RE: Accessibility

[Hans Zoebelein <hzo goldfish cube net>]

Sorry to say that it is IMHO wishful thinking to hope that laws can
provide good (good prizes, good function) software. There are two
motivators for software. 

Their names are money and need.

If the market is big enough, software companies will sell you software,
which is just good enough to be bought. If the market has no competition,
then don't expect this software to show any signs of excellence.
If the market is too small or there is no financial potential (think of
Africa), not even badly written stuff will appear.

The other motivator (specially found among so called Open Source software)
is simply the need for a special piece of software which finally is
written by those people who want it to happen. The handicap for software
which is adapted to blind support is, that there are not too many blind
people willing/capable to write code. This might slowly change as the
count of people connected to Internet increases. But don't hold your
breath.

--Hans


On Wed, 18 Aug 1999, Georgina Joyce wrote:

> Hi
> 
> I felt that I needed to reply TO the message below, because while the
> message contains some facts, I'm concerned about the disempowering nature of
> its content.  If we portray such helplessness then we'll not only loose out
> ourselves but so will the computing community.  With the introduction of
> Disability legislation being introduced around the world, its making
> commercial good marketing sense for producers to make their products
> accessible.  It makes good commercial sense for the producers of software to
> have their product compatible with software that has been produced by other
> vendors.  Training costs for support staff and developers is marginalised
> thus providing the possibility of a fluid available work force.
> 
> And then there are the benefits to the majority of the end users.  Stability
> and communality of operation.
> 
> It is organizations and societies etc. that adopt an inclusive philosophy
> and not an exclusive one that are the long lasting and successful ones.
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