I agree, well Said Simon
On 17-Jan-08, at 3:37 PM, Shaun Jones wrote:
Very, very well put!
On Jan 17, 2008, at 3:15 PM, Simon Cavendish wrote:
It is not necessarily about going to court but about making as
much noise as we can wherever we can, privately, in the media, on
the internet, everywhere: talk talk talk and shout. The public at
large have no idea what we have to put up with and yet they often
hear that those so called disabled people linguer on benefits and
are a drain on the society. The society at large do not know what
difficulties we face, and people's memory is short. So when they
hear Mac or Microsoft have done something in accessibility, they
think all is well. So we have to keep a gentle but sustained
pressure on, I feel, or else we get forgotten. Apple is not off
the hook, Microsoft is not off the hook. We know it's about
profits and money and so on. There's a degree of honesty in
everyone and we have to tap into it. Companies ultimately respond
to what customers think about them so we have to talk about what
hurts us.
Simon know
On 17 Jan 2008, at 17:36, Dan Keys wrote:
Hello,
But the question is, "How many lawyers does Microsoft have?" They
have no interest in accessibility at all. After all, what's
Narrater really worth, a part of the OS?
But also, Apple should really be encouraging developers to write
accessible programs.
Also, I agree that Apple isn't off the hook completely either.
Still Works really isn't truly accessible.
I hope Open Office comes through with an accessible group of
applications.
Dan
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]
