Using Aplia with VoiceOver

By Christina, 27 March, 2014

Forum
macOS and Mac Apps
Hi, I really hope I am putting this in the correct place. Next semester I have to take a Statistics class for my major and I am wondering if anyone has had experience with using aplia.com. I tried using Aplia in Safari with VoiceOver however I was not able to read any of the practice questions or read the online version of the textbook. There was a button to play the textbook however I was unable to click on that after and VoiceOver read the button as a graphic. A second thing, in order to take this class, I have to use Excel (Numbers does not have all of the appropriate formulas) and so I will have to put Windows on my mac which I can get help with. I will be using JAWS for this however I am wondering also if anyone has experience with this website using the mac with JAWS and any of the main web browsers (whichever works best with the site would be helpful). If none of the above is possible and anyone here knows of any alternative ways of accessing the textbook, homework, practice questions and any of the other necessary material, any of that information will be helpful. We got sent a word version and .pdf version of the textbook however all figures are just written as (see figure 1.2) as an example. I thank you for any responses to this post.

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Comments

By Skies on Monday, April 14, 2014 - 16:13

Hi Christina Possible option as Jaws is not available natively on the Mac and to avoid having to install Windows on your Mac. You may be able to get Microsoft Office, Student edition for the Mac through your University bookstore. I was always able to get it at a very reduced price ~$50. Then you can use your familiar VoiceOver with Excel. As far as the rest, I am sorry, I can not help. Good Luck

By Justin on Monday, April 14, 2014 - 16:13

Hi, I thought that VoiceOver doesn't work with MS office? It didn't when I got my first mac about 4 years ago.

By Justin on Monday, April 14, 2014 - 16:13

Also, have you tried google's chrome browser on the Mac for the site? If that doesn't work, then you might have to dual boot windows on your machine. HTH

By Christina on Monday, April 14, 2014 - 16:13

Yeah, I know I will have to install windows (that is not really something I can avoid since the Microsoft version for mac does not work with VoiceOver). I am going to try Chrome and see if that will work. All suggestions though or if anyone has experience with the site or how to get the materials would be helpful.

By Christina on Monday, April 14, 2014 - 16:13

So, I took the suggestion to try using Google Chrome and that was very helpful. I am able to read the textbook, just not sure about assignments or other info. I can read the book with VoiceOver and I can use the site's built-in audio player.

By Justin on Monday, April 14, 2014 - 16:13

Hi again, Maybe try using chromeVox, it's a free extension for chrome that is a chrome screen reader. That might work on your assignments.

I will download that extension and see how well it works however I remember it being a bit challenging to use on my Windows laptop. Also, another related question. When I install windows, I am probably going to use Fusion so that I can run both systems at the same time (only using Windows mainly for Excel mainly) and using the mac OS for my majority of tasks. Would it be beneficial to use 2gb of my 4gb RAM for Windows and the other 2GB for Mac? Also, if anyone believes that using Boot Camp would be better (in which case I would have to start whichever system I would like when I start my computer), let me know. I'm mainly wondering what the tech savvy people here think about this. I have a very strong interest in technology however I have only explored and not actually attempted installing operating systems myself and I want to give those who can help me with the process useful info. Thanks.