[NFBCS] Feedback Request

[Brian Buhrow]

	hello.  I'll write more later about this, but I want to stress that this discussion and
project is not clogging up the nfbcs list.  This is exactly on topic, relatively speaking, for
this list.  
	And, actually, this discussion illustrates the point and challenge of a project like this.
Everyone who has contributed that I've seen so far has brought an interesting perspective, and,
often, another wrinkle in the problem of access.  And, as often happens, it comes out that many
of the issues facing blind workers, computer users, citizens, blind folks in general, are
social issues.  There are technical issues, but they usually end up being secondary to social
issues.  I'm not saying that the technical issues aren't real and that they shouldn't be
addressed, but my observation is that the social  issues get discussed a lot more thoroughly
than do the technical issues.

	For example, I've come to the conclusion that the term "not accessible" is virtually
meaningless for describing an actual problem with a web site, application or other digital
system.  It doesn't convey how broken that site, system or aplication is or even if  the site
is, in fact broken.  What it says is that the speaker couldn't make it work, for some unknown
reason.  That doesn't mean the speaker is wrong, just that when you're having a discussion
about a site, system or application that's "not accessible", unless the speaker is willing to
be more detailed about what is wrong and what doesn't work, the discussion cannot continue from
that point.
	And there in lies the challenge of a project of this type.  The solution to any technical
problem, for that matter, most problems in life, is nuanced and not straightforward, for
various reasons.  In the computing arena, this nuance is magnefied significantly by virtue of
the fact that technology is changing so quickly that any proposed solution to a specific
accessibility issue is likely to go stale after some relatively short period of time.  I like
Ty's idea of making a wiki, which consists mostly, of links to outside resources that might
point out accessibility tricks for various computing technologies.  Even better would be if we
could figure out why the archives of this list are no longer searchable via Google.  They wer
very searchable via Google at one time, but that ceased working around 2017, or so.  The reason
is that most people find solutions to problems by interacting with others in relative real
time.  The archives of this list are chalk full of accessibility tips and tricks for a host of
computing technologies and answers to a thousand questions.  Yes,some of them are dated, but
many are still relevant today, if we could only find them.

	If there is interest in a computer science based project for the NFB in Computer Science,
one good candidate would be either to figure out how to get Google to index this list again, or
to take the existing archives and make a web page that lets you conduct searches of those
archives that actually yield results.
	this is not intended to detract from the project that Tyler is spearheading, but to
augment it.  As the president of the NFB in Computer Science, I support this project, and we'd
like to figure out ways to make it even more useful.  And, more useful in my mind means
something that is easy to maintain relative to what everyone is doing now, but which provides
more functionality than we currently have.  Some might view e-mail as an antiquated way to
communicate, but it is still the best tool for reaching all kinds of folks where ever they are.
And this isn't just true of blind folks.  In my day job, and this has been true for decades, it
is the case that most of the IT infrastructure could fall off a cliff and people are annoyed,
but not frantic.  However, if e-mail stops working, then the world is going to explode and it
must be fixed pronto!  In other words, e-mail is like the food of the Internet; old, simple,
but absolutely vital to everyone all the time!  To that end, it would be good to be able to
leverage the resource we already have, this list, to a greater extent than we already do.  In
that way, we can continue to enjoy solutions and questions for as wide an audience as possible.

-thanks
-Brian