Folks,
I'm disappointed but not surprised about this news. As a computer
support person, it is particularly disappointing. At this point my
attitude is (to paraphrase a line from the "The Day The Earth Stood
Still") "I don't know whether to get drunk or just give up the
practice of programming".
Marshall
On Jan 17, 2008, at 7:26 AM, Greg Kearney wrote:
According to Microsoft this morning Microsoft Office 08 is not
accessible to the blind or print disabled using VoiceOver. So don't
bother going out and buying it. I will now editorialize:
At some point someone is going to start raising the issue of
consumer products, in this case Microsoft Office, not being
accessible and if producing such products is actionable under the
Americans with Disabilities Act. That aside what in the world is
Microsoft thinking? This was a product that was delayed because the
code was changed to Xcode and here we have a major productivity
application that is not accessible? Microsoft should be ashamed of
itself and I for one would like to have someone from Microsoft offer
some kind of explanation for this oversight.
It is one thing for some small company with limited resources to not
have an accessible application it is inexcusable for a company the
size of Microsoft to re-write a major application like office and
not have it be accessible. If Xcode would not compile non-accessible
application we might have avoided this. It is interesting to note
that the only accessible spreadsheet for the Mac, Tables, is the
work of a lone programer who managed to do it with out the resources
of a Microsoft or Apple.
On a related note developer at Sun have been asking questions about
accessibility on a developer list at Apple so perhaps there is hope
that Sun will be developing an accessible version of Open Office.
Let's hope so anyway. And let's hope that someone at Apple is able
to get and explanation from Microsoft as to why an application
written after VoiceOver's release is not able to be used by the
blind and print disabled. And Apple your not off the hook here
either Pages and Numbers are not accessible either I might add.
Greg Kearney
535 S. Jackson St.
Casper, Wyoming 82601
307-224-4022
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
