[K12OSN] lack of access

Tom Hoffman tom.hoffman at gmail.com
Thu May 4 19:06:26 UTC 2006


On 5/4/06, Access Systems <accessys at smart.net> wrote:
>
> one of the major gaps in Open source software that is just barely being
> addressed is stopping it's use in a number of places.  the State of Mass
> wanted to go entirely open source for all state functions, but people with
> disabilities have openly opposed it and have threatened court action
> because there is insufficient access to adaptible software.  yes if you
> are a "Geek" you can make Emacspeak work but that is about all that is
> avaliable for visually impaired users and they are the ones with money
> and clout.

GNOME has Gnopernicus, and I imagine KDE has an accesibility project. 
But my understanding is that overall accessibility support still has
many gaps on Linux, from the installation process on down the line. 
This page is interesting:
http://www.novell.com/products/accessibility/vpat_sles9.html#softwaredetails

Joe Average Hacker simply doesn't know much about these issues
(including myself), so it is a tough nut for OSS.  However, the
corporate players, Sun, IBM, Novell, Canonical all make investments in
accessibility.

I would contend that one big turning point which we have not yet
reached (but we will!) is when governments realize that they can come
out ahead by banding together and funding work to solve these problems
themselves rather than waiting around for someone else to do it.

--Tom




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