Hi Robert,
I'm not a GW staff person, but I suspect I know at least some of the
answers. IIRC, the official working with MS arrangement started just
this year, before that any cooperations were case by case. While the
new phone OS is named phone 7, they've been working on their own
phone off and on for years now and I wouldn't be surprised if the
roots of what became Windows Phone 7 were being laid out when XP was
the shiny new thing. Add to this the fact that the Phone development
unit is its own separate division much like the Xbox team and the
Zune team are their own divisions. and that each division has their
own management with their own priorities and it isn't surprising that
accessibility can be an important factor for OS developers while
hardware and mobile OS developers completely ignore it. Look at
accessibility on the Zune for example. Unless it has changed in the
last generation of players, I believe that MS's media players don't
even have any attempts at accessibility.
It is a shame and it reiterates the importance of a paradigm shift
being needed in the realm of technology accessibility. I have said
for a very long time that accessibility departments should not be
separate departments consulted after the fact or as an afterthought
in development, but should instead be educators and trainers making
sure that accessibility is integrated organically into the
development process. Aside from working better and making things much
easier on consumers who need accessibility functionality, it would
actually in the end save manufacturers and developers money since
their wouldn't need to be expensive fixes and patches. I also still
think that all technology companies need to have both their
management and product development people including all engineers and
programmers go through training where they get to use their own
products from the perspective of users who need accessibility
functions. If they had to use their product or access their website
under sleep shades, with use of only one hand, limited use of hands,
or no hands at all and with their ears plugged, they might gain a
whole new perspective. With the recent passage of new federal laws
concerning accessibility of technology, corporations need to start
thinking a lot more about how to make their products useable by the
blind, deaf and physically disabled.
OK, didn't mean to go all soap boxy, but I've been looking into
phones lately and was hoping that the Windows phone would at least be
another option even if I didn't go with it, but the fact that it not
only doesn't have a token effort towards accessibility, but doesn't
even seem to have the potential of it being added at all with the OS
as designed was quite a shock to me in this day and age.
Regards,
Chris
At 03:05 PM 11/9/2010, Robert Ringwald wrote:
Since GW Micro works with Micro Soft:
Why in the world didn't MS design the Windows 7 phone to work with
Window Eyes? That would have been beautiful.
Was GW Micro aware of the Windows 7 phone being in development?
Did you try to have any input?
Were you shut out?
Hope you can answer some of these questions
Regards,
--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
Fulton Street Jazz Band
530/ 642-9551 Office
916/ 806-9551 Cell
Amateur (Ham) Radio K6YBV
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