Hi Dark,
Alright, but here is where your argument actually falls apart. If you
want to talk about access on Windows 8 I can say access has actually
improved. There are a number of areas where access has actually
increased and not decreased in Windows, and is well worth noting.
First, UI automation. In Windows 8 Microsoft has been deprecating a
number of access technologies like MSAA in favor of UI Automation. Its a
huge improvement over MSAA, is now a standard part of the Windows API,
and any application designed with UI Automation in mind should be
accessible without video intercept drivers, scripts, and any of the
other crap screen readers have had to use to make prior versions of
Windows applications accessible.
Second, Windows Narrator has been drastically improved under Windows 8.
It looks to me like Microsoft has basically copied Apple's Voiceover
screen reader which is not a bad thing. Narrator is far more functional
as a screen reader in Windows 8 than prior versions, and thanks to UI
Automation any app using it will be accessible to Narrator out of the box.
Third, MS Sapi 5.5 is an improvement over earlier versions. Windows 8
now has some new voices available and they blow away Mike, Mary, and Sam
found in XP. Even Microsoft Anna which first appeared in Vista was an
improvement.
Fourth, Microsoft Speech Recognition. Its perhaps not as good as say
Dragon Naturally Speaking, but from beta testing the new version the
recognition engine is better than prior versions too. So both people
with mobility and visual impairments can take advantage of voice input
under Windows 8 if they want to.
Finally, touchscreen technology is making huge access improvements for
people with mobility impairments. All they have to do is point to the
screen, and tap the icon they want a couple of times to open it up. This
is often easier than using a mouse, trackball, touchpad, etc as a person
can interact with Windows 8 with a single finger.
Bottom line, if you want to make the case that more and more effort is
required to gain equal access to Windows I don't think it really holds a
lot of water. From what I've seen of Win 8 so far the opposite is true.
Less effort is required because the access technology present is
superior to anything else Microsoft has released to date.
Cheers!
On 3/13/2012 8:28 PM, dark wrote:
Hi Dennis.
the problem is this isn't about learning new things or preferring
older systems, this is about access.
As per my phd thesis, access = equal, or as close to equal as possible
amounts of effort betwene groups with different biological
limitations, and whatever way you cut the cookie, more and more effort
is having to be expanded with the newer trends in Ui microsoft are
implementing.
It's rather like a building being rennivated and putting in escalators
while wripping up the old ramps that paraplegics could use to enter.
It is true that there is little to know prophet in access, however if
we followed that line of thinking to it's ultimate conclusion, very
little would be accessible. Access is an ethical matter and as such
falls outside te of the basic tennits of capitalism, and this is why
we can cryticise microsoft mainstream game companies etc, for
following prophet only rather than access measures (indeed this is
where Carl marx was exactly right in noting that the persuit of
prophit is itself an amoral motivation, not an ethical one).
plus I might add that "saving money" seems a pretty feeble excuse for
the worlds richest coorporation which is paying most of it's manual
workers in china and tyland a pittance.
Beware the grue!
dark.
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