John Greer wrote: > Are there any plans to make Open Office more accessible with Windows XP etc.? >
Yes. The big issue is a lack of coders/developers to rewrite the code in OOo that makes it a11y-hostile. The first step would be for a coder to label each icon, so that a screen reader can state what the function of the icon is. Further down the line would be voice2text integration. [Sun is working on this. With any luck, it will be available as a patch for OOo 4.0.] For various reasons --- which I won't enumerate here --- the only intermediate/long solution that is viable, is for a FLOSS office suite written from scratch, for a specific set of a11y needs. Some features from these suites could, in theory, be ported over to OOo. (Roughly a year after the ODF Toolkit is released, the first Office Suite designed from the ground up for a specific a11y need could be released in beta. Such a project would be done by an individual, because none of the organizations that claim to advance the cause of individuals with a11y needs are interested in actually doing what their mission statement says they do.) (If the National Federation for the Blind was serious about its mission, it would have funded an office suite for Blind users years ago. If the Massachusetts Federation for the Blind was smart, they would have released an office suite for blind users using the bribes they received from Microsoft to denounce the ODF format.) xan jonathon --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
