Hi Shaun,
You are a bit behind the times. Tablet PCs are already very popular, and we don't have to wait 10 years to see them dominate the market. Apple's iPad, for example, is doing very well in the tablet market and other software developers like Microsoft and Canonical are attempting to break into the tablet market too.
The big push for the Unity desktop environment on Ubuntu 12 is geared for tablet PCs and smart phones, and any other touchscreen type device. However, as Ubuntu Linux is also a desktop operating system Dell desktops, laptops, and netbooks will begin shipping later this year with the new Unity interface preinstalled as well. Bottom line, Linux developers like Canonical are trying to grab the tablet market early on, and Microsoft's Windows 8 is attempting to do the same thing.
What this means for us in terms of game development is to begin thinking of what operating systems will be available for tablets and perhaps developing software in that direction. Obviously if the tablet is running Windows 8 or Ubuntu Linux developing software for the tablet will be easier than for an OS device like Apple's iPad. However, this is the kind of future we are looking at because it is relatively in expensive to by a new tablet with accessibility right out of the box. You can pick up an Apple iPad from just about any electronics store in the USA, bring it home, enable VoiceOver, and have a fully accessible portable device to play mp3s, browse the web, check e-mail, take notes, or carry it around with your shopping list on it. Portable media like this is the way of the future and its already here. WE don't have to wait 10 years to see this happen. It is already a reality.
As to the idea of Microsoft ditching Narrator for NVDA you seriously need to get a grip on reality. There are a number of reasons why that won't happen, and why it couldn't happen if they wanted to.
First, NVDA is fully open source. It would be a violation of the GPL for Microsoft to take the screen reader and sell it as a part of their commercial software. They'd have to release the source code for the screen reader, the dependencies it uses, etc which is not their style. Its just incompatible with their commercial licenses.
Second, NVDA depends on a number of open source technologies not the least of which is the Python runtime. BrilleTTY, ESpeak, and a few other components are open source which brings us right back to the first issue of license incompatibilities.
Third, NVDA is written in Python. Keep in mind Microsoft developers are trained in Visual C++, Visual C#, and Visual Basic, the Microsoft languages, so how many Microsoft developers are likely to actually know and use Python?
The point I want to make here is that they aren't trained or certified for Python. Microsoft would have to retrain their developers to work on NVDA development, and then would have to resubmit any changes back into the open source community. Microsoft will never do this willingly.
Finally, Narrator, Magnifier, and so on were in development before NVDA even existed. Microsoft already has a screen reader etc. They just need to get off their apathy and upgrade it so that it is comparable to NVDA or something else of equal quality.
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