Red Hat Enterprise 6.2

Fri Mar 29 11:53:41 EDT 2013

Thanks for this info Kelly.

-----Original Message-----
From: Speakup [mailto:speakup-bounces at linux-speakup.org] On Behalf Of
Kelly Prescott
Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 9:30 AM
To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
Subject: RE: Red Hat Enterprise 6.2

I tried to do RHCE certification way back in the earliest days when they
made it available, and they flat told me that it was not possible and they
wouldn't even adapt the training so I could take it.
I see there attitude has not changed.
I am not sure of the real value of the cert in any case unless your
employer specifically requires it.
You might try the LPI certifications at www.lpi.org The advantage is they
are vendor neutral and they still cover all necessary skills.
When I asked them about adapting, they were inthusiastic about doing it
and asked me what we could come up with to make it work for me.
I was down sized soon after starting that conversation, but I think they
might be more willing to help.

-- Kelly Prescott

  On Fri, 29 Mar 2013,
Amanda Rush wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Red Hat will not allow you to compile Speakup into the RHEL kernel.
> Also, if you're certifying for RHEL6.2 or any of the other RHEL
> versions, you're expected to specifically use that distro. Also, they
> will not allow you to bring in your own system and SSH into one of
> their boxes to do the certification. As of this point, there is a VM
> you have to use that is provided by Red Hat that you have to use to
> complete the cert, as well as one for going through the curriculum,
> and speakup is definitely not part of it. I tried getting speakup to
> compile on both of these, and was unsuccessful. And in order to
> complete the curriculum for the cert, there are scripts that have to
> run on your VM so that Red Hat's servers can grade your labs. You
> could try accessing the grading pages via SSH, but you're going to
> have to use Elinks to do it, and Elinks doesn't play well with their
grading page.
>
> I'd like to say Red Hat is just apathetic to accessibility concerns,
> or that they just don't know any better, but given that they pretty
> much are actively discouraging anyone who needs to use adaptive
> technology by taking all these steps, I'm not so sure. I think the
> quickest solution will be to talk to your employer and see if you can
> maybe demonstrate that you can complete the tasks on the
> certification, and see if that would suffice for your not having the
> cert. I wish you the best of luck. And yes, if we could get one of the
> advocacy orgs on board and sue Red Hat, that would be great. But it
> would be nice if they didn't settle, because if it doesn't go to
> court, there's no legal precedence when this comes up with another
> organization, (<cough>Cisco</cough>) and then the wheel has to be
reinvented all over again.
>
> Amanda
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Speakup [mailto:speakup-bounces at linux-speakup.org] On Behalf Of
> Tony Baechler
> Sent: Friday, March 29, 2013 5:36 AM
> To: Speakup is a screen review system for Linux.
> Subject: Re: Red Hat Enterprise 6.2
>
> Jason, Red Hat has made it very clear that they have no interest in
> accessibility, so I highly doubt that just contacting them would do
> any good.  I say this from looking at their sites and finding nothing
> at all about accessibility.  They don't even ship Speakup with RHEL as
> far as I'm aware, but since it's in staging, maybe they do now.  As I
> recall, 6.2 is rather old and uses a custom kernel with a large set of
> patches, so I don't think you'll get Speakup to compile.  You could
> try compiling as modules and see if it works, but I wouldn't hold my
> breath.  I think the same applies to CentOS as well.  I'm not sure about
Fedora.
>
> I don't know if Australia has any kind of accessibility laws, but I
> know the US and UK do.  Probably someone in the US would have to ask
> Red Hat to make an accessible solution available which they would
> probably refuse to do.  It would then have to go to lawyers to settle.
> It might not end up in a suit, but it very well might.  Most likely,
> an advocacy organization like the ACB or NFB would have to push Red Hat
and it could take years.
> Obviously, that won't help with the immediate problem.  By law, they
> are required to provide an accessibility solution for you.  Since
> you're in Australia, I really don't know if any of this would apply to
you or not.
> I would suggest asking if you can do the certification with ssh to the
> RHEL box.  There are ssh clients for Linux and Windows, so one way or
> the other, you could have speech.  If they let you bring your own
> laptop, you could install Debian, Arch or Ubuntu on it which would give
you Speakup.
> If not, you could see if they would let you ssh from Windows with NVDA
> or a different Windows screen reader.  As I said, they're required to
> provide an alternative solution in the US, so you might even be able
> to make them let you borrow a machine.
>
> I don't know anything about your work, but a better approach might be
> to talk to your employer.  Yes, I realize that Red Hat gives the
> certification, but your employer might be able to somehow work with
> Red Hat and/or let you borrow a machine, especially since the point in
> getting it is for work.  In the US, employers with more than I think
> 10 employees are required to make accomodations as necessary for
> accessibility.  An example would be buying someone a screen reader so
they can do their job.
>
> In conclusion, I would suggest studying the Americans with
> Disabilities Act, or ADA.  I really don't know if it will help you,
> but at least you'll know what's required by US companies.  The ACB has
> several ADA seminars from the various conventions online.  I'm sure
> the NFB does as well.  I would suggest the following two sites:
>
> http://www.acb.org/
> http://www.acbradio.org/
>
> I know there is an organization in Australia as well which might be
> able to help.  Please let us know what happens as I would be very
> interested to see what Red Hat says.
>
> On 3/28/2013 10:16 PM, Jason White wrote:
>> Sean Murphy<speakup at linux-speakup.org>  wrote:
>>>
>>> I am going to prep for the Red Hat Admin certifications. I need to
>>> know if what screen reader is available on the console? Speakup you
> have to compile into the Kernel. So I am not sure if this can be done
> or not. Any suggestions on how to get this console to work?
>>
>> I don't know, but have you contacted Red Hat about it? It's their
>> certification, after all, hence in their business interests to ensure
>> it's accessible to you. there might also be legal implications
>> depending on the laws in force in your country.
>>
>> I am sure that others on this list will have advice to offer, but I
>> think raising the issue with Red Hat would be a very good idea not
>> only for you but for the benefit of others with access needs.
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