Orbis and VoiceOver: Not Looking Good

I really liked both MenuWeather for Mac OS and iOS because of its VoiceOver accessibility. There are not too many weather apps in the Mac app store that are completely accessible via the keyboard and that work well with VoiceOver. Weather Live, Clear Day, WeatherMan, Weather Dock just to name a few, are all nothing but large disappointments to me and the blind user-base as a whole.

Unfortunately, Orbis is no different. When I launch it, there is a table. Instinctively, I interact with it which reveals an unknown element. I interact with that and there is a list with three items including an image and a table to the right that apparently displays alerts. The aforementioned items are the location and current temperature.

Fifteen day forecast? Where! Customisation? Where! No Command-, shortcut works any more which means no preferences panes. There is absolutely _nothing_ else for me to do with this thing! The user interface appears whenever I activate the status extras menu item. Previously, a menu was revealed which had a sub-menu with the preferences option there. I do not care about the user interface! I do not care what it looks like or how visually appealing it is! I want fair access like my sighted counter-parts! MenuWeather 4.2.5 had that and customisation was not an issue. What was a really decent app is currently about to be uninstalled due to its uselessness for me as a blind person who is restricted solely to the keyboard – no mouse, no monitor.

I am almost certain Evan Coleman or whomever the current developer is will read this. I can only hope he will take heed to my concerns and start to consider his blind user-base even if it is a single person.

Head Homie In Charge about Orbis