I think I've said this before, but what I find annoying is the silence of blind-oriented organisations, like NFB. If it was a big deal for Apple not to have accessibility built into iTunes, I'm not sure why Microsoft gets a pass, especially when Office is so ubiquitous. The lack of Office support isn't the only reason agencies are reluctant to offer the Mac as a viable solution for blind users, but I bet it doesn't help. In that respect, Microsoft's failure is a much bigger deal than Apple's was with iTunes.
I know some people will say that's exactly why organisations like the NFB aren't making a big deal about it, but I'm not sure that's true. Either way, why they're not doing it at the moment isn't as important as letting them know that there's a problem, and that there's a sizeable number of blind users who want them to do something. Targeting them to take action might be as good an effort as targeting Microsoft directly. Because, as noted, our market share is tiny. It's going to take more than just us telling them they're losing money to bring change, and that's what organisations designed to advocate for the blind should be good at, IMO. > "Tony Hernandez" <[email protected]> May 04 10:20AM -0400 ^ > > It seems to me that this effort is aimed at trying to creaet the force of a > number of people rather than just one. Also, another problem is that the > office formats are industry standard, so as Carolyn says, "Microsoft knows > they have the public around the neck." Gates meant serious business when he > said, "A computer in every home, and Microsoft software on every computer." > He's pretty much achieved this as much as anyone can, so the company is > quite complacent. Our market share is chickenfeed compared to that which > they already hold, not that I think Gates himself is to blame for the > accessibility issues, but MS as a company has no reason at present to try to > expand their customer base. That being said, I see no reason why the effort > should not be made to bring this issue to the attention of Microsoft, > especially since Apple is outdoing them by leaps and bounds on accessibility > for the blind, the deaf, and those who have motor difficulties. > > Tony Hernandez > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
