[html4all] Copy of e-mail to Karl Dubost

[Charles McCathieNevile]

On Tue, 18 Sep 2007 10:50:35 +0200, Joshue O Connor  
<joshue.oconnor at cfit.ie> wrote:

> Charles McCathieNevile wrote:
>>>>  The ethics goal of caring for them is a noble
>>>> >> goal, but is not very effective (unfortunately) in our society. The
>>>> >> goal is more that there is really a need to make business with  
>>>> these
>>>> >> users.
>>
>> Again, this is true.
>
> Yes but I have to chip in with an addendum here, as I think it is
> actually *half* true or maybe 80/20.

Sure.

> To put what we are doing within the
> WG within a social context I think there is a responsibility, whether on
> the part of government or other public service providers, to ensure that
> the technologies used by the public are of the highest standard possible

And there is a responsibility on us as consumers to say "well,  
accessibility isn't my personal concern, all I need is a decent zoom and  
to change the font colours and size for dialogues. But I am not going to  
buy into supporting some company that continually screws over  
accessibility".

Likewise, we elect governments who make or unmake laws requiring support  
for various concerns that may not appear as financially attractive as a  
total laissez-faire system. And we should tell them that they need to make  
this stuff matter. (Where it coes back to business is that businesses are  
in competition. If one company invests too long in accessibility and  
another doesn't do it at all, we risk being uncompetitive long enough to  
suffer seriously. If this is made a requirement, then not investing risks  
you competitiveness. The real world is messier than that of course, and  
accessibility is a lot of areas to cover. But the rough idea is...)

[Exit stage left, remove tie and corporate tieclip...]

cheers

Chaals

-- 
   Charles McCathieNevile, Opera Software: Standards Group
   hablo español  -  je parle français  -  jeg lærer norsk
chaals at opera.com   http://snapshot.opera.com - Kestrel (9.5α1)