well, when I get what I want in a timely manner, I don't worry about it. Its 
when I get substandard service, features or it takes a lot longer than it 
should to get them,, then I am one of the most complaining bastards out there. 
I make no bones about it, I expect excellence and anything less deserves 
attention to resolve.

Take, for example: the book famine for the blind. We have the same rights as 
the general public to access media, yet there are those that are fighting us 
tooth and nail because they don't want to deal with the problem. The American 
Authors ild is particularly strident on this. They won't allow the publication 
of content for the blind unless we sign up on a special registry (does anyone 
at the library have to do this just to borrow a book?).

How about the E-book consortium which is trying to get a waiver based on flimsy 
reasons (such as design modifications to the hardware, etc). Most all functions 
on these devices are in SOFTWARE and is not difficult to code for. Yet Amazon 
(and others) seek to get that waiver knowing full well they are locking out a 
non-trivial market segment.

Now apple did give us accessibility. However, that wouldn't have happened if 
these two conditions were not met:
1. we bitched to them for 4 years before they took notice
2. the blind represent the 2nd largest market segment for computer and 
smartphone technology among the disabled.

in the 1970's, the deaf demanded (and got) close captioning (which started 
showing up on TV in the early 1980's).
2. wheel chair users fought for 20 years for accessibility rights (and got them 
with the ADA in 1992).
Now, we the blind are the last to get anything and we are having to fight tooth 
and nail to get it.

My point is this: we are being put last before anyone else. We get treated like 
incompetent idiots, yelled at because they think blindness equals deafness and 
generally get disrespected in general public. If you are happy with this 
situation, fine. Just don't expect the rest of us to just lay down and accept 
it. I want whats mine and I will work to get it. If this means that I go into 
court to get what is legally mine, I will. Why be satisfied with anything less 
than what everyone else gets without even asking for it?

If anyone says I can't do a thing because of my blindness, then they had better 
stay out of my way while I prove them wrong (in the most public manner 
possible).

We have rights and its time we had them enforced. 

-eric

On Dec 18, 2013, at 2:52 AM, Krister Ekstrom wrote:

> Yeah, and it doesn’t matter if we get what we want, because then we whimper 
> and whine about the fact that we have gotten what we want, either it is too 
> late, too little, too much or just plain spoken the wrong way. I know that 
> what i now will say is gonna offend people and i apologize in advance for 
> that, but if we bash Apple accessibility and Apple decides that they don’t 
> want to have anything whatsoever to do with the blind community then it’s a 
> catastrophy that we deserve. Don’t misunderstand me, pointing to bugs and 
> things that aren’t right isn’t wrong and shall be done provided it’s done in 
> a constructive, polite and creative way, complaining serves no purpose and in 
> the long run could end up really badly for us.
> /Krister
> 
> 18 dec 2013 kl. 03:42 skrev David Tanner <david.tanner...@gmail.com>:
> 
>> Well, Robert it probably does more to hurt all blind users of Apple devices 
>> than it ever will to help make things better.  But, as I am sure you known 
>> blind people have a long history of being hateful, spiteful, not 
>> appreciating what is done for them, and constant complainers.
>> 
>> 
>> Sent from my accessible iPhone
>> 
>>> On Dec 17, 2013, at 7:53 AM, ROBERT CARTER <nc5rn...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi,
>>> 
>>> I think the idea that accessibility is less important to Apple since the 
>>> death of Steve Jobs is nothing more than pure speculation and if anyone can 
>>> prove otherwise, I would love to see the evidence. I see no value in such 
>>> comments.
>>> 
>>> Robert Carter
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Dec 17, 2013, at 7:42 AM, Scott B. <sb356...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Absolutely right.  They can talking to engineering.  But engeeniering has 
>>>> the final say.  I agree since the great Steve Jobs has passed we're 
>>>> probably not seeing as much interaction from Accessibility as people saw 
>>>> before.  To sum it up very briefly Accessibility is where you take the 
>>>> accessibility suggestions or problems.  They either act upon them y 
>>>> supporting you the person who needs help or passing it on to the 
>>>> engineering team by escalation. Please also keep in mind these are tier 2 
>>>> support personnel so they can't know everything either so be easy on these 
>>>> people.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> On 12/17/2013 03:37, Ray Foret Jr wrote:
>>>>> Of late, I have noticed complaints against the Apple accessibility team 
>>>>> as if to suggest that we are being ignored.  It seems to be the belief of 
>>>>> some that the Apple accessibility team fixes accessibility bugs and 
>>>>> problems with Voice Over.  I do not believe that this is the case.  It is 
>>>>> my belief that the Apple accessibility team has, in fact, a very limited 
>>>>> role at Apple.  Frankly, with the passing of the late great Steve Jobs, 
>>>>> that role has perhaps demenished greatly. I believe that the Apple 
>>>>> accessibility team never has had actual decision making capacity with 
>>>>> respect to actual implementation of fixes for Voice Over.  They didn’t 
>>>>> even have this power under Steve Jobs.  Unless I am very much mistaken, 
>>>>> all the accessibility team has any power to do is to forward our findings 
>>>>> over to the development teams but nothing more.  They cannot even tell us 
>>>>> whether or not our reports will be acted upon.  Now, this last is most 
>>>>> likely a part of Apple’s non disclosure policy:  however, I suspect that 
>>>>> even if this was not so, Apple’s accessibility team would not be informed 
>>>>> in any case.  In short, it seems that the only function that this 
>>>>> accessibility team has and will ever have at Apple is not much more than 
>>>>> a kind of clearing house of feedback from us blind users.  I cannot help 
>>>>> wonder how many Apple app developmental teams look at submissions from 
>>>>> the accessibility team and say to themselves, “Oh, no, not again.”.  I 
>>>>> suspect that this explains why it is that our reports seem to go unheeded.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> Sent from my Mac, the only computer with full accessibility for the blind 
>>>>> built-in!
>>>>> 
>>>>> Sincerely,
>>>>> The Constantly Barefooted Ray, still a very happy Mac and Iphone 5 user!
>>>> 
>>>> -- 
>>>> Scott Berry
>>>> Email: sb356...@gmail.com
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> ---
>>>> This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus 
>>>> protection is active.
>>>> http://www.avast.com
>>>> 
>>>> -- 
>>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
>>>> "MacVisionaries" group.
>>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
>>>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
>>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com.
>>>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
>>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
>>> "MacVisionaries" group.
>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
>>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
>>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com.
>>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
>> 
>> -- 
>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
>> "MacVisionaries" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
>> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
>> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com.
>> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
> 
> -- 
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
> "MacVisionaries" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com.
> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups 
"MacVisionaries" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email 
to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

Reply via email to