RE: Accessible Web Publishing Wizard for Microsoft Office (UIUC)

Just to be clear, I'm not referring to open sourcing the new version. As
I'm sure we can all imagine, continued development of the software,
especially to support such new features and capabilities as what it
seems they want to do, failing to cover their own costs, especially for
technical support, would be downright foolish to ask about them.

But what are they getting out of version 1.0 right now, other than it
having take up space in some CVS repository? It's no longer viable to
them, but it could be a great tool to the community. I don't know who
would work on it. I don't even know if anyone would care, to be honest,
but I think giving the tool to the community would at least give us the
chance.

My concern is that this resource was used A LOT, and linked to by the
big players in the accessibility world. Now, there's a vacuum for such a
tool. Either an open source group can start creating this from scratch,
or with the work that the iCITA group did up until version 1.0, have
somewhere to start so nobody has to reinvent the wheel. I would even be
willing to donate what time and development knowledge I have to the
project (although my .Net skills are rusty, to be honest), and would
love to make this mature and fix the issues that were present in 1.0
that caused them to move to 2.0

It kind of irks me about pulling the hand away from all of us in the
accessibility community right when it's needed most. This mirrors far
too many corporate, closed-source, proprietary practices I've seen, and
I don't believe this is appropriate for an academic institution, which
is usually supposed to be about spreading knowledge and furthering
research.

But, this is simply my take on the matter. Unfortunately, I don't see it
all.

Kevin A. Sesock, A+, NET+, CNA, MCSA
Assistive Technology Specialist
2nd Level Support Team
Technology Support Department
Information Technology Division
Oklahoma State University

"Hail to the speaker, hail to the knower; joy to he who has understood,
delight to they who have listened." --Odin


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Brian Kelly [mailto:webfocus@gmail.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2004 9:22 AM
> To: Jon Gunderson
> Cc: Sesock, Kevin A; w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> Subject: Re: Accessible Web Publishing Wizard for Microsoft Office
(UIUC)
> 
> I would agree with Kevin.  After spending time and effort contributing
> to the debug bing process in what I expected to be development of a
> free (if not open source) tool for the wider community I was very
> disappointed at UIUC's decsion to charge for the software and refuse
> to supply a free version.
> 
> I feel they got my feedback under false pretences.
> 
> Brian Kelly
> 
> (PS no personal critiicism intended Jon)
> 
> On Tue, 5 Oct 2004 14:06:50 -0500, Jon Gunderson <jongund@uiuc.edu>
wrote:
> >
> > Kevin,
> > I don't consider $39.95 to be an outrageous sum for the
> > Accessible Web Publishing Wizard.  Microsoft Office is a
> > complex application and to continue to improve the features of
> > the Wizard resources are needed to support progamming and
> > technical support.
> >
> > Pricing information:
> > http://cita.rehab.uiuc.edu/software/office/pricing.html
> >
> > Version 1.0 is not available anymore because of the many bugs
> > in it.  The team working on the project only has limited
> > resources for technical support and it was determined that we
> > could no longer support version 1.0.
> >
> > Jon
> > Program Manager
> > Accessible Web Publishing Wizard
> >
> > P.S. There are discounts available for multiple purchases and
> > site licensing options available
> >
> >
> >
> > ---- Original message ----
> > >Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2004 13:38:23 -0500
> > >From: "Sesock, Kevin A" <kevin.sesock@okstate.edu>
> > >Subject: Accessible Web Publishing Wizard for Microsoft
> > Office (UIUC)
> > >To: <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
> > >
> > >   This may be old news to many out there, but I didn't
> > >   see it after searching the archives. It would appear
> > >   that the Microsoft Office Accessible Web Publishing
> > >   Wizard from the University of Illinois at
> > >   Urbana/Champaign is no longer a free tool available
> > >   to any who need it.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >   Here's the link:
> > >   http://cita.rehab.uiuc.edu/software/office/overview.html
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >   Of course, they no longer offer the version 1.0 for
> > >   download, and I can't find any of my copies I
> > >   downloaded a while back either.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >   My own personal beliefs and philosophies regarding
> > >   teasing a group of individuals with something free,
> > >   and then yanking it away to only charge outrageous
> > >   sums of money aside, are there any alternative tools
> > >   that anyone has found, preferably for free?
> > >   Unfortunately, being in a highly de-centralized
> > >   University in the middle of one of our worst budget
> > >   crises does not bode well for purchasing tools such
> > >   as this, especially when the 1.0 version was free.
> > >
> > >   Kevin A. Sesock, A+, NET+, CNA, MCSA
> > >   Assistive Technology Specialist
> > >   2nd Level Support Team
> > >   Technology Support Department
> > >   Information Technology Division
> > >   Oklahoma State University
> > >
> > >   "Hail to the speaker, hail to the knower; joy to he
> > >   who has understood, delight to they who have
> > >   listened." --Odin
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> > Jon Gunderson, Ph.D., ATP
> > Coordinator of Assistive Communication and Information Technology
> > Division of Rehabilitation - Education Services
> > MC-574
> > College of Applied Life Studies
> > University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign
> > 1207 S. Oak Street, Champaign, IL  61820
> >
> > Voice: (217) 244-5870
> > Fax: (217) 333-0248
> >
> > E-mail: jongund@uiuc.edu
> >
> > WWW: http://cita.rehab.uiuc.edu/
> > WWW: http://www.staff.uiuc.edu/~jongund
> >
> >

Received on Wednesday, 6 October 2004 14:44:18 UTC