[stylist] MS and Windows

[Bridgit Pollpeter]

Donna,

Of course not. Sighted people may struggle with the product itself, but
they never have to wait for or muddle through accessibility issues.

The marginalized are always forgotten. When I was sighted, I never
thought about stuff like this, but I also knew very few disabled people,
and none of them blind. I have a great-aunt who has been deaf since the
age of 14, and her husband was deaf, but they never spoke about
accessibility or equality issues and never really addressed anything
about disability.

So once I became blind, of course this whole world opened up. Perhaps
that's the wrong analogy because it wasn't a good world.

More and more attention is given to this issue by the Federation and a
few other groups, but no one seems to ever think it all that important.
I heard someone say this recently, and it may be cynical, but it does
seem to ring true: until a big-wig loses sight or has someone dear to
them lose sight, little will be accomplished in terms of accessibility
for all people.

I know we are not suppose to say this, but sometimes I wish I could just
see again because life would be simpler, sigh.

Whoops, will I be censured for this? Smirk.

Bridgit
Message: 2
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2013 16:06:10 -0400
From: "Donna Hill" <penatwork at epix.net>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] MS and Windows
Message-ID: <D9F4E1E12DCD429BB2BDB7CEA1B3D492 at OwnerHP>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Bridgit,
I use Windows 7 & Office 2010 with Jaws 12. I found out from FS support
that Jaws didn't even start supporting Office 2010 until the very end of
Jaws 12. In fact, I didn't have the most recent version, & Jaws "Check
for Updates" never found it for me. I had to get FS to do it. Things are
a little better, and I have a demo version of Jaws 14, which makes a
significant difference in Word's Styles menu, but isn't quite there yet.
At least there aren't ten things just labeled Toolbar.

Do you think normal people have the stamina to struggle through with
stuff like this like blind people do routinely? Donna