Adobe Petition for Commitment to Action

Issued by:

Blind and low vision users of the Mac OS X operating system, visually-impaired consumers, advocates for accessibility in commercial products, and professional educators

Submitted To:

Adobe Systems Inc.
345 Park Avenue
San Jose, CA 95110-2704
Tel: 408-536-6000
Fax: 408-537-6000

Attention:

All parties who have undersigned this document hereby establish a collective effort to obtain a commitment from Adobe Systems Inc. to provide the reasonable accommodation of necessary accessibility in their Flash platform, used on web sites, online services, and other applications. We, the signatories of this petition, call for the leadership of Adobe Systems Inc. to commit to the use of the Apple Accessibility API's, standards, and Universal Access features of the Mac OS X operating system, resulting in compatibility with the VoiceOver screen access solution of Mac OS X, and to implement this accessibility within a reasonable timeframe.

Actions:

We, the undersigned parties of this petition, request that Adobe Systems Inc. provide a statement of commitment to accessibility on the Mac OS X operating system and approximate timeline for implementation of said accessibility in Adobe's Flash platform on the Mac OS X operating system by March 01, 2010.

Important facts:

Adobe Systems Inc. publicly states its commitment to accessibility, but has demonstrated a consistent lack of commitment to accessibility on the Mac OS X operating system. In addition to Flash, other Adobe products, including Adobe Reader and Adobe Air, have little to no accessibility for low or no vision users of the VoiceOver screen reader. Individuals have made repeated attempts to contact Adobe Systems Inc. on this matter, and have reported Adobe's assertion that there are few visually impaired Mac OS X users. Given the thriving community of blind and visually impaired Mac users which continues to grow, and the commitments to Mac OS X accessibility from other companies like Digidesign, Opera Software, OpenOffice.org, Apple Inc., and others, this assertion is clearly false.

Signatories to this document include individuals or representatives from the following groups:

1. Blind or visually-impaired users of the Mac OS X operating system and its Universal Access features.
2. Organizations/individuals advocating for the accessibility of consumer hardware or software products for the blind, visually impaired, or other disability groups.
3. Blind or visually impaired users of Adobe's various products under the Mac or Windows operating systems.
4. Blind or visually impaired consumers.
5. Professional educators or administrators of institutions providing education or training services to the blind, visually impaired, or other disability groups.

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