anti-word

[Janina Sajka]

Well, I believe you're wrong on both counts, in terms of what AFB supports
and in terms of what's good for blind people.

Proprietary formats that work sometimes, and don't work often are not good 
for blind people. For example, when it comes to inaccessible documents, 
such as the forms mentioned in an earlier message, an accomondation can 
reasonably be enforced under the ADA. I speak here of the most 
restrictive circumstance such that of employment where, as you 
pointed out, there are defined company standards. There are other 
examples.

You have, however, apparently narrowed the scope of this discussion to
file sharing within some kind of organizational entity--a company, a
school.  The issue goes beyond that.

When the situation is a proprietary format to someone outside of an
organizational entity, the entity is on even weaker ground. They have no
basis in law to compel someone to spend money on devices they would
otherwise not purchase in order to read something they're entitled to
read. An excellent example of this circumstance are Sec. 508 (and I 
daresay 504). When the government chooses to publish forms on the web, 
they are now required to be accessible forms. And, they must be accessible 
to a wider variety of individuals with a wider variety of technologies. 
They cannot, for example, say "Word is accessible, so we can publish 
Word," because it's arguably only accessible to those with that kind of 
technology. The public service must serve the greater public, not just 
that majority that may have chosen Word somehow. 



 On 
Sun, 13 Jan 2002, Kirk Wood wrote:

> I hope for the sake of blind people Janina speaks for herself and not the
> AFB. Reality strike here. Many people use their computer for primarily
> business reasons. And as such they are stuck with the arrogant rules of a
> business. For some stupid reason us sighted folks prefer text that is
> formatted. And no Janina, html and text don't give the level of formatting
> that word does. Sorry, but does not computer. Will not compute.
> 
> =======
> Kirk Wood
> Cpt.Kirk at 1tree.net
> 
> Nowlan's Theory:
>         He who hesitates is not only lost, but several miles from
>         the next freeway exit.
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina at afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org