Looking for a Programming Project which would really benefit blind people

[Andor Demarteau]

On Thu, 26 Feb 2004 herzog at frontiernet.net wrote:

 > I agree about the  " what is
 > needed is an installation disk that will produce braille and/or speech
 > immediately, so that a blind person could carry out the installation."
it's not so that one disk would work.
You need seperate disks for every install and probably every new version
for each distro.
Altimately, it would be better if braille/speech support is included on
cd-distributions

 >     I've been following the list for over a year now, and have yet to see
 > such a disk, or any references to it at any price.  So as to "There are
 > others on this list with experience in this area."; it has not been
 > apparent to me.
 >       I've never seen  an available one shot install for any machine.
 > It may seem trivial to you, but many would be greatly helped.
 > I've been on such a unrequited quest for several years.
 >
 > I thought Linux and EdMac would be the cheap fix for the blind.    So far
 > Linux is only simple when you know, and Way too hard for a newbie; much
 > less a blind person, to start alone.  And I have not learned enough to
 > help.  I still think that there is a real need for the blind person to have
 > a simple install, similar to the sighted person's Redhat 9 install disks.
 >
 >       Many elderly people just want a talking E-mail to help fill in their
 > social isolation. Especially needed is the simple to use mail program that
 > is immune to  virus, or require Norton, etc. and can be simply installed on
 > any old computer that has or can accept a sound board.
 >       After they get started they are ready to add letter writers (Word
 > Processing) and printing; Yes many use their outputs to sighted people.
 >
 > Will
 > At 02:20 PM 2/25/04, John wrote:
 > >There are already lots of screenreaders fro Linux, and they are all free.
 > >I'm using brltty myself, since i use braille. Others use Speakup or
 > >Emacspeak. Fedora may already include some of these, but I don't know
 > >since I haven't messed with it. I'm using Redhat 8.0. Perhaps what is
 > >needed is an installation disk that will produce braille and/or speech
 > >immediately, so that a blind person could carry out the installation.
 > >There are others on this list with experience in this area. I'm looking
 > >for an actual programming project.
 > >
 > >John
 > >
 > > > >So I'm looking for suggestions for programs that would really benefit
 > > > >blind people. I think a text-mode program, possibly using the curses
 > > > >library, would be most appropriate. I've tested Gnome and Gnopernicus, but
 > > > >they really aren't ready for normal use by blind persons, at least not for
 > > > >those who use braille displays.
 > > > >
 > > > >On a related subject, I really can't see any inherent advantage to a GUI
 > > > >unless you can actually SEE the screen. All the usability features can be
 > > > >implemented in text mode.
 > > > >
 > > > >Thanks,
 > > > >
 > > > >
 > > > >--
 > > > >John J. Boyer; Executive Director, Chief Software Developer
 > > > >Computers to Help People, Inc.
 > > > >http://www.chpi.org
 > > > >825 East Johnson; Madison, WI 53703
 > > > >
 >
 >
 >
 > _______________________________________________
 > Blinux-list mailing list
 > Blinux-list at redhat.com
 > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list
 >

-- 
Andor Demarteau                 E-mail: ademarte at cs.uu.nl
student computer science        www: http://www.students.cs.uu.nl/~ademarte/
UU based & VU guest-student     jabber,icq,msn: do ask ;)
-----------
chairman Stichting Studiereizen STORM www: http://www.stistusto.nl
vice-chairman USF Studentenbelangen executive committee 2002-2003