Re: what makes an assistive technology an assistive technology?

Jim,
I accept your position and fully understand it.  We are trying to
class web access tools however and under our current classification
scheme, if hpr is a browser than it biolages some of the guidelines
because it does not use keyboard conventions and does not allow one to
use a mouse effectively although we state it the other way round
because most browsers have the trouble the other way, it is just
important for a user agent to allow mouse useage as not.  as an
assistive technology which by the way is technology created to enhance
the acessibility of other technology which hpr certainly does, it
would not be required by the guidelines to comply with ua interface
specs.  If you want to make it a ua and be fully in compliance, I have
no objection to that.
Thanks!

thatch@us.ibm.com wrote:
> 
> HI David. I am missing urgency of the discussion. HPR is, as far as I am
> concerned, a browser.  The fact that it uses netscape for the html stream
> doesn't make any difference. What should be important to the UA group is
> presenting content. At least I wish that were your primary concern.
> 
> My definition of "Assistive Technology" is technology created for and sold to
> people with disabilities. With that definition, it is a no-brainer (definition
> excluded), HPR is an assistive technology. It is designed by and for blind
> folks.
> 
> As far as "operating independently of a browser," this is a concept that is
> close to irrelevant. If you create an application that uses mshtml.dll, (did I
> spell that correctly?) or the other IE component which I can't spell, are you
> operating independently of a browser? The answer has to be - who cares? The
> final question is how do you present web content.
> 
> Jim Thatcher
> IBM Special Needs Systems
> www.ibm.com/sns
> thatch@us.ibm.com
> (512)838-0432
> 
> David Poehlman <poehlman@clark.net> on 07/28/99 07:17:44 PM
> 
> To:   Jon Gunderson <jongund@staff.uiuc.edu>
> cc:   w3c-wai-ua@w3.org
> Subject:  what makes an assistive technology an assistive technology?
> 
> i'm still pondering last weeks minutes even after today's call and It
> occurs to me that it is possible that hpr can be classed as an
> assistive technology.  Som ats already parse html and controls to some
> degree and there are some that take advantage of msaa in order to
> achieve an accessible interface because of its exposition of what ats
> ned.  Since it is not a browser in the sense that it does not opperate
> independantly of another browser even though it only utilizes netscape
> for the data stream and since it is not a plug in because it acts on
> html and plug ins usually act on non html constructs, the only thing
> lefft it seems to me is that it is an at.  I'll await the response
> from Jim and others on this but thought I'd toss this in in the
> meantime.
> Thanks!
> --
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> ---sig off---

-- 
Hands-On Technolog(eye)s
Touching The Internet:
mailto:poehlman@clark.net
Voice: 301.949.7599
ftp://ftp.clark.net/pub/poehlman
http://poehlman.clark.net
Dynamic Solutions Inc.
Best of service
for your small business
network needs!
http://www.dnsolutions.com

---sig off---

Received on Thursday, 29 July 1999 11:40:31 UTC