Respected Sir/Ma'am, I am writing to the Debian accessibility community regarding functional accessibility of Debian as a foundation for inclusive open-source computing.
I am a practising Advocate in India and a professional user of assistive technology. I strongly support open-source and Linux technology and believe that migration towards open technology should be expedited. My concern is that accessibility must advance faster than the migration itself. Debian's existing accessibility work provides an important foundation. I would like to raise the broader question of whether accessibility validation can increasingly be approached at the level of complete professional workflows rather than individual components. For a blind user, the relevant environment may involve the operating system, desktop environment, accessibility framework, screen reader, office and PDF applications, browser, authentication and other software. Individual components may function correctly while the complete workflow remains inaccessible. I respectfully suggest that repeatable functional testing by actual users with disabilities could therefore complement component-level accessibility testing, including test scenarios reflecting professional and institutional work. I would also encourage consideration of persons with disabilities as participants in testing, development, administration, research and contribution, rather than solely as recipients of accessibility features. I would be grateful for any views from the Debian accessibility community on how this broader approach could be developed within Debian and in cooperation with upstream projects. Yours faithfully, Arpit Jain Advocate Mobile: +91-9411162842 India
