[senit] Safari on PC

Stephen:

Hi Ira,

it's been a fascinating spate of responses re Apple and accessibility.  
Briefly, I'd just like to reiterate the point that it's their well  
thought out cognitive interface that works so well for a school like  
ours, which is a school for pupils with severe, complex and profound  
learning difficulties.

But a much more interesting discussion for this list is that you point  
out that the common situation of provision for pupils with special  
needs in America is to have just a few, and very old, computers in a  
class, and by the sounds of things not much going on with what's being  
done with them.

Based on what you seem to be saying in your text here and in in  
earlier postings, it strikes me that you are describing people with  
special needs in mainstream settings, rather than the special school  
population we find across most of England and the UK where pupils  
deemed to have severe, complex and profound and multiple learning  
difficulties are educated in special schools.
My own view on this, and from what I've found from other special  
schools within our county and across the country, is that meeting the  
needs of these pupils isn't about text-to-speech software, it isn't  
about the next iteration of Dragon (many of the people we're talking  
about don't have the quality of speech that any current software could  
possibly interpret), its about making the interface that the user is  
presented with cognitively accessible, making it simple, intuitive,  
consistent. At every level, with every programme.

I freely accept your experience of working with multiple platforms and  
having connections with software developers who can comment upon the  
intricacies of the commercial world, but would urge you to make sure  
that their comments reflect use with people who have the entire range  
of special needs rather than just the mainstream sector. If I'm  
misinterpreting your comments here, I do apologise, but I'm not sure  
we're talking about the same populations at the moment.

After all that - I do respect your work and approach to education, and  
have your blog as one of the 9 educational blogs that I keep  
bookmarked (don't find the rss thing works so well for me!)
http://speedchange.blogspot.com/

All the best,
Sean

Sean O'Sullivan
sean.frankwise at easynet.co.uk
Headteacher
Frank Wise School, Banbury
http://www.frankwise.oxon.sch.uk

http://www.parkroadict.co.uk

On 28 Mar 2008, at 20:04, Ira David Socol wrote:

> Stephen:
> The security issues for Safari on Windows are an issue. No greater  
> than the security issues for IE7, but more substantial than for  
> Firefox. I agree on the "little persistent installs" that come with  
> 'Apple for PC' software - although I see it all too often from many  
> vendors.
> As for cross-platform - it is simply different sometimes -  
> especially, for example, machine-based text-to-speech or speech  
> recognition because the systems handle these functions differently.  
> And support truly helps. Microsoft - again, evil as they may be,  
> clunky as Windows may be, awful as Vista may be - really actively  
> participates in things like the Alliance for Technology Access,  
> really works to make the "routes" through their software clear.  
> Years of talking to developers leads me to believe that Apple does  
> considerably less. So, we're still waiting for the promised Dragon  
> for Apple (coming soon!) and Firefox-based text-to-speech is still a  
> struggle in the new Mac O/S.
> In the US - well, SEN computing is so sporadic and rare in America  
> that it is hard to define a dominant position. The typical SEN  
> classroom in an American school is often equipped with one or two of  
> the oldest computers in the building. yesterday I saw two Windows98  
> machines. Last week two Macs running O/S 7.something. In the US  
> "K-12" environment there is almost no commitment - outside of a few  
> "good states" - to this kind of support. The general attitude seems  
> to be that "technology will make them lazy." But then, outside of  
> wealthy suburbs, tech access is exceedingly rare for any US primary  
> or secondary student. Most schools ban all personal electronics and  
> may bring students to the computer lab once a week for 45 minutes,  
> where the bulk of the time is taken up with network log-in problems  
> and internet filters prevent students from reaching almost anything  
> on-line. So, in the US, "educational technology" (we surveyed this  
> in Michigan three years ago) seems to be defined as "PowerPoint" or  
> "turning in attendance reports electronically." Even when we have  
> tried to give software away to schools, or to have them embrace free  
> software, we find ourselves blocked by "school district" (LEA) tech  
> support staff who have been trained to severely limit what runs on  
> the schools' computers. Teachers are typically blocked from  
> downloading anything. Many cannot even install Firefox on their  
> school machines.
> In the university environment there is a vast mix, Most universities  
> support both platforms, though most SLD supports at the university  
> level run in Windows. A growing decision is the parallels system  
> running on Apple hardware, but of course that costs far more than  
> simply buying generic Windows machines.
> Ira (yes, in America)