posting from Windsor Maine;
Steve Hoad




I guess somebody must have gotten threatened or tired of the process.

This cellphone situation is replicated in so many arenas, where the
corporations fight and fight to keep their turf untouched by the ADA.

TV remotes, touchpads on apliances, everything digital that sells comes out
first in an inaccessible mode.  Once this stuff hits the market and is hot,
companies don't have any impetus to fix it.  Its financial stuff that drives
this, we must begin our fights before products hit the market so there's
initiative to create accessibility before the financial incentive to keep
selling takes its toll.

Here's my biggest issue,
the ADA was passed and Federal entities don't have to follow the
law---access to many government publications and programs is limited by the
"lack of dollars available" and so, companies have learned to stonewall us
just like the government does.  They aren't allowed to claim lack of
dollars, but that's what they share with their shareholders---"We're saving
the company money," and folks with disabilities who are used to being
stonewalled by the government accept the treatment!

Why would parents not sue Apple Computer and their childrens' school
districts when computers aren't accessible to their blind students?

We're sliding backwards---forward vision is the only thing that will save
us.

What products are you interested in that are in the future?  Are companies
going to make the newest, shinist gadgets you want accessible from the
start?

Its much like a web site, if it is built with accessibility in mind in the
first place, it is inexpensive and useful.  if it has to be fought about,
and then repaired for accessibility it is expensive and time consuming!

Steve Hoad
(with an eye on Apple)














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