Then I will discuss Notes, and finally summarize what software developers and screen reader vendors can do to make software accessible. I hope that with this, you will have a better appreciation of the problems and solutions for making accessible software. As a screen reader developer I have never been very comfortable with the definitions of accessibility or guidelines for accessible software that I have read. I needed a definition of accessible software that I could use at Lotus Development Corporation. They needed to understand exactly what was wrong and what was needed to correct it.
Lets look at some suggestions.
It was a 32 page document. If the writers of the guidelines see their work as reducing the need for assistive technology, then they are not talking about the same problem I am. A screen reader is needed if a blind person is going to use computer software and no guidelines are going to change that. That is a good definition. It is good because it works for the user.