Scott Hollier reviews the Microsoft Surface tablet

Transcript

25 November 2012

Roberta: Media Access Australia’s Scott Hollier was with us last week, talking about the accessibility of the new Windows 8. This week, we take a closer look at the device that you can use it on, the new Surface Tablet. What does the device offer for people with a disability that might make it a good present this festive season? Welcome Scott, you’re going to tell us all about it.

Scott: Yeah, thanks very much Roberta. Great to be back again so quickly.

Roberta: Yes indeed. Now what’s a Surface?

Scott: Well the Microsoft Surface tablet is only available through Microsoft’s online shop and through their very few physical stores. And basically it’s a bit like an iPad or a Google Tablet in that it’s basically a big touch-screen device. But what makes the tablet particularly interesting is that it has a very neat, what they call touch cover, which is both a keyboard that you can type on and it becomes a protective cover for the screen. You can either use it like a tablet or you can kick out the stand to set up the tablet and then fold out this rubber keyboard and then it works more like a laptop. So it’s quite a clever device. It’s both tablet and touch screen, but also you can use it like a traditional laptop.

Roberta: That sounds fantastic. So why has Microsoft made its own tablet?

Scott: Well basically they were facing big challenges in the marketplace, as their products, I mean people are becoming more interested in touch screen devices. Things like the iPad have been very popular and it’s starting to make the old traditional laptop computer with a keyboard and a track pad or a mouse look a bit old and dated now. So Microsoft though okay, let’s get the best of both worlds. Let’s make a tablet, like an iPad and try to get in on that popularity. But also still let people have the ability to do traditional computing by typing and a track pad. So this device seems to be, yeah, the ability of bringing it all together.

Roberta: Big question. How accessible is it?

Scott: Well happily, it is fairly accessible and like we were talking about last week, there is quite a lot of new accessibility features in Windows 8, with the narrator vastly improved. So you can use the touch screen on the Surface and get around quite well. The magnifier is visually improved by having little strips on the side screen to make it easy to magnify. But the also really nice thing about Surface is that because you still have that rubber keyboard you can still use your traditional accessibility features.

And I should mention that Surface has two types of keyboard. You can have the touch cover, which is rubber, and you can’t actually press down on the buttons, it’s just like a rubber mat, but it’s got all the keys sort of labelled, so you can just tap your fingers on it like typing. But it also has a type cover which is more your normal moving keys. And if you don’t like either of those it’s also got a full sized USB port, so you can just plug in your normal keyboard and mouse and away you go.

So it’s quite accessible because you can use the touch version of the accessibility features. But you can also still use the features like normally using a mouse and a keyboard.

Roberta: Scott I’ve heard that there are a few different versions of the new Surface. Does that affect its accessibility?

Scott:It does, and it’s important that people know that the Surface that’s out now runs a version of Windows called Windows RT. And we touched a little bit on this last time, that RT only lets you install things from the Microsoft Store. You can’t put older versions of your software, like you can’t install an older version of Jaws on it. So for people who want to still use their old assistive technologies, I’d recommend waiting until the new version of Surface comes out, which will run Windows 8 Pro. And that comes out early in the new year.

But if people are happy with what Windows 8 offers now, and don’t mind waiting as new accessibility features get developed for it, then yeah, you know, that Windows RT version is available now. But the full Windows 8 version is available in a few months.

Roberta: So that’s something that people can weight up as to whether they buy this for a Christmas present or not.

Scott: That’s it.

Roberta: Okay. Do I really need a touch screen device?

Scott:    Well the short answer is, no. If people are very happy using their keyboard for screen readers or keyboard and mouse for the screen magnifier, and they’re happy doing that and they’re happy with their software, then yeah, they can certainly stick with that. But what I found quite handy, with the Surface, as I’ve been playing with it and doing hands on tests, is that I found it really helpful, being vision impaired, that I can use the keyboard and the keyboard shortcuts to do some things. But I can also just poke the screen and touch the screen when I want to do other things. So it’s actually sped up my ability to do work because I’ve got the best of both worlds. I can quickly do things on the keyboard or I can just tap the screen when I want to get in to things.

If people are interested in that then I think it’s worth having a look at touch screen devices. The Surface is just Microsoft’s one, because they want to show off their new operating system, but there are many, many devices coming out now that are touch enabled. And it’s definitely worth a look.

Roberta: Well, for more information you can visit Media Access Australia, or you can give Scott and his colleagues a call on 02 9212 6242. Thank you for all of that again, Scott.

Scott: Thank you.

Roberta: I’ve been speaking with Dr Scott Hollier from Media Access Australia. And Media Access Australia are supporters of this program.

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