Red Hat Enterprise 6.2

[Tony Baechler]

Well, I don't want to start an ACB vs. NFB argument, but I would really 
encourage you to talk to the ACB.  As I said, they've been a lot more 
willing to take Linux seriously and have taken on several large corporations 
over the years.  I am not a member of either at the moment, but I don't 
think I've heard of the ACB requiring someone to put up their own money 
before getting official backing.  I don't know what state you're in, but the 
ACB state affiliate might also be able to help.  Some states are stronger 
than others, but unlike the NFB, each state affiliate is its own 
organization which happens to be an ACB affiliate, not part of the umbrella 
organization like NFB affiliates are.  Yes, I was aware of NFB happenings 
for many years, so I'm not making things up off the top of my head.  Even if 
the ACB isn't interested, at least it's another avenue which has been 
explored and eliminated, but I personally think that they would be willing 
to help, especially if a lot of people here complained.  As I said, I 
personally don't use RH products, but I wouldn't mind testing Fedora or RHEL 
for accessibility if RH is willing to listen without being sued.  I'm 
currently doing a similar kind of testing regarding another company who has 
been willing to make their site accessible.  So far, a lot of progress has 
been made without the company being sued.

Another argument to be made to both organizations is that Linux itself is a 
large step towards equality for the blind.  In other words, we can use the 
exact same kernel, console, and command line software as the sighted as long 
as Speakup is included, either compiled into the kernel or as modules.  It 
so happens that 2.6.37 and newer ship Speakup, so we can use an identical 
kernel as the sighted, even if the distro itself isn't 100% accessible, like 
Ubuntu.  In earlier kernels, the Speakup source can still be compiled as 
modules, such as 2.6.32 in Debian Squeeze and others.  With some distros 
such as Debian, it's possible for a blind person to do an 100% independant 
install from the time the CD boots to shutting down.  There is no reason why 
Fedora at least can't provide an accessible installation as well.  In other 
words, unlike Windows, we don't need to buy screen readers, pay for upgrades 
and get sighted help to do a new install.  Those are powerful arguments when 
it comes to potential employability for blind system administrators. 
Personally, I think the most powerful thing about Speakup and Linux in 
general isn't that it talks, reads the screen, or even that I can run most 
console programs.  To me, the most powerful thing is that I can run the 
exact same versions of Apache, Postfix, MySQL, php, etc as anyone else 
managing a Linux server.  Alas, not from the RHEL console though, only from 
ssh after someone else has done the install.

On 3/29/2013 7:33 AM, Amanda Rush wrote:
> I spoke to my local and state NFB representatives last year around this
> time, and was told that if I could find a lawyer who would take this on,
> and provide the money and other such, then the NFB would then maybe be
> willing to back this. But since I'm not rich, and don't have steady work,
> this is pretty much impossible. I would love to find someone possibly more
> in the know/higher up to talk to. People's jobs and educations are on the
> line because of this.