Sun, IBM, et al. to fix ODF accessibility problems

November 06, 2005 | categories: Uncategorized | View Comments

Andy Updegrove, one of the partners at the Boston law firm, Gesmer Updegrove LLP, reports from a meeting at IBM in Armonk, NY, that, "There has been a commitment made to not only close the gap between Microsoft Office and ODF by the Commonwealth's deadline of January 1, 2007, but also to make ODF a superior alternative to Office for those with disabilities by that date, if not before." The companies represented at the meeting who I presume are making this commitment include IBM, Sun, Adobe, Corel, Computer Associates, Google, Nokia, Novell, and RedHat. That's a lot of the big guys. Accessibility for those with disabilities appears to be the major impediment to ODF adoption, but from the tone of Pacheco's questioning at the hearing last Monday, it seems to me that the real problem is that he doesn't understand the difference between a document format and an office suite. I suspect he's just pissed off because the world is changing faster than he can update the model in his mind, and he's getting low-frequency aliasing from the . . . never mind. Discussion between a representative of the Massachusetts ITD (Peter Quinn?) and Pacheco, from Updegrove's transcript of the meeting:

"Q: Has the Library of Congress adopted ODF? So we have a proposal from the ITD we go with ODF. Has the Library of Congress made the same decision? Have they said, "Use OpenOffice?" Answer me yes or no. A: No-- and neither have we. We haven't mandated the specific product? Q: Isn't that the practical situation? Isn't that the only product? That's my understanding."

The discussion is about what format to use for government documents-- Microsoft's new formats, currently supported by no software on the market, or ODF, currently supported by, yes, OpenOffice, but also KOffice. It's not clear who else will really support it, but Novell, IBM, and Corel would be likely candidates, though Corel's statement, quoted by David Berlind, rises to to the level of artistry in its equivocation:

"Corel is a strong supporter of the continued development and adoption of the OASIS Open Document Format, and Corel strongly endorses ODF. Corel views Open Standards as a way for customers to maintain seamless and timeless access to their documents, and Open Standards free customers from the risks and costs related to reliance on a single vendor." (Greg Wood of Corel)

It would be entertaining if Microsoft decided to support ODF. If Massachusetts goes ahead with their ODF requirement, I expect that Microsoft will add half-assed support for ODF to make it look shabby. It's stunning that in 2005, we don't have a standard format for writing a letter. On the other hand, we still don't use the metric system in the US.