ATMac

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Part of the support area on the Apple web site is the Apple Discussions area where users can write about problems and receive feedback from other users and occasionally Apple staff. Now there’s a new section specifically for Leopard’s Universal Access topics.

VoiceOver, the screen reader for Apple’s OS X, has undergone a major update [with the introduction of OS X 10.5 Leopard]. This article looks at the new functions, and what that means for people browsing websites. I am not looking at VoiceOver in general, just how different aspects of web pages affect the experience when [...]

Dasher is an information-efficient text-entry interface, driven by natural continuous pointing gestures. Dasher is a competitive text-entry system wherever a full-size keyboard cannot be used - for example,

when operating a computer one-handed, by joystick, touchscreen, trackball, or mouse;
when operating a computer with zero hands (i.e., by head-mouse or by eyetracker);
on a palmtop computer;
on a wearable [...]

Warp is a preference pane that allows you to use the mouse to switch between Spaces rather than using the keyboard.
I don’t use Spaces in Leopard, but for those who do this looks like a very configurable way to avoid needing the keyboard to move from one space to another.
Website: Warp
- Ricky Buchanan, ATMac

Here’s a quick-and-easy OS X 10.5 iChat tip (with a bonus OS X 10.4 variant thrown in, along with a little iTunes/iChat tip) for your Thursday morning. iChat, being the good citizen that it is, pops up a dialog box whenever someone initiates a chat with you; you can use the dialog to accept or [...]

Icon previews are new in Leopard. Instead of showing one icon for every text document and one for every spreadsheet and so on, you get a tiny peek of what’s inside the document. This is great if you can see tinsy icon-sized pictures, and not so good otherwise. Luckily, Apple left us with some options here.

How to turn your Apple laptop with built-in microphone and GarageBand into a functioning hearing aid
Website: Using your Apple laptop as a hearing aid/sound enhancer
ATMac Comment: This is certainly a cute idea, but it’s extremely basic in terms of hearing aids - I doubt whether it would have much functional use for anybody with a [...]

AssistiveWare / ConvenienceWare today announced a special Christmas offer for GhostReader. GhostReader is a multilingual document and selection reader with naturally sounding voices. GhostReader allows users to listen to Word documents, PDFs and web pages on your Mac and convert these to iPod and iPhone-ready audiobooks. Anyone who purchases the monolingual boxed edition (sold in [...]

SALEM, NH, November 30, 2007 - MacSpeech, Inc. today announced the immediate availability of iListen 1.8, an update to the Macintosh industry’s leading speech recognition solution, now compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard.”
iListen 1.8 includes new commands to support the new TextEdit and Finder in Mac OS X 10.5, and Safari 3. In addition, [...]

Move and resize any window on your Mac with your keyboard.
Is that window that you’re working on in the way? Are your hands comfortable where they are on the Keyboard? Now you can move that window anywhere on your screen (or screens!), and still keep your hands where they belong.
Resize your windows
Simply bring up MercuryMover [...]