“As many as 500 million people worldwide have disabilities
that are impacted by inaccessible software design. If you’re
developing software for Linux, take a moment to read this article
and learn how to make software more accessible for people with
limited vision, hearing and dexterity.“
“Linux (and free software in general) is about social justice.
If you don’t believe this assertion, just ask the growing numbers
of Linux users in impoverished countries. In some countries, the
cost of a personal computer, operating system and a commercial
office suite exceeds the per capita annual income. Projects such as
KDE, the K Office suite, GNOME, Gnumeric and Abiword promise to
bring computer technology to people and communities who might not
otherwise have the means to afford it. Still, the Linux community
could be doing a better job of addressing the needs of another
disadvantaged community: people with disabilities. And we’re not
talking about small numbers here. According to a recent Microsoft
estimate, as many as 30 million U.S. citizens and half a billion
people worldwide have physical or cognitive disabilities that limit
their use of inaccessibly designed computer systems.”
“Here’s an area in which Microsoft has established a commanding
lead. In 1995, following several years of internal
consciousness-raising by accessibility champion Greg Lowney, a
former Windows project manager, Microsoft announced a formal
corporate policy of taking responsibility for the accessibility of
its products. You’ll learn more about the results of this policy as
you read what follows, but let me make my point up front. Although
Microsoft deserves unstinting praise for its leadership in this
area, there’s an argument (and, I think, a very important and
convincing one) that the interests of people with disabilities
aren’t well-served by a market that gives them no genuine
alternative to Microsoft products. A critical analysis of
Microsoft’s accessibility initiatives discloses that they are not
entirely altruistic; in fact, they fit very neatly into Microsoft’s
ambitions to acquire near-total dominance of the PC operating
system market. What’s more, Microsoft’s efforts to draw communities
of people with disabilities into a Microsoft-only world could
serve, in the end, to discourage the development of revolutionary
new assistive technologies that rely on a looser coupling between
the operating system, window manager, and desktop environment –
precisely the technical advantage that Linux provides.”