QT accessibility in Linux still has a long way to go. I'm not denying
this. However, giving credit where credit is due, QT accessibility has
made major improvements, going from near zero just 2 years ago to
something that in many cases is mostly usable, and even surpasses the
level of QT accessibility in other operating systems today, and most of
these improvements have happened within the last 4 months. There are
also reports that qt-at-spi, the plugin responsible for making QT work
with Orca and the accessibility stack, will be included in the core of
QT version 5, hopefully due out this year. If I'm jumping the gun, let
me know, but I have read this in several places.
Accessibility is something I fight for every day in many aspects of my
daily life; I do need it after all. Having said this, it is extremely
important to give credit where it is due, to file informed bug reports
when something isn't working correctly and to contribute code and
financial resources if possible, rather than just fussing andd whining
that something isn't accessible, ABC developers don't care about
accessibility, or XYZ Company's product works better, without providing
meaningful insight into what we need to work and how it can work better
for us, and where improvements and increases in resources devoted to
accessibility can help to make something easier for us to use. Keep in
mind that a lack of accessibility features in applications and operating
systems is generally not caused by developers or companies not caring.
After all, how many blind, visually impaired or otherwise disabled
developers, who know exactly what they need, actually work to develop
the applications and operating systems we use every day? How many more
of us don't necessarily know how to code, but can put into simple terms
exactly what we need an application, OS or interface to do in what
situations that can help us use it more effectively? Many of us can
probably educate developers about our needs and how to best meet them,
but most of us just whine and scream on e-mail lists about how much
better XYZ is or how little ABC's devs seem to care about accessibility,
without providing any meaningful feedback. It's enough to make most
developers want to give up; I know I would. However, when meaningful
discussions take place between developers and end-users, when developers
are made aware of our needs and how best to meet them, and when we have
the patience to explain concepts that are difficult for people who don't
have certain physical disabilities to understand, our access to more
operating systems, interfaces and applications will begin increasing
quite rapidly, because we will be recognizing the fact that developers
are in fact human beings, and developers and the companies who employ
them will recognize that we are also human beings.
~Kyle
http://kyle.tk/
--
"Kyle? ... She calls her cake, Kyle?"
Out of This World, season 2 episode 21 - "The Amazing Evie"
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