@soloActivist@links.hackliberty.org and @andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works: @MostlyBlindGamer@rblind.com is correct. Bluntly, everyone who hopelessly advocates for a FOSS world takeover is almost always not blind. There is in fact a massive amount of privilege inherent in being able to ditch proprietary tools for FOSS ones. I personally use Windows, Microsoft 365, and the JAWS screen reader every single day because they are the most mature, accessible, it-just-works solution which collectively allows me and thousands of other blind and low vision people to receive an education and do our jobs. There are many reasons for this, but the primary ones are that that Windows is the most used operating system in the workplace, Microsoft 365 is also the most used office suite, some of the money which is scarfed up by the “protectionist corporation” named Microsoft is spend on hiring blind/low vision programmers and accessibility professionals who work to make their applications accessible, and JAWS is written by blind and low vision programmers who’s day job literally consists of developing an application which interfaces with other applications to fully make them usable by other blind and low vision people. Whether you like capitalism or not, there is no denying that all of these folks need to put food on the table, and that someone who is paid to write accessible software is generally going to produce and maintain better code. Meanwhile, accessibility in the world of FOSS is almost never done by people who are paid to do it as a primary function of their jobs. Rather, accessibility is usually tossed to the community where it is then left to die, which is exactly what happens with Linux Desktop Environments and FOSS applications such as LibreOffice. LibreOffice is, for example, useless on Windows if one wishes to do anything more than basic word-processing. The NVDA screen reader lives in a gray area, however it is still deficient in many respects including Microsoft 365 and Braille support because specific application optimization’s have effectively been kicked to the community. In other words, the reality for disabled people and accessibility in general is often summed up by the adage “you get what you pay for.” I’ll leave the discussion of whether or not this is an ethical state of affairs to wiser thinkers than I.
@soloActivist@links.hackliberty.org and @andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works: @MostlyBlindGamer@rblind.com is correct. Bluntly, everyone who hopelessly advocates for a FOSS world takeover is almost always not blind. There is in fact a massive amount of privilege inherent in being able to ditch proprietary tools for FOSS ones. I personally use Windows, Microsoft 365, and the JAWS screen reader every single day because they are the most mature, accessible, it-just-works solution which collectively allows me and thousands of other blind and low vision people to receive an education and do our jobs. There are many reasons for this, but the primary ones are that that Windows is the most used operating system in the workplace, Microsoft 365 is also the most used office suite, some of the money which is scarfed up by the “protectionist corporation” named Microsoft is spend on hiring blind/low vision programmers and accessibility professionals who work to make their applications accessible, and JAWS is written by blind and low vision programmers who’s day job literally consists of developing an application which interfaces with other applications to fully make them usable by other blind and low vision people. Whether you like capitalism or not, there is no denying that all of these folks need to put food on the table, and that someone who is paid to write accessible software is generally going to produce and maintain better code. Meanwhile, accessibility in the world of FOSS is almost never done by people who are paid to do it as a primary function of their jobs. Rather, accessibility is usually tossed to the community where it is then left to die, which is exactly what happens with Linux Desktop Environments and FOSS applications such as LibreOffice. LibreOffice is, for example, useless on Windows if one wishes to do anything more than basic word-processing. The NVDA screen reader lives in a gray area, however it is still deficient in many respects including Microsoft 365 and Braille support because specific application optimization’s have effectively been kicked to the community. In other words, the reality for disabled people and accessibility in general is often summed up by the adage “you get what you pay for.” I’ll leave the discussion of whether or not this is an ethical state of affairs to wiser thinkers than I.