’s a link in the shownotes to NosillaCast #259 (her appearance is right near the beginning of the show). She even did a review for the NosillaCast about a digital book reader that she was wild about. This began my mother’s love of assistive tech. My mother was enchanted with the VTech and my father, who was devoted to her, wouldn’t even let the salesman leave with the demo model, he bought it on the spot. The VTech had controls for zoom level, contrast, and colors. Above that area is a large display (at that time it was a CRT) with a camera underneath that points down at the paper. The basic idea of the VTech device is in use today – it has a flat area where you place a piece of paper you want to read. When her vision was getting pretty bad, she had a salesman from VTech come to the house carrying a giant machine to demonstrate. She faced it with courage and strength, and never once complained about it. When I was in high school, my mom began to lose her vision to macular degeneration. I taught myself the alphabet sitting on the floor of my bedroom. In the book, Jimmy learns how to deal with his loss of sight, including learning Braille.Īs a little girl, I got a piece of cardboard and a punch from my dad’s shop and I made dents in the cardboard to simulate the Braille dots of the alphabet on the flip side. When I was 9, I read a book called Follow My Leader by James Garfield in which a young boy named Jimmy is blinded by fireworks. I am not blind, but ever since I was 9 years old, I have been fascinated by assistive tech for the blind.