While I do not disagree with Jamal's analysis of the Internet Explorer
incident, I believe that there is something more to add thereto.
It is clear, from inter alia the New York Times report which was echoed on
this list, that the release of Internet Explorer version 4 was significant
to Microsoft's efforts at least to retain their position in the market.
Internet Explorer represents a response to developments by other software
developers and its genesis cannot be commented upon in isolation. The
decision to release Internet Explorer may, therefore, have been a
calculated one. In short, the senior management at Microsoft may well have
been perfectly aware of the likely reaction from the visually impaired
community to their decision to release Internet Explorer without active
accessibility. They may, however, have decided to take that particular
risk and to discount it against the adverse implications of holding up the
release for the sake of the visually impaired community only.
One may be angry about this decision, but one must accept, at the same
time, that commercial decisions are not always prompted by callousness
only. Neither are unpopular commercial decisions of this type necessarily
evidence of insensitivity towards the community which is disadvantaged
thereby. In fact, Henter-Joyce recently did a substantially similar thing.
I am reluctant to take up unnecessary bandwidth to explain the details of
HJ's decision, but when I complained about it a number of beta testers were
quick to profess their sense of injury that I and like-minded people could
complain about what was essentially a commercial decision.
I believe that the New Zealanders totally over-reacted, but if it means
that Microsoft's professed commitment to the accessibility of their
software will be strengthened by what I now perceive to be an
over-reaction, who am I to judge?
________________________________
Johan Roos
Advocate of the High Court of South Africa
Member of the Cape Bar
624 Keerom Street Chambers
56 Keerom Street
Cape Town 8001
Fax: +27 +21 24-9689
Voice: +27 +21 23-6199
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
----------
From: Jamal Mazrui <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: An analysis of our experience and response on IE
4.0inaccessibility
Date: Friday, October 10, 1997 8:53 PM
My view on the iE4 matter may be summarized in the following points:
(1) The Microsoft accessibility team made a public relations blunder by
not alerting the disability community that Active Accessibility had not
made the 4.0 release of Internet Explorer. This alert should have
been accompanied by an assurance that this was only a temporary setback,
with a committment for when Active Accessibility would be included within
this and other Microsoft applications.
(2) We can probably assume that the Microsoft accessibility team has
learned from this PR blunder and that it is unlikely to recur again. We
should give them the benefit of the doubt that MSAA was not included in
IE 4.0, not because of them, but despite their efforts. In other words,
while we may have legitimately blamed the accessibility team for not
alerting and reassuring us, we should put the blame on the release of IE
without MSAA on senior managers at Microsoft.
(3) Senior management at Microsoft should be sent a message from
consumers that Microsoft should match deeds with words when it comes to
accessibility to people with disabilities. It is fine and proper for
companies to tout accessibility in their product marketing and corporate
image promotion, but this must be backed by substance.
(4) Three forms of influence are needed upon senior management at
Microsoft: personal stories of the impact of IE4 inaccessibility, media
stories that cause Microsoft to publicly defend its accessibility
committment, and economic pressure from government and private
organizations with significant purchasing power who communicate the
importance of accessibility within their procurement criteria.
(5) We should try to leverage Microsoft's clear mistakes with IE 4.0
into a commitment to full accessibility of Windows 98 upon release,
including MSAA in all parts of the software that screen readers
and other adaptive tools would otherwise have difficulty with. We
should call for the release of Windows 98 to be delayed if necessary
until this is done.
Regards,
Jamal
Net-Tamer V 1.09.2 - Registered
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