The following is a list of Macintosh applications either accessible or usable with VoiceOver. Beside each application listed, there's a brief explanation and a note with respect to its degreee of accessibility. An explanation of the degrees of accessibility appears at the bottom of this page. Please feel free to access the articles related to each application by clicking on its corresponding link. These articles were written at the time of MacOS X.4 Tiger although for the most part are the same or imporved in MacOS X.5 Leopard. I will be looking into updating articles as time permits. It is also important to note that due to the nature of VoiceOver and accessibility in general, it is the task of the application developer to make their app accessible, it is not the task of Apple to make VoiceOver accessible with their specific application. This being said, Apple has some work themselves with some of their own applications to make them accessible for VO users.
Apple Pre-Installed Applications
Finder: Very accessible. Limitations include the lack of "Drag and Drop" abilities and some "busy" issues in some System preferences.
TextEdit: Fully accessible word processor with open and save capabilities in numerous formats including Microsoft Word.
Safari: Fully accessible web browser. there are limitations with respect to selecting portions of a web-page for copying and pasting purposes.
Mail: Fully accessible eMail application with pop, iMap and Exchange compatibility.
Address Book: Accessible address book application fully integrated with Mail. Some issues with labeling of buttons. Editing address cards is occasionally frustrating.
Preview: Fully accessible PDF reader.
iTunes 6: Not accessible. Can be used for playing music, listening to audio books, creating playlists, burning audio CDs and some other functions.
iTunes 7.1: Fully accessible. Can be used for playing music, listening to audio books, listening to PodCasts, Television episodes and movies and other functions.
iChat: Very accessible chat client. Can be used with aIM, Jabber, ICQ, and other programs.
QuickTime Player: Fully accessible media player. Learn more from http://www.apple.com/quicktime.
System Preferences: Very Accessible Control Panels. Individually some are more accessible than others.
Terminal: Very accessible command line interface.
Third Party Applications
These third party applications are listed for your information and at this point do not have any articles for learning their use. As always, you can experiment or you can visit MacVisionaries and look through the archives about the respective application.
Audio HiJack Pro: Accessible audio capturing software from rogue Amoeba Software.
Fission: Accessible audio manipulation software from rogue Amoeba Software.
Cacophony: Very accessible multi-channel audio editing software. Find it at Cacophony.
Toast 7.x: Accessible disk burning software from Roxio Software.
VLC: Accessible media Player: A free media player. Download from VideoLan.
Shiira: Alternative accessible web browser to Safari.
RealPlayer: Accessible media player for "Real™" content. Real Software.
MacJournal 4.x: Fully accessible journal and blogging software from Mariner Software.
XJournal: Accessible client for posting to your LiveJournal.
Missing Sync: Very accessible tool for syncing your Mac with a Pacmate. Available from MarkSpace.
Fire: Alternative accessible chat client to ichat. It can be used with AIM, MSN, and several other programs.
Softcon DVD Player: Fully accessible DVD player. Learn more from Softcon.
Softcon Audio Burn: Fully accessible audio burner that allows you to burn CDs without having to create images or directories. Learn more from Softcon.
Softcon PDF Viewer: Fully accessible PDF viewer that allows you to read a PDF document from start to finish instead of page by page. Learn more from Softcon.
Softcon Data Burn: Fully accessible CD and DVD burning software that allows multiple file systems. Learn more from Softcon.o VO users made available for free. Learn more from Softcon.
There will be additions to this list as time permits, as I learn about new applications.
Levels of accessibility
This is what the descriptions of how accessible something is mean:
Fully: should mean everything that the application can do can be done using Voiceover.
Very: Almost everything can be done, with a couple of not very important exceptions.
Accessible: Most things can be accomplished, but may not be very easy.
Not: Takes extreme work to accomplish anything useful, and would not be usable day-to-day.
A reminder that these levels of accessibility are in the opinion of the writer and are not professional or official evaluations.