You know Jamal... about a year or so ago I was working on some web stuff in VWD and ASP.net. I was trying to read some of Scott Guthries articles, I think on WPF or perhaps a Database set of articles. Anyway, he was putting screen shots or pictures of code blocks in his articles. They were, of course long examples and segments of code throughout various classes. I e-mailed him to ask if he had any versions of the articles using text examples or if he could keep accessibility in mind going forward. His reply was that I could just download and install the sample project and then, I could find the sample code blocks in the source code for the project while I read along. That was basically telling me to go to well... He was, is, in charge of some facet of the Online Microsoft Development team and that attitude is permeating the entire company in my opinion. We never jumped on Microsoft as they put out WPF which was not accessible, we never hit IBM and their software for not being accessible and usable, Oracle and I would think allot of other majors got away with promises and very little substance. Now Microsoft has gone so far as to put out their Cell Phone Operating System and just flat out saying it was not designed to be accessible but they will look at making it accessible some day, perhaps. That Express Downloads Page is a real mess with my screen reader so I'm pretty sure they did not label some things correctly and they did not test their pages for accessibility in the first place. I wonder where the major Blind Federations, associations and the Government stands on all this. It was the case that accessibility was going forward, getting better. But, now, it seems there is no pressure on companies and they are backsliding as fast as they can. I guess that Windows Phone 7 should not be allowed to be used by any government employees but who knows and who would enforce that? Same with that Microsoft Webpage. Do they have to make their Website accessible? I'm not sure but don't think so under current law. Well, it's late and before I blow another blood vessle I think I'll go to bed my friend.
So, Later and see you on the flip side. Rick USA----- Original Message ----- From: "Jamal Mazrui" <empower@xxxxxxxxx>
To: "programmingblind" <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2011 2:30 PMSubject: Easy install of Visual Studio 2010 Express Editions, and a call for evaluations
Due to the serious accessibility problems of the web page for downloading Express Editions of Visual Studio 2010, I have now posted the installers for Visual Basic, Visual C#, and Visual C++ on my web site. The Visual Web product is not included here because it involves more extensive pre-installation requirements. These installers retrieve software directly from the Microsoft web site, so one obtains the same components either way.Visual Basic http://EmpowermentZone.com/vb_web.exe Visual C# http://EmpowermentZone.com/vcs_web.exe Visual C++ http://EmpowermentZone.com/vc_web.exeThese installers assume that version 4 of the .NET Framework is installed. One way of installing it is via the GotNET utility, available athttp://EmpowermentZone.com/netsetup.exeAfter installing a VS Express Edition, go to the Register dialog off the Help menu and choose the button to get a registration key online. After signing into this Microsoft site, you can get a key from a resulting web page or email message. Copy and paste that key into the registration dialog.Let me suggest that this is a particularly good time for evaluating how well different screen readers work with Visual Studio, and reporting those observations. The latest JAWS, NVDA, and Window-Eyes versions are all claiming VS support. If we find that a screen reader works better than others in particular ways, the developers of competing screen readers may be motivated to address their weaknesses so that they can distinguish themselves as offering the best -- or at least equivalent -- VS support.Jamal __________View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
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