Re: [Blind-sysadmins] does anyone else hate the trend to web GUIsin network equipment?

This is the kind of stuff I was hoping to address when I created the International Association of Visually Impaired Technologists. See http://www.iavit.org. I doubt the companies even thought about accessibility when creating their interfaces. I don't think they deliberately ignored accessibility. I think it never even occured to them. Accessibility is not on the radar screens for engineers and marketting people. It doesn't help when institutions that are supposed to be enforcing accessibility laws and regulations ignore them. I know at the University of Wisconsin, if I point out that the direction we are taking is inaccessible, it has next to no effect. For example, if an engineer has settled on a particular router to buy, the fact that the interface is inaccessible is meaningless. He's supposed to look for one that has an accessible interface and buy the inaccessible one only if no other routers fit the bill. But that never happens. So there is no penalty, except for the threat of lawsuits, for a company to make an inaccessible interface. Sighted people just do not understand the graveness of the situation. I'm not sure most blind sys admins understand it. When your company buys a router you can't access, the job of configuring it gets assigned to someone else. So fine, you think, I have plenty to do anyway. But then maybe they buy a vmware cluster and that interface is inaccessible. Pretty soon your job is to sit there for 8 hours waiting for someone to call to have their password reset. Then when layoffs come along, you're out. And that's fair. It's not discrimination because you are just not that important. I've seen this happen time and again to friends of mine. It almost happened to me. This is a very competitive business and you have to be the "go to guy" or your career is always in jeopardy. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Scott Granados" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 9:09 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] does anyone else hate the trend to web GUIsin network equipment?

I totally agree.

Coyote Point's load balancers are another example of this Java maddness. I don't see why this trend is happening. The customers don't want it and it's impossible to script.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Andrew Hodgson" To: "Blind sysadmins list" Sent: Wednesday, August 05, 2009 1:43 AM Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] does anyone else hate the trend to web GUIs in network equipment?

Hi,

ASA still has the CLI, but I do notice that some features are being farmed out to the GUI, and that a lot of the tutorials are showing the GUI rather than the CLI. I believe if you study for the exams, that you are still shown the CLI primarily.

I find it more disturbing the proliferation of Java based admin tools on hardware, rather than the web interface themselves. A good accessible web interface is better than the Java stuff that is being shipped out by a lot of these manufacturers. At work, for example, I was evaluating a spam catch appliance that used a totally unnecessary Java front-end, making most of the config inaccessible.

Java support is one thing I wish that screen reader manufacturers spent more time with, rather than small features like sound management, dictionary lookups and the like, because I am concerned that it is only going to get more widespread.

Andrew.

Andrew Hodgson Senior Systems Administrator/Projects Engineer

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-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Scott Granados Sent: 04 August 2009 21:48 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] does anyone else hate the trend to web GUIs in network equipment?

I'm a little disturbed by a trend in network hardware where everything has to have a web front end to configure. Even gear like the Cisco ASA has this totally inaccessible java based ASDM thingy that sucks on a whole new level. (even to sited users) What's happening to the command line? It's so much better and more efficient for working with network elements and frankly for servers.

Everyone tell your Cisco reps that this is a bad thing. (tm)

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