Yep, that's pretty good, 'ey. I'm sure they spent a fortune on lisencing xCode and probably spent some money converting (such as they have) to Coco. If they didn't use so many custom controls, then they wouldn't have to do anything to make the silly thing accessible. The whole custom control thing is kind of funny - developers spend lots of time and effort building frameworks and "standard" control sets, only to have them not used in real-world apps. Sure, there will always be times when the thing you are given doesn't quite do what you want, but these cases should really be few and far between.
Its all very silly if you ask me. Hopefully Open Office will "save the day", cuz Microshaft certainly won't. -- Rich ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Kearney" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS X by theblind" <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 4:10 PM Subject: Re: Microsoft and Accessibility But wait Office 08 was done in Xcode. In fact it's release was delayed while they converted over to XCode so what' the deal Xcode has all the accessibility hooks in it already. They just were lazy and didn't want to do it for all their whiz bang custom controls that's all. Greg Kearney 535 S. Jackson St. Casper, Wyoming 82601 307-224-4022 [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Jan 17, 2008, at 1:39 PM, Rich Caloggero wrote: > Hm, to be somewhat fair, I think the real issue is that each operating > system (MacOS, Linux, and Windows) have their own accessibility > infrastructure (Windows has two , or even three depending on whether > you > count iAccessible2). So, a developer wanting to make their product > accessible on all three operating systems would have to implement > all the > accessibility three times over. I'm sure this is a big pain, and > companies > (even Microsoft) may find it prohibitively expensive to do so. > > FYI: IBM came out with iAccessible2 because they wanted to make their > Java-based Notes suite accessible, and felt that both MSAA > (microsoft active > accessibility) and the Java swing accessibility infrastructure were > not > powerful enough to meet their needs. SO, they looked at Microsoft's UI > automation (this is what MS is using in their new office suite), and > found > that it was too difficult to implement. Instead they extended MSAA > to come > up with iAccessible2, which is backward compatible with MSAA (UI > automation > is not). > > -- Rich > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Dan Eickmeier" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS > X by > theblind" <[email protected]> > Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2008 1:12 PM > Subject: Re: Bad news about Microsoft Office > > > Oh yeah, compared to Narrator, VoiceOver totally rocks!!! I love > it. > On 17-Jan-08, at 12:39 PM, Dan Keys wrote: > >> Hello, >> Microsoft doesn't make any of its software accessible for the blind >> in Windows either. They rely on screen reader companies to do that. >> This goes back to my earlier comment regarding Narrater. It was >> suppose to be for accessibility, but we all know where that has gone. >> Dan >> On Jan 17, 2008, at 8:29 AM, Dan Eickmeier wrote: >> >>> Simon >>> , I totally agree with you and everybody else on this one. Don't >>> know why Microsoft won't make their products accessible for us >>> macusers. If they're not going to do that, than why even have a >>> mac version of this suite of applications? I think we allshould >>> try to contact somebody in the microsoft organization. On 17- >>> Jan-08, at 10:14 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] >>>>> >>>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >> >> > > > >
