Even if there were more cooperation among OS and browser developers (not that I'm expecting any) there would probably still be a lag effect with the reader developers for two reasons:
1.) The reader developers are in the position of having to catch up with new OS and browser releases all the time. For example I recently started using Vista. But still, 9 months since the OS was released, many of my favorite utility programs have not made versions that will work on Vista. 2.) The reader developers are in the position of having to catch up with innovative uses of the OS and browsers. New ways of exploiting the DOM are being created all the time. Thousands of developers are expanding the number of ways you can do things using the basic tools available -- and sometimes those new ways blow right past what a reader is likely to be able to do. I think readers will always lag, just as standards determinations always lag. The reader developers are not in a position to anticipate what new capabilities will be needed. They can only respond once new conventions become established. Joseph Selbie Founder, CEO Tristream Web Application Design http://www.tristream.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Andrei Herasimchuk Sent: Sunday, October 07, 2007 10:07 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Target.com Loses Accessibility Law Suit On Oct 7, 2007, at 9:44 AM, Todd Zaki Warfel wrote: > It's not the job of MS and Apple to hold back in order to allow > companies like Adobe, Quark, and others to stay status quo. Instead, > the OS companies push forward and software companies have to follow > and keep up. This same principle applies to screen reader companies. > The web is the OS. The screen readers are just like Adobe, Quark, and > others. They need to pick up the pace and stay current. Who is "they?" The software makers? Are you kidding? Have you ever developed a cross-platform product like Photoshop or XPress? Do you know all the myriad of issues that go in making such a product? Obviously I do, so I'm obviously going to have a lot of strong opinions on the subject. The part you seem to be leaving out is that the software vendors are trying to create software for multiple platforms and multiple languages while trying to add features their customers want which has little to do with what MS and Apple care about. They also do so while being given no input into the strategies and approaches of both Apple and MS, having instead to basically figure out how they are going to handle dealing with technology changes after the fact. Both MS and Apple only care about themselves and seemingly do all they can to make cross platform development about near impossible without extreme amounts of compromise and effort as t is. So, if you want to make the browser makers and operating system makers *force* to comply to make cross-browser and cross-platform application development more of a reality without that major compromise, and in doing so *force* MS, Apple, Netscape and the Firefox team to make accessibility an integral part of their technology rather than a tacked on afterthought, then something might actually get done with regard to all this kubuki as it pertains to giving the disabled a real means to interact with technology. -- Andrei Herasimchuk Principal, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] c. +1 408 306 6422 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] List Guidelines ............ http://beta.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://beta.ixda.org/help Unsubscribe ................ http://beta.ixda.org/unsubscribe Questions .................. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Home ....................... http://beta.ixda.org ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] List Guidelines ............ http://beta.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://beta.ixda.org/help Unsubscribe ................ http://beta.ixda.org/unsubscribe Questions .................. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Home ....................... http://beta.ixda.org
