Just a random accessibility comparison - Android vs macOS

By TheBllindGuy07, 12 December, 2024

Forum
Android

Hello Applevis,
So I was just having a random thought. As we probably know macOS in the blind community had full time haters or part time lovers in terms of Voiceover stability and bug correction rate.
I only have 12 years of experience with windows and ios ecosystem and 1.5 years with the mac, and about less than 10 hours in total with android on two different and never most recent or up to date samsung devices.
Some people swear only by nvda/jaws on windows and other by the mac for "desktop", and ios or android with its choice of screen readers for mobile. I can't give an objective opinion about android but just by the latest release notes of talkback with the update with various html elements like we can do on litterally all other screen readers for ages (even chromevox), it just shows that the accessibility landscape and user expectations and tolerance are completely different on each platform.
If there are people who have power user experience of all four, windows, mac, ios and android, would you say that the criticisms against voiceover on mac compared to windows srs are somehow similar to that of android srs compared to voiceover on ios, and users who actually grew up in those respective environments from the beginning just have different world views and tolerance as to what is an acceptable/minor bug? For example as an ios voiceover user since the first iphone 4 I tried in 2011, I found the idea that talkback only got the navigation by different html controls (links, buttons, etc) only in 2024 completely unbelievable. The same thing could be said about the voiceover actions users love on ios even on google stock apps that are still almost not used from what I understand on Android. Another compareason could be how focus issues and just appname does not respond for long time voiceover users on macos are not a deal breaker whereas as a windows user I still have to refrain myself throwing my mac away during those moments.
Do you think my comparison is actually pertinent? Like... At the end of the day, I am sure there are happy users of orca on linux who stare at windows and macos with disgust, and they are comfortable with living with a screen Reader virtually maintained by only one person. Screen readers are much more than APIs engeneering, there is the whole ecosystem, community expectation and tolerance, social norms..... and all this can completely be extended to the worldwide visually impaired community, but that's beyond the scope of my tpost. Screen reader developers.. are honestly real brave person put this way.
Feel free to share your thoughts!
PS: not sure if this forum category is the good one??

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Comments

By Trenton Matthews on Friday, December 13, 2024 - 19:03

https://applevis.com/forum/android , is where ya can find that. Please do feel free to bookmark it. I'll be doing my best to answer questions over there, as many others I'm sure. You may or may not have heard, Google is planning on merging Chrome OS with Android in full over the next year. Not sure what will happen to ChromeVox in that regard myself. And for a round up on Android Accessibility throughout 2024, Accessible Android has This Article, which will definitely be quite a nice read for many to browse through. For thoughts on that from me, I shall toss them among said AppleVis Android forum. Now if we're talking OCR with the Mac vs Android, Or really, (Apple VS Android), its definitely between VOCR vs Jieshuo/Commentary's Premium OCR Feature, along with Apple's own VO Screen Recognition. Where even though Jieshuo's "Virtual Screen" feature is not free, it's easier to navigate around buttons and the like. Though I think it has something to do with how it layouts things once the screen is converted. VOCR does indeed work well on Mac, reminds me of how it worked with the Window-Eyes screen reader when it came to its OCR layout.

By Brian on Friday, December 13, 2024 - 19:03

I enjoy some of the articles I read on AccessibleAndroid.com. They are insightful, and I have learned so much over the past year in regards to Android in general. I am still considering my next smart phone being a Pixel 9 series, if not a Pixel 10, once that one is out. Right now the only thing holding me back is that I am waiting on the newest iPhone SE model to be released, as I am a sucker for the SE models.
I've said this elsewhere, but at this point my only real concern is the lack of an Actions rotor, not the rotor itself, as I know for a fact Android has this, but the Actions rotor which allows us iOS users to do things like flicking up or down in an email to archive/delete/move said email, or flick up and down in maps to do things like add a point of interest, mark a location, or call a location just for example. it is in a word, convenient. The only other thing would be the Shortcuts. I am absolutely addicted to the Shortcuts functionality of iOS. Although if I had to choose, I would take the Actions rotor over Shortcuts any day.
Having said that, I am so very impressed with what Google has done over the past couple of years. As I have mentioned before, I have a friend who has a Pixel 8 Pro, and she sometimes will let me play with hers, just to check out the accessibility features. I have to admit, it is not the android of a decade ago, which is the last time I actually owned an Android.
Admittedly though, with things like Guided Frame Assist, and Gemini built in, it's getting harder and harder to stick with Apple ...

By Brian on Friday, December 13, 2024 - 19:03

OK, that article on automation gives me hope for Android as an equivalent to iOS Shortcuts.

By Trenton Matthews on Friday, December 13, 2024 - 19:03

You're welcome!

By TheBllindGuy07 on Friday, December 13, 2024 - 19:03

Yeah apparently RIP chromeos, a shame I was really hesitating between ipad and chromebook... Chromevox is an incredible screen reader in its own right.

By Ekaj on Friday, December 13, 2024 - 19:03

I just read the article from Accessible Android and enjoyed it. Looks like what we have here is competition, lol. All kidding aside, this article has me a bit more curious now. Jumping ship would probably be nicer on my parents' pocketbook in the long run, and I think this is something which I might want to discuss with them. Otoh I really like what Apple has done both with iOS and Mac OS, and I really like the 3rd-party apps which I have. The jury's still out on Apple Intelligence as I have yet to update to 15.2 . That said, I think I'm starting to see some Apple Intelligence features already and I am on an iPhone 14. But it's nice indeed to read friendly debates such as this, with no bashing. I've just bookmarked Accessible Android and am going to circle back around to it. Several years ago a former life-skills coach showed me his Android Galaxy, and turned on some of the speech features to let me hear them. He is fully sighted, and although we had somewhere to be that same day we took our time on his phone.

By Brian on Friday, December 13, 2024 - 19:03

I can totally get behind the macro droid app. Or even one or two of those other ones from that article. As long as I could do similar functionality that I could do now with iOS and Shortcuts, I would be happy. Agree chromeVox is actually a really good screen reader, shame chromeOS is going the way of the dodo, but at the same time I'm not really surprised. I just don't think there was enough support behind it to be honest.
It kind of reminds me of windows Mobile. Which was basically Microsoft's version of the iPhone. It was an awesome idea, but poor execution, as it was based off of Windows 8/8.1.
Now, if they would bring windows mobile back, base it off of Windows 11 ...

By Brian on Saturday, December 14, 2024 - 19:03

I remember there used to be videos on YouTube, showcasing JAWS on the Windows Mobile devices. I think they were using a Nokia model at the time.