Re: [orca-list] My Understanding.0

[Peter Korn <Peter Korn Sun COM>]

Dear SatyaNarayana Murthy,

> On this list I found lot of discussion focusing on ubuntu linux & it
> is more accessible.
> Fedora has lot of good features but  many people are not using fedora.
> Hence I thought People in fedora community are not supporting accessibility.

I think there are (at least) three dynamics at play that lead to what we 
are experiencing as "support" or lack thereof of accessibility in the 
various UNIX and GNU/Linux distributions.

The first dynamic comes from historical trends around which UNIX/Linux 
was familiar to and comfortable for early blind adopters of the command 
line; and the extent to which any given UNIX/Linux has been approachable 
and friendly.  Going back a decade or so, the RedHat/Fedora "flavor" was 
modified early and often for command line accessibility (the "Speakup 
modified" edition).  In Europe we also saw similar work done on SuSE 
Linux (the "SuSE Blinux" edition).  On this mailing list and on others 
(more focused on command line access), experts evolved and communities 
of blind UNIX/Linux users that support eachother and themselves 
evolved.  What you experience and characterizes as good/poor support 
depends in part on which part(s) of this collection of mailing lists and 
communities you enter and first experience.  The other trend was 
typified byCanonical and Ubuntu, which emerged as a GNOME-centric Linux 
offering with a relentless focus on end-user approachability and 
friendliness.  This happened around the same time as both GNOME 2 the 
GNOME accessibility framework came into their own, and I believe Ubuntu 
was the first Linux distribution to ship with assistive technologies.  
Since Orca is a GUI-based screen reader (which also works in terminal 
windows), it makes sense that Ubuntu might seem like *the* accessible 
GNU/Linux in a first impression of this mailing list and the more 
general GNOME Accessibility mailing list.

The second dynamic comes from awareness of and penetration into the U.S. 
Federal government market, various U.S. State markets, and various U.S. 
educational institutions - all of which are impacted by Section 508 of 
the Federal Rehabilitation Act, and the accessibility standards for that 
Act as set forth by the U.S. Access Board (there are some related 
procurement pressures for accessibility in other parts of the world).  
The more any given UNIX/Linux vendor is seeking to sell into those 
markets, the more formal attention they need to pay accessibility.  As 
Sun has significant sales of Solaris and Sun hardware bundled with 
Solaris into these markets, it makes sense that Sun has a very large 
presence in UNIX/Linux accessibility - including being the maintainer of 
Orca, of the GNOME accessibility framework, of OpenOffice.org 
accessibility, and of the UNIX realization of accessibility in Firefox & 
Thunderbird & Evolution.  If I'm not mistaken, Solaris (in the form of 
the Solaris 10 release) was the first commercial UNIX/Linux distribution 
to include assistive technologies - certainly the first to include 
graphical assistive technologies like a screen reader and on-screen 
keyboard.  Another UNIX/Linux company that is significantly involved in 
sales to these markets is Novell, and we are seeing a bunch of great 
accessibility engagement from them. 

The third dynamic comes from market and sales awareness of blind users 
and other users with disabilities who are using or are seeking to use 
UNIX/Linux - at home, in school, and at work.  When there are real 
dollars to be had (or Euros or Pounds or Yen or...) in providing an 
accessibility UNIX or GNU/Linux environment, there becomes a whole lot 
more reasons and incentives for folks to pay attention and get 
involved.  For example, in Extremadura and Andalusia in Spain, the 
school systems have settled on GNU/Linux distributions that explicitly 
support accessibility and include Orca.  A year or so ago, a KDE-based 
educational application tried to get into that market, and was refused 
entry because it couldn't work with Orca and be accessible.  More 
instances like this - where market penetration is blocked due to lack of 
accessibility - will be powerful motivators for behavioral change.  
We're seeing this already quite a bit on the larger Linux stage: Adobe 
making PDF and Flash (and I expect soon AIR) work on Linux; Microsoft & 
Novell making Silverlight/Moonlight work on Linux.  Linux has become 
important enough that supporting it is critical strategically if you 
want to introduce a new and competitive web platform (especially when 
you hoping to unseat someone else already in that space).  To the extent 
that we can help make accessible UNIX/Linux a similar strategic market 
requirement, we will be in a much better place (and to that end, see the 
Novell work on Moonlight accessibility, which I blogged about last 
November at 
http://blogs.sun.com/korn/entry/microsoft_novell_announcing_work_in).


We all can help impact all three of these dynamics above.

If there is a UNIX/Linux environment you like, join the existing 
accessibility community there and learn from it and help support other 
users; or help start an accessibility community there if there isn't 
much of one yet. 

If you are at a school, or in State or Federal government (not just in 
the U.S.), ask about UNIX/Linux accessibility.  Let folks in the 
procurement and IT departments know that UNIX and GNU/Linux can be very 
accessible, so long as attention is paid in what is procured and how it 
is installed.  Give demos to show folks how efficient and productive it 
can be.  Write up your experiences in your blogs, and let the press know 
as well.

And finally, everywhere you interact with technology, make sure to let 
folks know when you are using an accessible UNIX/Linux environment that 
that is what you are doing.  There was a recent discussion on this list 
about folks using Orca and Linux to file their taxes (which I blogged 
about at http://blogs.sun.com/korn/entry/it_is_tax_day_can).  As you use 
web sites and file taxes and otherwise interact with technology, let 
folks know that you are doing so from Ubuntu or Fedora and OpenSuSE or 
Solaris; let folks know you are using Orca or GOK or Dasher or large 
print or StickyKeys.  Use the specific names of thse technologies and 
write e-mails and letters citing them.  The more we educate the rest of 
the world about the existence of these access solutions (and the 
importance of their technology being interoperable with them), the more 
we will see companies and web sites taking proactive effort to work with 
and support us.


Getting off of my soapbox now...

Peter Korn
Accessibility Architect,
Sun Microsystems, Inc.