Mail Archives: opendos/1997/02/04/11:05:29
On Sun, 2 Feb 1997 jdashiel AT eagle1 DOT eaglenet DOT com wrote:
> If you give the program away very likely not a problem if you sell it
> though
> that makes a business transaction and and because it's a business
> transaction
> all services offered to the
> general public in the U.S. must also accommodate the handicapped except
> in cases of economic frustration. Very difficult to prove
> economic frustration though. The Congress got tired of hearing about
> these problems and came up with that law.
> Likely there will be precedent for technical frustration set under the
> A.D.A.
> and Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and ammendments but I'd want that to be a
> very tight doorway. With stuff as it has stood, in the Reagan
> administration
> 76% of working aged blind people had never had gainful employment; 12%
> were able only to have part-time or seasonal work, and the other
> 12% had the full-time jobs. I understand this picture hasn't improved
> much
> since then either.
I still don't buy it. I think that you're interpreting the laws
in the wrong way. Lets say that I make a program, a TSR that is
a popup calculator/addressbook/etc. I want this TSR to be really
small so that it doesn't eat up a bunch of memory. Lets say my
finished program has a 64k memory footprint. This program uses
direct access to video memory and unfortunately doesn't work with
handicapped people's software. If I put in support, the TSR goes
to a 96k footprint and no longer fits in a 64k segment, and runs
slower. This causes ample technical problems, as well as making
my other users unhappy. Who wants to load a 96k EXE file as a
TSR?????
I could come up with countless other examples too. I'm not
arguing that supporting the handicapped shouldn't be done, just
that it can't ALWAYS be done, and if it degrades a product to the
point where it causes other problems, then it shouldn't be done,
or if possible 2 versions could *NOT SHOULD*, but *COULD* be
made.
Ever seen DOOM for the handicapped?
A business transaction and a computer program are 2 different
things. Either way, I live in Canada and our laws aren't the
same. When I code ANY program, I'm coding for ME personally!
Sometimes I decide to let other people use my program too.
Sometimes I decide to sell my programs. This is on an AS-IS
basis. If someone can't use it because they are handicapped and
my program doesn't work with their programs, then they should get
new programs that scan video memory. It is NOT technically
impossible either as that is how DOORWAY does it.
This thread is really quite pointless to me, and is becoming more
of a negative thing. I find it isn't going anywhere either so
I'm not going to pursue it any further.
In summary all I can say is: When writing programs, I just write
them. I suggest others do the same. Also, if it is easily done,
and doesn't come with much penalty, it will pay to support people
with accessibility problems. Not only does it look good, but it
is the right thing to do. Don't feel forced to follow my opinion
however.
I strongly doubt that there are companies out there that are
purposefully making their programs difficult to use for the
handicapped. That would be cruel.
Well, lets end this thread now, agreed?
TTYL
Mike A. Harris | http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris
Computer Consultant | My webpage has moved and my address has changed.
My dynamic address: http://blackwidow.saultc.on.ca/~mharris/ip-address.html
mailto:mharris AT blackwidow DOT saultc DOT on DOT ca
Question: Does anyone know how to get talk to work in Linux?
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