RE: Fwd: Avalon?

david poehlman wrote:
> What does this have to do with anti-anything?  Our point here is that
> according to their blurb, the web fits in here.  

Where doe it say that?  I do not see one single mention of web or web
content.  What *I* read is that Microsoft acknowledges that there are
numerous ways that end users need to modify their user environment to adjust
to their specific needs.  Based upon that qualified observation, they are
looking at a better way of making the User Interface components more
directly available to Adaptive Technology (that will be written for windows
by presumably third parties like Freedom Scientific

> In other
> words,when authors
> and authoring agents grab hold of this stuff and find they
> need to code

Code what?  Applications written for the windows platform - Assistive
Technology applications.

> a
> certain way in order to display/render properly in the new
> world, it may
> well break further cross platform capability.  

Where are you reading this?

Look, is this a smart idea for Microsoft - yes - it makes yet another reason
for application developers to develop for the Windows OS, as the OS authors
are making the "hooks" easier to hook into.  You prefer UNIX/Linux?  Go do
the same for that open source OS.

But I totally fail to see how this impacts one iota on web development, web
page rendering, or web accessibility, and to suggest otherwise is wrong.

I am not a Microsoft booster (far from it), but if they get something right
once and a while, they deserve to get the credit too.  They spent money on
research to determine needs and feasibility, and then set out to make it
easier (and dare I say potentially better) for users of AT on the Windows
Platform.

JF
--
John Foliot  foliot@wats.ca
Web Accessibility Specialist / Co-founder of WATS.ca
Web Accessibility Testing and Services
http://www.wats.ca   
Phone: 1-613-267-1983 / 1-866-932-4878 (North America)

Received on Wednesday, 27 April 2005 16:33:24 UTC