On 02/06/2019 01:10, mhysnm1...@gmail.com wrote: > What I do not know, how this applies to open source. If there is no > commercial transaction. Then this is the area I am unsure if any of the laws > I am indirectly referring to impact.
Caveat: I am not a lawyer... I know it has a big impact on commercial software but that has some potential return on investment in terms of increased market share. For open source it is hard to see the return and the most likely scenario would be to greatly reduce the availability of such software. Consider the potential impact of applying such requirements to open source or other "free" software. This would potentially mean that any software that was shared or distributed in any way would need to comply. That would include a bit of code I knocked together for my own benefit and my friend wanted to get a copy. I've got to say, sorry I need to make it accessible first... now consider that my friend and I are working on some scientific research, maybe even medical research into treatments for blindness or cancer or whatever. Now I can't share my research tools with other researchers because I lack the time and or knowledge to convert the software to be accessible. The implications are that a lot of software would never see the light of day regardless of the potential benefits it could deliver. It would be a foolish law which prevented (or even substantially delayed) progress in the name of making all software accessible. It would also be very difficult to enforce since you would need to either prohibit the sharing of all non-accessible software or somehow, arbitrarily, define what constitutes regulated "distribution". Legislating for commercial distribution is much easier and more justifiable since profits are available to pay for the extra effort/costs. Where no profit exists then distribution is much less easily defined; it would be a legal minefield I suspect. > Anyway, this is getting off scope. Just highlighting > so people are aware. Accessibility is a part of best practice > for UX, UI and development. Indeed, and in an ideal world all of the building blocks would incorporate it at the foundation level. Unfortunately we are a long way from that. Also, in most cases the supporting hardware is not readily available to deliver the potential accessibility options that could be provided. It is very difficult to write software for features that you cannot test (think cursor control via blow tube or eye movement or command input by tones. All possible now but need specialist kit which individual developers won't have.) It is hard enough testing software for all the "standard" forms of input - mice, pens, touch screens, keyboards, voice, etc.... -- Alan G Author of the Learn to Program web site http://www.alan-g.me.uk/ http://www.amazon.com/author/alan_gauld Follow my photo-blog on Flickr at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alangauldphotos _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
