Speaking as a person with a disability, though fortunately not one that affects my ability to use software, it seems to me that this is a prime area where the classic Unix mantra of "don't do all things, instead do individual things well and string them together" is really the way to go...
While disabilities vary greatly in their effects on people's ability to use software / computers, it is a pretty safe assumption that a problem with one sort of software is going to apply to all of it, and that there are some relatively broad categories of issues that almost ALL fall into the category of Input / Output... (IMHO it is not really practical to address cognitive issues....) People with visual impairments will need some form of display modification, be it larger images, different color schemes, screen readers, etc... Similarly people with motor function issues need alternative input methods - replacements for mice, keyboard alternatives, possibly gaze-tracking, and so on... In each case, what the developer of a software program really needs is NOT to address any of the above, but simply to provide a (hopefully standardized) way of supporting alternative I/O methods. Then what is needed (and I believe exists to at least some degree) is a set of alternative I/O 'driver programs' that can be connected and used just as one would the normal programs - i.e. a 'gaze tracker keyboard' device, or a 'screen-reader-monitor'... IMNSHO it should NOT be on the typical developers plates to solve the problems of disability access, as they might or might not have a good idea of how to design for it, or have access to suitable 'testers'... In addition if each program developer team tries to solve the problems independently then you end up with a bunch of different interfaces which causes extra challenges... As I can barely write Arduino code, I can't volunteer to help, but I'd really urge that efforts be focused on making really GOOD alternative I/O drivers, and then just getting program devs to implement connecting to them. I am told that the commercial outfits are in some ways ahead of us in terms of accessibility design, but that because many of the programs are very application specific, they limit their users to only certain applications.... ART ------------------ Arthur Torrey - <[email protected]> ------------------- <SNIP> There was some discussion about this on a FOSDEM list recently. Somebody expressed an opinion that if software doesn't support users with disabilities then the developers are discriminating against those people. It is not so simple though. Developers don't actively discriminate, we simply don't have time to do everything we would like to do if time and money were unlimited. One thing we should be more conscious of is that there are funding programs and grants available to make the world better for people with disabilities. It would be very interesting to try and ensure that some of that money is going to free software rather than proprietary software. Developers don't typically have a disposition for filling out application forms so if there are other volunteers who would like to help look for such programs and match them to relevant free software projects and help with paperwork it could give interesting results and it may indirectly benefit other parts of the free software ecosystem. Regards, Daniel ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ libreplanet-discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.libreplanet.org/mailman/listinfo/libreplanet-discuss End of libreplanet-discuss Digest, Vol 70, Issue 14 ***************************************************
