Hi,
I agree with this. I'd rather have stability and access to universal
technologies, just my opinion.
Thanks.
Dave.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org
[mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew
Hodgson
Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 3:19 AM
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Anyone else noticing Cisco becoming less and
less accessible?
Hi,
I use a couple of newer Cisco products which don't use Java, including the
CSA agents, the Cisco secure ACS (which has a strange Java page to log into
the system but after that is plain HTML), and some of the Call manager work
I need to do is also in plain HTML. I think the newer versions of Call
manager are also in plain HTML.
As I have said before, it is a trend of a lot of network provider gear to
use the newer web standards, to make their apps seem as though you are using
a real application. For example, a product we use for network logging is
done completely in a Java application, and thus is completely inaccessible
to me.
I, like you, feel that the screen reader manufacturers should be pushing a
lot harder for access to this, I can't honestly see a reason why this has
gone relatively unnoticed for so long. Software houses like FS and the like
seem quite happy to add new features to Jaws like dictionary lookups etc,
yet we still don't have access to some of the fundamental technologies.
Thanks.
Andrew.
Andrew Hodgson
Senior Systems Administrator/Projects Engineer
Direct Line Tel: 01432 852332
Email: andrew.hodgson@allpay.net
Please do not print this email unless absolutely necessary.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org
[mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Ryan
Shugart
Sent: 24 September 2009 07:18
To: Blind sysadmins list
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Anyone else noticing Cisco becoming less
andlessaccessible?
I'm not sure 508 will help us here. In my experience with dealing with
government agencies, most of them don't understand section 508 themselves,
and the few that do, on the organizational level, look at it as something to
be worked around, not complied with. There are a lot of good people who do
take 508 seriously, but my experience is they're just lost in the wind.
On the specific topic of Cisco, my company just deployed Cisco's
Anyconnect VPN, and that's perfectly accessible. Its all web based, the
pages are very basic HTML, there is a Java or ActiveX plugin to handle the
actual VPN and network traffic, but it has no UI and everything's HTML
based. So some Cisco products work, and as far as VPNs go Any Connect seems
to be the wave of the future, as I don't think the standard VPN client will
work on X64 based systems.
As to the problem of the web site and such using Java, this brings
up a good question. Should we tell Cisco to not use Java or any of these
newer standards because they're inaccessible, or should we make the newer
standards accessible? Java accessibility in particular is a joke. For a
platform that's been in wide spread use for at least ten years, if not
fifteen, it should be much more widely used. Both leading screen readers
have very bad Java support. I honestly don't know if this is the fault of
the screen reader vendors, Sun or the Java programmers, but unless Cisco's
Java isn't using the accessibility standards, its not Cisco's fault their
site and downloads are inaccessible, its either the screen reader vendors or
Sun's. Again I don't know whose fault that is, I'm just saying the answer
to this isn't to push Cisco to stop using these newer technologies, its to
push the adaptive technology industry really hard, and possibly in some
uncomfortrable directions for th em.
Ryan
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org
[mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Scott
Granados
Sent: Wednesday, September 23, 2009 5:47 PM
To: Blind sysadmins list; dave.mehler@gmail.com
Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Anyone else noticing Cisco becoming less
andlessaccessible?
I don't work for the feds so it won't help me much but I know people who
do.:) I'd love to see the government threaten to stop buying Cisco for 1
day, that would put this whole thing to rest once and for all. I'm hopeful
though, the sited folks don't like the state of things either so hopefully
they will redesign a lot of this stuff for the whole market, that's much
more likely.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher McMillan"