To: Internet:nfb-rd@nfbcal.org
Greetings:
Here is the letter of support I sent out on behalf of the NFB in
Computer Science for the X commercialization grant tht Beth Mynatt
is trying to get.
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NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
IN COMPUTER SCIENCE
___________________________________________________________________________
Curtis Chong, President 3530 Dupont Avenue North
Telephone: (612) 521-3202 Minneapolis, Minnesota 55412
March 15, 1994
Sheila Stanley
Advanced Technology Development Center
Faculty Research Commercialization Program
430 Tenth Street, NW, N-116
Atlanta, Georgia 30318
Dear Ms. Stanley:
On behalf of the members of the National Federation of the Blind in
Computer Science (NFBCS), I would like to take this opportunity to
express my personal support and that of the organization for the
work that is being done at Georgia Tech University on the Mercator
Project, directed by Elizabeth Mynatt. I understand that there is
a proposal being developed to produce a commercial system which
would provide access to Motif applications on Unix workstations for
users who are blind. I am writing this letter to express support
for that proposal.
Blind computer users today, whether on the college campus, in the
workplace, or at home, have achieved a high degree of access to
text-based applications running on IBM PC's and compatible
computers using the Disk Operating System (DOS). Today, it is not
surprising to find a blind person using the same word processor,
communications program, spreadsheet, or data base system as his/her
sighted peers. For example, I am writing this letter to you using
WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS.
However, blind computer users are being threatened by the growing
acceptance and use of graphically-based applications--applications
that run under Windows, OS/2, or Unix. I think it is safe to say
that blind people have actually lost jobs because of this trend.
Why? Because screen access technology has not been able to keep
pace with the accelerating conversion of applications from a text-
based interface to one using the GUI.
This problem is particularly acute for blind people using Unix
applications. Although standard communication programs such as
Procomm Plus, CrossTalk, Telix, and the like permit a blind person
to "Telnet" into a text-based Unix application, they do not provide
any kind of access to graphically based programs. With respect to
Windows and OS/2 Presentation Manager, there are screen reading
systems that can be purchased by a blind person who needs or wants
to use applications running under these software platforms. Not so
with Unix and applications written for X. Today, there is not one
single commercial screen access system that a blind person can buy
to use a graphical application written under Unix.
I can tell you that a lot of blind people around this country are
very interested in the work of the Mercator Project. We would
welcome any effort to make a commercial offering available in this
area, and we hope that we would have something to say about how the
system functions from the viewpoint of the blind computer user.
I appreciate this opportunity to express my support and that of
NFBCS for the effort to make a commercial X access system
available. Rest assured that it is badly needed by a growing
number of blind computer users and professionals around the
country.
Yours sincerely,
Curtis Chong
President
National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science
Internet: 73443.1351@compuserve.com or
usids002@ibmmail.com
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Cordially, Curtis Chong
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