GUIs (was Re: A comment on Slashdot)

[Janina Sajka]

Isn't MSAA de facto evidence of the failure of MS operating and
application environments for access. Put the other way, if Windows and
Windows applications could directly support alternate interface
technologies, would there still be a need for MSAA?

My answer, just in case someone cares, is that MSAA proves that M$ is the
wrong environment for people with disabilities.

On Fri, 14 Apr 2000 cpt.kirk at 1tree.net wrote:

> You are right that at least M$ has done something. But I would also remind
> you that Netscape isn't the only group not supporting MSAA. Heck, even the
> screen readers weren't jumping on that wagon. Hynter-Joyce bypassed it
> when they supported IE4 initially. Don't know the company name, but
> Window Eyes also was slow to support it. And Daulphin found that not
> paying much attention to M$ whims was benificial as well.
> 
> While I think Netscape could have done more, it was also fighting to even
> stay alive (and failed). Truthfully, Winblows is so convoluted, that I
> think screen reading is always going to be somewhat convoluted. Keep in
> mind that though MSAA is supposedly part of the OS, support is not
> automatic. In my limited view, the OS should be able to deal with reading
> any text it creates. Thus, software manufacturers should not have to worry
> about being accessible (other then to include such things as keyboard
> shortcuts).
> 
> DOS applications never took time to be accessible. They sent text off to
> the OS and it was done. Same with the console apps in Linux. I would bet
> that few (if any) of the apps you use in Linux ever had blind accesibility
> as a part of their design criteria. It should be built in by running on
> the accessible OS.
> 
> Kirk Wood
> Cpt.Kirk at 1tree.net
> ------------------
> 
> Why can't you be a non-conformist, like everybody else?
> 
> 
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-- 

				Janina Sajka, Director
				Information Systems Research & Development
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

janina at afb.net