More from the Carroll Center: "Things are Looking Up Re ODF"

one of the products demonstrated was a functioning prototype of a Microsoft Word plugin that allows the user to quickly and easily import and export ODF documents without any loss of formatting. The production of such a plugin, once thoroughly tested to ensure that no formatting ever gets lost in the translation, means that employees who are blind can access and produce ODF documents without any loss in productivity or quality of their work. To me, that’s enough for the Commonwealth to proceed with the migration as scheduled. They get their open format, and we don’t suffer any consequences as a result.

Freedom Scientific and GW Micro: We NEED you to support these alternative office suites. Not just in the Commonwealth because of the switch to ODF — that’s just what’s bringing the issue to the forefront, and unfortunately doing so in a rather hasty fashion. We NEED you to support these alternatives because consumers who are blind have a right to the same options as everyone else. We NEED you to support these alternatives because the majority of consumers who are blind cannot afford to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on an office suite. And we NEED you to support these alternatives because they are where things are going.

As someone who uses Linux on her non-work-related computers, I was thrilled to learn that Sun was hard at work on a Linux screen reader. Orca is still very much under development, but for a product at the ripe old age of version 0.2.5 it is quite impressive.

A large percentage of people who are blind/visually impaired cannot afford a computer — not because of the cost of the computer, but because of the cost of the operating system, the mainstream applications, and the assistive technology needed to access it all. For these users, the price of Linux, OpenOffice, and Orca — the grand total being $0 — is right. This can make a HUGE difference when it comes to enabling consumers who are not pursuing an officially agreed-upon Vocational Rehabilitation goal to obtain the technology they need to independently manage their daily affairs.

What I find exciting is the prospect of an open source screen reader. Because it is open source, we can see the underlying code that makes it do the things it does. Because it is open source, we can contribute in a very direct fashion to its development. Because it is open source, if it doesn’t provide us the access we need, we can MAKE it provide us the access we need. Of course, we will have to educate ourselves quite a bit to do that. The open source world is not the world we’re used to. We’re used to making requests of the companies that provide us access and hoping that they will listen. And we feel we have that right as a paying customer. Sometimes we luck out; sometimes we don’t. But we have no control whatsoever. In the open source world, if we invest our time and effort in a constructive fashion, we CAN have some control and we CAN shape the access products that we use. In the open source world, access is not something bestowed upon us; access is something we design and implement to suit our unique needs and wants. That is empowering. That is exciting.