Here it is...Ubuntu Phone

Sat Jan 5 04:50:33 UTC 2013

So if you wish to see Ubuntu accessibility improved, here are some blog 
posts you might wish to comment on.

Here is Mark Shuttleworth's post on goals for 2013, not wishing to leave 
anyone behind, and striving to be relevant to the types of computing 
everyone wants to do. It's silly for a company like Canonical to state 
that they don't wish to leave anyone behind in 2013 when the next 
guaranteed accessible release will be in 2014. Similarly, it's silly for 
Canonical to want to be relevant to all types of computing, while 
telling blind users and others that we cannot have the latest At-SPI or 
ATK releases for our browsers. I am a developer. I need the latest 
accessibility infrastructure so I can develop accessible websites, and I 
struggle to do so  as my browser fails to render some sites accessibly. 
When I used Ubuntu 11.04, I found that I had less access in Firefox than 
I do under 12.10, possibly because I wasn't using the latest AT-SPI. I'm 
finding that Windows 7 is more relevant to my needs as a blind web 
developer than is Ubuntu because Firefox under NVDA is more accessible 
than is Firefox under Ubuntu:

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1221/comment-page-1#comment-400356

Unfortunately, I wrote a nice and diplomatic comment only to have 
Akismet decide that my sentiments were spam. I returned to the post a 
few days later to find a message to that effect, and now there is no 
record of my comment at all. It's sad when you expend so much effort on 
being diplomatic and respectful only for some automated system to decide 
that your sentiments are spam and that they should be removed.

Here is Jono's announcement of Ubuntu for Phones:

http://www.jonobacon.org/2013/01/02/announcing-ubuntu-for-phones/

My comment there appears to still be around, but I find that under 
Ubuntu 12.10 I cannot arrow down the list of comments. Focus appears to 
bounce to the top. That isn't Canonical's fault I'm certain, but one 
would hope that a distribution that is changing so much about how we use 
our computers could afford to hire enough of an accessibility team to 
work on these types of issues.

If people want to work on this then I'm happy to help. Quite honestly, 
I'm burning out on accessibility. I've used and have developed for 
Android since 1.6, when the accessibility situation there was barely 
tolerable, and even today I'm trying so hard to contribute to the 
Android accessibility ecosystem and am being snubbed by Google. I don't 
know what it is about accessibility and open source culture that makes 
it so hard for people to contribute. My girlfriend has CP, and she too 
wishes she could use Ubuntu but doesn't because of accessibility issues. 
I'm almost to the point of replacing my Ubuntu system with Windows just 
because I'm tired of battling with these access issues. I have a lot of 
respect for Canonical's small access team, but if Canonical just wishes 
to stick its head in the sand again and again, to throw a bunch of 
resources at shiny things while ignoring the disabled, then it will 
quickly become apparent that Linux for Human Beings *really* means Linux 
for Completely Able-bodied Human Beings. I understand that other 
distributions may not be accessible either, but that is no excuse for 
Canonical, Redhat, etc. to simply stand aside and let Linux become less 
accessibly relevant than Windows. It's sad that I enjoy using my 
VirtualBox Windows 7 install more than I do Ubuntu for many tasks, and 
is sad when accessibility developers ask me why I don't just abandon 
Linux for the far more accessible Windows.,

On 01/04/2013 09:06 PM, Robert Cole wrote:
> Hello, Burt.
>
> Your e-mail was accidentally sent to me, but not to the list. I am 
> forwarding your message to the list. I hope that this is alright.
>
> Kind regards.
>
> Take care.
>
> On 01/04/2013 07:00 PM, B. Henry wrote:
>> Well, I certainly am behind, and if the opportunity presents itself 
>> alongside of those who would like to see an effort made to make all 
>> Ubuntu releases as accessible as is reasonably possible.  The big 
>> word is of course reasonably.
>> I am someone who wants things to work for me and those with similar 
>> and other limitations when it's practical. Personally I'm not that 
>> unhappy with using LTS releases, but enjoyed using Maverick on 
>> several machines and I'm writing to you from the version of Vinux 
>> based on Natty, so I'm certainly not one who'd never use a mid-term 
>> Ubuntu version.
>> Perhaps if Ubuntu can gain market share and hence money from some of 
>> the changes that are being implemented then some of that money can be 
>> put back in to accessibility development. I can be patient with a 
>> short term lapse in accessibility, but do sincerely hope that this is 
>> not a strategy that is considered good enough for the long term, and 
>> I'll certainly add my voice to those who are calling for  a more 
>> inclusive Ubuntu.
>> On the other hand I can't see that out of the box accessibility is 
>> better with Fedora, or for that matter any major cutting edge/rapid 
>> release distro. Maybe I'm wrong about this, but even if I'm not 
>> there's no reason why just keeping a half a step ahead of average is 
>> good enough when it comes to accessibility.
>> Regards, and yes special regards and thanks to Luke and others who 
>> work with what they have to give us the accessibility that they can.
>> -- 
>> Burt Henry
>>
>> On 01/04/2013 01:09 AM, Robert Cole wrote:
>>> Hello, Nolan.
>>>
>>> When I first switched to Linux, I did so because I fell in love with 
>>> Ubuntu. Ubuntu is what I used (exclusively) until the accessibility 
>>> issues began to kick in. I am very appreciative of the hard work 
>>> which the Accessibility team puts into Ubuntu, and I understand that 
>>> they are very limited because fo various reasons. My frustration si 
>>> most certainly not with them, but with teh company whose operating 
>>> system I fell in love with back in 2006. I still remember the 
>>> excitement I felt when I saw the Ubuntu philosophy "for human beings".
>>>
>>> But then, as time moved on, I had to move on as well. I really 
>>> enjoyed using Unity, and I absolutely loved all that Ubuntu had to 
>>> offer. If it was always as accessible as it once was, I would 
>>> definitely go back. I don't want to sound strange in saying this, 
>>> but I am kind of "homesick" for my first Linux operating system. 
>>> While I am enjoying my experience with Fedora, I really miss what I 
>>> had come to know in Ubuntu.
>>>
>>> I am not sure how I can help. I had posted a comment on Mark 
>>> Shuttleworth's blog sometime in 2012, but it seemed to go unnoticed.
>>>
>>> I forwarded this message to the AccessibleFreedom Support mailing 
>>> list; I hope that this is alright.
>>>
>>> In this world's eyes, I am basically a nobody, but if I can somehow 
>>> lend my voice in support of what you are standing for, I will 
>>> certainly do so. I am not online as much as I used to be, but as I 
>>> am able I will help you in making this call for accessibility known.
>>>
>>> Kind regards.
>>>
>>> On 01/02/2013 03:50 PM, Nolan Darilek wrote:
>>>> I would like to organize some sort of advocacy effort to get 
>>>> Canonical to take accessibility more seriously. I understand the 
>>>> limitations of the current accessibility team, but if we look back 
>>>> at the state of computing two years ago vs. today, any reasonable 
>>>> person would agree that telling a certain subset of the population 
>>>> that they can only be assured accessible software on that schedule 
>>>> while others get upgrades every six months is unreasonable. I don't 
>>>> want Ubuntu to be another Android, an accessibility situation with 
>>>> which I am quite familiar.
>>>>
>>>> I tried posting a comment here:
>>>>
>>>> http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1221/comment-page-1#comment-400356 
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> because a post that claims that Canonical doesn't want to leave 
>>>> users behind in 2013 seems at odds with a company whose next 
>>>> release I will have guaranteed access to won't be out until 2014. 
>>>> Unfortunately, my comment got caught up in Akismet and appears to 
>>>> have vanished. Perhaps others who feel the same should ask Mark not 
>>>> to leave accessibility behind while Canonical charges ahead in so 
>>>> many other areas.
>>>>
>>>> Ubuntu Phone uses QML 5. I get that QT isn't as accessible, but 
>>>> it's being adopted by a bunch of companies in the mobile space, so 
>>>> you'd think that they'd have all contributed toward making it 
>>>> accessible. Perhaps it's time for Canonical to set a good example 
>>>> in this space and contribute more toward accessibility than it 
>>>> currently does.
>>>>
>>>> I'm going to start actively commenting on Canonical and other 
>>>> blogs, advocating for the expansion of the accessibility team. 
>>>> Thoughts on what else we can do? I'd love to do this stuff myself, 
>>>> but I'm already writing an Android screen reader and working on 
>>>> Android accessibility projects, and end users can't always be 
>>>> called upon to take up the slack that paying companies leave behind.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
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