[GTALUG] Landline and Bell revisited.

[Dhaval Giani]

On Thu, Sep 7, 2023 at 9:36 AM Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 7, 2023 at 11:40 AM James Knott via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
> wrote:
>
>
>> > Bell faces human rights complaint over allegations of inaccessibility for
>> blind customers
>> > https://globalnews.ca/news/9373449/bell-human-rights-complaint/
>>
>> This is about what Bell is not providing, even though other companies do.
>> However, this is current technology, not obsolete, which Karen seems to
>> need.
>>
>
> I call shenanigans on that perspective.
>
> Given the nature of our group it is natural that some here will see the
> issue as merely one of choice and pace of technology, but IMO it must be
> seen as a broader issue of problem-solving.
>

Evan, I did not read James' response in that vein. I read it as genuine
curiosity. Keep in mind that this group is primarily engineers/problem
solvers. And I think it is an important question to answer. What is it that
changes that it causes Karen issues? While we are not medical
professionals, we are engineers and it is our job to solve the problem. In
order to do that we do need to understand the problem. This doesn't mean
that Karen needs to participate in that process. Maybe the medical
professionals have an idea on what is getting affected physically, but they
are not engineers and they cannot comment on how to answer the question on
how to solve it.


> If Karen's accessibility needs require analog service in 2023, then that
> service is not obsolete merely because it's convenient for Bell to declare
> it so.
>

The service is obsolete because the technology is no longer being actively
maintained and all the development is happening elsewhere. This doesn't
absolve Bell of the responsibility to ensure accessibility requirements are
met. It just means the technology is obsolete. (For example, I would claim
Linux 2.6.32 is obsolete, but I can also find millions of IoT devices
running 2.6.32 which we probably want to secure).

Thanks!
Dhaval
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