[ale] Using Linux in the not-so-friendly world...

[Michael B. Trausch]

Just a little while ago, I received an e-mail from my school (I attend
Western International University on-line) and they are moving from a
standards based system (NNTP, IMAP) to a proprietary web application
with "new features" (which remains to be seen as how well they will work
under a non-MSIE browser, since most places do not even consider testing
with anything but MSIE, and refuse to support other browsers.

Of course, that is changing with Firefox being a popular Windows
application, but it makes me wonder, is do accessibility laws cover
things like web browsers and the like?  If I were a disabled person and
they somehow ended my ability to read messages, there would likely be an
action that would get them to change that or revert it back to the old
system, but the only "disability" that I carry is that I am
Microsoft-challenged.  (And no, I am not making light of users with
legitimate disabilities such as blindness.)  Short of the regular
boycotting routine (which would quite impractical for me at this stage
in the game), would there be anything that I would be able to do to
require them to make things work for me, given that I do not care to run
Windows (or closed-source products, in general)?

It seems that there would be something, but I cannot think of what it
might be.  I was forced to use Windows for a couple of days (due to my
own stupidity and some rather tight deadlines... *shrugs*) and I
couldn't stand it; I do not like the idea of possibly being required to
switch back for the remainder of my days in school...

	-- Mike

-- 
"Fate: Protects fools, children, and ships called /Enterprise/."
                               -- William T. Riker, ST:TNG, "Contagion"


-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 254 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature