Yes, but the ADA and marketing are just 1 motivation. You're too cynical.
Don't forget about ethical motivations.
People wanting to do the right thing
Sun & IBM hire disabled employees that are very skilled, who need to be accomodated.
Making software accessible makes it easier to design for small devices. Voice browsing with no screen is similar to use by a blind person. Having limited screen real-estate on a small device is similar to use by those with low vision on a large screen. Data entry with a keypad brings up similararites to use by the physically handicapped.
Accessibility is often just good design, and makes the the user interface better for everyone. For example, keyboard support really sucks in most Linux GUI's.
Later in the year, Sun is planning on sponsoring a summit meeting that will bring together experts, partners, and contributors to kick off the GNOME open source accessibility.
We definitely need a representative from the KDE project at this meeting! Here's why:
Everyone agrees on the necessity for accessibility standards on the Linux desktop. Sun has great expertise in this area with their accessibility team - folks who brought us Java Accessibility - often considered to be better designed than MSAA (Microsoft Active Accessibility). This is partly because they were able to learn from the mistakes in MSAA. Likewise, open source accessibility should be that much better.
Sun will likely be doing something like Java Accessibility for Gnome/StarOffice. However, KDE must and should have input into this process from the absolute beginning, since everyone will benefit from the work. Is there a person at KDE who is knowledgeable regarding the architecture and clued into accessibility? We really must find some way of getting them to this meeting. Something as important to everyone as accessibility should not be about politics. If KDE has a different standard for accessibility on the desktop, it will be a mess for print-disabled users such as the blind and visually impaired. Having standards would also allow speech recognition software and input-assisting technology for the physically disabled input to more easily work seamlessly with a mixture of Gnome and KDE software.
Slashdot Mirror
You can tell, with the kind of journalistic ethics they have here. If we had a few more keywords we might be able to find the page cached on Google.
This review is on Mozilla's recent nightlies. A good base of comparison.
Yes, but the ADA and marketing are just 1 motivation. You're too cynical.
Don't forget about ethical motivations.
People wanting to do the right thing
Sun & IBM hire disabled employees that are very skilled, who need to be accomodated.
Making software accessible makes it easier to design for small devices. Voice browsing with no screen is similar to use by a blind person. Having limited screen real-estate on a small device is similar to use by those with low vision on a large screen. Data entry with a keypad brings up similararites to use by the physically handicapped.
Accessibility is often just good design, and makes the the user interface better for everyone. For example, keyboard support really sucks in most Linux GUI's.
From the article:
Later in the year, Sun is planning on sponsoring a summit meeting that will bring together experts, partners, and contributors to kick off the GNOME open source accessibility.
We definitely need a representative from the KDE project at this meeting! Here's why:
Everyone agrees on the necessity for accessibility standards on the Linux desktop. Sun has great expertise in this area with their accessibility team - folks who brought us Java Accessibility - often considered to be better designed than MSAA (Microsoft Active Accessibility). This is partly because they were able to learn from the mistakes in MSAA. Likewise, open source accessibility should be that much better.
Sun will likely be doing something like Java Accessibility for Gnome/StarOffice. However, KDE must and should have input into this process from the absolute beginning, since everyone will benefit from the work. Is there a person at KDE who is knowledgeable regarding the architecture and clued into accessibility? We really must find some way of getting them to this meeting. Something as important to everyone as accessibility should not be about politics. If KDE has a different standard for accessibility on the desktop, it will be a mess for print-disabled users such as the blind and visually impaired. Having standards would also allow speech recognition software and input-assisting technology for the physically disabled input to more easily work seamlessly with a mixture of Gnome and KDE software.
Comments please?
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else if (!kosher) oy_vey!
else if (schlameil || schlamazel) chutzpah!
else mazel_tov!
**
Eskimo: 50 words for snow.
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