posting from Windsor Maine;
Steve Hoad


Sometimes reality is a hard pill to swallow!

I agree that our rights include access, just like the screen reader issue
though, the cell phone issue isn't being resolved with "built-in"
accessibility.

If we waited for our rights to be fulfilled, we'd have more time to be less
employable and less opportunity to spread our message that equality is
really the way to go.

For example, many of us on this list have purchased screen reading software
so we could actually access the computer.  If we waited for a "built-in"
solution, someone else would have to represent to the manufacturers that
blind people were even astute enough to use a computer.  Someone else would
have to represent us because as "non techies" we wouldn't even know how to
talk the language or discuss the interface with experience and intelligence.

In the case of cellphones, the technology is slowly merging so that
cellphones, pda devices, cameras and MP3 players are being integrated into
one unit.  And, we still have to teach the vendors that we can dial a phone.

Thanks to those who hold out for equal access.  They speak the language
that's the truth in human and judicial terms.

Thanks to those who purchase things and go out on the leading edge.  They
speak the language of the industry and of the current state of things.  They
can tell the vendors, in real terms, how far their products are falling
short of our needs.

The bottom line is that, if you need to use a device for your economic
improvement (work, contracts, etc.) you gotta use what there is.  If that
means spending a bit of extra money, that's America in 2003/04.  Once that
money is spent, the new user is a perfect vehicle to discuss the technology
and the unfair advantages...

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