This has been an interesting thread to say the least.
The fact that a group like the Disability Policy Consortium is concerned
is actually a great sign! It means that the open source applications
that the Disability Policy Consortium is interested in is having an
impact on their constituency. There would be no use for that group to
complain about software that had no relevance to its users.
Usability and accessability continues to be a huge problem in the open
source community, with most likely ZERO open source applications
claiming to be Section 508 compliant.
So we've got recognition, the technical and financial cases are made for
FOSS. We're shooting ourselves in the foot because of lack of
accessibility, obviously.
Richard Schilling
Greg Woodhouse wrote:
*FOSS Community, Disabled Users Must Learn to Communicate
NewsForge (03/18/06) Fioretti, Marco *
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has formulated
standards to guarantee that software is accessible to users with
disabilities. The free and open source software (FOSS) community has
long been hearing calls for accessibility assurances, particularly after
Massachusetts officials' announcement that the state would adopt OASIS
OpenDocument format drew criticism from advocates for the disabled.
OpenDocument is currently under an accessibility review, and
representatives from the Bay State Council for the Blind and the
Disability Policy Consortium have met with Massachusetts officials and
FOSS representatives. The meeting revealed the disconnect between the
FOSS community and disabled users, as FOSS representatives explained
that an accessibility infrastructure based around FOSS would create
opportunities for disabled workers in Unix system administration and Web
site design, but the disability advocates maintained that "without
advanced training to develop a qualified pool of talent, new hires for
state government agencies with OpenSource, OpenDocument platforms will
be everybody but people with disabilities because of perceived or real
training requirements." While attempting to install a new driver for a
Braille terminal, Italian computer science student Fabrizio Marini found
that Linux is still too complicated for novice users. Some disability
advocates show no preference between open and proprietary software
formats, provided that user accessibility is ensured. While the FOSS
community has been bridging the gap with disabled users, FOSS
documentation still needs to be improved, and FOSS developers would be
well-advised to check in with disability groups when they launch a major
project.
Click Here to View Full Article
<http://software.newsforge.com/software/06/03/13/1628249.shtml?tid=150>
===
Gregory Woodhouse <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"It is foolish to answer a question that
you do not understand."
--G. Polya ("How to Solve It")
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