[Accessibility] FSG102 Document Part 1 Section A working copy
Sharon D Snider
snidersd at us.ibm.com
Wed Jul 16 11:25:54 PDT 2003
Sharon Snider
Linux Accessibility, and Information Development
IBM Linux Technology Services
(512) 838-4127, T/L 678-4127
----- Forwarded by Sharon D Snider/Austin/IBM on 07/16/2003 01:29 PM -----
Sharon D Snider
To: janina at rednote.net
07/15/2003 04:20 cc:
PM From: Sharon D Snider/Austin/IBM at IBMUS
Subject: Re: [Accessibility] FSG102 Document Part 1 Section A working copy
Janina,
I reviewed part 1, section A of the FSG102 and have provided a slightly
rewritten version below. I plan to continue to review and provide comments
as time permits on as many sections as I can.
Regards,
Sharon Snider
Linux Accessibility, and Information Development
IBM Linux Technology Services
(512) 838-4127, T/L 678-4127
----- Forwarded by Sharon D Snider/Austin/IBM on 07/15/2003 02:45 PM -----
Janina Sajka
<janina at rednote.net> To: accessibility at freestandards.org
Sent by: cc:
accessibility-admin at freest Subject: Re: [Accessibility] FSG102 Document Part 1 Section A working copy
andards.org
07/15/2003 08:36 AM
a. A general description of the current problem, from as many
perspectives (user, developer, etc.) as a standard might help.
People with disabilities may be excluded from participating in the
benefits that technology provides because there is a lack of appropriate
technological accomodations. However, it has been proven that properly
designed assistive technologies (AT) are capable of delivering unparalleled
benefits to disabled users that usually have no other viable alternative.
Assistive technologies can:
*provide the means for individuals who do not have
the use of their arms and hands the abilitity to write and correspond.
Often user interfaces programmatically prevent these users from performing
important tasks by not providing mouse and keyboard alternatives.
*enable individuals who who are blind or visually impaired the ability to
read
online text. Often user interfaces programmatically prevent or severely
encumber the users
ability to read and traverse the screen by supporting only iconic and mouse
driven user interfaces.
*provide text to speech voice output for individuals who
cannot speak. Lack of the appropriate speech recognition based interfacing
can prevent the individual's full participation.
In the vast majority of circumstances the appropriate accommodations to
support users with disabilities are known and documented.Many needless
barriers can be
eliminated on the entry level
by programmatically providing the appropriate contextual information
to both the application and system services via well-defined standards of
practice
and adherence to those standards.
In addition, standards facilitate the creation and distribution of
assistive/adaptive technologies and user agents appropriate to a range
of end-user abilities and ensure that applications and system
services operate in cooperation, rather than in conflict, with such
technologies.
The accessibility workgroup proposes to provide the standards and best
practices
guidance for the implementation of consistent and robust user support for
individuals
with disabilities across any and all platforms that implement free and
open standards.
Currently, the free and open source platforms have many graphical user
interface (GUI)
applications that are inaccessible to users who are blind, have
severely impaired vision, or live with mobility impairments that prevent
them from
using their arms and hands. Only a very few,
rudimentary assistive technologies exist for the GUI desktop
environment. Application developers may not have the
expertise needed to write accessible applications that meet the
requirements of users with disabilities.
At present there is not a standard toolkit for meeting these these
requirements.
Assistive technology developers are expected to have the expertise needed
to meet these user
requirements. However, the developers must have standard API level support
that provides the
information required for assistive technologies to run properly on all
applications.
The heterogeneous nature of toolkits, component inter
process communication models, libraries, and applications can make the
development of robust and effective assistive technologies difficult, at
best. Without standards and binary interface components:
*Users with various disabilities can not effectively use the system.
*systems do not meet legal requirements (which hampers marketing
of free standards based systems).
*developers cannot consistently write accessible applications.
*comprehensive and consistent platform services that support
accessibility do not exist.
*assistive technology developers cannot create assistive technologies
for free standards platforms.
*the lack of standardization prevents leveraging the existing work, sharing
of expertise, and reduces the value of individual contributions.
______________________________________________________________________________________
--
Without appropriate technological accommodations, persons with
disabilities are excluded from participating in the benefits that
technology provides. Yet appropriately designed technology has proven
capable of delivering unparalleled benefit to disabled users--benefits
for which these individuals usually have no other good alternatives:
*Whereas technology can provide the means for individuals who have not
the use of their arms and hands to write and correspond, it can also
prevent them from doing so if no alternative to using a mouse is
supported,
* Whereas technology can enable those who have not the use of
their eyes to read online text, it can prevent or severely encumber their
ability to do so by supporting only iconic and mouse driven user
interfaces,
* Whereas a device may give voice to the words of someone who
cannot speak, technology can also prevent that individual's
participation if no alternative to speech recognition based interfacing
is provided.
In the vast majority of circumstances the appropriate accommodations to
support users with disabilities are known and documented.
Providing the appropriate contextual information, both application and
system services via well-defined standards, and adherence to clearly
defined standards of practice will remove needless barriers to
entry.Standards will facilitate the creation and distribution of
assistive/adaptive technologies and user agents appropriate to a range
of end-user abilities. They will ensure that applications and system
services operate in cooperation with, rather than in conflict with, such
technologies.
We propose to provide the standards and best practices guidance that
will
support the implementation of consistent and robust support for users
with disabilities across any and all platforms that implement free and
open standards.
As things stand on free and open source platforms today, many (if not
most) applications are inaccessible to users who are blind, have
severely impaired vision, or live with conditions that prevent them from
using their arms and hands as most persons do. Only a very few,
rudimentary assistive technologies exist for the GUI desktop
environment. Application developers, who cannot be expected to have
expertise concerning supporting users with disabilities, have no means
of meeting application accessibility requirements because there is no
standard toolkit for meeting these requirements. Assistive technology
developers, who are expected to have expertise in meeting these user
requirements, have no standard API level support suitable for obtaining
the information assistive technologies require concerning running
applications. The heterogeneous nature of toolkits, component inter
process communication models, libraries, and applications makes the
development of robust and effective assistive technologies difficult, at
best, without such standards and binary interface components:
* Users with various disabilities can not effectively use the
system;
* systems do not meet legal requirements (which hampers
marketers
of free standards based systems);
* developers cannot make their apps accessible in a consistent
manner;
* Comprehensive and consistent platform services to support
accessibility do not exist;
* Assistive technology developers cannot create assistive technologies
for free standards platforms.
* The lack of standardization prevents leveraging prior art, > sharing
of expertise, and reduces the value of individual contributions.
Janina Sajka, Director
Technology Research and
Development
Governmental Relations
Group
American Foundation for
the Blind (AFB)
Email: janina at afb.net Phone: (202) 408-8175
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