Re: free/not free proprietary

On Thu, 2 May 2002, Charles McCathieNevile wrote:

Just to pick you up on one point:

>	 is it reasonable to require authors to assume
> that users haven't upgraded their browser in 7 years, despite the fact that
> the browser they have is known to cause problems for accessibility,

Yes, it is!  People I know (socially) have computers ranging from an
old 286 (one couple; someone conned them into paying a ridiculous
amount for it) through a range of viable 486 and pentium boxes, up to my
own most powerful box which is a 1996 Pentium Pro.  Most of those people,
including me, cannot afford to upgrade to anything more modern.
Therefore anything that requires modern hardware - such as Windows
or Gnome - is simply not an option.

Of course, expensive solutions like JAWS have a useful role to play,
but as far as the poor and disadvantaged are concerned they are, as
far as I can see, of no use whatsoever.

This is a developed country, albeit a poor and backward area of it.
I imagine the problem must be far greater in a poorer country.

-- 
Nick Kew

Available for contract work - Programming, Unix, Networking, Markup, etc.

Received on Thursday, 2 May 2002 19:23:38 UTC