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| − | '''GNU Accessibility Statement'''
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| − | [http://www.gnu.org| Project GNU] urges people working on free
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| − | software to follow standards and guidelines for universal
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| − | accessibility on GNU/Linux and other free operating systems.
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| − | Multi-platform projects should use the cross platform accessibility
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| − | interfaces available that include GNU/Linux distributions and the
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| − | GNOME desktop. Project GNU also advises developers of web sites to
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| − | follow the guidelines set forth by the World Wide Web Consortium's Web
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| − | Accessibility Initiative.
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| | '''Join the conversation''' | | '''Join the conversation''' |
| | <ul> | | <ul> |
| | + | <li>[http://www.gnu.org/accessibility/accessibility.html| GNU Accessibility Statement]</li> |
| | <li>[http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/accessibility| GNU accessibility mailing list]</li> | | <li>[http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/accessibility| GNU accessibility mailing list]</li> |
| | <li>[http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/Group:Accessibility| LibrePlanet accessibility group]</li> | | <li>[http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/Group:Accessibility| LibrePlanet accessibility group]</li> |
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| − | According to the United Nations in 2005, there were 600 million
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| − | people with disabilities in the world. To use computers, many of them
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| − | need special software known as “access technology”. Like
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| − | other programs, these can be free software or proprietary. Those
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| − | which are free software respect the freedom of their users; the rest,
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| − | proprietary programs, subject those users to the power of the
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| − | program's owner.
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| − | In order for access technology to work, the other software in use
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| − | must interoperate with it. The majority of computer programs and web
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| − | sites (85% in one estimate) do not comply with accessibility standards
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| − | and guidelines, so they do not work with access technology. They
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| − | provide a frustrating experience, and can bar users from job or school
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| − | activities.
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| − | Proprietary file formats that require proprietary reading programs
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| − | are poison to both accessibility and to the freedoms that we as free
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| − | software activists hope to establish. The biggest offender is Flash
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| − | format; it usually requires proprietary software that doesn't
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| − | cooperate with accessibility. Microsoft Silverlight is similar.
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| − | <acronym title="Portable Document Format">PDF</acronym> is also
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| − | difficult; though there is free software to view it, it does not
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| − | support free access technology software. GNU PDF aims to do
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| − | better.
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| − | People with disabilities deserve to have control of their own
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| − | technological destinies. When they use proprietary access technology,
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| − | they have little or no way to correct whatever is wrong with it.
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| − | Virtually all major decisions of the proprietary developers are made
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| − | by people who do not have the disability; 20 years' experience shows
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| − | that people with unusual combinations of disabilities, who require
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| − | relatively unusual software, or who encounter a bug that keeps them
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| − | from doing their job have no way to obtain the changes they need.
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| − | These products are only changed or improved when the vendors see a
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| − | business reason for doing the work; this leaves many users behind. As
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| − | a secondary problem, proprietary access software is far more expensive
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| − | than a PC. Many users cannot afford to give up their freedom in this
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| − | way.
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| − | For users with disabilities, as for all other users, free software
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| − | is the only way the users can control their own computing, their only
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| − | chance to make software fit their needs rather than passively
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| − | accepting whatever developers choose to offer them.
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| − |
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| − | Nations with large populations also have large numbers of people
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| − | with disabilities. Countries including Brazil and Russia are
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| − | discussing whether to standardize government purchases on GNU/Linux
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| − | platforms. These nations are all signatories to the UN Convention on
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| − | Human Rights and People With Disabilities, and include technology in
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| − | their agenda for providing such rights. This will require them to
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| − | hire programmers to work on accessibility software for their
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| − | populations. If it is free software, the rest of the world will be
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| − | able to use it too. The hackers who work on free access technology
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| − | will provide tools that people with disabilities can use to expand
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| − | their horizons enormously.
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| − | Ensuring that your application or web site is accessible is the
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| − | right thing to do. And it fits naturally with free software.
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| − | '''Recommendations'''
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| − | Application software developers should learn how to use the
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| − | accessibility features of the <acronym title="Integrated Development
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| − | Environment">IDE</acronym> or toolkit they employ to build their user
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| − | interface. Programmers who need to implement access technology, or
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| − | work on a desktop or OS-level accessibility problem, will need to
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| − | understand the accessibility <acronym title="Application Programming
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| − | Interface">API</acronym>, and should choose the one that is compatible
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| − | with free OS/desktops. These include the [http://library.gnome.org/devel/accessibility-devel-guide/stable/index.html.en| GNOME accessibility API]
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| − | (GNU/Linux platforms only), the [http://java.sun.com/javase/technologies/accessibility/docs/jaccess-1.3/doc/core-api.html| Java accessibility API] (GNU/Linux and
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| − | Windows) and [http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/accessibility/iaccessible2| iAccessible2] (GNU/Linux and Windows).
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| − | <ul>
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| − | <li>Web developers should follow the [http://www.w3c.org/wai| W3C web accessibility guidelines]
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| − | and, for complex web applications, the developers should follow the [http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/aria| Accessible Rich
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| − | Internet Applications ARIA standard.]</li>
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| − | <li>[http://www.standards-schmandards.com/projects/fangs/| FANGS]
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| − | enables web developers to see how a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader| screen reader]
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| − | will handle the web pages they are developing.</li>
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| − | <li>[http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html| Nontrivial Javascript code distributed to the user]
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| − | should be free software.</li>
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| − | <li> Please don't [http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html| invite users] to
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| − | do something on a server that they could conceivably do on their own computers.] </li>
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| − | </ul>
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