So if you wish to see Ubuntu accessibility improved, here are some blog
posts you might wish to comment on.
Here is Mark Shuttleworth's post on goals for 2013, not wishing to leave
anyone behind, and striving to be relevant to the types of computing
everyone wants to do. It's silly for a company like Canonical to state
that they don't wish to leave anyone behind in 2013 when the next
guaranteed accessible release will be in 2014. Similarly, it's silly for
Canonical to want to be relevant to all types of computing, while
telling blind users and others that we cannot have the latest At-SPI or
ATK releases for our browsers. I am a developer. I need the latest
accessibility infrastructure so I can develop accessible websites, and I
struggle to do so as my browser fails to render some sites accessibly.
When I used Ubuntu 11.04, I found that I had less access in Firefox than
I do under 12.10, possibly because I wasn't using the latest AT-SPI. I'm
finding that Windows 7 is more relevant to my needs as a blind web
developer than is Ubuntu because Firefox under NVDA is more accessible
than is Firefox under Ubuntu:
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1221/comment-page-1#comment-400356
Unfortunately, I wrote a nice and diplomatic comment only to have
Akismet decide that my sentiments were spam. I returned to the post a
few days later to find a message to that effect, and now there is no
record of my comment at all. It's sad when you expend so much effort on
being diplomatic and respectful only for some automated system to decide
that your sentiments are spam and that they should be removed.
Here is Jono's announcement of Ubuntu for Phones:
http://www.jonobacon.org/2013/01/02/announcing-ubuntu-for-phones/
My comment there appears to still be around, but I find that under
Ubuntu 12.10 I cannot arrow down the list of comments. Focus appears to
bounce to the top. That isn't Canonical's fault I'm certain, but one
would hope that a distribution that is changing so much about how we use
our computers could afford to hire enough of an accessibility team to
work on these types of issues.
If people want to work on this then I'm happy to help. Quite honestly,
I'm burning out on accessibility. I've used and have developed for
Android since 1.6, when the accessibility situation there was barely
tolerable, and even today I'm trying so hard to contribute to the
Android accessibility ecosystem and am being snubbed by Google. I don't
know what it is about accessibility and open source culture that makes
it so hard for people to contribute. My girlfriend has CP, and she too
wishes she could use Ubuntu but doesn't because of accessibility issues.
I'm almost to the point of replacing my Ubuntu system with Windows just
because I'm tired of battling with these access issues. I have a lot of
respect for Canonical's small access team, but if Canonical just wishes
to stick its head in the sand again and again, to throw a bunch of
resources at shiny things while ignoring the disabled, then it will
quickly become apparent that Linux for Human Beings *really* means Linux
for Completely Able-bodied Human Beings. I understand that other
distributions may not be accessible either, but that is no excuse for
Canonical, Redhat, etc. to simply stand aside and let Linux become less
accessibly relevant than Windows. It's sad that I enjoy using my
VirtualBox Windows 7 install more than I do Ubuntu for many tasks, and
is sad when accessibility developers ask me why I don't just abandon
Linux for the far more accessible Windows.,
On 01/04/2013 09:06 PM, Robert Cole wrote:
Hello, Burt.
Your e-mail was accidentally sent to me, but not to the list. I am
forwarding your message to the list. I hope that this is alright.
Kind regards.
Take care.
On 01/04/2013 07:00 PM, B. Henry wrote:
Well, I certainly am behind, and if the opportunity presents itself
alongside of those who would like to see an effort made to make all
Ubuntu releases as accessible as is reasonably possible. The big
word is of course reasonably.
I am someone who wants things to work for me and those with similar
and other limitations when it's practical. Personally I'm not that
unhappy with using LTS releases, but enjoyed using Maverick on
several machines and I'm writing to you from the version of Vinux
based on Natty, so I'm certainly not one who'd never use a mid-term
Ubuntu version.
Perhaps if Ubuntu can gain market share and hence money from some of
the changes that are being implemented then some of that money can be
put back in to accessibility development. I can be patient with a
short term lapse in accessibility, but do sincerely hope that this is
not a strategy that is considered good enough for the long term, and
I'll certainly add my voice to those who are calling for a more
inclusive Ubuntu.
On the other hand I can't see that out of the box accessibility is
better with Fedora, or for that matter any major cutting edge/rapid
release distro. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but even if I'm not
there's no reason why just keeping a half a step ahead of average is
good enough when it comes to accessibility.
Regards, and yes special regards and thanks to Luke and others who
work with what they have to give us the accessibility that they can.
--
Burt Henry
On 01/04/2013 01:09 AM, Robert Cole wrote:
Hello, Nolan.
When I first switched to Linux, I did so because I fell in love with
Ubuntu. Ubuntu is what I used (exclusively) until the accessibility
issues began to kick in. I am very appreciative of the hard work
which the Accessibility team puts into Ubuntu, and I understand that
they are very limited because fo various reasons. My frustration si
most certainly not with them, but with teh company whose operating
system I fell in love with back in 2006. I still remember the
excitement I felt when I saw the Ubuntu philosophy "for human beings".
But then, as time moved on, I had to move on as well. I really
enjoyed using Unity, and I absolutely loved all that Ubuntu had to
offer. If it was always as accessible as it once was, I would
definitely go back. I don't want to sound strange in saying this,
but I am kind of "homesick" for my first Linux operating system.
While I am enjoying my experience with Fedora, I really miss what I
had come to know in Ubuntu.
I am not sure how I can help. I had posted a comment on Mark
Shuttleworth's blog sometime in 2012, but it seemed to go unnoticed.
I forwarded this message to the AccessibleFreedom Support mailing
list; I hope that this is alright.
In this world's eyes, I am basically a nobody, but if I can somehow
lend my voice in support of what you are standing for, I will
certainly do so. I am not online as much as I used to be, but as I
am able I will help you in making this call for accessibility known.
Kind regards.
On 01/02/2013 03:50 PM, Nolan Darilek wrote:
I would like to organize some sort of advocacy effort to get
Canonical to take accessibility more seriously. I understand the
limitations of the current accessibility team, but if we look back
at the state of computing two years ago vs. today, any reasonable
person would agree that telling a certain subset of the population
that they can only be assured accessible software on that schedule
while others get upgrades every six months is unreasonable. I don't
want Ubuntu to be another Android, an accessibility situation with
which I am quite familiar.
I tried posting a comment here:
http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1221/comment-page-1#comment-400356
because a post that claims that Canonical doesn't want to leave
users behind in 2013 seems at odds with a company whose next
release I will have guaranteed access to won't be out until 2014.
Unfortunately, my comment got caught up in Akismet and appears to
have vanished. Perhaps others who feel the same should ask Mark not
to leave accessibility behind while Canonical charges ahead in so
many other areas.
Ubuntu Phone uses QML 5. I get that QT isn't as accessible, but
it's being adopted by a bunch of companies in the mobile space, so
you'd think that they'd have all contributed toward making it
accessible. Perhaps it's time for Canonical to set a good example
in this space and contribute more toward accessibility than it
currently does.
I'm going to start actively commenting on Canonical and other
blogs, advocating for the expansion of the accessibility team.
Thoughts on what else we can do? I'd love to do this stuff myself,
but I'm already writing an Android screen reader and working on
Android accessibility projects, and end users can't always be
called upon to take up the slack that paying companies leave behind.
--
Ubuntu-accessibility mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-accessibility
