Speaking as someone who personally visited the Skype development
headquarters in Estonia, met many of the developers along with a
number of managers that came from the UK to attend those meetings,
and who was there at Skype's request to provide information on
exactly how to improve accessibility of Skype on both Windows and
MacOS platforms, I can somewhat authoritatively assert that Skype
does care about accessibility. :)
I believe there are two basic problems here, neither of which is
carelessness: First, the changes in Skype itself, which are driven
not by us but by the sighted world like it or not, sometimes require
wholesale rewrites of accessibility support code, which of course
takes time. Second, we the blind are, pretty much by definition,
more equipped to tell Skype what's wrong with their accessibility
support than they are, which means that the likelihood of a Skype
change breaking accessibility is pretty high unless we find a way
to tell them in a timely fashion what happened.
The first of those problems is both inevitable and common to most
software out there that we might want to use. The second, though,
is a problem we can certainly address individually:
Skype has a bug reporting site where any Skype user, blind or sighted,
can file bugs. The URL for that site is
https://developer.skype.com/jira/
If you have a problem with Skype and you go file a bug explaining
in detail what the problem is, your report will reach the Skype
development team. Of course, a well-thought-out and detailed bug
report like, "In Skype version 5.1.0.104, there is no apparent way
to add an incoming call to an existing call to create a conference
without using a mouse or typing a lot of keystrokes," is far more
likely to cause things to happen than a report like, "I can't add
people to a conference."
Finally, a confession: For many months, I was in more regular
communication with the Skype developers, filing bugs of my own and
talking to them about how to fix them - that's my business, assistive
technology programming. :) But more recently I have not found as
much time to do this, so I have started more directly encouraging
other blind people to step up and be heard by Skype directly. Also,
since I maintain the JAWS scripts for Skype on Windows, I am more
well-versed in the Windows Skype interface than in the Mac Skype
interface.
So in summary, the best way I know for people to help Skype fix
accessibility problems is to let them know that such problems exist
by filing specific bugs on their bug reporting site. Fortunately for
Mac Skype users, the way to make things accessible on a Mac is more
well defined than how to do that on Windows, which means you probably
don't have to know how to answer questions about how to program
accessibility in order to file a useful report.
On Wed, Feb 02, 2011 at 07:29:53PM -0500, Michael Thurman wrote:
I knw that lol they just don't BOTHER to check either way, which is in and of
itself criminal if you ask me
On Feb 2, 2011, at 6:24 PM, Ricardo Walker wrote:
> I don't think its personal. lol. I don't think they sit around deciding on
> how to screw blind people. SMH
>
> Ricardo Walker
> [email protected]
> Twitter, Skype, and AIM: rwalker296
> Google Voice: 1-646-450-2197
>
>
>
> On Feb 2, 2011, at 4:29 PM, Michael Thurman wrote:
>
>> because the people who write these programs do not care about us or anything
>> about accessibility! I am NOT upgrading til they fix th efact that you can't
>> even run conferences easily anymore
>>
>> On Feb 1, 2011, at 9:57 AM, Rose Morales wrote:
>>
>>> The video button is one movement left of the end call button. In other
>>> words, you don't go to the toolbar anymore to get to it, the way you would
>>> have done in Skype 2.8.
>>>
>>> The add to conference button which was in the context menu of any user you
>>> clicked on in the Skype 5 beta is now gone. The add people button in the
>>> menubar still exists though, and there's a shortcut for it,
>>> command-shift-a. So although Skype allows for one to add others to
>>> conferences easily, they've taken out a familiar option I know and love by
>>> removing the add to conference button in the user context menus.
>>> Personally, I think that was a dumb move. I don't see why they couldn't
>>> keep both options.
>>>
>>> Hth,
>>> Rose
>>> On Feb 1, 2011, at 9:36 AM, S?ren Jensen wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hi.
>>>>
>>>> I have ran the beta of this version, and it took me a while to get used
>>>> to. However, I really love the final release.
>>>> To inable the video, you have to find the video button in the confrence
>>>> window. This leads me to something weird and pretty annoying I have
>>>> discovered: It seems like Voiceover sometimes lost the focus and jumps
>>>> over some part on the screen, which might be the reason for you have
>>>> missed the Video button. Because of that issue, I don't remember if the
>>>> video button is in the toolbar or if it is at the confrense screen.
>>>>
>>>> I have seen the option to add an incoming call to a confrence, but it have
>>>> never worked for me, and I don't remember where I found it. I think it's
>>>> somewhere in the menubar.
>>>> Best regards:
>>>> S?ren Jensen
>>>> mail & MSN:
>>>> [email protected]
>>>> Website:
>>>> http://www.coolfortheblind.dk/
>>>>
>>>> Den 01/02/2011 kl. 10.31 skrev Krister Ekstrom:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>> Ray, i don't have an answer to your question, but i have a question
>>>>> myself: Is it at all possible to, when one hosts a conversation or
>>>>> conference and someone calls answer the call and make it join the current
>>>>> conference rather like one apparently could in Windows?
>>>>> /Krister
>>>>> 31 jan 2011 kl. 22.11 skrev Ray Foret Jr:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Just thought I'd come in and give my first impressions of the new Skype.
>>>>>> for the most part, I reckon it seems to work well enough. I love that
>>>>>> one can read the status of people in one's contact list now. Very good.
>>>>>> Most of my custom sounds work, all but one that is; and, no matter what
>>>>>> I try, I can't get Skype to use that sound. It's the third party hang
>>>>>> up sound.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Thing is this. How does one read the profile of a person in one's
>>>>>> contact list? Also, how does one access the history? If, in fact, the
>>>>>> history can be accessed at all.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Sincerely,
>>>>>> The Constantly Barefooted Ray!!!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Now A Very Proud and very happy Mac user!!!
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Skype Name:
>>>>>> barefootedray
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>
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