I think it is. I have raised this issue with Microsoft, as a member of the
Microsoft Accessibility Advisory Council, but haven't had much response yet.
Hardware dependency probably can't be overcome, but certainly software
accessibility needs to be part of the .net process.
Microsoft has tended to add accessibility after the fact rather than design
it in at the beginning, unless lots of us raise the issue.
Those who would like to raise the issue should email [log in to unmask]
and, in a nice way, suggest that this should be thought about in the first
effort, not in the last. Be nice because the folks at enable are the ones
on our side, who will use the emails as ammunition with the developers.
I think the industry also thinks that .net is an effort to subvert Java, and
reclaim the net for Microsoft. Certainly, they should be a player, but
equally certainly, they shouldn't own the net, which they have tried to do
in the past.
Denis Anson, MS, OTR/L
Assistant Professor
College Misericordia
301 Lake St.
Dallas, PA 18612
-----Original Message-----
From: * EASI: Equal Access to Software & Information
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Jim Rebman
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 9:54 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: .net and accessibility?
Dennis,
The issue of individual users being tied to specialized hardware is
probably not something they (or anybody) will be able to deal with. I
think the best we can hope for in this regard is some kind of prompt or
warning that the user will not be able to do certain tasks, or possibly,
anything on an incorrectly configured machine. Software and drivers and
such shouldn't be too much of a problem.
What I really am beginning to think is that this is Microsoft's latest
attempt to reclaim territory lost to Java and Sun years ago. Sun has
proposed similar scenarios for workstation-independent access based on such
things as smart cards that will contain a user's profile and preferences.
At this point I would trust that there is a greater amount of core-level
accessibility support being built into the Sun products.
Just a hunch, but based on empirical data<smile>.
I scanned many of the .net documents and did not once see any mention of
access, disabilities, or MSAA -- could this be a sign?
-- Jim
---------------------------
James A. Rebman
Cognitive Levers Project
Center for Life-Long Learning and Design (L3D)
University of Colorado, Boulder
"In times of change, the learners will inherit the earth, while the learned
will find themselves beautifully equipped for a world that no longer
exists."
- Eric Hoffer
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