Re: Accessibility

[Walt Smith <ka3agm netcom com>]

Bear in mind that where issues like this are concerned, commercial factors
will *always* play the dominant role.  It's a sad but true fact that blind
computer users are always going to be a tiny minority and that as the
popularity of any operating system increases, we become a tinier and
tinier minority.  This is what happened with Windows ... decisions get
made based on their effect on the largest number of individuals
potentially affected and based on that criterion, blind people don't even
make a blip on the marketing radar.  At the moment, Linux is in the
position of not being anything like as widely used as Windows, but that
could change.  The sooner blind users get in the door and get their basic
technical needs addressed, the better.  Whether this particular train is
already so far down the track that we won't be able to reverse any
problems we may find with architecture, for example, remains to be seen.
My perception is that the overall Linux community is more accessible, on
an individual basis, and that to some extent, at least, the old spirit
that was so much a part of the computer culture twenty years ago still can
be found.  If Linux ever truly takes off commercially, though, you can
forget this culture because as with anything, dollars always speak louder
than needs.

-- 
Walt Smith - Raleigh, NC
ka3agm netcom com

"I'm extraordinarily patient provided I get my own way in the end."
          - Margaret Thatcher