Visually Impaired List Members

Graham Todd grahamtodd2 at googlemail.com
Sat May 9 21:59:29 UTC 2009


On Fri, 08 May 2009 20:58:57 -0400
Lorenzo Taylor <daxlinux at gmail.com> wrote:

> At this point, there is no way that my screen reader will 
> allow me to just skip all the stuff I already read and get down to
> the meat of the reply. So either a top post where I can arrow down to
> find something referenced from a previous message that isn't
> immediately clear to me, or an inline post with all the unnecessary
> cruft trimmed out is much better for me.
[snipped]

I have deliberately started a new thread with Lorenzo's quote ( old
thread was Re: Inappropriate tone on this mailing list and requirement
for governance) because he has raised a separate point that I believe
is germane to this list.

It seems that Lorenzo (and perhaps other visually impaired list
members) experience difficulties when those of us not so impaired, post
to this list and perhaps other lists.  The preference for most of us -
and the preference encouraged - is that we bottom post as I am doing
here.  However, this is apparently not handled easily by the screen
readers.

Linux has already made great strides in involving disabled people in
our community.  It is not perfect yet - there is still much to do - but
there must be a way to make involvement on the lists much easier.
After all it's the place we help each other with technical matters.

So, is there a way the screen reader can ignore quotes when dealing
with posts from list members?  Or should we rethink our way of posting
to this list to help members such as Lorenzo?

I am quite willing to take this matter to Sounder if members think it
appropriate, but I think that finding ways to help our own list members
is something we should be doing ourselves.

-- 

Graham Todd




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