I'd like to support what Greg's just said. It is Apple's policy to
encourage other third party applications to adhere to Apple's
accessbility ambitions. In that, Microsoft is failing as far as new Ms
Office for Mac suite is concerned. One would hope that Apple would
have something to say to Microsoft.
Simon
On 17 Jan 2008, at 19:01, Greg Kearney wrote:
No they can not claim that. For over four years now Apple has been
telling developers how to do accessibility. We all got letters,
physical letters, telling us what to do an not do. The accessibility
standards for Macintosh are clear and unambiguous. It is up to the
programmers to make their products accessible to the OS. Remember
that VoiceOver is part of the OS not something added to it.
Greg Kearney
535 S. Jackson St.
Casper, Wyoming 82601
307-224-4022
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Jan 17, 2008, at 11:56 AM, Cara Quinn wrote:
Hey All, what you're saying is great, but honestly, -bet you MS
would only point the finger right back at Apple if this were
brought up, saying that basically, it's apple's own OS and their
own screen access software, so not our issue...
<smile -Could be off here, but just a lil reality check...
Have an awesome day!...
Smiles,
Cara :)
On Jan 17, 2008, at 7:14 AM, Simon Cavendish wrote:
Dear Greg and the Listers,
I entirely agree with Greg's words. It is a shame for Microsoft to
have produced a flagship version of its main suite ignoring
accessibility for visually impaired people and print impaired
people in the presence of the fact that Microsoft must be aware of
its obligations with regard to accessibility as outlined above. I
should imagine that it is against the ADA law and the Disability
Discrimination Act, 1995, in the UK. It would require though a
major representatives of business to take Microsoft to book on
account of this omission. The fact is that Microsoft must have
known that Mac OS platform is already accessible to blind and
print impaired people and to ignore this warrants an uproar.
Let us all protest in whatever ways we are able to.
With best wishes
Simon Cavendish
On 17 Jan 2008, at 14:26, Greg Kearney wrote:
According to Microsoft this morning Microsoft Office 08 is not
accessible to the blind or print disabled using VoiceOver. So
don't bother going out and buying it. I will now editorialize:
At some point someone is going to start raising the issue of
consumer products, in this case Microsoft Office, not being
accessible and if producing such products is actionable under the
Americans with Disabilities Act. That aside what in the world is
Microsoft thinking? This was a product that was delayed because
the code was changed to Xcode and here we have a major
productivity application that is not accessible? Microsoft should
be ashamed of itself and I for one would like to have someone
from Microsoft offer some kind of explanation for this oversight.
It is one thing for some small company with limited resources to
not have an accessible application it is inexcusable for a
company the size of Microsoft to re-write a major application
like office and not have it be accessible. If Xcode would not
compile non-accessible application we might have avoided this. It
is interesting to note that the only accessible spreadsheet for
the Mac, Tables, is the work of a lone programer who managed to
do it with out the resources of a Microsoft or Apple.
On a related note developer at Sun have been asking questions
about accessibility on a developer list at Apple so perhaps there
is hope that Sun will be developing an accessible version of Open
Office. Let's hope so anyway. And let's hope that someone at
Apple is able to get and explanation from Microsoft as to why an
application written after VoiceOver's release is not able to be
used by the blind and print disabled. And Apple your not off the
hook here either Pages and Numbers are not accessible either I
might add.
Greg Kearney
535 S. Jackson St.
Casper, Wyoming 82601
307-224-4022
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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