Hey All, what you're saying is great, but honestly, -bet you MS
would only point the finger right back at Apple if this were brought
up, saying that basically, it's apple's own OS and their own screen
access software, so not our issue...
<smile -Could be off here, but just a lil reality check...
Have an awesome day!...
Smiles,
Cara :)
On Jan 17, 2008, at 7:14 AM, Simon Cavendish wrote:
Dear Greg and the Listers,
I entirely agree with Greg's words. It is a shame for Microsoft to
have produced a flagship version of its main suite ignoring
accessibility for visually impaired people and print impaired people
in the presence of the fact that Microsoft must be aware of its
obligations with regard to accessibility as outlined above. I should
imagine that it is against the ADA law and the Disability
Discrimination Act, 1995, in the UK. It would require though a major
representatives of business to take Microsoft to book on account of
this omission. The fact is that Microsoft must have known that Mac
OS platform is already accessible to blind and print impaired people
and to ignore this warrants an uproar.
Let us all protest in whatever ways we are able to.
With best wishes
Simon Cavendish
On 17 Jan 2008, at 14:26, 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]
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