Thread Subject: Re: 1194.3 (e)

From: David Poehlman
Date: Mon, May 07 2007 8:55 AM

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Making the bios accessible to a screen reader is not trivial but may not
mean a fundamental alteration of the os or the bios.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Korn" < = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
To: "TEITAC General Interface Accessibility Subcommittee"
< = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = >
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2007 1:31 AM
Subject: Re: [teitac-general] 1194.3 (e)


Hi William,

> And then there's the subject provision which could be construed as a
> backdoor to avoid "inconvenient accessibility": "This part shall not be
> construed to require a fundamental alteration in the nature of a product
> or its components."
>
> What has been decided (and by whom) if some particular requirement might
> "require a fundamental alteration"?

I don't see how this can be other than a determination by the folks
making the product - perhaps with some questions answer to demonstrate
it, and with the incentive of competition from others who might
demonstrate that they can deliver the same product, but accessible, thus
demonstrating that it isn't a fundamental alternation of how they
deliver the technology.

My previous e-mail about BIOS accessibility is a fine example of this -
it would fundamentally alter what a BIOS is if we were to insist that it
be accessible out of the box to someone who can't see (and likewise a
fundamental alternate to make it compatible with a 3rd party screen reader).

Also, fundamental alteration appropriately includes cost in the equation
- a redesign of a subsystem to make it accessible might entail changing
all of the pieces on top of it (e.g. making a BIOS work with a screen
reader might mean that MS-Windows itself would have to be redesigned in
order to work with that modified BIOS). Since this theoretical change
would mean things that used the BIOS would have to change, it results in
a fundamental alteration of the BIOS (and alternations of the things
that use the BIOS - a good test if the alternation is 'fundamental') to
accomplish the accessibility.


Regards,

Peter Korn
Accessibility Architect,
Sun Microsystems, Inc.

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