Re: Accessibility Interoperability Alliance (AIA)

am I missing something or why is Microsoft and Adobe (two of the most
antagonist groups to Linux) the majority board of a linux
interoperatability group???

as a long time linux user and adaptive user I fail to see how they
will do anything other than maybe work at cross purposes to the W3C

and I keep fairly close tabs on Linux and am on several webgroups for
linux and have before now never heard of these guys???

maybe I'm just too suspicious but something just doesn't seem to smell
right here???  what has microsoft ever done to help linux, they seem
to spend most of their time trying to sabatoge the entire OS.

???

Bob


On Wed, 19 Dec 2007, Michael A Squillace wrote:

> I am a little skeptical of this effort, starting with its rather limited
> board composition - three members: Microsoft, Adobe, and a rep from a
> company with which few are familiar. Second, from the "Working Groups and
> Current Projects" section on:
>
> http://www.accessinteropalliance.org/aboutus/index.html
>
> we have, among the four projects mentioned:
>
> 1. Internet Explorer Support of Web ARIA via UIA Express
> -- Work to enhance Microsoft's IE browser to support these additional
> specifications
>
> Why is a group that is, "encouraging the enhancement of current
> technologies, the creation of new technology, and promoting the
> implementation of these APIs and specifications cross-platform and across
> the industry," focusing on one browser and one proprietary accessibility
> architecture?
>
> 2. Interoperability of Accessibility APIs: UIA and IAccessible2
> -- Work to extend UIA and IAccessible2 so that accessibility
> functionalities of products built to these specifications can be
> interoperable
>
> While there is no doubt that there is always room for improvement, why do
> we need to call out the "extension" of IAccessible2 specifically? It's
> already an accepted, open standard that was deliberately designed to be
> consistent with AT-SPI, thus helping to mitigate precisely the
> inconsistency that the AIA wants to remedy. It seems to me that UIA
> Express ought to be morphing to IAccessible2 and, in turn, to ARIA, not
> vice versa.
>
> Finally, the AIA, "may also pursue formal standardization of the resulting
> technologies and/or specifications, recognizing the value of adoption by
> standards bodies (such as ANSI and ISO) in driving mainstream use." As
> Gregory asks, is the AIA going to be working with the W3C or the Open A11y
> Working Group of the Linux Foundation to insure that any resulting
> standards proposals are harmonious with ARIA and IA2? Should we invite one
> of the three board members to PF or should PF attempt via the W3C to
> become a board member of the AIA?
>
> --> Mike Squillace
> IBM Human Ability and Accessibility Center
> Austin, TX
>
> W:512.823.7423
> M:512.970.0066
>
> masquill@us.ibm.com
> www.ibm.com/able
>
>
>
> "Gregory J. Rosmaita" <oedipus@hicom.net>
> Sent by: wai-xtech-request@w3.org
> 12/19/2007 01:57 PM
>
> To
> wai-xtech@w3.org, w3c-wai-ig@w3.org, wai-liaison@w3.org
> cc
>
> Subject
> Accessibility Interoperability Alliance (AIA)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> aloha!
>
> does anyone have any information they can share with the W3C community
> about the Accessibility Interoperability Alliance (AIA)
>
> http://www.accessinteropalliance.org/
>
> to quote from the AIA press release dated 2007/12/10:
>
> <q
> cite="http://www.accessinteropalliance.org/newsevents/pr121007.html">
> Industry Alliance Aims to Increase Accessibility, Interoperability and
> Innovation
> </q>
>
> so i was wondering how the AIA plans to work with other related fora,
> such as the W3C/WAI, the Open Accessibility Workgroup at the Linux
> Foundation (http://a11y.org/), and the many other entities with which
> communication and harmonization of efforts is essential?
>
> for example, how does the AIA view the work on IAccessible2 that is being
> conducted at:
>
> http://www.linux-foundation.org/en/Accessibility/IAccessible2
>
> will it sync with work on the Accessible Tool Kit/Assistive Technology
> Special Programming Interface (ATK/AT-SPI) framework, which has a mapping
> to IAccessible2, as well as other platform-agnostic accessibility
> applications, APIs, or architectures?
>
> http://accessibility.linux-foundation.org/a11yspecs/atspi/adoc/
>
> all i know about the AIA, i've gleaned from their web site...  there is
> a steering committee comprised of of 3: an Information Technology Member,
> an Assistive Technology member, and an at-large member...  the current
> composition of the AIA steering committee (through january 2010) is:
>
> * IT Member: Andrew Kirkpatrick, Corporate Accessibility Engineering
>   Lead - Adobe;
>
> * AT Member: Claudio Giugliemma, CEO - QualiLife;
>
> * At-Large Member: Rob Sinclair, Director of Accessibility - Microsoft
>
> QualiLife is an entity with which i am not familiar, but on their web
> site, they state:
>
> <q cite="http://qualilife.com/home/index.cfm">
> Our software technologies (Assistive Technologies) have been conceived
> and developed to fulfill the real needs of all people with physical
> disabilities, of any age, degree and type of disability. We provide full
> accessibility to all existing technologies in all fields, like:
> Telephony, Environmental control, Verbal and Written communication,
> Internet, fax, e-mail, SMS, DVD, Audio & Video, Virtual Reality, Business
> Solutions, Web, Games, etc.
> </q>
>
> and they do offer a very impressive array and scope of products, but they
> do not seem to be a W3C member organization, or at least i could not find
> them when i queried the member-confidential search facility using the
> option "All W3C" -- in fact, the only hit i obtained was a link to the
> minutes of a meeting (archived in member-confidential space, since it was
> at a member-confidential meeting) at which i asked if anyone was familiar
> with QualiLife...
>
> can anyone shed any light on this initiative?  is anyone liaising with
> AIA?
>
> gregory.
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of
> focus.                                           -- Mark Twain
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Gregory J. Rosmaita: oedipus@hicom.net
>    Camera Obscura: http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/
>           Oedipus' Online Complex: http://my.opera.com/oedipus
> --------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>

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Received on Wednesday, 19 December 2007 21:57:16 UTC