Everything looks like a nail. Web apps are nice and play in a certain application space. Same with Native apps. Saying that one is "better" than another isn't fair since the apps themselves are different, with different constraints (how do I access a file on the users local filesystem seamlessly from a web app?).
If I was going for "I'm going to write an application to conquer the world" approach, I would probably want it to run on iPhone and Android, so a web app is probably a good option. However, if I know my application is fixed to one piece of hardware (the newest iPhone for example) a native app is better since I can access more of the hardware with a native application.
At my work, they're grappling with the same problem. They have a number of blind people working the phones, and their workstations have all sorts of expensive specialised hardware to help them work. The problem is, as more apps move from older green screen technology (yep, there's still lots) to newer wiz-bang web applications, those web-apps have to be created with accessibility in mind.
They use JAWS (a commercial product from Freedom Scientific) to make internal applications accessible. As for why there's not much work on the open source front, I guess it's one of those things where a competent developer hasn't had the urge to work on it.
But I agree that making computers accessible at a reasonable price (or free) is very important, especially given as a huge chunk of society is getting to the age where this stuff will be needed a lot.
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Everything looks like a nail. Web apps are nice and play in a certain application space. Same with Native apps. Saying that one is "better" than another isn't fair since the apps themselves are different, with different constraints (how do I access a file on the users local filesystem seamlessly from a web app?). If I was going for "I'm going to write an application to conquer the world" approach, I would probably want it to run on iPhone and Android, so a web app is probably a good option. However, if I know my application is fixed to one piece of hardware (the newest iPhone for example) a native app is better since I can access more of the hardware with a native application.
At my work, they're grappling with the same problem. They have a number of blind people working the phones, and their workstations have all sorts of expensive specialised hardware to help them work. The problem is, as more apps move from older green screen technology (yep, there's still lots) to newer wiz-bang web applications, those web-apps have to be created with accessibility in mind. They use JAWS (a commercial product from Freedom Scientific) to make internal applications accessible. As for why there's not much work on the open source front, I guess it's one of those things where a competent developer hasn't had the urge to work on it. But I agree that making computers accessible at a reasonable price (or free) is very important, especially given as a huge chunk of society is getting to the age where this stuff will be needed a lot.
In Soviet Russia, climate controls YOU!
If you're thinking of banking apps, think COBOL (at least here in Canada). Bunch of those programmers are near retirement too...