Comments on: eAccess 13 – Debate: The Price of Software Freedom

By: Mister CANE

Mister CANE — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 18:18:12 +0000

I think we should push the governments to support projects like NVDA by NV Access http://www.nvaccess.org/

If we could have a united treaty between all developed countries to support and fund projects like NVDA commercial screen readers would die a sudden death. Technology should be accessible to all and I firmly believe that technology does not discriminate but people do. I really hope that the right people are able to lobby this to the right stake holders.

By: Peter Cheer

Peter Cheer — Fri, 29 Nov 2013 06:23:15 +0000

This is a global problem. When I was IT Trainer at the Kenya Society for the Blind in Nairobi during 2009-10 a large part of my work was writing guides, training materials and tutorials for free and open source assistive technology programs.

Why did I do this? Firstly the primary application that KSB was using was the time limited evaluation copy of JAWS, which was frustrating and unsatisfactory for both clients and staff. Second the quantity and quality of the guides, training materials and tutorials for the many good free and open source assistive technology programs was extremely poor. This has been a long standing problem with many if not most free and open source programs of all kinds.

By: Fernando Botelho

Fernando Botelho — Thu, 28 Nov 2013 18:11:17 +0000

I think it is inaccurate to say that open source solutions tend to work only on one platform, as opposed to proprietary systems which are more widely available. In both cases there are examples of portability, but I believe there are way more examples that are open source such as Dasher and eSpeak, which work in everything from cell phones to tablets and computers.

Licensing is also not such a big issue. It is only a problem for companies that wish to get the public relations credit of free software without paying the GPL price of decentralized control.

Finally, projects such as NVDA and F123 (the latter I am responsible for), need support to scale up, but do not need any validation beyond the feedback they already receive from happy users. The proprietary software model requires expenditures that are unsustainable, so the government needs the free and open source community as much or more than this community needs the government.