Re: [libreplanet-discuss] We need a Great campaign To tell the programmers to improve their programs To work well with the screen Reader

[Alejandro Soto]

El 23/03/2016 a las 16:49, Andrés Muñiz Piniella escribió:
> * A recent survey from webAIM https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebAIM showed 
> that it seems  that JAWS is loosing market share to nvda but of course that 
> only works on windows.
Someone needs to port NVDA to other platforms other than Windows. I'm 
sorry to say it, but from own experience, and that from other 
partly-sighted/blind users, Orca could do much better.
> Then it seems that blind is a spectrum and that 97% of people that are blind in 
> UK can acutually see a bit so screen readers might not be needed but better 
> font contrast.
According to the World Health Organization 
(http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/), there are 246 
million people with low vision and 39 million are completely blind 
worldwide. That's ~13.6% of the "visual issues spectrum". However, I can 
say, mostly from my own personal experiences, that for some fairly 
common visual diseases, such as Retinitis Pigmentosa, that high contrast 
levels, big fonts, etc... hardly ever make a difference. For quite a few 
of us, screen readers are the only way to use GUIs... but us geeks who 
know how to use bash can easily get around that ;). It's a bit ironic 
that good and old command lines are incredibly more accessible than any 
other form of user interface that has been invented since. I mean, emacs 
is our best friend for some reason, no? I would definitively call emacs 
the most accessible _and_ flexible application ever, plus it's free 
software!
> Does this mean that what most people use is the web so that programs 
> (applications) is really not as big an issue (urgent)? And the focus of a 
> campaign should be aimed at web?
Again, let's not generalize. Even if there was a single blind person in 
the world, his/her needs would be a priority. Applications _are_ a 
problem, and a bigger one that the web. That is for several reasons. 
Firstly, the browser itself is an application, no? Then, when your 
screen reader is unable to navigate through Gmail's web page, you 
install Thunderbird, right? Well, then we have the fact that the OS' GUI 
itself is sort of an application. It needs to be accessible, too! We 
have to write documents and spreadsheets for work and the stuff, too. 
Things such as LibreOffice have a _long_ way to go in order to be 
accessible... emacs is enough most of the time, anyway ;). There are 
lots of niche applications we often need to use, like every user, and 
need to rely on them being accessible.

A campaign or some support of the like would certainly be helpful. As 
far as I can see, most people here are here because they appreciate 
their fundamental freedoms, and because they are willing to help. I am a 
(hobbyist) programmer, so I am definitively willing to help here as 
however I can.

Cheers,
 - Alejandro Soto