[laptop-accessibility] Accessbility and IBM

[Peter Korn]

Hi Hemant, Harrie,

Sorry for the delay in replying - I've been traveling and on vacation and...

Anyway, much of the information you are seeking as far as OLPC 
accessibility requirements are already captured on the OLPC wiki.  
Please see: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Accessibility for the main 
accessibility page i the wiki.  See 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines/Design_Fundamentals#Accessibility 
for suggested Sugar accessibility guidelines.


Regards,

Peter Korn
Accessibility Architect,
Sun Microsystems, Inc.

> Hi Harrie,
>
> Adding Peter Korn, Accessibility Expert at Sun Microsystems, on CC and 
> Eben Eliason, Lead UI, OLPC.
>
> I think it is definitely worth it to explore all possibilities and 
> options that we have for improving the accessibility of the laptop. 
> However at this stage I think what is required is a focus on 
> elaborating requirements of the laptop from the accessibility point of 
> view. For this, we will have to involve many experts and get their 
> views on how (existing) accessibility tools can be adapted for the 
> Sugar environment.
>
> So I think, our line of action should be first to elicit all our 
> requirements for accessibility in a structured manner for the OLPC and 
> then move forward by looking for solutions that can be used to 
> implement what we need.
>
> I am also CCing this to the accessibility list, to initiate some kind 
> of discussion that can help start off this process of listing some 
> definitive (both short and long term) goals wrt accessibility.
>
> Best,
> Hemant
>
>     On Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 12:23 PM, Harrie V. <harrievo at chello.nl
>     <mailto:harrievo at chello.nl>> wrote:
>     > Hi guys,
>     >
>     > I recently talked to IBM and one of the subjects they are
>     working on is
>     > accessibility for elderly people, disabled and visual impaired
>     people.
>     > Because of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) statement
>     they pay a
>     > lot of attention to this subject here in the Netherlands, but I
>     noticed also
>     > in other countries:
>     > http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ibmgives/grant/helping/seniornet.shtml
>     E.g. they work
>     > together with the National Center for Learning Disabilities in NY.
>     >
>     > What I downloaded from the IBM website is a screen magnifier
>     only focusing
>     > on web-browsing. But it seems there are also other possibilities
>     to work on
>     > this subject together with IBM.  The Dutch CSR director of IBM
>      told me they
>     > can deliver hard-/software, expertise and grants in exchange for an
>     > evaluation report and knowledge. I asked  if they are also
>     willing to spend
>     > time on Orca on Sugar etc. No response yet. Wouldn't it be an
>     idea to see if
>     > we can use the expertise of IBM to speed up the process and
>     combine the
>     > efforts we do?
>     >
>     > For me it's hard to determine from here the value of their
>     solution, their
>     > expertise and the possibilities of combining these two because I
>     noticed
>     > most of the work is done in the US and the communication line
>     between IBM
>     > The Netherlands and IBM US is long….
>     >
>     > But I'm very curious what your opinion is. Is this a way we need
>     to explore
>     > further or not?
>
>     Hi Harrie,
>
>     I certainly think that much more should be happening in OLPC related
>     to accessibility and everybody is welcome to join and use OLPC as a
>     mean for improving access to education regardless of any disability.
>     You will find more people with the same interest in the accessibility
>     mailing list.
>
>     Myself will try to answer any technical questions about Sugar in the
>     corresponding ml.
>
>     Good luck,
>
>     Tomeu
>

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