This is without doubt the most dammaging news to hit assistive technology users ever. Believe me when I say that the effect of this cannot be over stressed. If people like Willy Walker from Sun are not employed to continue to push the Gnome accessibility project forward, the advances we’ve seen in the past ten years will never be seen again. That’s a fact based on their track record. Without the Gnome accessibility project, I would not have been able to hold employment when working for Novell. There are hundreds of people in similar situations around the world. Sure, the Gnome accessibility project will possibly continue however without the backing of Sun, it’s going to make very few strides forward.

Everyone who has an interest in assistive technology needs to jump on this one. It doesn’t matter what platform you use. It doesn’t matter if you’ve even heard of Linux. I hear you ask Why!

Look at Firefox 3. I saw press releases from both Freedom Scientific and GW Micro claming that they worked with the Mozilla foundation to ensure that version 3 of Firefox was accessible to visually impaired. But, in actual fact, I know that it was nothing to do with them. And, if you want proof, just look through the logs of the nightly builds. Every day, someone from the sun led Linux accessibility project was helping Firefox contributors to fix bugs that caused problems with accessibility. It was Sun that made the need for Accessibility known!

Here is an open letter written by one of the most hard working community developers of Orca, the screen reader for the Gnome desktop manager. Joanie is without doubt one of the most hard working and intellegent people I have the fortune of following on Twitter. I really hope that he continues his work on Orca however I doubt that even she will be able to do as much on a part time basis as Willy Walker was able to do in his full time role. The open lettter can be found at http://blog.grain-of-salt.com/index.php?itemid=394

An Open Letter to Oracle on the Topic Of Accessibility

Dear Oracle:

You don’t know me, so please permit me a brief introduction: I’m Joanie. By day, I’m an assistive technology specialist working with individuals who are blind or visually impaired. By night, weekend, and holiday for almost four years now, I’ve been a GNOME community contributor working primarily on the Orca screen reader, a project led by Sun’s Accessibility Program Office.

Working with the engineers at Sun, both inside and outside of the APO, has been an honor for a variety of reasons, not least of which is our shared common belief: Access isn’t a privilege; it’s a right. Towards that end, Sun Microsystems strived to ensure that ALL users have access to software and information.

Does Oracle plan to do the same?

Sun Microsystems believed that these things shouldn’t be denied to those who aren’t employed, or who don’t live in the “right” country, or who don’t speak the “right” language, or who cannot afford to purchase thousands of dollars’ worth of access technology.

What does Oracle believe?

Through its significant, ongoing contributions to the GNOME desktop, Sun Microsystems has made computer access possible for many individuals with disabilities, from all walks of life, all over the world.

Will Oracle embrace the opportunity to continue this important work?

My assumption was yes. In fact, I was feeling quite hopeful. After all, the past few years have been hard on Sun. But with Larry Ellison’s promise of increased investment in the Sun brand, and Oracle’s strong commitment to accessibility, things would finally be turning around: If one under-funded APO could accomplish everything that it has, what could the two combined and properly-funded APOs achieve? At the very least we’d be able to finally get a handle on all of the accessibility challenges facing GNOME 3.

I was wrong.

Last week, Oracle laid off two more members of Sun’s already-decimated APO. One of those let go happened to be both the Orca project lead and the GNOME Accessibility project lead, Willie Walker. I truly hope this was an oversight on Oracle’s part, and one that will be rectified very soon. Because if it is not, and if no other company steps forward to continue this work, the accessibility of the GNOME desktop will become the open source equivalent of an unfunded mandate, doomed ultimately to fail.

Oracle’s decision threatens to leave many individuals with disabilities around the world without access to a modern desktop environment. I find that tragic.

Please, make sure you tell others about this. Tweet it. Call your friends, shout from the roof tops, just do something! This really cannot go unnoticed by us as uses of assistive technology. If it does, I am sorry to say that we’ll all regret it.