Hi Andrea, I will respond on-list in case others have the same questions and then we can take this off the list so it does not become annoying to anyone not interested.
I work as a consultant and the organizations for which this topic is most relevant among my clients are Literacy Bridge (USA) and Mais Diferenças (Brazil). They are both relatively small organizations that are primarily focused on the educational and social needs of developing countries. Based on that, judging whether responding to my inquiry will eventually impact the lives of millions or just a handful of children, depends very much on your own assumptions regarding what type of organizations, large or small, actually make a difference and drive change in this world. I believe that the answer to this question is not obvious by any means. The same applies with regard to the fact that it will be used in a publication of the International Telecommunications Union. The extent to which anything published or disseminated by UN organizations is adopted by any given country depends to a great extent on each individual country. So as usual in matters of political institutions, no guarantees can be offered. Having said that, so little is known outside of highly technical groups about FOSS assistive technologies, that any exposure is bound to be quite helpful. My own personal take on this is that there is so much need out there, and so little understanding on the potential of FOSS assistive technologies to help, that it pays to think big and be as thorough as possible in presenting cases to readers. Thank you for the address to your blog. Best regards, Fernando -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Andrea Shettle Sent: Friday, September 26, 2008 12:43 PM To: [email protected] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [laptop-accessibility] Low cost assistive technology Regarding the recent question on low cost assistive technology: I think before any of us can advise intelligently, it might help to understand who wants to know (what organization they're working for), what context they're working in (in a developing country? Which one?) and what they plan to do with the information (eg, will it influence budgeting and practices in a large scale project in a developing country? Where? If you're looking for organizationsthat might be able to advise, or more mailing lists to join, and if the focus is on developing countries, then try browsing the many links from my blog site (http://wecando.wordpress.com) at the very bottom of each page. If this information gathering process is meant to be ambitious with far reaching implications for many children in various developing countries, and/or the information would be widely disseminated afterwards, then Fernando please contact me off the list (at [EMAIL PROTECTED]) so we can discuss whether it would make sense for me to post something about it at my blog. That could potentially drive a handful of comments in your direction. Andrea Shettle, MSW [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wecando.wordpress.com _______________________________________________ accessibility mailing list [email protected] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility _______________________________________________ accessibility mailing list [email protected] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility
