None of the blind organizations was able to do anything to make the Kindle 
fully accessible!

-----Original Message----- 
From: Harry Brown
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 2:49 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Regarding Digital QST Accessibility

Hi Martin,
I agree to a point about negociations, however, and it's a big however, =
in life, a person or group cannot wait forever.
I can give you example after example, where we've talked about doing =
things in our world to solve different problems for years, and years, =
and what happened? What happened is, people are still talking and =
nothing happens.
I have decided as of a few years ago, that I will try negociations =
first, but give a deadline, and if it's not met, then legal action takes =
place.
I say again what I have said in an earlier email. Folks, with human =
beings, if you give them forever to stall, and say they're doing =
something about it, but nothing is done, it's all talk and no action.
So, negociation with ARRL is fine, but don't give them forever, because =
if you do, they'll be like every other human being.
73,
Trippy, ac8s
  ----- Original Message -----=20
  From: Martin McCormick=20
  To: [log in to unmask]
  Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2012 12:46 PM
  Subject: Re: Regarding Digital QST Accessibility


  Thanks for one of the more thoughtful messages. I will
  respond to a few points.
  Lloyd Rasmussen writes:
  > A lot more research and negotiation has to be done before anyone =
would=20
  > want
  > to file any sort of lawsuit against a magazine publisher.
  >=20
  > I am pretty sure that ARRL said they also would be using Zimio as =
their
  > platform.  On December 17, Patrick Tyce sent us a link to a page out =
of
  > World Radio Magazine on the Zimio site.  Going to the page with=20
  > Window-Eyes
  > and either Internet Explorer or FireFox shows a bunch of links and =
no
  > article text.  Some of the links and the help text indicate that =
they have
  > some iOS apps; I have no idea whether or not they are accessible.
  >=20
  > But Martin McCormik reported in December that he could read the =
sample=20
  > page
  > using good old Lynnx.  I downloaded the page and found that it is
  > accompanied by a lot of JavaScript.  But the article text is also=20
  > contained
  > within a <noscript> section in the main HTML file, which explains =
why Lynx
  > could read it.

  In a perfect world, we could all just walk up to
  something and use it but we have the world we live in so we've
  got to figure out how to make it work which, sometimes, means
  finding the alternate ways to skin the proverbial cat.

  I will be 61 years old in a bit less than 5 months so I
  know what life was like 40 years ago. "QST" came in a cardboard
  box through my regional lending library. I even worked at that
  library for a few Summers while in college and then full-time
  between 1974 and 76 and I really don't remember if those boxes
  came from Science for the Blind or if we duplicated the tapes
  and sent them out from Oklahoma City, but I think the library
  just signed us up and Science for the blind shipped the tapes.

  Anyway, there were usually two 7-inch reels of tape in
  the box and the kicker, here, is that they were usually 6 to 7
  months out of date. The ARRL staff members read the articles on
  to the tapes and then they were duplicated at which point a lot
  of technical difficulty was introduced as dust, wear on the
  tape's oxide coating and rough handling by users took their toll
  on the sound quality.

  An old geezer routine on "Saturday Night Live" used to
  describe how rotten things were and ended each description with
  "That's the way things were and we liked it!"

  I'm not trying to pull that one, but I recently
  downloaded the February "QST" from bard during the last few days
  of February. No, it's not the same time everybody else gets it,
  but it beats the daylights out of 7 months and wearing out the
  Volume pot trying to keep up with the level changes.

  If the digital form of "QST" turns out to be accessible,
  how are we going to follow the circuits described. The present
  NLS reading of "QST" features descriptions of the schematics of
  projects submitted by amateurs. I usually am not interested in
  building these projects, but I have been known to read parts of
  those descriptions to find out how to connect a certain IC or
  other important details. If the day comes when we can read these
  articles on our computers, I bet good money those portions will
  not be easy to get at without help.

  Negotiation and discussion will accomplish far more than
  a screaming lawyer fest which would tick off the loosers and
  probably not produce any real winners.

  I know of situations where certain web sites are just
  horrible to access using assistive technology yet the argument
  is that they followed all the accessibility guidelines and they
  are telling the truth, but they didn't work with anybody so
  the end result is useless or darn close to useless.

  My few experiences with the ARRL have been positive and
  I bet we will end up with something wonderful if we are calm and
  deliberative and do not become litigious. That is an adjective
  which means to resort to legal  activity every time one is
  unhappy.