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

Jim Gettys jg at laptop.org
Sun Nov 30 14:50:01 EST 2008


On Sun, 2008-11-30 at 12:20 -0500, gabey8 at aol.com wrote:
> Sorry. I should have clarified that I installed AccessX on my XO,
> using the instructions on the OLPC Wiki page, when I was still running
> the previous build of Sugar. But when I upgraded, all the things I
> installed manually on the XO got wiped out. This thread reminds me
> that I'll have to reinstall AccessX. 
> 

Yes, sorry about that; we plan to fix that in a future release...
                - Jim

> 
> ----
> Visit Gabey's Place today. :-)
> 
> My blog for the final year of the Spectrum: The Final Countdown
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David K Parker <davparker at gmail.com>
> To: Discussion of accessibility on the OLPC
> <accessibility at lists.laptop.org>
> Sent: Sun, 30 Nov 2008 1:46 am
> Subject: Re: [laptop-accessibility] Advocacy for Elevated Disability
> Inclusion: Next Steps?
> 
> So now I'm really getting mixed messages. Does the XO come with
> AccessX preloaded or not? If it does, does it get lost after upgrading
> the OS?
> 
> On Sat, Nov 29, 2008 at 2:23 PM, <gabey8 at aol.com> wrote:
>         TheOLPC Wiki has a page on AccessX.
>         http://wiki.laptop.org/go/AccessX 
>         
>         I had AccessX installed on my XO, prior to upgrading to the
>         current build ot Sugar. This discussion thread has reminded me
>         that I need to reinstall it.
>         
>         
>         Donna M.
>         
>         ----
>         Visit Gabey's Place today. :-)
>         
>         My blog for the final year of the Spectrum: The Final
>         Countdown
>         
>         
>         
>         
>         
>         -----Original Message-----
>         From: David K Parker <davparker at gmail.com>
>         To: jg at laptop.org; Discussion of accessibility on the OLPC
>         <accessibility at lists.laptop.org>
>         Sent: Fri, 28 Nov 2008 9:11 pm
>         Subject: Re: [laptop-accessibility] Advocacy for Elevated
>         Disability Inclusion: Next Steps?
>         
>         Well its refreshing to hear that their are such good people
>         working to build accessibility features into the XO laptop.
>         All I can say is thank god for open source software and open
>         source programmers. I still find it hard to accept that
>         designing accessibility features into the laptop from the
>         outset met with opposition from the leadership. Especially
>         basic, simple, tried and true software like AccessX. The motto
>         truly should be "One Laptop per Child" and not "One Laptop per
>         Child except those with disabilities". I may donate this year
>         because of efforts by the good people here.  
>         
>         
>         I'm still a little upset, as I've been in computing all my
>         adult life, in spite of having lost my hands as a child.
>         AccessX has been available since the DOS days. Every version
>         of Linux and Windows I've ever use had this feature available.
>         It sure has made it easier for me to get ahead. I'm now a
>         network administrator. I was pretty incensed when I learned
>         that this project excluded any software that would allow kids
>         to overcome simple keyboarding issues.
>         
>         
>         I still say some wording about accessibility needs to be added
>         to this projects mission statement.
>         
>         
>         Thanks,
>         David
>         
>         On Fri, Nov 28, 2008 at 4:12 PM, Jim Gettys <jg at laptop.org>
>         wrote:
>                 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
>                 >
>                 >
>                 _______________________________________________
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>                 >         accessibility at lists.laptop.org
>                 >
>                 http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility
>                 >
>                 >
>                 > _______________________________________________
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>                 > accessibility at lists.laptop.org
>                 > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/accessibility
>                 
>                 --
>                 Jim Gettys <jg at laptop.org>
>                 One Laptop Per Child
>                 
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-- 
Jim Gettys <jg at laptop.org>
One Laptop Per Child



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