Red DOG
A red cartoon guide dog in profile, facing right, standing on a pale cream background with a soft grey shadow beneath it. It wears a dark navy vest with a rounded screen on the side, showing a row of white sound-wave bars, and a small green light in the top corner. A gold tag hangs from its collar.
About the Piece
Two press releases from a Europe that does not exist yet. In the first, an agency is set up to fund open-source assistive technology as shared infrastructure. In the second, the first company approved to sell support for NVDA explains what it owes the people who make it.
Between them they test one idea, the 40/40/20 clause: what would it take for a company to earn money from a free screen reader without taking it over? The second release ends with a realistic order of work, for anyone who wants to make it real.
Objects
- EU creates agency to fund open accessibility infrastructure: A fictional launch release for EDAI, an EU agency that funds open-source assistive technology, with the 40/40/20 clause every approved supplier must accept.
- Red DOG launches as first approved supplier under EDAI's open accessibility framework: A fictional launch release for Red DOG, the first company to sell support for NVDA under EDAI's 40/40/20 clause, with a realistic order of work for making it real.
Behind the fiction
The European Digital Accessibility Infrastructure agency (EDAI), Red DOG, the 40/40/20 clause and every person and customer quoted are invented. Nothing in either release is a real announcement.
Some of what they rest on is real. NVDA is a free, open-source screen reader maintained by NV Access, which has not been consulted and has not endorsed this Piece. The European Accessibility Act is a real law, and the first release names the question it left open. Red Hat is a real company, named only as the releases say. Both releases are released under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0), and the idea is free to take.
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About the author
Blind Ant is written and run by Charlotte Joanne. About Blind Ant says more.