I sat in on this session for the most part and noticed that many users of X still use OS 9 to some degree. What are some of applications that the AT community still uses in OS 9?

The vast majority of special needs software never, or was very slow, to be ported to OS X. Did Boardmaker debut for OS X at CtG this year as planned? OS X is so different from Classic that a lot of developers abandoned Mac to port for Windows instead, since the work involved was about the same. This generalization was true at large, not just for assistive technology.

Will the vast majority of OS 9 software ever be ported to OS X? Tiger is more accessible than any other version of the Mac OS. And with the Mac becoming a heavy hitter again, i would think the AT software would follow.

Mayer Johnson has released Boardmaker for OS X and has been available for about 6 months or so.

Brian

Huh. I believe you Brian. I had been waiting so long for BoardMaker I gave up. Mayer Johnson needs to update their web site. I can’t find system requirements and the closest I came was this blurb:
http://www.mayerjohnson.com/TS_BMMacSolutions.aspx#2

How about Speaking Dynamically?

What is your answer to Jeff’s question?
Did Apple abandon AT developers, or did AT developers abandon Apple?

Bruce,

My personal experience is not that Apple abandoned AT developers but that most AT developers thought it too much work to port their stuff and wanted the entire AT community to have moved from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X before bringing out Mac OS X compatible versions. Of course, users could not move that easily without the right software so this became a bit of a dead-lock that is only now beginning to break as more users move from 9 to X and more developers are making an effort to support Mac OS X. Read my piece in the Oct/Nov 2005 issue of the Closing The Gap newsletter, it also discusses this issue to some degree.

davidn.

We’ve had Boradmaker OSX for several months here too, and the programme is a substantial improvement in many ways on the OS9 version. I wasn’t too impressed with having to buy it all over again but do accept that it was virtually a new product rather than an upgrade.

Only issue I have is that we have to run it by keeping the disc in the computer, which is annoying. We have done the right thing of course and licensed all of our users, it’s just a pain to have to get the disc out and pop it into the drive every time you want to use it.
Anyway, that’s not a big issue. More to the point, we use a lot of programmes that are now OSX native, in the context of being a school for children with severe and profound learning difficulties. We had to wait quite a while hoping to replace HyperStudio, and eventually settled with MediaBlender, which is written by some of the team who developed HyperStudio anyway. It’s not the same interface, but remains pretty easy to work with and you can open up HyperStudio work in it.
http://www.tech4learning.com/mediablender/

We’ve also bought several really easy to use programmes from Kudlian software. Two very effective plug-ins for iMovie (Charting and Graphing, and Weather Reporting and Geography), a programme called Slideshow, which is halfway between iPhoto and iMovie in a sense - very good for the concept of sequencing, and an animation programme called I Can Animate. All well worth a look, and whilst not directly aimed at the SEN market, they are written with ease of use and simplicity in mind. We’ve also been using their brand new Podcaster software, to get our pupils’ work out into iTunes.
http://www.kudlian.net/

For a long time now I’ve raved over Sound Studio, a really lovely clean interafce for sound editing. We use it alongside pupils, some of whom go on to be able to work with it independently, to work on speech production and the ability to instantly review your recording, and edit out any dodgy parts has a real impact on pupils’ efforts and pride in their work.
http://www.freeverse.com/soundstudio/

We also use Clicker 4, which is OSX native. Version 5 for the Mac is just round the corner now I believe. It’s a valuable programme in many ways, but I can’t say I find it easy to get on with, it still feels very PC in the method of installing and configuring it, but once you’ve got that out of the way it’s an important tool for switch users that can be equally well used by those not relying on switch access.
http://www.cricksoft.com/uk/products/clicker/default.asp

Okay, here is my OS 9 -> X question.

My young daughter (who is developmentally delayed) has been independent with her Lime iMac for years. She navigates through over 30 (!) programs in six categories (books, Reader Rabbits, Jump Starts, Edmarks, Disneys, etc.) using Launcher. Really incredible actually. I wish I had space to post the video.

Anyway, the monitor is starting to die. So I want to move her over to my old Cube running Classic under X. I am scared to start.

The biggest problems I anticipate:

• Many of the programs are 256 color only and I couldn’t them get to run with Jaguar (which was the last time I seriously considered this).
• The Dock doesn’t hold all her programs.

Suggestions?

Regarding the dock there are several replacement dock-alikes that you can probably locate through a search on versiontracker.com. I do not use any of them so have no specific recommendations.

Is there a reason why you cannot purchase upgrades to those programs or get new similar programs that run OS X native and handle multiple colors gracefully?

Is there a reason to not just run the Cube under Mac OS 9 if you want to stick to the exisiting applications?

david.

Hey David.

Yeah, that’s not so helpful! Mostly they sound too complex. I have not tried them either. Can anyone recommend something very much like Launcher, but for OS X? Or other things they have done for young kids with X?
Yes! (1) The educational developers are only a little better than the AT vendors at supporting OS X, so many of her favorite titles are not available. (2) There is always the issue of money! These titles were accumulated over years (some before I had kids) and I cannot afford to replace them en masse, even if they were available for OS X. Besides, many I decided on in the first place because they were inexpensive.
Some. To be honest, part of it is just being a snob, I am tired of 9. I haven’t needed classic myself in over a year. If I had Classic running on the Cube, I could remove it entirely from the eMac. That would make me feel like I am moving forward, can’t keep a foot in the graveyard forever. The timing is much better to start moving my daughter to X. She can’t use 9 forever either. She has a few titles now that are fully carbonized, but not enough I don’t think to give up on all the old titles.