On 4/27/06, M. Fioretti <mfioretti@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Thu, Apr 27, 2006 21:28:30 PM -0800, Kam Leo (kam.leo@xxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> Mr. Fioretti should take his advocacy to the Gnome, KDE, and UI developers.
>
> Red Hat and Novell already have to comply with the Americans with
> Disabilities Act.
>
> Does anyone know if the EU has an equivalent law that applies to Mandriva?
Thanks for your comments. However:
1) first of all, it doesn't matter where a company is based, only
where it wants to sell its products. If Mandriva wants to sell in
USA, or Red Hat in EU (to public administrations) they have to make
sure they comply with the local rules. On top of that, blind USA
users are just equal, in this context, to blind users from EU, Fiji
Islands or anywhere else, so the solution must be the same.So,
eventually it *is* a worldwide issue, it doesn't make much sense to
look at it on a country by country basis.
2) I agree that it is an UI (= KDE, Gnome...) and file formats
question, but:
a) corporations are already working at that level, see groklaw link
in my open letter.
b) my proposals are more addressed to single LUGS and/or individual
FOSS advocates. FOSS can become as accessible as you want, but if
the first reaction a disabled user gets when he asks for support or
complains are like Mike's one, or the many similar others the
article has got... there's no amount of UI work that will make the
mass of disabled users switch to FOSS, or not oppose its adoption
in the public sector.
Ciao,
Marco Fioretti
--
Marco Fioretti mfioretti, at the server mclink.it
Fedora Core 3 for low memory http://www.rule-project.org/
Furious activity is no substitute for understanding. -- H.H. Williams
Where are you getting your poor opinion about LUGs? My LUG and its
sponsor has never turned away anyone.
