Comment 290 for bug 85488

Part of the Ubuntu manifesto is that "every computer user should be
given every opportunity to use software, even if they work under a
disability."

Not having the USB thing working goes against this manifesto, which
Shuttleworth created and endorsed himself.

On the one part, any software that relies on the USB port which can't
use that USB port doesn't give every user the opportunity to use that
software.

Second, a disabled person who has minimal ability to type by hand but
could use a scanner to copy pages (whether for OCR or simply copying)
by using a USB scanner is shut out of the Ubuntu OS if they require
that ability.

Third, some teletype setups that use USB (or whatever it was related
to the deaf, perhaps, mentioned in the bug report forums) are also
locked out, further hurting the disable community.

Would this give someone further reason to pursue a quick resolution to
this problem?

Otherwise, the manifesto should be changed to "we don't care about the
software being usable or about disabled persons, for that matter." Or,
just get rid of that part of the manifesto and forget about it so it can
at least ring true for the rest of it..

This might seem a bit extreme, but imagine if you were one of the
disabled persons who need this feature. I work with some disabled
people and would prefer to be inconvenienced for their benefit
than the other way around. It's sort of like handicapped parking.
Handicapped people need a functional vehicle to get there in the first
place. Given a choice, they would choose to have a functional vehicle
rather than have to walk to the store and look at their available
parking place.

For a disabled person, I would think the power savings (apparently
debatable as to whether it's significant or not from the posts I've read)
would not be as important as the actual functionality of the OS and its
associated software. What good is it for a laptop to power down if the
scanner attached to it won't work in the first place?

Perhaps the priorities of the developers need to be changed.

There's still time to get the new kernel (that works) into Gutsy and into
the beta testing and get it to be part of Ubuntu BEFORE the kernel is
locked in for Gutsy.