On 11/21/2012 3:02 PM, Rob Hudson wrote: > I was considering doing that with a bunch of people. After all, afaik, red > hat is a for-pay linux and should be usable by everyone, and most of the > access tools are free so including them in a distribution shouldn't be that > hard. Anybody interested in signing a petition with me? I would be interested, but I don't think there is much point. I don't know what country you live in, but I know that the US and the UK have laws in place which require companies to make their products accessible. I'm not in the UK so I don't know any details of their laws, but in the US, there are various organizations you can contact. However, before getting to that point, try to talk to someone in charge of the certifications and explain your situation. Since Speakup is in staging, there is no reason why they can't allow you to use a standard kernel. Fedora should have Orca, but I don't use it so I don't know. I know Bookshare has some of the Linux prep books which you can study and get an idea of what kind of skills are involved. However, if talking to people doesn't do any good and there seems to be no obvious way to have an accessible exam, I'm afraid a petition won't do a lot of good. You'll probably have to get an advocacy organization involved and be prepared for a long legal battle. I don't believe in law suits unless there is no other choice and it's hopeful that Red Hat would listen to structured negotiations (lflegal.com for more information) but I've found that most corporations are unwilling to adapt unless they're forced to do so. That's really sad and unfortunate, but that's life. I would suggest joining a blindness advocacy organization in your country and explaining your problem through them. There is always strength in numbers. Both the ACB and NFB in the US have technology groups just for this kind of issue, but I'm not sure how aware of Linux they are.
