The one thing I have not heard anybody describe about
the repeater directory is how they examined the CDROM and what
was on it and why it's not accessible.

	I have seen tons of things that weren't really
accessible but if you looked at what files were on there you
could read them by using some other tool other than the
inaccessible applications provided for that purpose.

	I've have also seen tons of CD's that really were
useless unless one just happened to have a handy-dandy OCR
program just sitting there to accept the image files. I've also
seen disks that used some sort of proprietary compression
algorithm so one couldn't get at anything. There are a zillion
ways to make stuff inaccessible, but if one uses a little
creativity, it is not all a washout.

	I admit that I do not use any Microsoft products or
Windows screen readers at all on purpose. I use Linux and
Macintosh and other forms of unix because I think they are more
suited to tinkering and reverse engineering things.
Reverse-engineering is not evil regardless of what highly-payed
folks wearing expensive suits tell you. It depends on why you
are doing it and what you hope to accomplish.

	I get sort of a kick out of mounting a promotional CDROM
on a Linux box and then essentially taking it apart to see what
is on that CDROM. After that, I usually put the CDROM in my box
of plastic bits and later, it will be possibly drilled, sawed or
otherwise turned in to something useful.

	AOL used to bury this part of the world in starter
CDROM's 

	My wife bought us an Encyclopedia Britanica CDROM years
ago and I was really looking forward to using it but I don't
think I ever teased anything out of it but a few odd articles
that appeared to be html files while the rest was an opaque
binary mess that probably generated screen images.

	If I can get a piece of technology to work, I call it
accessible even if I had to work a little harder. It's almost
like beating the system.

73 WB5AGZ


Butch Bussen writes:
> I'll believe it when I see it.  A dozen years ago I bought their
> repeater directory on cd and it wasn't usable.  I was promised they were
> working on it, were aware of the problem and it would be fixed in the
> next release.  Last one I looked it still wasn't usable.  So, we'll see.
> 
> 73
> Butch
> WA0VJR
> Node 3148
> Wallace, ks.
> 
> 
> On Wed, 21 Mar 2012, Barbara Lombardi wrote:
> 
> > ARRL is having discussions around accessibility.  You should all write 
> to
> > your Director about it.
> > Betsey has been in communication with them. 73, Barb
> > Barb K1EIR
> >
> >
> >
> 
>