www home.shtml accessibility/accessibility.html

[Rob Myers]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Rob Myers <robmyers>    10/03/25 21:07:22

Modified files:
        .              : home.shtml 
Added files:
        accessibility  : accessibility.html 

Log message:
        Add accessibility statement. RT 561286

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/home.shtml?cvsroot=www&r1=1.376&r2=1.377
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/accessibility/accessibility.html?cvsroot=www&rev=1.1

Patches:
Index: home.shtml
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/home.shtml,v
retrieving revision 1.376
retrieving revision 1.377
diff -u -b -r1.376 -r1.377
--- home.shtml  25 Mar 2010 17:12:30 -0000      1.376
+++ home.shtml  25 Mar 2010 21:07:16 -0000      1.377
@@ -15,9 +15,9 @@
 
 <div id="takeactionhomepage">
 <ul>
+  <li><a href="/accessibility/accessibility.html">Read the GNU Accessibility
+      Statement</a></li>
   <li><a 
href="http://www.aful.org/communiques/univ-offers-me-windows";>Students! Claim a 
refund on your unused Microsoft Windows licences</a></li>
-  <li><a href="http://petition.stopsoftwarepatents.eu/";>Sign This Petition to 
-stop software patents in Europe</a></li>
   <li><a 
href="http://www.openrightsgroup.org/orgwiki/index.php/Net_Neutrality";>
 Support the efforts on net neutrality in Europe</a>, 
 <a href="http://www.savetheinternet.com"; title="Net
@@ -343,7 +343,8 @@
 <h4>Other GNU resources</h4>
   
 <ul>
-  <li><a href="http://audio-video.gnu.org/";>GNU Audio/Video</a></li>
+<li><a href="/accessibility/accessibility.html">Accessibility 
Statement</a></li>
+<li><a href="http://audio-video.gnu.org/";>GNU Audio/Video</a></li>
 <li><a href="/licenses/gpl.html">GNU GPL</a></li>
 <li><a href="/licenses/lgpl.html">GNU LGPL</a></li>
 <li><a href="/licenses/gfdl.html">GNU FDL</a></li>
@@ -447,7 +448,7 @@
 
 <p>Last Updated:
    <!-- timestamp start -->
-   $Date: 2010/03/25 17:12:30 $
+   $Date: 2010/03/25 21:07:16 $
    <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 

Index: accessibility/accessibility.html
===================================================================
RCS file: accessibility/accessibility.html
diff -N accessibility/accessibility.html
--- /dev/null   1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0000
+++ accessibility/accessibility.html    25 Mar 2010 21:07:19 -0000      1.1
@@ -0,0 +1,161 @@
+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<title>GNU Accessibility Statement</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+
+<h2>GNU Accessibility Statement</h2>
+
+<p>Project GNU urges people working on free software to follow standards
+and guidelines for universal accessibility on GNU/Linux and other free
+operating systems. Multi-platform projects should use the cross
+platform accessibility interfaces available that include GNU/Linux
+distributions and the GNOME desktop. Project GNU also advises
+developers of web sites to follow the guidelines set forth by the
+World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative.</p>
+
+<p>According to the United Nations in 2005, there were 600 million people
+with disabilities in the world. To use computers, many of them need
+special software known as "access technology". Like other programs,
+these can be free software or proprietary. Those which are free
+software respect the freedom of their users; the rest, proprietary
+programs, subject those users to the power of the program's owner.</p>
+
+<p>In order for access technology to work, the other software in use must
+interoperate with it. The majority of computer programs and web sites
+(85% in one estimate) do not comply with accessibility standards and
+guidelines, so they do not work with access technology. They provide
+a frustrating experience, and can bar users from job or school
+activities.</p>
+
+<p>Proprietary file formats that require proprietary reading programs are
+poison to both accessibility and to the freedoms that we as free
+software activists hope to establish. The biggest offender is Flash
+format; it usually requires proprietary software that doesn't
+cooperate with accessibility. Microsoft Silverlight is similar.
+PDF is also difficult; though there is free software to view it, it
+does not support free access technology software. GNU PDF aims to do
+better.</p>
+
+<p>People with disabilities deserve to have control of their own
+technological destinies. When they use proprietary access technology,
+they have little or no way to correct whatever is wrong with it.
+Virtually all major decisions of the proprietary developers are made
+by people who do not have the disability; 20 years' experience shows
+that people with unusual combinations of disabilities, who require
+relatively unusual software, or who encounter a bug that keeps them
+from doing their job have no way to obtain the changes they need.
+These products are only changed or improved when the vendors see a
+business reason for doing the work; this leaves many users
+behind. As a secondary problem, proprietary access software is far
+more expensive than a PC. Many users cannot afford to give up their
+freedom in this way.</p>
+
+<p>For users with disabilities, as for all other users, free software is
+the only way the users can control their own computing, their only
+chance to make software fit their needs rather than passively
+accepting whatever developers choose to offer them.</p>
+
+<p>Nations with large populations also have large numbers of people with
+disabilities. Countries including Brazil and Russia are discussing
+whether to standardize government purchases on GNU/Linux platforms.
+These nations are all signatories to the UN Convention on Human Rights
+and People With Disabilities, and include technology in their agenda
+for providing such rights. This will require them to hire programmers
+to work on accessibility software for their populations. If it is
+free software, the rest of the world will be able to use it too. The
+hackers who work on free access technology will provide tools that
+people with disabilities can use to expand their horizons enormously.</p>
+
+<p>Ensuring that your application or web site is accessible is the right
+thing to do. And it fits naturally with free software.</p>
+
+<h3>Recommendations.</h3>
+
+<p>Application software developers should learn how to use the
+accessibility features of the IDE or toolkit they employ to build
+their user interface. Programmers who need to implement access
+technology, or work on a desktop or OS-level accessibility problem,
+will need to understand the accessibility API, and should choose the
+one that is compatible with free OS/desktops. These include the GNOME
+accessibility API (GNU/Linux platforms only), the Java accessibility
+API (GNU/Linux and Windows) and iAccessible2 (GNU/Linux and Windows).</p>
+
+<p>Web developers should follow the guidelines at
+<a href="http://www.w3c.org/wai<">http://www.w3c.org/wai</a>
+and, for complex web applications, the developers should follow the
+Aria standard, also to be found at the World Wide Web Consortium web
+site. FANGS enables web developers to see how a screen reader will
+handle the web pages they are developing. Nontrivial Javascript code
+distributed to the user should be free software
+(<a 
href="http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html";>http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/javascript-trap.html</a>),
 and please don't
+invite users to do something on a server that they could conceivably
+do on their own computers.</p>
+
+</div>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+
+<div id="footer">
+
+<p>
+Please send FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to 
+<a href="mailto:address@hidden";>&lt;address@hidden&gt;</a>.
+There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
+the FSF.
+<br />
+Please send broken links and other corrections or suggestions to
+<a href="mailto:address@hidden";>&lt;address@hidden&gt;</a>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Please see the 
+<a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting
+translations of this article.
+</p>
+
+<p>Copyright 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
+
+<p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No
+Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this
+license, visit <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/";>
+http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/</a>
+or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300,
+San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.</p>
+
+<p>The Recommendations section may also be used under the Creative Commons
+Attribution license, and may be relicensed to the GNU Free Documentation
+License version 1.3 or later.</p>
+
+<p>
+Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2010/03/25 21:07:19 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div id="translations">
+<h4>Translations of this page</h4>
+
+<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical by language code. -->
+<!-- Comment what the language is for each type, i.e. de is German. -->
+<!-- Write the language name in its own language (Deutsch) in the text. -->
+<!-- If you add a new language here, please -->
+<!-- advise address@hidden and add it to -->
+<!--  - /home/www/html/server/standards/README.translations.html -->
+<!--  - one of the lists under the section "Translations Underway" -->
+<!--  - if there is a translation team, you also have to add an alias -->
+<!--  to mail.gnu.org:/com/mailer/aliases -->
+<!-- Please also check you have the language code right; see: -->
+<!-- http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/code_list.php -->
+<!-- If the 2-letter ISO 639-1 code is not available, -->
+<!-- use the 3-letter ISO 639-2. -->
+<!-- Please use W3C normative character entities. -->
+
+<ul class="translations-list">
+<!-- English -->
+<li><a href="/accessibility/accessibility.html">English</a>&nbsp;[en]</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>