[Access-activists] Re: [Accessibility] Call to Arms

[Bill Cox]

On Tue, Jul 27, 2010 at 6:24 PM, Eric S. Johansson <address@hidden> wrote:
>  On 7/27/2010 8:57 PM, Bill Cox wrote:
> I thought the discussion was worth having
> because this is a free software foundation sponsored list and if they say,
> thou shalt do only free software, then that is their right and we should
> respect that.

This gets to the heart of my greatest misgiving in having FSF leading
FOSS accessibility development.  I think that FOSS is pretty much the
only way to get programmers with disabilities from around the world to
volunteer to work together to write this stuff, so I see significant
synergy between FSF goals and the goals of the volunteers.

However, will the volunteers see it that way?  Will programmers who
use Windows and Naturally Speaking, or Windows and JAWs hesitate to
join a FSF community?  FSF has broad reach, resources for servers, web
development, and a well recognised brand, in addition to Chris working
full time.  So, it seems like a great foundation to organise things
from.  Will the community converge here?  Would we be better off
building an on-line community of volunteers dedicated to
accessibility, and only accessibility?  Can that be done through FSF?

Bill