Certainly there are some things that are very difficult to make accessible
and others that aren't accessible because the company doesn't care about
accessibility. With some companies, nothing we can say will make them care.
But I know that a lot of things are inaccessible just because of ignorance
on the part of the programmer or engineer. The best example I know of is
that the console install for VMWare ESXX used to have a splash screen at the
beginning. You had to click the mouse on the logo or something to begin the
installation. After that, it was all text and you could do an install via a
serial console. But there was absolutely no technological reason for that
barricade to accessibility to be there in the first place.
I submitted a bug report on that but I don't know if it got removed because
I haven't done an ESX install for several years now. In fact, my co-worker
is now in charge of our ESX clusters because of stuff like this. It was just
easier for my boss to give the job of dealing with VMWare to my co-worker.
This is an example of a phenomena I refer to as "backwatering". Tasks
involving dealing with new technologies are given to sighted employees
because its just easier and more efficient for them. The blind technologist
may have many important tasks to deal with bug gradually, he or she is left
with only the older technologies. Gradually, they become less and less of a
key player in their company or department. And then someday, when layoffs
come around and the boss has to choose between them and the sighted
employee, its the blind person who is layed off. And in a way, that's only
fair. After all, they are less important than the sighted employee.
I'm in no danger of being layed off. But this backwatering phenomena has
happened to me in the past and its happened to many of my friends. Its a
constant struggle. The main frustration with it to me is that you can be a
better technologist than your sighted counterpart. You might be smarter,
more instinctive, and a harder worker and all that can be dwarfed by mere
accessibility. I'll bet that almost everybody on this list is an
exceptionally good technologist and.or systems admin. If you weren't
exceptional, you couldn't make it as a blind systems admin. You have to be
way above average just to survive. All the successful blind systems
administrators I know are probably in the 90th percentile. And Many of them
are struggling just to stay employed. I don't know if anything can be done
about it but I think we have to try.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryan Shugart"
I have talked to the cheif technical officer at VMWare, Steve Herrod. Mr. Herrod and VMWare seem very interested in accessibility. I hope and believe that accessibility problems are mostly the result of oversights and lack of knowledge on their part.
I hope that people who are interested in this problem would join with me in the International Association of Visually Impaired Technologists in addressing this issue. We plan to try to work with companies to get them to design accessibility into their products. We are currently trying to form a committee to work on this. If you are interested in being on this committee, please contact me. The committee hasn't been formed yet so I can't say what it will do. That would be up to the committee itself. But I would assume it would do something like develop a set of suggestions for actions a company can take to make it easier for them to design accessibility into their products. Some of these suggestions might be having blind beta testers and having someone in the company responsible for reviewing accessibility.
You can contact me at john@iavit.org. Thanks.
VMWare,
----- Original Message ----- From: "Ryan Shugart"
To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 8:54 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] VMWare View administrator It couldn't hurt, but I wouldn't hold your breath for a response. My guess is Freedom has never heard of VMWare, and they have other higher priorities, for better or worse. I'd say your best bet is to continue pushing VMWare, if they went to Freedom it might be different. Or is the person to push here Adobe, its their controls afterall. Its actually very difficult to say who sometimes, and quite frankly the habbit of companies to farm the blame off to someone else is really, well, frustrating. Ryan
-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh OHeiligh Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 2:25 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] VMWare View administrator
I received a response from the VMWare support department this morning. They sent me a generic document from the Freedomscientific website for preparing Windows XP for Jaws 4.1. It was a slightly pointless instruction but I appreciate their effert.
I have replied again with a number of proposed solutions.
Firstly they could provide a way of disabling the flash control on a per session basis. Alternatively they could fix the flash control so that focus is not restricted to it.
Would you think there is any point reporting this to Freedom Scientific?
Regards
Darragh Ó Héiligh System administration Fujitsu Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie
From: Ryan Shugart
To: Blind sysadmins list Date: 11/02/2011 00:20 Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] VMWare View administrator Sent by: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Andrew: This isn't the main interface, VMWare View is the VDI product. The VIC itself is still accessible, well as accessible as ever, in 4.1. Ryan
-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [ mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2011 3:01 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] VMWare View administrator
Hi,
Oh crap. Is that the main Vmware console in VCentre? We have a couple of ESX 3.5 hosts I was going to upgrade to ESXI 4.1 in the near future (I am very new to VmWare), what is the latest version that doesn't have the changed interface? On the other hand, HyperV is looking ever more attractive.
Andrew.
-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [ mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Darragh OHeiligh Sent: 10 February 2011 15:16 To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] VMWare View administrator
Good afternoon,
I was horrified and very annoyed to find that after updating to the latest version of VMWare View, the administrative site is flash based and I am unable to read everything that I need to access.
What the hell are these companies playing at!
Is it seriously too much to ask that they create interfaces that are accessible? Or at the very least not inaccessible? I don't mind having to work at things but I'm getting very tired of companies unknowingly putting obsticles in the way. Especially when I have a job to do.
Have any of you come across this in the latest version of the ESX related tools?
Before I do any more upgrading of our environment do you know if there is anything else I need to look out for?
I'm becoming a very intollerent person when it comes to these updates. Why and howe they made what was a reasonably nice interface to navigate around a completely inaccessible flash based tragity I just cant understand.
Regards
Darragh Ó Héiligh System administration Fujitsu Offices of the Houses of the Oireachtas, Fredrick Building, South Fredrick Street, Dublin2 Telephone: +353 (1) 618 3559 Email: darragh.oheiligh@oireachtas.ie Internet: http://www.oireachtas.ie
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