> Companies should be encouraged to provide accessibility voluntarily. I agree. What happens if they don't. In this specific case (the iPhone), it doesn't make any real difference. We have other accessible choices. However, if companies, theaters, and other places of public accomedation (to take one example) aren't forced to make their facilities wheelchair accessible, then they won't do so on their own because its way too expensive. I agree that the gofvernment is much to envolved in our lives as it is, but sometimes it really is necessary. The ada exists for a reason. It would be nice if we didn't need laws (and lawyers) to force people to do what most people agree is "the right thing", but unfortunately it is sometimes necessary in the world we happen to live in.
Just my three cents... -- Rich ----- Original Message ----- From: "Josh de Lioncourt" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by theblind" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, January 14, 2007 6:51 PM Subject: Re: New phone / accessibility issues > My responses throughout your message. > > Access Curmudgeon wrote: > > Josh, my point about size is that eight gigabytes is plenty of space > > for a robust modern OS, more than enough for a screen reader. > > Programmers have gotten lazy because disk space and memory are so > > cheap and plentiful. But if the code was tight, half a gigabyte is > > enough for amazing things. > > Yes, then we are totally in agreement on all those points. > > Access Curmudgeon wrote: > Josh, please explain why you are not in favor of a plan to persuade > > the FCC to force Apple to implement accessibility on their products, > > and why you think that's a dangerous road to start down, and how it > > might ultimately cause more damage than problems it would solve. > > Thanks. > > > > Where do we draw the line where government hampers or interferes with > the natural development of products? To force a company like Apple to > make something like the iPhone accessible implies that we should also > force companies like, for example, Randomhouse, to publish their books > in Braille and sell it side by side in Borders Books, all movie > companies should be required to provide descriptive audio on there DVD > releases, etc etc. > > While some things like this are nice, and i applaud the companies that > do them, I don't think it is the government's place to force companies > to do things of this nature. The government as it is, already wants to > micro-manage people's lives, with bans on same sex marriages and other > topics that are far outside the scope of what we should be discussing on > this list. > > I believe in the ADA being applied to places that are intended for > public access, such as stores, office buildings, and so forth. For > items like the iPhone...or any sort of consumer product, I believe it is > not the way to go. Companies should be encouraged to provide > accessibility voluntarily. > > >
