[laptop-accessibility] Advocacy for Elevated Disability Inclusion: Next Steps?

Jim Gettys jg at laptop.org
Fri Nov 28 17:12:58 EST 2008


Boy, today isn't my day to remember everything at once.

The other sugar issue some of the new widgets (in addition to the
standard GTK+ ones that already have full at-spi supprt) may still be
lacking at-spi support.

Check with Marco or Tomeo on the Sugar list to see.

Help gratefully accepted, if you are a programmer.
                      - Jim


On Fri, 2008-11-28 at 13:12 -0600, David K Parker wrote:
> I thought that this was the forum for voicing our concerns to the
> OLPC. Are they purposely insulating themselves from opinions on how to
> improve their product? I was set to buy a couple of these laptops to
> donate at Christmas, but can no longer bring myself to support an
> organization that is so negligent towards supporting children with
> disabilities. It's almost as if they went through pains to purposely
> exclude simple features that would make their devices more accessible,
> such as sticky keys and mouse keys. At the very least, they are
> negligent for giving so little consideration to kids with
> disabilities.
> 
> 
> David
> 
> On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 7:07 AM, Andrea Shettle <ashettle at patriot.net>
> wrote:
>         Given the recent discussions on this list criticizing OLPC for
>         not
>         putting higher priority on the needs of children with
>         disabilities FROM
>         THE BEGINNING, I'd like to make a few comments and ask some
>         questions,
>         either for the list at wide or for any individual who is in
>         the
>         strongest position to answer:
>         
>         1. If OLPC's excuse for not putting disability access at
>         higher
>         priority from an earlier stage is, "the customers haven't
>         asked for it
>         yet" then I think that is a weak excuse.  Any time one
>         discusses
>         disability inclusion, one must be sensitive to the fact that
>         people
>         with disabilities are already so profoundly marginalized and
>         excluded
>         that they very rarely have chances to really make themselves
>         heard in
>         society EVEN IN societies like the US where we have laws that
>         help
>         empower us (like the Americans with Disabilities Act ... or
>         the
>         equivalent Disability Discrimination Act for people in the UK
>         etc).
>         The NEED can be there and can be very extreme and still simply
>         not be
>         heard at the highest levels because the people with decision
>         making
>         power don't even SEE or HEAR people with disabilities, must
>         less seek
>         out their input.  And the people with disabilities are denied
>         the
>         opportunities they need to MAKE high-level personnel listen to
>         them.
>         
>         If we wait for the country governments buying the computers to
>         *ask*
>         for disability access before this becomes a priority, then
>         this is
>         putting disabled children in the very unfair position of
>         waiting for a
>         very long time before their needs are put on an equal footing
>         with
>         everyone else.  I think OLPC should be taking more
>         responsibility for
>         considering the needs not only of those who can speak for
>         themselves in
>         an articulate and coordinated fashion (and thus be heard by
>         the
>         high-level decision makers in developing countries who
>         actually pay for
>         the XOs) but also the needs of those who are too isolated from
>         each
>         other to be able to put forth a unified, strong voice at this
>         time.
>         
>         
>         2. Those of us who are making complaints like this one are
>         currently
>         preaching to the choir: we wouldn't be on this list if we
>         didn't
>         already support the idea of accessibility features for ALL
>         children
>         using the XO laptops.  What we really need is for people with
>         key
>         decision making power within OLPC (I don't necessarily mean
>         Negroponte
>         himself, but people who at least are in a position to shape
>         and
>         implement the stated vision and mission of OLPC).
>         
>         Is there anyone meeting this description already in this
>         list?  If not,
>         then all this complaining among ourselves about the low
>         priority OLPC
>         has put on disability access will accomplish little.  Indeed,
>         the work
>         that some members are trying to do to figure out how to make
>         the XO
>         more accessible, design new software, etc., will itself
>         accomplish
>         little if the OLPC as a whole does not put high enough
>         priority on
>         actually USING the innovations created by our more skilled,
>         hard
>         working participants (not me, alas, because I barely even
>         *understand*
>         some of the more technical discussions on this list!).
>         
>         
>         All the above leads to this point:
>         
>         3. Perhaps rather than simply complaining among ourselves, or
>         working
>         in isolation from the overarching OLPC project on
>         accessibility
>         concerns, we should discuss how we can work together to
>         ADVOCATE within
>         OLPC to put higher priority on accessibility concerns.
>         
>         If there is anyone on this list who has been in some way in
>         close
>         contact with decision-making personnel within OLPC, or who
>         simply have
>         more knowledge how things work from the inside, then your
>         input would
>         be greatly welcomed.
>         
>         If we on this list who share an interest in influencing OLPC's
>         disability inclusion policy can pull together and work out a
>         strategy,
>         then I would be happy to post a Call To Action at my blog
>         (http://wecando.wordpress.com) for whatever small help that
>         would
>         provide in bringing attention to the cause.  (My blog is
>         targeted at
>         people with disabilities in developing countries and their
>         allies
>         around the world, including international development
>         professionals.)
>         
>         If there is enough interest in coordinating some kind of
>         advocacy
>         campaign targeted at OLPC, then we could consider creating a
>         spin-off
>         mailing list devoted to that purpose, in order to allow this
>         list to
>         retain its focus on the more technical aspects of
>         accessibility.
>         
>         Andrea Shettle, MSW
>         ashettle at patriot.net
>         wecando.wordpress.com
>         
>         _______________________________________________
>         accessibility mailing list
>         accessibility at lists.laptop.org
>         http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility
> 
> 
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-- 
Jim Gettys <jg at laptop.org>
One Laptop Per Child



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