Thread Subject: Re: Bios Password Accessibility

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From: Hoffman, Allen
Date: Wed, May 23 2007 2:57 PM

Any improvement is an improvement.
But, point taken.

Another class here is pre-boot authentication software which is becoming
more and more prevalent in government. Some requirements might be
appropriate here.



Allen Hoffman -- = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ; v: 202-447-0303

-----Original Message-----
From: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
[mailto: = EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED = ] On Behalf Of Randy
Marsden
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 4:45 PM
To: TEITAC General Interface Accessibility Subcommittee
Subject: [teitac-general] Bios Password Accessibility

Further to our discussion in today's meeting, I want to stress that
there are people with physical disabilities who will not be able to
enter a password without AT software running on the computer. Even
though USB ports may be active at the BIOS level, and therefore AT that
emulates keyboards at the hardware level can be used at that time, most
AT used by people with physical impairments accomplish the keyboard
emulation via software running on the computer in conjunction with their
AT hardware (not in stand-alone mode). So, it would still leave the
BIOS inaccessible to these people.

I make the point so we make sure that if we solve the problem for people
who are blind, that we haven't necessarily solved the problem for all
people with disabilities.

-Randy

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